Sometimes the big boys of the right wing seem almost beyond satire: war hawks who never went to war men who make careers out of calling Bill Clinton a draft-dodger even though they themselves dodged the draft. In a chapter titled 'Phil Gramm: Everybody's Favorite Bastard,' the erstwhile presidential contender tells CNN's Judy Woodruff that poll results which show him at 5 percent in New Hampshire might be off: ' `These polls, you've gotta remember, Judy, have a margin of error of seven points.' ' Observes Franken: 'Which conceivably could put him at negative 2 percent.' To Clarence Thomas it means 24-hour-a-day pornography.' 'To Al Gore it means out-of-work aerospace workers accessing a video classroom to retrain themselves for the transition from a cold war economy to an information economy. '(T)he Information Superhighway means different things to different people,' writes Franken. The index is one long fat joke, with entries such as 'syrup, Limbaugh's purchase of in thirty-gallon drums.' Franken uses the cheap tactics of the far right against the far right, but with humor. There are hilarious bits here, humor on most every page, delightful low blows. 'Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot' (never get tired of saying that) is his second.

One of his more memorable characters is the 12-step addict, Stuart Smalley, whose catch-phrase, 'I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me,' became the title of Franken's first book. The somebody in this case is Al Franken, who has been a staff writer for 'Saturday Night Live' since its inception. It's not just a funny line there's an 'emperor has no clothes' quality to it, and I'm glad somebody finally said it. Because if you're like me, you laugh out loud every time you hear it. The big question about 'Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations' is whether the book can possibly live up to the promise of its title. 'Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations' by Al Franken Delacorte, $21.95.

Rush limbaugh is a big fat