Did President Obama and the federal government wait too long to take the Gulf oil spill seriously, relying on initial assurances from British Petroleum that the disaster was manageable?

Palm Beacher Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives are pushing the “Obama’s Katrina” idea, and liberal Media Matters for America is aggressively pushing back.

(Media Matters says, in Obama’s defense, that “British Petroleum reportedly led the Obama administration to believe that the spill was much less severe than it actually was.” Somehow we suspect that argument might have been cast differently if, say, the Bush administration had believed the assurances of a global energy corporation.)

Here’s a Wall Street Journal timeline of the disaster.

And here’s a story from The New York Times, not exactly a favorite publication of the Limbaugh crowd, saying the federal government “missed chances to act.”

Most Democrats who represent congressional districts that went for Republican John McCain in 2008 voted no on the recent health care bill. Democrat Chris Craft hopes to win election in such a district in 2010, but he’s for the health care legislation.

Read about Craft’s position in this week’s Politics column, along with the latest on Irv Slosberg’s plans and the warning from not one but two local Dems about Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

Radio talker Rush Limbaugh won’t be attending the West Palm Beach “tea party” April 15, but the protest will feature several other big deal GOPers.

To find out which ones, click here.

WEST PALM BEACH — A Democratic billboard campaign against Rush Limbaugh succeeded today in sparking a high-decibel sidewalk political debate that managed to upstage Mayor Lois Frankel.

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Tax Day is going to be a little more colorful in West Palm Beach.

Republican organizers are putting together an April 15 “tea party” at the county government center.

The protest will mirror similar so-called “tea parties” elsewhere in the country, all against Pres. Barack Obama’s economic policies, bailouts and stimulus packages.

The county’s Young Republicans vice president, Everett Wilkinson, says members are trying to convince local Conservative radio talkmeister Rush Limbaugh to be a keynote speaker.

For more, click here.

The Democratic National Committee today selected the above slogan to paste on a billboard somewhere in West Palm Beach, where Rush Limbaugh broadcasts his conservative radio show.

The announcement is the latest update in a week-long publicity stunt from the DNC, which is hoping Limbaugh’s divisive reputation helps President Obama’s approval ratings. The DNC is using the billboard today to ask for donations to help “get out the message.”

Background on the billboard here and here.

Updating this item, the Democratic National Committee announced today the top five submissions for the group’s anti-Rush Limbaugh billboard in West Palm Beach:

*Americans didn’t vote for a Rush to failure
*Hope and change cannot be Rush’d
*Failure is not an option for America’s future
*We can fix America, just don’t Rush it
*Rush: Say yes to America

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UPDATE: DNC puts five billboard slogans up for a vote. Read about that here.

The Democratic National Committee sent this e-mail to supporters this morning announcing plans to install a billboard in West Palm Beach to express their displeasure with Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk show host who makes his home in Palm Beach.

The e-mail asks supporters for suggestions of 10 words or less “and we’ll chose the best one to put in Rush’s backyard!”

“If Republican leaders aren’t willing to tell Rush, then we will,” new DNC Executive Director Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote in the email. “Americans want President Obama to succeed. Our country’s future depends on it. Rooting for the President’s failure is rooting for our country to fail.”

A day after Rush Limbaugh slammed Rep. Robert Wexler and called his South Florida constituents “deranged,” “lunatics,” “wacko,” and “devoid of rationality or reason,” the congressman called for an apology from the radio commentator.

“Many of the same people Rush Limbaugh is calling ‘deranged’ and ‘lunatics’ are World War II and Korean War veterans,” Wexler said in a statement. “Many of them are Holocaust survivors. These are the same men and women who re-built America after the Great Depression. These are good, law-abiding citizens — and he owes them an apology. It is pathetic that Mr. Limbaugh only supports veterans that share his opinions.”

In his radio show Tuesday, Limbaugh referred to Wexler as “the disgusting Robert Wexler,” for his aggressive questioning of Gen. David Petraeus at a congressional hearing the day before.

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