This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by Bill Ayers... for some reason
By Simon Maloy

Well, it's Monday, and did you all hear the big news from the weekend? President Obama shook hands -- shook hands -- with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela at the Summit of the Americas. It's the most controversial physical interaction between heads of state since Gerald Ford "found a quarter" behind German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's ear in 1975. We're pretty sure Rush heard the news, and though he'll be hard-pressed to edge out Fox News for the most puerile reaction to this super-controversial handshake, we're confident he'll figure out a way.

Rush got the show started by saying that The New York Times reported that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in one month, and that its source was "a left-wing blogger." This, said Rush, is the new media model -- outlets closing bureaus and using left-wing bloggers as credible sources. In actuality, the Times' source were the actual memos; they just credited bloggers, including "Marcy Wheeler of the blog emptywheel," who "discovered it in the May 30, 2005, memo." Anyway, Rush went on to say that if someone can undergo waterboarding six times a day, it's not torture because he obviously figured out a way to "endure" it. Assuming that's true -- and that's quite an assumption -- Rush failed to take the next logical step: If people figure out how to "endure" waterboarding after the first 83 times, what was the point of the last 100?

Then Rush moved on to Obama's attendance at the "blasphemous" Summit of the Americas, which led Rush to conclude: "I don't care whether you're talking about domestic policy or foreign policy, it's not about the United States anymore, it's about Barack Obama. I really do believe the guy's got a God complex. I really do think he believes he is the one." The funniest story out of the Summit, said Rush, was the Associated Press analysis comparing Obama to Mikhail Gorbachev. Rush's takeway was: "Gorbachev scrambled to shed the ideological entanglements leading the Communist empire toward ruin; Obama, according to AP, is doing the same thing. Obama is shedding incessantly the ideological entanglements that lead the U.S. to ruin. What are the ideological entanglements Obama is shedding? Capitalism." Rush said that Obama is going around apologizing for America, but not himself, and that he's not representing the interests of the United States, but his own interests. Rush concluded: "This is not hard to understand. Please, folks, this is virulently anti-American leader Hugo Chavez. Do you realize that Obama and Chavez have more in common than they do not have in common?"

Looking back on all this, Rush attacked the "idiots" on the conservative side who say that Obama is a moderate centrist: "They've never understood who this guy is. He's either a useful idiot or he's worse. And I frankly think he's worse. I think he's stupid, Obama, but he's been trained well -- Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, all of his liberal professors."

After the break, Rush aired a montage of media personalities noting that after Chavez gifted Obama with the book, Open Veins of Latin America, it shot up to number two on the Amazon best-seller's list. Rush attacked the media for not pointing out that it failed to unseat the number one book on the list, Mark Levin's Liberty & Tyranny. Then he aired another montage, this one of administration officials downplaying the significance of "the handshake" between Obama and Chavez. Rush asked what the big deal was; why were they downplaying it? Because it's not good politically, Rush said. Things like this -- the encounter with Chavez -- are the kind of things you take care of beforehand, said Rush, and that they "wanted this to happen."

After the break, Rush aired audio of Obama in Trinidad and Tobago responding to a question about whether his interaction with Chavez demonstrated weakness, which Obama disputed, saying that the American people rejected the idea that meeting with people unfriendly to the U.S. is "weak." Rush wanted to know what else you could call it but "weakness" when you're running around the world apologizing for the country. Then Rush brought Bill Ayers into all this (the second time he mentioned Ayers this hour), pointing out that Ayers ("Obama's good buddy") attended an education conference in Caracas and praised Chavez's educational reforms, and now Obama is accepting books from Chavez. He didn't explain what the connection was there very well, but he found it significant nonetheless. Rush then said that if Obama's goal is to go around and accept the premises of people who hate America as a means of forging relationships with those people, then anyone could form a new relationship with anyone. Rush could be the darling of the left, he said, if he were to simply apologize to everyone and say the left was right. But that relationship would only be about Rush, not conservatives in general, and that's Rush's point -- that this is all about Obama's interests, and not those of the country.

After another break, Rush took a call from a man explaining that the U.S. has to talk to these countries even if we don't like them, just like Rush talks with people he disagrees with. Rush said he doesn't talk to any of his enemies and he doesn't have to because his goal is to "defeat" them. We wouldn't have to deal with Venezuela, according to Rush, if we had a president and a "Democrat Party" that would be willing to drill domestically, but instead the Democrats want Obama to go around and "kiss the ass" of Chavez.

