This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the adorable GOP Chihuahua
By Simon Maloy
Rush got the final hour going by reassuring his listeners that it's the conservatives who have the best arguments and the most responsible policies, and that will become clear the more they confront the Democrats. As such, Rush said, he has no intention of quitting anytime soon, but he fully anticipates receiving a call from an elected Republican asking him to tone it down. That's because they're scared, Rush said. They're acting like an oppressed minority.
Why is it, Rush once again asked, that Democrats can destroy lives and reputations and nobody ever gets mad at them? Why do Republicans believe this will happen to them? Because that's what the moderates say, said Rush, and it's absurd. But Republicans believe it, so they'll acquiesce to the Sotomayor nomination because, they believe, this will somehow show we love Hispanic community. And yet, said Rush, “Barry Soetero” (not sure what Obama's stepfather's name has to do with this) is getting the Hispanic vote because Hispanics think the Democrats are doing their bidding for them.
Rush then asked if Obama has had the obligatory White House meeting on immigration that will immediately solve the problem. It's not on the agenda after Sotomayor, Rush said. It's all cap-and-trade and healthcare, plus taking over the car companies. There's an election next year, Rush observed, and he didn't think the Democrats would be “foolish enough” to push “amnesty” in an election year. The logical conclusion to be drawn from all this, Rush said, is that Obama's nomination of Sotomayor was designed to “appease” the Hispanics for a couple of years so he can punt on immigration reform. It's a “three-fer” for Obama, Rush said -- he gets a political hack, anti-constitutionalist on the court, and he's appeased the Hispanics. Wait, that's only a two-fer. Whatever.
Anyway, Rush concluded from this that if anyone is being cynical towards Hispanics, it's Obama. On the other hand, Rush said, the Republican Party led the way for immigration and amnesty. We know the esteem President Bush is held in, said Rush, and we know where John McCain is right now -- plotting his Senate re-election in Sedona. Rush implored that someone much smarter than he explain all this to him. Well, we can't speak to our intellect as it relates to El Rushbo's, but as we noted at the top of the first hour, McCain flip-flopped quite spectacularly on “amnesty” during the Republican primary. That might help to explain things.
Then Rush noted that he is being criticized by the “drive-bys” for saying horrible things about Sotomayor. Forty-five minutes after the nomination of Bork, Rush noted, Ted Kennedy gave his “Robert Bork's America” speech on the Senate floor. It was about as chock-full of lies and as insulting and mean as you can get, said Rush, but what was the result? Bork didn't get out of committee, and the Democrats succeeded without paying a price. So imagine, Rush implored, if a Republican had gone to the floor of the Senate and said this:
LIMBAUGH: Sonia Sotomayor's America is a land in which the rule of law would be turned in the rule of empathy. Where quotas would triumph over merit. Rogue bureaucrats could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids. Free-thinkers could be censored at the whim of government. And the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for who the judiciary is and is often the only protector of the individual rights at the heart of our democracy. President Obama is still our president, but he shouldn't be able to reach out from the muck of porkulus, from the muck of stimulus, from the muck of TARP, from the muck of $12 trillion in deficits, and impose his reactionary vision, his anti-constitutional vision on the Supreme Court and the next generation of Americans. No justice would be better than this injustice.
Imagine what would be happening today if a Republican had said that, Rush said, insisting that it was a mild rewrite of what Kennedy said. Rush also remembered that in 1987, the Republicans of that day laughed at Kennedy's speech and the Reagan administration didn't do much to defend Bork, probably because they didn't think this was going to happen. Bork was a “perfect jurist,” Rush said. He was “ideal” for the job. And now Kennedy's statement in 1987 has been the blueprint for how Democrats react to every single Republican president's judicial and cabinet nominees. So, Rush once again requested that someone explain to him how Democrats can go after anyone they want, and it never hurts them, but Republicans will pay the price. So Republicans will wave the white flag on Sotomayor, Rush said, and that means that the “Republican Party is extinct. And if we're going to throw in the towel on this, we might as well throw in the towel on Obama” because he's a “minority” as well.
Rush came back from the break with a caller who agreed with Rush on Sotomayor and said Republicans need an “attack dog” to go after her, because they're already viewed as monsters and homophobes. Rush said the caller raised an interesting point -- how can the GOP get worse? If they're going to rip you anyway, why not tell the truth? After some more paeans to Liz Cheney's frequently televised defenses of her father's defenses of torture, Rush lamented that fact that he doesn't see any “attack dogs” in the ranks of the GOP. He sees Chihuahuas.
