From the National Review Corner:

ALL POWERFUL OZ? [Tim Graham]
There's plenty of sneering in the Newsweek cover story on Rush this week, but the first thing really wrong with the piece is the analogy of Rush being a "Wizard of Oz." Unless, of course, Evan Thomas fancies himself in the role of Dorothy.

With this metaphor, Newsweek suggests Rush is a pathetic little man who likes nothing better than scaring young girls from Kansas and their little dogs, too, but are really powerless. They know better. They have to suspect that without Rush there was not quite the same GOP landslide in 1994, that without Rush there was not quite an impeachment in 1998, and that without Rush, there was not quite a Bush election in 2000. Why else would they be leaping on him like flying monkeys now?

He missed a few other things, like the squashing of the massive Clinton attempt to nationalize the health industry, neutralizing the near-monopoly of the leftist press, the exposure of the hypocrisy of such bastions of the Left as NOW and the environmental movement, and almost singlehandedly being responsible for nurturing the entire talk radio industry to its present strength. I'm sure liberals each have their own little list they keep posted under their Rush dart board.

If there is a Public Enemy Number One for the Left, it's Rush. You don't have fear and blind hatred for someone you consider an ineffectual fraud.

They've been waiting for an opening like this for years. As Lileks said, "I am also sure that upon hearing the news, Al Franken spronged sufficient wood to knock the table over." Al wasn't the only one.