This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the nonexistent war on everyday conservatives
By Simon Maloy

As we were listening to yesterday's show we were trying to think what El Rushbo reminded us of as he effusively and sarcastically praised President Obama's role in resolving the pirate hostage situation, and then fervently denied he was “attacking” Obama when his listeners called him out on it: “I want to know, you're listening today, off and on, in and out. I have praised President Obama today.” Then it hit us -- it was like a child in the backseat of a station wagon on a family trip, sticking his finger mere centimeters from his brother's face and declaring: “I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you. You can't get mad at me because I'm not touching you.”

Rush continued his sarcastic antics today, kicking off the show by attacking Obama's speech on the economy at Georgetown University, calling it “brilliant” about two dozen times. Rush said Obama blamed everyone for the economic crisis on “everyone but the Democrat Party,” that the speech was loaded with “straw-man arguments,” and that while Obama “trashed AIG” several times he only “made a show” of blaming Fannie and Freddie which wasn't “sincere.” But despite all the “brilliance,” Rush said that in the second half Obama was “starting to slide into the BS” in claiming that the G-20 summit was a success. It wasn't a success, Rush retorted, but because the media reported it that way, then it must be so.

From there, Rush launched into his latest conspiracy theory -- specifically that Obama's speech on the economy and a recently declassified report from the Department of Homeland Security on “rightwing extremism” were “timed for one reason, and that's the tea parties tomorrow.” According to Rush, “this speech is designed to totally blunt the tea parties which are grass roots affairs that will happen all over America tomorrow.” Now, we doubt this is true, largely because we're confident that the administration knows what we do -- the tea partiers don't need any outside help in looking ridiculous.

Rush continued to harp on the DHS report, claiming that it is a partisan hit job that portrays any conservatism as right-wing extremism, adding: “So what you have here, you have a report from Janet Napolitano and Barack Obama Department of Homeland Security portraying standard, ordinary, everyday conservatives as posing a bigger threat to this country than Al Qaeda terrorists or genuine enemies of this country like Kim Jong-Il.” Now, this is important, and it has to be made clear: the DHS report is not talking about everyday conservatives. It makes very clear that the “right-wing extremists” they're talking about are white supremacists, militias, and “violent antigovernment groups.” Not Rush Limbaugh, not Club for Growth, not the Republican National Committee.

It's important to make this clear because Limbaugh, after praising Texas Gov. Rick Perry for supporting a resolution reaffirming Texas' “sovereignty” and “states' rights,” returned to the report, saying: “Wouldn't it be nice if the liberals of America actually acknowledged our real enemies the way they acknowledge conservatives?” According to Rush: “And yet, when you read what a typical leftist like Obama or Janet Napolitano put together in this Department of Homeland Security report, you conclude none other -- nothing else than they are extreme partisan radicals and they're ready to go to war with a domestic enemy, conservatives that they consider to be a greater threat than Iran, than China, than North Korea, than Venezuela, Russia or any other nation that threatens the United States.” That's pretty inflammatory stuff from Limbaugh, and it's just not borne out by what the report actually says.

Rush then made good on a promise, returning to a caller from yesterday who was exasperated at Rush's attempts to divide the nation. Rush lectured her that hope is not a substitute for action. He then asked her if she heard him talking about the DHS report on people like Rush “forming militias.” Again, that is not what the report says. Not even close. Nonetheless, after the break Rush took another caller who shared his outrage at the DHS report, saying that she, as a conservative, was going to start wearing a T-shirt reading “right-wing extremist.” Rush said to the caller that the report shows that the Obama administration “consider people like you to be a greater enemy than genuine threats to our freedom and existence.” Again -- and we have to say it again -- that is not what the report says.

Rush closed out the hour advising Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano not to close the Guantánamo Bay prison, because they're going to need it to house all the conservatives they're going to arrest as extremists.

Highlights from Hour 1

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: It's this Department of Homeland Security report. It's nine pages. I've got the PDF here. And by the way, this speech of Obama's and the DHS report yesterday are timed for one reason, and that's the tea parties tomorrow. This speech -- the primary purpose of this speech is to take any glow off the tea parties. The media is going to report on this speech later on in the afternoon and tell you how great the economy's doing, how on top of it Obama is, how it's going to be a little while before it rebounds but it's coming back, and then -- and having used that as the setup, they'll then go to videotape of the tea parties where they'll try to mock what's going on with these people -- just agitators with no real reason behind what they're doing. So this speech is designed to totally blunt the tea parties, which are grassroots affairs that will happen all over America tomorrow.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: So what you have here, you have a report from Janet Napolitano and Barack Obama Department of Homeland Security portraying standard, ordinary, everyday conservatives as posing a bigger threat to this country than Al Qaeda terrorists or genuine enemies of this country like Kim Jong-Il. They wouldn't write anything about Kim Jong-Il like this. They wouldn't write anything about Obama -- Osama bin Laden. Don't forget, this is the same bunch that -- the same bunch that once referred -- well, not referred, suggested or -- yeah, they did, they suggested the speech code in which references to jihad and Islamofascism were to be purged. We were not to discuss terrorism with those words. It was not to be discussed in the country. It was not to be discussed in the government. And so the same people who wanted to purge references to jihad and Islamofascism are now out with this report, which is a genuine hit job on standard, run-of-the-mill, mainstream ordinary Americans.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: In light of all that's happening, Obama's speech on the economy justifying the basic destruction of the U.S. free market, which is what the speech is. Only way to describe it, the justification of the destruction of capitalism, the free market as we've known it. And this inflammatory report from the Department of Homeland Security calling mainstream conservatives right-wing extremists, militia members, tarring and feathering returning veterans as becoming right-wing extremists.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: You look at this DHS report -- we've made comment on this before. Wouldn't it be nice if the liberals of America actually acknowledged our real enemies the way they acknowledge conservatives? I mean, the language they use in this report to describe conservatives -- we hear all of the time that the left is a bunch of pacifists, make-love-not-war types. They don't want violence, and they just want to get along, and why can't everybody jut be happy together? And yet, when you read what a typical leftist like Obama or Janet Napolitano put together in this Department of Homeland Security report, you conclude none other -- nothing else than they are extreme partisan radicals and they're ready to go to war with a domestic enemy, conservatives that they consider to be a greater threat than Iran, than China, than North Korea, than Venezuela, Russia or any other nation that threatens the United States. Conservatives are the biggest threat to America -- that's the message coming out of Washington from Obama and Janet Napolitano.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Well, I understand your anger about this. But this -- look at -- this is the Obama administration. You know, they say Janet Napolitano, but this is what Obama thinks. This is what Bill Ayers thinks.

CALLER: Right.

LIMBAUGH: It's what Jeremiah Wright thinks. It's what --

CALLER: Right.

LIMBAUGH: -- and he populates his administration with these people, and it's clear that they consider people like you to be a greater enemy than genuine threats to our freedom and existence.

CALLER: Exactly.

LIMBAUGH: So it's -- and this is playing to, of course, the left-wing fringe base that voted for Obama.

Clips from this hour

Limbaugh suggests woman jumped in polar bear cage because she watched An Inconvenient Truth, says she should “sue Al Gore”

Limbaugh: Obama and Napolitano “are extreme partisan radicals and they're ready to go to war with a domestic enemy - conservatives - that they consider to be a greater threat than Iran, than China, than North Korea”