From a story on The Huffington Post:
Conservative commentator George Will said on [ABC-TV's] "This Week" that he believes "Republican leaders are afraid of Rush Limbaugh."
“[House Speaker John] Boehner comes out and says Rush’s language was inappropriate. Using the salad fork for your entrée, that’s inappropriate. Not this stuff,” Will said. “And it was depressing because what it indicates is that the Republican leaders are afraid of Rush Limbaugh. They want to bomb Iran, but they’re afraid of Rush Limbaugh.”
Conservative political strategist Matthew Dowd said he agreed. "I think they don't have the courage to say what they say in quiet, which is, they think Rush Limbaugh is a buffoon," he said. "They don't think he's helpful in this marketplace. Nobody takes him seriously. If I were Mitt Romney, I would stand up and say, we need to change the political discourse in this country. Whatever words we use on the left or the right we need to change the political discourse."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/04/newt-gingrich-rush-limbaugh_n_1319366.html
