The Bum's Rush

Chalk up one for Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.  Rush Limbaugh's been dumped from the group bidding for the St. Louis Rams. 

MSNBC's Mike Barnicle on "Morning Joe" Thursday 6:40a:  "It's pretty dangerous from being excluded from doing things... based on what you say... They'd have no shot at getting the team with him in the group."

Joe:  "This group actually wanted Rush Limbaugh to be part of it.  It wasn't until people started screaming and waving their arms... Do we really want to talk about NFL owners and their views?"

Tina Brown:  "People have just become weenies across the board."

Limbaugh was doomed by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's "divisive comments are not what the NFL is all about" Tuesday.  Wednesday Rush got the bum's rush.

Yesterday Rush crowed about the hypocrisy after the lead singer for the Black-Eyed Peas was named an owner of the Miami Dolphins:

WILL.I.AM: (song "My Humps") (crowd noise) What you gon' do with all that junk? All that junk inside that trunk?

FERGIE: I'm a g-g-get you drunk, get you to love drunk off my hump. My hump, my hump, my hump. My hump, my hump. My lovely lady lumps. Check it out! I drive these brothers crazy. I do it on the daily. They treat me really nicely, and buy me all these ices.

RUSH: Fergie, new limited partner owner of the Miami Dolphins, of the National Football League.

Al Sharpton reax:  "It is a moral victory for all Americans - especially the players that have been unfairly castigated by Rush Limbaugh.  This decision will also uphold the unifying standards of major sports."

Flip Bondy NYDN:  What on earth was Checketts thinking? Checketts has his own skeleton in the closet, when it comes to racial matters. The former president of Madison Square was forced to explain himself about racial relations once before, after he heckled Olden Polynice of Seattle while Checketts was an executive with the Utah Jazz.

"Hey, Olden," Checketts said then. "You're leading the league in stolen VCRs."

This would seem to be far worse than what Limbaugh said about either McNabb or the Chargers. But Checketts somehow has turned himself into a respected metrosexual, into a multisport, entertainment guru.

NYT:  Checketts is a widely respected sports executive and the owner of the St. Louis Blues. He was interviewed as a candidate for the N.F.L. commissioner’s job before it went to Goodell, who was the heavy favorite, in 2006. But several N.F.L. owners, who ended three days of meetings in Boston on Wednesday, quietly wondered why a savvy businessman like Checketts would hitch his hopes for the Rams to Limbaugh, a conservative radio talk-show host, and fail to anticipate the negative reaction.