This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by “Barack Nifong”
By Greg Lewis

One point of criticism often made by Rush and other conservatives is that enacting health care reform would make our current economic situation worse. Here at the Limbaugh Wire, we've pushed back on this idea several times, most recently during yesterday's show, making the point that our health care woes are inextricably tied to the economy. Well, now, Business Week -- which “isn't exactly a bastion of diehard commies” as The Plum Line's Greg Sargent points out -- has reported on a new study by the nonprofit Rand Corporation, which links “the rapid growth in U.S. health care costs to job losses and lower output,” thereby “giv[ing] weight to President Barack Obama's dire warnings about the impact of rising costs if Congress does not enact health care reform.” It's worth a read, at least so you can get your dose of sanity before Rush kicks off “Open Line Friday!”

Rush got things started today by telling his audience not to worry or panic -- he promised he wouldn't be “distracted” from health care by the “Gates thing.” And for the first few minutes, he delivered on that promise. Rush said that the health care vote in the House was not about the Republicans, because they can't stop this -- the problem is the Blue Dogs. Rush said the Blue Dogs are bothered by Obama's “desire” to take away their power to set Medicare reimbursement fees. Rush also noted Rahm Emanuel's role in the process: “So Rahm Emanuel's been up there, trying to twist some arms, and break some bones, and stab some steaks, and throw around some dead fish.”

Rush got a little sidetracked at this point. After explaining why he thought it was more important for health care to get through the House than the Senate before recess -- because these “clowns” will get hell from their constituents -- he moved on to the latest Rasmussen tracking poll, which pegs Obama at 49 percent approval. Then he mentioned the “culture of corruption” in New Jersey in regards to yesterday's big corruption bust.

Having fulfilled his opening promise for a few minutes, Rush moved on to the Henry Louis Gates story. Rush said that Obama's reaction to the story was that of a “community agitator” and an ACORN leader -- ACORN doesn't apologize, said Rush. Then he explained that Obama's “instinctive reaction” to Gates gives us three lessons about who Obama is: 1) Obama's instincts are those of a community organizer, not a president; 2) Obama can sound like he knows what he's talking about, even when he admits he doesn't; and 3) when Obama is faced with a political setback, “he plays the race card.” He continued:

LIMBAUGH: This is something I have figured out watching ever since the campaign began. Anybody who wonders what Obama accomplished with that statement had better realize it reduced the focus on his failed before the August recess demand. Now I don't know that he was purposely trying to do that; I think he's genuinely revved up about race. You know me, I think he is genuinely angry in his heart and has been his whole life.

Then Rush played an audio bite from his show from February 2008, in which he predicted that, if elected, Obama's first piece of legislation as president would be something race related, and that any criticism of him would be met with charges of racism by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Of course, as Rush even admitted, that didn't happen. But he declared that he was correct in predicting that the “race business” wouldn't go away under Obama. Rush said that Obama was fanning the flames of race by calling the police “stupid” and he hoped the Gates incident would “wake up” moderate Obama voters to who Obama really is. Rush described the situation again before going into a break: This is a black president trying to destroy a white policeman when he admitted he didn't know the facts of the case.

After the break, Rush read from a blog post by University of Wisconsin law professor Ann Althouse about the Gates incident. Althouse questioned a few details in the reporting of Gates' side of the story. Rush elaborated on the blog post, describing what he would do in a similar situation. He would do everything he could to prove right away that it was his house. Summing up his views on the Gates story, Rush unknowingly summed up our feelings on this monologue: “None of this makes a whole lot of sense.”

After another break, Rush was back with some more commentary on the Gates story. Rush guaranteed us that moderates thought racial issues were “over” and stated that Obama could end this story, but “ACORN doesn't apologize.”

Moving on for a moment, Rush read from a Human Events article by Connie Hair, in which she accused House Democrats of censoring Republican mail to constituents regarding health care. Rush says this is a perfect illustration of statists and authoritarians.

Back to the Gates story, Rush played the audio of Obama's follow-up comments on the matter during his recent Nightline interview. Rush then made a bold declaration: There is a character in recent news history that reminded him of Obama -- Mike Nifong, the prosecutor in the Duke rape case. Rush said that, just like Nifong, Obama was prejudging without the facts. Rush went on to refer to the president as “Barack Nifong.”

After playing some audio of the police officer, James Crowley, defending his actions in the Gates incident, Rush took another look at the facts of the case. Rush noted Gates didn't get shot, didn't get hit, didn't have hate speech hurled at him. Who did the escalating? asked Rush -- Gates did. “Nothing happened to Gates. He got arrested.” But he wasn't treated in an abusive fashion, “the cop was.”

Rush had a few more things to say on the Gates incident after the next break:

LIMBAUGH: I left something out of the pattern that I have learned watching and studying Obama. And we will know when the heat gets too much to take, we will know when their internal polling on this is disastrous, because, at that point, he will throw Henry Louis Gates overboard, just as he threw his grandmother overboard, just as he threw Reverend Wright overboard, just as he did a Judas on Bill Ayers.

Then Rush kicked off “Open Line Friday!” with a caller who expressed his feeling that Obama was making our intelligence and law enforcement jobs harder with his statements. The caller thought Obama was doing this in order to overturn foundations in society. Rush generally agreed and launched into a rant about how Obama doesn't have admiration for his country, and you never hear him talk about the “greatness of the military” of American exceptionalism. “Chaos is his friend,” declared Rush. The next caller had a few things to say about the “decline” at Harvard and blamed Gates, among others. Rush said the call was essentially making the same point as Ann Althouse.

Brian Frederick, Zachary Pleat, and Ariana Probinsky contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 1

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: So Rahm Emanuel's been up there, trying to twist some arms, and break some bones, and stab some steaks, and throw around some dead fish.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: When Obama is faced with a political setback, even one of his own makings, he plays the race card. This is something I have figured out watching ever since the campaign began. Anybody who wonders what Obama accomplished with that statement had better realize it reduced the focus on his failed before the August recess demand.

Now I don't know that he was purposely trying to do that; I think he's genuinely revved up about race. You know me, I think he is genuinely angry in his heart and has been his whole life.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I left something out of the pattern that I have learned watching and studying Obama. And we will know when the heat gets too much to take, we will know when their internal polling on this is disastrous, because, at that point, he will throw Henry Louis Gates overboard, just as he threw his grandmother overboard, just as he threw Reverend Wright overboard, just as he did a Judas on Bill Ayers -- “I don't know the guy. He lives in the neighborhood.”

Whenever the heat gets so hot, he'll throw these clowns overboard. He'll call Gates, “Look, I gotta throw you overboard, buddy. You know, I'll make it up to you somehow, but I gotta throw you overboard.” And Gates will go out, “I understand. The president has to be a politician.” Just like Reverend Wright said. Reverend Wright said, “Well, here, look it, he's gotta do these kinds -- he had to throw me overboard, he's a politician. He's gotta do it. He can't be who he really is.”

That's exactly right, except he is being who he is; you just need somebody to translate it for you. So, look for sometime next week, Gates -- Henry Louis Gates -- distinguished professor, African-American Studies at Harvard, to be thrown overboard by the White House, by Obama.