This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by Rush Limbaugh: Founding Father
By Simon Maloy

OK, so now we've had two days to ruminate on Rush's reasons why the GOP should take it to Judge Sonia Sotomayor, and it makes even less sense to us than it did yesterday. As Rush tells it, George W. Bush and John McCain tried appealing to Hispanic voters by leading the fight for "amnesty," and Bush is still riotously unpopular while McCain got thumped in 2008. In other words, Republicans aren't going to win over Hispanics by being nice to them, so they might as well take it to Sotomayor. Rush seems to have forgotten, however, that Bush won 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, "more than any Republican presidential candidate in at least three decades." In 2008, however, McCain garnered just 31 percent of Hispanic voters. What happened in the interim? Well, the immigration debate in Congress was led by Tom Tancredo and James Sensenbrenner, who wanted to prosecute as many illegal immigrants as humanly possible (Tancredo refused to appear on Univision because people for whom Spanish is their primary language are a "problem"). And, as we pointed out yesterday, candidate McCain abandoned comprehensive immigration reform in order to more closely align himself with the Tancredo wing of the party. So Hispanic Americans are pretty clearly miffed with the GOP already, and, if history is a guide, suggesting Sotomayor will be unduly influenced by "her own personal race [and] gender" won't help to ameliorate things. But in Rush's world, that sort of reaction doesn't go far enough.

Rush kicked things off in high dudgeon today, as he was mightily upset that President Obama, at a fundraiser in California last night, said the economy has "stepped back from the brink." It's an "out-and-out lie," Rush said. Then he got distracted for a moment, claiming that White House press secretary Robert Gibbs "threatened" conservatives and Republicans yesterday when he said that "it is probably important for anybody involved in this debate to be exceedingly careful with the way in which they've decided to describe different aspects of this impending confirmation," responding Newt Gingrich's smear of Sotomayor as a "racist." This is a threat from the "Office of Dictates," said Rush.

Then it was back to the economy, as Rush read from an Associated Press story on how a "record 12 percent of homeowners with a mortgage are behind on their payments or in foreclosure as the housing crisis spreads to borrowers with good credit." Rush wanted to know how much money has been spent to keep people in their homes, now that a record 12 percent of homeowners are behind in payments or in foreclosure. And Obama said we ain't seen nothing yet, which Rush said scares the hell out of him.

None of the "political fixes" for the economy have worked, and according to the Grand Unified Conspiracy Theory of Obama Chaos, this is good news for Obama: "The sad reality is that when they don't work, it is good news for President Obama. It's more chaos. It is the need, he thinks, that people will have for more government intervention and more tax increases and an ever-growing government to fix the problems. He feeds off the crisis. He feeds off the chaos." Rush wanted someone to tell him where the hell these trillions of dollars went, because it obviously did not help the auto industry, the banks, or Wall Street. It's all just "smoke and mirrors."

After the break, Rush was still harping on Obama's comments in California last night, saying that the state is tanking and falling apart, and Obama is saying they ain't seen nothing yet. Rush said that if he were in California, he'd grab his cash and his gun and get out of there. Then Rush read extensively from a USA Today article, "Stimulus projects bypass hard-hit states," saying that we get nothing but "lies" and "empty promises" from the administration. Then it was on to an AP article reporting that "[s]ome of the $4 billion from President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan that was budgeted to renovate public housing will be spent to create so-called "green jobs" by making the dwellings more energy efficient." This isn't going to happen, and it wouldn't do anything anyway, said Rush.

Refusing to stay focused in any serious way, Rush then moved on to a Sacramento Bee story on how the "steady increase of mentally ill residents combined with Sacramento County's budget woes forced the county's main psychiatric hospital late Friday to close its doors to new patients." What this story is pointing out, said Rush, is that socialism and big government do not work. It's a "teachable moment" -- the government taking tons of money to take care of the mentally ill does not work. The point of this story is that you're going to have lunatics running loose all over California because people won't pay taxes, said Rush. This is intended to scare you so leaders can create their green programs.

