Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One

I unlike the other so-called "reviewers" here on the store that "reviewed" the book via rating it one star and going on rants about "Hate" and the LiberalBuzzwords that seem so ad-nausea and so redundant that even Fellow Liberals have to admit.I Listen to Rush,not all the time not even everyday.But I like him,I like his personality,his views and despite him SADLY not being crazy about The Crazy Right.(I am.)and his Other views regarding perhaps Marriage,I don't find him offensive.I think people read too much into him,granted he is an Important voice on the Right despite Me being more of an Buckley Fan which Rushbo is.We Need Rush,He is an Talented guy.I thought the book would be an AntiRush book for that I would have watched any of the "Networks" that are just plain in the tank and have an Elitist Eastern Establishment view(they are the REAL
CABAL".)Anyone that makes Liberals Raving Mad is an friend of mine,The book is an quick read sadly but an interesting one on his life,his upbringing,his faults;(We all have them but At Least he ain't no Ted Kennedy.)and his views.Despite the Author's subtle potshots at Reagan although he does say that People underestimated Reagan(People meaning Liberals who though he was an Old Fool.Which in Hindsight he was not and still is not.)His Animosity towards the Clintons,(To me They are scoundrels and just Reinforced the Stereotypes of the backwoods.)And of course his sense of Humor.(something Liberals don't have unless it has to do with Making Fun of Religion except Islam.)I find him fascinating,the book just as much even though it could have been better and I will make sure to listen more often as The Man knows how to push the Enemy's buttons.

Considering how many years that Rush Limbaugh has been on the radio, and his countless hours of broadcasting, how much do you really know about the man? What was his family life like when he was growing up? What was he like in high school? What do people who have worked with Rush think about him?

Zev Chafets wrote a profile of the man for the New York Times Magazine. Later, he expanded his piece, and this book is the result.

Very few books have been written about Rush Limbaugh that do not include the words fat, liar, and idiot in the title. Chafets makes a serious effort to give readers a true biographical sketch of the man. He is one of the few people from the media that Rush grants access to.

While the author gives a mostly positive portrayal of Limbaugh, he deals head-on with some of the most controversial aspects of the radio man's life. Rush's drug use, multiple divorces, and battles with ESPN and the NFL over the issue of race are given their fair share of attention in the book.

For a man that is so famous, and so influential, it is amazing how few authors have written about Limbaugh's personal life in such a meaningful way. Readers will learn how Rush got into radio in the first place, including his non-traditional path to making his career.

The book was published in the early part of 2010, prior the Republicans regaining majority control of the House of Representatives. In its final chapters, the book is a little out of date on its political analysis, but is still worth a read.

Whether one is fan of Rush Limbaugh or not, he is not to be underestimated.

4 stars out of 5.

Zev Chafets writes an interesting biography of Rush Limbaugh. It is not to long, nor to short. It portrays a very real person from small town America who has risen to be very visible and controversial to the American public. Rush is one of those people that once you learn about him you will never forget him.

Rush Limbaugh is a conservative who makes his living on the radio by talking about liberals. He is outspoken and raises eyebrows. He also has a loyal base of fans that listen to him all the time. He is an amazing person, that has become someone who embodies the American ideal of free speech. He's one of those persons that you either love him or hate him.

I liked this book, even though I disagree with much of Limbaugh's politics. It shows Rush as he is. It gives enough detail to make it interesting, without being too long and overly detailed. I feel the book is just the right length and gives a candid and authentic account of a very interesting American. -- Valerie Lull, Author, Ten Healtlhy Teas

I have always liked Rush Limbaugh. He alone is responsible for opening the eyes of a lot of patriotic, traditional Americans for more than two decades and for keeping the flame of Reagan's conservative movement alive. I am glad Mr. Chavets wrote this biography, as the last one written in 1993 by Paul Colford is really outdated. However, it is a shame that he did not delay the release a few more months, so as to include the results of the 2010 midterm elections and Rush's influence upon them. This is a nice read about a very well-known, popular, and concerned citizen. By the way, I did not read the book with "one hand tied behind my back!", and though the book cannot be considered "A Weapon of Mass Instruction", I do recommend it.
Rush does indeed have; "Talent on Loan from .... God!"

Dr. Stanley E. Toompas, Optometrist
and Author of "I"m the One the Other Isn't"

I remember the first time I heard Rush Limbaugh's baritone voice coming over the airwaves of WXYZ in Detroit. I was just coming back to my office from lunch, and I was compelled to stay in my car in the parking lot to listen to this man with the unusual name, and even more unusual delivery of ideas. Rush Limbaugh: An Army Of One by Zev Chafets is just as compelling as the radio personality he chronicles.

Like him or hate him, you cannot ignore him. Rush Limbaugh has single-handedly changed talk radio. He already holds places in the National Broadcasting Hall of Fame because his radio audience is larger than any other in history. For three hours every afternoon, Rush broadcasts from behind "the golden EIB microphone" to listeners anxious to hear his irreverent and convincing confrontation and refutation of liberal ideology.

Maybe, like me, you've wondered what made Rush the broadcaster that he is. Or maybe you wondered what Rush is like during the other 21 hours of the day. Zav Chafets book is a no-holds-barred, full-access, behind-the-scenes look at this conservative icon.

If you are a fan, this book will give you a greater appreciation of the genius of his delivery. If you're a hater, well, this book won't do anything to change your mind. Zav is clearly not a "Dittohead," but he is clearly impressed by this radio giant.

As Zav states in his closing words --
"Even after more than twenty years there are still many people who refuse to accept that Limbaugh is more than an entertainer, a pitchman, or a hot-air balloon. These are the same people who mistook [Ronald] Reagan for an amiable dunce. Two decades should have been enough to convince even the most obtuse that Rush Limbaugh is someone you underestimate or ignore at your own peril. He can't be wished away or shouted down or sniffed into irrelevance. Smart liberals will listen to him, even if they hate what he has to say. The easily outraged, will be. Those with a sense of humor will find themselves laughing despite themselves. Presidents and politicians come and go, but Rush Limbaugh, equipped now with a clean bill of health and accompanied by a lovely new wife (and, who knows, maybe a future Rush Hudson Limbaugh IV), and in undisputed control of the conservative movement, is ready for the next act. He has often said that he doesn't intend to quit until he has convinced every liberal in the country. He's not in a hurry, either. His grandfather, the original Rush Hudson Limbaugh, didn't retire until he was 103 years old."

A very informative, enjoyable read.

"I know the liberals call you 'the most dangerous man in America,' but don't worry about it, they used to say the same thing about me. Keep up the good work."
-Ronald Reagan in a letter to Rush Limbaugh, December 11, 1992

And So Rush Limbaugh became the titular head of the Republican party. :)

Right off the bat the author ask us! Do you remember your first time? NO not your first kiss (or errrrr the other thing LOL)! The first time you herd El Rushbo. I do! it was the first week he went national and My cousin Warren had her the show on Monday, and told us, HEY you got to hear Rush and I did the next day and have been hooked ever since. He is clearly the King of political talk.

For the author Zev Chafets, it was in a car in Detroit, driving down Woodward Avenue. Limbaugh's braggadocio, the outrageous satire, the slaughtering of liberal sacred cows performed with the verve of a rock-n-roll DJ-it seemed fresh, funny and completely subversive. "They're never going to let this guy stay on the air," he thought. The Author is a confirmed Liberal abut he is also a fan of Rush's show. I have a Marxists atheists friend who is a Limbaugh fan as well, go figure.

Almost two decades later Chafets met Rush for the first time, at the Southern Command. They spent hours together talking on the record about politics, sports, music, show business, religion and modern American history. Rush opened his home and his world, introducing Chafets to his family, closest friends, even his psychologist. The result was an acclaimed cover-story profile of Limbaugh in The New York Times Magazine. What he does my talking to Rush and 100s of other people about Rush is give as a short life historyof Rush and we get a picture of what makes Rush tick.

