This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the "hateful climate" Obama is creating
By Simon Maloy

One of the aspects of this job that both amuses and unnerves us is the way in which Rush finds new and inventive ways to out-crazy the crazy things he said the day before. What amuses us is the idea of pacing -- we're not even five months into Obama's first term, and Rush has spent the entirety of that time in high dudgeon, hurling every possible slur he can at the president and screaming bloody murder at even the slightest outrages. What's he going to do when a real controversy comes down the pike? But this rhetorical escalation is also unnerving, and yesterday, Fox News' Shepard Smith explained why. Smith, reporting on the tragic shooting at the Holocaust Museum, said he's receiving "more and more frightening" emails from people who are "way out there on a limb," and then read an example: "Shepard, how dare you tell us to get over Obama not being a U.S. citizen. Where is the birth certificate? Where? He won't show it, so why are you so trumped up to believe it? I cannot stand Hussein. He is a socialist Marxist who is at fast rate destroying our country." Look at the content of that email, which Smith called "frightening," and compare it to what Rush has said over the past week: Obama is "destroying the United States economy"; he "does not have a birth certificate"; he's a "socialist."

Rush got things rolling today by decrying the "very predicable" response from "the left" to the Holocaust Museum shooting -- trying to score political points and blaming the whole thing on Rush and other conservatives. But the facts, Rush said, if we want to assign blame, are these: "Well, who did he hate? He hated both Bushes. He hated neocons. He hated John McCain. He hated Republicans. He hated Jews, as well. He believed in an inside job conspiracy of 9-11. This guy is a leftist, if anything. This guy's beliefs, this guy's hate stems from influence that you find on the left, not on the right." This is how "the left" operates, said Rush. They're creating this climate of hate on purpose because they thrive on chaos. Rush added: "An incident like this yesterday, I dare say, had people on the left applauding inside their hearts for the purposes of advancing their political agenda. And yes, I mean to say that. And you can tell, with the eagerness that the left and its cohorts in the media went to television last night to try to make this a political thing, they are excited."

Then Rush said it was time to look at the shooting "responsibly." He said it was Obama who compared the Holocaust to what the Israelis are doing in Gaza. Actually, no, he didn't. Here's what Obama said in Cairo:

OBAMA: Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed -- more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, it is ignorant, and it is hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction -- or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews -- is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve.

On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people -- Muslims and Christians -- have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than 60 years they've endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations -- large and small -- that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: The situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. And America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.

Nowhere in that speech did Obama say the Holocaust and the situation in Gaza were comparable in scope. He simply said that both things happened and both resulted in suffering. So much for looking at this "responsibly." But Rush wasn't done yet -- not by a long shot. He went on to say that Obama has a lot of "friends" who are "Jew haters," like Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Rashid Khalidi. Obama is using race, said Rush, to divide this nation in every way possible. He's opening channels to Iran, and they deny the Holocaust -- what sort of message does that send? The anti-Jew rhetoric in this country, said Rush, comes from the left and the circle of people close to Barack Obama. They are the ones who have something to answer for; they are the ones who are fomenting racial tension. Look at the Sotomayor nomination, said Rush -- it's "destructive politics" and "identity politics."

Rush continued, saying that Obama's comparison of the Holocaust to Gaza (remember, he didn't do that) served to desensitize people to the Holocaust and ramp up hatred toward the Jewish people. While the left embraces genocidal figures, conservatives, said Rush, are not focused on race, they're focused on individual liberty. Tribalism of whatever kind is foreign to conservatives, but the statist authoritarian needs these things.

To be "frank," Rush continued, Obama needs you to be contemptuous of others so he can appeal to you emotionally. Sponsoring and promoting hate, said Rush, is exclusive to "the left." They want turmoil and chaos, and if they don't exist, they'll create it.

Rush then said he "doubted" that the Holocaust Museum shooter was influenced by anything but his own illness, but... "it is not helpful when a political party and a president and leaders of Congress engage in a very dangerous political game that creates anxiety, hostility, and down-right hate among its citizens. The left runs our government. It is creating a very dangerous climate, folks, on purpose, for the purposes of distracting us so that they can accomplish their socialist games." So, in Rush's estimation, the shooter is likely to blame, but if we're going to blame anyone else, it should be Obama and the Democrats.

