Naming a road in Florida after Rush Limbaugh has me Tuckered out

I’m relieved that Rush Limbaugh is getting a road named after him in Florida.

I was worried that Tucker Carlson was going to beat him out.

State lawmakers took time out from designating state roadways and bridges to the usual mix of heroic fallen police officers, Floridians who died in military combat overseas, and Christa McAuliffe, the New Hampshire school teacher killed during the ill-fated 1986 launch of the Challenger space shuttle.

Boooring. So, lawmakers came up with a more on-brand Florida idea: Let’s name some random stretch of road without any geographical significance after a right-wing radio host who was repulsive to millions of state residents.

Here are the particulars: There’s going to be a Hernando County stretch of Cortez Boulevard in Brooksville named “Rush Limbaugh Way.”

(If you pass the Wawa and the Ranch Hand’s Feed Depot, you’ve gone too far.)

Limbaugh complained about the part of Florida where he lived

Limbaugh, a cigar smoker who died two years ago of lung cancer at the age of 70, didn’t live anywhere near Hernando County. He wouldn't be caught dead there. At least not until the road signs go up.

Limbaugh lived 220 miles and five tax brackets away in an oceanfront home in Palm Beach, where he complained about sea turtle lights and barrier island hurricane evacuations. He had little regard for Palm Beach County — which he told his radio audience was full of “deranged” people who are “devoid of any rationality or reason.”

“They’ve drunk the Kool-Aid down here, folks, and they drink it every day,” Limbaugh told his radio audience in 2007 within the safety of his Palm Beach bunker.

“It’s one of the reasons I don’t cross the bridge here much,” Limbaugh said, “except … to like go to the airport and get out.”

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So, kudos to state lawmakers for at least having the decency of not naming a road here in Palm Beach County after Limbaugh. That was a merciful decision.

Although, I do wish that if they felt compelled to name a road after Limbaugh, they had put more thought in it, and found some one-way street or dead end that could be more accurately designated.

Some dissenting Democratic state lawmakers were surprised to see their Republican colleagues add Limbaugh to the list of roadway honorees.

After all, he was a radio powerhouse for promoting sexism, the guy who did his best to popularize the term, “feminazi.”  And he’s the broadcaster who dismissed a black caller by telling him, “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”

Limbaugh not ready for prime time TV sports commentary

Limbaugh’s racist-adjacent commentary was so divisive that he only lasted a month as a TV commentator for NFL games before his remarks about a Black quarterback were deemed over-the-line offensive.

Even in his real home state, Missouri — no beacon of progressive thinking — the inclusion of his bust among the others in the Hall of Famous Missourians, required around-the-clock video surveillance to protect it from vandals.

So, it was quite a bold decision for Florida lawmakers to name a road after Limbaugh.

To justify it, they pointed out that he is a recipient of a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Normally, that would be an honor worth mentioning. But the president who gave it to him was President Donald Trump. Insert asterisk.

That’s the same guy who’s now hawking $99 trading cards that picture him as a super hero riding a motorcycle while playing a guitar, an image that jam-packs three lies in one shot. And it's the same guy who is selling digital downloads of himself reciting the Pledge of Allegiance while a choir of convicted insurrectionists / domestic terrorists sings The Star Spangled Banner.

Trump is easing into his place in history as a carnival act run amok. It’s best to leave out the Trump medal and stick with pretending that Limbaugh was an unassailable font of wisdom and intellectual probity.

Gov. Ron DeSantis knows how to do this.  He ordered the flags be lowered to half-staff when Limbaugh died, and praised Limbaugh for allowing DeSantis to be on his radio show.

“He didn’t have a lot of guests,” DeSantis said. “I was honored to be on his show.”

These days, DeSantis is honored to call another right-wing gasbag, Tucker Carlson, a state resident.

“Tucker is a fantastic individual,” DeSantis told Newsmax last weekend. “I think his show is fantastic …

“And, oh, by the way, we’re proud because he’s a Florida resident and he loves the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.

See what I mean? Putting up with a street named after Limbaugh only seems as awful as you can get until you realize there’s a “Tucker Terrace” lurking in our driving future.

Oy.

Frank Cerabino is a columnist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at fcerabino@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Naming street in Florida after Rush Limbaugh takes political low road