US talk show host denounces Guardian for reporting why former prime minister will not be meeting darling of Tea Party movement
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Rush Limbaugh, the US talk show host, denounced as 'preposterous' my blog which quoted an ally of Margaret Thatcher describing Sarah Palin as 'nuts'. Photograph: Eric Risberg/AP
Rush Limbaugh, the US conservative radio host, was angry on Wednesday after I blogged that Margaret Thatcher would not receive Sarah Palin if the darling of the Tea Party movement visits London in July.
Limbaugh opened his show with a lengthy denunciation of the Guardian after I quoted an ally of Thatcher on Tuesday describing Palin as "nuts".
This is what Limbaugh said after he spotted a report in New York Daily News about my blog:
There's a story out there today, and it's an illustration of how things happen, how things are said and reported. This is preposterous, and I have personal knowledge of this. Now, this story appears in the New York Daily News, and the headline is: "Margaret Thatcher Won't Meet with Sarah Palin During Her Trip to London, En Route to Sudan: Report – Margaret Thatcher, the former UK Prime Minister - and heroine of the former Alaska governor - has no interest in meeting the 'nuts' potential presidential candidate, Thatcher aides tell British media.
Limbaugh attempted to illustrate the "preposterous" nature of my blog by issuing an earnest "personal disclosure". Yes, the great sage of the US right told his fans, he knows the former prime minister "pretty well", a point he illustrated with a lengthy story about how he drove her round a Florida golf course.
This is no doubt all true. Limbaugh fondly recalled his time with Thatcher and her late husband, Sir Denis, and spoke sensitively of how her health has declined in recent years. But he admitted that he has not spoken to Thatcher in years and appears to have little idea of the approach of the loving group of friends and staff who are dedicated to ensuring that her final years are lived in dignity.
Members of the Thatcher circle are highly protective of the former prime minister, 86, who has suffered from dementia for some years. They ration her appearances with great care and are careful to ensure that she is not used by unsuitable politicians. This is why they feel so strongly that Thatcher should not meet Palin: they believe it would be beneath the dignity of the Iron Lady to meet such a lightweight figure who would use the meeting to burnish her credentials as the keeper of the Reagan flame.
The Thatcher ally quoted in my original blog told me on Wednesday that members of her circle were standing by their decision after the description of Palin as "nuts" was reported in the US. This is what the ally told me on Wednesday:
Margaret will not be meeting Sarah Palin. If necessary we will make sure that Margaret has an off day when Palin is in London.
Alex Massie, who writes for the Spectator, supported the decision of the Thatcher circle in an article for the Daily Beast:
Why should Lady Thatcher have any interest in meeting Palin?...One is a giant figure; the other, politically speaking, a carnival pygmy better suited to life on a second-rate reality television show.
Massie was highly critical of Palin's attempts to meet Thatcher:
There is something loathsome about this attempt to use a frail 86-year-old stroke victim (who has largely retired from public life) as fodder to enhance your own domestic political agenda. It is vulgar and it is vainglorious and therefore entirely typical of Palin's political style.
The article by Massie, a former Daily Telegraph Washington correspondent, will not help Limbaugh who sought to portray my blog as an example of the left's media bias against Palin. The transcript of his remarks on Wednesday carries a grainy picture of Palin above the words: Enemy of the Left.
Limbaugh is angry with my blog because the Thatcher circle's dismissive view undermines at a stroke Palin's defence when her weaknesses are regularly exposed by the likes of Andrew Sullivan at The Dish. This is that she is the victim of a witch-hunt by the mainstream media which peddle lies to prevent the great American people appreciating the full glories of Palin. If allies of one of her own heroines believe Palin is "nuts" – coupled with the clear signals from Downing Street that David Cameron will be steering well clear of Palin – then that line of defence looks somewhat threadbare.
Limbaugh pointed out that he has "no brief for Palin". But he really is upset that a figure on the right could dare to criticise Palin:
I can't let this go by, all of these things that are happening, this continued effort to literally destroy her. I mean I understand the Democrats wanting to do it, but there are people on our side engaging in this. That's unseemly.
The likes of Limbaugh do find it troubling when people supposedly on the right dare to criticise Palin. I remember some were upset when I blogged after the 2008 US presidential election that John McCain's private thoughts about Palin were detailed in a British diplomatic cable. I wrote:
In one joke doing the rounds, the Republican presidential candidate has been asking friends: what is the difference between Sarah Palin and a pitbull? The friendly canine eventually lets go, is the McCain punchline.
The lesson is clear. Report people's real thoughts about Palin with care or Rush Limbaugh will take a run at you with his cigar.
10.00am UPDATE
Here are Rush Limbaugh's remarks on Thatcher and my blog via YouTube:
6.30pm UPDATE
Andrew Sullivan, the founder of the Daily Dish blog, has a typically robust response to the Rush Limbaugh outburst. He blogged this today:
As usual, the tired old bigoted comedian Rush Limbaugh took offense that anyone could call Sarah Palin "nuts," even though she is quite obviously a few sandwiches short of a picnic, and her grip on reality is, shall we say, tenuous. And as usual, Limbaugh blamed it on the left, i.e. the Guardian's Wintour/Watt blog. What he doesn't understand is that Palin's nutsiness is not a partisan matter in Britain, or anywhere else in the world. It is an obvious truth marveled at by all. Palin's emergence as a serious figure in American politics has made the country a laughing stock across the world. The idea that a stateswoman like Thatcher, in advanced dementia, would be used by such a crackpot is simply unseemly.