Eric Boehlert taps into the motherload of all schadenfreude as he points out the fact that it just isn't that fun to be Fox News any more. It's obvious that by becoming the functional megaphone not only of the Republican Party, but of the mouth-breathing right, they rose with the tide and now are floundering with the ebb. The cruelest blow of all, of course, is the implosion of the Giuliani campaign, which proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the more voters got to know Rudy, the more they came to despise him.
Fox adopted Rudy early and hard, because he fit the profile of the authoritarian tinpot dictator that they so long for. He was Bush on steroids, tougher talking and even more bloodthirsty. Surrounding himself with ghouls like Norman Podhoretz, who lusts for the days that our bombs rip into Tehran, Rudy was Fox's wet dream, quick to hate, prone to anger, and wrapped hard in the mantle of 9/11, Fox's finest hour. The sorry reality that this thrice married, lisping pro-gay, pro-choice mayor from the cradle of liberalism was really just a put-on never bothered Fox. Like Greg Brady, he fit in the suit.
Now Fox is stuck. Rush, Hannity and O'Reilly hate Huckabee, hate McCain, and hate Mittster. None of them have the brown-people-hatin' bona fides that Rudy had. McCain is an old enemy, Huckabee a populist, and Romney a lapsed Massachusetts governor, who was reliably pro-choice and pro-gay just years ago. Aside from that, he's a Mormon fer Chrissake.
So, sure, Fox News' ratings will plunge, because the action is all on the Dems side, and because their most reliable talking points have essentially been rendered moot. But beware the cornered Fox, who gets nasty when the chips are down. Rudy had the Swiftboat crowd behind him, and now they'll cast their bloodthirsty gaze to another target. The end of days talk regarding Fox is premature, I'd guess.
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