OK, probably not, but the New York Sun's Josh Gerstein finds Limbaugh edging perilously close to Ann Coulter territory:
Talk show host Rush Limbaugh is so exasperated about Senator McCain's surge in the Republican presidential contest that he is coming to the defense of Senators Clinton and Obama.
On Mr. Limbaugh's program today, he said people should not be rushing to back Mr. McCain over issues of national security. The talk host said America's direction in Iraq would not be substantially different even if Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama were elected. "They are not going to surrender the country to Islamic radicalism or the war in Iraq," Mr. Limbaugh said after mentioning the two Democratic senators by name. "They are not going to do that to themselves, despite what their base says."
You know, at first I didn't think much of the fact that Limbaugh despises McCain. Sure he has 20 million listeners, but it's not like he can dictate votes and depress turnout all on his own. (The same goes for James Dobson, who declared today that he'll never vote for McCain—I doubt that'll outweigh McCain's support from Tony Perkins, Richard Land, and so on, especially if Huckabee's the VP pick.) On the other hand, it does seem like it'll be tougher for the Republicans to tar Clinton or Obama as soft on national security (say) if key cogs in the noise machine insist on going wildly off-message...
--Bradford Plumer