Yes, the one-two punch dealt to Rush Limbaugh this week has been astonishing and gratifying. But even though all of this couldn't have happened to a more deserving person -- the resignation under pressure after he revealed himself to be not just a racist but an unapologetic racist, and now the front-page story in the New York Daily News that charges him with being a heavy user of illegal pills -- I still have to ask: Why is this the most coverage the man has ever received from the mainstream media?

No one in American politics today has been as influential as Limbaugh for as long. Talk radio has veto power over virtually everything that passes through the political sphere in America, at every level of government, and that's the work of Limbaugh and Limbaugh imitators who ready (and properly) acknowledge his influence. Yet he and his fellow right-wing talkers have been virtually ignored by most newspapers, newsmagazines, and TV news operations -- the mainstream press doesn't challenge these blowhards' inaccuracies, discuss their vendettas, or pay any attention to their often overt prejudices. Limbaugh's a racist? That was an open secret -- but it wasn't The New York Times or CNN that documented it; it was the lefty group FAIR, years ago (the link is from 2000, when he was rumored to be in line for another job as a football commentator; the examples are from a 1995 FAIR book on Rush). For the most part, the Big Media paid no attention.

I'm happy that the press has just noticed that Limbaugh exists. Glad you could finally make it. Sorry you weren't here earlier.