The world is a better place today. Now this may seem callous considering the latest mass shooting. Believe me – I feel for all who were involved and fell victim to that evil S.O.B.
However, that is a discussion for another time, when cooler heads might prevail.
No, I'm talking about my satisfaction to learn that one of my favorite conservatives for the past few decades hasn't completely succumbed to the lure of the train whistle calling to all conservatives – the whistle that beckons us to shelve all our ideals and voluntarily lock ourselves in one of the Trump Train's cattle cars. As I've stated numerous times – I like what Trump has done, but unlike some, I will never be "all in."
For a while now, I thought the conservative movement had lost one its icons, as Rush Limbaugh appeared to have boarded the Trump Train. But after listening to Rush's radio program on Thursday, I've been assured that this is not entirely accurate. Limbaugh may be on the train, but he definitely is eying an emergency exit.
Thursday's Rush Limbaugh program contained a fascinating little snippet. And unless you are a highly trained broadcast listener like me, you may have missed it. After all, the whole thing took about 5-10 seconds. Even if you did hear it, you may have missed its significance – and it was significant.
Rush did a segment on disgraced White House staff secretary Rob Porter. He commented that the mainstream media were upset that the school shooting in Florida was forcing the Rob Porter scandal off the front page, as it were.
RUSH: "… Would you believe me if I were to tell you that the news media – the drive-bys – are frustrated today over this shooting? Oh, they are, folks. They are frustrated as they can be. And you know why? They are frustrated because this shooting has knocked the Rob Porter scandal from the headlines."
The leftist media know they must report on the shooting, but would much prefer to concentrate their efforts and airtime on something they believe can damage President Trump.
This is the leftist press' ultimate dream, and they don't wish their fantasy interrupted by some mass shooting.
Now, all this is fascinating and it really does give us a peek through the window of the left's dark soul and their all-suffering Trump derangement affliction.
Yet it wasn't the most fascinating portion of that particular segment. It's what Rush said about upending the Trump presidency – what would derail it, because so far, nothing has come even remotely close.
"Is this what's gonna allow Trump's enemies to get rid of him? Is this where it ends? Let me just answer to all of you right now: No." That should have been it, but it wasn't.
Instead he gave us the money quote – one that took no more than 10 seconds out of the entire monologue.
"The Rob Porter story is not the end of Trump. There's only one end to Donald Trump. There's only one thing that would bring about the end of Donald Trump, and that is the wrong immigration bill being signed into law. Anything featuring comprehensive amnesty for every illegal immigrant or something pretty close to that, that's the one thing that can bring Donald Trump down because that's really the primary reason he was elected."
Did anyone else catch this? It would have been quite easy to miss.
This is the first time I can recall since Trump was elected that I've heard Rush speak this way. I was on my way back to the office from the gym and almost ran off the road when I heard it.
In my opinion, this was not something Rush just said off the cuff, or in the spur of the moment. This was not meant to be heard by only us, but by the White House. This was a warning to the president – a shot across the bow. And again, in my opinion, Rush's cautioning was not intended to be representative of just public support, but a warning coming directly from him.
I believe that Rush has drawn the old red line in the sand and just announced that the administration, which he has given such a wide berth to, had better not cross it by caving on amnesty and citizenship for all – for if the president does cross the Limbaugh line, he may lose the support of Rush and his millions of listeners. And that would spell the beginning of the end for Trump.
Now I could also just be all wet, but I can think of no other reason why Rush would inject this single paragraph into the Porter monologue. He could have left it as the Porter scandal won't damage Trump to that extent, but he didn't. This was a purposeful warning and one I think Trump and his people had better heed.