A former first-tier hero of conservatism jumps the shark

Can anybody tell me how the hell Rush Limbaugh thinks he is getting from his starting point (Trump's humiliation of Sessions looks baffling on the surface) to his conclusion (Trump is once again playing 4-D chess) with this line of "reasoning"?

His launching point really comes as a subtext to some kind of point he seems to be trying to make about Scaramucci asserting that most administration leakers are Obama-era holdovers.

Get any sense about how he's going to tie those together? Me neither.

Anyway, the launching point:

This public disrespect of Sessions by Trump has never made sense to me in any away. It hasn’t made sense in common sense. It doesn’t make sense. I don’t think Trump is off his rocker. I’m not like the media who think Trump is unbalanced and deranged. I think Trump is a masterful user/manipulator of the media. You take Sessions, whose incomparable value is advancing the Trump immigration agenda, and that’s why Trump was elected.

Okay, while I think Rush is deluding himself here, so far he's being coherent.

And the next paragraph is a pretty linear  recounting of what Jeff Sessions has been experiencing over the last year-plus - with one exception: this "diversion" business.

If he gets rid of Sessions, there’s nobody he’s gonna find that, A, could get confirmed, and, B, would continue what Sessions has started on implementing and enforcing the Trump immigration agenda. And that’s his value; not, you know, running defense on this Russia business. I think it’s all been a diversion. I go back to the time Sessions endorsed, through the campaign, through the transition, and then Sessions being nominated to be AG, the confirmation hearings. What’d they do? They savaged the guy as a typical Southern plantation-owner racist.

By "diversion,"  Rush seems to mean "running defense on this Russia business," given where he goes next:

They said despicable things about him, making fun of his middle name: Beauregard. But this week he has found new acclaim. He has been attacked by Trump, and the media and his fellow colleagues — the Democrats in the Senate who wanted to destroy him — have come to his defense. They’re speaking of his integrity, of his honor, and how it’s unseemly that some pig from Queens would ever treat somebody this way. Trump says (summarized), “He’s not doing a good job getting rid of the Russian thing. He’s not going on a good job investigating this. He’s not doing a good job. He’s disappointed me. He shouldn’t have recused himself.”

By the way, on that, don’t you think it’s still a little odd to still be carrying a torch for something that happened six months ago? I mean, get real. Sessions recused himself six months ago, and Trump’s acting like he’s still not over it? Come on, folks. So yesterday, Trump savages Sessions again. “Where’s the investigation into the leaks? That’s what’s really important here! We need the leaks investigated,” and today we get news that Sessions is on the verge of announcing just such an investigation, and this investigation will be of these Obama embeds and these people in the deep state, who they are and what they’ve been.

‘Cause real felonies have been committed there, and Comey wasn’t interested in it. We don’t know how many other people the FBI may or may not have been. Comey was not interested and didn’t do diddly-squat. So Trump sends out a call last night and the announcement Sessions is doing that, and Scaramucci is on Fox News today saying Obama holdovers are responsible for all of these leaks. I think that’s what this is all about. They know who the leakers are. ‘Cause there’s so many of them.

There’s so many leaks, so many leakers, they have to know who it is, at least some of them. So with Scaramucci today blaming Obama holdovers for a series of damaging leaks that have rocked the White House, distracted the White House, whatever, these leaks and these Obama holdovers are not helping, and he hinted that more staff changes could be on the way. He said: Listen, we have to crack down on leaks on a number of different fronts. What’s happened now in this past week, all these Sessions distractors are now saying what a great guy he is.

How much integrity he has and how it’s just unseemly for Trump to be treating him this way. I myself have joined that particular complaint. So now Sessions announces this investigation, and what are they gonna say about Sessions? Well, they’re gonna have to go back and say he’s a tool. “He’s a coward. He couldn’t take it! Trump starts ripping him publicly, and what does Sessions do? He bows town and says, ‘Okay, what can I do to get back…?'” So they’re gonna savage him again, but it’s gonna be funny to watch because they don’t have the credibility to do it anymore because they’ve just spent a week or more praising the guy.

As if Sessions detractors were a major factor in all this.


He then digresses into a reminiscence about how the Beltway establishment hated Dick Cheney when he was Bush 43's Vice President, and how that establishment then fawned over Obama and Kerry.

Well, okay, but he utterly fails to demonstrate any kind of parallels between any of that and this.

In the current situation, we're talking about the president publicly showing the utmost disrespect to his attorney general, who happened to be one of his earliest staunch supporters. And it's pretty clear Sessions is very pissed about it. Sessions and Trump are not even speaking. That fact is not going away just because the Justice Department is going to investigate leaking. To make some kind of connection, one would have to believe that Sessions was willing to be a pawn in a game designed to root out the deep state. I can't think of anything less likely.

Does this last paragraph tie it all together for you?

Jimmy Carter, smartest guy, he ended up not doing too well, but smart, smart focused guy. All these Democrats are brainiacs, John Kerry, and every Republican is an idiot. And so now here we have what appears to be a bit of media manipulation, a little bit of a feint. You put this all together, I think this is what they’re doing. I think it makes some sense because what’s apparent doesn’t.

Me neither.

Rush is trying to read tea leaves that aren't there.

Something happened when he got wowed, during the campaign season, by the unprecedented nature of the Trump phenomenon. He readily admitted then, and still does, that Trump's worldview and way of operating is not conservative, occasional policy dovetailing notwithstanding.

He was mightily impressed, in a slightly different way from the slavish devotees such as Hannity and Ingraham, but it now appears he may be going full fanboy.

And it's made a wreck of his vaunted powers of analysis.

The Obama holdover is probably one type of leaker. It's not the only type. Government is so big and the people comprising it have such an array of agendas that any number of people could have motivations for speaking clandestinely to reporters.

Then there's Squirrel-Hair himself. A guy who would rail repeatedly about the New York Times being a dispenser of "fake news" and then sit down with it for an extensive interview in which he gets the humiliate-Sessions ball rolling doesn't seem to be too preoccupied with message discipline.

No, Rush, it's what it appears to be. Trump demands fealty and ring-kissing from those who step into his orbit, but he doesn't give a flying diddly about reciprocating it. He's just an impulsive loudmouth.

The facts are so obvious as to be contortion-proof. Squirrel-Hair isn't nearly clever enough to mystify anybody.

Rush, you may be reaching your sell-by date.