I’ve been staring into my crystal Limbaugh this weekend, and I think I see the future.
Obviously he has considerable influence among his “dittoheads,” (although I suppose there are some who listen to him for “entertainment” - shudder) but his real power exists in how far and wide his comments are reported by the mainstream media.  Up until now, he’s lived in the realm of the regularly outrageous,  tiptoeing just up to the line where advertisers consider abandoning him.  With his denunciations of Sandra Fluke, he has crossed the line.  Seven sponsors are gone, and counting.  (I wouldn’t be surprised if his wife berated him behind closed doors, either.) So Rush has done the unthinkable - apologized.
But something more far-reaching may have happened. We finally know at what point even he’ll back down, however doubtful his sincerity. We finally know how far is too far, even for him.
I believe this may mean that he has to “top” himself now for the wider media to pay attention.  His “merely”  offensive remarks will no longer be worth reporting—been there, heard that.  To make the news, he will have to go Goebbels, and not even the Kochiest sponsor will still pay for airtime if he does that.
Rush may have outflanked himself.  Like Joe McCarthy, Walter Winchell, and Glenn Beck, he may have started the wheels turning of his worst nightmare: a media that no longer cares, a general public that no longer listens.
Hostility has never been the weapon to battle Rush Limbaugh, even mockery, (hundreds of “Worst Persons” later) seems to feed the beast.   Ultimately only one enemy can permanently deflate this obnoxious gasbag: indifference.
MCO 2012