This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the war on "spirit"

By Simon Maloy

We'll readily admit that our grand unified Sanford-Limbaugh-Lewis theory turned out to be a little ... off base. But that's fine -- we're new to conspiracy-mongering, and we fully expect to make more mistakes before we've mastered the art of masking utter lunacy with a thin veneer of near-sense. It's just as well; we've impugned Greg's character enough as it is. For today, anyway. But we're not ready to let the Sanford saga go just yet. You'll recall yesterday that Rush took a few potshots at CNN's Kyra Phillips, accusing her of hypocrisy in denouncing Sanford's mendacity because she "probably defended" Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky affair. The logical extension of this -- which we've already heard from certain members of the media and will likely hear from Rush today -- is that the media let Democrats "get away" with infidelity, but will reduce an adulterous Republican's political future to cinders. Well, to pre-empt that silly argument, we'll toss out three examples: Rudy Giuliani, who cheated on his second wife with his third wife, was a front-running presidential candidate last year and quite popular with certain segments of the media; and Newt Gingrich, who cheated on his first and second wives, is a media darling and presumptive 2012 presidential candidate. And the 2008 GOP candidate, John McCain, admitted to cheating on his first wife.

Rush got things rolling today with a full-on, 15-minute, spittle-flecked, screeching freakout, screaming at the top his lungs that he didn't have to watch Obama's health care town hall on ABC yesterday because he knew ahead of time what it was going to be. What's important, shouted Rush, is that we stop accepting these people's premises. Look at this cap-and-tax thing, Rush hollered, it's an absolute disaster, a massive tax increase, and it doesn't need to be done tomorrow, as the Democrats claim. It doesn't need to be done ever. Neither does health care. The answer to this is no, Rush screamed, adding that Obama wants to fix things that don't have real problems, and his fixes are destructive.

Rush then reiterated that he didn't need to watch the Obama health care special, because he knew exactly what it was going to be -- an Obama infomercial. It was an Obama filibuster, said Rush. NewsBusters did the math, and Obama got 60 percent of the camera time. We noticed this NewsBusters complaint earlier, and it is so stupid it makes our teeth hurt. Think about it -- they look at a presidential town hall, where people ask the president question and the president answers, and they find it odd that the president spent more time talking than the people asking the questions. That was the whole point. No one is turning into a presidential town hall on health care to see people other than the president talk about health care. Anyway, Rush continued by asking who is Obama to say we're allowed to keep our doctor? He doesn't have that authority, said Rush -- he works for us! And it's up to us to say that we aren't going to allow him to destroy the economy. Rush screamed that they want to get all this done quickly because they don't want anyone to know what these bills actually are.

Then Rush shouted that for the first time in his life, he's hearing someone say that we're going to cut costs in health care, but the only way to do that is to restrict access to health care. Rush yelled that Obama doesn't have the right to allow me anything. He doesn't have the permission. "Who the hell does he think he is?" Rush screamed, followed immediately by a hearty "Screw you!" The answer to all these things is no, said Rush. And while all this is going on, Rush hollered, the private sector continues to get beat up. All of this is predictable, said Rush: "We've got a man single-handedly trying to whack the U.S. private sector. Tony Soprano has taken over the U.S. government and the private sector is an opposing family. He's going to wipe it out. It'll be brought back to life on an HBO series soon." According to Rush, we didn't have any crises, and we didn't have a country that was going down the tubes, but maybe we do now, given who's in charge. Meanwhile, said Rush, the Iranians and North Koreans are nuking up and Obama doesn't give a rat's rear end. We have real problems, said Rush, but Obama doesn't care, he's inventing problems to deal with.

After the break, Rush noted that The New York Times is reporting that Obama is expected "to begin laying the political groundwork for sweeping immigration legislation," and that "White House officials do not rule out the possibility of an immigration overhaul before midterm congressional campaigns are in full swing next year. Some officials, however, say passage will more likely come in 2011, when Mr. Obama hopes to tap his broad support among Hispanic voters as he begins his run for re-election." Rush said the strategy is to get the whole thing in motion now and then push it big time during the re-election campaign -- amazing how he was able to divine that from the article. Anyway, Rush said the GOP has an opportunity to learn from their 2008 boondoggle, in which they tried to take the Hispanic vote away from Obama by being for amnesty. It didn't work then, Rush said, so it won't work in 2012.