Coming back from the break, Rush said that if you want to expose yourself to hate, go to MSNBC. That network is hate 24/7. Then Rush aired audio of the Shep Smith segment we highlighted above, saying that it's preposterous for liberals to claim that the climate today is more hateful for Obama when, during the Bush years, they were spewing hatred and vitriol toward the president.

After another break, Rush returned to Shep Smith, saying that his "whining" about emails is falling on deaf ears, because Rush receives "vile" and "sick" emails every day, in which people call him a "Jew lover." Rush said no one has ever done anything comparable to that kind of hate that was 24/7 in most of the American media during the Bush years, when "spat-out hate" was part of the daily reporting agenda. Rush said he didn't want to have to talk about this today, but this administration is taking this sad event to try and divide the country so they can take greater control of the economy.

In that vein, said Rush, here's what Treasury Secretary adviser Gene Sperling said today regarding executive pay: "Sperling said in prepared testimony the administration believes compensation practices 'must be better aligned with long-term value and prudent risk management at all firms, and not just for the financial services industry.' " Rush says we've always had people who complain about the money other people make -- but what is it that has allowed America to become the greatest force for good in the history of the world? It's because the country was founded under the principles of individual liberty, and the pursuit of wealth is a big part of that. Never until now has there been a serious move to prevent the pursuit of wealth, said Rush. We have an administration that wants to shut it all down; they want to focus on the public sector, not the private sector. They're statists who are poisoned by their hatred of this country, said Rush. There has to be an element of hatred behind what's going on here.

They want to eliminate risk-taking, said Rush, and that's the end of capitalism. Then Rush said that if we're going to eliminate risk-taking in the private sector, then we should do the same with government employees. Cap their salaries at $100,000 whenever there is a deficit. We are taking a huge risk, said Rush, in handing over the finances of the nation to these people, because nothing Obama has done has worked, and now he wants to nationalize health care. This administration is damaging and attacking the U.S. private sector, said Rush, and they ought not be rewarded for it.

One more break and Rush was asking where were the denunciations of the "hate" directed at Sarah Palin from people like David Letterman. What about the anti-Semites at the Israel Day parade? What about the guys in New York who were trying to blow up synagogues? There are hateful incidents perpetrated by leftists and anti-Semites all the time, said Rush, and they are never commented on, never held accountable by anyone in the mainstream media.

And thus, ladies and gentlemen, ended one of the more disgusting and disconnected-from-reality hours in talk radio history.

Greg Lewis and Lauryn Bruck contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 1

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: Very predictably, ladies and gentlemen, the media, the American left is trying to score some political points as a result of this tragedy at the Holocaust Museum in Washington yesterday, and as predictable, they are trying to blame this on me, other conservatives, and right-wingers. It's the traditional approach taken by the American left.

The facts of the case, however, are such that if we want to start assigning blame for this beyond this nutcase Jew-hater -- and notice that very few people actually want to do that. They want to claim this guy didn't have the ability to act on his own. He only could act if he was inspired by somebody.

Well, who did he hate? He hated both Bushes. He hated neocons. He hated John McCain. He hated Republicans. He hated Jews, as well. He believed in an inside job conspiracy of 9-11. This guy is a leftist, if anything. This guy's beliefs, this guy's hate stems from influence that you find on the left, not on the right.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Now this is exactly what the left does. The left runs our government, and the left in this country is creating a very dangerous climate and they're doing it on purpose. This president thrives and needs chaos and unrest. An incident like this yesterday, I dare say, had people on the left applauding inside their hearts for the purposes of advancing their political agenda. And yes, I mean to say that.

And you can tell, with the eagerness that the left and its cohorts in the media went to television last night to try to make this a political thing, they are excited. This is a great political opportunity for them. That's the first emotion that they felt.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Now, this Jew hater who killed yesterday was a nut. I doubt that he was influenced by anything other than his own mental illness. That said, it is not helpful when a political party and a president and leaders of Congress engage in a very dangerous political game that creates anxiety, hostility, and down-right hate among its citizens.

The left runs our government. It is creating a very dangerous climate, folks, on purpose, for the purposes of distracting us so that they can accomplish their socialist games.

