This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the Democratic malaise at Sen. Byrd's improving health
By Simon Maloy

Rush got this second hour going by discussing at length the new puppy that came into his life -- the same puppy that yesterday became the new mascot for the “manufactured” crisis of health care.

Then Rush went back to Obama and Iran, replaying the sound bite of Obama saying this morning that it's not productive for the U.S. president to be seen as meddling in Iranian elections. Rush said that you can go back and see that every time there was an assault on freedom in the world, Reagan and Bush went out and made a statement in support of freedom. Obama, said Rush, can not bring himself to do that. Does this mean, asked Rush, that we're not going to meddle with their nuclear programs? Does Iran have a get-out-of-jail-free card? Rush said it's very interesting who Obama chooses to impose his values on. He had no problem telling Israel to stop building settlements on the West Bank. This is a stunning statement, said Rush -- if we're not going to meddle in elections, that means we're going to condone the shooting of protesters. Rush said that it's a rationalization for not speaking out on behalf of liberty.

And Rush guaranteed us this -- Obama fully expected the world to snap-to after his Cairo speech, so much so that he went out and started talking about how great it was that change is coming. Rush added: “This man's ego's not containable. There is no container in the world that will contain his ego, because it's constantly expanding anyway. Even if you could find a container large enough to fit his ego in, it would eventually be blown up with the expanding ego. This guy's ego is expanding faster than the Soviet Union was expanding back during the '60s and '70s. But there's no telltale birthmark on Obama to indicate it like there was on Mikhail Gorbachev.”

Rush then observed that the mullahs are very smart for ordering a “partial recount,” saying that it won't change anything, but all the “idiot journalists” are going ape and crediting it to Obama. Rush noted that the Telegraph reported that unconfirmed leaked election results in Iran show that Ahmadinejad actually came in third, but that's no surprise. It didn't matter what place he came in, said Rush. the recount is for the benefit of “dolts” like our state-run media. In the midst of this rant, Rush had this charming aside: “By the way, Democrats very upset that Robert Byrd's health is improving. They are -- they're upset that his health is improving because he opposes these czars. He opposes Obama's czars, thinks they're unconstitutional. He opposes this health care stuff that Obama's trying to do.”

After the break, Rush took a call from a Michigan man who lives in the Flint area, who said that he agrees that significant sections of the city need to be bulldozed, and he wouldn't be surprised if many Flint residents supported this plan. Rush said that what bothers him is that this is a nation that has always prided itself on growth and opportunity, but Obama and the Democrats don't want that. Rush added: “Now, I understand, we just -- we hear of hurricanes wiping out towns. There was a Kansas town wiped out by a hurricane, and they rebuilt it. It's amazing to listen to Democrats say, 'We don't have any interest in rebuilding Flint. We want to bulldoze it.” And the guy that comes up with the idea, Obama says “Hey, apply your theory to 50 other cities.' ” Once again, that's not true -- Dan Kildee, “the guy that comes up with the idea,” has denied that the administration asked him to apply his bulldozing plans for Flint to other cities.

After another break, Rush took a call from a man who wanted to go back to the '90s, when Letterman asked Rush if he was full of “hot gas,” saying that it's time to turn that statement back around on Letterman. Rush said he remembers how this went down -- Rush appeared on Letterman's show, and Letterman asked him if Rush was like Letterman in that they were both full of hot gas. After that appearance, said Rush, Letterman invited him back a couple of times to do fake commercials and was very nice to him. But Rush explained that he doesn't go on these shows anymore because when people like Rush are invited on they become bare-knuckled and clenched-fist. Letterman, said Rush, is not what he once was. He just seems angry, cynical, and political.

Rush's next caller said that everyone's so concerned about these bailouts, but what would have happened had we just let them go? Rush said it's an excellent question, but he needed to know which bailout the caller was talking about. The caller settled on GM, so Rush launched into it, saying that in a normal capitalist system, if GM can't make it then they file Chapter 11, which is what they should have done in the first place. But after throwing all this money at them, Rush said, Obama now owns it. Rush then acknowledged that the auto bailouts got started under Bush, but he said that Obama's transition office was involved, and that Bush was just being a nice guy and cooperative with the incoming head of state. Anyway, after casting Bush as a weak-willed doormat who acquiesced to his Democratic successor's plans to ruin the economy, Rush move on to the TARP bailout, saying that it was sold to the country when Geithner told everyone that the economy would collapse within 24 hours if the banks were not bailed out. Now the government owns all these banks, said Rush, which means the whole thing was a ruse, it was not about saving the economy or the country. So, in Rush's view, we're the victims of a bipartisan scam perpetrated by the outgoing Republicans and the incoming Democrats in the months between the election and the inauguration. And it worked, said Rush, because the American people will trade their liberty for security.

We've got a lot of pain still a ahead of us, said Rush, and we're in a lot of pain now. Look at the unemployment numbers, look at loan values. None of this was supposed to happen, said Rush, and the stimulus was “a lie.” Rush then noted that Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has found all these pork projects. The stimulus was supposed to get you a job, said Rush, and instead we have 9.4 percent unemployment. Rush apparently thinks that funny-sounding things that Republicans like to laugh at -- like “skateboard parks, streetscapes, upgrades of park facilities, bike trails and parking garages” -- sprout up like cornstalks after money is strewn on the soil, because they clearly don't require people to actually build them as part of their job.

Greg Lewis and Zachary Pleat contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 2

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: This man's ego's not containable. There is no container in the world that will contain his ego, because it's constantly expanding anyway. Even if you could find a container large enough to fit his ego in, it would eventually be blown up with the expanding ego. This guy's ego is expanding faster than the Soviet Union was expanding back during the '60s and '70s. But there's no telltale birthmark on Obama to indicate it like there was on Mikhail Gorbachev.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: By the way, Democrats very upset that Robert Byrd's health is improving. They are -- they're upset that his health is improving because he opposes these czars. He opposes Obama's czars, thinks they're unconstitutional. He opposes this health care stuff that Obama's trying to do.

America's Truth Rejector

Wrongly claimed that Obama wants to apply Flint bulldozing to other cities:

LIMBAUGH: What bothers me about this is -- this is a nation, this is a country that has always prided itself on growth, economic growth and economic opportunity. Now, I understand, we just -- we hear of hurricanes wiping out towns. There was a Kansas town wiped out by a hurricane, and they rebuilt it. It's amazing to listen to Democrats say, “We don't have any interest in rebuilding Flint. We want to bulldoze it.” And the guy that comes up with the idea, Obama says “Hey, apply your theory to 50 other cities.”