Its written in an easy to read, engaging and entertaining style. I love them way he blends in Rushisms all through the book and also includes worlds fro song parodies and bits. I found myself laughing out loud and the buts etc.,

Everyday listeners, will remember much of what is covered hear by the author; Operation Chaos, The NFL ownership saga, "I Hope He Fails", Michael J. Fox, etc... but you will also get how Rush personally feels about some of these things as they pertain to his show.

One review said that "Chafets paints a compelling portrait of Limbaugh as a master entertainer, a public intellectual, a political force, and a fascinating man." and I have to agree. This is a great read for For ditto-heads and anyone who wants to know about Rush. Rush Limbaugh An Army Of One, is a great read!!!!

I never paid any attention to Rush Limbaugh until his galvanizing speech to CPAC. Since that time, I have become a dedicated daily listener.

Chafets said he had trouble finding a publisher because he didn't include "idiot" or ""liar" in the title of his proposed Limbaugh biography.

What he has turned out is a very serviceable biography of "El Rushbo" from birth through the present day.

There is no red meat here for left-wingers. In fact, there isn't much meat here for conservatives. This is a diligently apolitical biography. Limbaugh's politics are explained and illustrated, but Chafets is trying to inform, not convert people to conservativism.

Matter of factly, Chafets tells the story of Rush Limbaugh from his birth, through his schooling, the history of his relationship with his father, his desire from a young age to get iinto radio and his progress up the ladder.

A lot of what Chafets reports seems mundane because it is mundane. Much to his credit, Chafets does not try to create drama in an undramatic life - and Rush Limbaugh's life has been largely undramatic. He was a normal kid who grew up in a normal household. His parents were loving, though his father might have been viewed by some as demanding - not mean, just a dad who wanted to teach his son how to perform at his best.

Rush moved up the ladder of his chosen career as a disk jockey, getting fired from jobs as is the norm for DJs. He went through three marriages, which again is not unusual in our day and age and none of his wives have claimed to have been abused. Not much there.

In 1988, Rush was the unwitting beneficiary of the outlawing of the Fairness Doctrine by the Reagan administration, a development which permitted political programming without it having to be balanced by opposing views. Rush took to the air as an unabashed conservative - and wrote a new chapter in American political history.

Chafets obviously likes his subject. Limbaugh cooperated with Chafets, spent a lot of time with him and corresponded extensively.

Chafets describes Rush's 20-some years in radio in sparse detail, which I think is a disappointment. But he does cover the major highlights, both good and bad. His discussion(s) of Rush as the de facto leader of the conservative movement or the Republican Party are interesting.

Overall, this is an objective biography of Rush Limbaugh, an ordinary guy who with a combination of wit, sarcasm, creativity, business acumen and a strong strain of political commonsense has built an audience of 20-some million listeners and confounded his many political enemies, all the while amassing millions of dollars.

Chafets has done an admirable job of telling us who Rush Limbaugh is. No hysterics, no histrionics, just calm, objective and honest reporting. Good book.

Jerry

This is a well-written biography of Rush Limbaugh. In RUSH LIMBAUGH: AN ARMY OF ONE, what you get is an interesting balance between Rush's personal and professional life. While the focus of the book is on Rush's views, (what book about El Rushbo could ignore his views?), you get a sense of Rush the person as well. The author is scrupulously fair, which made this an enjoyable read. It was neither hero-worship, nor hatchet job. Rather, it was a fascinating biography replete with details about Rush's rise and the controversies that have surrounded him over the years. I highly reccommend this to anyone who wants a well-rounded and fair biography of Limbaugh.

A revealing, surprisingly excellent small work coming from a writer at the Gray Lady, the irrepressibly liberal NYT. We cannot say upon completing the book that we know this famously talented man, but we know more of the forces that created his juggernaut show and life. His childhood is examined, like so much of his life, just enough. If anything, there needs to be a deeper portrait of this complex and wickedly brilliant, "Citizen Kane," as I believe the author referred to him. Zev Chafets appears to be a bit too critical at times, but remains, overall, sympathetic to this one man army, this force of nature that has mastered tv, radio--"saving AM;" wins awards for his best-selling children's books, and keeps up to date on blogs..
The overall impression gleaned is of a sincere man, with a few flaws, but a a love for his country and its people like no other.
DON'T RETIRE, MR. RUSH. WE NEED YOU NOW MORE THAN EVER.

NOTE: I am a regular Rush Limbaugh listener. I enjoy his work and am greatly entertained by him. If anything, his politics are too liberal for my taste. That having been said:

If you're a Limbaugh newbie, this book is an OK introduction to America's most listened to radio talk show host (although your time would be better spent simply listening to the show for a couple of weeks). Perhaps it would have been better titled: "Limbaugh For Dummies." If you're a longtime Rush listener and devotee, there is almost nothing to enlighten in Zev Chefet's Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One. Factor in a dreadful audio performance from narrator Erik Synnestvedt and you've got a genuine waste of time and money. I've been listening to Limbaugh since his national launch in 1988. He is a greatly talented entertainer, a true force in American politics and certainly deserving of a well researched and well written biography. Unfortunately, this book isn't it. At best, it provides a coherent timeline of Limbaugh's rise to prominence and has the unusual advantage of being a relatively balanced look at its subject but there isn't real insight into El Rushbo's life experience which allows the reader to better understand the man.

Although not an authorized bio, Chefet spent time in Limbaugh's hometown of Cape Girardeau, Missouri interviewing Limbaugh brother and close confidant David, and he obviously interviewed many of Rush's friends and acquaintances through the years. And, though Limbaugh didn't officially authorize the work, Chefets also interviewed Rush, spent time with him in Florida and exchanged hundreds of e-mails with his subject. In other words, we should have been provided with a pretty thoroughly researched and penetrating look at Rush. It just isn't here. Longtime Limbaugh listeners will be able to fill in some holes in their knowledge of times, places and people but they won't be enlightened beyond that.

As for Erik Synnestvedt's performance of the audio book, I am frankly baffled that this narrator has a resume which includes nearly three dozen books over the last decade. Doing some research on him online, it appears he has talent but you couldn't prove it with this book. It was difficult to listen to resulting from his looping, clipped cadence and valley girl style of delivery. In addition, his mispronunciations prove he has little or no knowledge of Limbaugh and has spent no time listening to his program. Who knows; perhaps he was poorly directed. I've been listening to unabridged audio books for more than a decade and this ranks among the worst professionally narrated performances I've heard. Mr. Synnestvedt's work here took a marginally interesting work and did it no service.

I am Dan Rodgers author of Call Me Sergeant Rock (How a Boy becomes a Man in Vietnam) I believe that Rush would have made a great leader in Vietnam. I was a Sergeant squad leader during the Tet offensive. A good leader must weigh out his decision always thinking about the results quickly. Rush is always quick to act. I have not finished this book yet but I have read 3 other. I wished he could have been with me in Vietnam.Call Me Sergeant Rock: How a Boy Becomes a Man in Vietnam

Over the last twenty years, Rush Limbaugh's impact on politics in America has been immense. Among other things, he uses ridicule as a weapon against the Left as effectively as the Left uses it against conservatives and has provided on a daily basis an alternative to the liberal media for Generations X and Y as they came of age politically.

This short biography by Zev Chafets details Rush's family life growing up in Cape Girardeau. Chafets tracks Rush's radio career through high school, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and Sacramento, and then recalls the significant moments of his national show, which is still going very strong--Rush may have been more relevant than ever last year.

Neither fawning nor hostile, the book looks at some of the controversies Rush has been involved in. Chafets recalls his drug use, but also recalls how Rush beat his addiction.

The book's only drawback is that there are a few editing errors, such as misspelled words.

The author notes that many people remember the first time they ever heard Rush, and I am no exception--I had heard about him for months before finally finding him on the radio dial in the spring of 1992. Ever since, I have always been grateful for Rush's articulate conservative voice, a voice that I hope will continue to shape American politics for many years to come.

