Book Review: "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" by Al Franken

A Theologian's Rubbernecking at the Strange World of Politics:
A Book Review of Al Franken's Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot: And Other Observations

It may seem odd for a blog about "life, faith, and God" to have a book review about contemporary politics in it. I mean, what about the whole "separation of Church and state" thing? It's a fair question, so here are two responses before we dive into a brief synopsis and analysis of Mr. Franken's witty work. 

The first reason this book review is on this blog is for the simple reason that "it makes fun of Rush Limbaugh by pointing out that he is a big lardbutt" (5). To me this is a compellingly winsome advantage for a book, and I thought that such an insight was worth sharing with the world on this blog. 

The second reason I feel that reviewing a book about contemporary politics is appropriate for a blog about religion is because politics is about how we live together in society, and a foundational dogma of Christianity is that God came to Earth incarnate in the person of Jesus. I sort of feel that 95% of my seminary experience at Duke revolved around unpacking the character and scope of the political, physical, and otherwise temporal implications of the doctrine of God-made-flesh, so suffice it here to say that the fact that God went through the trouble of coming in the flesh to Earth to redeem the same is more than sufficient reason for theologians to be very interested in politics, public policy, and big fat demagoguring idiots like Rush Limbaugh whose Reaganomic utopia might be completely antithetical to God's good future. (Oh yea, and one of Duke Divinity school's heros, John Howard Yoder, also wrote a book titled The Politics of Jesus, and if a theologian of Yoder's caliber thinks politics and Jesus mix well then that's adequate warrant for me to jump on the wagon.)

Ok, now that we've sorted out the whole "separation of Church and state" thing let's move on to actually reviewing the book. Mr. Franken's work is divided into forty five "essays" which cover a myriad of topics: insults towards Rush Limbaugh, personal anecdotes, tripe non-sequiturs, more non-sense off topic (occasionally funny) ramblings, and observations of other Republican leaders.

I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed to find that Franken spent so much time covering the "Other Observations" part of his book instead of any thing resembling a sustained analysis of Rush Limbaugh's arguments, claims, or facts. It seems fair that one would expect from looking at the front cover that the 36 sized font main title, "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot," in comparison to the 18 sized font subtitle, "And Other Observations,"that the lion's share of the content of the book would be mainly concerned with dissecting Mr. Limbaugh's platitudes. Instead, most of the book is concerned with scurrilous ad hominem attacks of other prominent Republican leaders, several totally pointless chapters, and uninteresting irrelevant personal narratives.

But perhaps I'm being unfair. I mean, if I really wanted a serious book about the faults of Rush Limbaugh why pick up a book by a comedian instead of one from an actual political analyst. That's fair enough (even if Franken is a Harvard educated professional political satirist), but at least we should expect to find in Franken's book some good humor. Unfortunately this is not the case. While some of Franken's jokes did make me LOL, a majority of them were a bit flat, and others were just flat repetitive. For example, Franken makes good on his title's implicit promise by pointing out that Limbaugh is big and fat, but after 3 million incarnations this joke gets a bit old. (On a side note, even though pointing out that Rush is fat is apparently a crucial part of Franken's project, no where is there one footnote verifying Mr. Limbaugh's alleged obesity. But who really cares right, it's still funny!)

However despite the book's faults, it does offer those of us who are desperately searching for political ammunition against the infamous windbag several nuggets of insight and quips next time a Limbaugh devote starts spouting Rush-ism durring the next workplace coffee break:

• Some of Rush's adamant followers voluntarily call themselves "dittoheads"(6).
• Statistically, "Limbaugh listeners thought they were the best informed, and yet were the least informed" (12).
• Rush has been married three times (13).
• "The poor in this country are the biggest piglets at the mother pig and her nipples...I don't have compassion for the poor"- Limbaugh (15).
• "Limbaugh has himself fed off the largesse of the government. In the form of unemployment insurance...[Rush] filed for unemployment at a time when he was able-bodied and spending his days sitting around the house eating junk food, too lazy to even mow his own lawn" (15).
• Rush never voted for Reagan; in fact he never even registered to vote until he was shamed into it by a reporter at age 35 (16)
• In face-to-face interviews, Rush gets hammer by his opponents. 
• "During spin-the-bottle game, cheerleader refuses to kiss 'Rusty'" (26).
• "1974-78: Hired and fired by four different radio stations" (27).
• Rush's fact checker, Waylon, is a moron. 
• "There are more American Indians alive today than there were when Columbus arrived" - Limbaugh (52)
• Limbaugh doesn't think smoking causes cancer (52)
• Newt Gingrich served his wife divorce papers on a yellow legal pad just as she was waking up from cancer surgery (this is an example of Franken's irrelevant, yet politically/argumentatively useful, facts) (44)
•  Rush Limbaugh failed out of college (16).
• Rush thinks styrofoam is biodegradable, and Hilary Clinton had Vince Foster murdered (124).
• Nice summary of Limbaugh's obsession with Reagan: "Other lies bug me a lot. These are the rational, carefully constructed, deliberate lies of a man running a giant propaganda factory dedicated to two things: convincing people who were screwed sideways by Reaganomics that it was actually good for them, and encouraging the people who turned the screws to feel good about themselves...This gets to the heart of supply-side economics: the less you tax the rich, the faster the economy will grow. Take for example the fifties. We taxed the shit out of the rich. The top marginal rate was 88 percent" (124). 
• Rush is dead wrong about the way taxes affect the poor (125-130). Tax cuts for the wealthy cause a disproportional burden on the poor.
• Rush thinks there are more acres of forestland in American today than when Columbus arrived. Problem is, he's off by about 250,000,000 acres. (198)
• Rush thinks that if the polar ice caps melted it wouldn't affect sea levels. Problem is, sea levels would rise by about 200 ft. (199)
• Rush doesn't think that humans can destroy "creation." I guess pollution doesn't exit then?? (201)
• Rush is big and fat, and has a disgusting, puss filled, hairy open sore on his arse caused from being sedentary.
• And finally, Franken admits that making fun of Rush Limbaugh's idiocy "has gone from an amusing to a sad reminder that millions of Americans are being lied to every day by an obese millionaire with a repugnant political agenda." (201)

In sum, if you want a book about why Rush Limbaugh is a fat idiot you can probably find a better source of political commentary, and if you want a good laugh at Rebublican's expense try watching "Saturday Night Live" reruns (Franken wrote some of those too). Thanks for book Mr. Franken, when is Sarah Palin is So Stupid She Scares Me coming out?