After a year of refusing to weigh in on the GOP nomination in order to avoid “crowning” any one candidate, Rush Limbaugh kneecapped Mike Huckabee on his radio show today:

Rush: I say this with all compassion, and I say this with love and respect for all of you who support Huckabee. But how dare you compare Mike Huckabee to Ronald Reagan. That is simply intellectually vapid, and it’s grasping at straws. Ronald Reagan not only served as a governor, but he wrote and spoke for years about conservatism. Ronald Reagan was there at the beginning in 1964 about conservatism. I said yesterday, I have not spent a lifetime advocating conservative principles only to throw them away to embrace a particular candidate. I don’t support open borders and amnesty. I don’t support the release of hundreds of criminals. McCain supports open borders and amnesty. Huckabee released hundreds of criminals. I don’t support repeated increases in taxes. I don’t support national health care, whether you call it a children’s program or whatever it is. I don’t support anti-war rhetoric. I don’t support Republican candidates trashing the war in Iraq when we’re winning it. I don’t support Republican candidates claiming the president doesn’t read the National Intelligence Estimates as an excuse for him not knowing what the hell is in one. And that’s Governor Huckabee.

So, Rush tells his 20 million listeners that Huckabee is a fraud, openly despises John McCain, and doesn’t have any kind words for Benito — so I guess he’s pulling for Romney and Thompson like the rest of the Bushies. I’ve always thought that Rush was avoiding supporting any candidate because it would expose his reduced stature in the conservative world, but the impact of his tirade will tell us whether that’s the case or not.

Read the rest of the potential Huckaboom-killing transcript here.