This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the anti-Lady Liberty subtext
By Simon Maloy

What did they expect? What did Toby Harnden, Howard Kurtz, and Amanda Carpenter expect from Wanda Sykes? You'd think that after that “bully” Stephen Colbert so rudely insulted President Bush at the 2006 White House Correspondents Association dinner, the DC press corps would be somewhat inoculated to the idea of a comedian making some pointed jokes at that august event. And yet, they're very concerned that Sykes may have been too mean to Rush Limbaugh. Too mean to Rush Limbaugh. Since when is Rush a shrinking violet who needs someone else to come to his defense? And how exactly is it that the Howard Kurtzes of the world are more concerned over “controversial” comments an entertainer made at an annual event for DC insiders than they are over the ridiculous things another “entertainer” says every day on the radio to an audience of millions across the country (dutifully catalogued by your friends at the Limbaugh Wire)? Ridiculous things like mocking Arctic explorers facing imminent death and predicting the demise of an ailing U.S. Senator.

There's a reason Sykes took it so hard to Rush -- because he takes it hard to everyone else every day of the week.

Anyway, Rush got things started by noting that the White House is holding a meeting today with health care groups in which representatives of those groups will say they can trim costs to save $2 trillion. Rush said these meetings are “like the Don, like Don Corleone calling all these people together, the groups, and telling them they have to do -- what they have to do to remain on his good graces or be punished.” Rush said these health representatives will probably be “intimidated,” adding: “I have never seen more people, talked to more people more afraid of their government in my lifetime than is happening now.”

Then it was on to former Vice President Dick Cheney. Rush had one question for us, asked several times as he aired audio clips of Cheney's appearance on CBS's Face the Nation yesterday morning: “What motivates Dick Cheney?” Rush wanted to know what motivates Cheney to go on the Sunday shows and defend the Bush administration's national security record given that he is already rich, has no further political motivations, and is not “hot for interns.” What motivates Cheney, asked Rush, to say that Obama has endangered national security, given that Cheney knows he's “toxic” to the mainstream media? He's the one Republican, Rush said, who has the “guts” to say these things, and he says them out of “national interest,” “love of and for his country,” and because he's speaking from his heart. Cheney's smart enough not to care about legacies, Rush said, and he knows that he can't correct the historical record.

After the break, Rush offered a twist on the old “If a tree falls in the woods...” logic puzzle. According to Rush, that should be updated to “If a liberal tells a whopper of a lie and no one reports it, is it a lie?” The liberal in question is House Speaker Nancy Pelose, whom Rush says was caught in such a whopper that she had to run off to Iraq in a surprise visit. The “whopper” in question relates to the declassified CIA report from last week indicating that Pelosi and other Congressional leaders were briefed on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques in September 2002. Rush claimed that Pelosi is very “fashionable,” what with all the dresses and the “Botox,” and after 9-11 it was “fashionable” to be in favor of waterboarding, so Pelosi was. Actually, the documents don't establish that Pelosi was briefed on waterboarding specifically. The “bottom line,” Rush said, on Pelosi's “Botox-faced lie” is that she is saying she had no idea these techniques were being used, which is “patently false.” The Rush joked that “Nancy Pelosi actually deserves our praise and she might even deserve a medal” because she is “the guardian of waterboarding. She knew about it. She was told it was going to happen. She knew it was happening and she didn't say anything. Without Pelosi's cooperation, without Pelosi's silence, waterboarding would not have been used, and all that intel we got, we would have never gotten.” Like we said above, there's no direct evidence that she was briefed on waterboarding specifically, and the CIA itself included caveats about the accuracy of the reports on the briefings.

Yet another commercial interruption and Rush was back, reading extensively from an Associated Press article on Obama's budget, which points to “deepening budget deficits, with the government borrowing almost 50 cents for every dollar it spends this year.” Rush helpfully offered to “translate” this article for us -- lost jobs mean decreased tax revenues, the Wall Street bailout didn't work and succeeded only in getting more Americans to hate Wall Street and the wealthy, and the government is attempting to stimulate the economy with money it doesn't have. The article's description of the “structural imbalance between what the government spends and what it takes in” was “gobbledygook,” said Rush, that can better be described as “greed,” and the only “greed” to be found in this country is in the offices of President Obama and every Democrat in Congress.

