Sour Grapes: Limbaugh Calls NFL An "Outpost Of Racism And Liberalism"

By Tom Allison

Rush offered some new details in his account of his failed bid to be a part-owner of the St. Louis Rams, claiming that group head Dave Checketts had "taken care of" the inevitable "firestorm" that would result from Rush's involvement in the buy.

Rush said there have been reports that George Soros was also a part of Dave Checketts' group trying to buy the St. Louis Rams. Of course, Rush suggested that Soros might have been the one responsible for Checketts asking Limbaugh to withdraw from the group, theorizing that Soros' "politics fits in perfectly apparently with what the National Football League is becoming." Rush also slid in an attack against Soros, asking if he was fit to be an owner of a team considering his possible advocacy of the legalization of marijuana:

LIMBAUGH: When the whole thing started to unravel last week, whenever, whoever -- whenever this thing leaked -- and by the way, I learned yesterday that George Soros might be in this group. Reuters had a story that George Soros is one of Dave Checketts' partners. I did not know that. I wasn't told that. The -- Mr. Checketts is not the primary partner here. The NFL has a rule that the primary owner has to have 30 percent equity in the team, and our group lost our 30 percent equity guy, and we had to scramble and find a new one. And I was told who it was, but now I'm wondering if it was Soros and I wasn't told. Soros and Checketts did, I have learned, partner together previously, try to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers. So, and of course, Mr. Soros is well known politically for his left-wing slants. His politics fits in perfectly, apparently, with what the National Football League is becoming. But I wonder if they know he is also involved in the movement to legalize marijuana, and how that will play as the owners decide whether or not he's fit.

Rush then bizarrely theorized that the resistance to his involvement in the NFL wasn't due to his history of controversial racial remarks, but to future contract negotiations between the league and the Players Association:

LIMBAUGH: And the real reason, the real reason -- and there are many, many reasons that are valid -- but the real reason that pressure was brought upon me by Sharpton and Jackson and DeMaurice Smith and the commissioner is that the players association is using my involvement in the Rams and this whole episode as a bit of leverage in their negotiations, the upcoming negotiations with the league and with the owners on a new collective bargaining agreement.

Later in the program, Rush gave us what we all saw coming, his sour-grapes moment:

LIMBAUGH: They had to demonize me with false, fake, made-up quotes to protect their precious little National Football League as an outpost of racism and liberalism, which is what it is.

Rush concluded that he "lost nothing" in the fiasco, criticized people for using the NFL for their own personal gain, and gloomily declared the country to be in its dark days:

LIMBAUGH: As I said yesterday, and I've said I don't know how many times on this program, I love the National Football League. I don't dislike anything about it. I'm a fan. But the hatred that I am able now to mirror for the country to see is all over the place. And I tell you with absolute sincerity, I am more sad for our country than I am for myself.

"Barack Obama is Hurricane Katrina"

Discussing Obama's visit to New Orleans today, Rush declared Obama a natural disaster:

LIMBAUGH: Obama is going in to inspect the destruction in New Orleans to see how the rest of the country is going to look after he finished implementing all of his agenda. Because we are all headed for a Hurricane Katrina to wipe out portions of this country, just as it has in Detroit without any levees breaking. Barack Obama is Hurricane Katrina, without the wind and without the rain.

My new favorite word is "Sue, sue, sue!"

Rush continued his campaign against Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, again calling Sharpton a "race hustler." Rush also criticized media who have repeated quotes that Rush asserts have been fabricated, and cheered on his listeners who are calling for legal action:

LIMBAUGH: A couple of things. I am checking a lot of emails form people today, in both the public email address I give out here on radio and the subscriber email address at RushLimbaugh.com, and there's an overwhelming sentiment; sue them, sue them to bankruptcy, and go after Sharpton and Jackson. 

[...]

LIMBAUGH: My new favorite word is "sue." Sue, sue, sue! People are demanding, "Sue 'em, sue 'em!"

