One of the overarching themes of Rush Limbaugh's daily radio program is individual responsibility. As the man himself put it last year: “You're much better equipped, you're much better able to make the most of your life than anybody else is, including your wife, your husband, your kids. You do it. This is not a sin. It's called greatness. It's the root [sic] to greatness. It's called individual responsibility.” Another overarching theme of The Rush Limbaugh Show is conspiracy, specifically the decades-long liberal conspiracy to undermine the nation through various means, which include but are by no means limited to: welfare programs, climate change, energy-efficient light bulbs, bank bailouts, and ACORN.

Well, these two themes collided this week after Rush's bid to take an ownership stake in the St. Louis Rams collapsed, producing a chaotic storm of whining and schadenfreude that enveloped most of the media, prompting fits of giddy laughter and maudlin eulogies for freedom in America. The widely accepted reason for the failure of Limbaugh's NFL bid was that Rush, in his many years of broadcasting, has made more than his fair share of racially charged comments, a number of which were directed at specific players or the league in general. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that Rush's “divisive comments are not what the N.F.L. is all about,” and the head of the players union opposed Rush because football “overcomes division and rejects discrimination and hatred.”

Given Rush's belief that individual responsibility is the path to greatness, you'd think that he'd have owned up to his divisive rhetoric and, if not renounced it, then at least recognized that it was clearly incompatible with his desire to own a professional football team. At least, that's what a rational person would do. As such, that's not what Rush did.

No, by Rush's retelling, he was the victim here, and his bid for the Rams was scuttled by a vast conspiracy of anti-Rush, anti-freedom, pro-Obama liberal agitators. The cast of conspirators included Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), former Ram D'Marco Farr, sportscaster Bob Costas, George Soros (of course), “race hustlers” Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and the NFL itself, which is, in Rush's words, an “outpost of racism and liberalism.” If you're confused as to why Rush would have wanted to own a piece of this racist, liberal outfit, the likely explanation is that he put in his bid before the Obama administration “got their hooks in the NFL.” Well, that's not the “likely” explanation, but that's the one Rush offered.

Even more amusing, though, was the reaction from Rush's cohorts in the conservative blogosphere. The top spot has to go to RedState.com, which offered these heartfelt observations on the death of one rich man's dream:

Earlier this evening, as most of you now know, one of our own, Rush Hudson Limbaugh, while taking withering fire, crashed and burned.

Tonight, Rush is no longer 'just' a radio personality.

Tonight, Rush is no longer 'just' a NFL owner denied

Tonight, Rush is us. And we are him.

Tonight Rush became the metaphor for all of us... every man woman and child in this great nation of ours.

The enemy of this great nation, the enemy of you and me, Rush's enemy... those on the left, inside and outside of this nation abhor success... and when faced with it will destroy it... by any and all means possible.

Touching. Then there was National Review's Andy McCarthy, who said that Rush takes the Martin Luther King approach to race, and Michelle Malkin, who claimed that “Rush Derangement Syndrome took over the NFL” and idly speculated on the potential for "[p]olitical litmus tests for fans." Glenn Reynolds, not wanting to be left out of the fun, signed on to a conservative boycott of the NFL.

But let's not get distracted here. What happened this week was that an insanely wealthy man who is accustomed to getting his way was blocked from achieving his dream by a wall of his own creation. And instead of putting into practice his high-minded paeans to individual responsibility, he cast out in all directions, going so far as to blame the president of the United States for “corrupt[ing]” the system by which he could have succeeded.

Think about that for a moment -- Rush Limbaugh actually believes that President Obama deliberately set out to keep him from becoming an NFL owner.

In the real world, that's called crazy. On The Rush Limbaugh Show, it's called Friday.