America's Truth Rejector

Falsely claimed Obama is "comparing the Holocaust to what's happening in Gaza":

LIMBAUGH: It is President Obama comparing the Holocaust to what's happening in Gaza -- that creates a moral parallel between the mass murder of 6 million Jews and the Palestinians. That also diminishes the horror that was the Holocaust. When you tell the world that what is happening in Gaza -- that the Israelis are doing something identical to what the Germans did to them in eliminating 6 million of them -- then you're desensitizing everybody to the Holocaust and you are ramping up hatred for Israel. You are ramping up hatred for Jewish people. It is coming from the Obama administration.

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by Rush's Holocaust hypocrisy
By Simon Maloy

Rush got Hour 2 going by reading from a Reuters story on the Venezuelan government banning the sale of Coke Zero due to, officials said, health concerns. Rush said he was reading this story because this is what happens when you have a statist in control of your country. Anyone that makes a profit is a target, and the same kind of stuff is starting to happen here.

Then Rush pronounced that we're all going to die. We were already painfully aware of that fact -- we're not even sure we're going to make it through this program. Anyway, Rush announced this because of a Space.com article reporting that computer simulations "reveal a slight chance that a disruption of planetary orbits could lead to a collision of Earth with Mercury, Mars or Venus in the next few billion years." Rush said that every day, there's a new calamity that's going to wipe out humanity, and all these stories promote the idea that someone has to save us, and that someone is the government.

Then Rush recounted something that he said during his interview with Sean Hannity:

LIMBAUGH: I made a comment to Hannity in that interview last week -- I've said this on this program a couple of times, too, but I don't think I can say it too much. You know, there's going to come a day -- there's going to come a day in this country, not too distant, people are going to say, "Why didn't somebody tell us? Why didn't somebody warn us what was happening to our economy and our country?" Well, I am the guy telling you. You are being warned. You are being told. I am the guy telling you.

You know, of all of the other times in history where people said, "Gee, they took this away and I didn't say anything. They took that away and I didn't say anything. They finally came for me and there was nobody left to defend me." I have been letting the world know exactly what's happening in this country and will happen. There will not be an excuse down the road in this country for somebody to say, "I didn't -- nobody told me. Why didn't somebody tell us this? I just didn't know," because you are being told.

Now, wait a sec... We were told in the last hour that Obama, in allegedly "comparing" the situation in Gaza to the Holocaust, was cheapening the horror of the Holocaust. But, now, here's Rush invoking Martin Niemöller's famous poem about the Holocaust in order to cast himself as the heroic voice standing up to what is happening to the country. That, dear reader, is a gigantic dose of hypocrisy.

Then it was on to Mirandizing terror suspects, as Rush credited Sarah Palin for warning America about this during her acceptance speech last year as the vice presidential nominee. Then Rush aired audio of Obama saying in March that terrorists don't deserve Miranda rights. Rush said it's not what Obama says, it's how he says it.

There was one other thing Rush wanted to get out of the way before the break -- he spent a good amount of time yesterday bashing Colin Powell and other moderate Republicans, and Rush informed us that he went back and found Powell's speech at the 1996 Republican Nominating Convention, in which Powell decried bigger government and higher taxes. So, Rush said, Colin Powell has changed.

After the break, Rush gleefully noted that the Politico reported: "FBI agents visited the offices of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine yesterday after a shooting at the Holocaust Memorial Museum and told employees they'd found the magazine's address." Rush called this quite interesting.

Then it was back to Mirandizing terrorists as Rush asked when we can expect congressional hearings. Rush asked: If we're going to Mirandize enemy combatants on the battlefield, does that mean they don't have to say anything until they get a lawyer? There are a couple of problems with this -- first, as Stephen Hayes wrote yesterday, this is the FBI administering the rights, not soldiers "on the battlefield." Second, also according to Stephen Hayes, who appeared on Fox News' Special Report yesterday, "There are reports that this was happening on specific bases as going back as early as July 2008." That means this was going on during the Bush presidency.

Then Rush took a call from a man who claimed that he'd never met a Republican who isn't racist and attacked Rush for constantly attacking Obama for not helping his half-brother living in a "hut" in Kenya. The caller said that he has a homeless brother, and he doesn't do anything for him. Rush said it's a sad thing that the caller has a homeless relative and he doesn't do anything to help him. The caller, Rush said, is what's wrong with America today.

