Limbaugh now wants Obama to be the Democratic nominee.

(CNN) – He has publicly urged Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton to keep the divisive Democratic nomination fight alive, but talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said Wednesday it's Barack Obama who he really wants to be the party's nominee.

"I now believe he would be the weakest of the Democrat nominees," Limbaugh, among the most powerful voices in conservative radio, said on his program. "I now urge the Democrat supereldegates to make your mind up and publicly go for Obama."

"Barack Obama has shown he cannot get the votes Democrats need to win – blue-collar, working class people," Limbaugh also said. "He can get effete snobs, he can get wealthy academics, he can get the young, and he can get the black vote, but Democrats do not win with that."

For months, Limbaugh has urged his listeners in states with open primaries to cross party lines and support Clinton in an effort he has dubbed "Operation Chaos." The conservative talk show host has said the Republican Party will benefit from a protracted Democratic race that grows more bruising by the week.

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Watch Query and Stacy discuss Indiana's Democratic primary.

(CNN) – Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Indiana is a major test for three campaigns: Hillary Clinton’s Barack Obama’s — and Rush Limbaugh’s.

Because many Republicans believe Sen. John McCain, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, has a better chance of beating Clinton in the general election, Limbaugh has encouraged listeners to his popular radio show to vote for the New York senator. Limbaugh’s pro-Clinton campaign has been dubbed “Operation Chaos.”

Some exit polls from Ohio and Texas suggest that Limbaugh’s “Operation Chaos” may have had an impact on results in both states.

Indiana “is so red and so Republican,” said Indianapolis radio host Jake Query, that one of the interesting questions on Tuesday “is how many people who are actually registered Republicans will now switch over for this primary and vote” for Clinton.

“There is some talk about that, there really is,” Query’s co-host Terri Stacy said Tuesday about Limbaugh’s campaign in favor of Clinton.

Query and Stacy host a morning news show on Indianapolis radio station WIBC. They discussed Indiana’s Democratic primary with CNN’s Alina Cho on American Morning. Indiana’s open primary system allows supporters of the Republican Party to vote in Tuesday’s Democratic contest between Clinton and Obama.

Limbaugh wants the Democratic race to continue.

(CNN) – As Hillary Clinton battles to keep her presidential bid alive, she may be getting help from an unlikely source: conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

Limbaugh has been actively urging his Texas listeners to cross over and vote for Clinton in that state's open primary Tuesday, arguing it helps the Republicans if the Democratic race remains unsettled for weeks to come.

"I want Hillary to stay in this…this is too good a soap opera," Limbaugh told fellow conservative talk-show host Laura Ingraham on Fox News Friday. He reiterated the comments on his Monday show and replayed the exchange with Ingram.

He also said Clinton is more willing than the Republican National Committee and John McCain's campaign to criticize Barack Obama.

"We need Barack Obama bloodied up politically. It's obvious that the Republicans are not going to do it, they don't have the stomach for it," Limbaugh continued. "As you probably know we're getting all kinds of memos from the RNC saying we're not going to be critical. Mark McKinnon of McCain's campaign said he'll quit if they get critical over Obama. This is the presidency of the United States we're talking about. I want our party to win I want the Democrats to lose.”

In January, liberal Daily Kos blogger Markos Moulitsas urged readers in Michigan to vote for Mitt Romney in the GOP primary for similar reasons. Romney went on to win Michigan, though exit polling showed Democrats who voted in that primary favored McCain.

On his Monday show, several listeners appeared dismayed that Limbaugh was urging them to support the New York senator.

"Wouldn't you love to cream Hillary though…why are you so afraid of her? Look at how ineptly she has campaigned against Obama," Limbaugh responded to one listener who said she wanted to see Clinton out of the race immediately.

"I'm asking people to cross over, and if they can stomach it and I know it's a difficult thing to do, vote for Clinton," he also told Ingraham Friday. "But it will sustain this soap opera, and it's something I think we need and it'll be fun, too."

Several recent polls suggest Clinton is statically tied with Obama in Texas, and the New York senator's campaign has characterized Tuesday's vote as a crucial test of strength.

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Limbaugh has been highly critical of McCain, but on Tuesday the talk show host said he is actually doing the Arizona senator a favor.

(CNN) — He's aggressively targeted John McCain ever since the Arizona senator began his meteoric rise in the polls, but conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday he may actually be the Arizona senator's "most valuable asset."

Commenting on the mainstream media's fixation with his feelings about McCain, Limbaugh said there may be more to his criticisms than meets the eye.

"If I really wanted to torpedo McCain, I would endorse him," Limbaugh said on his radio show. "Because that would send the independents and liberals who are going to vote for him running away faster than anything."

"What people don't realize is that I am doing McCain the biggest favor that can be done for him by staying out of this," he continued. "If I endorsed him thoroughly and with passion, that would end the independents and moderates, because they so despise me and they so hate me."

