PIGBOY IN WHINERVILLE

Poor Fats Limbaugh! He gets a little pushback on all the crap he's been spewing and suddenly the WH is going "after a private citizen." Almost 4 years ago, Matt Drudge made the same defense of Fats after Howard Dean pointed out that Fats "has made a career of belittling other people." If Fats is going to use the public airwaves to spew his agit-prop, he's "fair game."

The real issue isn't Fats' belief that Obama is pursuing the wrong policies, it's the fear that these policies will be effective and that would mean that conservatism becomes not much more than a fringe movement. Conservatives have known this for some time, going back to at least Bill Kristol in 1993 (h/t Greg Sargent):

The long term political effects of a successful Clinton health care bill will be even worse — much worse. It will relegitimize middle-class dependency for “security” on government spending and regulation. It will revive the reputation of the party that spends and regulates, the Democrats, as the generous protector of middle-class interests. And it will at the same time strike a punishing blow against Republican claims to defend the middle class by restraining government…

Fats admitted a similar fear back in January:

If he gets nationalized health care, I mean, it's over, Sean. We're never going to roll that back. That's the end of America as we have known it, because that's then going to set the stage for everything being government owned, operated, or provided.