Capitol Alert: Schwarzenegger makes fat joke about Limbaugh

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Capitol Alert

The latest on California politics and government

May 28, 2009

Schwarzenegger makes fat joke about Limbaugh

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger renewed his on-again, off-again feud with Rush Limbaugh by cracking a fat joke about the talk-show host during an online chat with CNN.com Wednesday.

Schwarzenegger was asked whether he thought Limbaugh was the leader of the Republican Party.

"Look, I think they say that Rush Limbaugh is the 800-pound gorilla in the Republican Party," Schwarzenegger said. "But I think that's mean-spirited to say that because I think he's down to 650 pounds. So I think one should be fair to him about this whole thing."

He then said, "in all seriousness," the Republican Party needs to listen to voters and build its moderate ranks to rebound.

The Republican governor began his war of words with Limbaugh during his post-partisan kick in 2007. He said at the time that Limbaugh was "irrelevant" on NBC's Today show.

That prompted Limbaugh to call Schwarzenegger a "closet liberal." Limbaugh that year also took issue with Schwarzenegger's description of his health care plan as "not a tax."

Look for Limbaugh to respond, though Schwarzenegger's latest budget proposals to eliminate welfare grants and cut off government health care for 900,000 children are far from liberal.

The CNN.com video is below (Limbaugh question and remark at 2:30):

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