Randi and Rush

Just when mainstream opinion was solidifying against Rush Limbaugh, Randi Rhodes has proven -- again -- that left-wing radio personalities can be equally obnoxious. For God-knows-what reason, Rhodes contributed to the birth control controversy by asserting that Monica Crowley's ovaries should be forcibly removed.

Obviously, Randi was joking.

Just as obviously, Rush was joking when he said he wanted to see Sandra Fluke star in sex tapes.

Also obvious -- to me, at least -- is that both of these "jokes" reveal much about their tellers.

Rush Limbaugh, who knows nothing at all about Ms. Fluke's private life, nevertheless imagined her to be having nonstop "sex sex sex." One need not be a Sherlock Holmes or a Sigmund Freud to scry the subtext. I doubt that Rush has gotten much "sex sex sex" lately -- and least, not free sex sex sex. Any aging male who becomes incensed (and obsessed) by fantasies of promiscuity probably longs for a bygone time when promiscuity was an option.

Randi's "joke" about forcible ovary removal is similarly revealing. Well before she made her outrageous comments about Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro, I formed the impression that there was something disturbing, something wrong with Randi Rhodes. Wrong emotionally.

And perhaps physically...?

To be frank, she reminds me of women I've known who suffered from endometriosis. She also reminds me of men and women I've known who had substance abuse issues.

I have no proof for either suggestion beyond the evidence of her own strange behavior: Randi constantly interrupts her guests. She swings between euphoria and outrage, with little room in-between. She can "jog in place" verbally for over an hour. An accurate transcript of her show would have to be written in ALL CAPS and boldface with lots! of! exclamation!! points!!! -- and it would demonstrate her ability to create a three-hour monologue out of 20 minutes' worth of material.

To borrow a line from an earlier post: I'm not the only person who has formed the queasy suspicion that her epic loquaciousness has segued into the pathological. Circa 2007, I came to see her as a woman on the edge of a breakdown -- and I decided that, when it happened, I did not want to be an earwitness.

Talk radio attracts a strange breed of cat. Political talkers fetch sizable audiences only by keeping themselves and their listeners in a perpetual state of hyperbolic frenzy. That's no way to live. It certainly is no way to discern truth.