After the break, Rush took a call from a woman whose heart was "affected" by Rush's CPAC speech. Rush congratulated her for listening to the speech. Then it was on to the next caller, who declared that a day without Rush "is a day without sunshine," and that she's upset at Obama playing games with the country's future. Rush said that this is no game; this is a serious attempt at deconstructing this country as it was founded and putting it back together in a way no one will recognize. There are people afraid to stand up to it, said Rush. In the old Soviet Union, he explained, people had to retreat to their bathrooms to speak their minds for fear of being overheard. But, Rush said, we're not there yet, even though there are a bunch of people scared out of their minds to speak out.

After another break, Rush wanted to "re-tie the knot" on the Holocaust museum shooter -- this Jew-hating nut attacks the museum and has, in his possession, the address of The Weekly Standard, which is run by neocons, which is a term invented by the left to describe Jews. Another guy who hates neocons, said Rush, is Chris Matthews on MSNBC, who blamed the shooting on Rush. This is all a cheap political play that fits a stereotype that bears no resemblance to reality, Rush explained.

Then Rush got to Obama's health-care townhall in Wisconsin today, saying that the reason he's doing it is because the polling numbers aren't good. His approval ratings are still good, said Rush, but the issues are all falling apart on him, and Rush thinks there's panic going on in the White House. Then Rush aired a sound bite of Obama's townhall, asking us to listen to the "tepid" applause Obama got:

LIMBAUGH: So, he's out there in Green Bay today and he's trying to revive the polling on health care, and he gets a very tepid response -- very weak applause to his presentation here of a public insurance option.

OBAMA [audio clip]: One of the options in the exchange should be a public insurance option [RAUCOUS APPLAUSE] -- and the reason is not because we want a government takeover of health care. I've already said if you've got a private plan that works for you, that's great, but we want some competition. If the private insurance companies have to compete with a public option, it'll keep them honest and it'll keep -- help keep their prices down. [RAUCOUS APPLAUSE]

Rush had to go on to explain: "Now, the response to me did not sound tepid, but it was. It may not sound tepid to you but if you looked at it on television and saw it, you would agree that the applause here is not roaring. I mean, it's not like he's used to getting." Anyway, Rush said it's a lie when Obama says if "private insurance companies have to compete with a public option, it'll keep them honest and ... help keep their prices down," because there will be no private insurance once there is a public option. Once a public option is in place, said Rush, the insurance companies are going to get on board the government plan. The idea of a public option is to end up with a single payer, and that is the government, said Rush. Then Rush aired another Obama sound bite from today, in which the president said that no one is talking about implementing socialized medicine like they have in Britain. Rush said socialized medicine is no different from a single-payer plan, and he doesn't like being in the position of having to call the president of the United States a liar, but he has no choice.

Greg Lewis and Lauryn Bruck contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 2

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: I made a comment to Hannity in that interview last week -- I've said this on this program a couple of times, too, but I don't think I can say it too much. You know, there's going to come a day -- there's going to come a day in this country, not too distant, people are going to say, "Why didn't somebody tell us? Why didn't somebody warn us what was happening to our economy and our country?" Well, I am the guy telling you. You are being warned. You are being told. I am the guy telling you.

You know, of all of the other times in history where people said, "Gee, they took this away and I didn't say anything. They took that away and I didn't say anything. They finally came for me and there was nobody left to defend me." I have been letting the world know exactly what's happening in this country and will happen. There will not be an excuse down the road in this country for somebody to say, "I didn't -- nobody told me. Why didn't somebody tell us this? I just didn't know," because you are being told.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: So, he's out there in Green Bay today and he's trying to revive the polling on health care, and he gets a very tepid response -- very weak applause to his presentation here of a public insurance option.

OBAMA [audio clip]: One of the options in the exchange should be a public insurance option -- and the reason is not because we want a government takeover of health care. I've already said if you've got a private plan that works for you, that's great, but we want some competition. If the private insurance companies have to compete with a public option, it'll keep them honest and it'll keep -- help keep their prices down.

LIMBAUGH: My friends, look, I really resent the position this man puts me in -- but that's a lie. There will be no private insurance once they get a public option. That's the dirty little secret. There will be no competition. That's the dirty little secret. What public -- once a public option is in place, the insurance companies are not going to be able to compete. It's -- they're not even going to try. The insurance companies are going to try to offload. Once there is a public option, you're going to see the insurance companies get out of it and get on board the government plan for a whole host of reasons.

