David Frum has a piece in the latest Newsweek eviscerating Limbaugh and his cronies.

It wasn’t a fight I went looking for. On March 3, the popular radio host Mark Levin opened his show with an outburst (he always opens his show with an outburst): “There are people who have somehow claimed the conservative mantle … You don’t even know who they are … They’re so irrelevant … It’s time to name names …! The Canadian David Frum: where did this a-hole come from? … In the foxhole with other conservatives, you know what this jerk does? He keeps shooting us in the back … Hey, Frum: you’re a putz.”

Now, of course, Mark Levin knows perfectly well where I come from. We’ve known each other for years, had dinner together. I’m a conservative Republican, have been all my adult life. I volunteered for the Reagan campaign in 1980. I’ve attended every Republican convention since 1988. I was president of the Federalist Society chapter at my law school, worked on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal and wrote speeches for President Bush—not the “Read My Lips” Bush, the “Axis of Evil” Bush. I served on the Giuliani campaign in 2008 and voted for John McCain in November. I supported the Iraq War and (although I feel kind of silly about it in retrospect) the impeachment of Bill Clinton. I could go on, but you get the idea.

This is the very problem the GOP faces. If you disagree with one person, you are not an outcast. The bad part is that the GOP doesn’t realize that they are also getting used by Limbaugh. His ratings are up, and at what cost? The cost of the GOP it looks like.

If you don’t believe that, then ask this very simple question; If Rush wasn’t so worried about ratings then why didn’t he just clarify the “I hope he fails” comment? Instead of clarifying it, he repeats it constantly – almost verbatim. Instead there are right wing talking heads out that trying to clarify it.

So why didn’t he do that to begin with? Why does Rush always say something to spark controversy? Because Rush wants the ratings. Rush worries about Rush first and his conservative beliefs a far second. The conservatives are killing their chances of being taken seriously again just to protect this epitome of greed. That’s their choice and if they want Rush to lead them off the cliff then go right ahead.