Rush Hudson Limbaugh III and Muhammad Ali. Who would have ever imagined that the legendary three-time World Champion Professional Boxer Ali is one of Rush's "Heroes and Role Models?" Yes indeed, it's true, Muhammad Ali is right up there with Rush's parents and grandparents and other non-relatives such as William F. Buckley and "Ronaldus Maximus: `the greatest president of the twentieth century.'"
"Muhammad Ali taught Limbaugh how to draw a crowd, pick a fight, and win with an `anchor' punch." Once a listener realizes this basic strategy it's easy to find examples of how Rush puts those techniques to work in his daily talk radio show. He learned much from watching a young Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. taunt and goad his opponents while at the same time mesmerizing his fans and the media.
Rush, a self-proclaimed "harmless fuzz ball" managed to use Muhammad Ali's psychological warfare to set traps that America's so-called first two "Black Presidents" [Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison touted Bill Clinton "as the our first Black President" and the phrase was adopted as a positive by Clinton supporters] were foolish enough to rush into without thinking and quickly found themselves up to their necks in quicksand traps. Like that young Muhammad Ali, Rush was then able to gleefully dance around his trapped victims and show the world how foolish they really were. "Obama implored the heads of the opposition party to begin by supporting his trillion-dollar economic stimulus bill, and then dropped the Rush Bomb. `You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done,' he told them."
"This raised eyebrows all over Washington. American Presidents don't normally single out private individuals, even powerful commentators, and attempt to put them beyond the pale. They certainly don't do this in the first week of a new term."
Rush was delighted. "Limbaugh had been trying to goad him into a fight ever since the Democratic convention in Denver...Obama, for reasons of his own, had called Limbaugh out. Not since Bill Clinton had Rush had such a worthy adversary."
"Limbaugh immediately labeled Obama's stimulus the `porkulus bill'..."
"Over the years, Limbaugh has cultivated a larger-than-life, intentionally ambiguous persona, which has made him illusive. It is a trick he learned from Muhammad Ali, whose big mouth, braggadocio, and sheer raw nerve enabled him to draw and keep a crowd throughout his long career." Cassius Clay aka Muhammad Ali used to make up uncomplimentary names for his boxing opponents--"Sonny Liston was the `Big Ugly Bear." Rush uses that disparaging nickname technique for both his philosophical and political opponents and their legislative programs. Hence we get "Environmental Wackos, Feminazis, Tax and Cap" and many other colorful additions to the dictionary. While Rush knows how to be nasty on the air, he almost never loses his temper, insults or hangs up on callers. He reserves his insults and questions about their honesty and true agendas for politicians, political movements and institutions and people who are well able to defend themselves. He wants these bad policies and freedom killing agendas to fail along with those pimping the failed, flawed policies and ideas.
He is not like some of the shock jocks on the air that will deliberately insult, call them names and then hang up on callers. Liberals calling his show go to the head of the line. Rush loves exchanging ideas with his callers and as often as possible he will let a liberal on the air and then quietly let the liberal talk or rave as much as he wants. Rush says he sees no reason to get in the way if a caller is making a fool of themselves or the policy they called to push. Most listeners will recall one particularly excellent example of this. Rita X called in to explain National Representative of the Nation of Islam Louis Farrakhan's, number theology and the UFO Mother Plane, loaded with 1500 bombing planes that is hovering in space ready to destroy England and America and save the True believers. Rush loves to hear from Rita X and always allows her to talk as long as she wants about the philosophy of the man Rush has nicknamed "Calypso Louie" after a 1955 show in Chicago that Farrakhan headed called "Calypso Follies." Rita X has called a couple of times and Rush has made it clear that she will always be welcome as a guest caller. Her calls provide him with days and days of fodder for him and his stunned listeners to discuss. Callers like Rita X bring home the reality of what many people in the country actually believe and are actively working to promote.
To many liberals, Rush is like a swirling Devil Wind from the Midwest that threatens to transport every liberal in its path to the fantasy land of Obama-opia and then spit them out with no way for them to regain their lost freedoms and return home to the "fruited plains."
Rush has "assigned himself the task of destroying the presidency of Barack Obama. There were risks--you don't take on the most powerful man in the world lightly---but Limbaugh was prepared to take those risks. `This is my destiny,' he told his audience. `This is what I was born to do.'"
This book provides a rather comprehensive, but quick look at Limbaugh's quiet upbringing in a modest home in Cape Girardeau, Missouri where his own nickname was "Rusty." He's from "The Show Me State" and knows it. His father "Big Rush" a former WW II combat fighter pilot was somewhat of an "Autocrat at the Breakfast Table' and didn't suffer fools lightly. His son enjoys publically debating those same fools "with talent on loan from God" as he modestly jokes and "with half his brain tied behind his back to make it fair." Much of Rush's philosophy he learned from his father and grandfather. His father was often asked to give lectures on his bedrock conservative political beliefs.
There is all kinds of interesting material in this biography. The author takes you on a tour of Cape Girardeau the quiet community overlooking the Mississippi River that was described by Mark Twain. Most of the landmarks associated with Rush's childhood still exist in the rather sleepy, small Missouri hamlet. The barber shop where Russ shined shoes as a youth, the radio station studio where he first worked as a teenage DJ and his modest looking family home are all still there to be seen by the many tourists who make the pilgrimage to the place of El Rusbo's youth--the place he couldn't wait to escape from at the first opportunity.
Zev Chafets is the first reporter allowed to tour the underground Southern Command bunker studio in Florida that serves as the venue for Russ's battles in "the arena of ideas." He was also the first reporter to visit Rush's Florida home with its walk-in humidor. Rush fans are going to get to know their favorite radio talk show host much better. This was not an authorized biography, but obviously Rush did cooperate with the author. He even allowed his doctors to be interviewed about Rush's addiction to prescription painkillers.
Rush is a geek. He is fascinated with things technical. An earlier user of the Apple Computer he has devoted hours and hours of radio time over the years singing the praises of that technology because he loves it. Although Apple has never been an advertiser for his show, that hasn't prevented Rush from creating legions of Apple users over the last two decades. When he lost his hearing and was trying to work while totally deaf, he told his audience how his hearing and destiny was saved by the "cochlear implant, which consists of a microphone capable of receiving sound and transmitting it to a speech processor. The processor converts mechanical sound into an electrical signal, which is then sent to the brain via electrodes implanted in the inner ear...the device worked. Limbaugh was back on the air full-time by the start of 2003." A person has to be a bit of geek to get involved with attaching something to their brain. Rush didn't want to become a mind-numbed robot as his "ditto head" followers are sometimes despairingly referred to as a group.
While preferring to read and putter around the house or office to socializing, he is a fervent sports fan. After he worked for the Kansas Royals he was completely hooked on baseball. Ditto for Pro-football, the Stealers are his all-time favorite team and in the past few years he has taken up golf--only not just as a spectator but as a participant. This was something new for a man who has always intensely disliked exercise.
This biography includes lots of pictures that might be found in Rush's scrapbook, including one of Rush with his fiancée, now his beautiful new wife, Kathryn Rogers. Rush considers himself to be hopelessly romantic.
The author "was amazed to discover that almost no New York Publisher wanted a book about Rush Limbaugh that didn't have the word `idiot' or `liar' in the title." Even after the book was published and obviously headed for all the "best seller lists" the author discovered that many of the media people who had pre-scheduled him for interviews cancelled those interviews. In one case, the author was on the way to the NYC television studio before the national program director called to cancel his appearance. Major book reviewers also refused to review the biography even though the inclusion of such a review would have attracted additional readers and increased sales and maybe even circulation. The public is hungry for all the Rush info they can get. Most Limbaugh fans can actually remember the first time they heard Rush on the radio. He is an world-class entertainer and talk radio pioneer who is credited with almost single handedly saving AM radio, raising talk radio to a popular art from, educating millions of people about how politics and the United States government really works, but he constantly reminds his vast audience that political satire and parodies aren't funny unless they contain more than a little truth behind them. His puns, satire and parodies are laughing out-loud hilarious. Obviously they are right on the money.

Over the last twenty years, Rush Limbaugh's impact on politics in America has been immense. Among other things, he uses ridicule as a weapon against the Left as effectively as the Left uses it against conservatives and has provided on a daily basis an alternative to the liberal media for Generations X and Y as they came of age politically.

