Hour 3: Limbaugh Refers To Native Americans As "Clowns"

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by "these clowns," the Native Americans
By Simon Maloy

Rush got the final hour started with "one more thing" about Sonia Sotomayor -- a mental exercise: "She said that because she is a Latina, because she is a Hispanic woman, that she'd -- because of the richness of that experience, she'd be a better judge than a white guy. What if she had said because of her rich experiences as a Latina, as a Hispanic woman, that she'd be a better judge than a black guy? What do you think the reaction to that might have been?" Doesn't matter what race you shoehorn in there, that's not what she said. What Sotomayor did say, while discussing the importance of judicial diversity in race and sex discrimination cases, was: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." And that's not too different from some praise John Yoo heaped on Clarence Thomas, or comments Thomas made himself.

Nonetheless, Limbaugh broke out the racial shoehorn to reinforce whatever point he was trying to make, and in the process insulted Native Americans: "If we want to talk about richness of experience, there's a group of people that were here before we got here, gang: the Indians, the Native Americans, the chiefs, the redskins. I don't see any of them being put up on the courts. Talk about a richness of experience -- hell, these clowns beat Custer. They have cred. You don't see them being put up, do you?"

Then it was time for one more "one more thing" about Sotomayor, as Rush read extensively from National Review's Andy McCarthy's blog post on how Sotomayor wouldn't qualify as a juror, let alone a Supreme Court justice. Rush, of course, loved every sentence of it. Personally, we're more interested in whether McCarthy has finally figured out whether Bill Ayers ghost-wrote Obama's memoir for him.

Rush then said he was moving on to other thi -- no, wait! There was yet another "one more thing" about Sotomayor as Rush read extensively from a Washington Post article this morning on how the "White House scrambled yesterday to assuage worries from liberal groups about Judge Sonia Sotomayor's scant record on abortion rights, delivering strong but vague assurances that the Supreme Court nominee agrees with President Obama's belief in constitutional protections for a woman's right to the procedure." Rush said that "the pro-abort crowd" cares only about her abortion record because they're afraid that she could become a Souter. Rush also got around to regurgitating an already-passé smear of Sotomayor: "I'll tell you, there's another concern they've got, and you've seen this being reported if you've been paying any attention: She's not an intellectual heavyweight. They are thus afraid that Scalia and Thomas and Roberts might get her mind right. They're worried about this."

Finally, there were no more "one more things" about Sotomayor as Rush moved on to a Miami Herald article on how, according to a recent poll, two-thirds of residents of coastal states are not concerned about hurricanes. This won't do for the media, said Rush, who want everyone scared to death. Rush then warned people from Maine to Texas to get ready, you're going to be deluged with footage of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina until you're officially concerned and blame Bush for it.

After the break, Rush read from a Washington Times article on how "Justice Department political appointees overruled career lawyers and ended a civil complaint accusing three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense of wielding a nightstick and intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling place last Election Day." Rush's takeaway from this article was that since someone set up a New Black Panther page on Obama's website (on which anyone could set up such a page) endorsing Obama, Attorney General Holder probably concluded that you don't put your earliest supporters in jail.

Rush squeezed in a quick call before the break, this one from a man who said Rush is an "inspiration" and that we'll all be successful if we live our lives according to Limbaugh's rules. We sure do love "Open Line Friday!"

After the break, Rush was very upset with NBC for their online article on the "8 health risks in your own backyard." He was so upset, in fact, that he read the entire article in his snide, mocking voice, and then enumerated the many things in the house that can kill you. From there it was a smooth segue into the latest Limbaugh song-parody masterpiece, "Obama Can," sung to the tune of "The Candyman."

One more break and Rush came back reading from a Huffington Post article on the four families featured in Obama's pre-election 30-minute television ad, and how "only one of those folks has seen anything resembling a rescue -- and it wasn't because of any government program." Rush said he didn't need the story to know this, just look at the Labor Department data. The economy shrank by an annual rate of 5.7 percent in the first quarter, and Obama hasn't done anything but make it worse.

Rush closed the show with a couple of calls, the first from a woman who cryptically intoned that there is no racial division except by those who make money off of it. Rush says what's happened today is that he's been scolded by all the learned people on his side on how we should raise the discourse, but guess what? The Sotomayor "racist" stuff is all over MSNBC. The White House allowed it to fester, said Rush, and that was a political mistake. Rush's last caller said that Sen. Claire McCaskill was interviewed on a Missouri radio station, and when they brought up Sotomayor's "wise Latina" statement, McCaskill misunderstood who said what and was awfully offended until she was told that Sotomayor said it. Rush said he was going to play that audio, but people were getting sick of Sotomayor stuff. You're telling us ...

Anyway, that's it for the day and the week here at the Wire. We hope you all have a great weekend, we'll see you back here on Monday, and, as always, Media Matters' ever-expanding Limbaugh archives are available for your perusal.

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: She said that because she is a Latina, because she is a Hispanic woman, that she'd -- because of the richness of that experience, she'd be a better judge than a white guy. What if she had said because of her rich experiences as a Latina, as an Hispanic woman, that she'd be a better judge than a black guy? What do you think the reaction to that might have been? You think there might have been some people even on her -- you think the White House would have tamped that down pretty quick?

[...]

LIMBAUGH: If we want to talk about richness of experience, there's a group of people that were here before we got here, gang: the Indians, the Native Americans, the chiefs, the redskins. I don't see any of them being put up on the courts. Talk about a richness of experience -- hell, these clowns beat Custer. They have cred. You don't see them being put up, do you?

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I'll tell you, there's another concern they've got, and you've seen this being reported if you've been paying any attention: She's not an intellectual heavyweight. They are thus afraid that Scalia and Thomas and Roberts might get her mind right. They're worried about this.