This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the Birther rebirth
by Simon Maloy

This hour of The Rush Limbaugh Show began in one of the 3,435,982 ways we hoped it wouldn't -- with a discussion of the “cat version of AIDS.” Specifically, Steyn claimed that the Wall Street fat cats are no longer “fat,” but rather, because the banking industry declined 25 percent in the last two years, they are “emaciated, cadaverous cats. They've got that -- what's that thing, the cat version of AIDS that the cats get? The feline immunodeficiency virus? These are emaciated skeletal cats. They're the only ones left. They're scavenging for fish bones in the garbage cans of Wall Street.”

Back from the break, Steyn read from a New York Times article on how, under the stimulus package, poorer school districts may receive fewer dollars per student than wealthier school districts. According to Steyn, the idea that a school district would ask Washington for assistance in the first place would have been abhorrent to Alexis De Tocqueville, who would have found that to be indicative of a “European” mentality. Before the break, Steyn took a call from a union worker who explained that he agreed with 95 percent of everything he and Rush said, but had to disagree with Limbaugh's position that AIG executives should receive their contractually mandated bonuses, but that unionized auto workers should have to renegotiate their contracts -- a novel position we've identified in the past. Steyn's response was to characterize GM as a “retirement home” with an “unsuccessful car-making subsidiary.”

Back from the break, Steyn noted that Fox News was reporting that Obama is calling for more oversight of executive pay. According to Steyn: “That's what he meant when he said he didn't think it was right to use the tax code to target a small number of individuals. It makes more sense to use the tax code to target everybody so we're going to have more oversight of executive pay.” Just one problem -- nobody is talking about the tax code. “Executive pay” means their salary, not the rate at which they are taxed. In both the Fox News article and the New York Times article on which it is based, there's not one mention of taxes. Other than that, the point is well-taken.

Then it was time for another caller, who assumed Steyn was “foreign born because you have a funny accent just like I do.” Steyn responded: “No, no, no, no. I was born in the general vicinity of Hawaii. I'm planning to run for president on the basis of my Hawaiian birth certificate circa 2012.” You know... every time you think this "Birther" nonsense has finally died down, some prominent conservative always seems to recidivate in front of a powerful microphone. We guess some hare-brained conspiracies are just too fun to let go.

Anyway, another break and another caller, this one claiming that Obama appointed Geithner as a “scapegoat,” and Steyn hearily agreeing, comparing Geithner to a “mob accountant who winds up doing 30 years when the big Mafioso skates,” adding: “I don't know whether that's something that Barack Obama loved from Chicago politics.” From there, Steyn attacked Obama for failing to seem “engaged” in the global financial crisis, and one-upped Rush's “cold, not cool” calculation, saying Obama is heading towards “Frosty the Snowman cool.”

At the end of the show, Steyn apologized for the times he sounded “apocalyptic” during the program, and coached listeners on a basic principle -- that the United States is a “nation with a government, not the other way around.”

That's it for today's non-Limbaugh Limbaugh Wire. We'll see you tomorrow with the real deal behind the golden microphone. Until then, please reacquaint yourself with The Very Best of Rush Limbaugh, courtesy of Media Matters for America.

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

STEYN: McCain talked more about greedy Wall Street fat cats than Obama did. Obama just stood there looking cool like a male mannequin in those debates because he didn't have his teleprompter so he was being kind of cautious about the words he said, but McCain was demonizing Wall Street fat cats at every opportunity. You know, in the last two years, the United States banking sector has declined to 25 percent -- below 25 percent of what its value was two years ago They're not fat cats. They're emaciated, cadaverous cats. They've got that -- what's that thing, the cat version of AIDS that the cats get? The feline immunodeficiency virus? These are emaciated skeletal cats. They're the only ones left. They're scavenging for fish bones in the garbage cans of Wall Street.

[...]

STEYN: Fox News is just reporting that President Obama is calling for more oversight of executive pay. That's great, isn't it? That's great. It's not just -- it's not just on the AIG vice presidents. I'm not just tormenting them. That's what he meant when he said he didn't think it was right to use the tax code to target a small number of individuals. It makes much sense to use the tax code to target everybody, so we're going to have more oversight of executive pay.

[...]

CALLER: Mark, I assume you're a foreign born because you have a funny accent just like I do.

STEYN: No, no, no, no. I was born in the general vicinity of Hawaii. I'm planning to run for president on the basis of my Hawaiian birth certificate circa 2012. All right, then, so you -- why don't you join me? You could be vice president, Fred. You sound like you were born in Hawaii too.

[...]

STEYN: You know, Tim Geithner has the air of the schnook mob accountant when you see him -- when you see him on TV, the schnook mob accountant who winds up doing 30 years when the big Mafioso skates. And I don't know whether that's something that Barack Obama loved from Chicago politics, just Cook County business as usual, but he does give off that air that he's being lined up, and I think that certainly he's the one nearest the exit door.