Moving on briefly from the NFL, Rush was in disbelief that that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce would spend $25 million for an ad campaign about the benefits of capitalism and that the AP would report that the advertisements might be partisan:

LIMBAUGH: Now, a few short years ago, my friends, it would have been unthinkable that the Chamber of Commerce would need to spend $25 million defending the idea that jobs are best created in the private sector, let alone defending free enterprise, a cornerstone of our greatness. Yet here we are, Obama's America. Ten short months into Obama's rule, 10 short months into the Democrat Party with an iron fist aimed at this country, fighting. Ten months, and we are -- in just 10 months, we are fighting to keep America and the American dream alive. These are dark days.

Rush took a call from anti-gay marriage activist Ken Hutcherson, who is veteran of two NFL seasons in the 1970s and founder and senior pastor of the Antioch Bible Church and was not pleased with how Rush was treated during his Rams bid. Rush assured "the Hutch" that "we're not going to take this lying down."

Seniors "face the guillotine" if health reform passes

Rush repeated his fearmongering from yesterday about Robert Reich's lecture at Berkley about how proponents of progressive healthcare reform will prove deadly to  senior citizens, though I don't think we've heard about this particular French revolution execution device yet:

LIMBAUGH: Senior citizens know full well what they face -- the guillotine -- if his health scare bill ever passes.

Rush wrapped up the segment by comparing Sharpton and Jackson's activism to feminists from the "NAGS" working on gender issues and declaring that there is a "den of thieves on the left" that "are all radical leftists, and they all work together to advance their agenda, which is anti-freedom and liberty."

"NFL is run by the left"

Not surprisingly, Rush returned to his sour grapes trend, declaring that the "NFL is run by the left" and that NFL Players Association head DeMaurice Smith is an "Obamaite" because he worked on the President's transition. Rush against said that the "didn't lose anything" and that he "probably saved himself a lot of grief down the road."

After the break Rush rejected the notion that the NFL is "apolitical" and declared that "the NFL is steeped in politics now." In response to a caller declaring he was boycotting the NFL entirely, had cancelled his DirecTV NFL package and had even thrown all of his jerseys away, Rush declared that he was "overwhelmed" and thanked his fans for their support.

Relentlessly playing the victim, Rush played ESPN2 commentator Marcellus Wiley's comments that Limbaugh's program is "Racist Radio." Rush told his audience Wiley was referring to them as racists as well. Naturally, Rush called Wiley a "race baiter" and that he is the one "obsessed with race."

Rush also referred to NBC sports broadcaster "an unhappy little diva."

Rush on black NFL players: "Who do they think is paying their salaries?"

Then Rush offered his most racially charged sports comment of the show, and that's saying something:

LIMBAUGH: Second thing in, who do these 70 percent African-American players think is paying their salaries? Is every white person that attends a National Football League game or buys the NFL Sunday Ticket like you do a racist?

Rush also was excited to share with his audience studies of the majority white audience of football games.

Later on, Rush claimed in the final hour that he has "something in common" with Justice Clarence Thomas: "I too have had my high-tech lynching."

Zachary Aronow and Zachary Pleat contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights

LIMBAUGH: So, he came to me, probably with knowledge that I had interest in this. But I met him on a practice range on a golf course, he came to my home some weeks later, I think it was either late May or early June, and about an hour and a half or two hours, and we sealed the deal and that was that. And I said to him at this meeting, I said, "Are you aware of the firestorm this --" "Ah, yes, totally aware, Rush, and believe me, I wouldn't have approached you if I hadn't taken care of that. I would not have even come and asked you to come be part of the group if I had not cleared your involvement with people at highest levels of the National Football League." And my mistake at that point was not asking him, "All right, do you really mean it, and who did you speak to?" He gave me a couple of names that -- pretty high up -- and led me to believe it was handled, and he was fully prepared for what was going to happen.