Highlights from Hour 1

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: I don't care whether you're talking about domestic policy or foreign policy, it's not about the United States anymore, it's about Barack Obama. I really do believe the guy's got a God complex. I really do think he believes he is the one.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: We have a comparison here: Gorbachev scrambled to shed the ideological entanglements leading the Communist empire toward ruin; Obama, according to AP, is doing the same thing. Obama is shedding incessantly the ideological entanglements that lead the U.S. to ruin.

What are the ideological entanglements Obama is shedding? Capitalism. Now would somebody explain to me the connection here? How can you claim that Gorbachev and Obama are the same when they were trying ostensibly to shed different ideological entanglements?

[...]

LIMBAUGH: This is not hard to understand. Please, folks, this is virulently anti-American leader Hugo Chavez. Do you realize that Obama and Chavez have more in common than they do not have in common? The only thing -- one of the big things they don't have in common -- and I think this is an important point -- first, you've got Obama over there kissing the ring of the Saudi King.

And what are the Saudis? What do we care about the Saudis for? Oil. So, he's kissing their hand, kissing their -- oh, he goes down to Venezuela, and he yuks it up. Yuks it up with Hugo Chavez, who has insulted the United States of America, insulted George W. Bush at the UN two years ago -- called him the devil. Said I can still smell the sulfur here in the room.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I can't help, you know, think of the idiots on our side -- these so-called intelligent conservatives, who kept saying, "Well, at least he's a centrist. At least Obama is following Bush's foreign policy. At least he's appointing centrists on foreign policy and defense."

They've never understood who this guy is. He's either a useful idiot or he's worse. And I frankly think he's worse. I think he's stupid, Obama, but he's been trained well -- Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, all of his liberal professors.

Clips from this hour

Limbaugh: "[I]f somebody can be water-tortured six times a day, then it isn't torture"

Limbaugh: Obama is "either a useful idiot or he's worse, and I frankly think he's worse"

Limbaugh: "Do you realize that Obama and Chavez have more in common than they do not?"

Limbaugh on AP comparison between Obama and Gorbachev: Obama is shedding "ideological entanglements" of capitalism

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the UAW's share in Citigroup
By Simon Maloy

Rush kicked off the second hour by returning to the caller advocating that we talk with our adversaries. Rush asked when was the last time Obama spoke to him. Instead, Rush said, Obama sent his "hacks" out to attack him, adding: "President Barack Obama treats brutal dictators better than he speaks to, or of, many of his own countrymen who disagree with him." Then Rush hypothesized that he, in his role as the leader of the media, would have to apologize for Larry King and Chris Matthews and Katie Couric for the "awful" things that they do.

Then Rush moved on to reports that the Treasury Department might convert TARP debt owed by banks into equity shares. Rush said this is why the market is down today: The banks are finally making a profit and the administration is forcing them to remain in TARP, and now is going to take control of the companies. Rush's takeaway: "I guess the United Auto Workers are going to end up, not only on the board of General Motors, the United Auto Workers may end up on the board of directors of some of these banks." We have absolutely no idea what the UAW has to do with any of this, but we guess it's all part of Rush's theory that Obama's economic policies are designed as "payback" for the unions.

Taking off on the TARP reports, Rush declared: "Now, at this point, for somebody to say that they hope Obama succeeds -- knowing full well what his domestic and foreign policy is and the people he embraces and rejects -- it's irresponsible to now say you hope Obama succeeds." Rush then endeavored to explain why, when he said he wanted Obama to "fail," people on the left twisted that into Rush wanted America to fail. It's because they "feel their way through life," said Rush. They're so "emotionally invested" in Obama that when Rush attacked Obama, they felt as though he was attacking them personally. It's an interesting theory, to be sure, but it is ultimately undermined by the fact that Rush "hope[d]" that Obama's economic policies "prolong[] the recession." Regardless, Rush went on in this vein for some time, claiming that Obama's supporters on "the left" are akin to prisoners in the Gulag, who, as described by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, cried when they learned that Stalin had died.

Closing out the hour, Rush claimed that too many Americans play in the arena of emotions, not ideas, and Obama plays on this dynamic because his ideas "are not America's." That is why Obama -- and, again, Bill Ayers, for some reason -- have to keep their supporters uninformed, unlike listeners of The Rush Limbaugh Show, who, according to Rush, are very well-informed. "This is according to studies," Rush said. We'd like to get a look at those studies...