Limbaugh, along with several other prominent conservative radio hosts, have long spoken out against the Arizona senator over his stances on a range of issues and his history of working with Democrats on issues such as immigration and campaign finance reform.

Limbaugh's attacks in particular got so heated that former Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole wrote the talk-show host last week defending McCain — calling him a "mainstream conservative" who supported the party on critical votes during Dole's time as the Senate Republican leader."

Limbaugh later said of the letter that McCain was "manipulating" Dole.

Yet despite the fiery rhetoric, Limbaugh on Monday suggested members of the media weren't digging deep enough into his comments.

"Couldn't it be said, if somebody wanted to…that I am secretly supporting McCain, because I secretly do want him to win, but I know full well that if I come out and endorse him, he's cooked?" Limbaugh asked. "Who may be in this whole kit and caboodle, this who shebang, the most valuable asset McCain has?"

"Me."

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Limbaugh is a strong critic of John McCain.

(CNN) — Calling it his "non-concession speech," talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh launched a fresh round of attacks Wednesday on newly-minted GOP frontrunner John McCain — the latest indication the Arizona senator is likely to witness a backlash from some conservative quarters as he seeks to wrap up his party's nomination.

Limbaugh, a longtime conservative critic of McCain, said the senator's rise is largely the result of "uninspiring" candidates, and a "fractured" party base.

"There was no figure in our roster of candidates who rose up to challenge him or galvanize conservative support," Limbaugh said on his daily radio program. "All the candidates on our side, for various reasons, are uninspiring or worse — and so, just as I predicted, the base has fractured."

McCain has long had trouble courting the most conservative members of his party — and exit polls from the early-primary states have shown the Arizona Republican has consistently lost among those primary voters who identify themselves as conservative.

McCain passed a key test Tuesday in winning Florida's primary — the first early contest that closed out Independents and cross-over Democrats — but exit polls out of the state show he still lost the conservative vote to Mitt Romney.

"He is not the choice of conservatives, as opposed to the choice of the Republican establishment — and that distinction is key," Limbaugh continued. "The Republican establishment, which has long sought to rid the party of conservative influence since Reagan, is feeling a victory today as well as our friends in the media. But both are just far-fetched and wrong.”

– CNN Producer Alexander Mooney

(CNN) — Calling it his "non-concession speech," talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh launched a fresh round of attacks Wednesday on newly-minted GOP frontrunner John McCain — the latest indication the Arizona senator is likely to witness a backlash from some conservative quarters as he seeks to wrap up his party's nomination.

Limbaugh, a longtime conservative critic of McCain, said the senator's rise is largely the result of "uninspiring" candidates, and a "fractured" party base.

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– CNN Producer Alexander Mooney

The top bidder paid over $2 million for a Senate letter slamming Limbaugh.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – What’s the going price for a letter signed by 41 Senate Democrats officially condemning conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh’s recent controversial 'phony soldiers' comments?

$2.1 million, apparently.

That was the winning eBay.com bid Friday for a letter sent to Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays officially calling on him to condemn the comments in question. The letter was written by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and signed by 40 Democratic senators, including White House hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Mays refused to condemn the remarks and Limbaugh placed Reid's letter on the popular auction Web site last Friday, pledging to match whatever it fetched and donate it all to The Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Foundation.

When the Ticker first checked in Tuesday, the bidding stood at $50,000 — already a significant price for a standard Senate letter, but ultimately more than $2 million short of what the letter finally fetched Friday.

“The government tried to take away my living, by sending this letter to Mark Mays at Clear Channel and asking him to confer with me about my remarks,” Limbaugh said on his show Friday announcing the winning bid. “Private citizens, of their own accord — without a government mandate, without an Al Gore pledge — responded with creativity, and charity, and a sense of fun.”

Limbaugh identified the winning bidder as Betty Casey, a philanthropist and trustee of the Eugene B. Casey Foundation

“We cannot thank her enough for her support in this, and I am honored, and proud, and happy to be matching her,” Limbaugh said of Casey.

And in a unique twist of fate, Reid took to the Senate floor Friday complimenting Limbaugh for his use of the letter. (Watch Reid on the Senate floor)

“Now, everyone knows that Rush Limbaugh and I don't agree on everything in life and maybe that is kind of an understatement,” Reid said. “But without qualification, Mark Mays, the owner of the network that has Rush Limbaugh, and Rush Limbaugh should know that this letter that they're auctioning is going to be something that raises money for a worthwhile cause.”

Though Limbaugh made clear he wasn’t ready to bury the hatchet with the Senate’s top Democrat.

