This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the “hateful climate” Obama is creating
By Simon Maloy
One of the aspects of this job that both amuses and unnerves us is the way in which Rush finds new and inventive ways to out-crazy the crazy things he said the day before. What amuses us is the idea of pacing -- we're not even five months into Obama's first term, and Rush has spent the entirety of that time in high dudgeon, hurling every possible slur he can at the president and screaming bloody murder at even the slightest outrages. What's he going to do when a real controversy comes down the pike? But this rhetorical escalation is also unnerving, and yesterday, Fox News' Shepard Smith explained why. Smith, reporting on the tragic shooting at the Holocaust Museum, said he's receiving “more and more frightening” emails from people who are “way out there on a limb,” and then read an example: “Shepard, how dare you tell us to get over Obama not being a U.S. citizen. Where is the birth certificate? Where? He won't show it, so why are you so trumped up to believe it? I cannot stand Hussein. He is a socialist Marxist who is at fast rate destroying our country.” Look at the content of that email, which Smith called “frightening,” and compare it to what Rush has said over the past week: Obama is “destroying the United States economy”; he “does not have a birth certificate”; he's a “socialist.”
Rush got things rolling today by decrying the “very predicable” response from “the left” to the Holocaust Museum shooting -- trying to score political points and blaming the whole thing on Rush and other conservatives. But the facts, Rush said, if we want to assign blame, are these: “Well, who did he hate? He hated both Bushes. He hated neocons. He hated John McCain. He hated Republicans. He hated Jews, as well. He believed in an inside job conspiracy of 9-11. This guy is a leftist, if anything. This guy's beliefs, this guy's hate stems from influence that you find on the left, not on the right.” This is how “the left” operates, said Rush. They're creating this climate of hate on purpose because they thrive on chaos. Rush added: “An incident like this yesterday, I dare say, had people on the left applauding inside their hearts for the purposes of advancing their political agenda. And yes, I mean to say that. And you can tell, with the eagerness that the left and its cohorts in the media went to television last night to try to make this a political thing, they are excited.”
Then Rush said it was time to look at the shooting “responsibly.” He said it was Obama who compared the Holocaust to what the Israelis are doing in Gaza. Actually, no, he didn't. Here's what Obama said in Cairo:
OBAMA: Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed -- more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, it is ignorant, and it is hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction -- or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews -- is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve.
On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people -- Muslims and Christians -- have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than 60 years they've endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations -- large and small -- that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: The situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. And America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.
Nowhere in that speech did Obama say the Holocaust and the situation in Gaza were comparable in scope. He simply said that both things happened and both resulted in suffering. So much for looking at this “responsibly.” But Rush wasn't done yet -- not by a long shot. He went on to say that Obama has a lot of “friends” who are “Jew haters,” like Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Rashid Khalidi. Obama is using race, said Rush, to divide this nation in every way possible. He's opening channels to Iran, and they deny the Holocaust -- what sort of message does that send? The anti-Jew rhetoric in this country, said Rush, comes from the left and the circle of people close to Barack Obama. They are the ones who have something to answer for; they are the ones who are fomenting racial tension. Look at the Sotomayor nomination, said Rush -- it's “destructive politics” and “identity politics.”
Rush continued, saying that Obama's comparison of the Holocaust to Gaza (remember, he didn't do that) served to desensitize people to the Holocaust and ramp up hatred toward the Jewish people. While the left embraces genocidal figures, conservatives, said Rush, are not focused on race, they're focused on individual liberty. Tribalism of whatever kind is foreign to conservatives, but the statist authoritarian needs these things.
To be “frank,” Rush continued, Obama needs you to be contemptuous of others so he can appeal to you emotionally. Sponsoring and promoting hate, said Rush, is exclusive to “the left.” They want turmoil and chaos, and if they don't exist, they'll create it.
Rush then said he “doubted” that the Holocaust Museum shooter was influenced by anything but his own illness, but... “it is not helpful when a political party and a president and leaders of Congress engage in a very dangerous political game that creates anxiety, hostility, and down-right hate among its citizens. The left runs our government. It is creating a very dangerous climate, folks, on purpose, for the purposes of distracting us so that they can accomplish their socialist games.” So, in Rush's estimation, the shooter is likely to blame, but if we're going to blame anyone else, it should be Obama and the Democrats.
Coming back from the break, Rush said that if you want to expose yourself to hate, go to MSNBC. That network is hate 24/7. Then Rush aired audio of the Shep Smith segment we highlighted above, saying that it's preposterous for liberals to claim that the climate today is more hateful for Obama when, during the Bush years, they were spewing hatred and vitriol toward the president.
