By Tom Allison

“I move the way people think, I lead them to where I want them to go”

True to his modesty, Rush opened up today's show referring to himself as “omnipotent” and “omnivorous” and asked his listeners to check out transcript and video from Monday's Today interview in which he repeatedly attacked President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former President Jimmy Carter.

Echoing Fox News' accusations that Obama delayed deploying more troops to Afghanistan in order to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Rush took the theme a step further:

LIMBAUGH: Try this headline: “Obama quietly authorizes up to 15,000 more U.S. troops for Afghanistan. In an unannounced move, the Pentagon is deploying thousands of support forces for the Afghanistan war.” Quietly? Unannounced? Is he afraid that the Nobel gang will take back his peace prize? Quietly? Unannounced?

Rush also accused Obama of starting “a dozen civil wars” and starring in a miniseries called “The Circle of Strife.”

Following this rant, Rush took another bow:

LIMBAUGH: I make opinion. I move opinion. I move the way people think, I lead them to where I want them to go. I am months ahead of the conventional wisdom. I have been suggesting that President Obama is a dangerous joke for a year and a half. And now -- of course predicting what was going to happen with the economy, predicting with what was going to happen with all the racial strife in the country, it was only going to be exacerbated with his election, because his supporters would attack anybody criticizing him as racist, and that's happening in droves.

While discussing a report of a swastika carved next to Obama's name on a Massachusetts golf course, Rush suggested that the Obama-created “Circle of Strife” was responsible.

Ignoring NFL players and the player's union objection of Limbaugh buying the St. Louis Rams, Rush claimed that he is the target of a smear campaign and that liberal sports writers are lying about his previous racially charged comments:

LIMBAUGH: Folks, also, I don't know what to do today. I really don't know what to do. The audio sound bite roster is, again, 95 percent about me. And I -- the reason for my indecision here is that -- well, I've talked to you about this before, people lob attacks at you and when you respond to them, they say, “Aha! We've hit home runs here.” But so many outrageous fabricated lies. There is a genuine full-fledged smear campaign being orchestrated by liberal sportswriters and picked up by other liberals in the state-controlled media, that it's breathtaking. And I'm used to being taken out of context, but we have sourced it, we have found where it all started, these fake, totally made-up quotes attributed to me, which are being repeated without any fact-checking at all by liberal sportswriters.

Later in the program Rush responded to former Ram's Defensive Tackle D'Marco Farr's criticism of Limbaugh by saying Farr has read “lies, drivel, and junk.”

After the break, Rush discussed this New York Times article headlined “Congress Is Split on Effort to Tax Costly Health Plans.” Rush repeated his claim that the CBO didn't have a bill to score and was in disbelief of a reform bill having a negative impact on the deficit:

Rush called MSNBC “unhinged” and played an audio clip of Chris Matthews criticizing Limbaugh for making so much money but promoting policies that benefit the rich. Rush said that the liberal media can't believe that he's made so much money “on the right.” Also, playing ignorant to his history of racially charged statements, Rush claimed that the left is always the one injecting race into discussion after Matthews questioned Rush buying a football team in a city like St. Louis.

Rush wrapped up the first hour with another discussion about the Rams, denying that he ever made comments defending slavery or MLK assassin James Earl Ray. Multiple callers encouraged Rush to go through with the deal.

“Olympia Snowe is a predictable joke”

Discussing reports that Sen. Olympia Snowe was planning on voting for the Finance Committee's health reform bill, Limbaugh jumped in to attack her:

LIMBAUGH: Well the state-controlled media is just -- ah, they're over the top here, folks, they can't believe it. News flash, news alert: a Republican, Olympia Snowe, has announced she will vote for the Baucus bill. Surprise, surprise, oh goodie, goodie, goodie! This is the same Republican, Olympia Snowe, who says the party left her, that she didn't leave the Republican Party, that she is a fiscal conservative. Olympia Snowe is a predictable joke. She has voted for all of Obama's big-spending radical agenda. If the Republicans had any intelligence, not only would they vote no on the Baucus bill, they wouldn't even show up for the vote. The Republicans have no business helping this thing get passed. The Republicans have no business -- politically, I mean, it's death for them to have any role whatsoever in this health care bill being passed. They oughta not even show up.