After the break, Rush took a call from a man who was sick to his stomach seeing Obama "hobnobbing with tyrants." Rush said this goes back to Obama's mentors. He aired audio of Obama at the Summit of the Americas responding to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's screed against America: "To move forward, we cannot let ourselves be prisoners of past disagreements. I'm grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old. Too often, an opportunity to build a fresh partnership of the Americas has been undermined by stale debates. We've all heard these arguments before." This sounded to Rush like Obama was saying Ortega was right about America before Obama came along. In reality, Obama was rebuking Ortega for dredging up the ancient history of U.S. involvement in Latin America. At least, that was the interpretation of those rabid leftists at Fox News: "Obama departed from his prepared remarks to mildly rebuke Ortega."

Another break and Rush came back to the bank bailouts and the equity share proposal, claiming that it is "interesting" that Obama was talking about "nationalizing" the banks just after "palling around" with Chavez and Ortega. Rush claimed that the administration will spin this proposal to the "emotionally attached nimrods" who support him. Rush said that this isn't what people meant when they said they're tired of bailouts.

Then Rush took a call from a man who called in last week on tax day to express his confusion as to what the tea parties were all about. The man said he went to a tea party and now he sees the light regarding Obama and all the government spending he's planning. Rush was thrilled at this and again returned to Ortega, asking what else can you take away from Obama thanking Ortega for not blaming him for things that occurred when he was three months old. This, according to Rush, makes it abundantly clear that everything Obama does is all about Obama, not the U.S. As we mentioned above, Obama was REBUKING Ortega for his anti-American screed.

After the final break, Rush thanked his audience for generously donating to his blood cancer drive last week, claiming that "records were set during the Obama recession." We still don't understand why political attacks have to be incorporated into charity work.

Highlights from Hour 2

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: Obama, Barack Obama, President Barack Obama treats brutal dictators better than he speaks to, or of, many of his own countrymen who disagree with him. In fact, Barack Obama warned Republican members of Congress you're not supposed to listen to me. And he told the American people you're not supposed to listen to people like Rush Limbaugh, but we've got a lot to learn from Hugo Chavez.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I guess the United Auto Workers are going to end up, not only on the board of General Motors, the United Auto Workers may end up on the board of directors of some of these banks. Now, at this point, for somebody to say that they hope Obama succeeds -- knowing full well what his domestic and foreign policy is and the people he embraces and rejects -- it's irresponsible to now say you hope Obama succeeds.

The only people who can say that they want Obama to succeed are either committed leftists, who are dead-set on dismantling the United States and their free markets, individual rights, American exceptionalism, so emotionally invested in Obama they can't admit they were wrong, or a combination of the two.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: You know, Alexander Solzhenitsyn said that when he was in the Soviet Gulag -- I mean, this is what we're up against. This is -- the kind of people that Solzhenitsyn described in the Gulag are identical to the people we're up against here who have this emotional attachment to Obama.

When he was in the Gulag, Solzhenitsyn said that his fellow prisoners cried when the death of Stalin was announced. Stalin had put them there. Stalin had put them in prison. Stalin had imprisoned them and killed millions of them. Those who were alive in prison cried when Stalin died.

It's like Victor from Boca Raton said last week, Stalin didn't know all these bad things were going on, just like these people with the emotional attachment to Obama. Obama doesn't know. He can't possibly know what Janet Napolitano did with that Department of Homeland Securities briefing. He can't possibly know.

So, the people imprisoned by Stalin who cried when he was in prison -- when he was -- when he died are the same kind of people we're dealing here with Obama. These people react in personal rage and anger when I say I hope Obama fails, because their emotional link to Obama tells them that I want them to fail, too, which is just the exact opposite.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Lots of people are emailing and wanted to know the outcome of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society cure-a-thon last Friday. I've got some numbers, but they're not all in yet. There's still a lot of donating going on and a lot of registering at RushLimbaugh.com, but suffice to say, records were set during the Obama recession. The total donors, as of this morning, were up over 45 percent.