When the whole thing started to unravel last week, whenever, whoever -- whenever this thing leaked -- and by the way, I learned yesterday that George Soros might be in this group. Reuters had a story that George Soros is one of Dave Checketts' partners. I did not know that. I wasn't told that. The -- Mr. Checketts is not the primary partner here. The NFL has a rule that the primary owner has to have 30 percent equity in the team, and our group lost our 30 percent equity guy, and we had to scramble and find a new one. And I was told who it was, but now I'm wondering if it was Soros and I wasn't told. Soros and Checketts did, I have learned, partner together previously, try to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers. So, and of course, Mr. Soros is well known politically for his left-wing slants. His politics fits in perfectly, apparently, with what the National Football League is becoming. But I wonder if they know he is also involved in the movement to legalize marijuana, and how that will play as the owners decide whether or not he's fit.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: And the real reason, the real reason -- and there are many, many reasons that are valid -- but the real reason that pressure was brought upon me by Sharpton and Jackson and DeMaurice Smith and the commissioner is that the players association is using my involvement in the Rams and this whole episode as a bit of leverage in their negotiations, the upcoming negotiations with the league and with the owners on a new collective bargaining agreement.

 [...]

LIMBAUGH: As I said yesterday, and I've said I don't know how many times on this program, I love the National Football League. I don't dislike anything about it. I'm a fan. But the hatred that I am able now to mirror for the country to see is all over the place. And I tell you with absolute sincerity, I am more sad for our country than I am for myself.

 [...]

LIMBAUGH: A couple of things. I am checking a lot of emails from people today, in both the public email address I give out here on radio and the subscriber email address at RushLimbaugh.com, and there's an overwhelming sentiment -- sue them, sue them to bankruptcy, and go after Sharpton and Jackson.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: My new favorite word is "sue." Sue, sue, sue! People are demanding, "Sue 'em, sue 'em!"

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Now, a few short years ago, my friends, it would have been unthinkable that the Chamber of Commerce would need to spend $25 million defending the idea that jobs are best created in the private sector, let alone defending free enterprise, a cornerstone of our greatness. Yet here we are, Obama's America. Ten short months into Obama's rule, 10 short months into the Democrat Party with an iron fist aimed at this country, fighting. Ten months, and we are -- in just 10 months, we are fighting to keep America and the American dream alive. These are dark days.

 [...]

LIMBAUGH: They had to demonize me with false, fake, made-up quotes to protect their precious little National Football League as an outpost of racism and liberalism, which is what it is.

Outrageous Comments

LIMBAUGH: Obama is going in to inspect the destruction in New Orleans to see how the rest of the country is going to look after he finished implementing all of his agenda. Because we are all headed for a Hurricane Katrina to wipe out portions of this country, just as it has in Detroit without any levees breaking. Barack Obama is Hurricane Katrina, without the wind and without the rain.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Senior citizens know full well what they face -- the guillotine -- if his health scare bill ever passes.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: These two people are irrelevant if they are not promoted with credibility by the media. That's the only thing that gives them power. They have no power because of their own character. They have no power because of their own credibility. They only have power because they are anointed. Whenever a question of race comes up, you make a beeline, Sharpton and Jackson. Whenever a feminist issue comes up, you go up and find out who's running the NAGS. Look it, it is all one giant den of thieves on the left, whether they're in the media, whether they're in activist groups or in the Democrat Party. They are all radical leftists, and they all work together to advance their agenda, which is anti-freedom and liberty.

 [...]

LIMBAUGH: The interesting thing with the National Football League is that it has gotten away with being portrayed and seen as apolitical when in fact it's run by the left. The sportswriter community is radical leftists. They are pure 100 percent liberals, vast majority of them. The player's association head is an Obamaite -- DeMaurice or DeMaurice Smith, I don't know how he pronounces his name.

 [...]

LIMBAUGH: This Marcellus Wiley fool and all of these other race-baiters that are discussing this keep talking about how 70 percent of the league is African-American, and as such, somebody like me cannot possibly in any way, shape, manner, or form be involved -- 70 percent of the league is African-American. Three things about this. A, I know that. B, the 70 percent African-Americans make big bucks. I want to get -- if I'm a racist, I want to get into that game? Doesn't make sense. Second thing is, who do these 70 percent African-American players think is paying their salaries? Is every white person that attends a National Football League game or buys the NFL Sunday Ticket like you do a racist?