After another break, Rush apologized for "shouting" earlier in the program, but he's frustrated at watching the greatest economy in the world fail right before our eyes. And what angers Rush is that he thinks this is by design. Everyone with half a brain knows that what's being done now does not fix an economy, said Rush. He also continues to see people on TV and the internet hold up his "I hope he fails" comment as an example of Rush alienating moderates, wishing the country would fail, etc. According to Rush, virtually everybody who heard Rush's comment knows exactly what he meant. There is not a sane person in this country who believes Rush wants the country to fail. As we enjoy pointing out, Rush wished that Obama's economic policies would "prolong[] the recession." And it seems that Rush's bleak hopes for the country have been fulfilled, as he went on to say: "Ladies and gentlemen, this country is failing because President Obama is succeeding. I don't care how you choose to measure it. There is no hope on the horizon for a job. There is no hope on the horizon for renewed prosperity. There is no hope on the horizon for economic growth. It's not there." The one way in which Obama's policies will succeed, Rush said is in "impoverishing and enslaving" more and more Americans.

After more harping about how the government can't fix anything and how socialism is a terrible thing, Rush returned to Robert Gibbs "threatening" conservatives over Sotomayor. In keeping with this threat, Rush whispered this next bit so the White House wouldn't hear: "From the year 2004: Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor ruled that ownership of a gun is not a constitutional right. That case is at present being appealed before the U.S. Supreme Court, as are a couple other of her cases. 2004: Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said owning a gun is not a constitutional right. She ruled in this fashion as a judge." He's referring to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in United States v. Sanchez-Villar. However, in that ruling, Sotomayor and the other judges cited precedent in ruling that "the right to possess a gun is clearly not a fundamental right." Here's the ruling:

We reject Sanchez-Villar's argument that New York's statutory scheme offends the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. See U.S. Const. amend. II; United States v. Toner, 728 F.2d 115, 128 (2d Cir.1984) (stating that "the right to possess a gun is clearly not a fundamental right").

And here's the case they cited.

Ditching the whispering schtick, Rush decreed: "President Obama could have chosen a different Hispanic or a different female, but he chose Sonia Sotomayor because she reflects his own racial attitudes. Let's be honest about this. He's got anger about race in this country; so does she. It cannot be denied." From there, he praised the Founding Fathers for their powers of prognostication, and placed himself in their league: "I'm very much like these people, my friends, in my ability to prognosticate and prophet the future. Thomas Jefferson warned 188 years ago that the federal government and the germ of its dissolution is in the way the federal judiciary is constituted. Ergo, 188 years later, he's right: We have Sonia Sotomayor, who thinks that the court is where policy is made."

Now, it must be said, given this silliness over attacking Sotomayor for saying that the federal appeals courts make policy, another influential judge once wrote something very similar: "In fact, however, the judges of inferior courts often 'make law,' since the precedent of the highest court does not cover every situation, and not every case is reviewed." That judge was Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who, among other things, is one of two people whose brain Rush Limbaugh wouldn't mind having in his own skull.

Highlights from Hour 1

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: It isn't working. The automobile bailouts did not work. The bailout of the banks has not worked. The bailout of the mortgage industry has not worked. Stemming foreclosures has not worked. The economy is not back from the brink. None of it has worked. All of the political fixes have not worked. The sad reality is that when they don't work, it is good news for President Obama. It's more chaos. It is the need, he thinks, that people will have for more government intervention and more tax increases and an ever-growing government to fix the problems. He feeds off the crisis. He feeds off the chaos.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Ladies and gentlemen, this country is failing because President Obama is succeeding. I don't care how you choose to measure it. There is no hope on the horizon for a job. There is no hope on the horizon for renewed prosperity. There is no hope on the horizon for economic growth. It's not there.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: President Obama could have chosen a different Hispanic or a different female, but he chose Sonia Sotomayor because she reflects his own racial attitudes. Let's be honest about this. He's got anger about race in this country; so does she. It cannot be denied.

Ego on loan from Narcissus

LIMBAUGH: Our Founding Fathers were fortune-tellers, they were prophets, they were wise beyond measure. Never fails to amaze me when I go back and read their warning of the future after they had crafted the U.S. Constitution. I'm very much like these people, my friends, in my ability to prognosticate and prophet the future. Thomas Jefferson warned 188 years ago that the federal government and the germ of its dissolution was in the way the federal judiciary is constituted. Ergo, 188 years later, he's right: We have Sonia Sotomayor, who thinks that the court is where policy is made.

