Government Shutdown 2013: Rush Limbaugh Unleashes Rant On GOP, Calls Republican Party 'Irrelevant' [LISTEN]

Rush Limbaugh isn’t pleased about the GOP surrender in the 2013 government shutdown and debt ceiling. As The Blaze points out, the conservative radio host took to his show on Wednesday and blasted the GOP for being “irrelevant” and being responsible for “one of the greatest political disasters I’ve ever seen in my lifetime.”

"I was trying to think if ever in my life, I could remember any major political party being so irrelevant,” Limbaugh mused. “I have never seen it. I have never seen a major political party simply occupy placeholders, as the Republican Party has been doing.”

“There hasn't been any opposition, not any serious opposition,” Limbaugh continued. “There may have been votes against this or that, votes against Obamacare. There may have been votes against the stimulus, but in terms of a package of policies, a package of principled beliefs, of opposition expressed daily by party leaders against what's happening in this country, there hasn't been.

“The Republicans have done everything they can to try to make everyone like them and what they've ended up doing is creating one of the greatest political disasters I've ever seen in my lifetime, simply because they failed to show up,” Limbaugh said. "Then when they finally did make a play of showing up, they didn't have the guts to stick with it.”

Limbaugh then went on to defend Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, saying that Republicans shouldn’t “abandon” them.

“You know that what they attempted to do here was, I think, valiant,” Limbaugh said. “It's been an illustration of just how terribly wrong things are. There are plenty of opportunities for lessons to be learned here. Now, look, I'm not living in a false reality here. I was thinking about this last night, too, while I was pondering if I can ever remember a greater political disaster in my lifetime, if I could ever remember a time when a political party just made a decision not to exist for all intents and purposes.”

Limbaugh also touched on independents, President Barack Obama’s race, Democratic “tricks” and much more in his rant.

Limbaugh's commentary comes amid news that the Senate has reached a deal to end the government shutdown and avoid a debt-ceiling breach, and that Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, will allow a House vote on it.

Listen to Limbaugh's rant in full below via the Daily Rushbo, and click here for the full transcript.