This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by Michelle Obama's “attitude” and her need to "[g]et over it"
By Simon Maloy

Rush got the final hour going by reading from a Reuters article on a judicial ruling that “will have little need for the hundreds of dealers it wants to close if it completes its sale to Fiat as expected.” Rush couldn't figure it out: Why even make cars without the dealerships to sell them? Rush was also still upset that auto executives were grilled by members of Congress on Capitol Hill yesterday over dealership closings. They're dumping on the wrong people, Rush said. Obama owns the car companies, Rush said, and it's been made abundantly clear that Obama is determining which dealerships are closing, and not Chrysler. GM and Chrysler are in trouble, Rush said, because of the people holding those hearings -- they established CAFE standards and manufacturing restrictions, and they are now forcing them to make cars nobody wants.

Moving back to the economy, Rush noted that we now have 9.2 percent unemployment, and asked what the highest unemployment rate was during the Bush years. It doesn't matter, said Rush, because did we not, during the Bush administration, get sick and tired of seeing Democrats on TV whining and moaning about the suffering of unemployment and how Bush only cared about the rich? Well, Rush said, now we're at 9.2 percent, and where are the Republicans on TV trying to tie this to Obama? Instead, Rush said, what we get are stories from the LA Times about how much fun the unemployed are having. It's as though there's no pain or suffering in this country.

Then Rush moved on to Michelle Obama, who commented on fellow Princeton graduate Sonia Sotormayor while delivering the commencement address at a high school. Rush aired a sound bite of Mrs. Obama saying that she related to Sotomayor's experience of still looking over her shoulder and wondering if she measures up, despite all her professional accomplishments. Rush said this is the first lady admitting that Sotomayor is carrying around a “chip on her shoulder,” that she still feels “inferior,” and that she's still “angry.” As far as we can tell, the only thing Michelle Obama's comments and Rush's interpretation of them have in common is the word “shoulder.”

Anyway, it went predictably downhill from there, as Rush advised Mrs. Obama and Judge Sotomayor to "[g]et over it" and drop their “attitude,” because “this kind of attitude results in the formulation of policy. This kind of attitude results in speeches that you make. This kind of attitude causes you to apologize for your country all over the world. This kind of attitude makes it possible for you to never be happy no matter what you achieve.” Then he read extensively from National Review's Victor Davis Hanson, who, like Rush, somehow found a fathomless, roiling sea of anger in Mrs. Obama's wildly uncontroversial comments about Sotomayor.

After the break, Rush received a call from a gentleman who works for Ford and was quite upset that he received a notice that his life insurance benefit would now be taxed as imputed income. Rush had to go to another commercial, but he wanted the man to stay on the line because he wanted to make sure people heard this. After the break, Rush did get back to the caller, but not before squeezing in a little well-worn conspiratorial rambling. After noting that gas prices are going up, Rush said: “I want to prepare you people. Gasoline prices are going up and that's exactly what Obama wants. Remember when they got to four bucks? He wasn't upset with that price. He said he was a little concerned how fast it got there, but he wasn't upset at that price. Four bucks a gallon we have learned is the tipping point where you will willingly buy junk to drive as opposed to what you would like. And that's of course what Obama wants.” This rant made little sense when it was part of the Obama "summer powder keg" conspiracy, and it hasn't improved now that it's been retasked.

Anyway, back to the caller, who said that this tax on his life insurance benefit is being levied due to IRS regulations. Rush said he didn't know this was coming, but it's significant that the IRS is mandating this because they can't do that without legislative approval. Snerdley speculated that it was in the porkulu- -- sorry, the stimulus package. Rush imagined that this will be happening to a lot of people, though he had to figure out what's going on here because normally he's on top of these types of things.

Then it was back to Sotomayor, as Rush dutifully freaked out over Sotomayor's 1994 speech in which she made comments similar to her “wise Latina” remarks in her 2001 speech. Rush said that since she said it two times, there's no chance that she misspoke. Rush said this is racist, it's bigoted, and there's no question about that. Recall though, that yesterday Rush said it might be OK if she's a racist, as long as she's also pro-life.

Rush then turned his eyes to a couple of Politico articles, the first reporting that Democrats are seeking to “pivot” on Sotomayor, and the second highlighting Sen. Robert Menendez's “warning to Republicans up for reelection in 2010: Vote against Sonia Sotomayor at your own peril.” So now we have Democrats out there threatening Republicans, said Rush, and the “state-run media” think that's worth reporting, that's good stuff, but when Rush says she's racist, he has to retract. Rush then read a statement from Clarence Thomas on the need for judges to be impartial and exorcised from their emotions and feelings, contrasting it with Sotomayor's comments. That's all well and good, except Thomas has also acknowledged that his personal experiences would affect his performance on the court: “I believe, Senator, that I can make a contribution, that I can bring something different to the Court, that I can walk in the shoes of the people who are affected by what the Court does.”

From there, Rush launched into his standard rant about how moderates in the Republican Party are “idiots” for thinking that supporting Sotomayor will garner Hispanic votes, because the Democrats are the party of racism and they still manage to win the Hispanic vote.

After the break, Rush said he had received several emails from “payroll experts” explaining that the caller who was upset that his life insurance benefits are suddenly being taxed is mistaken -- life insurance benefits are taxable once they reach a certain threshold, and that's nothing new.

Rush closed out the show with one more caller, a woman who explained to Rush her theory that Sotomayor and Michelle Obama are so angry because they've been trained to be angry. Nothing pleases Rush more than to hear his followers call in and repeat back to him the stuff he's been saying all day/week/month, and this was no exception. In fact, Rush was so eager to have this woman parrot his rantings back at him that he asked for her phone number so she could more thoroughly do so on tomorrow's program.

And that was a fitting way to end today's show because, as you know, tomorrow is “Open Line Friday!” -- that special day of every week when Rush pretends to open programming decisions to his listeners, who invariably call in and talk about what Rush wants to talk about. We hope you'll join us. Until then, Media Matters' Limbaugh archives eagerly await your patronage.

Greg Lewis and Lauryn Bruck contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: If you go through the rest of your life trying to show those people that they were wrong, you're never going to be happy 'cause they're never going to admit it, and you'll never know how they really feel -- and that advice was some of the best advice I ever got. Don't use as your motivation the “I'll show them” in a personal sense, because it poisons you. It distracts you from the real reason you're trying to succeed.

Well, somebody needs to give this advice to Sonia Sotomayor and Michelle Obama. Get over it. You've overcome it. You are the first lady of the United States of America. But if you want to run around and still act like you are the victim of a great injustice because you grew up in America, a country you did say, as recently as a year and a half ago, that you were never proud of until a year and a half ago -- it really is time to get over it because this kind of attitude results in the formulation of policy.

This kind of attitude results in speeches that you make. This kind of attitude causes you to apologize for your country all over the world. This kind of attitude makes it possible for you to never be happy no matter what you achieve.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I want to prepare you people. Gasoline prices are going up and that's exactly what Obama wants. Remember when they got to four bucks? He wasn't upset with that price. He said he was a little concerned how fast it got there, but he wasn't upset at that price. Four bucks a gallon we have learned is the tipping point where you will willingly buy junk to drive as opposed to what you would like. And that's of course what Obama wants.