The dirty little secret here is that the idea of a public option is to end up with a single payer and that's the federal government. Now, the response to me did not sound tepid, but it was. It may not sound tepid to you but if you looked at it on television and saw it, you would agree that the applause here is not roaring. I mean, it's not like he's used to getting.

The Rush Limbaugh Show -- where healthy Americans ruin health care
By Simon Maloy

Rush got the final hour going with more sound bites of Obama's health care townhall meeting, airing audio of the president saying that 20 percent of the population account for 80 percent of health care costs, and if we can get somebody who is overweight to not become diabetic, that saves a bunch of money. Bingo, said Rush -- this is what Mona Charen wrote about today. If Obama gets national health care, then every behavior we engage in will be subject to regulation in order to keep down costs.

Then Rush said that this whole business about Obama keeping costs down is a lie: "[T]here's no other way to describe what the man wants to do than to call it socialized medicine, single-payer socialized medicine. And it's all about control. It's not about cost. This man's not worried about the cost of anything. He doesn't care what anything costs: a trip to New York for a date -- $12 trillion in debt over 10 years? He doesn't care what things cost. That's just to make you think he does. He doesn't care what health care costs."

Then Rush read from Charen's column, saying that government mandates on health insurance make it impossible for companies to offer cheap plans for the young and the healthy. When 20 percent of the population account for 80 percent of health care costs, said Rush, that means we should be offering policies that cover for catastrophic coverage to the young and the healthy, but they can't do that because of all these mandates. This whole system went south, said Rush, when the government got involved like 40 years ago.

Rush then set his sights on this morning's New York Times article on the American Medical Association's opposing a public option for health insurance. Rush zeroed in on this line: "If the doctors are too aggressive in fighting the public plan, they risk alienating Democrats whose support they need for legislation to increase their Medicare fees." Rush said this means that if they anger the Democrats too much, then the Democrats will cut their pay. From there, he launched into a rant about how we shouldn't believe anything Obama has to say, because he's never run anything. All he knows, said Rush, is "agitating" people and "authoritarianism," and he certainly doesn't know anything about health care. Rush said that he mentioned this at the beginning of the program -- we're going to be trained now to hate doctors, to hate the AMA. You just wait, said Rush. This administration fosters hate to get what they want, and you watch how they will attack the AMA.

After the break, Rush hit us with some shocking dishonesty. After claiming that the Medicare doctors are in the same position vis-à-vis the government as the bankers and the auto executives are, Rush said Obama had the "audacity" to say today: "I don't want government to run stuff." Rush contrasted this with Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis' testimony in Washington today; Lewis said that the government threatened him that if Bank of America did not buy Merrill Lynch, then it had the authority to remove the management and the board. Rush said: "Obama doesn't want to control anything. This is Ken Lewis basically admitting that he, Bank of America, was pressured into buying Merrill Lynch. Obama doesn't want to run anything. He doesn't want to run anything."

Here's the thing -- as CNN Money reported of Lewis' testimony today: "Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis stressed Thursday that pressure from the government played a key role in the company's decision to complete its purchase of Merrill Lynch last year" [emphasis added]. That would be "last year," as in 2008, as in during the Bush administration, as in NOT under the Obama administration.

After another break, Rush asked if we remembered the story from April about nine people in Texas visiting the emergency room over 2,600 times last year. Rush said this is one of the unexplored aspects of the health care debate -- abuse of health services. We never tell people to stay away from the doctor if they're not sick. We never talk about those of our fellow citizens who are a bunch of spoiled brat, slothful hypochondriacs. According to Rush, just as we have trained a whole generation of people to not work, we've trained millions of people to think they're entitled to a doctor visit whenever they have a sniffle.

Then Rush took a call from a woman who was inspired by Rush, many years ago, to go to medical school and become a doctor, and as a doctor, she agrees with Rush that defensive medicine is a problem, and it can be solved by reforming the tort system. Rush wanted more specifics as to how he inspired her to become a doctor, but the call was dropped. So he moved on to his next caller, a woman from New Zealand who wanted to relate to El Rushbo some horror stories about her country's socialized health care system. Rush said that you hear horror stories out of the UK and Canada as well.

After one more break, Rush mocked Obama for saying that he's working on enough stuff, like Iran and North Korea, that he doesn't need to run health care. Rush read from a Los Angeles Times story which reported that "[k]ey world powers agreed Wednesday on a draft of a United Nations resolution that would sharply increase export and financial sanctions against North Korea as punishment for its recent nuclear weapons and missile tests." Rush said the sanctions would be useless, just as they were useless against Iran. Then Rush plugged the Heritage Foundation documentary, 33 Minutes, which, as Rush helpfully explained, is the length of time it will take for a missile to reach the U.S. from North Korea.

