Hour 3: Discussing Specter switch, Limbaugh says Republican Party will have to be "rebuilt"

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the leftward tilt of urban violence
By Simon Maloy

Rush got the final hour going by saying that he received an email from a friend asking why he wasn't spending more time today on swine flu. This made Rush laugh because his friend lives in New York City. Rush said he wrote back: "You gotta be kidding me. You live in New York! It is a blue city, meaning it's a Democrat, liberal city. You have a greater chance of dying going down to the bodega for an orange than you do of getting the pig flu!" Rush added for emphasis: "More people die every day in blue cities from violent crime than are gonna come down with the pig flu." Perhaps urban violence, like corporate America, does have a "leftward tilt," but as a colleague pointed out, New York City has not had a Democratic mayor since December 31, 1993.

Then Rush noted that Fox News' Greta Van Sustern was interviewing people in New York City last night who described "their total, abject fear as a result of" the Air Force One flyover. Rush added: "So it made me wonder as I'm watching this, these people in New York, whose greatest fear is another plane hitting another building in Manhattan, voted overwhelmingly for a guy who does not in any way share that fear."

Moving on, Rush aired audio of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) on MSNBC yesterday being asked to respond to Rush's desire that Arlen Specter take Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) with him to the Democratic side. Lieberman "respectfully" disagreed with Rush, and Rush, in turn, "respectfully" disagreed with Lieberman on the idea that parties need moderating influences. Rush said he keeps hearing that the GOP is monolithic in its right-wing views. But the "Democrat Party" is open to diverse ideas? he asked. Isn't that undermined when you say that the Senate is now "filibuster-proof"? Anyway, Rush is sick and tired of hearing how monolithic and right-wing the Republicans have become, because they've actually "moved left," said Rush. Rush guaranteed that the Democrats would never nominate their equivalent of John McCain, whose claim to fame was blasting Bush.

Then Rush moved on to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), or Sen. Grahamnesty, as Rush pithily dubbed him. Sen. Grahamnesty was on Fox News' On the Record last night, and Rush aired audio of the good senator saying that neither he nor Rush Limbaugh could win in Pennsylvania, and the Republicans need to find someone who can. Rush said this doesn't make any sense, and asked what was the benefit to the GOP to have someone in the party, like Specter, who wasn't really a Republican. Voters are too smart for that, Rush said -- if they can vote for a genuine liberal, then they'll do that instead of vote for a fake one. Rush counseled that Sen. Grahamnesty could learn quite a bit by visiting the Heritage Foundation's website, which he proceeded to plug for the rest of the segment.

After the break, Rush said that CNN's David Gergen is the essence of "conventional wisdom" in Washington, D.C., and that he was "180 degrees wrong" when he said last night that Rush and RNC chair Michael Steele were "bitter" in their responses to the Specter defection. Rush said it's the Democrats that demand 100 percent fealty. You'll recall we linked in the first hour to Sen. Jim DeMint's statement on Specter leaving the party, in which he said: "I would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don't have a set of beliefs." Anyway, Rush went on to say that it's a "lie" that Reagan erected a "big tent" for the GOP in the 1980s. Leading into the break, he described an argument he had with someone in the green room at last night's debate, who said to Rush that the GOP needs to shed their pro-life position to win. Rush pronounced this argument ridiculous, because Reagan was pro-life and he won in two landslides.

Coming back from the break, Rush said (not 10 minutes after saying the idea of Reagan's "big tent" was a "lie") that Reagan did indeed attract "moderates," but he didn't change who he was to attract them. Then Rush noted that Specter, in his statement announcing his switch to the Democratic Party, lamented former Sen. Lincoln Chaffee's 2006 failed re-election attempt, which Specter characterized as an instance of Club for Growth favoring party purity over electoral results. Rush thought it "funny" that Specter called for a party "revolt" against Club for Growth, asking: "Who will the uprising come from? Moderates?" Rush bemoaned the fact that Club for Growth was being "besmirched" by conservatives today, because they just believe in private-sector capitalism, which is not "demanding purity."

Returning to Specter's "revolt" of the moderates, Rush played what he said would be a good anthem for that revolt, Dave Mason's "We Just Disagree." As the song played, Rush asked us to imagine Obama singing it to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez. After the musical interlude had ended, Rush asked why Club for Growth is being viewed as "the problem," and not "far left" groups like... wait for it... ACORN. Rush's conclusion: If they want to leave the party, let them leave, because the conservative movement and the Republican Party are going to have to be "rebuilt" anyway.

Rush closed out the show with a hat trick of callers, the first asking Rush if there are any newspapers out there that aren't liberal. Rush said the reason you don't see daily body counts from Iraq in the newspapers anymore is because the media is not trying to "secure defeat" in Iraq now that Obama is in office. The next caller, a baker, said Obama deserves a "strong F-minus" for his first 100 days, explaining that he was employed before Obama, but now he's unemployed, and the government is destroying the food industry by paying farmers to grow corn instead of wheat. At this point, Rush could have pointed out to this gentleman that corn subsidies -- regardless of their merits -- were being paid long before Obama had even been elected to the Senate, let alone the presidency, so he can't really be blamed for that. Instead, Rush said that Obama is helping to spread fear and chaos throughout the economy. Rush's final caller explained that even though Pennsylvania is a Democratic state, a pro-life Republican can still win. Rush agreed, saying that conservatism wins every place it is "boldly tried."

And that's it for another afternoon of Limbaugh Wiring. With the president's 100th day press conference happening tonight, you can guarantee that there will be a whole lot of distortions, half-truths, bloviations, and outright falsehoods during tomorrow's episode of The Rush Limbaugh Show, so we do hope you'll join us again as we meticulously dismantle them one at a time. Until then, please consider taking a look at Media Matters' complete and unabridged Limbaugh archives.

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: I looked at this email from this friend of mine from New York worried about the pig flu. I actually -- I wrote back; I said, "You gotta be kidding me. You live in New York! It is a blue city, meaning it's a Democrat, liberal city. You have a greater chance of dying going down to the bodega for an orange than you do of getting the pig flu!" More people die every day in blue cities from violent crime than are gonna come down with the pig flu.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Greta Van Susteren -- I was watching Greta last night as we were flying home. She was discussing this photo op that scared all the people in lower Manhattan. You saw the video -- people leaving their buildings, running away. And she interviewed a lot of people. Person after person interviewed, describing their total, abject fear as a result of this little White House stunt that nobody can explain how it happened.

So it made me wonder as I'm watching this, these people in New York, whose greatest fear is another plane hitting another building in Manhattan, voted overwhelmingly for a guy who does not in any way share that fear.