A Republican just wants to get rich, buy oceanfront property, dump the old wife and get a new blond one. Then it pointed out that guests needn't worry about running into heathen like Arlen Specter, who presumably wouldn't feel comfortable among such pious guests as Ralph Reed and Judge Robert Bork. Perhaps no one better embodies this pose than the brash Rush Limbaugh, who happens to be good pals with William Bennett, of the lofty Book of Virtues . The same conservative intellectuals who bemoan our culture's general decline in manners and good taste embrace Limbaugh and even celebrate his crassness as the very essence of his charm. On the one hand, he is always adding his voice to the familiar refrain about family values and the proper role of religion in public life, condemning liberals for losing touch with mainstream America.
Liberals excuse bad behavior.
The conflict becomes apparent every time he tells a dirty joke, then ducks sheepishly behind his hands as if deflecting blows, while the camera pans an audience full of men clapping excitedly and women shaking their heads in dutiful but halfhearted condemnation. These sudden shifts from boyish offensiveness to pious self-righteousness account for the almost exhilarating confusion Limbaugh's performances generate. F or sure, Limbaugh is not the first public figure to embrace competing philosophical themes. But this stance hints at some of the hidden meanings of the right's culture wars. By virtue of its inevitable association with conservatism's more pious side, the right's bad-boy streak gets excused with a wink.