Then Rush said that he's been thinking "very carefully" about health care, and when he thinks, "he is dangerous." Rush said he can see Obama cutting health care costs only if he takes millions of people off of health care, because he doesn't know how you cut costs by covering more people. Cutting costs by putting 40 million people on health care defies common sense, said Rush, and it defies the CBO. Rush said he can also see better health care as a consequence -- fewer patients means better care from doctors. This is about who you trust more, said Rush -- you and your doctor and common sense, or Obama and the Democrats. Rush noted that Obama said at his press conference that health spending will not add to the deficit, and endeavored to try this test of logic. Rush said that we're told that to improve education, we have to spend more money on teachers. But to improve health care we're going to spend less? Who do you trust more?

Rush also wanted to know what will encourage more people to become doctors -- less pay and more government intervention, or higher pay? Rush said that the media are clinging to that "rigged" New York Times poll to claim that Americans want health care reform. It was stuffed with Obama supporters, said Rush, so you can't trust it. Aside from the obvious problems with that claim, it ignores the fact that 50 percent of Republicans in the poll wanted a public option.

Another break and Rush was back, reading from Jake Tapper's write-up of the Obama health care town hall, saying that Obama was asked a good question -- is Obama going to go outside his own plan if it doesn't cover a procedure he needs -- and that Obama gave an "irrelevant, non-sequitur answer." Then Rush noted that Obama was asked by a woman about her mother, who received a pacemaker at age 99 against the advice of her doctor, and she's still alive five years later. Rush aired Obama's answer, in which he said, in part: "I don't think that we can make judgments based on peoples' spirit. That would be a pretty subjective decision to be making. I think we have to have rules that say that we are going to provide good, quality care for all people." Rush asked if we realized how "cold" and "heartless" this is. Who says we have to have Obama's rules, asked Rush. The president is not a king, not an autocrat, not a ruler, said Rush, and this woman found a way to get her mother a pacemaker, and with ObamaCare that wouldn't have happened. Rush said he understands how all this works -- don't families have the right to judge the spirit of their family members? Rush added: "Do we want a cold, cruel, unfeeling government saying spirit doesn't matter to us? That's exactly right. Obama wants you -- the best way to put it and it's working; he's trying to kill spirit. All this hope and change, he's trying to kill it."

Then Rush linked this "spirit" business to Gov. Sanford, saying that his first thought on Sanford what that this defies logic. Sanford knew the newspaper in his state had the emails between him and his concubine, said Rush, but he still leaves the country for five days and doesn't leave anyone in charge of the state in case there's an emergency. You'll recall that Rush's reaction yesterday to Sanford's five-day incommunicado absence from the state was, effectively, "so what?" Anyway, Rush explained Sanford's illogical actions to his loss of "spirit." Spirit is what makes America great, said Rush, and Obama is trying to kill it because he's a "cold-hearted, ruthless guy."

One more break and Rush was back, armed with John Fund's column this morning in which Fund wrote that union members and members of Congress will be exempt from the government health plan. Rush said you need to call your senator or member of Congress and ask if they're going to opt out of their health plan to join the Obama plan, and the answer is going to be hell no. If members of Congress are not going to join the plan, said Rush, then you don't want it. They're not going to give up their plan, and they're not going to give up the piece of garbage they come up with for the rest of us. You should not give up the power that permits you to seek what you want in your own health care, said Rush, and if you think your life is going to improve by giving up control of your own health care to a bunch of incompetent bureaucrats, the answer is no.

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

Highlights from Hour 1

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: Who are these people? All of this is predictable. We've got a man single-handedly trying to whack the U.S. private sector. Tony Soprano has taken over the U.S. government and the private sector is an opposing family. He's going to wipe it out. It'll be brought back to life on an HBO series soon.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I don't think we can make judgments based on people's spirit. That'd be a pretty subjective decision to be making. Maybe not if the government's in charge. That's the whole point. What about if families - do not families have a right to judge the spirit of their mothers and fathers and family members? Of course.

Do we want a cold, cruel, unfeeling government saying spirit doesn't matter to us? That's exactly right. Obama wants you -- the best way to put it and it's working; he's trying to kill spirit. All this hope and change, he's trying to kill it. You know how many frustrated Americans there are out there, at what's happening?

This Hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by Rush's "blessed life"
By Greg Lewis

Rush began the second hour of his program by leveling with his audience: He made it clear that he doesn't ever use health insurance because he's fortunate enough to not need it. Rush explained that his parents would never believe the "blessed life" he is now about to have. But his point is that even though whatever happens to health care reform won't affect him personally, it still angers him to no end. Instead of saying "Screw it!" to the health care debate, Rush would rather fight it because he wants an America to survive which offers everyone the opportunity to reach the point to which Rush himself has reached.

Then Rush played an audio montage from last night's ABC "infomercial" which Rush interpreted as Obama saying "bye-bye" to itemizing deductions and "hello" to 39 percent tax rates and Bush tax cuts being sunsetted in 2011.

Rush continued his rant against health care reform. He said the public option would lead to a black market for health care, and repeated his request from last hour for his listeners to ask their senators if they would join the public plan. Again, Rush stated that Obama was trying to destroy everything great about America with his policies:

And that is what led to American exceptionalism, American greatness, the American dream and all the things -- it's being threatened. And when you kill people's spirit to achieve it, you're halfway there. If you're Obama, you kill people's spirit. You're half way there to getting this dictatorial-type control, this authoritarian-type control, this despot type of control that you want.

Rush's answer to all of this was "no."

After the break, Rush declared that Obama's "yes we can" slogan should be met from audiences with an enthusiastic "No, you won't." Very original ... Rush then explained that one of the techniques that the state-run media is using to support Obama is to further demonize the insurance companies. An example of this, said Rush, was an exchange from last night's ABC special between Obama and the president and CEO of Aetna about competition between private insurers and government health care. Rush took exception to Obama's statement: "We're talking about a level playing field." Rush asserted that it is absurd that the public plan would abide from the same rules. These are the same rules that are being applied to making cars and mortgages. Rush said the government doesn't have to make a profit, and Aetna can't just do what the government does and print money. Again, Rush is trafficking in illogic here. Just last hour, he was blasting members of Congress for being exempt from the "piece of garbage" government health plan. But now he's saying that private insurers, whom he credits from creating the best health care system in the world, aren't going to be able to compete against this same "piece of garbage." Why not? If it's so completely awful, and if Americans are going to hate it as much as the DMV (a favorite talking point of his), then the private insurers should have no trouble competing, given what he considers to be their long track record of success.

Anyway, Rush then took a caller who claimed Obama's assertion that doctors are ordering more tests to get more compensation is ridiculous, and that they're actually doing so to protect their backsides. Rush responded that you can "forget" tort reform because tort lawyers are the second biggest contributing base to Obama.

After another break, Rush took a call from someone who was afraid he would lose his job and would have to pull roots and leave New York because of industry leaving the state. Rush told the caller to look on the bright side: at least he's not living in California.

Rush's next caller brought a unique perspective to the program, saying that he would like to be able to pay all his medical bills out of pocket like Rush, but the "rest of us" need health insurance, and asking what Rush's plan was for the "bottom 98 percent." Rush suggested health savings accounts and tort reform to bring down health care costs. The caller then noted that what the system needs is more primary care physicians, because they're horribly underpaid. The caller added that cardiovascular surgeons are doing procedures that don't work, as evidenced by Rush's surgery "that didn't work" and got him addicted to drugs. This, as you might expect, set Rush off. He explained that it was the fault of the federal government that health care was so expensive, and that the failure of Medicaid is going to be the foundation for the public option. Rush berated the caller, yelling at him that he didn't have a right to tell doctors what to do.

Rush had this takeaway from the call:

I will bet -- even though I can afford every dime of medical coverage -- I'll bet the amount of money I spend on health care a year is less than the average American who is just as healthy as I am and doesn't need it either. You ever think, Henry, people go to the doctor too much? You ever think, Henry, that maybe the news media telling you you're going to die every damn day from some stupid ass piece of coffee or a loose chunk of change falling from a tree or the planets colliding a billion years - you think people are maybe convinced they're going to die simply because they're eating trans fat? Think that might be why they're going to the doctor? This whole thing is a rigged scam. And at the root of the problem, Henry, is the United States government and the state governments who have run this system into the ground and bankrupted it. They've made it unaffordable for you.

