Undisputed king of talk radio Rush Limbaugh has apparently just reached the fourth stage of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's five stages of grief: depression.

On Thursday on his radio show Limbaugh startled his devoted listeners and stirred up a hornet's nest by bluntly stating on his show that he's 'ashamed' of America for the first time in his life.

Limbaugh was expressing the kind of dramatic sentiment that never fails to roil his listeners (and himself) when expressed by any left leaning politician or celebrity. But yesterday was different. Yesterday the sentiment was being expressed by the unacknowledged head of the Republican Party.

According to the Huffington Post Limbaugh clarified his statement yesterday by insisting he had only been referring to his disappointment with the liberal direction that the nation is taking.

'To be watching all of this, to be treated like this, to have our common sense and intelligence insulted the way it's being insulted? It just makes me ashamed,' Limbaugh said on Thursday.

But yesterday the pundit was back-peddling furiously.

'I realize that many of you tuned in today wanting to hear more of this,' Limbaugh said. 'You wanted to hear what this is all about. You wanted to hear more about it, and I haven't really discussed it yet and you're probably angry, and I want to tell you why.'

Listeners had demanded that Limbaugh clarify his comments, which he did on Friday by explaining he's frustrated by the direction of the nation and by the country's liberal leanings.

'The left has beaten us,' Limbaugh said on his Friday show. 'They have created far more low-information, unaware, uneducated people than we’ve been able to keep up with.

'I’ve always had a Civics 101 view of the country: People get what they want, they vote what they want, and they get the way they vote.'

In a sweeping sea to shining sea portrait of leftist social engineering, Limbaugh painted a nightmare picture of liberal dominance.

'Democrats control the education system, pop culture, movies, TV and books' and they do it by creating 'dependency' and by scaring voters into believing the Right will take it all away if elected.

'I’m fed up with it,' he concluded. 'I can’t do it anymore. The whole thing is shamefully absurd. I don’t know how else to say it.'

But regular listeners doubt that we have heard the last from the portly pundit.