Rudderless Republicans court radio king

Filling a leadership vacuum in the beleaguered Republican Party has come the outspoken voice of talk radio king Rush Limbaugh -- and the Democrats cannot conceal their delight.

From White House briefings to nationwide TV advertisements, Democrats are portraying Limbaugh and his now-daily denunciations of President Barack Obama as the unvarnished face of a Republicanism that voters rejected in November.

Limbaugh is unapologetic about his hope that Obama "fails," insisting it is patriotic to speak out against his "Socialistic" economic agenda, and on Wednesday invited the president to an on-air debate.

After Politico.com reported that the anti-Limbaugh offensive is being orchestrated by the White House, America's highest paid radio host accused the "power-hungry" Democrats of "feasting on their own arrogance."

The few among the party faithful who have dared to criticize Limbaugh, such as the Republican National Committee's first African-American chairman, Michael Steele, have found that it is impolitic to take on the conservatives' darling.

Steele was forced to apologize after Saturday accusing Limbaugh of "incendiary" and "ugly" rhetoric. That was the day that Limbaugh wowed an annual conference of conservative activists with a tub-thumping call to arms.

The Conservative Political Action Conference also heard from "Joe the Plumber," the Ohio tradesman who became a conservative hero during last year's presidential race, and 14-year-old political wunderkind Jonathan Krohn.

Absent were Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, whose televised response to a speech to Congress by Obama last week was widely mocked, and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the running mate on John McCain's losing presidential ticket.

And absent from Congress are any high-wattage Republicans who can capture the public imagination, leaving the party's hardcore base hungry for the kind of Obama-bashing articulated daily by Limbaugh to his millions of listeners.

Pollster John Zogby noted that in surveys, Obama is far more popular than the Republican brand and so talk radio's verbal fusillades could do more harm than good to the party's hopes of electoral recovery.

"It's the politics of isolation, at a time when the polls suggest Americans want solutions and an end to the hyper-partisan rhetoric," he told AFP.

"And with Rush Limbaugh so front and center for the Republicans now, the Democrats can say this is what the party really looks like," Zogby said.

Liberal organizations grouped under the banner "Americans United for Change" are pursuing a TV campaign casting Limbaugh as the "undisputed leader of the Republican Party."

Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine said "Republicans should stop following Rush Limbaugh" and start offering constructive ideas to get the country going.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs offered his own mocking assessment Tuesday as he encouraged the press "to ask Republicans whether they agree with Mr Limbaugh's adage that he hopes that the president's economic ideas fail."

"I was a little surprised at the speed in which Mr Steele, the head of the RNC, apologized to the head of the Republican Party," he said.

The Democratic strategy is to make the divisive Limbaugh the story, in the hopes of keeping centrist voters behind the popular new president's ambitious plans to haul the United States out of its debilitating recession.

The focus on Limbaugh is provoking unease among some Republicans such as David Frum, a speechwriter to former president George W. Bush.

Interviewed by the Washington Post, he said that "if you're a talk radio host and you have five million who listen and there are 50 million people who hate you, you can make a nice living."

"If you're a Republican Party, you're marginalized."

Limbaugh, who claims 20 million weekly listeners for his nationally syndicated show, denies harboring any political ambition.

But looking ahead to the next White House election, the techpresident blog reported that website names such as Rush2012.com and RushForPresident.com have already been snapped up.