Rush came back from the break, again arguing that it is better to just pay for health care bills in cash, based on his own personal experiences. He explained that paying for it yourself saves money, and what they come up with Washington will make it worse. Then Rush took a quick caller who questioned the authenticity of Henry the caller. Rush said Henry was a fraud. The point of the caller, Rush claimed, was to "discredit me" and wondered whether Henry was calling from Rahm Emmanuel's office, or even the Oval Office.

Simon Maloy, Zachary Pleat, and Hannah Kieschnick contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 2

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: And that is what led to American exceptionalism, American greatness, the American dream and all the things -- it's being threatened. And when you kill people's spirit to achieve it, you're halfway there. If you're Obama, you kill people's spirit. You're half way there to getting this dictatorial-type control, this authoritarian-type control, this despot type of control that you want.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I will bet -- even though I can afford every dime of medical coverage -- I'll bet the amount of money I spend on health care a year is less than the average American who is just as healthy as I am and doesn't need it either. You ever think, Henry, people go to the doctor too much? You ever think, Henry, that maybe the news media telling you you're going to die every damn day from some stupid ass piece of coffee or a loose chunk of change falling from a tree or the planets colliding a billion years - you think people are maybe convinced they're going to die simply because they're eating trans fat? Think that might be why they're going to the doctor? This whole thing is a rigged scam. And at the root of the problem, Henry, is the United States government and the state governments who have run this system into the ground and bankrupted it. They've made it unaffordable for you.

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by society's need for hypocrisy
By Greg Lewis

The third hour began with Rush commenting on Obama "pushing" his energy bill today, saying that the White House is panicking because of wavering Democrats. Rush said Obama's statement that whoever leads the world in green energy leads the world economy is "just not true," advising to us "talk to Spain about it." He was referring to a study that found Spain lost two jobs for every "green" job created. We should point out here that the study was conducted by a gentleman who is committed to combating global warming "alarmism" and apparently receives ExxonMobil money. Oh, and people who actually know what they're talking about say it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to compare Spain to the U.S. in this regard. Rush added: "I tire of having to deal with the lies and the misrepresentations." We'd say "welcome to our world," but for the fact that he's not actually dealing with "lies" and "misrepresentations"; he just thinks he is.

Anyway, this was as good an opportunity as any for Rush to wax poetic about coal. Charging that the coal industry is "under attack" by the Obama energy bill, Rush explained that that wind energy is far more expensive than coal. You see, said Rush, wind energy technology doesn't work because you can't guarantee the wind, and you can't store the energy. And as you might expect, any rant about coal by Limbaugh is bound to include some great cheap shots at those "nefarious" environmentalists. Rush explained that the market solved the energy problem "long before the current crop of crazy environmentalist whackos were even a gleam in their pony-tailed fathers' eyes, or a dream of their hair in the arm pit mothers." He added: "You know, when Mr. Ponytail Guy or Mr. Hair-In-the-Armpits Woman had their little kids and they're thinking about changing the world for the better, the people that were making the world work did not decide on wind or solar. They decided on coal because it was cheap, it was dependable, and it worked. No, the robber barons did not foist anything on us, as Obama says."

Rush made one more quick observation on energy before moving on: "All of this is just a panacea pie-in-the-sky promise that's based, it's -- follow the money -- it's simply based on money and Obama's sick desire to autocratically rule the country."

Next, Rush had "one more thing" to say about the Sanford affair. He explained that people were telling him that the Republican Party needs to get rid of social issues because it is seen as hypocrisy in situations like this. But Rush rejected this idea. Instead, Rush argued that "society needs hypocrisy." This actually went on for a few minutes, with Rush essentially making the case that hypocrisy helps preserve morality more effectively that "moral equivalency" does, which is what liberals try to impose on society.

After the break, Rush took a caller who made a breakthrough of sorts on "empathy." The caller noted that Obama, in the ABC town hall, said it would be difficult to make medical decisions based on a person's "spirit." The caller then employed a little rhetorical origami, and pronounced "spirit" the equivalent of "empathy" - the same "empathy" that Obama said a Supreme Court nominee must have. As such, the caller declared that he didn't understand Obama's message on "empathy." Rush said this was brilliant, and elaborated further:

Empathy is nothing more than spirit or feelings or what have you, so based -- and -- but there's one caveat to this: empathy is a code word when Obama talks about judges having it. All he means by it is, "I want people who are racists and bigots on my Supreme Court who are always going to find for minorities and the underprivileged simply because they've gotten the shaft all their lives. I want people on my court who are going to rule against the so-called rich and the so-called powerful because they have carried the day for too long. So I -- empathy is just a code word for somebody who has sympathy for the downtrodden.

