You know, it's times like these that make it clear that Rush Limbaugh is his own worst enemy.  If Rush didn't want people to hate him, then the way forward is obvious.  Instead, Rush has chosen to attack the credibility of everyone who has ragged on him for saying what he did about Haiti last week, and to try and misdirect our attention away from what he did say.

Rush constantly falls back on the "I'm being quoted out of context" excuse, combined with "That isn't what I meant."  So let's look at what he said last week.  On the topic of Haiti, Rush Limbaugh said "We've already donated to Haiti.  It's called the U.S. income tax."

Now I agree it is true, Rush did not say "So there's no need to give any more."  But I can't imagine what else he meant, given his staunch position against taxes.  Is he telling people not to bother donating money to the Red Cross or to Doctors Without Borders?

 (By the way, the White House's website simply linked to those organizations; it did not accept donations itself.  In the craziness that followed the Haitian earthquake, a lot of scammers were trying to solicit donations, which is why the White House wanted to give its imprimatur to genuine links to the real organizations.)

The second tack Rush has taken is to go on the offense.  He has a hilarious transcript on his site right now, about how "the Left accuses me of hate, but then they turn around and hate me!"  He seems to think that people will care about this kind of superficial contradiction.  Which clearly cannot be true for his listeners, because they never called him on his attacks on Obama's three day response time for the underpants bomber, when Bush took six days to issue a statement about the shoe bomber.

The best part about Rush's rant against the Left is that the best way to prove that you're not filled with hate is to, you know, not be filled with hate.  Which brings me to the obvious solution to this whole thing, which is for Rush to call upon his listeners to donate money to the Red Cross.  Is there any more patriotic organization than the American Red Cross?  Any organization more worthy of Rush's listeners hard-earned dollars?  Or for - gasp - some of Rush's dollars?  (He earns $40 million per year.)

If Rush really wanted to show up the Left, he would start a donation drive, and track how much money he was able to bring in.  This would not only prove that he isn't filled with hate and selfishness, but get his name in the press (something I know he loves to do).  The fact that he has neither suggested donations on his show, nor put a donation button on his website, shows that Rush is either completely tone-deaf, or that he wants to be hated.  Or that he really is that selfish and hateful, and he doesn't care who knows it.

Hard to say, frankly.