This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by Rush the “relentless machine”
By Simon Maloy

Rush kicked off the second hour with some more commentary on Jeb Bush and the state of the GOP. According to Rush, Jeb is part of a movement in the Republican Party that wants us all to forget Reagan because they're threatened by Reagan's successes. This is an opportunity for conservatives, said Rush, because we have “the most liberal -- far-out radical, liberal president and Democrat Party ever, at least in any of our lifetimes, and as I said last week, the opportunity to contrast the Republican Party and conservatism with what Obama is doing is great. It's easy. It's profound.” Rush told us to look at the last six years, when the Democrats moved further to the left to differentiate themselves from Bush and were the “party of no,” which was portrayed as a great strategy for the minority. Now the Republicans are in the minority and being called obstructionist and buckling to pressure from the Democrats and the media to act more like Democrats. The Democrats and the media want more McCains, Rush said, because that means they'll move to the center, muddy conservatism, and lose.

Then Rush dismissed out of hand the idea that the “demographics” of the country are changing. This is bunk, Rush said, because on the issue of abortion, the public is moving more and more to the pro-life position with each poll. Rush said that certain conservatives (whom he declined to name) will say that the path to success for the GOP involves jettisoning social issues like abortion. Rush declared this idea to be flat wrong. He's been hearing all his life that Republicans can't win without the votes of African-Americans, women, etc., and they've done it before, Rush said, so the demographic argument doesn't apply. Moving to the center will not work, Rush said, and it's not what the Democrats did. They moved to the “radical left,” and all the while Reagan's presidency is maligned by revisionist history.

After the break, Rush aired audio of House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), participating in the New Council for a New America tour, being asked about Rush's and Sarah Palin's inclusion on Time's 100 most influential people list, and if that was a good or a bad thing for Republicans. Rush said he recognized this game -- the premise of the question is designed to make Republicans and conservatives look bad. Then he noted that Mitt Romney was asked the same question, and responded, Rush said, by taking a “dig at Sarah Palin.”

Then Rush took his first call of the show, this one from a man who attended the NCNA event this weekend and said that Rush was wrong in his assessments of the Republican rebranding effort. According to the caller, Romney and Jeb Bush were announcing their commitment to conservative ideas and principles. Rush was incredulous, saying that he didn't actually see any coverage of the event, so he was basing his analysis on sound bites and reports he had read in the media. We found this amusing, because Rush Limbaugh is constantly warning his listeners not to trust the media when they report on him, because they take isolated sound bites out of context and don't actually listen to Rush's show. Anyway, after listening to the caller's assurances that conservatism was well-represented at the NCNA event, Rush announced that Republicans totally would have won in 2008 if they had had a different and better candidate.

After the break, Rush announced that the NCNA “listening tour” is not what Republicans need: “We need a teaching tour.” Then it was time for another caller, this one a Republican who said he was done with the Bush family because both Presidents Bush ended up turning the White House over to a Democrat after giving up on social policy and turning into liberals. Rush went on to explain that he attended a party last night during which a number of the attendees related to him their “conspiratorial paranoia,” in which they said they would leave the country and hide their money from the banks. We thought that Rush, a fine conspiratorial thinker in his own right, would have been thrilled to discuss with some fellow travelers Google's smart meter collaboration with ACORN and the UAW. But he actually said he found it “a little depressing.” They feel this way because they feel “powerless,” Rush said, because they “see Obama with no opposition, not even any verbal opposition, nobody standing up to it nationalizing all these companies, taking over the car companies. This is astounding to people.”

Leading into the break, Rush took a call from a woman who explained that she spoke with an African parking attendant recently who said that if America falls asleep, they'll wake up and see that a few people at the top have taken everything. Rush said: “Yes, I think -- you know, we hear from a lot of people who have experience with totalitarian regimes, who say basically the same kind of thing. They're the ones who are most scared. People who have fled totalitarian, authoritarian regimes and are living here, watching the development of one they think here, and they are the ones who are as frightened as anybody.”

On the other side of the break, Rush said that he had some news for all the liberal Democrats out there: the “drive-bys” were reporting that Obama is looking to revive the military commission system for Guantánamo detainees. Rush explained what this meant for us: After Attorney General Eric Holder's worldwide tour asking other nations to take detainees, he was told to go to hell, so the Obama administration has quietly decided that they can't close Gitmo, so now they're going to revive the military tribunals with some changes. The reason you haven't heard anything about it, said Rush, was because they announced it on Friday night.

Rush closed out the hour with a caller who said that the Democrats won in 2008 on a protest vote against Bush and because McCain was not a very good candidate, but there's plenty of conservatism out there. Rush said we know it's out there, 58 million people voted against “the Bamster.” The caller then said that the Republicans have to ramp up their machine to match that of the Democrats. Rush responded: “They think we have a relentless machine that's constantly pounding them. We do actually -- me. Talk radio. The party doesn't trash them.”

Highlights from Hour 2

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: Now here you have the most liberal -- far-out radical, liberal president and Democrat Party ever, at least in any of our lifetimes, and as I said last week, the opportunity to contrast the Republican Party and conservatism with what Obama is doing is great. It's easy. It's profound.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: There are some people just out there who feel powerless and lost. They see Obama with no opposition, not even any verbal opposition, nobody standing up to it nationalizing all these companies, taking over the car companies. This is astounding to people. It literally -- it is to me too, by the way. Don't misunderstand.

I never thought -- for example, I would ever see the headline -- I saw it in New Hampshire: New Hampshire house votes for to legitimize -- or to legalize gay marriage. That's one thing I never thought I'd see out of New Hampshire in my lifetime. I never thought -- if I ever did think about the prospect of the government taking over car companies, I also had an accompanying thought and that is the American people would rise up in angry protest and say, “No way, Jose.”

I don't see that. You see Obama eagerly taking over as much of the private sector as he can get his hands on, redistributing as much wealth, targeting achievers with punishment, putting obstacles in their way. And the people to whom this is happening are scared to death.

[...]

CALLER: I parked my car in a garage. The garage attendant was a man from Africa. He saw the sign that I had made. It said: “Term limits for Congress,” which I think is our only hope, by the way. But he smiled at me and we got into a brief conversation. And I'll never forget what he said. He said: “If America falls asleep, you wake up and find out that only a few people at the top will have taken everything.”

“I know how this works,” he said.

LIMBAUGH: Yes, I think -- you know, we hear from a lot of people who have experience with totalitarian regimes, who say basically the same kind of thing. They're the ones who are most scared. People who have fled totalitarian, authoritarian regimes and are living here, watching the development of one they think here, and they are the ones who are as frightened as anybody.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: They think we have a relentless machine that's constantly pounding them. We do actually -- me. Talk radio. The party doesn't trash them. The Democrats' side -- the Democrat Party does it's best to wipe out the Republican Party.

Clips from this hour

Limbaugh on NCNA: “We do not need a 'listening tour.' We need a 'teaching tour' ... 'Listening tour' ain't it.”