"Rush said . . ."

For years, I have avoided listening to Rush Limbaugh's radio diatribes. I find him sickening, and I just stay angry. It's bad for my blood pressure.

Lately, he's been impossible to avoid. Just not dialing into his radio station no longer works. He's all over the news, strutting the power he seems to have over Republicans. Is he, or is he not, the real leader of the Republicans?

It's become a pattern now, repeated again and again, from GA Congressman Phil Gingery all the way up to GOP Chairman Steele: a Repub says something critical of him, and within days has to fall all over himself apologizing to Rush, usually on his show.

Rush's latest, which is making the headlines: Proof that torture works. By his own confession, the North Vietnamese "broke" John McCain when he was a POW, and he talked.

Rush needs to learn to read whole sentences. McCain very clearly says in his book that he was tortured and that eventually he "broke" --- and gave them FALSE information. How is that working?

Further, Rush needs to learn to hold on to two pieces of information and put them together: John McCain, hardly a lily-livered dove himself, is strongly opposed to our using torture.

Of course, none of these pesky facts matters to Rush's crowd. They just love the sound bites. And Rush just loves the cash that comes from his show biz empire. Truth has nothing to do with it.

Ralph