The deepening deficits are “purposeful,” said Rush, and the “objective is unemployment. The objective is more food stamp benefits. The objective is more unemployment benefits. The objective is an expanding welfare state. The objective is to take the nation's wealth and return it to the nation's, quote, 'rightful owners.' Think reparations; think forced reparations here if you want to understand what actually is going on.” Rush said that he's already offered the solution to fixing the economy and raising tax revenues -- cutting the corporate tax rate and suspending taxes on capital gains. Unfortunately for Rush, real economists -- not the pretend ones on the radio -- view both those measures as ineffective with regard to economic stimulus.

One more break and Rush was back, noting that Obama had just finished talking about the unsustainable cost of health care and that he plans to save health care through “nationalization.” “Nationalization” isn't quite the right term to use, but Rush soldiered on anyway, asking how it is that Obama and the government can claim to cut health care costs when they can't cut other costs they're responsible for. The answer, Rush said, will be rationing, but Obama doesn't care because his goal is to have everyone on the same health plan, regardless of how bad it is. Rush said that Obama has yet to demonstrate how he'll control the cost of anything, including “his own ego.”

Then Rush took his only caller for the hour, a man who suspected that Rahm Emanuel was behind the Air Force One flyover. Rush responded in fine conspiratorial form, talking about the actual photo that was taken of Air Force One: “The airplane, the in-the-air home of Barack Obama -- that was the focus, not Statue of Liberty. The headquarters of our Messiah was the focus. Liberty, the Statue of Liberty, the symbol of freedom, looked like a tiny little French fry. You could barely see it. Subtext, hidden messages: Obama is what counts. The Statue of Liberty, yeah, good picture, but you can barely see it because it doesn't matter that much.”

There you have it, folks -- this whole silly controversy was actually a grand scheme by the Obama administration to make the Statue of Liberty look insignificant. Brilliant.

Highlights from Hour 1

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: You know what these meetings are like? These seminars, these meetings are -- with industry service groups or whatever, they're like the Don, like Don Corleone calling all these people together, the groups, and telling them they have to do -- what they have to do to remain on his good graces or be punished. I'm sure they get intimidated in some of these meetings, and that's why everybody who used to -- I mean, these people showing up at the health care meeting today are the six groups that ran ads opposed to Hillarycare back in the early '90s. So everybody -- I have never seen more people, talked to more people more afraid of their government in my lifetime than is happening now.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: But I think Nancy Pelosi actually deserves our praise, and she might even deserve a medal. She was the guardian of waterboarding. She knew about it. She was told it was going to happen. She knew it was happening, and she didn't say anything. Without Pelosi's cooperation, without Pelosi's silence, waterboarding would not have been used, and all that intel we got, we would have never gotten. When all of these techniques were being used against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the others at Guantanamo Bay, Nancy Pelosi knew they were being used. She was in on the briefings. She stayed silent. Nancy Pelosi, the guardian of waterboarding -- her silence permitted us to gain valuable intel. She deserves a medal.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: In the Oval Office of the White House, none of this is a problem. This is the objective. The objective is unemployment. The objective is more food stamp benefits. The objective is more unemployment benefits. The objective is an expanding welfare state. The objective is to take the nation's wealth and return it to the nation's, quote, “rightful owners.” Think reparations; think forced reparations here if you want to understand what actually is going on.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: What's more interesting to me is the picture. You can barely see the Statue of Liberty in the picture. If you didn't know it was the Statue of Liberty in that picture, you might -- “What is that? Where is this airplane?” The airplane, the in-the-air home of Barack Obama -- that was the focus, not Statue of Liberty. The headquarters of our Messiah was the focus. Liberty, the Statue of Liberty, the symbol of freedom, looked like a tiny little French fry. You could barely see it. Subtext, hidden messages: Obama is what counts. The Statue of Liberty, yeah, good picture, but you can barely see it because it doesn't matter that much.