America's Truth Rejector

LIMBAUGH: In the year 2004: Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor ruled that ownership of a gun is not a constitutional right. That case is at present being appealed before the U.S. Supreme Court, as are a couple other of her cases. 2004: Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said owning a gun is not a constitutional right. She ruled in this fashion as a judge.

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the Chinese "butts" the Democrats are kissing
By Simon Maloy

Rush got the hour started by turning programming duties over to Matt Drudge. Rush said that the Democrats are kissing the "butts" of the "ChiComs," as evidence by House Speaker Pelosi traveling to Beijing to urge China "to cooperate on climate change, calling a safe environment a basic human right." Rush said the Chinese government wants us to think they're going along with environmentalist wacko stuff, as "militant environmentalism" is the home of displaced communists. After a brief detour into the stupidity of wind turbines, Rush got to the Drudge-siren aspect of the article -- Pelosi saying: "Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory ... of how we are taking responsibility." Rush wanted to take an inventory of Pelosi's life -- how many times does she flush every day? What is her carbon footprint? And so forth.

The point of all this, Rush said, is that we're begging China to keep buying our debt. They don't take Pelosi seriously, Rush said. They view her as a "useful idiot." The Chinese, he said, already do inventories of the lives of their citizens, so they're probably all about this.

Rush then noted that the White House is "downplaying" North Korea's saber-rattling, saying that it only serves to deepen their isolation. Meanwhile, Rush said, the AP is reporting that North Korea is threatening military action against the U.S. and their neighbor to the south. But don't worry, Rush said, because Obama was in Hollywood last night saying that we're back from the brink. Rush then led into the break with another hilarious parody of Kim Jong-Il, who this time criticized Obama for nominating Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

After the break, Rush took his first call of the program, this one from a woman who described herself as a "poster child" of the recession, because she was laid off by a large bank and couldn't get her mortgage terms modified. Rush says the point of her call is that despite all the promises of help on her mortgage, she's seen nothing come her way. The lesson, Rush said, is do not trust the government. Obama has been on TV assuring people that they would be helped, said Rush, but because the caller was never behind on a payment, she was never a target for assistance, she was a target for "damage."

After another break, Rush endeavored to explain what was really going on with the Chinese -- they're warning us, and they're trying to scare us because they own so much of our debt. That's why Pelosi is going over there and kissing their butts, said Rush. The Chinese own so much of our debt, Rush said, and if we make it worthless with inflation, you can be sure they're going to be upset. Rush doesn't think this environmental stuff has anything to do with it. Pelosi saying the U.S. will treat its citizens like China treats theirs (taking "inventories") is just icing for them.

Then Rush returned -- once again --- to Robert Gibbs' "threat" to conservatives regarding what they say about Sotomayor: "[I]t is probably important for anybody involved in this debate to be exceedingly careful with the way in which they've decided to describe different aspects of this impending confirmation." Then Rush faked us out -- he switched to reading from an Associated Press article which reported that "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran has boosted its capacity to enrich uranium," and quoted Ahmadinejad saying: "Now we have more than 7,000 centrifuges and the West dare not threaten us." We thought he had just made another trademark segue-free transition from one topic to another, but these two bits of information, in Rush's mind, were related: "Well, shazam -- you know, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad sounds like Robert Gibbs. Robert Gibbs: 'Be very careful about what you say about this nomination.' Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: 'The West dare not threaten us.' Just wanted to point out similarities."

Then it was time for another caller, this one who said he voted for Obama because he thought the president was someone who could help settle the issue of race in America, but after seeing Obama's conduct at the Summit of the Americas, he had been disabused of that opinion. Rush reminded that caller that he said on several occasions last year that Obama's election would exacerbate racial strife, and that we'd have more racial problems than we've ever had. What the caller didn't realize, Rush said, is that in Obama's "perspective, Jeremiah Wright is right -- that this country is racist, and the way to get this country fixed is to return the nation's wealth to its rightful owners via high taxes, redistribution, nationalization of industries. And he has brought an anger to the White House about this." Rush concluded of Obama: "He's got his racial problem -- but his problem, the racial problem in his mind, is white supremacy."

