Last year I wrote a post wondering if there was a Republican with the guts to take Rush Limbaugh on. Looks like Sarah Palin — to her credit — has decided to try. Greg Sargent:

In the wake of Palin’s demand that Rahm Emanuel be fired for calling a bunch of liberal activists “f–king retards,” a bunch of people have asked how she will react to Limbaugh’s tirade on the air yesterday.

“Our political correct society is acting like some giant insult’s taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards,” Rush said, adding that Rahm’s meeting yesterday with advocates for the mentally handicapped was a “retard summit at the White House.”

I asked Palin spokesperson Meghan Stapleton for comment on Rush’s rant, and she emailed me this:

“Governor Palin believes crude and demeaning name calling at the expense of others is disrespectful.”

Well, good for her.  If she’s going to go after Rahm Emanuel for using the word “re**arded,* Limbaugh deserves the same treatment.

The bigger question, though, is how Limbaugh will react — and what Palin will do in the wake of it.  As Timothy Egan wrote last year in the New York Times, polling has found that Limbaugh is deeply unpopular, and “a self-described prescription-drug addict who sees America from a private jet” is hardly the populist image a party wants to project when they’re trying to ride a wave of populist discontent.

Last year I didn’t think Palin would stand up to Rush, however, so I have to admit I was wrong:

[S]omeone in the GOP could make a name for themselves taking on Rush, but it would have to be the right person. Newt may think it’s him, but his negatives are probably as high as Rush’s, and they’d just drag the whole thing further into the mud. Jim Baker may have the gravitas, but he has operated in the background for so long he’s not really a household word. My top pick was Orrin Hatch, whose social conservative credentials are good, but so far he has shown no appetite for the task. Palin, like Jindal, Pawlenty and Cantor, is too much of a lightweight. The only reason anyone listens to them is because nobody’s listening to Boehner, so his bellyaching is useless.

Does Palin have the guts to follow through, though?  Or is this just a prelude to a Mike Pence moment, when she is forced to kneel and kiss the cyst like so many before her?

Fifty bucks that says Limbaugh has Levi on within the week. Which could lead to the most perversely strange bedfellowing of all time:  Rush Limbaugh and Andrew Sullivan, imploring Levi to “tell it all.”

Oh, what Rahm hath wrought.

Update: And she’s backpeddling already!  And I have to be wrong about being wrong in record time.