This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by zombie housing falsehoods -- just can't kill 'em
By Simon Maloy

Top of the final hour of the day and the week, Rush hit us with some bad news -- Mark Steyn will be in for him again on Monday ... we still wake up in a cold sweat sometimes thinking of Steyn's last turn behind the golden microphone. Anyway, Rush kicked things off by reading extensively from an AP article reporting: “Lenders are boosting their attempts to avoid home foreclosures, but fewer than half of loan modifications made at the end of last year actually reduced borrowers' payments by more than 10 percent, data released Friday show.” According to Rush, these are the people Barney Frank and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 forced the banks to give loans to. The “losers,” said Rush, and even after the terms of their loans were modified “they're still losers.” It's worth noting at this point -- as we have many times in the past -- the CRA and Barney Frank are not responsible for the housing crisis. The majority of subprime loans were made by institutions not covered by the CRA, and Frank supported tightened regulations and oversight for Fannie and Freddie both before and after Democrats gained control of the House in 2007.

From there Rush moved on to a Washington Post article from this morning on the backlog of 57,000 unsold cars sitting at the Port of Baltimore. Rush attacked the Post for blaming the American people for the backlog in reporting that it “exists because many of the factors that contributed to the collapse of the housing bubble -- cheap credit, easy financing, excessive production, consumers buying more than they could afford -- undermined another large and vital American industry.” According to Rush, you have all these cars piling up, all the while the government is taking over the auto industry, and all the while the government is “taxing people out of their cars.” Rush said this only makes sense to a liberal.

After the break, Rush convinced himself that Geraldo Rivera is the “grim reaper,” because every time he sees Rivera on Fox News that means someone died, referring to the shooting rampage in Binghamton, New York, today. Time for another caller, this one dismayed that he wasn't seeing any anger at “all these things” that are going on. Rush corrected him, saying there are a lot of people out there who are angry, and they're organizing these things called “Tea Parties.” We're going to make this point again because, well, we love making it. Rush frequently rails against people surrendering their “individuality” in pursuit of a cause that will accomplish nothing -- he went on quite a tirade against “Earth Hour,” claiming that people participating in it were simply demonstrating their willingness to “mindlessly play[] along” just so an actor (Edward Norton) can “feel relevant.” But when CNBC loudmouth Rick Santelli suggests that we need “Tea Parties,” Rush encourages his listeners to join up with a bunch of other faux-populists to vent their grievances.

Anyway, Rush went on to explain to the caller that there are two ways to challenge the Obama administration -- one effective and the other ineffective. The ineffective route, according to Limbaugh, is to challenge the administration on policy grounds, because people aren't going to listen to it. The effective route is to “irritate” the White House by teasing and mocking Obama. Now we understand why Rush makes the same teleprompter jokes over and over.

Another caller, this one responding to the woman from earlier asking how smart people can act so stupid. Rush referenced an article William F. Buckley wrote for Playboy many years back (good to know Rush actually does read the articles) regarding human intelligence. Rush's point in citing this article is that liberals are all the same -- Obama, Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, “some toad on a blog,” all the same.

Rush spent the rest of the hour attacking Larry King and radio host Stephanie Miller. Miller said on King's show last night: “You know, Rush Limbaugh said the other day, if -- if Barack Obama fails, America wins. How does that make sense to any rational person?” Rush said it was “ridiculous” that he had to run through this again, asking how could it be “success” if Obama intends to “seriously dent” the auto industry, and later chastising Miller for suggesting that it is “irrational” to hope that a president fails. “That's what you say about kings!” said Rush.

Speaking of kings, Rush also had some unkind words for Larry. On his program last night, King said last night: "[Y]ou can be individuals as much as you like. ... Somebody has got to think for the masses." This set Rush off, demanding to know at what point in American history has anyone ever thought of the masses. Rush said FDR might count as an example, but look at how people lived under him. Rush expanded on this later on, saying that the “masses” are “you faceless dorks who can't fend for themselves,” and “elitists” like King who demand that the masses be considered. (This from a guy whose fans proudly call themselves “dittoheads.”)

And that's a wrap for this week's Limbaugh Wire. We enjoyed it so much that we'll be back next week, and we'll even tune in to Mark Steyn on Monday. We're that committed. As always, we urgently recommend that you take a gander at Media Matters' informative and entertaining Limbaugh coverage.

Highlights from Hour 3

America's Truth Rejector

Falsely claimed that Barney Frank, the CRA are responsible for housing crisis:

LIMBAUGH: Plus, I mean, the dirty little secret is this is the -- this is a cruel thing to say, cruel thing to say. But these are the -- these are the beneficiaries of Barney Frank's definition of affordable housing: Give you a house. These are people who couldn't qualify for the loan in the first place and weren't asked to. These are the people who had to show no history whatsoever in order to get a loan. Clinton, ACORN, Community Redevelopment Act, Obama forced the banks to make these loans. These people can't pay. They're losers in the first place. And even after old buddy federal government steps in to try to help them out, they're still losers. It's not turning them into winners. I just -- I wonder how many of them have tattoos.

Clip from this hour

Limbaugh forwards myths that Community Reinvestment Act, Rep. Frank responsible for mortgage crisis