Limbaugh May Be Trying to Reboot the Tea Party

Rush Limbaugh went on what the conservative Hot Air blog calls an "epic rant" yesterday—and at least one columnist thinks it's a call for a new and improved Tea Party movement. "For the first time in my life, I am ashamed of my country," Limbaugh declared on his show. The source of his anger, he said, is the false hysteria and "scare tactics" over spending cuts being used by both parties ahead of the looming sequester. "To be watching all of this, to have my intelligence—all of us—to have our common sense and intelligence insulted the way it is ... it just makes me ashamed," Limbaugh said. "Seriously man, here we get worked up over $44 billion—that’s the total amount of money that will not be spent that was scheduled to be spent this year." (Read the full transcript.)

At the Washington Examiner, Charlie Spiering finds the timing interesting. In a post headlined "Did Rush Limbaugh just launch a Tea Party revival effort?" he notes that it comes almost exactly four years to the day that Rick Santelli's similar rant led to the original Tea Party movement. "Limbaugh's comments reflect a common Tea Party frustration not only with Democrats but also with Republicans," observes Spiering. "Stop spending all the money. Stop creating false panics every time someone proposes cuts in government spending. And stop spending more money than you did the year before." Click for his full piece. (More Rush Limbaugh stories.)