Rush came back with a quick Heritage Foundation advertisement and then another caller, who suggested that Republicans in Congress propose an amendment that would require members of Congress to go on the public option. Rush says that may happen, but continued to insist to his listeners to call their Senators and ask them if they would do this voluntarily. Then Rush read from a Financial Times article, headlined "Pessimistic executives cash out of shares," to further advance his point that Obama is killing the human spirit. Of course, that makes no sense, and we don't have to explain why this makes no sense. But we will say that it's amusing to us that Rush, as the self-proclaimed leading voice for conservatism, should have any number of legitimate philosophical or policy differences with Obama that he could take up. Instead, he invents this cockamamie idea that everything bad that happens -- Sanford's affair, loss of confidence among U.S. executives that the global economy will recover -- is a consequence of Obama being on some insidious mission to "kill the spirit of America." Something tells us it's this exact sort of absurd, knee-jerk antipathy towards the president the makes Rahm Emanuel smile every time he hears Rush referred to as the leader of the GOP.

The next caller on the program extolled Rush's analysis on hypocrisy, which gave Rush an opportunity to say verbatim what he had just explained twenty minutes ago. Then Rush rambled on about John Edwards' affair. The whole world knew he was having an affair, explained Rush, but only the National Enquirer reported on it. On the other hand, McClatchy had a reporter in Buenos Aires tracking down where Sanford's "babe" lived. Before going to a break, Rush quickly read about John Kerry's comment that it was "too bad" Sarah Palin didn't go missing.

After another break, Rush read from a National Review blog post by Jim Geraghty which suggested Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine was "missing." It linked to a Washington Post article about Kaine's busy travel schedule -- because he's also the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. So Kaine isn't actually "missing." Rush concluded the show with audio of Tom Ridge defending Colin Powell as a Republican. Rush was still flogging his feud with the former Secretary of State, but does anybody really care anymore?

And so we've reached the end of today's Rush Limbaugh Show, and thus the end of today's edition of the Limbaugh Wire. We'll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, you can review Simon's week-long impugning of my character in our stupendous Limbaugh archives.

Simon Maloy, Zachary Pleat, and Hannah Kieschnick contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: It's because long before the current crop of crazy environmentalist whackos were even a gleam in their pony-tailed fathers' eyes, or a dream of their hair-in-the-armpit mothers, the market answered the question of the best way to provide for the electrical needs of the nations. And these were the choices that won: Coal, oil, nuclear. They won because the market decided it was -- they were the best. It was not because some nefarious scheme forcing these horrible products on us.

You know, when Mr. Ponytail Guy or Mr. Hair-In-the-Armpits Woman had their little kids and they're thinking about changing the world for the better, the people that were making the world work did not decide on wind or solar. They decided on coal because it was cheap, it was dependable, and it worked. No, the robber barons did not foist anything on us, as Obama says.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: And now to compare that cost against the real case scenarios for the effects of global warming, you realize that no rational person would believe wind power is any kind of a logical choice. Besides which, wind farms are ugly and everywhere they end up being, people start complaining about the noise they make. Even one guy - a story a couple weeks ago - even one guy put up a little windmill somewhere in his backyard and the noise from it drove his neighbors crazy.

All of this is just a panacea pie-in-the-sky promise that's based, it's -- follow the money -- it's simply based on money and Obama's sick desire to autocratically rule the country.

 [...]

LIMBAUGH: That's right. Obama's trying to kill human spirit throughout the American economy. Yet you're right, he wants judges who use empathy totally in rendering legal decisions.

CALLER: I think it's --

LIMBAUGH: Empathy is nothing more than spirit or feelings or what have you, so based -- and -- but there's one caveat to this: empathy is a code word when Obama talks about judges having it. All he means by it is, "I want people who are racists and bigots on my Supreme Court who are always going to find for minorities and the underprivileged simply because they've gotten the shaft all their lives. I want people on my court who are going to rule against the so-called rich and the so-called powerful because they have carried the day for too long. So I -- empathy is just a code word for somebody who has sympathy for the downtrodden.

CALLER: Exactly.