Hour 3: Limbaugh Defends Sessions From Attacks By "State-Run Media"

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By Greg Lewis

Rush got the final hour rolling by reading reports that more that 43,000 children go to emergency rooms every year after slipping in a bathtub. Rush reminisced about his childhood -- riding his bicycle without a helmet, running errands for his mother, his injuries from playing baseball when he was 12. Kids today are worried about stupid polar bears dying, whereas 50 years ago, we were worried about the Russians nuking us. Anyway, Rush's trip down memory lane was to make the point about how things today are different than they were when Rush was a youngster.

Rush came back from the break with a brand new comedy bit for us to enjoy -- a parody of Obama's speech in Michigan today, which, until today, had been scheduled as a town hall. The parody must have been thrown together on very short notice, and trust us when we say the quality of the bit reflected the time constraints... Anyway, Rush moved on to more sound bites from the Sotomayor hearing today, heaping praise on Sen. Jeff Sessions for his "terrific" questioning. Rush said Sessions dissected every one of her statements and properly analyzed it. Rush played audio of Sotomayor defending her comments at Duke University Law School in 2005, when she said the "court of appeals is where policy is made." Rush said that she was fudging what she really meant in order to get confirmed. Actually, her testimony is completely in line with what she said in 2005 if you actually consider the comment in context.

Then Rush went back to the Ricci case, repeating his claim from the first hour of today's broadcast that Sotomayor "buried" what she really believed, and she wasn't citing precedent like she claimed she was. You can scroll up the page to see our rebuttal. Continuing, Rush elaborated on his feelings about "precedent." If your thought process is like Sotomayor's, explained Rush, and you thought that precedent meant that you have to go for precedent every time, then we'd still have slavery.

After another break, Rush moved on to Sotomayor's defense of her "wise Latina" remarks, and her explanation that it was a "rhetorical flourish" based on something said by Sandra Day O'Connor. Rush explained that this is why Sotomayor is "dangerous":

LIMBAUGH: She couldn't have meant what she said. If she can say that about Sandra Day O'Connor, she could look at the Constitution and say, "They didn't mean that." And this one little example is all you need to know how dangerous this woman is. Your Constitution -- our Constitution is not safe with this woman interpreting it.

Then Rush continued to gloat about how "effective" Sessions was, and how the state-run media are talking about it. He aired audio of Chris Matthews and Richard Wolffe on MSNBC discussing how Sessions was playing "racial politics." Au contraire, said Rush:

LIMBAUGH: She's the racist, and they turn it around and say that Sessions is the racist. Sotomayor is the one who used the word -- or the phrase "wise Latina" and "the richness of her experiences" would make her a better judge than the average white guy. She is the racist.

Here's the amusing thing: Rush has no problem saying "wise Latina" over and over, ripping it out of context, and declaring Sotomayor a "racist," but when someone in the media says Sessions is playing "racial politics," Rush pronounces that ridiculous, but won't get into anything Sessions actually said today. Well, a quick review of Sessions' comments from today would have given some much needed context -- he invoked a Puerto Rican judge's ancestry in explaining why Sotomayor should have voted with him, and he (in the words of Jeffrey Toobin) adopted a "line of questioning" based on the notion "that being a white man, that's normal. Everybody else has biases and prejudices."

The next sentence in Rush's monologue led straight back to his bizarre obsession with rape:

LIMBAUGH: State-run media attacks Jeff Sessions. 'Cause he's from Alabama, why, he's got to be a racist; just like those three kids at Duke had to rape that dancer. She was black, she was poor, she was a dancer; they're rich elite athletes at a power school -- of course they raped her! We don't even need to know the facts; of course they did. Uh, no, they didn't. OK, never mind. So, now, Jeff Sessions is the racist.

The next caller on the program went back to the bathtub story, explaining that in her experience working in emergency rooms, most people who go to emergency rooms do not go for actual emergencies. Rush understands this, relating it to his theory on our society's "health panic," describing it as a combination of media, affluence, and medical advancements creating unnecessary hospital visits.

Then, in introducing a story about an airline for pets, Rush took a quick swipe at Baltimore-Washington International Airport for being named after Thurgood Marshall:

LIMBAUGH: There's an airline, it'll be operating out of Baltimore, Baltimore-Washington International -- Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-Washington International Brown versus Board of Education Airport. See if I can say that again: Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-Washington International Brown versus Board of Education Airport.

One more break, and Rush concluded the show with a caller who was upset with Rush's comments from earlier in the hour about why Sotomayor is dangerous. The caller said it was a stretch to say that Sotomayor would look at the Constitution and say that it's not what the founders meant based on what she said about O'Connor's statements today. Rush disagreed and played the clip from the hearings today again to prove his point.

That's all for the Limbaugh Wire today. We hope you'll join us tomorrow for another day of priceless commentary from El Rushbo on the third day of the Sotomayor hearings. Meanwhile, get a sense of everything Rush has said about Sotomayor (again and again and again) by taking a peek at our comprehensive and thorough Limbaugh Wire archives.

Simon Maloy, Zachary Pleat, and Ariana Probinsky contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: She couldn't have meant what she said. If she can say that about Sandra Day O'Connor, she could look at the Constitution and say, "They didn't mean that." And this one little example is all you need to know how dangerous this woman is. Your Constitution -- our Constitution is not safe with this woman interpreting it.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: She's the racist, and they turn it around and say that Sessions is the racist. Sotomayor is the one who used the word -- or the phrase "wise Latina" and "the richness of her experiences" would make her a better judge than the average white guy. She is the racist.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: There's an airline, it'll be operating out of Baltimore, Baltimore-Washington International -- Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-Washington International Brown versus Board of Education Airport. See if I can say that again: Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-Washington International Brown versus Board of Education Airport.

Ladies' man

LIMBAUGH: State-run media attacks Jeff Sessions. 'Cause he's from Alabama, why, he's got to be a racist; just like those three kids at Duke had to rape that dancer. She was black, she was poor, she was a dancer; they're rich elite athletes at a power school -- of course they raped her! We don't even need to know the facts; of course they did. Uh, no, they didn't. OK, never mind. So, now, Jeff Sessions is the racist.