This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the on-and-off GOP plan to forget Reagan
By Simon Maloy

Well, I'm back, and so is the first-person plural. (Much thanks to Greg and Karl for the fine job they did taking over the Wire in our absence.) And we were shocked, we must say, to learn that Justice Souter announced his retirement on the first day we were not here to write the Wire. Being that we're huge fans of inductive reasoning (and that Rush has passed on to us a bit of his own sense of self-importance), we have to assume now that every day we take off will result in a Supreme Court retirement. Just think of the possibilities -- one week-long vacation could bring about the “activist” court of our leftist dreams, full of poor, gay, disabled, single moms.

Rush got this Monday afternoon rolling by attacking President Obama and Treasury Secretary Geithner for proposing to close overseas tax “loopholes” for American businesses. Rush objected to the use of the term “loophole,” saying that it's a “loaded” term that's designed to make people think businesses are cheating. In fact, said Rush, all tax deductions are “loopholes,” but Obama is operating on the premise that all money belongs to Washington, and now he's bestowing “munificence” on us. Rush said that Obama is proposing that U.S. companies operating overseas should now be taxed twice -- once by foreign governments, and again by the U.S. This won't improve the economy, Rush said, but that's no surprise because it isn't designed to.

Then Rush claimed to be vindicated in his prediction from Friday that the banks are “going along” with Obama's policies because they're “scared to death” of the administration. His evidence was the comments by lawyer Thomas E. Lauria, a partner at the White & Case law firm, who claimed that the Obama administration had threatened to use the White House press corps to ruin the reputation of one of his clients, Perella Weinberg Partners, if they continued to oppose the Chrysler plan. Now, Rush noted that the White House denied this, but he failed to mention that the firm itself, the one that was allegedly “threatened,” also denied Lauria's story. Nonetheless, Rush once again declared himself prescient, saying: “There is no question that there is fear all over this country of this administration. There's fear in American business. There's fear in average citizens. There's fear in every aspect that does business one way or the other with the United States government now.”

Rush then asked us to consider what would happen if Nixon or Reagan had promised that the White House press corps would destroy the reputation of an American bank. The press would be outraged to high heaven, Rush said, but he hasn't heard a peep from the press now that Obama is allegedly doing that. Now, there are a couple of problems with this. First, we don't think Nixon would have needed the White House press corps to ruin someone's reputation, he had his own guys for that. Second, perhaps the reason that the press corps isn't “outraged” over Mr. Lauria's allegations is, as we noted above, no one says they're true, including the firm that was allegedly “threatened.”

After the break, Rush played for us some media reactions to Obama's remarks last Thursday on the Chrysler bankruptcy, specifically from the roundtable discussion on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, during which Obama's remarks about the hedge funds' refusal to “sacrifice” were compared to Ronald Reagan's hard-line stance on the air traffic controllers. Rush said the difference between the hedge funds and the air traffic controllers was that the controllers were breaking the law when they went on strike, whereas the hedge funds have not done anything illegal. It's amazing, said Rush, that the Democrats and the left are constantly comparing themselves to Reagan while conservatives and Republicans want to forget him.

Then Rush attacked Obama for using the term “sacrifice,” claiming that no one in the Chrysler deal “sacrificed” except for the hedge funds -- not the government and certainly not the unions. As we've pointed out before, the UAW was actually on the hook for some pretty serious concessions in the Chrysler deal. Then Rush asked to us to remember another thing about “sacrifice” -- it's a buzzword that is designed to warm your heart towards those allegedly doing the sacrificing, but when Obama talks about “sacrifice,” he's saying that certain people refused to go along with the plan. Sacrifice must be voluntary, said Rush. If it's forced, it's “authoritarianism.”

Rush spent the remainder of the hour commenting on a Washington Times story: “Jeb Bush, GOP: Time to leave Reagan behind.” Rush thought the headline was a little unfair to Bush, who Rush claimed was simply talking about being forward thinking when he appeared with other GOP luminaries at the kickoff of the National Council for a New America. The people behind the NCNA, said Rush, were the same people (with the exception of Jeb) who ruined the 2008 election for the Republicans by “pandering” to the American people. What if what the American people want is destructive to the country or the party? Rush asked. Where is the leadership? Dwight Eisenhower didn't conduct a poll of the troops before launching the D-Day invasion, Rush declared. The Republicans do have something they can run on, Rush said -- conservatism, which is “timeless,” and “freedom.” Republicans don't want to bring Reagan back , said Rush; they want to bring back what Reagan was: a candidate who could articulate conservatism.

After the break, Rush noted that during the campaign, Obama described the Reagan Republicans as a party of ideas, and said that any conservative who says that they have to leave Reagan behind is not a true conservative. They believe in something else, Rush said, and they don't know what it is. Then Rush aired audio of a man questioning Jeb Bush at the NCNA event by saying that Republicans can't ignore Reagan and the past and that they can learn more from listening to Rush Limbaugh than they could from a high school textbook. After airing Jeb's response, in which he credited Obama for looking forward in his campaign, Rush said that people like Jeb and the others on this NCNA tour are all going to run for president in 2012, and they're purposefully excluding Gov. Sarah Palin, who was the “clearest” voice for conservatism in the 2008 campaign. A lot of this is “aimed” at Palin, Rush said.

Highlights from Hour 1

Outrageous comments

There is no question that there is fear all over this country of this administration. There's fear in American business. There's fear in average citizens. There's fear in every aspect that does business one way or the other with the United States government now. I mean, the fear that the average American has always had for the IRS has now been transferred to everybody having fear of whatever branch of government they deal with -- in this case, Geithner and Treasury and President Obama.

America's Truth Rejector

Failed to note Perella Weinberg Partners denied Lauria's claim that the firm was threatened by the administration:

LIMBAUGH: Now, we know, ladies and gentlemen, I was right. Now, we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, I was right -- option number three: They are scared to death. My buddy Frank Beckmann, at WJR in Detroit, interviewed one of the bankruptcy lawyers for one of the bondholders at Chrysler, one of the clients. His name is Tom Lauria.

Tom Lauria said: “Let me tell you, it's no fun standing on this side of the fence opposing the president of the United States. In fact, let me just say, people have asked me who I represent. That's a moving target. I can tell you for sure that I represent one less investor today than I represented yesterday. One of my clients was directly threatened by the White House, and in essence, compelled to withdraw its opposition to the Chrysler deal under the threat that the full force of the White House press corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight. That's how hard it is to stand on this side of the fence.”

And Frank Beckmann said, “Was it Perella Weinberg?” Lauria says: “It was Perella Weinberg.”

Now, this happened on Friday in Detroit. It's made the news throughout the weekend. I -- so, here's -- now the White House, by the way, is denying all of this, but there is a pattern here, ladies and gentlemen, that sort of gives the lie to the denial. I mean, this is -- you know, we've referred to the situation that's going on in Washington as loan sharking -- Obama loan sharking people.

Basically, what happened was, as we mentioned last week, the bondholders, the investors at Chrysler were leaned on by Obama and called out personally by the name of hedge funds, and they were selfish and they were holding out for a better deal. These people were forced to settle for 20 to 30 cents on the dollar, while the UAW was made whole in the whole thing. And the lawyer, Thomas Lauria, now says that his client was threatened with reputation ruination from the White House press corps.

Clips from this hour

Limbaugh rants on Obama's “forced sacrifice” which is “authoritarianism, totalitarianism or what have you”