Clips from this hour

Limbaugh: "It's irresponsible to now say you hope Obama succeeds"

Limbaugh: Obama's "ideas are not America's"

Limbaugh: "So the people imprisoned by Stalin who cried when he died are the same kind of people we're dealing here with Obama"

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the layoff-loving Obama supporters
By Simon Maloy

We've reached the final hour, and Rush got it started by declaring that everything Obama is doing is "reckless." Rush can't imagine, if he were president, sitting around with a bunch of America-hating dictators without getting as angry as he could be. But, Rush explained, "most presidents try to maintain a continuity, based on a shared belief in the greatness of America. Now some presidents had different views of what was great, but we've never had a president, I don't think, who didn't think we were great, until now. Now we've got a president who doesn't believe in the greatness of America." All Obama did, said Rush, was sit idly by as they attacked America and thanked them for not blaming him for things that happened when he was three months old. As we explained in the last hour, that was part of Obama pushing back against Ortega.

Moving on, Rush noted that GM "just announced they're laying off 16,000 salaried employees." Rush said that "the sad thing is that when I see that report, I imagine that, in parts of this country, there are people cheering and applauding. And there are people who voted for Obama who are cheering and applauding this." You know, for someone who so frequently accuses the president of employing "straw man" arguments, it's amusing to us to see him shadowbox with these admittedly imaginary Obama supporters who cheer and applaud at reports that people have lost their jobs.

Anyway, after airing audio of Bush-era NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden attacking Obama for endangering national security by releasing the torture memos, Rush claimed that the "Obama doctrine" is to apologize to everyone to make himself look good and give himself moral authority at the expense of the interests of the country. Now if this sounds familiar, it should, because it's what pretty much every conservative blogger has been saying. In fact, Rush specifically cited Commentary blogger Peter Wehner, who wrote: "The overriding goal of the Obama Doctrine is to make the person it is named after look good, rather than, and if necessary at the expense of, the nation he was elected to represent."

Before the break, Rush noted that Obama met with his Cabinet today and asked them to cut $100 million from their budgets in the next 90 days. Now, why, you might be asking yourself, would Obama ask for such budget cuts? Well, Rush has the answer: "I'm sure they've got internal polling data that shows these tea parties are successful, and these tea parties are a problem. So they're responding to the tea parties here. That's all this is. And they're responding to the tea parties with chump change, with irrelevant numbers." And here we thought they could only influence the stock market.

After the break, Rush took a call from a gentlemen who claimed to be a disaffected Obama voter who was specifically upset that Obama had not moved on health care. Rush responded by saying that the government can't provide health care, just as it couldn't end poverty or racism. Health coverage doesn't guarantee health care, Rush said, and government-sponsored health care will never work and nor should it because it's not guaranteed by the Constitution.

After another break, Rush took a call from a man who challenged Limbaugh's assertion that he doesn't say things to provoke an emotional response, pointing to Limbaugh's use of the terms "palling around" regarding Obama's interaction with Chavez, and Rush's frequent descriptions of Obama as the "Messiah." Rush said he's only trying to communicate what he thinks of Obama, that he's trying to share his "critical thinking" with everyone, and that Obama is a "demagogue" who, unlike Rush, preys upon people's emotions and encourages them not to "think." The caller then touched on the tea parties, saying that he truly believed that they had a lot to do with Rush and Fox News. Rush berated the caller for lacking "originality," saying that he was just regurgitating things written on left-wing blogs. You'll recall earlier that Rush himself dropped the pretense of originality by "regurgitating" a right-wing blogger's concept of the "Obama Doctrine." Additionally, Fox did relentlessly promote the tea parties, and we lost track of how many times Rush urged his listeners to go to tea parties, but here are a few instances we documented.

Anyway, Rush declared that he can't help it if people react to what he says in an emotional way, but he hates it when they do because that means they're not thinking, and are thus susceptible to Obama's nefarious liberty-curtailing schemes. "Individual liberty is going to triumph only if Obama fails," declared Rush. To drive home this point (or some other point, we couldn't really tell at this... um, point), Rush said that the "greatest emotional connection I can think of -- and it may not be the right -- but it's the attachment that black voters have to the Democrat Party," which has "destroyed the black family for 50 years." Somehow this had something to do with Obama's remarks to Ortega, which Rush found a brand new way to distort: "Obama thanks Ortega for not blaming him for the rotten aspects of America. I would like to say: Obama -- well, then, stop blaming me for slavery. I wasn't alive. But, see, they still do. They blame white America today for continued ongoing slavery."

