Submitted to a Candid World

There are two problems with Rush Limbaugh’s surprise statement that he “can be convinced” to support Judge Sotomayor’s nomination: first, it’s not true, and second, who cares?

Limbaugh said his  “support” for Sotomayor stems from the possibility that she’s somehow a stealth conservative, who’s even managed to conceal her intention to reverse Supreme Court precedent on abortion from Obama. She’s not, she hasn’t, and she won’t. Limbaugh simply hopes that, by discussing the possibility, he can scare liberal Democrats into questioning the nominee, and potentially upset her confirmation. Call it a reverse-Meiers, an attempt to trick the left into doing what the right is no longer strong enough to do. But don’t believe it.

First, though, we should ask ourselves why CNN cares enough to put Limbaugh’s latest machinations on the front page. The man only matters as long as we let him. It’s a sign of the right’s ideological bankruptcy that Limbaugh is still an opinion leader to them, but he needn’t matter to the rest of us.