After another break, Rush came back noting that Joe Biden once allegedly said of Clarence Thomas: “I think that the only reason Clarence Thomas is on the Court is because he is black.” So, Rush said, the sitting vice president once said that the only reason Thomas is on the court is because it was a cynical ploy by George H.W. Bush to nominate an African-American, but Obama's first Hispanic is by no means cynical. Then it was time for another caller, this one upset that so much was being made of the fact that Sotomayor was raised by a single mother. Lots of people have been raised by single mothers, said the caller, including Obama and Bill Clinton. Rush said that coming from a normal, nuclear family can hurt you in America these days because you can't relate. The caller then voiced her theory that the unnamed power brokers of the Democratic Party coalesced around Obama when he started “doing well.” Rush said it was earlier than that -- some unnamed person figured out that they could write Obama's words for him and no one would criticize him. Someone figured out that the racial politics had progressed to a point that there was so much guilt in American that any criticism of a minority candidate or nominee would be perceived as racist. After exchanging their competing theories about when the anonymous Democratic puppetmasters installed Obama as president, Rush praised the caller for not thinking like an “oppressed minority.”
One more break and Rush was back, armed with a CNN story on how the growing deficits of some cities in Ohio could mean that police officers whose jobs Obama said had been rescued by the stimulus package could end up getting fired. Rush asked how this was possible, given that “the messiah touched these men.”
Rush closed out the show with a question for the moderates out there -- they say they are going to go “ape bananas” if Republicans are nasty to Sotomayor, but what about Roland Burris? According to Rush, he's a “black guy” that the Democrats are trying to “bury” because he's in the Senate and the Democrats never wanted him to have that seat. Now with the Sotomayor nomination, Rush said, they're free to go after Burris again, so why aren't the moderates angry about that? Burris “was appointed. He is in the Senate. He took Obama's seat -- black for black. Democrats look at things that way,” and now the Democrats are “playing the race card” against him. He declined to explain how the “race card” is being played, but nonetheless demanded to know why Colin Powell and the moderate Republicans aren't criticizing the Democrats for using the nomination of Sotomayor to finally get rid of a black guy they never wanted in the Senate.
And with that, we end today's trip to Limbaugh Land. We hope to see you tomorrow. Until then, please check out Media Matters' interactive guide to Limbaugh Land to better acquaint yourselves to the unique customs and strange inhabitants of this extremely isolated island nation.
Highlights from Hour 3
Outrageous comments
LIMBAUGH: So imagine if a Republican -- pick your favorite Republican senator -- yesterday had gone to the floor of the Senate 45 minutes after Obama's announcement of Sonia Sotomayor and said this: “Sonia Sotomayor's America is a land in which the rule of law would be turned in the rule of empathy. Where quotas would triumph over merit. Rogue bureaucrats could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids. Free-thinkers could be censored at the whim of government. And the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for who the judiciary is and is often the only protector of the individual rights at the heart of our democracy. President Obama is still our president, but he shouldn't be able to reach out from the muck of porkulus, from the muck of stimulus, from the muck of TARP, from the muck of $12 trillion in deficits, and impose his reactionary vision, his anti-constitutional vision on the Supreme Court and the next generation of Americans. No justice would be better than this injustice.”
[...]
LIMBAUGH: Republicans who are not opposing Sonia Sotomayor because she's a woman or because she's Hispanic are being warned, “Don't oppose her at all, or you'll pay the price.” And now Republicans -- “OK, we've gotta wave the white flag on this, we can't oppose her. We'll go extinct if we do.” The Republican Party is extinct. And if we're going to throw in the towel on this, we might as well throw in the towel on Obama.
[...]
LIMBAUGH: Poor Roland Burris, he's in the Senate -- the Democrats have never wanted Roland Burris to have this seat. And now that we've got the big distraction of Sonia Sotomayor, the Democrats are free to go after the guy again. Isn't it interesting? They have continued to go after this guy. A judge released transcripts of tape -- Burris talking about funds going to Blago. Burris never sent a check, never threw a fundraiser. No matter. This black man is being investigated. How come moderates are not mad at the Democrat Party for going after a person of color? How can the Democrats get away with this? He was appointed. He is in the Senate. He took Obama's seat -- black for black. Democrats look at things that way.