RUSH LIMBAUGH CAN REVEL, BUT TAKE CARE, IN NO. 1 SPOT

Now that Ronald Reagan himself has hailed Rush Limbaugh as "the No. 1 voice for conservatism in our country," it's high time that I weighed in with a few comments of my own about this amazing man.

Limbaugh utterly dominates talk radio today. According to the latest figures, his three-hour weekday radio programs leave all competitors in the dust, being heard by 14 million people every week - three and a half million at any given time.

And the spin-offs are almost as amazing. His new half-hour TV program is already third in the field of nighttime talk shows, despite industrious efforts to bury it in the wee hours or (as in Washington) not run it at all. His hardcover book, "The Way Things Ought To Be," is No. 1 on The New York Times non-fiction best-seller list, having sold a near-record 1.7 million copies already.

Just what is all the excitement about? The truth seems to be that Limbaugh has a knack for expressing the views of an awful lot of people - but expressing them more forcefully and more entertainingly than his listeners can do themselves.

And the views? They are rock-solidly conservative, without any exceptions or qualifications whatever. What's more, in the great majority of cases the man has done his homework: His figures are usually correct, and his analyses sound. When, inevitably, he makes some error, he is always quick to correct it and take full responsibility. In addition, he is unfailingly polite to people who phone in, however much he may disagree with them.

Limbaugh's biggest asset, though, is his rollicking wit. He chortles, crows, bloviates and denounces; but there is always an undercurrent of self-deprecating humor that makes his elephantine egotism bearable. At the same time, he never takes his eye off the ball: At the end of every program there are liberal corpses all over the floor. From Ted Kennedy to Hillary Clinton, and from "feminazis" to animal-rights activists, the business end of his rapier (or should I say bludgeon?) is felt day after day - and it hurts.

What is Rush Limbaugh like personally? He and I were two of perhaps 10 at a lunch in Los Angeles a year or so ago, and I was impressed by (of all things) his modesty. He regarded himself as a relative latecomer to the conservative wars, and simply hoped to do his part. He is doing far more than that.

I have only two fears concerning him. The first (happily unjustified to date) is that, in dancing along the perilous precipice of public issues as often and as volubly as he does, he may someday open himself to some false but damaging charge - probably of some sort of bigotry. As I say, he hasn't done so yet, which is an enormous tribute to his fundamental decency, his keen ear for nuances, and his rhetorical skill. But every dawn the danger is reborn.

My other fear is what the liberals may manage to do to him, even in the absence of a rhetorical slip. They have had very little to say about him thus far, because they don't know what to say; but you can be sure that they long to destroy him. The late Westbrook Pegler, who made a career out of spearing FDR and his family, used to say that every time he opened a closet door two IRS agents fell out.

With Bill Clinton in the White House and the media on the prowl, Rush Limbaugh had better beware. If he ever spat on the sidewalk when he was 15, or has been guilty of any other transgression in the course of a busy life, may the Lord help him. Meanwhile, he is an incalculably valuable resource to the conservative movement.