“I asked Senator Reid to go on the program and discuss his discussion of me as ‘unpatriotic,’” Limbaugh said on his show Friday after Reid’s speech. “He did not accept my offer to do that, and now has the audacity to climb aboard this, praising the effort, saying that ‘he’ never knew that it would get this kind of money. It got this kind of money because it represents one of the most outrageous abuses of federal power in modern American history, and that is what makes it a collector's item.”

Reid's spokesman Jim Manley later told CNN, "The irony of the situation is that this charity managed to benefit from [Limbaugh's] completely outrageous and offensive comments."

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Reid's letter is a hot item on eBay.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — It may turn out to be the most valuable letter Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid ever sent.

The Nevada Democrat's correspondence-in-question was sent earlier this month to Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays, officially calling on him to condemn popular conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh's controversial 'phony soldiers' remark. Clear Channel syndicates Limbaugh's show.

Mays refused to condemn the remarks and Limbaugh recently placed Reid's letter on eBay, pledging to match whatever it fetched and donate it all to The Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Foundation.

As of Tuesday morning, the top bid for the letter was over $50,000. The bidding ends Friday.

"I'm going to match the dollar figure, and I have suggested that Sen. Reid and the 40 other Democrats who signed the smear letter … also match the donation," Limbaugh said on his show Monday.

Limbaugh's original remark came on a September 26 program as he and a caller were discussing critics of the Iraq war.

"What's really funny is, they [Iraq war critics] never talk to real soldiers," the caller said. "They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media."

Limbaugh responded, "The phony soldiers."

After the liberal media watchdog group MediaMatters.org and several Democrats quickly condemned the remark, Limbaugh said he was "taken out of context," and added he was referring to one soldier specifically — Jesse MacBeth, a war critic who falsely claimed to be an Iraq veteran.

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– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Limbaugh set off a firestorm last week with his "phony soldiers" comment.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The company that syndicates Rush Limbaugh's popular radio program defended the conservative talk-show host Wednesday over his controversial "phony soldiers" remark, telling the Senate's top Democrat it is "unfair" to assume his comments were directed at combat soldiers who disagree with the Iraq war.

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Mark Mays, the CEO of Clear Channel Communications, wrote, "Over the years Mr. Limbaugh has repeatedly praised the dedication and valor of our brave men and women in uniform.

"Given Mr. Limbaugh's history of support for our soldiers, it would be unfair for me to assume his statements were intended to personally indict combat soldiers simply because they didn't share his own beliefs regarding the war in Iraq," he added.

Mays' letter was a response to a letter sent by Reid Tuesday, and signed by 41 Senate Democrats, calling on Clear Channel to publicly repudiate the comments. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination, were among the senators that signed the letter.

Limbaugh's comments in question came last Wednesday when Limbaugh and a caller were discussing critics of the Iraq war:

"What's really funny is, they [Iraq war critics] never talk to real soldiers," the caller said. "They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media."

"The phony soldiers," Limbaugh then said.

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– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Reid had some harsh words for Rush Limbaugh Monday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid slammed Rush Limbaugh Monday over his recent controversial "phony soldiers" remark, despite the conservative talk-radio host's protests that his words have been taken out of context.

Limbaugh's comments in question came last Wednesday when he and a caller were discussing critics of the Iraq war:

"What's really funny is, they [Iraq war critics] never talk to real soldiers," the caller said. "They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media."

"The phony soldiers," Limbaugh then said.

Several Democrats released statements late last week condemning the remarks and in a speech on the Senate floor Monday, Reid called the comments "so beyond the pale of decency that it cannot be left alone."

"Just as patriotism is the exclusive realm of neither party, taking a stand against those who spew hate and impugn the integrity of our troops is a job that belongs to all of us," Reid said.

"I can’t help but wonder how my Republican colleagues would have reacted if the tables were turned – if a well-known Democratic radio personality had used the same insulting line of attack against troops who support the war," the Nevada Democrat added.

Responding to his critics on Friday's show, Limbaugh said he was "taken out of context," adding his remark was referring to one soldier specifically — Jesse MacBeth, a vocal war critic who falsely claimed to have served in Iraq.

"The effort here is simply to discredit people that they consider effective and powerful on the right ginning up, leading up into the '08 elections," Limbaugh said Friday.

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Click here to see CNN's new political portal: CNNPolitics.com

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Democrats are seizing on recent comments from Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — In the wake of the high-profile uproar from Republicans over a MoveOn.org ad attacking Gen. David Petraeus, Democrats are seizing on recent comments from popular conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh who said on a recent broadcast on Iraq that some veterans who criticize the war in the media are "phony soldiers."

Democrats are pointing to comments Limbaugh made Wednesday when he and a caller were discussing critics of the Iraq war:

"What's really funny is, they [Iraq war critics] never talk to real soldiers," the caller said. "They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media."

"The phony soldiers," Limbaugh then said.

In a statement issued Thursday, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, called Limbaugh's comments a "personal attack on our men and women in uniform" and "reprehensible."

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