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Steve Marcus
Miss Indiana Katie Stam reacts after being crowned the 2009 Miss America during the 2009 Miss America Pageant at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.
Published Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 | 5:19 p.m.
Updated Monday, Oct. 12, 2009 | 6:26 p.m.
Rush Limbaugh.
Art McMaster talks of the reasons the Miss America Organization contacted Rush Limbaugh to judge the 2010 pageant, and they all make sense -- until you remember that this is Rush Limbaugh we’re talking about.
“I want people to understand how the pageant judging happens,” McMaster, chief executive and president of the Miss America Organization, said during a phone conversation today after it was announced officially that Limbaugh would be one of next year’s judges. “We don’t just pick out seven names. We have seven different categories, and we need people who are experts in those categories.” As McMaster explained, the pageant always seeks a media personality to bring solid interviewing skills to the show, which is why Chris Matthews, Greta Van Susteren and Jim Moret have served as judges for past pageants.
“We’re all about trying to find the person who will help us find the right contestant,” McMaster said. “Rush is a person who will help us do that.”
Fine, though Limbaugh is hardly known as an adept interviewer. What he does is trumpet a specific political ideology every day to 20 million a.m. radio listeners across the country -- the famed “Dittoheads” -- and has become one of the nation’s more polarizing public figures over the past two decades.
“This is not about polarizing,” McMaster said. “We’ve had a lot of judges who have had things that they have said or things in their background we might not like. He has a lot of opinions, but so does Chris Matthews.”
One of those opinions Limbaugh brings to the tradition-steeped pageant, with “America” in its very title, is he hopes the president of this country fails. Of that, McMaster said only, “We know he’s very blunt. Look, we all know Rush Limbaugh, but when you look at what he brings and his influence, the kind of interest level he generates with a daily talk show that goes out to 20 million listeners, it’s good for our show.”
It might not be so good for Planet Hollywood, though. McMaster said the hotel is not part of the judging selection process (or any other production component of the show), and hotel officials, including CEO Robert Earl and President Tom McCartney, were notified yesterday that Limbaugh would be part of the P.H. entertainment culture next January. Suffice to say, hotel officials are not exactly performing cartwheels at this piece of news, but MAO and the pageant’s cable partner, TLC, are quite happy (the show airs from the Theatre for Performing Arts on Jan. 30).
“We reached out to (Rush) about two weeks ago,” McMaster said. “We’d like to have announced all of (the judges) at the same time, but then he started talking about it on the show, so we had to announce him early.” The rest of the field, the other six, will be known within the month. When I suggested to McMaster that the coverage of the judging panel would be dominated by Limbaugh, McMaster quickly said, “Oh, don’t be so sure.” Whatever, this promises to be one eventful sashay across the stage.
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.
As an opponent of the H1N1 flu vaccine, Limpbaugh represents a health risk to the pageant, the hotel and the entire Las Vegas area.
Given the fact that a healthy 25 yr old airman at Luke AFB in AZ died within 48 hrs of first feeling symptoms, have a mentally disturbed man judging the pageant could be dangerous.
The pageant could held without an audience, like the soccer games in Mexico.
Also with a history of drug abuse and doctor shopping, will casinos ban Limpbaugh, the way many banned OJ?
Since singing is often a major part of the talent competition, will Limpbaugh's drug damaged hearing allow him to properly judge the event? (The cochlear implant Limbaugh has was developed by a NASA scientist and one at the University of Melbourne in Australia, a product of government tax and spend which limpbowel says he opposes.)
so if they ask the candidate about gay marriage this time, she will know what to answer, given who is judging??
I was thinking along the same lines as you, vegasdoc. They should make Limbaugh a judge for the Miss USA pageant to cancel out Perez Hilton.
Let's hope there are no more questions about gay marriage or other hot topics. It's a beauty pageant, for goodness sakes.
Married and devorced three times, will Limpbowel ask a question about family values? How do we know he's notactually gay? Maybe Perez needs so company
This all is geared for the Fox News viewer, they're can get enough of women dressed like hookers. To be on Fox you need to dress like you're ready to work it. The only NEOCON still not with the program is Gillespie, I'm sure he'll show up ready to bust a few for prostitution. Maybe he'll catch the drugster fondling one.
