Manufactured hysteria on right wing radio? I don’t believe it!

This is pathetic.

For a variety of reasons I can’t quite explain, I listen to right wing radio during my 15-minute drives to and from campus; this is about as much as I can handle before falling into a deep well of boredom, but I take great momentary satisfaction in listening to someone like Mark Levin bring himself to the precipice of a stroke each afternoon as I’m heading home. I haven’t spent nearly as much time listening to, say, Limbaugh or Hannity, so I don’t know if they’ve been pounding the non-issue of the Fairness Doctrine as ferociously as he has, but Levin’s rage has been effervescent in recent weeks, apparently provoked by some comments Chuck Schumer offered on Fox News’ election night coverage. Levin has been vowing to devote all his time and effort to unseating Schumer when he comes up for re-election in 2010. To wit:

Schmucky, you’re up in 2010, Schmucky. We’re going to be talking about you. And when you’re trying to take me off the air, I’m going to fight you. It’s not going to be so easy. That’s right, Schmucky. I’m not rolling over. We’re coming to defeat you. Oh, you might win, but you’re going to know you’ve been in a fight. Yes, you will. We’re going to wipe that stupid smile off your face, Schmucky.

I actually heard this monologue — which continued for about five minutes — when he delivered it the day after Obama’s victory. It was fantastic, and I can only hope that Levin squanders as much lifeblood as possible trying to beat Schumer on a phantom issue like the Fairness Doctrine.

Other folks aside from Schumer — Durbin, Pelosi, Bingaman — have occasionally voiced their personal support for reviving the Fairness Doctrine, but right wing radio hosts and their listeners seem incapable of grasping the simple fact that no one is going to waste their time trying to legislate the issue. Still, I would hope that various Democrats would continue to poke the stick occasionally; provided that it’s done in a low-frequency way, I really don’t see a downside to taunting right wing radio hosts.