After another break, Rush returned to Shep Smith, saying that his “whining” about emails is falling on deaf ears, because Rush receives “vile” and “sick” emails every day, in which people call him a “Jew lover.” Rush said no one has ever done anything comparable to that kind of hate that was 24/7 in most of the American media during the Bush years, when “spat-out hate” was part of the daily reporting agenda. Rush said he didn't want to have to talk about this today, but this administration is taking this sad event to try and divide the country so they can take greater control of the economy.
In that vein, said Rush, here's what Treasury Secretary adviser Gene Sperling said today regarding executive pay: “Sperling said in prepared testimony the administration believes compensation practices 'must be better aligned with long-term value and prudent risk management at all firms, and not just for the financial services industry.' ” Rush says we've always had people who complain about the money other people make -- but what is it that has allowed America to become the greatest force for good in the history of the world? It's because the country was founded under the principles of individual liberty, and the pursuit of wealth is a big part of that. Never until now has there been a serious move to prevent the pursuit of wealth, said Rush. We have an administration that wants to shut it all down; they want to focus on the public sector, not the private sector. They're statists who are poisoned by their hatred of this country, said Rush. There has to be an element of hatred behind what's going on here.
They want to eliminate risk-taking, said Rush, and that's the end of capitalism. Then Rush said that if we're going to eliminate risk-taking in the private sector, then we should do the same with government employees. Cap their salaries at $100,000 whenever there is a deficit. We are taking a huge risk, said Rush, in handing over the finances of the nation to these people, because nothing Obama has done has worked, and now he wants to nationalize health care. This administration is damaging and attacking the U.S. private sector, said Rush, and they ought not be rewarded for it.
One more break and Rush was asking where were the denunciations of the “hate” directed at Sarah Palin from people like David Letterman. What about the anti-Semites at the Israel Day parade? What about the guys in New York who were trying to blow up synagogues? There are hateful incidents perpetrated by leftists and anti-Semites all the time, said Rush, and they are never commented on, never held accountable by anyone in the mainstream media.
And thus, ladies and gentlemen, ended one of the more disgusting and disconnected-from-reality hours in talk radio history.
Greg Lewis and Lauryn Bruck contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.
Highlights from Hour 1
Outrageous comments
LIMBAUGH: Very predictably, ladies and gentlemen, the media, the American left is trying to score some political points as a result of this tragedy at the Holocaust Museum in Washington yesterday, and as predictable, they are trying to blame this on me, other conservatives, and right-wingers. It's the traditional approach taken by the American left.
The facts of the case, however, are such that if we want to start assigning blame for this beyond this nutcase Jew-hater -- and notice that very few people actually want to do that. They want to claim this guy didn't have the ability to act on his own. He only could act if he was inspired by somebody.
Well, who did he hate? He hated both Bushes. He hated neocons. He hated John McCain. He hated Republicans. He hated Jews, as well. He believed in an inside job conspiracy of 9-11. This guy is a leftist, if anything. This guy's beliefs, this guy's hate stems from influence that you find on the left, not on the right.
[...]
LIMBAUGH: Now this is exactly what the left does. The left runs our government, and the left in this country is creating a very dangerous climate and they're doing it on purpose. This president thrives and needs chaos and unrest. An incident like this yesterday, I dare say, had people on the left applauding inside their hearts for the purposes of advancing their political agenda. And yes, I mean to say that.
And you can tell, with the eagerness that the left and its cohorts in the media went to television last night to try to make this a political thing, they are excited. This is a great political opportunity for them. That's the first emotion that they felt.
[...]
LIMBAUGH: Now, this Jew hater who killed yesterday was a nut. I doubt that he was influenced by anything other than his own mental illness. That said, it is not helpful when a political party and a president and leaders of Congress engage in a very dangerous political game that creates anxiety, hostility, and down-right hate among its citizens.
The left runs our government. It is creating a very dangerous climate, folks, on purpose, for the purposes of distracting us so that they can accomplish their socialist games.
America's Truth Rejector
Falsely claimed Obama is “comparing the Holocaust to what's happening in Gaza”:
LIMBAUGH: It is President Obama comparing the Holocaust to what's happening in Gaza -- that creates a moral parallel between the mass murder of 6 million Jews and the Palestinians. That also diminishes the horror that was the Holocaust. When you tell the world that what is happening in Gaza -- that the Israelis are doing something identical to what the Germans did to them in eliminating 6 million of them -- then you're desensitizing everybody to the Holocaust and you are ramping up hatred for Israel. You are ramping up hatred for Jewish people. It is coming from the Obama administration.