By Greg Lewis
Rush fill-in Davis says he's at the anti-health care rally “in spirit”
Apparently filling in for one of the most-listened-to talk radio hosts wasn't good enough for Mark Davis. He opened up the show, guest-hosting for Rush, by saying he wished he could be at the anti-Democratic health care reform rally currently taking place at the Capitol building. Davis heaped praise on the “courageous” members of Congress who helped put together the rally, including Michelle Bachmann, Steve King, and others. Davis said he was there “in spirit.”
Then Davis discussed Tuesday's elections. He said that the results of the elections “undeniably” made health care harder to pass for Democrats. Davis also talked about the race in NY-23. Like Rush, Davis tried to spin the outcome as a moral victory for Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. He called Hoffman's getting 46 percent of the vote “magnificent.” Davis also rejected the notion that the race was a “loss” for people like Rush, Glenn Beck, and Sarah Palin, who endorsed Hoffman.
Davis explained that the fight now was about more than ideology and normal two-party politics. It was about the fact that our basic capitalist economic system and our values that made our country great are under attack like never before. Davis vowed to fight back via tea parties, town halls, and big protests in Washington, DC, culminating with Obama being voted out of office in 2012.
Davis forwards misinformation that health care reform “facilitates abortion”
After the break, Davis took a caller who wasn't able to go to the DC rally today, so instead, delivered a message to his representative's district office. Davis then talked about how “courageous” is Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak for standing up to the Pelosi health care bill, which Davis quoted Stupak saying “facilitates abortion.” “Which it does,” affirmed Davis. It doesn't.
Following another break, Davis said that just a year ago, it seemed as if the GOP would be wondering the desert for forty years. But then people saw the noxious liberty-demolishing agenda that Obama took up, so independents are now getting “buyer's remorse.” Davis claimed independents helped elect Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie in Virginia and New Jersey, respectively.
Then Davis lamented that Rep. George Miller (D-CA) was politicizing swine flu by introducing a measure to “force paid sick days” for employees on most of the country's employers. Still on the subject of H1N1, Davis noted that there was a lot of issues getting the vaccine out, and said he was prepared to understand why it was taking some time. However, asked Davis, could you imagine if these vaccine delays were happening under Bush? Davis predicted it would have been likened to Hurricane Katrina.
Then Davis took a caller who attributed the recent change of opinion in the country to conservative talk radio. Davis said he wasn't sure if talk radio had that much power, but said that it was part of what the caller was describing. Davis went on to talk some more about talk radio, asserting that he didn't think it needed to be balanced by more liberals because liberals dominate so many other media forms.
Davis' next caller asked why the people complaining about the deficit now didn't speak up when Bush mishandled the budget. Davis' general excuse was that conservatives like him didn't agree with Bush's handling of the budget, but responding to the attacks on 9-11 by going to war was more important. Davis closed out the hour by commenting on Rep. Miller's paid sick day proposal. Davis said that government telling employers what to do is never the way to go.
Davis on health care reform bill: “This thing must die”
The second hour began with Davis again praising the “courageous” members of Congress who are saying “no to Obamacare” today. He said people at the rally really want to kill Pelosi's bill. Davis made it known that he opposes Pelosi's bill, but thought we should to address individual components of reform on issue at a time. But Davis made himself abundantly clear on what he thought the fate of the Pelosi bill should be: “This thing must die,” he said.
Davis went on to read a New York Times article on errors in the calculations of jobs saved by the stimulus. Then he took a caller who was at the rally, describing it as “energizing.” Davis said the rally today showed revulsion at the status quo of the last ten months.
Following another break, Davis highlighted AARP's endorsement of the House health care reform bill. He then provided AARP's mailing address in case the audience wanted to either send the group thank-you notes for their endorsement, or to send them their cut-up membership cards.
Davis argues with caller over conservative agenda
Then Davis took a caller who did his best to lay out what he thought the conservative agenda was: permanent tax cuts for the wealthy, massive strengthening of the military, making the federal government smaller, and being anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage. Davis mostly agreed with the caller's characterization of the conservative agenda. The caller then asserted that tax cuts were bad for entrepreneurship because they favored big corporations over mom and pop stores. Davis said this was a “lie” that this always happened.
The caller continued to press Davis on these issues. He asserted that trickle down economics doesn't work, which Davis said was “another lie” because it worked under Reagan and George W. Bush. Then the caller pressed Davis on the military, and the conversation went as follows:
CALLER: Right now, we're hearing the drumbeats on -- from the Republican side -- that we need to immediately, without hesitation, send 40,000 troops over into Afghanistan. I'm just curious, how are we gonna afford that?
DAVIS: Well, if you're suggesting --
CALLER: Where is the money going to come from?