This short biography by Zev Chafets details Rush's family life growing up in Cape Girardeau. Chafets tracks Rush's radio career through high school, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and Sacramento, and then recalls the significant moments of his national show, which is still going very strong--Rush may have been more relevant than ever last year.

Neither fawning nor hostile, the book looks at some of the controversies Rush has been involved in. Chafets recalls his drug use, but also recalls how Rush beat his addiction.

The book's only drawback is that there are a few editing errors, such as misspelled words.

The author notes that many people remember the first time they ever heard Rush, and I am no exception--I had heard about him for months before finally finding him on the radio dial in the spring of 1992. Ever since, I have always been grateful for Rush's articulate conservative voice, a voice that I hope will continue to shape American politics for many years to come.

Rush Hudson Limbaugh III and Muhammad Ali. Who would have ever imagined that the legendary three-time World Champion Professional Boxer Ali is one of Rush's "Heroes and Role Models?" Yes indeed, it's true, Muhammad Ali is right up there with Rush's parents and grandparents and other non-relatives such as William F. Buckley and "Ronaldus Maximus: `the greatest president of the twentieth century.'"
"Muhammad Ali taught Limbaugh how to draw a crowd, pick a fight, and win with an `anchor' punch." Once a listener realizes this basic strategy it's easy to find examples of how Rush puts those techniques to work in his daily talk radio show. He learned much from watching a young Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. taunt and goad his opponents while at the same time mesmerizing his fans and the media.
Rush, a self-proclaimed "harmless fuzz ball" managed to use Muhammad Ali's psychological warfare to set traps that America's so-called first two "Black Presidents" [Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison touted Bill Clinton "as the our first Black President" and the phrase was adopted as a positive by Clinton supporters] were foolish enough to rush into without thinking and quickly found themselves up to their necks in quicksand traps. Like that young Muhammad Ali, Rush was then able to gleefully dance around his trapped victims and show the world how foolish they really were. "Obama implored the heads of the opposition party to begin by supporting his trillion-dollar economic stimulus bill, and then dropped the Rush Bomb. `You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done,' he told them."
"This raised eyebrows all over Washington. American Presidents don't normally single out private individuals, even powerful commentators, and attempt to put them beyond the pale. They certainly don't do this in the first week of a new term."
Rush was delighted. "Limbaugh had been trying to goad him into a fight ever since the Democratic convention in Denver...Obama, for reasons of his own, had called Limbaugh out. Not since Bill Clinton had Rush had such a worthy adversary."
"Limbaugh immediately labeled Obama's stimulus the `porkulus bill'..."
"Over the years, Limbaugh has cultivated a larger-than-life, intentionally ambiguous persona, which has made him illusive. It is a trick he learned from Muhammad Ali, whose big mouth, braggadocio, and sheer raw nerve enabled him to draw and keep a crowd throughout his long career." Cassius Clay aka Muhammad Ali used to make up uncomplimentary names for his boxing opponents--"Sonny Liston was the `Big Ugly Bear." Rush uses that disparaging nickname technique for both his philosophical and political opponents and their legislative programs. Hence we get "Environmental Wackos, Feminazis, Tax and Cap" and many other colorful additions to the dictionary. While Rush knows how to be nasty on the air, he almost never loses his temper, insults or hangs up on callers. He reserves his insults and questions about their honesty and true agendas for politicians, political movements and institutions and people who are well able to defend themselves. He wants these bad policies and freedom killing agendas to fail along with those pimping the failed, flawed policies and ideas.
He is not like some of the shock jocks on the air that will deliberately insult, call them names and then hang up on callers. Liberals calling his show go to the head of the line. Rush loves exchanging ideas with his callers and as often as possible he will let a liberal on the air and then quietly let the liberal talk or rave as much as he wants. Rush says he sees no reason to get in the way if a caller is making a fool of themselves or the policy they called to push. Most listeners will recall one particularly excellent example of this. Rita X called in to explain National Representative of the Nation of Islam Louis Farrakhan's, number theology and the UFO Mother Plane, loaded with 1500 bombing planes that is hovering in space ready to destroy England and America and save the True believers. Rush loves to hear from Rita X and always allows her to talk as long as she wants about the philosophy of the man Rush has nicknamed "Calypso Louie" after a 1955 show in Chicago that Farrakhan headed called "Calypso Follies." Rita X has called a couple of times and Rush has made it clear that she will always be welcome as a guest caller. Her calls provide him with days and days of fodder for him and his stunned listeners to discuss. Callers like Rita X bring home the reality of what many people in the country actually believe and are actively working to promote.
To many liberals, Rush is like a swirling Devil Wind from the Midwest that threatens to transport every liberal in its path to the fantasy land of Obama-opia and then spit them out with no way for them to regain their lost freedoms and return home to the "fruited plains."
Rush has "assigned himself the task of destroying the presidency of Barack Obama. There were risks--you don't take on the most powerful man in the world lightly---but Limbaugh was prepared to take those risks. `This is my destiny,' he told his audience. `This is what I was born to do.'"
This book provides a rather comprehensive, but quick look at Limbaugh's quiet upbringing in a modest home in Cape Girardeau, Missouri where his own nickname was "Rusty." He's from "The Show Me State" and knows it. His father "Big Rush" a former WW II combat fighter pilot was somewhat of an "Autocrat at the Breakfast Table' and didn't suffer fools lightly. His son enjoys publically debating those same fools "with talent on loan from God" as he modestly jokes and "with half his brain tied behind his back to make it fair." Much of Rush's philosophy he learned from his father and grandfather. His father was often asked to give lectures on his bedrock conservative political beliefs.
There is all kinds of interesting material in this biography. The author takes you on a tour of Cape Girardeau the quiet community overlooking the Mississippi River that was described by Mark Twain. Most of the landmarks associated with Rush's childhood still exist in the rather sleepy, small Missouri hamlet. The barber shop where Russ shined shoes as a youth, the radio station studio where he first worked as a teenage DJ and his modest looking family home are all still there to be seen by the many tourists who make the pilgrimage to the place of El Rusbo's youth--the place he couldn't wait to escape from at the first opportunity.
Zev Chafets is the first reporter allowed to tour the underground Southern Command bunker studio in Florida that serves as the venue for Russ's battles in "the arena of ideas." He was also the first reporter to visit Rush's Florida home with its walk-in humidor. Rush fans are going to get to know their favorite radio talk show host much better. This was not an authorized biography, but obviously Rush did cooperate with the author. He even allowed his doctors to be interviewed about Rush's addiction to prescription painkillers.
Rush is a geek. He is fascinated with things technical. An earlier user of the Apple Computer he has devoted hours and hours of radio time over the years singing the praises of that technology because he loves it. Although Apple has never been an advertiser for his show, that hasn't prevented Rush from creating legions of Apple users over the last two decades. When he lost his hearing and was trying to work while totally deaf, he told his audience how his hearing and destiny was saved by the "cochlear implant, which consists of a microphone capable of receiving sound and transmitting it to a speech processor. The processor converts mechanical sound into an electrical signal, which is then sent to the brain via electrodes implanted in the inner ear...the device worked. Limbaugh was back on the air full-time by the start of 2003." A person has to be a bit of geek to get involved with attaching something to their brain. Rush didn't want to become a mind-numbed robot as his "ditto head" followers are sometimes despairingly referred to as a group.
While preferring to read and putter around the house or office to socializing, he is a fervent sports fan. After he worked for the Kansas Royals he was completely hooked on baseball. Ditto for Pro-football, the Stealers are his all-time favorite team and in the past few years he has taken up golf--only not just as a spectator but as a participant. This was something new for a man who has always intensely disliked exercise.
This biography includes lots of pictures that might be found in Rush's scrapbook, including one of Rush with his fiancée, now his beautiful new wife, Kathryn Rogers. Rush considers himself to be hopelessly romantic.
The author "was amazed to discover that almost no New York Publisher wanted a book about Rush Limbaugh that didn't have the word `idiot' or `liar' in the title." Even after the book was published and obviously headed for all the "best seller lists" the author discovered that many of the media people who had pre-scheduled him for interviews cancelled those interviews. In one case, the author was on the way to the NYC television studio before the national program director called to cancel his appearance. Major book reviewers also refused to review the biography even though the inclusion of such a review would have attracted additional readers and increased sales and maybe even circulation. The public is hungry for all the Rush info they can get. Most Limbaugh fans can actually remember the first time they heard Rush on the radio. He is an world-class entertainer and talk radio pioneer who is credited with almost single handedly saving AM radio, raising talk radio to a popular art from, educating millions of people about how politics and the United States government really works, but he constantly reminds his vast audience that political satire and parodies aren't funny unless they contain more than a little truth behind them. His puns, satire and parodies are laughing out-loud hilarious. Obviously they are right on the money.

