In Republican Valley, there’s a whole lot of jockeying going on in an effort to gain control over the party in time for the midterm elections of 2010 and then the presidential election in 2012. Currently Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, and Eric Cantor are on a “listening tour” (which, oddly enough, consists mostly of talking). On Sunday, the Washington Times ran a piece in which Jeb Bush asserted that Republicans basically need to lose the nostalgia and stop searching for the next Ronald Reagan and instead be forward-looking, focusing on the future. This advice led Rush Limbaugh to surmise (scroll to bottom of transcript) that Jeb was actually talking about Sarah Palin and not Ronald Reagan, and thus he was compelled to defend her, calling her “the most prominent, articulate voice for standard run-of-the-mill good old-fashioned American conservatism” [lack of proper punctuation in original].

*sound of brakes slamming*

Did he just say “articulate,” as in “expressing oneself easily in clear and effective language?” Perhaps El Rushbo hasn’t seen this version of Sarah Palin’s Greatest Hits:

Now, if this is the Republicans’ most articulate voice, methinks they’ve got a bit of trouble on the horizon. There’s no doubt Sarah Palin has some raw political talent and charisma, as evidenced by her speech at the Republican National Convention (watch it here), but she seriously needs to spend the next 3 years with her head in a book before she comes back out onto the national stage.

Youbetchya.