Who even watches this anymore???
Rush Limbaugh is a vile, repulsive bag of inhumanity whose mother would have done humankind a great favor had she strangled him at birth. To allow him to judge a beauty contest is equivalent to allowing Bill O'Reilly to appear as a contestant on "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" Neither has the mental capacity to make any kind of an informed decision that the average fifth-grader would find easy.
Yukko!
Man, I get this horrible vision of a leering limbaugh. ugh!
bigdon-how much do you make a year? Which model Gulfstream do you fly? In what state is your beachfront estate? I'm really glad you are doing so well in life.
I would love to see Mr. Limbaugh debate the barely literate Obama on nationwide TV without a teleprompter or any notes with the subject picked fifteen minutes before air time. We would see who is smarter. Obama only got into and through Harvard Law School because they had to meet their quota. Limbaugh got where he is through intelligence and hard work.
I am doing very well, thank you, and I don't have have to rely on some drug-addled, Viagra gulping, racist, fat-ass turd to do my thinking for me like you and the rest of the "ditto-heads" apparently do. Why don't you go back to your double-wide and watch some more Fox News Channel and fry up some catfish and hush-puppies while you are at it. Limbaugh got where he is by playing off of the prejudices and fears of old white people who are afraid of being overrun by people who "don't look like us". He is playing you all for fools, and people like you make it so easy for him to do so. He is rich, I am angry, and you are left in the dark. Pitiful....
One might think there'd be more interest in a cookin'-n-cleanin' pageant.
: )
jlb101
Limbaugh smarter then Obama, ?? Your not only a idiot, you are a total one. Pop another oxy and turn on faux news ! Moran..
jlb101-That comment defies ANY type of logic.
cpo -- It's not "your" it is "you're". Before you pass judgment on intelligence, you may want to review your own I.Q.
23bigdon1 -- You need some help with anger management. Or, perhaps you just need to learn to use manners and better language. Internet anonymity really brings out some of the worst in people.
The do not allow FAT women to compete in this pageant.
Why should they allow a FAT man to judge?
big don-you don't like a radio personality who abused a little of a legal prescription drug yet vote a dope smoking crackhead into the White House. A stupid crackhead at that.
cpo-Obama is an idiot. He only got into and made it through Harvard Law School because they had a quota of minorities. If he was White with his level ofintelligence he would be unemployed or flipping burgers in a local fast food joint. Rush got where he is the honest way he earned it.
bigdon-how's that gulf stream running?
Since the president is trying to destroy the country, I rather hope he fails too.
Some wise man on another discussion had a good idea... If you don't want to watch the pageant, then turn the channel to FOX NEWS. Maybe some of you all would learn a few manners.
Man, there is just too much hate out there guys. Maybe some of you just have to hate someone. If it's not Bush then it's Rush.
I thought the Liberals and Democrats were the party of love and understanding.. Instead, some of you guys have blood squirting out of your eyes...
Russ Limbaugh is no big thing. He has made a ton of money doing his own thing... If you don't want to listen to him, do as I do, don't...
If you really want to get worked up on something, do it about Afghanistan.. We are going to have a REAL problem over there and I don't see any good way out.
We could get worked up about Obama. There is a lot of things about him to hate. I bet Bush could run against him in 2012 and win. Think I'm wrong. Give him another year and don't forget who told you so.
Let's see, we need an expert in certain areas: drugs abuse, bigotry, hmm. I got the perfect candidate.
I can just feel the love out there...
Particularly from the good folks who say they are the righteous ones.
jlb101 writes: "I would love to see Mr. Limbaugh debate ... Obama on nationwide TV ..."
---
I don't know where you've been for the last 20 years but Rush Limbaugh doesn't debate, he broadcasts, for $67,000 an hour.
When have you ever seen Rush Limbaugh debating anybody? He'll never put himself into a position where he can't "win" the debate by cutting his opponent's mic and then continuing to "debate" the dead air for another minute or two.
If Rush Limbaugh ever entered into an actual debate setting with any liberal opponent he'd come off like a lying halfwit before very long.
He knows better.