Limbaugh's good cheer and optimism come through in his book, but the book itself is plagued with odd pacing (for example, slowing way down to talk about Rush's grandfather and father) and too heavily-loaded with descriptions of life in Cape Girardeau, MO. It would have been better for the book to focus on Limbaugh himself talking about Limbaugh. Rush's personal life is not that interesting; his accomplishments are the reason I picked up the book.

This book pays attention to Rush as a political activist: the radio show, the humor he uses, the transformation of talk radio into a powerful political force, the ways Rush undermines and infuriates the traditional media, and the message of conservatism. That was good.

Hang onto this book, because sooner or later President Obama's unpopularity will be sanitized and papered over (if I said his unpopularity would be "whitewashed," would people call me a racist? Ha!). It will disappear down the memory hole. Books like this will help us remember.

Can a gay, draft-avoiding droput and drug abuser find acceptance in the right-wing, Christian America? Rush Limbaugh set out to answer the question and became the leader of the movement! Because of his prominence, success and unquestioned importance, the Limbaugh story bears telling. Heretofore, the definitive book on this weighty subject was "Rush Limbaugh Is...and Other Observations" by Alan Stuart Franken. But that award-winning volume came out in 1996 and because of all the great things Limbaugh has done in the intevening years, his story required updating, if not a complete retelling.

As Franken was not available to once again delve into the life of Limbaugh, due to his election to the United States Senate, it fell on Zev Chafets to tackle the project. Happily, it can be reported that Chafets was up to the task.

Chafets takes a somewhat different approach than Franken did in evaluating this amazing life. Whereas Franken's approach was analytical, Chafets exudes infatuation and outright love for his subject. And while Franken had to be content to evaluate his subject from his public pronouncements alone, Chafets was able to get up close and personal with the man.

Chafets does leave some things out. He does not state whether his admiration and love for Limbaugh were consummated or reciprocated and leaves it to the reader to gauge the intensity of their discussions of teabagging. But he does drop hints, even bragging about how he was invited into Limbaugh's mansion and its many rooms and saunas. Is he being coy? Perhaps. But this was not intended to be a kiss-and-tell book.

In the end, this book is every bit the equal of Franken's "Limbaugh Is...And Other Observations." The only reason it does not get SIX stars is that Chafets didn't think to ask Alan Franken to at least write the forward, something that I'm sure the senator would have taken time out of his schedule to accommodate. This book is must reading for all Americans and if it fails to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize, that will just be shameful evidence of the horrific liberal bias that permeates the selection process for that award.

Combining historical data along with personal interviews and emails from Rush himself... author Zev Chafets has fashioned a detailed narrative of Rush Limbaugh's life from childhood to his current day *MEGA-STAR* status. While unabashedly admitting in the opening that the first time he heard Rush on the radio was akin to the first time he saw Elvis on TV... I found it refreshing that the author did not try to cover-up Limbaugh's gaffes whether public or private. Along with following Rush's life steps from Missouri... to Pennsylvania... to California... to New York... to Florida... and everywhere in between... this remarkably free-flowing easy to read tale of the man that Ronald Reagan himself dubbed "THE-MOST-DANGEROUS-MAN-IN-AMERICA"... includes his prescription drug addiction... rehab... legal battles... and public embarrassment and mea culpa.

Rising from not being an overly popular teenager who worked as a disc jockey and whose life goals were more of the same... to becoming perhaps the most influential non-politician in the country... Chafets digs deep to show the influence and history of the men in Rush's family. Rush's Grandfather, Rush Sr. was a lawyer and when he retired at the age of *ONE-HUNDRED-TWO-YEARS-OLD* he was the oldest attorney working in the United States. A fact that Rush's enemies might want to take into consideration if they're hoping Rush won't be around very long. Rush's Father, Rush Junior, also a lawyer... was an absolute hero to Rush III... "AND STILL CALLS HIM THE SMARTEST MAN I EVER MET." "BIG RUSH" was a World War II combat pilot and his anti-communist opinions and the way he thought the United States should be run formed the nucleus of what Rush is today. Brother David is also a lawyer and worked out most of the deals that have made Rush a multi-multi-millionaire. One of those deals was a partnership with the former head of ABC Radio, Ed McLaughlin. "THE ARRANGEMENT MADE A FORTUNE FOR BOTH LIMBAUGH AND McLAUGHLIN." David (With Rush's approval.) is interviewed and quoted throughout the book.

Along the way to conservative radio greatness Rush worked for the Kansas City Royals baseball team for five years in a number of non-glamorous positions... and despite his non-athletic capabilities and desires... became a close friend of Hall Of Famer George Brett. Limbaugh who is famous for assigning mocking nicknames to his political enemies wasn't always known as Rush Limbaugh. At times he was known as "RUSTY SHARPE" and "BACHELOR JEFF CHRISTIE". Along with making money Limbaugh created a whole new talk radio vocabulary. His fans became known as "DITTOHEADS"... and enemies fell under many "Rushian" categories such as... "UGLO-AMERICANS"... "COMMIE PINKO LIBERALS"... "FEMINAZIS" and "TREE HUGGERS". The author as well as Rush is not afraid to step up to the plate regardless of who's pitching. The author deftly writes: "HE HAD BEEN GIVEN HIS FIRST CHANCE TO REALLY TAKE ON THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS IN 1992, WHEN TED KOPPEL INVITED HIM TO DEBATE SENATOR AL GORE ON ABC'S "NIGHTLINE". LIKE THE FIRST ALI-LISTON BOUT, IT LOOKED LIKE A RIDICULOUS MISMATCH." Following a wordy Gore screed... "KOPPEL WAS EVIDENTLY IMPRESSED." "I DON'T KNOW ANYBODY ON CAPITOL HILL WHO IS MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE ON THE SUBJECT OF ENVIRONMENT THAN AL GORE. YOU HAVE TO TAKE SERIOUSLY WHAT HE SAYS."

"LIMBAUGH DIDN'T HAVE TO AND HE DIDN'T. HE KNEW PERFECTLY WELL THAT GORE WASN'T A CLIMATOLOGIST, HE JUST PLAYED ONE ON TV."

This far sweeping montage includes not only Rush's 1994 updated "35 UNDENIABLE TRUTHS OF LIFE"... (Here's a sample of some of my favorites.) #10- "THE 1980's WAS NOT A DECADE OF GREED BUT A DECADE OF PROSPERITY; IT WAS THE LONGEST PERIOD OF PEACETIME GROWTH IN AMERICAN HISTORY." #25- "FOLLOW THE MONEY. WHEN SOMEBODY SAYS, "IT'S NOT THE MONEY," IT'S ALWAYS THE MONEY." #29- LIBERALS MEASURE COMPASSION BY HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE GIVEN WELFARE. CONSERVATIVES MEASURE COMPASSION BY HOW MANY PEOPLE NO LONGER NEED IT."... but also includes an interview (Approved by Rush.) with "Florida based-clinical psychologist, Steven Stumwasser, who specializes in treating addiction" and had Rush as a patient. Whether you love Rush... or hate Rush... this book is well worth your time.

