Open Mouth, Insert Ditto

Have you been following this? Rush Limbaugh, the conservative blowhard radio commentator, was hired by ESPN to give the "layman's" commentary on its Sunday morning NFL pregame show. Limbaugh, who recently didn't go deaf, actually boosted the show's ratings. However, Rush will be Rush, and he said something stupid and potentially offensive. Here's a timeline:

9/28: Rush opens his big stupid mouth and says Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb is being hyped because he's black.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/football/nfl/09/30/bc.fbn.mcnabb.limbaugh.ap/index.html

9/30: McNabb responds, saying he doesn't want an apology, but we should be past all of this.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/football/nfl/10/01/mcnabb.reax.ap/index.html

10/1: Limbaugh resigns after luminaries including Howard Dean and Al Sharpton call on ESPN to fire him.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/football/nfl/10/02/limbaugh.resigns.ap/index.html

10/2: Peter King of Sports Illustrated describes Rush as stupid, not evil.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/writers/peter_king/09/30/mcnabb_limbaugh/index.html

10/2: King Kaufmann of Salon says that Rush sucked at his job of football commentator anyway, and ESPN should be ashamed of hiring him in the first place. They got exactly what they should have expected.
http://www.salon.com/news/sports/col/kaufman/2003/10/02/thursday2/index.html

So Rush lasted just over a month without offending anyone. That's pretty good for him. I personally think that he is both stupid and evil, and I'm glad he resigned, not because I watch the show, but just because I think he should stick to radio.

With this firing and the recent allegations of drug use, it will be interesting how the king of loudmouths will recover.