Rush to blame for Obamacare's passage?

"If Republicans succeed ... Rush's listeners get less angry. And if they are less angry, they listen to the radio less and hear fewer ads for Sleepnumber beds."

That was former George W. Bush speechwriter and self-proclaimed conservative David Frum this week, blaming the passage of "Obamacare" on ... talk radio – the only big media institution that defied the creeping socialization of American medicine.

Frum has been carrying on a one-sided feud with Rush Limbaugh for some time. His latest column, however, prompted lots of blowback.

In one fine commentary, Tunku Varadarajan said, "David acknowledges that he has been on a soapbox for a while, arguing that 'hysterical' talk radio, etc., has 'overheated' the debate and done harm to the conservative health-care cause. Nonsense, I say. Passionate 'extremism' is part of any political debate, and the more of it the better."

My question is: If David Frum is such an expert on lucrative media business models (those he snidely calls "the conservative entertainment industry"), why is his own eponymous website such a dud? And why would the American Enterprise Institute suddenly "let go" such an insightful fellow right after he penned that column?

Rush Limbaugh

As for Limbaugh himself, the passage of Obamacare prompted him to predict that the next item on the Democrat's agenda would be amnesty for illegal aliens – who will then become loyal Democratic voters.

Obama "will continue his crusade to forever alter this country," said Rush. "Rome is burning, and instead of putting out the fire, we have too many people looking for a bag of marshmallows" (video below).

Limbaugh also joked (sort of) that the White House signing ceremony, which he compared to "the bar scene in 'Star Wars,'" had been timed to occur at noon – the same moment his show airs across the nation.

He told his audience, "This was [the White House saying], 'Hey, Limbaugh, look at us. Look what we did. Have a great day, Limbaugh. We hope your day is ruined.' It's not. I'm still an American and 'til they take that away from me there's no day ruined."

In other news: Ann Coulter was prevented by rowdy demonstrations from speaking at a university campus for the first time in her career, when she tried to address a Canadian college.

Up and coming Canadian blogger Ari Fine was on the scene, and called Rush to fill him in on the depressing details (FREE audio).

Michael Savage

Speaking of controversial American conservatives being told they aren't welcome in a foreign country: While talk show host Michael Savage was "banned in Britain" last year, England later welcomed Che Guevara's radical leftist daughter with open arms.

Author and "Che" expert Humberto Fontova reminded Savage's listeners that leftwing hero Ernesto Guevara was a mass murderer who called hatred "the central element of our struggle."

Oddly enough, that sounds like real, literal "hate speech" – not the challenging rhetoric that supposedly got Savage barred from entering the U.K.

Needless to say, Michael Savage also had plenty to say about the passage of the new health-care bill (FREE audio).

On Thursday, guest host Andrew Breitbart spoke to Kenneth Gladney, who was beaten by SEIU members after he offered them a "Live Free or Die" flag outside a townhall last year – a shocking incident with racial overtones that was ignored by the mainstream media.

Mark Levin

Mark Levin says he is still working on his possible constitutional challenge to Obamacare.

"Our goal is to defeat this, any way we can, anywhere we can, with a substantive, legally sustainable approach," he said. "As litigators we need to look at not just the Constitution, but the judges we are in front of and how the courts have moved in the last half-century."

Levin was at his best this week, when his expertise on the Constitution and his passion for liberty made him a must-hear. Luckily, all of Levin's past shows are available in his FREE archives.

Levin also interviewed Dan Benishek, a political newcomer who is challenging beleaguered "pro-life" Democrat Bart Stupak, now under fire for voting for Obamacare (FREE audio).

Sean Hannity

Hannity was scrutinized this week when he was accused of profiting from his favorite charity. Hannity told an industry seminar that he has "never taken a single penny for personal expenses, travel, hotel rooms or anything" related to the Freedom Concerts, which raises scholarship funds for the children of fallen soldiers.

