Cover of Limbaugh Letter Displays Ingenuity, Inspiration

Adrian Pocobelli | July 8, 2007 | The Population

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Love him or hate him, Rush Limbaugh is an American institution. His self-created media empire includes the most popular talk radio show in the United States, a podcast, website, monthly newsletter, and daily email. Amazingly, this one man show has come to wield the same, if not more influence, than the major networks and cable news outlets whom he disparagingly refers to as the "Drive-By Media". Though people differ with Limbaugh's political views in varying degrees, one cannot deny Limbaugh's incredible achievements, both commercially and intellectually.

Limbaugh's success is in large part due to his inspired sense of humor, based on what he calls illustrating absurdity. Many of his classic criticisms of the American Left can be seen in Chris Hiers exceptionally brilliant painting on the cover of June's Limbaugh Letter, a 16-page glossy magazine that is available by subscription from Rush Limbaugh's website.

The setting of the painting is on a beach with a muscular Rush Limbaugh acting as the lifeguard, looking down with introspective contempt at prominent Democrat politicians portrayed in various forms of baffoonery. Nancy Pelosi, wearing what's supposed to be a peace sign on her t-shirt but is actually a Mercedes sign, -- represents the morally indignant, yet intellectually bankrupt leftist who has good intentions, but really doesn't have a clue. Hilariously, she is also wearing the American flag in the form of a towel, with the stars and stripes covering her behind, meant to signify the unpatriotic, anti-Americanism that Limbaugh often identifies with the Left.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, wearing a tie-dyed t-shirt, kicks sand into the face of the statue of liberty. To add to the callousness of the act, he is looking off in another direction, lacking awareness as he holds a trivial looking conversation with Nancy Pelosi.

In the background in their satellite van lurk the Drive-By Media, which, if looked at closely enough, are spreading a hail of bullets into the water towards the horizon. The beach umbrella on the the right, marked with the logos of the major network and cable news channels, is placed nearby to show the collusion of the so-called "Drive-Bys" with the Democratic Party, a charge Limbaugh often makes of the "liberally-biased" media.

In the foreground, an infantile looking Barack Obama hugs a sand castle replica of the White House, which Hilary Clinton cunningly sculpts with the look of an all knowing matriarch. John Edwards, whom Rush cruelly refers to as "the Breck Girl," looks on longingly at the power he so desperately craves fall through his hands with an anxious and unsettling smile. Written in the sand nearby is what Limbaugh claims is the Left's mantra, "Bush Lied," with two feet nearby absurdly sticking out of the sand.

Last, but not least, is "Algore," buried up to his neck in the sand, looking smugly at the viewer of the painting, a personification of the stereotypical arrogant liberal, knowing better than everyone else. Symbolically, he is placed directly underneath Limbaugh's lifeguard chair almost as if he's plugging the toilet upon which Rush sits.

Whatever your political stripe may be, one has to give credit to Limbaugh for single handedly creating an absurd idiom of the Left. Chris Hiers should also be congratulated for so brilliantly portraying Limbaugh's humor in visual terms. Of particular quality is the composition, the facial expressions and body language of the portrayed personalities -- one is tempted to call him a modern day Hogarth. To say the left has a lot of catching up to do would be an understatement.