As the war of words between Rush Limbaugh and John McCain reached a fever pitch this week, it took MSNBC reporter David Schuster to remind Americans that the two right-wing titans share some common values. For all of their current disagreements over the direction of the Republican Party, Limbaugh and McCain agreed on one thing. They both called a young Chelsea Clinton ugly - and worse.

As Molly Ivins recalled, Rush's 1993 slur against the 13 year old daughter of the new President was signature Limbaugh:

On his TV show, early in the Clinton administration, Limbaugh put up a picture of Socks, the White House cat, and asked, "Did you know there's a White House dog?" Then he put up a picture of Chelsea Clinton, who was 13 years old at the time and as far as I know had never done any harm to anyone.

When viewers objected, he claimed, in typical Limbaugh fashion, that the gag was an accident and that without his permission some technician had put up the picture of Chelsea--which I found as disgusting as his original attempt at humor.

Five years later, John McCain got into the act with a slander of Chelsea Clinton that was infinitely more vulgar. Appearing at a 1998 Republican Senate fundraiser, McCain reached into the gutter to show his conservative family values with this:

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."

As David Corn reported in June 1998, John McCain the aspiring presidential candidate as usual got a free ride from the press in extricating himself from the hole he dug himself:

When McCain subsequently apologized to President Clinton, the Washington Post, in its personality section, noted the apology but said the joke "was too vicious to print."

The joke did appear in McCain's hometown paper, the Arizona Republic, and the Associated Press did report the joke in full, so everyone in the press had access to McCain's words. But by censoring themselves, the Post, the Times and others helped McCain deflect flak and preserved his status as a Republican presidential contender.

Unlike Limbaugh, McCain at least apologized to President and Mrs. Clinton. (Should Senator Clinton win the Democratic nomination, John McCain should have plenty of chances to repeat that apology during the fall debates.)

David Schuster's comment about the Clinton campaign "pimping out" Chelsea Clinton was shockingly inappropriate and utterly offensive. (It's all the more disappointing given his excellent reporting on the Libby case and other White House scandals.) His suspension by NBC was well deserved.

As for Rush Limbaugh, he remains #1 on talk radio. And far from slinking back to Arizona, John McCain will be the 2008 presidential nominee of the Republican Party. But while the two men are at odds now, they can look back on happier days in the 1990's when they shared a common foe. Rush Limbaugh and John McCain will always have Chelsea Clinton.

UPDATE: Hillary Clinton responds to NBC, writing "Nothing justifies the kind of debasing language that David Shuster used and no temporary suspension or half-hearted apology is sufficient." Based on her comments earlier today about John McCain being "legendary," as well as Bill Clinton's earlier description of the Arizona Senator and his wife being "very close," Mr. Straight Talk has apparently been forgiven.