DAVIS: If we could fund 50 Afghan wars on what this health care bill involves. If you think that's apples and apples, that's just crazy. And the good news it that if we get government cut down to the size that I want it to be, we will have more than enough money to fund every just and proper war that may arise over the years. And that's -- the notion --
CALLER: Well, Mark, that's just --
DAVIS: The notion of government not having -- it is always false to cry that government doesn't have enough money.
After another break, a caller suggested that perhaps Obama's election last year was a better outcome than had McCain been elected because Obama has rallied the conservative base more than McCain would have. Davis warned about ideological vagueness, and ultimately hoped that we would look back at 2008 as an “aberration.” He also hoped we come out of the Obama years with a renewed appreciation for liberty and limited government.
As he paints a moral victory for Hoffman, Davis denies doing just that
Our final hour with Mark Davis began with an audio clip of Nancy Pelosi saying that from her perspective, “we won” on election night because the victory in NY-23 gave Democrats another seat. But, cried Davis, that Democrat was nearly beaten by a “third party” conservative. While Davis didn't “sugarcoat” that Hoffman lost the race, he pointed out that he still came so close to winning from “out of no where” while “vaulting over the weirdness” that was Scozzafava. Davis denied that he was trying to present a moral victory, even though he pretty much was doing just that.
Then Davis broadened his focus to include Tuesday's gubernatorial races as well. Davis was stuck pondering if Pelosi was worried about these races based on her previous quote. Davis claimed that Corzine and Creigh Deeds were the “face and voice” of the Obama-Pelosi agenda in Trenton and Richmond, and Davis “p'shaw'd” at the spin that those races were more about local issues.
Next, Davis read from a Los Angeles Times article suggesting the elections rattled “some Democrats.” Davis said there was nothing quite so magnificent as watching politicians held up to the mirror of what they have done and what they might do. Davis expressed that he was looking forward to the 2010 election.
After the break, Davis took a call from somebody at the DC rally who said that there were long lines of people trying to get into the Capitol building. The caller said people were speculating that Pelosi was stalling these lines. The next caller said she cancelled her AARP membership back in 2005 back when AARP opposed Bush's plan to privatize social security. Davis went on to talk up the conservative “alternative” to AARP, the American Seniors Association.
Following another break, Davis took a caller -- a trucker -- who observed seeing far fewer Obama bumper stickers now than he did a year ago. Davis said that truckers were the circulatory system of a free-market economy, and the caller's observations about reduced freight meant that there were fewer things being bought and delivered. Davis went on to talk about how the economy would have turned itself around anyway, as it always does if it's left to its free market roots. That way, said Davis, we wouldn't have dug ourselves $800 billion into the stimulus hole.
Davis joins other conservative commentators in claiming insurance mandates would be unconstitutional
The next caller on the show was also a trucker. He complained to Davis that when Democrats have been confronted with the suggestion that it would be unconstitutional for the federal government to issue health insurance mandates, that they always cite states mandating car insurance. But the caller said, and Davis agreed, that such a comparison doesn't hold up. Davis then called insurance mandates an “intrusion” for which there is “no constitutional basis for.” (Although Davis loves to paint himself as a constitutional scholar, real constitutional scholars have debunked the claim that the reform bill would be unconstitutional.)
Davis closed out the program with a discussion about how the lessons learned from NY-23 should apply to other races, pointing out the Florida Senate primary in particular. Davis praised NRSC chairman John Cornyn's decision not to interfere in GOP primaries, but wanted Cornyn to go further by not even endorsing Republican candidate Charlie Crist in the Florida race.
Zachary Aronow and Zachary Pleat contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.
Highlights
Outrageous comments
DAVIS: In fact, just a quick shout-out to a couple of folks, Bart Stupak in Michigan. Now, this is a courageous Democrat. This is a guy who has essentially drawn a line in the sand and told Speaker Pelosi, “I've got about 40 -- at least 40 people, you know, Democrats, who cannot, will not support this thing because it facilitates -- because of the degree to which it facilitates abortion.” Which it does.
[...]
CALLER: Right now, we're hearing the drumbeats on -- from the Republican side -- that we need to immediately, without hesitation, send 40,000 troops over into Afghanistan. I'm just curious, how are we gonna afford that?
DAVIS: Well, if you're suggesting --
CALLER: Where is the money going to come from?
DAVIS: If we could fund 50 Afghan wars on what this health care bill involves. If you think that's apples and apples, that's just crazy. And the good news it that if we get government cut down to the size that I want it to be, we will have more than enough money to fund every just and proper war that may arise over the years. And that's -- the notion --
CALLER: Well, Mark, that's just --
DAVIS: The notion of government not having -- it is always false to cry that government doesn't have enough money.