Don't know anything about Al Franken. Michael Moore I do - and I haven't actually come across many things in him that I'd want to attack him for. Essentially, while his approach is highly irreverent, it always seems fundamentally good-natured to me, even when he's in his full attack mode. And he never seems to shy away from difficult adversaries.

The occasional extracts I've seen from Limbaugh present him as a sneering and jeering bully. That's not just a matter of style, it's got a moral component. Bullying corrupts the body politic.

I don't think its possible to draw a line between what someone like that says and how they say it, and how they deal with other people. In this kind of context the medium really is the message.

I'd be perfectly happy to see people taking Michael Moore and his approach as a role-model. I suspect you'd be horrified to see people taking Limbaugh as one. And I'd feel the same if I came across an ostensibly left-wing Limbaugh (and I suspect there are some around).

Really it comes down to something I've raised a few times. It's very inadequate, I believe, to try to divide people and politics up just into left v right, and assume that that is what really matters. There are other distinctions which are just as important, such as authoritarian and libertarian. Just because on some left-right issues you might share some views with someone doesn't mean that they aren't your mortal enemies because of where they stand on other issues.