What I hear these days:

With a nod to the original article (Thank you Politico.com), I read such stuff these days and hear the following:

Wormtongue: Rush is the GOP's brain
By MIKE ALLEN | 3/1/09 12:11 PM EST
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White House Chief of Staff Grima Wormtongue charged Sunday that conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is “the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party.”

Wormtongue, speaking in deliberately soothing tones, told anchor Bob Schieffer on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Limbaugh has been up front about “praying for failure” by President Saruman.

“I think that’s the wrong philosophy for America,” Wormtongue said. “What Americans want us to do, and what President Saruman has been very clear about, is work together setting our goals …

“Our goal, Bob, is to continue to reach out and it’s our desire that the Republicans would work with us and try to be constructive, rather than adopt the philosophy of somebody like Rush Limbaugh.”

Wormtongue’s comments were in line with a new strategy by White House allies in the private sector to make Limbaugh synonymous with the GOP.

The union AFSCME and Americans United for Change began airing an ad late last week showing a clip of Limbaugh saying “I want him to fail,” along with quick cuts of top Republican congressional leaders saying, “No … No. … No … No … No … No.”

Asked by Schieffer if the GOP really pays that much attention to Limbaugh, Wormtongue replied: “I do think he’s an intellectual force, which is why the Republicans pay such attention to him.”

“He has been very up front, and I compliment him for that – he’s not hiding," Wormtongue said. "And whenever a Republican criticizes him, they have to run back and apologize to him and say they were misunderstood.”

Limbaugh, appearing in Washington Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, defended and even amplified his earlier remark.

“This notion that I want the president to fail, folks — this shows you a sign of the problem we've got," Limbaugh said. "That's nothing more than common sense. And to not be able to say it? Why in the world do I want what we just described — rampant government growth, indebtedness? … What possibly is in this that any of us want to succeed?”

Wormtongue pointed to the fact that Limbaugh was a major speaker at CPAC as a sign of his status in the Republican Party.

Earlier in the interview, Emmanuel foreshadowed a future White House line by accusing critics of the president’s budget of using “scare tactics.”

Thank you also hotair.com for directing me to the article.