After one more break, Rush took his final caller, this one wondering when America is going to "wake up" to whatever it is Obama is doing. Rush, seizing on the fact that the caller identified himself as a veteran, said that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is "keep[ing] watch on all former military people." The logical extension to this, according to Rush, is that DHS also monitor... you know it's coming... Bill Ayers, who "actually blew up the Pentagon." And, for good measure, Rush said "we need to keep a sharp eye on every professor in this country who is advocating some of the most extreme radicalism to these students." But to answer the man's question, Rush said that people will "wake up" when enough things happen at once, but, right now, it's like "water torture," or "death by a thousand cuts." Well, maybe the American people are just used to "water torture" at this point and can endure it, which means Rush really can't call it "torture."

That's it for today's Wire. On a side note, the Limbaugh Wire was profiled in the Boston Globe this weekend by reporter Don Aucoin, who asked if what we do every day can be considered the "worst job in America." At the time, we weren't sure that distinction fell on our shoulders. But after a show like today's -- with the UAW taking over the banks, Obama breaking the presidential tradition of loving America, and endless talk of William Ayers -- we think we might have been a little too modest... Anyway, we hope to see you all tomorrow. Until then, Media Matters has all the goods on Rush, and you can, too, if you'll just take a look at our comprehensive Limbaugh Repository.

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: You know, most chief executives, most presidents try to maintain a continuity, based on a shared belief in the greatness of America. Now some presidents had different views of what was great, but we've never had a president, I don't think, who didn't think we were great, until now.

Now we've got a president who doesn't believe in the greatness of America. He feels the need to apologize for it and to sit idly by, and even chuckle, when this nation's entire existence is ripped to shreds.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: General Motors just announced they're laying off 16,000 salaried employees. General Motors just announced they're laying off 16,000 salaried employees. And the sad thing is that when I see that report, I imagine that, in parts of this country, there are people cheering and applauding. And there are people who voted for Obama who are cheering and applauding this: "He's getting it right. He's punishing those who destroyed it. He's punishing those people who ruined me and who ruined us. And it's about time those white-collared people found out what it's like to walk out of the door without a job."

[...]

LIMBAUGH: People want to hear he's going to cut spending; he's going to cut the budget. So when -- and I'm sure they've got internal polling data that shows these tea parties are successful, and these tea parties are a problem. So they're responding to the tea parties here. That's all this is.

And they're responding to the tea parties with chump change, with irrelevant numbers. Thousands of people turned out at tea parties to protest big government -- Obama can say, "I heard you; I cut the budget." Fifty-two million dollars over five years by purchasing office supplies in bulk -- that's just -- it's a damn insult.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Individual liberty is going to triumph only if Obama fails. How anybody can say, after this summit, after giving up the interrogation memos and the secrets of the CIA, after $4,000 billion in debt -- that sounds bigger than $4 trillion, right? -- $4,000 billion in debt. Four thousand billion dollars in debt.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: The greatest emotional connection I can think of -- and it may not be the right -- but it's the attachment that black voters have to the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party has destroyed the black family for 50 years. The Democrat Party has done not one thing they have promised the Democrat Party except to try to go out and punish a bunch of people who they think have held black people back.

Well, just like Obama. Here's what I would say to Obama: Obama thanks Daniel Ortega for not blaming him for what happened when he was only three months old. Obama thanks Ortega for not blaming him for the rotten aspects of America.

I would like to say: Obama -- well, then, stop blaming me for slavery. I wasn't alive. But, see, they still do. They blame white America today for continued ongoing slavery. The Democrat Party has done more to keep this country divided and roiled and failing to make progress than anything I could have attempted myself.

Enemies list

LIMBAUGH: If one bad ex-military guy can force Janet Reno -- Napolitano to keep watch on all former military people, then I would think we also need to keep a sharp eye on all of Obama's friends and associates, since two of them -- Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn -- actually blew up the Pentagon. They were domestic terrorists.

I think we need to keep a sharp eye on every professor in this country who is advocating some of the most extreme radicalism to these students. If Janet Napolitano wants to really protect the homeland and she's really worried about domestic terrorists, then keep a constant tail on Bill Ayers, when he goes to Venezuela and champions Hugo Chavez's reformist education forums and so forth. That's what I think about it.

Clips from this hour

After caller notes Fox News' tea party ads, Limbaugh berates him for "regurgitating the drivel I have read on left-wing blogs"

Limbaugh on Obama ordering Cabinet to cut budgets: "[T]hey're responding to the tea parties here. That's all this is"

Limbaugh: "The Democrat Party has destroyed the black family"