Perhaps Rush Limbaugh is so upset about Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize since he was also nominated for the award, as I reported in in February. The nomination was made by the Landmark Legal Foundation according to Landmark President Mark Levin for his for his “nearly two decades of tireless efforts to promote liberty, equality and opportunity for all humankind, regardless of race, creed, economic stratum or national origin.”
It’s hard to imagine anyone saying the above with a straight face about Limbaugh. Pensito Review believes that Limbaugh was behind his own nomination:
For starters, it appears that Limbaugh de facto nominated himself. The nomination went out under the letterhead of “his lawyers” at the Landmark foundation, a rightwing nonprofit for which Limbaugh is an unpaid adviser. (Landmark’s donors include relatives of Richard Melon Scaife, the Pittsburgh heir and newspaper publisher who funded the Arkansas Project, a smear campaign against the Clintons that served as the prototype for what we now know as Swiftboating.)
Landmark’s president, Mark Levin, is a snarling, unappealing ideologue who made his name in the 1990s as a Clinton-basher on cable news. Levin is a Rush acolyte and wannabe who, despite having a voice that would curdle milk, has his own talk show.
Levin and Landmark are Limbaugh’s lapdogs. Even if the idea for the stunt didn’t come from Limbaugh himself, it was done with his approval and, more than likely, guidance.
They also note that this nomination should not be taken as having any real meaning:
Nominations for the Prize may be made by a broad array of qualified individuals, including former recipients, members of national assemblies and congresses, university professors (in certain disciplines), international judges, and special advisors to the Prize Committee. In some years as many as 199 nominations have been received. The Committee keeps the nominations secret and asks that nominators do the same. Over time many individuals have become known as “Nobel Peace Prize Nominees”, but this designation has no official standing.
Regardless of who nominated Limbaugh, Gore won the vote. This time there weren’t any legal maneuvers available to block the person with the most votes from winning as occurred with Florida’s electoral votes in 2000.