Then, after bragging about inspiring the doctor who had called in earlier, Rush had a question for us: "What is Obama inspiring? What is Obama inspiring? What is he encouraging people to do? Nothing -- is sit on their butts. He's encouraging people to give up, to sit on their butts and let the government redistribute wealth to them. He's not inspiring anybody. He is in fact -- his policies are depressing the whole spirit of achievement." Then he was struck by inspiration -- Rush proposed that we wait to see how his promises on the economy shake out before allowing him to take over health care. That's what the GOP should be saying, said Rush, instead of fooling around on the margins like they're doing now. The reason Obama wants to hurry on this, said Rush, is because everything's falling apart and he's panicking.

Closing out the show, Rush had an astute observation for us: It's the people exercising who are hurting themselves and going to the hospital and these "exercise freaks" are driving up health care costs. It's the people who don't do anything and don't go to the hospital and don't know their doctors' names, Rush said, who cost nothing.

And that's it for today's show and today's Limbaugh Wire. Tomorrow's our favorite day of the week -- "Open Line Friday!" We hope you'll join us. Until then, feel free to familiarize yourselves with Media Matters all-knowing and ever-growing Limbaugh archives.

Greg Lewis and Lauryn Bruck contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: The bottom line: He's already set up a socialized medicine health care board in the porkulus bill modeled after the UK, which he admitted is a socialist system, socialized medicine. He's -- there's no other way to describe what the man wants to do than to call it socialized medicine, single-payer socialized medicine.

And it's all about control. It's not about cost. This man's not worried about the cost of anything. He doesn't care what anything costs: a trip to New York for a date -- $12 trillion in debt over 10 years? He doesn't care what things cost. That's just to make you think he does. He doesn't care what health care costs.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: What is Obama inspiring? What is Obama inspiring? What is he encouraging people to do? Nothing -- is sit on their butts. He's encouraging people to give up, to sit on their butts and let the government redistribute wealth to them. He's not inspiring anybody. He is in fact -- his policies are depressing the whole spirit of achievement.

America's Truth Rejector

Falsely suggested the Bank of America purchase of Merrill Lynch happened under Obama:

LIMBAUGH: These Medicare doctors are in the same spot as the bankers are. The Medicare doctors are in the same spot as the car company executives are. They're just like Ken Lewis. They're just like General Motors, Chrysler. They're controlled by government already and they're going to be controlled even more by government. And yet, President Obama, in Green Bay, has the audacity to say this.

OBAMA [audio clip]: Government can't do all of this. I'm the first one to acknowledge this. That's why I'm always puzzled when people, they go out there creating this boogeyman about how, you know, Obama wants government-run everything -- I don't want government to run stuff. Like I said, I've got enough stuff to do. I've got North Korea and I've got Iran, and I've got Afghanistan and Iraq -- and I don't know where people get this idea that I want to run stuff or I want government to run stuff. I would -- I think it'd be great if the health-care system was working perfectly and we didn't have to be involved at all. That would be wonderful. That's not how it's worked.

LIMBAUGH: Ken Lewis, Bank of America chief executive, testified today in Washington and said this.

LEWIS [audio clip]: It is true that we were told that if we went through or -- I can't exactly remember the exact words, so please give me license with word-for-word. But, basically, if we went through with calling the MAC that the government could or would remove management and the board -- and I've said in the past that it was -- the threat was not what gave me concern; what gave me concern that they would make that threat to a bank in good standing.

So it showed the seriousness with which they thought that we should not call a MAC -- a material adverse change -- and so, as a result of that, that was a factor in our decisions, because here your regulators and the federal government was saying, "We don't think, you know, calling the MAC is the best thing for you or the financial system.

LIMBAUGH: Obama doesn't want to control anything. This is Ken Lewis basically admitting that he, Bank of America, was pressured into buying Merrill Lynch. Obama doesn't want to run anything. He doesn't want to run anything. He's got -- he's not doing a thing about Iran or Afghanistan or Iraq. He is running General Motors. He is running Chrysler. He has appointing people. He's firing CEOs. What does he mean he doesn't want to run anything?