Mmmmm, warm cockles…

My black elitist heart positively lights up at the prospect of the marginalization of vulgar populism in the Republican party. Frum on Limbaugh:

A man who is aggressive and bombastic, cutting and sarcastic, who dismisses the concerned citizens in network news focus groups as “losers.” With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence – exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our party. And we’re cooperating! Those images of crowds of CPACers cheering Rush’s every rancorous word – we’ll be seeing them rebroadcast for a long time.

That’s right, David Frum just called Rush Limbaugh a fat drug-abusing philanderer. Fat. Drug abusing. Philanderer. Let that sink in.

If this rift doesn’t get papered over, it’s all to the good in the long term. It’s not like Rush’s audience can go to another party. And if they decide to stay home on election day from now on, it’ll serve the dual purpose of detoxifying political discourse in general and forcing the Republicans to craft a more broadly appealing message that doesn’t have to stoop to the “red meat” troglodytism with which the party has been saddled for the better part of two decades now.

In the short term, however, it’s going to get ugly. Get yer pork rinds, open a can of Boh, and pull up a chair.