Last night was a huge night for Rick Santorum with caucus wins in Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado. Many were fairly shocked by the strong showing for the GOP candidate (some quite amusingly so). However, there’s one guy who isn’t showing any surprise whatsoever. That guy, of course, is Rush Limbaugh. Not only is he not surprised, he spent time on his show to knock those in the Republican establishment who were unprepared and didn’t see the Santorum coming.

Joe Hildebrand, a columnist for Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp. in Australia, has come under fire for a series of tweets that mock the mentally handicapped, the “retarded,” the Irish, and blondes. It all started with a tweet about airport personnel, but Hildebrand’s reaction to criticism of his remark escalated into a full-on “politically incorrect” display of shamelessness that had one colleague calling him “a disgrace.”

An eagle-eyed Super Bowl viewer caught radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh allegedly mining for gold in New England Patriot’s Robert Kraft‘s luxury box during Sunday’s game.

Rush Limbaugh took Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney to task for supporting an increase in the minimum wage in response to his comments about not being concerned about the “very poor”, saying it gave doubt to his conservative credentials. “I know what Mitt Romney was trying to do. I know what he was trying to say. In the process of doing what he did, saying what he said, he made it clear that he is a stranger to fundamental conservatism. And for the people who oppose Romney, that’s the biggest red flag.”

This morning on Starting Point, Mitt Romney seemed to get a bit of his foot in his mouth when he tried to explain that his focus was on the middle class by saying that he is “not concerned about the very poor.” Obviously, this has caused a few eyebrows to raise including those on the face of Rush Limbaugh. However, Limbaugh was upset for a different reason that most people talking about this quote. Sure, he feels that Romney should be concerned about the very poor but, more importantly, he’s upset Romney’s not concerned about those damned entitlement programs.

For nearly a year now, the pressure has been mounting for Rush Limbaugh to give an official endorsement in the race for the GOP but, as of yet, he’s given nothing. Even today, hours away from the Florida primary, Limbaugh was explaining to a caller that he both can’t and won’t endorse anyone. However, that [...]

On his radio program Monday, Rush Limbaugh slammed complaints over negative campaigning during the Republican nomination race. “I am getting tired of the whining about negative campaigning!” Limbaugh exclaimed. “I’m getting tired of the whining from everybody about it. Not just the candidates, I’m getting tired hearing about it from everyone. What in the world is politics? What is it, if not this?!”

The conventional wisdom throughout the weekend was that the longer the fight between the GOP candidates goes on, the more it hurts the party. Well, Rush Limbaugh has never been one for conventional wisdom. Today, Limbaugh continued putting forth his feeling that it would be great to see the fight go all the way to the convention. But he noted the worry that many Republicans seemed to have about it, theorizing that they never thought they could beat President Obama, were only trying to get control of both the House and the Senate, and are in a “full-blown panic” now simply because they don’t think a Newt Gingrich nomination can do that for them.

Just like Juan Williams before him, it appeared that John King got “dunked on” by Newt Gingrich last night. However, Rush Limbaugh doesn’t think he’ll feel any shame for it. No, as Limbaugh explained to his listeners, “you cannot shame the mainstream media.”

In response to the bombshell allegations by Newt Gingrich’s ex-wife to ABC News that the former Speaker of the House asked her for an open marriage, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh rushed to his defense saying “Everybody has an angry ex-spouse!”

Recently, Rush Limbaugh was one of the loudest voices criticizing the GOP candidates for attacking Mitt Romney’s “evil rich man” status. With Romney telling the Wall Street Journal that he expects those attacks to continue thanks to news of his possible 15% tax rate, Limbaugh decided to take it upon himself in giving Romney a way to respond. He argued that Romney should counter that he would actually be losing money as president whereas President Obama used the presidency as “a path to becoming a millionaire.”

Following Joe Scarborough‘s comments that all that was left in the GOP race was “big government conservatives” in the wake of Jon Huntsman exit from the Republican nomination race, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh lit into the MSNBC host, saying he was attempting to curry favor with his network’s executives. “I think that’s what you say when you have to keep your job at a liberal network,” Limbaugh jabbed.

On his radio program Wednesday, Rush Limabugh slammed Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry over his criticism of Mitt Romney‘s work at Bain Capital, which the Texas Governor deemed “vulture capitalism.” “I’m sorry, folks, that is indefensible!” Limbaugh exclaimed.