The Freedom Alliance foundation defended Hannity in no uncertain terms:

"Sean Hannity has contributed $100,000 to the Wounded Warriors Foundation, over $200,000 to the Freedom Alliance and over tens of thousands of dollars to other military charities and individuals," read the official statement. "We only make this information public because of the outrageous slander against him. ... He has been a selfless patriot in his efforts to raise funds for the education of children of armed services personnel."

Meanwhile, Hannity focused his on-air energies on Obamacare. On Tuesday, he assured concerned listeners that, in spite of that setback, "conservative victory begins tonight" (audio is members only).

"The case against this president is so awful and so bad; you can hardly believe it has only been 14 months since he's been in office. It is mind numbing when you put it all together," he said.

Hannity outlines a plan to defeat the Democrats in his upcoming book, "Conservative Victory: Defeating Obama's Radical Agenda," which comes out next week.

Laura Ingraham

A somber yet optimistic Laura Ingraham assured listeners on Monday that "reversing the health-care bill is not impossible."

She praised conservatives for "fending off this health-care monster for so long ... but the reality is, until true constitutional conservatives recapture Congress, the growth of government and the incineration of liberty will only continue."

Laura also welcomed guests like ABC White House correspondent Jake Tapper, Newt Gingrich and radio talk show host turned Republican candidate J.D. Hayworth. (FREE audio).

G. Gordon Liddy

The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps are disbanding? That was G. Gordon Liddy's startling on-air scoop this week. He spoke to the founder of the controversial border patrol group, Al Garza.

Throughout the week, Liddy offered his usual wide ranging range of guests and topics, such as teenaged conservative author Jonathan Krohn, WND's Aaron Klein and media watcher Seton Motley, who warned that Democrats still haven't given up on bringing back the Fairness Doctrine, which would essentially remove conservative talk radio from the airwaves.

All audio files in G. Gordon Liddy's archives are FREE.

Hugh Hewitt

In his regular Thursday night spot, author Mark Steyn discussed, among other things, the new 10 percent tax on tanning salons, which Hewitt called "ruinous for many of these small businesses."

Steyn replied, "I'm a federalist. And if there's anything that shouldn't be nationally regulated, it should be tanning salons. ... I live in miserable Northern New Hampshire, where it's winter ten months of the year, and I don't see a bare-armed woman from one decade to the next. And if they ever have got a golden glow on their arms, it's because they've had to go to a little tanning salon in New Hampshire. So I would say this tanning salon tax disproportionately falls on those of us who live in northern, wintry climes."

Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck was under attack this week by everyone from veteran journalist Cokie Roberts (who called him "worse than a clown, more like a terrorist") to "Avatar" director James Cameron, who is still mad about a joke Beck made about him in 2007.

Beck responded to Cameron's rant with a monologue of his own, wearing 3-D glasses (FREE video)

Meanwhile, "publicly questioning the mental health of one of the 'family' is not acceptable at Clear Channel's WWNC, Asheville, N.C.," Talkers magazine reports.

In the face of a "flood" of complaints to the station, host Mike Mittan counters, "I've never attacked Glenn Beck. I voiced concern about his mental stability based on what I heard on a show this morning and what I see as a deterioration of his cognitive capacity over the last few weeks or the last couple of months."

And now, we reluctantly turn the dial to the left ...

"It's time now for the Democrats to consider the Fairness Doctrine when you've got Rush Limbaugh out there saying, it's, we've got to defeat these bastards."

Desperate for attention, low-rated liberal talk show host Ed Schultz issued that clarion call this week, explaining, "I think that, you know, hell, if we're going to be socialist, let's be socialist all across the board."

This was after Schultz weirdly claimed that certain Supreme Court justices "might even call Obama the n-word" for reasons that weren't clear.

Most of the attention Schultz receives comes from media watchers reporting his latest outbursts, rather than actual listeners to his show. Maybe we should just start ignoring him.