This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the Limbaugh book club: 1984 and other books he hasn't read lately
By Greg Lewis and Karl Frisch

A funny thing happened on MSNBC's Morning Joe earlier today. Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) told host Joe Scarborough that "[i]t's not up to Rush Limbaugh to decide who ought to be in the Republican Party." Here's the funny part: So far, nearly every Republican politician who has spoken out against Limbaugh this year has been shamed into apologizing to the de facto leader of the conservative movement. Will Price break under the weight and pressure of Rush's heavy influence? If we're lucky, we'll get to witness another Phil Gingrey moment on today's show, though we admit the odds of that probably aren't too high. (But since a filly won the Preakness for the first time in 85 years this weekend, we're feeling a little lucky today.)

Anyway, Limbaugh kicked off the program today discussing Obama's commencement speech at Notre Dame yesterday. Rush first attributed the controversy over the speech -- that Notre Dame would allow Obama to speak -- as just another example of the liberalization of American universities. Rush then explained that the “obligatory message” from Obama to graduates is: don't do any work. He says Obama wants graduates to focus on service and giving back, but how can they give back if they don't have anything?

Then Rush made it apparent to his audience that he hasn't read Orwell's 1984 in many years. He went on to compare the language “Newspeak” that was invented for the novel to what Obama was saying in his speech. Rush even gave us some examples of “Newspeak”- “war is peace,” “freedom is slavery.” Then, Rush came up with one example -- one -- of Obama's “Newspeak”: “Morality is immorality.” Rush repeated it over and over as the show progressed, noting later: “What I want to discuss here today rather is technique that Obama is using to make himself as a radical look like a reasonable guy when he is just extremely radical, and he's calling people who hold positions of morality the radicals. It's Orwell, it's Newspeak, it's doublespeak, whatever you want to call it.” We can think of a few words to describe Limbaugh's assessment.

Rush elaborated on Obama's commencement -- Obama made the pro-life position the “extremist” position, and his own “radical” position the moderate one. Rush then quipped that this is just how the “liberal mind” works, and said it also applies to unions. “What do they call it? The Employee Free Choice Act, right? Card check. What it really should be titled is 'The Union Brass Knuckles Busting On Your Knees Act,' because that's what it is. There's no free choice whatsoever in the union Free Choice -- the Employee Free Choice Act.”

A bit more on infanticide, because that's what we all want to hear about from Rush for the nth time, right? Said the right-wing talker: “As I mentioned, several years ago he made the case for killing babies born alive and giving legal protection to the doctors that did it, and it did not cost him politically. So Obama, after advancing his case for infanticide, and the protection of the doctors, he went on to become United States Senator and then president.” Rush also made an incredible fuss that Obama said in his commencement address: “So let us work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions.” Rush declared that with this, Obama made an “outstanding demonstration of the low art of political seduction.”

After a break, Rush was back on his favorite topic of last week- Nancy Pelosi and her nefarious lying. Limbaugh pondered the possibilities of a “truth commission” or an independent council. Rush figured they would eventually exonerate Pelosi since Democrats “run politics in this country right now.”

Anyway, the rest of the hour included more discussion of Obama's Notre Dame commencement address, as well as more smears and attacks on the phony infanticide issue and Obama's religious background. After a classy montage of the best of Reverend Wright, Limbaugh commented that Obama “didn't hear” Sykes at the White House Correspondents Dinner just like he never heard anything offensive by Wright in his 20 years at the church. So that means El Rushbo finally addressed that thing he wasn't going to address. And instead of recapping Rush's flimsy argument on Obama's support of infanticide, we'd once again like to simply point you to how he's just wrong about it.

Highlights from Hour 1

Outrageous remarks:

LIMBAUGH: What do they call it? The Employee Free Choice Act, right? Card check. What it really should be titled is “The Union Brass Knuckles Busting On Your Knees Act,” because that's what it is. There's no free choice whatsoever in the union Free Choice -- the Employee Free Choice Act.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: As I mentioned, several years ago he made the case for killing babies born alive and giving legal protection to the doctors that did it, and it did not cost him politically. So Obama, after advancing his case for infanticide and the protection of the doctors, he went on to become United States senator and then president.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: What I want to discuss here today, rather, is the technique that Obama is using to make himself as a radical look like a reasonable guy when he is just extremely radical, and he's calling people who hold positions of morality the radicals. It's Orwell, it's newspeak, it's doublespeak, whatever you want to call it.

America's Truth Rejecter:

Rush continues to assert that Obama supports "infanticide."

Clips from this hour:

Limbaugh claims Obama “made the case for killing babies born alive and giving legal protection to the doctors that did it”

Limbaugh: Employee Free Choice Act should be titled “The Union Brass Knuckles Busting On Your Knees Act”