Last week, Rush Limbaugh was one of the many predicting Newt Gingrich’s shots at Mitt Romney, the man he Gingrich believes ruined his front runner position, would only increase in intensity following Iowa. At the time, Gingrich seemed fine with the idea, pointing out that it would only end up helping Rick Santorum. However, the radio host clearly has not enjoyed the tenor of Gingrich’s attacks since then as he spent a large amount of today’s show absolutely lambasting the candidate and comparing him to such GOP-unfriendly entities as Occupy Wall Street, The New York Times, and Barack Obama.

Yesterday on Happening Now, Dana Perino expressed her distaste for Jon Huntsman’s use of the word “screwed” in a campaign ad, declaring it un-presidential. Something about this really tickled Rush Limbaugh’s fancy as he was making friendly jokes at Perino’s expense throughout yesterday’s show and, after Perino responded on The Five, continued them today. Today his best line was his advice that Huntsman make his next ad about how all of America is “intercoursed.”

Rush Limbaugh is not happy with President Obama’s appointment of Richard Cordray as chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and others during a recess. More importantly, he’s not happy with the depiction the move is getting from some in the media. The talk show host was furious over a Reuters piece that described Obama as going against Republicans in Congress. “Obama’s not confronting the Republicans,” Limbaugh declared. “He’s confronting the Constitution!”

Well, Iowa is done so now it’s time to sit back and go through different interpretations of the results. And, if we’re going to be listening to various people’s thoughts, that means we’ve got to listen to what Rush Limbaugh has to say. Why do we have to listen to Rush Limbaugh?

At this point, Rush Limbaugh‘s offensive against Rep. Ron Paul has become something of a regular feature on his program. So it’s not entirely surprising that Limbaugh’s anti-Paulism has seeped into his commercials, too– or at least in parody. This week, Limbaugh debuted a “pro” Rep. Paul ad that featured the “candidate” arguing “the greatest danger is not from Iran, it’s from us overreacting.” Surely this will go over well with Paul fans.

Rush Limbaugh tore into Ron Paul ‘s statements at last night’s debate — not sanctioning Iran even if they had actionable intelligence that Iran had a nuclear weapon. “We never talk that way about the Russians, the only reason they want nuclear weapons is because we’re making them do it. It’s our fault! If you were in Iran and you had to face these evil Americans, you’d want to bomb too!” mocked the radio talk show host.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren, Rush Limbaugh slammed the Republican establishment for thinking a “conservative nominee is route to defeat” and lamented the top-tier GOP candidates were “milquetoast moderates.” Despite these reservations, he said, “I think right now anybody other than Ron Paul could beat Obama if the election were tomorrow.”

In recent years, conservative commentator David Frum has taken to criticizing his own side for its relationship with conservative media outlets like Fox News, and on Reliable Sources today, Frum criticized the network for creating its own political reality, as well as the Republican party for shaping itself around the influence of the conservative media bubble.

Regular viewers of Current TV’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann may have noticed that the progressive newshour has gone dark this week. Early on in Monday’s show, technical problems beset the program, and since then, Olbermann has been hosting his show from what appears to be an endless black void. Mediaite has confirmed that Olbermann has not been confined to an interdimensional limbo, nor is he broadcasting from inside Rush Limbaugh‘s head.

Apparently Limbaugh slept through the entire 2007 Republican primary campaign. Reacting to a self-identified tea party caller that suggested Rep. Ron Paul, Rep. Michele Bachmann, and former Senator Rick Santorum were the only true conservatives left in the race, Limbaugh reacted in shock at the idea that Rep. Paul would be associated with the Tea [...]

At a meeting of the Republican Governor’s Association this week, pollster and strategist Frank Luntz made a bold admission: that he was “frightened to death” of Occupy Wall Street, and suggested their influence had made the term “capitalism” toxic and it should be replaced with “economic freedom.” One person not content to follow those instructions? Rush Limbaugh, who chastised Luntz for “dumb[ing] down” the conservative message for a movement that was “about disbanded.”

Texas Congressman and fundraising powerhouse Ron Paul‘s campaign released an absolutely brutal web ad attacking current national frontrunner Newt Gingrich for “serial hypocrisy.” The spot, which is a too-long-for-TV 148 seconds, features a review of Gingrich flip-flops, accompanied by blistering criticism from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and GOP golden boy Rep. Paul Ryan. With Paul polling in third place in New Hampshire, should Newt be worried about the Ronulan attack?