Hour 1: Limbaugh: "This Country Is Failing Because President Obama Is Succeeding"

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.