This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the anti-Palin “lynch mob”
By Simon Maloy
Belling got the final hour going by making a linkage that we really didn't see coming: “I would bet 95 percent of the people that go to the Michael Jackson memorial service are people who mock and ridicule Sarah Palin. Think about that for a minute. These are people who are going to go to a service to memorialize one of the weirdest, freakiest people any of us have ever seen, a person who faced repeated charges of pedophilia, who behaved irrationally for the last 20 years of his life. Yet, they think Sarah Palin is stupid and Sarah Palin's not cut to be this, and she's unable to be that.” Belling went on to say that he's not sure that Palin can recover from the resignation politically, but what other choice did she have? What remains, he said, is that she is still the biggest draw for Republicans, and now she's going to be able to do more than that. She has an immense following in this country, he said, and she has something that really appeals to a lot of people, and those people probably feel that she's being driven from the national scene by a “lynch mob.” There's no way she's going to disappear, said Belling. She has the ability to give speeches, fundraise, and make alliances with Republicans.
Belling then took a call from a gentleman saying that he's sick and tired of the Washington elite pillorying this woman, because she's the heir to Ronald Reagan, and it's her pro-life stance that drives liberals crazy. Belling said that liberals are always complaining that she parades her kids around, but they're really just mad that she has a large family and is successful, and because they don't like that she didn't make a “compromise” that they made. Belling said he looks at this from a human perspective -- Palin has a son fighting a war, a daughter with a young child, and a special needs child. She might have been thinking that she had to protect her family. The caller said there are a lot of Americans who are sick and tired with the liberal media attacking Palin. Belling said that those attacks are inspired by the notion that she doesn't have the Ivy League pedigree or mastery of every little foreign policy issue. These same people, however, trot out Joe Biden as an expert, even though he can't go five days without saying something stupid. He's OK because he went to the right institutions, said Belling. Same with Teddy Kennedy and Christopher Dodd. Belling said that there are a lot of Americans out there who see attacks on Palin as attacks on themselves from people who think they're better than everyone else.
After the break, Belling recounted Contessa Brewer's recent interview on MSNBC with Palin sycophant John Ziegler, who, once again, is a very serious person with some very well-thought out ideas who deserves respect and admiration from the people. Belling said that Brewer was “close to tears” after Ziegler asked her if she liked being called nasty names, and that this emphasized how people are asking Palin to take treatment that they could never take on their own. Belling said there's a huge class factor here -- they attack Palin viciously, but when Democrats get someone like that on their team, they eat it up. Remember Ann Richards down in Texas? Belling asked us how well we think Ann Richards would have done in a quiz on foreign policy. We guess we'll never know, because Ann Richards, unlike Palin, never ran for the White House. Anyway, Belling said there is enough star appeal for Palin that they can't get rid of her. They might be able to drive her from the governor's office and trip her up for 2012, but they can't get rid of her.
Belling then took a call from a woman who went to a Tea Party on Saturday, who said it's a good thing she went because she would have spent the weekend depressed otherwise. The caller also said she sees a similarity between the attacks on Palin and the attacks on Romney last year during the Republican primary. These attacks happened, said the caller, because people sense in Palin and Romney a sense of integrity. We addressed Palin's “integrity” in the last hour (Troopergate), and for a sampling of Romney's “integrity,” we'll direct you here. Belling said the vicious “they” certainly don't like anyone who makes the hard moral choice as opposed to the easy one. Belling said he has long-held a theory that the people who favor legal abortion secretly know that they're wrong, and that's why so many people dislike Palin.
After another break, Belling read the entirety of an American Thinker article on Palin's resignation, the thesis of which was: “Simply put, in resigning her governorship and stepping away from active politics, Sarah Palin is not pulling any tricks, carrying out any maneuvers, or putting in motion any long-range plans. She is doing exactly what any normal, rational, un-driven human being would do under the same circumstances.” Notably, the author, who presents himself as a fine judge of what constitutes “normal” and “rational,” goes on to say that Obama's Chicago posse has been endangering national security in order to undermine Palin's 2012 prospects: “Am I implying that O would jeopardize the country's safety to assure his political career? Well, what do you think?”
After finishing the article, Belling took a call from a gentleman who wanted Belling to stop saying Palin's being “driven out” of Alaksa -- she's choosing to leave because she's so strong, and she's sacrificing to help the Republicans for 2010. Belling said he thinks the caller is right about what she's going to do, but Belling also suspected that there was a personal desire on her part to move away from politics to protect her family. The idea of her trying to run in 2012 might be a stretch, said Belling, but the caller was right that any Republicans running in 2010 will be begging Palin to help raise funds.
Coming back from another break, Belling took a call from a woman whose mother had a theory on why Palin stepped down -- the country needs someone out there to travel the country and speak out against Obama and the stimulus. Belling responded by calling Obama a “Marxist” and Biden a “lunatic.” Belling also said the caller's mother had a fine theory, but this role that she's trying to put on Palin is the role the Republican Party needs to take up to stop the country's march towards “open socialism.” Belling thought Republicans can beat this stuff -- cap and trade is in trouble, he said, and national health care can be beaten back.
Belling closed out the show today by letting us know that he'll be back tomorrow, and so will we for round two. Until then, please consider taking a trip down Memory Lane and revisiting the antics of guest hosts past in our ever-growing Limbaugh archives.
Hannah Dreier and Zachary Pleat contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.
Highlights from Hour 3
Outrageous comments
BELLING: I would bet 95 percent of the people that go to the Michael Jackson memorial service are people who mock and ridicule Sarah Palin. Think about that for a minute. These are people who are going to go to a service to memorialize one of the weirdest, freakiest people any of us have ever seen, a person who faced repeated charges of pedophilia, who behaved irrationally for the last 20 years of his life. Yet, they think Sarah Palin is stupid and Sarah Palin's not cut to be this, and she's unable to be that.
[...]
CALLER: I've heard Sarah Palin on two occasions. She engages the crowd. She was no -- there was no competition when she -- during the vice presidential debate with Biden. Nobody was looking at him. And maybe, afterwards, in retrospect, she didn't have all the information --
BELLING: Maybe we should have been looking at him, given the fact that he's turning out to be a lunatic.
“Socialism” watch
BELLING: It's beyond that; I believe he's a Marxist. I mean, what we're seeing here is the total embrace of socialism in our country. We have a controlling interest in Citigroup. We have a controlling interest in what's left of AIG. We own General Motors. We own Chrysler. And he wants to take over all of American health care and tax every private industry to death. I mean, that's what socialism is.
Echo chamber
Read the entirety of an American Thinker article on Sarah Palin's “normal, rational” resignation.