After one more break, Rush explained that people are still asking what he means when he says -- at least six times every program -- that Obama intends to return the nation's wealth to its rightful owners. Rush said the "rightful owners" are people Obama would put in the middle and lower classes -- union members and "any minority." We guess that includes Republicans, too. Anyway, Rush said that Obama has a personal animus against people who have succeeded. His objective is to make the country fair -- it's not fair that the people who have prospered have prospered, so he's going to punish them and give everything to the unions, because they're really responsible for the wealth of these corporations. So, Rush said, Obama's going to return that wealth to them, even if it means destroying the industries in which they work. Therefore, the rightful owners, the little guys, are going to get shafted. Meanwhile, the "big guys" -- like the AIG executives -- are getting bailed out. All of the recipients of this grand compassion are the ones getting screwed, Rush said, so the wealth of the nation, wherever it's headed, is not headed back to its rightful owners.

Highlights from Hour 2

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: Well, shazam -- you know, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad sounds like Robert Gibbs. Robert Gibbs: "Be very careful about what you say about this nomination." Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "The West dare not threaten us." Just wanted to point out similarities.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: See, now, this is fascinating, because from his perspective, he was not lying when he said, "We've got to get this under control." But what you didn't know was that from his perspective, Jeremiah Wright is right -- that this country is racist, and the way to get this country fixed is to return the nation's wealth to its rightful owners via high taxes, redistribution, nationalization of industries. And he has brought an anger to the White House about this.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: He's got his racial problem -- but his problem, the racial problem in his mind, is white supremacy.

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by Obama's "street talk"
By Simon Maloy

We've reached the final hour, and Rush got it going by airing -- by popular demand -- the audio of Joe Biden joking about Obama and the teleprompter. This is not something vice presidents do, Rush said. Biden's basically saying that his boss is lost without his teleprompter.

Then Rush informed us that he's received a lot of angry e-mails from listeners and website subscribers asking him to warn them when he's going to talk about Sotomayor so they can turn their radios off. Rush says these people should know something -- this is the worst way to get Rush to shut up about something. And shut up he did not: Rush read from an AP Spin Meter article on the argument over Sotomayor's statements about courts making policy and white men and Latinas. Rush said the last paragraph of the story was key: "The problem for Sotomayor is that she went beyond the experience-is-important line. She said the Latina experience leads to 'better' decisions than the white experience. It's hard to imagine a judge getting nominated to the Supreme Court after saying white men made better decisions than black women, or Catholics better than Jews." That's exactly right, said Rush.

Rush said he made this point on Tuesday when he switched Sotomayor for Roberts and "Latina" for "white man." Rush explained: "What if John Roberts, the current chief justice, has said that his rich experience as a white man would render more profound and better legal judgments than Latina women? He'd be toast. If they had found that in vetting, he wouldn't even make the nomination. He wouldn't be nominated. And I've been listening to some conservatives -- this is really stunning to me. This is blatant racism. This is blatant bigotry." Rush said this comment is worse than the courts-making-policy comment, which was just "arrogant." Marrying the "racism" and "arrogance" together, Rush concluded: "Look, bigotry is bigotry. Racism is racism. Superiority is superiority. Contempt for people beneath you is contempt for people beneath you. Thinking you're better than everybody else is thinking you're better than everybody else. This woman has all of this."

Then Rush aired an audio clip from yesterday's program in which he offered his interpretation of Obama's thinking: "America's unjust, it was constituted as unjust, and that unjustness permeates to this day. So now it's time to change all that, and we're gonna change all that by desecrating the Constitution. Hence, Sonia Sotomayor." Rush contrasted that clip with a clip of Obama speaking of Sotomayor in Los Angeles yesterday: "This woman is brilliant, she is qualified, I want her confirmed, I want her walking up those marble steps and starting to provide some justice." Rush branded this: "Street talk. This is the talk of somebody angry." From this one statement from Obama, Rush concluded that Sotomayor was chosen for the express purpose of reflecting Obama's racial attitudes, and just as he's going to return the nation's wealth to its rightful owners, now we're going have justice against the people who stole it.

