You know you've arrived when the drug-addicted, hypocritical, overzealous members of conservative media have officially made you a target.

Such is the case for Barack Obama, who was assailed during a telecast of Rush Limbaugh's radio show yesterday.

RUSH: Here we go with Barack Obama. As you know, he was up in New Hampshire -- do you know, by the way, TV ads for Barack Obama are going to start airing this weekend? Presidential ads for Barack Obama in New Hampshire start airing this weekend. Hillary, I think, is starting to get panicked because she's called up all of Bubba's old buddies, Carville and Begala and Joe Lockhart, she had them over to dinner to discuss what to do about this. Her team wasn't there. They're all one team, of course, but publicly Carville and Begala have said, (paraphrasing) "Well, we'll help, but we're not officially on the team." That allows them to have more movement and latitude under the radar. Anyway, Obama up in New Hampshire being treated like a god making a speech. Now, apparently before he made the speech, Maureen Dowd had written something about his big ears. Obama, after the speech, made a beeline for Maureen Dowd who was in the audience to tell her that he didn't appreciate her writing about his big ears. Now, there's a lot of noise here and it's very muddy. I'll translate it for you, but here's how it sounded.

OBAMA (off mic): You talked about my ears, and I just want to put you on notice: I'm very sensitive about -- What I told them was, ''I was teased relentlessly when I was a kid about my big ears.'"

DOWD (purring): We're trying to toughen you up

RUSH: "We're just trying to toughen you up." Here is what Barack Obama said."You talked about my ears, and I just want to put you on notice: I'm very sensitive about -- What at I told them was, 'I was teased relentlessly when I was a kid about my big ears.'" Now, there are many aspects of this, folks, that we need to delve into and explore. For one thing, I mean you know me, if the guy's sensitive about his big ears, we need to give him a new name, like Dumbo. But that doesn't quite get it. How about Barack Obama Hussein Odumbo. Well, if he's sensitive -- stop to think about this. This is a man being lauded as the savior of the country, a presidential candidate ready to be anointed, and he can't handle being teased about his big ears? He goes out to Maureen Dowd and says, I am putting you on notice? Is that a threat? I want to put you on notice?

Apparently, Rush is too dense (or high, take your pick) to realize Obama was in all likelihood being facetious.

Oh wait, there's more.

RUSH: I wonder what would happen if McCain did that. McCain, "You don't say that about me! I'm putting you on notice, you hear, sister, you hear?"

Sister, eh? How subtle of you, Rush.

He goes to rant even more about a bunch of nothing. It's pretty sad when all you have to attack a man with is a joke you're trying to pass off as a sign of hypersensitivity.

Make no mistake, I'm not Obama's biggest fan, but this only makes him more endearing.

It would be nice if someone from Obama's camp would respond to this waste of airspace with, "So, how's the habit?"