This book changed my opinion of Rush Limbaugh. Grant it, I am sure it does not include all details that may pertain to every story, if you know Rush's personality well enough it will all make sense to you.

Turning to Rush Limbaugh for truth is a habit for millions in America. This book give a great insight into him as a real person. He is an amazing intellect. I know some of his personal stories but this book adds more. I fear what could happen should we lose our champion in the cause of freedom. Whenever I want to hear the truth, I know to listen to Rush. He is extremely successful and yet uses his wealth in many good causes. Whatever you think of his politics, you might want to check his accuracy percent. It is far above any other news source.

I've been listening (and watching) Rush since 1993 and it didn't take the six weeks Rush recommends to fully understand his show and humor. I was hooked instantly! Still am.

I learn more by listening to his program that I could POSSIBLY learn through the mainstream media. Therefore, I have given up on the networks and printed media all together.

God bless him. May his show never end and the learning about our government continue forever! Rush IS and Army of one...I salute you.

Finally, a book of truthful events into the life of of one of the greatest media patriots AMERICAN PATRIOTS and just a great read. Hands down the best book I've read in years.
Thank you Zev.
Stephen

Zev is right to take Limbaugh seriously. After all, he's more than the clown the left likes to make him out to be. He's actually a master of deception. Probably there's nobody on the radio who has less respect for his audience than Rush.

Let me give you an example of exactly how Limbaugh treats his listeners.

Last week he was defending his friends at Big Oil on the BP disaster. To try to show how the left was making the environmental impact of the spill into something far worse than it really was he used the following analogy:

Rush said the amount of oil that had spilled in the gulf so far was the equivalent of one ounce of oil in a bathtub. I guess for his listeners that was supposed to show how insignificant it was.

Okay, Rush. Let's see what that might really mean. Why don't you put one ounce of botulin toxin in a bathtub and drink the water every day for the next year. ....Ooops, that won't work because you'll be dead before tomorrow.

Okay, so let's replace the botulin with crude oil. And then all those cancer causing clean up chemicals. Now Rush: drink it. Drink it every day.

If you don't do this, I guess it means you don't respect your audience.

Of course, Rush doesn't always use condescending and phony arguments. When he wrote a piece for The NEW YORK TIMES (YEAH-- HE WRITES FOR THE LIBERAL MEDIA ESTABLISHMENT, TOO), he actually presented facts and reasonable arguments. So I guess it means on some level he knows how dishonest his right wing positions are-- because when he presents them to his people, he's not brave enough to tell it to them straight.

Don't Buy a book from this warmongering Toadie
Rush is a tool of the Military Industrial Complex. He is bought and paid for Toadie.
He is a Neocon Perpetual Warmongering who really is for Perpetual High Taxes. That is how perpetual wars are paid for! On the backs of regular Americans!

It seems that it is OK with Rush and his followers to GO AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION when it involves American Empire and Empire building. Tell me why is all of our empire building in the middle east?

NOBODY WANTS TO ADMIT THEY WERE WRONG, ESPECIALLY RUSH!
That's the biggest problem we have with "NeoCon" conservatives.
Enthusiastically backing Ron Paul on foreign policy would be saying....
-- I WAS WRONG on Iraq
-- I WAS WRONG on Afghanistan
-- I WAS WRONG on the Patriot Act

Don't Buy this book.
Don't waste your time.

To see the unvarnished truth about Rush and his fellow Neocons, then read
"The Transparent Cabal: The Neoconservative Agenda, War in the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel by Stephen J. Sniegoski

Misleading to say the least.". Mr. Limbaugh your view of the world is horribly inaccurate you have no clue what your talking about. Your just a paid media mogul sent to mislead the American public. How you live with yourself is astonishing. Anyone who reads your book should look for other sources of information.

Unfortunately, a once -great political party--the republic party,has sunk to pandering to an uneducated, demagogic blowhard, a foursquare enemy of the American middle` class and the attentive public in the U.S. Racism, xenophobia, and outright ugly prejudice, lies, and half truths mark everything this pathetic, sad man of a draft-dodging 'chickenhawk' is. HE has much to answer for the damage he has done to America.

This is a horrendous book. It tells very little about the Limbaugh phenomenon. In fact, Richard Hofstadter's book The Paranoid Style in American Politics gives a more revealing treatment of the Limbaugh phenomenon---even though it was written a quarter century before Limbaugh became a national figure. Other reviewers, such as David Frum, Janet Maslin, and the store reviewer John K. Wilson, have written about what a slapdash mess this book is. I will use this review to address some revealing admissions from the book (as well as some revealing omissions).

On page 58, Chafets notes that when it came to Limbaugh's TV show from the 90's, "[Limbaugh] and [then-producer Roger] Ailes were in complete control of the format and the content." This is revealing because Limbaugh's TV show was a model for the Ailes-run Fox News; Ailes wants Republican propaganda and the Fox News liberals are almost exclusively weak debaters like Alan Colmes and Susan Estrich. It's also revealing that Chafets never mentioned the way that Limbaugh and Ailes used the TV program to humiliate then-13-year-old Chelsea Clinton as a "White House dog." (reporter James Retter debunked Limbaugh's lame excuse that it was an accident due to a technician's error).

Chafets ignores Limbaugh's meanness and paranoid conspiracy theories. During the Clinton presidency, Limbaugh (along with Roger Ailes and his then-ghostwriter Joseph Farah) were ghoulish proponents of the Clinton Body Count--the belief that the Clintons were murdering political enemies and people who allegedly knew too much (like Vince Foster). In 1994, After the independent counsel on Whitewater, Robert B. Fiske concluded conclusively that Foster's death was a suicide, Foster's bereaved family issued a public statment pleading with Limbaugh and others to stop their campaigns full of "outrageous innuendo and speculation for political ends" and to leave them in peace to complete the mourning process. Limbaugh et al. callously ignored their pleas. Indeed, even in the 2000's, after numerous investigations--including Ken Starr's--found that Foster's death was a suicide, Limbaugh had not only not apologized to the Clintons and Vince Foster's family but he continued to cling to the paranoid fiction that anyone who crosses the Clintons should avoid Fort Marcy Park. This is vile and illustrative of how Limbaugh's wildly paranoid mode of thinking has led to the birthers, the deathers, and the tenthers.

Chafets briefly notes that Limbaugh used his TV show to mock Al Gore by claiming that he couldn't identify a bust of George Washington when he and the Clintons were touring Monticello. In fact, when Gore asked about the busts, the ones directly in front of the touring party were of John Paul Jones and the Marquis de Lafayette.

On page 61, Chafets repeats the right-wing talking point that a right-wing operative posed as a pimp at ACORN offices around the nation; in fact, he posed as someone who came to protect his girlfriend from an abusive pimp and then edited the tapes to give a flagrantly misleading impression.

Chafets notes that Limbaugh avoided the Vietnam War but claims that Limbaugh wasn't enthusiastic about criticizing Bill Clinton for avoiding service. Anyone who listened to Limbaugh's show during the 1992 campaign knows this is false. Not only that, but during the 2000 primaries, at the time that Karl Rove and others were engaging in the whisper campaign that John McCain was mentally unbalanced because of his POW experiences, Limbaugh had a vicious parody skit on his show, "The McCain Mutiny," in which McCain was portrayed as the paranoid Captain Queeg. Also, Limbaugh denigrated the military record of Iraq War vet Paul Hackett (Limbaugh called Hackett a "staff puke" who volunteered to serve in Iraq "to pad his resume"). To no surprise, Chafets takes Limbaugh's side in the "phony soldiers" flap, claiming that Limbaugh was referring only to people who falsely claimed to be soldiers--even though one of the people Limbaugh accused of being a phony soldier was marine combat vet John Murtha.