Just to sum up really quickly, Rush took this rather anodyne statement from Obama -- "This woman is brilliant, she is qualified, I want her confirmed, I want her walking up those marble steps and starting to provide some justice" -- as an indication that Obama wants Sotomayor to impose race-based justice on the nation.

After the break, Rush said he saw something on Gateway Pundit that he had missed about Obama's comments in Los Angeles last night -- specifically that Obama told the crowd, regarding the economy, that "[w]e can't rest on our laurels because we've got a lot of work to do." Rush wondered how anyone can rest on their laurels when we're losing -- by Gateway Pundit's calculation -- 16,000 jobs every day. Well, Rush, perhaps that's why Obama said it's important NOT to "rest on our laurels" -- because "we've got a lot of work to do." Perhaps realizing that what he had just said made absolutely no sense, Rush said that only when you're propped up by the drive-by media can you even think about resting on your laurels. Ah, we get it - his sin was thinking about resting on laurels when he told everyone not to rest on their laurels. That makes a whole bunch more sense.

Before leading into the next break, Rush aired audio of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger making a (lame) joke about Rush's weight, and saying that the Republicans need to have a "big tent." Rush was, of course, incredulous at the suggestion of a "big tent," saying that Schwarzenegger is describing how to put the GOP together after he's blown apart the state of California. Coming back from the break, Rush switched over from Schwarzenegger to Mark McKinnon, who appeared on" the far-left, fringe TV network" MSNBC last night to discuss the GOP's current woes. Before getting to McKinnon, Rush wanted to repeat - so the media would hear it - that Obama tapped Sotomayor because she's a mirror image of his racial attitudes. Rush then aired audio of McKinnon talking about Sotomayor, noting that she was first nominated for the federal by a Republican president - George H.W. Bush. Rush dismissed the "cover" the media is trying to give Obama by noting that Sotomayor was a Bush appointee, explaining that her nomination was compromise with the senators from New York, and that Bush did not pick Sotomayor "because of her qualifications."

Anyway, he aired more audio of McKinnon saying that there are lots of moderate Republicans who are greatly concerned that they don't see more people come to the defense of Colin Powell. Rush said he feels like he's in a dream, because McKinnon is begging the party to embrace someone who expressly endorsed a Democrat with the purpose of ruining a moderate Republican.

Before closing out the show, Rush re-aired the (still hilarious) Kim Jong-Il parody from earlier in the program, and then took a phone call from a 9-year-old girl who had written a biography of El Rushbo and had a couple of questions about her subject that she needed resolved. In the course of answering her questions, Rush revealed that in his teens he went by the name "Rusty Sharp," which to us sounds like something that might require a tetanus shot.

And that's it for today's Wire. Be sure to join us for tomorrow's "Open Line Friday!" We're going to spend the intervening time gently weeping for America's youth, but we recommend you spend it in a more productive fashion and check out Media Matters complete and unabridged Rusty Sharp archives.

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: What if John Roberts, the current chief justice, has said that his rich experience as a white man would render more profound and better legal judgments than Latina women? He'd be toast. If they had found that in vetting, he wouldn't even make the nomination. He wouldn't be nominated. And I've been listening to some conservatives -- this is really stunning to me. This is blatant racism. This is blatant bigotry.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Look, bigotry is bigotry. Racism is racism. Superiority is superiority. Contempt for people beneath you is contempt for people beneath you. Thinking you're better than everybody else is thinking you're better than everybody else. This woman has all of this.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Now, I think in this byte you're gonna hear Obama lets his guard down at this LA fundraiser. He's with buddies, he's off prompter, and you listen. It's just a short byte, it's 12 seconds.

OBAMA [audio clip]: This woman is brilliant, she is qualified, I want her confirmed, I want her walking up those marble steps and starting to provide some justice.

LIMBAUGH: "I want her to start providing some justice. I want her walking up those marble steps and I want her to start providing some justice." Meaning it ain't justice coming out of there now. "I want her walking up those steps and I want her to provide -- start provide some justice." Street talk. This is the talk of somebody angry.

Clips from this hour

Limbaugh: "This country is failing because President Obama is succeeding"

Limbaugh: "We can't find Madoff's 50 billion and we can't find out where Obama's trillions are"