Hour 3: Limbaugh Stupefied That Rep. Price Would Choose Powell Over Cheney

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by Tom Price's forthcoming apology to El Rushbo
By Greg Lewis and Karl Frisch

So it's come to this: Rush began the third hour seemingly excited about a new round of layoffs at a Caterpillar plant in Indiana. His excitement stems from Obama's claim that Caterpillar would be able to rehire employees if the stimulus bill had passed, which turned out not to be the case. But now it has come to the point where Rush is eager to wave around any story about workers being laid off.

After reading about Obama's new policy on greenhouse gas emissions and CAFE standards, Rush went back to discussing Nancy Pelosi, explaining to his audience how to best investigate the issue. An independent council, he said was a way to use the left's own tactics against them. Another option would be a truth commission. Rush ultimately concluded that whatever the option is, the entire Democrat [sic] Party is lying.

Limbaugh continued this discussion after the break saying that the Pelosi issue is diverting discussion to talk about how Bush lied about WMDs and Iraq intelligence. As he described it, the torture memos prove that Democrats were briefed on waterboarding 43 times, and yet they still voted to fund the CIA. Rush said that Pelosi knew about it and could have threatened Bush to cut off funding every year between 2002 and 2005.

Rush then noted the media response to his comments last week that Pelosi should break the glass ceiling by following in the footsteps of other male House speakers and resign. Following this, Rush made our day by addressing Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), who, as we mentioned in Hour 1, rejected Rush's notion of leaving Colin Powell out of the GOP. Rush, never one to take kindly to criticism, was stupefied that Price would say that Powell is a better Republican that Dick Cheney. How could you say Cheney was worse for the party than Powell, asked Rush, considering Powell supported Obama. Then he played an audio clip in which Democratic strategist Bob Shrum said, 'We'd take Colin Powell in a second, and we don't want Rush Limbaugh." To which Rush responded: "You've got Colin Powell. This is the whole point -- you've got him, and you didn't even have to do any outreach. All you had to do was nominate an African-American, and you've got Colin Powell."

Then Rush actually took a caller who disagreed with him over Notre Dame. The caller noted the majority of students and alumni at the university supported the decision to have the president give the commencement address and argued to Rush that a university is supposed to provide a forum for a broad range of ideas and opinions. Rush ducked the question, insisting that the caller unknowingly criticized universities who try to silence the conservative point of view because they are pure, unadulterated leftists.

In the final segment, Rush took a few more callers to round out the hour. The first dittohead remarked that her intuition had assured her that Pelosi was lying. The caller said that Pelosi was a disgrace to her House seat, to her party, and to women in government. Rush explained to the caller that nobody cares about Pelosi because the media hasn't "demonized" her like they did Newt Gingrich. The next caller had some complaints about the NPR reporter who gave the commencement address at his girlfriend's law school graduation ceremony, and this managed to relate to Gitmo, so Rush was obviously thrilled.

That's it for today's Limbaugh Wire. Please, soak in our archives as we revel in Rush's money quote from today's broadcast: "I hate this whole concept of giving back."

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous remarks:

LIMBAUGH: How in the world can a Republican say that Colin Powell is a better Republican than Dick Cheney? How -- and that's what Tom Price said here, and Scarborough applauds him for some reason. How in the hell can you say that Dick Cheney is worse for the Republican Party than Colin Powell? It was Colin Powell who endorsed Obama after the Republican Party gave Colin Powell the exact kind of nominee he claims to want, some moderate squishy guy who was going to go work with Democrats. I mean, really, throw me out of this. Rush Limbaugh or Dick Cheney better Republicans than Colin Powell, and Price says, "No, goodness." And then also, same show, Scarborough, Bob Shrum -- I guess you can't keep him off TV these days -- Scarborough said, "To hear Dick Cheney say we'll take Rush Limbaugh in our party but not Colin Powell, would Democrats take Colin Powell in a second?

SHRUM [audio clip]: We'd take Colin Powell in a second, and we don't want Rush Limbaugh.

LIMBAUGH: You've got Colin Powell. This is the whole point -- you've got him, and you didn't even have to do any outreach. All you had to do was nominate an African-American, and you've got Colin Powell. The Democrats, this is -- now, the Republicans, some of them, are starting to speak up here. Republican leaders on Sunday backed Dick Cheney's attacks on Obama, calling the former vice president a strong asset for the party.

Clips from this hour:

Limbaugh responds to Price; says all Dems "had to do was nominate an African-American and [they've] got Colin Powell"