On page 85, Chafets writes that Limbaugh was "livid" when Bill Clinton made a joke suggesting that Limbaugh was racist (of course, Limbaugh had no problem comparing Clinton to Bull Connor during the 2008 campaign). Chafets then glosses over Limbaugh and his views on race, absurdly writing on page 173 that when Limbaugh emerged as a radio talk show host "in the mid-1980's, he came armed with the belief in color-blindness that had been in vogue twenty years earlier." Doesn't Chafets have Google? For instance, Limbaugh joked that the NAACP should have "riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies." Also, prior to the 2004 primaries, Limbaugh had a comedy skit in which an actress portraying Carol Mosely Moseley-Braun speaking like the Prissy character from Gone with the Wind, saying, "I don't know nothin' about runnin' for no president!" Is it any wonder that Limbaugh's approval rating with Americans under 40 is 11 percent?

Limbaugh thrived in the 1990's because there was no paper trail for his show. That is no longer the case with the emergence of Media Matters for America, a media watchdog group that monitors Limbaugh's show and publicizes Limbaugh's smears, disinformation, and overall mean-spiritedness (such as the time that Limbaugh mocked Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's Disease symptoms).

Zev Chafets' new biography, Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One, is a shallow portrait of the nation's conservative-in-chief. Chafets gets only one thing fundamentally right about Rush: Limbaugh is an immensely powerful figure within the Republican Party and American politics. Would Republicans have become "the Party of 'No'" without Limbaugh's daily diatribes against compromise and desire for America to fail? Perhaps to some degree. But without two decades of Limbaugh's relentless militance against liberalism, it is unthinkable that the Republican Party would stand where it does today.

Chafets wrote a glowing profile of Limbaugh in 2008 for the New York Times Magazine. Rush would never allow a New York Times reporter such wide access without being completely assured that the article would be written from a sympathetic, conservative approach. Chafets provided exactly that, since he is a prominent critic of Palestinians (and former director of Israel's government press office), and had written a column on the right-wing website [...]. Limbaugh even referred to Chafets as a "friend" on his show. Chafets shared that friendship, declaring about Limbaugh, "I'm a little bit defensive because I think that the liberal media takes such an unfair view of him."

Chafets' 2008 profile lavishly praised Limbaugh, comparing him to "the great black singers of his generation" and calling him "the first white, Goldwater Republican soul shouter." His new book compares Limbaugh to Muhammad Ali and Oprah Winfrey.

Bob Garfield of "On the Media" observed to Chafets in 2008, "Your piece on Limbaugh was very generous, I would say even flattering. You seem to give him a pass for his excesses." When Garfield confronted him with the infamous Limbaugh quote, "The NAACP should have a riot rehearsal, they should get a liquor store and practice robberies," Chafets responded, "Not my sense of humor, but it's not a lie." Really? It's not a lie to link the NAACP to riots and liquor store robberies?

Chafets is a relentless defender of Rush. According to Chafets, "A lot of Limbaugh's critics dismiss him as a buffoon or a fanatic. These are people who don't listen to his show. Limbaugh is not only a brilliant communicator, he is a smart political strategist." A Columbia Journalism Review blog noted, "it seems Chafets was distracted by all the bling in Rush's World, so that the piece reads more like an episode of MTV Cribs..."

Janet Maslin's devastating review of Chafets' book in the New York Times reveals some of the flaws in it. Maslin notes that even the mild criticism of Limbaugh found in Chafets' original New York Times Magazine piece was largely purged from the book.

Limbaugh knew from the beginning that Chafets was a fan and a friend, and even told him, "if you think the editors of the New York Times Magazine are going to do a story on me that isn't a hit job, you are naïve."(115) Chafets pretends to be shocked when Limbaugh refers to him on the air as a "friend," but it certainly wouldn't shock anyone who reads this book. Chafets is a relentless defender of Limbaugh, even to the point of insulting his ex-wife Marta Fitzgerald as a gold digger. He writes that Rush's first two wives didn't marry him for his money, but "The third Mrs. Limbaugh is a different matter."(130)

Chafets dutifully reports what Limbaugh said years ago on his show about his drug use: "Limbaugh concluded by saying that he would like to go into more detail but couldn't, because he was under criminal investigation."(95) One would imagine that Chafets could have gone into more detail years after the criminal matter was resolved and the statute of limitations applies. But for some reason, Chafets reveals nothing more about Limbaugh's drug addiction. He reports that Limbaugh now thinks drug use should not usually be a crime, although he omits Limbaugh's earlier hypocrisy on the issue or the fact that Limbaugh never expresses this view on the air.(98)

On race, Chafets dares to be slightly critical of Limbaugh. Chafets recounts that he suggests to Limbaugh that he has a "blind spot" on race, that he doesn't understand "why American blacks didn't share his narrative of America as a uniquely virtuous nation."(173) Chafets admits, "It was cringe inducing to hear Limbaugh defend his lack of bias by mentioning his housekeeper."(176) But he lets Limbaugh claim, "the Constitution set up a process to gradually end slavery," even though that's not true.

Chafets mentions the two fake quotes spread about Limbaugh on slavery and James Earl Ray (although he gets their origin wrong, falsely blaming writer Jack Huberman for creating them), but he never discusses the real racist quotes from Limbaugh's mouth, such as calling Obama "Halfrican-American" or "the little black man-child."(183) Chafets even defends Limbaugh's bizarre claim that the media want black quarterbacks to succeed as "perfectly true," apparently not caring if there's any evidence to support Limbaugh's claim (there's not).(184) Chafets depicts Limbaugh, a man who regularly occupies luxury boxes and even the sidelines at NFL games, as a victim who "found himself excommunicated"(185) merely because he was dropped from one ownership group's attempts to buy a team.

Chafets projects his own moderate conservative views onto Limbaugh: "Rush and I were both raised at a time of racial optimism and naivete, when the goal of decent white people was an integrated society. We were taught that skin color shouldn't matter, that we were all basically the same, that we should judge others not by their color but the content of their character."(172) However, Chafets revealed that when Limbaugh was growing up, his public school responded to Brown v. Board of Education with de facto segregation of black students in low-level classes. Did Chafets ever ask Limbaugh about his segregated school, or growing up in a former slave state during the midst of the Civil Rights Movement? Did he ever ask Limbaugh if his notoriously foul-mouthed father or other friends and family used the N-word? Chafets had a tremendous opportunity, as the only journalist who has ever had the opportunity for in-depth conversation with Limbaugh.

When giving his own opinion, Chafets has many disturbing racial views. Chafets writes that GOP head Michael Steele was "intimidated" by comedian D.L. Hughley, a "former gang banger," into criticizing Limbaugh.(147) Chafets claims that after 9/11, "total war was justified until the Arabs cried uncle."(101) It's not clear if Chafets or Limbaugh or both believe this, but it's certainly a disturbing viewpoint to call for "total war" against a group of people that includes some of America's strongest allies.

Chafets got attention for his book by trying to arrange a golf outing between Obama and Limbaugh: "I spoke to a very senior Democratic activist with whom I'm very friendly, and he said he would convey the message. A day or two later he got back to me with the answer: 'Limbaugh can play with himself.'"(192) It's a funny line. The problem is that we don't know who said it, if anyone. Was this Obama's personal response to Limbaugh, as some in the media reported (and Chafets did not seek to correct)? Was it the response of some aide? Or was it Chafets' source simply commenting on the failure to get any response from the White House? We don't know, and Chafets seems more interested in using it to generate publicity for his book rather than clarifying what was actually said. It's noteworthy that when Chafets wrote a pointless op-ed for the Los Angeles Times about his dream Limbaugh-Obama golf outing, the "play with himself" quote was nowhere to be found. Perhaps that's because Chafets' lightly-sourced claim didn't meet a newspaper's standards for facts. Fortunately, Sentinel Books has no such standards.

In fact, Chafets' book has no endnotes or sources. After all, his primary audience is Dittoheads, and they certainly don't expect evidence after years of listening to Limbaugh. There's very little new information uncovered by Chafets, and much of the biographical parts of the books closely follow Paul Colford's 1995 book, The Rush Limbaugh Story.

