Limbaugh Encourages People to Break The Law on "Lawless" Health Care Reform

By Zachary Pleat

Rush imagines Obama calling Kucinich "effing r-word"

Rush began his show today by reassuring his listeners that Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich's decision to vote in favor of the finalization of health care reform isn't a big deal. Rush offered some possible reasons to explain Kucinich's decision:

LIMBAUGH: Folks, don't get -- don't get so wigged out here over this Kucinich business. And there's an easy explanation for this Kucinich business: They either threatened him with a UFO trip -- they either threatened him with a UFO trip, or they offered to make sure that in his case, his pre-existing condition of mental illness will not be a barrier to any kind of coverage that he gets down the road.

Rush would later call Kucinich a "mental midget."

 After suggesting that anti-government protests in Thailand were demonstrations against President Obama visiting the country, Rush played several audio clips of news shows reporting on his efforts to shut down the Capitol switchboard yesterday. He then cited the Heritage Foundation to again reassure his audience on the health care reform effort, stating that the Democrats still don't have enough votes to ensure its final passage.

He then again gave out phone numbers for the Capitol switchboard -- a topic he returned to this throughout his show -- and again pushed the Code Red website.

Rush soon returned to Kucinich's decision on the health care reform vote, launching into a rant hypothesizing about what Obama said to change Kucinich's mind, speculating whether Obama called Kucinich "you effing r-word," and wondering whether Kucinich's "mental illness" would still be treatable under the proposed legislation. Much later in the program, a caller who said that he had bipolar disorder told Rush that he was upset over the insistence that Kucinich is mentally ill. Rush said that he was just joking.

Changing directions, Rush launched into a rant reacting to a New York Times article that discussed the "opportunity in a fight with Israel." Rush said that Obama only wanted to increase his standing with Muslims, and demanded to know whether Obama only cared about himself, instead of what's best for America.

After the first break, Rush decided to bash Eric Holder a little bit, saying that Holder believes terrorists have the same rights as mass murderers. He used this to again state his belief that Osama bin Laden is dead and has been for years:

LIMBAUGH: Eric Holder says that terrorists have the same rights as mass murderers. Eric Holder also said yesterday that Osama bin Laden will never be tried in the U.S. court system -- that he'll either be killed by his own people or just die.

The reason he will never be tried in the U.S. court system is he's already dead. He's been dead for years. Everybody knows it. The reason we're not talking about getting bin Laden now is because everybody knows he's already dead, they just used that against Bush to show his Iraq policy was wrong, his Afghanistan policy was a failure. Now, if you've noticed, nobody has any interest in getting bin Laden and Holder's up saying, eh, yeah, we're never gonna bring him to trial. Holder can't wait to try these people in court. But we're never gonna -- we're not gonna. 'Cause he's not alive. Don't doubt me on this.

Back from the half-hour break, Rush went on to rant and misinform on the "Slaughter rule", pushing the dubious claim several times that it's illegal and unconstitutional, even though Republicans used similar rules over and over when they controlled Congress. Later on in the second hour, he came back to this, declaring that "we won't comply" with an unconstitutional law, and promoting a court challenge being prepared by fellow radio host Mark Levin. Rush referred to the partisan Heritage Foundation several times throughout his show to make some of his points and cited a misleadingly titled Associated Press "fact check" to declare that Obama was lying about nearly everything he said about health care reform. Rush finished off his tirade by declaring that health care reform was "the overthrow" of the U.S. Constitution. In the next segment, he declared finalizing health care reform through the use of the self-executing rule to be "dictatorial."

Rush: President Obama is "an agitator"

For the top of his second hour, Rush read from a Gallup poll that asked respondents how Obama was doing on three separate policy areas. He compared them to results from the previous year. Rush then read a lengthy Daily Beast article. After a short break, he returned to this topic, using the Daily Beast article and Obama's approval numbers to call the president an agitator:

LIMBAUGH: In other words, let me translate here what Peter Beinart wrote. Obama, contrary to what everybody voting for him thought, came to divide. Obama's purpose is to divide the country. His purpose was to never unify. His purpose was to never reach across the aisle and bridge the political divide or gap. He was never interested in that.

[...]

Obama was not interested in unity; he was not interested in that at all. He had never unified anybody in his orb in the past. It was not his purpose. He's an agitator. Community organizer, ACORN adviser, lawyer. He's an agitator. Barack Obama came to divide -- and he has succeeded.

For the last hour of the show, Rush again tried to reassure his audience that health care reform is far from passing, this time focusing on the whip count. Rush cited right-wing blog Ace of Spades several times, hedged on whether it was accurate, and concluded that it's just an alternative count.

After another break, Rush -- for the third time -- talked up noncompliance with the health care reform legislation once it's signed into law:

LIMBAUGH: But I just can't -- I can't -- just don't believe that here we are in 2010, and in three days the United States of America ceases to be a representative republic and turns into a veritable tyrannical dictatorship, which is essentially what's going to happen if this health care bill passes. I just -- and if it does pass, the American people aren't going to put up with it. They aren't gonna comply.

Kitty Kaletsky and Michael Burns contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.