Later in the show, after a caller hoped for Snowe's defeat, Rush responded: “I'm with you, brother.” Rush also found time to mock bipartisanship in general and again used the term the “new castrati,” a term he had previously used to refer to Hillary Clinton supporters:

LIMBAUGH: The Republicans in the Senate on this Finance Committee, the Baucus committee, oughta be nowhere near where -- when this vote happens. If they do show up, they should vote no. Snowe is going to vote yes, and “Oh, wonderful, Olympia Snowe, we've got bipartisanship, Mr. Limbaugh. We've got bipartisanship, and this means that Obama cannot be totally blamed. Obama can't be totally blamed because now there's bipartisanship, Mr. Limbaugh, this is how Congress is supposed to work. This is how the wonderful nature of the U.S. government is supposed to work, Mr. Limbaugh.” This voice, by the way, is the voice of the new castrati, those who have lost all manhood, gonads, guys, and courage, throughout our culture and our political system.

Continuing with the theme, Rush called Sen. Blanche Lincoln “a phony moderate and phony blue dog” and a “Democrat hack who is in Obama's back pocket.”

“Cradle to grave, and they decide when to dig it with this health care plan”

After the break, Rush dived into a rant about health care which can be summed up by these three excerpts:

LIMBAUGH: Oh, yes, we know exactly what the long-term effect of all these incentives is. It's to grow the government, and it is to destroy and punish achievement. It's where we are today, folks.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: The media going nuts, chyron graphics: “Awaiting Finance Committee vote on health care bill.” As though nobody knows what's going to happen? But Olympia Snowe's going to vote with the Democrats. Are there going to be some Democrat defections? Got Bill Nelson of Florida -- he's another phony moderate out there -- he looks like he's voting to kill Medicare and slash health care to senior citizens today as well, which is what they're all gonna be voting on; kill Medicare and slash health care for senior citizens. That's the essence of the Baucus bill. There can be no other way.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: We've all heard the phrase “cradle to grave,” right? When describing government involvement in our lives -- cradle to grave care. The difference now is that they also get to decide when to dig the grave. Cradle to grave, and they decide when to dig it with this health care plan.

“On to fascism, folks”

After the break Rush talked about an Associated Press article about daycare facilities offering more healthy meals and snacks to toddlers. Incredulous. Rush claimed that hot dogs were too American to take away from our nation's children and then curiously attacked the daycare profession. Rush said that day care workers are low wage, under skilled people who just aren't the same as the Kindergarten teachers that his audience might be used to.

Later, Rush actually criticized Obama for discussing tax cuts, claiming that a tax cut wouldn't incentivize an employer to hire more employees, concluding, “every gun the government has is aimed at us.”

Rush kicked off his third hour with a deluge of audio clips of media figures criticizing him to demonstrate, once again, that he is the target of a smear campaign. Rush ranted for at least 10 minutes that the media is a sewer and thought nothing of fabricating quotes about him.

Rush concluded the program by reporting on the health care bill's passage through the Finance committee, signing off with “on to fascism, folks.”

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

Highlights

LIMBAUGH: Folks, also, I don't know what to do today. I really don't know what to do. The audio sound bite roster is, again, 95 percent about me. And I -- the reason for my indecision here is that -- well, I've talked to you about this before, people lob attacks at you and when you respond to them, they say, “Aha! We've hit home runs here.” But so many outrageous fabricated lies. There is a genuine full-fledged smear campaign being orchestrated by liberal sportswriters and picked up by other liberals in the state-controlled media, that it's breathtaking. And I'm used to being taken out of context, but we have sourced it, we have found where it all started, these fake, totally made-up quotes attributed to me, which are being repeated without any fact-checking at all by liberal sportswriters.

And it is -- the interesting thing about this to me is I think back to Tom Brokaw and Tom Friedman, saying, “Oh, the Internet's a sewer, need us, professional journalists with filters. Internet's a sewer and you can read anything and people believe everything that's out there, so I'm -- they need us, our professionalism, we're highly trained professionals, and only we have the ability to filter the stench that is the sewer of the Internet.”

All right, fine. Only professional journalists have the ability to -- to wander through the sewer and figure out what's valid and what isn't. So a bunch of professional journalists are believing everything in the sewer. They're not checking it at all, they're not fact-checking. They are embarrassing themselves and the sound bite roster is largely about this. And I'm in a dilemma here over whether to waste valuable broadcast time talking about some of this.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Well the state-controlled media is just -- ah, they're over the top here, folks, they can't believe it. News flash, news alert: a Republican, Olympia Snowe, has announced she will vote for the Baucus bill. Surprise, surprise, oh goodie, goodie, goodie! This is the same Republican, Olympia Snowe, who says the party left her, that she didn't leave the Republican Party, that she is a fiscal conservative. Olympia Snowe is a predictable joke. She has voted for all of Obama's big-spending radical agenda. If the Republicans had any intelligence, not only would they vote no on the Baucus bill, they wouldn't even show up for the vote. The Republicans have no business helping this thing get passed. The Republicans have no business -- politically, I mean, it's death for them to have any role whatsoever in this health care bill being passed. They oughta not even show up.