From a literary point of view, Chafets' book is a mess. The final chapter is followed by an epilogue summarizing some events in 2010. The final line, a product placement urging people turn in weekdays at noon, is almost embarrassingly bad. That's followed by the acknowledgments where Chafets whines about the difficulty of finding a "New York publisher" for a pro-Limbaugh book and praises Limbaugh for being "cooperative and candid," which if true means that Chafets simply failed to ask any important questions in what Limbaugh claims were 16 hours of interviews. That's followed by an appendix where Chafets denounces "the liberal consensus" in the media and academia, and claims that Limbaugh listeners are smart because they know basic information such as the majority party in Congress.

The book is also piled high with filler. He reprints Limbaugh's list of "35 Undeniable Truths of Life" with his own "unofficial and personal commentary" that reveals Chafets' agreement with nearly everything Rush says ("except for maybe the one about the Steelers").(74) Whole pages of his book are devoted to the lyrics of the lame parody songs by Paul Shanklin that Limbaugh plays on his show.

There's not one word in the book about Limbaugh's inept misunderstandings about the Constitution (such as quoting, with the wrong words, the Declaration of Independence and and claiming it was in the Constitution). Instead, Chafets writes: "Big Rush would have been proud to hear his son expounding with such passion on issues of constitutional law."(168) This is the kind of fluff that Chafets uses, words that would humiliate a real journalist to write.

Chafets' book has shoddy editing, too. There are several typos, including "the a great" (130) and "Limbaugh had set his sites on Congress...."(77) As Janet Maslin noted in her New York Times review, "Even the name of one of Mr. Limbaugh's wives is misspelled here, as are Hugh Hefner's and Phyllis Schlafly's." I found even more misspellings, including Senator "Clair" McCaskill (103) and even John Forbes "Kennedy" rather than Kerry.(159)

The book is poorly researched, and misses many important facts. According to Chafets, "There was never a doubt that Limbaugh would support the reelection of George H.W. Bush in 1992..."(81) Chafets somehow never realized that Limbaugh supported Pat Buchanan's primary campaign against Bush in 1992. Rush wrote that Buchanan accomplished "great things" by moving Bush to the right.

According to Chafets, "After Obama accidentally read the speech of his guest, the Irish prime minister, instead of his own, Limbaugh developed the conceit that the teleprompter, not Obama, was in charge."(163) Obama never accidentally read the speech of the Irish prime minister; it was the opposite.

Chafets refers to the Sullivan Group as a "fictitious entity."(44) In reality, the Sullivan Group was founded in 1980, long before Tom Sullivan became a talk show host and met Rush Limbaugh, and it continues to exist. What's fictitious is the idea that the Sullivan Group "audits" the accuracy of Limbaugh's opinions, which Rush often cites as proof of his truth-telling, and many of his listeners actually believe it.

Media Matters for America points out several errors in Chafets' book, including his propensity to give Fox News Channel credit for breaking stories that other mainstream media outlets actually reported first. Media Matters, which has become Limbaugh's chief nemesis by writing daily about his errors and distortions, merits only a couple of mentions in Chafets' book, although Limbaugh often refers to them on his show in a clearly irritated manner. Chafets notes that Media Matters "reported that Rush had referred to military personnel who objected to the war as 'phony soldiers,"(108) which is exactly what Limbaugh had declared. Chafets denies this reality, and then compounds his mistake in defending Limbaugh by falsely claiming that "Media Matters tried to correct its initial mistake" on the phony soldiers issue.(108) As Media Matters noted, Limbaugh referred to John Murtha as a "phony soldier," providing all the evidence anyone could have needed to prove that Limbaugh's use of term "phony soldiers" applied to real soldiers who criticized the war in Iraq, not fake stories. If a man who served for 38 years in the Marines and the Marine Corps Reserves, winning the Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, and the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, is a "phony soldier," then Limbaugh's use of the term has nothing to do with fake soldiers.

I should note that Chafets quotes me at length, accurately, writing about the impact of Limbaugh's Operation Chaos in Mississippi, where Limbaugh fans helped Hillary Clinton pick up some delegates. According to Chafets, "the media reacted with alarm," and then he quotes my words.(117) It's a strange world we live in, where my little blog makes me a member of the "media," but the vast media empires of Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and the New York Freaking Times Magazine don't count as part of the "media" in Chafets' estimation.

The book is full of odd claims about the press, such as saying that "the media" "reflexively squawk at any politically incorrect use of racial language."(157) That's a favorite term of Chafets', who claims that in 1988 when Limbaugh began nationally, Time and Newsweek were "politically correct" and PBS was "unmistakably liberal," which may surprise those of us who were watching Firing Line, the MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour, Wall Street Week, and the McLaughlin Group.(138)

Chafets complains that Limbaugh didn't get the same approval in New York City received by other "outsiders" like Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, and Peter Jennings. According to Chafets, "the price of admission is accepting and, in some small way propagating, the group ethos."(50) It's nothing short of bizarre for Chafets to join in with Limbaugh's pathetic crying about how he wasn't embraced as one of the leading journalists in the country because he had a syndicated talk show.

Is Rush Limbaugh a serious political force, or just a hammy jokester? Chafets denounces media critic Todd Gitlin: "He also doesn't listen to Limbaugh. Rush, like any satirist, engages in hyperbole, sarcasm, and ridicule, none of which is meant to be taken literally."(139) Whenever Chafets wants to excuse or ignore some offensive, ignorant, or downright stupid remark by Limbaugh, Rush transforms from the leader of the conservative movement into a silly DJ having a laugh to tweak the liberals.
And while he refuses to take Limbaugh's own words seriously, Chafets condemns others for things they've never believed: "Some, like Professor Todd Gitlin of the Columbia School of Journalism, think the government should take Rush off the air."(139) I emailed Gitlin and he wrote back to me, "I do not think the government should take RL off the air. I never have thought that."

On occasion, almost by accident, Chafets offers us an insight about Limbaugh: "This lack of partisan engagement is a recurring theme in the recollections of Limbaugh's old friends and colleagues in his early radio career. He was in his midthirties before he began giving strong, consistent voice to his conservative beliefs."(17) The day after the White House Correspondents Dinner, where Wanda Sykes insulted him, Limbaugh was silent on the air but sent an email to Chafets: "I know I am a target and I know I will be destroyed eventually."(166) Limbaugh normally has enough sense to keep his self-indulgent paranoid ravings off the air. But Chafets treats this absurd statement as if it were a justified response to unfair attacks, rather than evidence of Limbaugh's unbalanced mind. (Notably, [...] is offering free copies of Chafets' book in exchange for a subscription to their magazine, under the headline, "Obama's master plan: Take out Rush Limbaugh.")

On his show, Limbaugh admitted that he hadn't read Chafets' book: "If they get it right, I already know it, if they get it wrong, it's par for the course."(May 26, 2010) Nevertheless, Limbaugh gave it his endorsement and prominently promoted it: "everybody who's read it has said it was pretty good."

Chafets' book, and its admiring attention to Limbaugh's massive estate full of tacky decor, his $54 million jet, his fleet of $450,000 black Maybachs, shows that the author learned one essential lesson from studying Limbaugh: you can make a big pile of money by giving a conservative audience exactly what it wants to hear, as long as you're willing to sell out your integrity in the process.

John K. Wilson is the author of seven books, including the forthcoming "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Rush Limbaugh's Assault on Reason" (January 2011, Thomas Dunne Books), [...].

Something is weird in the world of the store pricing. The hardcover book is under $12. The problem is that the new ebook pricing model has a fixed price of $12.99. Hence, to move more hardcover books, the store is not making the electronic version available to dedicated Kindle buyers - people who have been importuned to spend hundreds on what is quickly being turned into a doorstop.

Go over to Barnes & Noble. Because they have the hardcover priced at non-predatory prices, they can offer the electronic version at $12.99. Load their reader app on your portable device (iPod, iPad, notebook computer) or even your desktop. Buy your ebooks from them whenever possible. B&N didn't take you for granted. They didn't mislead you into buying an expensive piece of equipment based upon a pricing model they quickly threw under the bus at the first sign of objection.

I find that B&N is every bit as good a reading experience and I urge anyone considering a Kindle to get a Nook instead. At least you won't be dealing with a conscienceless company that preys on its customers.