The White House's secret strategy to destroy Rush Limbaugh. So secret that no one told any of us.

Our corporate media is in a tizzy today, accusing the White House of coordinating the entire media blow up over Rush Limbaugh this past week. Well, that's an interesting bit of fantasy. Let me dissect this for our friends in the media who are a tad too stupid and gullible for our own good.

1. So you mean, Barack Obama is behind GOP chair Michael Steele exploding the Limbaugh story in the news this past week by calling Limbaugh an ugly and incendiary entertainer. Wow, he is powerful, that Obama. Even controlling the head of the entire Republican party, and getting him to say something characteristically stupid. How does Obama do it?

2. And Barack Obama is behind Limbaugh publicly responding to Steele, suggesting that no one should donate to the Republican party, and suggesting that maybe Steele should just kill himself. Again, damn powerful, that all-knowing Oz.

3. Barack Obama is the reason the media, including FOX News, jumped on the Limbaugh-Steele feud and rode it for days. Please explain this one to me. How does it work? A reporter says to his editor, "Hey, did you see the head of the Republican party savaged Rush Limbaugh, right as he was speaking at the largest gathering of conservatives in the country, as their number one speaker, and then Limbaugh responded by suggesting that the head of the party kill himself." Your editor says, "not a story." You say, "Barack Obama?" Your editor says, "Oh my God, print it! But make sure you don't mention anything about Obama in the story because Obama is really the one behind the entire story!"

4. And apparently Barack Obama made Rush Limbaugh say, a good month ago, that he hopes Obama fails at trying to save the economy. You'll recall that this is the reason Rush has been in the news the past month. Obama is so all powerful, he somehow forced Limbaugh to say something stupid. Uh huh. Yeah, that was certainly an unexpected first for Limbaugh, saying something ugly and incendiary. Clearly, Obama was behind it all.

I suppose that Barack Obama was also behind my co-blogger Joe Sudbay and me suggesting to a number of our non-administration political friends this past week, in private, that we all ought to really jump on this Limbaugh story. Joe and I had this discussion many days before Rahm mentioned Limbaugh on the Sunday shows. (And let's not forget, Rahm mentioned Limbaugh AFTER Limbaugh and Steele started publicly savaging each other.) So was Obama secretly sending microwaves into our brains to get us to push the story?

Joe and I talk to this White House - a heck of a lot more than we talked to the last one. We've even had conference calls in the past few weeks with OMB Director Orszag and with VP Biden's top economic adviser. And during all these calls and communications no one once mentioned Rush Limbaugh. It just strikes me as a bit odd that the White House was supposedly behind the Limbaugh kerfuffle, yet no one shared this grand plan with the blogosphere, which is the perfect medium for exploding such a story. Odd isn't it?

And one final point.

Do you get what the Republicans are really doing here? In addition to their usual tactic of blaming us for things that they actually do, this is another trick they love to use. Blaming us for things that aren't bad things at all. Meaning, what the GOP, with the collusion of the media, is really saying is this: "Barack Obama is telling people the truth about Rush Limbaugh being kind of an idiot." And the media's response? "You mean, Obama told people the truth about what Rush Limbaugh said? Oh my God, how evil of the White House - stop the presses!" Next, the media incessantly pesters the administration, at press conferences, in made up stories, demanding the White House admit that someone there was behind an effort to simply reiterate what Rush Limbaugh actually said, as if somehow Limbaugh isn't a bad guy for saying the things he says, but everyone else is bad for spreading the news about what Limbaugh actually said. And the ultimate irony of this strategy, some of the very people Limbaugh attacked are TO BLAME for what Limbaugh said. Priceless.

So there you have it. Barack Obama single-handedly forced Michael Steele, the head of the Republican party, and Rush Limbaugh, the Republican party's star mouthpiece, to publicly savage each other, then he forced all of the major media to cover the story, even though it had nothing to do with Obama.

Maybe he truly is the magic negro.*

(* That's a reference to the time Barack Obama made Limbaugh sing a racist song about him.)