By Greg Lewis

Limbaugh on news of top Taliban official's capture: “So, who do we believe? The U.S. and Pakistan, or the Taliban? It's a toss-up. The jury's still out”

Rush got things going today by going over the news that U.S. and Pakistani forces captured a top Taliban official. Rush said the thing that bothers him about this is that liberals always said, as the Bush administration was capturing terrorists, that none of that mattered until we captured bin Laden or Mullah Omar. Rush added:

LIMBAUGH: [T]his guy's name, by the way, is Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, or Baraadar -- and it says here “deals a serious blow to the Taliban,” “also represents a potential turning point for the government of Pakistan.” but the Taliban is denying that the “number two” guy's been captured. So, who do we believe? The U.S. and Pakistan, or the Taliban? It's a toss-up. The jury's still out.

Rush wondered if Baradar had been Mirandized, and said that Obama said he won't waterboard the guy in order to make sure the Taliban won't get too mad at us.

Next, Rush mentioned that the left is “ticked off” at Evan Bayh. Then, Rush reminisced about a year ago when it was “settled political science” that the era of Reagan was over, the Republican Party would never be in power again, and Rush himself was the head of the failed political party. Rush contrasted this with a recent AP article about Obama revamping his White House communications arm to be more like it was during the 2008 campaign.

Rush: "[T]he whole Obama administration is a giant dupe"

Veering off topic for a moment, Rush commented on the news that the federal government would guarantee $8 billion in loans to construct the first nuclear power plant in the U.S. in nearly 30 years. Rush said that this was just “pandering” and that without anywhere to put the nuclear waste, “it's all academic.” He continued to rant about the Obama administration:

LIMBAUGH: Isn't Mr. Obama just adjusting the ways in which he hopes to continue to dupe the dumb masses -- I mean, the whole Obama administration is a giant dupe. And it's been caught onto. He's no longer duping anybody, so they've gotta find a new way to dupe people. That's what this is -- they still can't be honest about what they're doing. They don't dare. So we'll keep a sharp eye on this, folks. We are not fooled.

Rush went on to talk about how the stimulus had failed, and that by going back to the permanent campaign, Obama is “admitting” he failed.

After the break, Rush continued to go on about how the left wing was freaking out over Bayh's resignation. Rush responded to an audio clip of Bayh on CNN saying that Washington was not getting the public's business done: "Au contraire." Rush said that the public's business is being done -- the public doesn't want the Obama agenda, so therefore stopping or stalling that agenda is in fact achieving that goal.

Rush rewrites history of the Great Depression

Following another break, Rush fielded a question from a caller who whether government spending could pull us out of a recession, citing government spending during World War II as an example. Rush said that this question allowed him to make a very important point. Rush claimed (incorrectly) that the New Deal had “no impact” on ending the Great Depression. Rush said this is because New Deal spending went to make-work jobs that don't produce anything. Rush clarified that so far, most of the stimulus money that has been spent has gone to protect government union employees at the state and local level. Rush spouted another falsehood, claiming that there has not been one job created by the government in the last six months.

Rush went on to explain that the difference with government spending during World War II was that it was going towards the private sector and was actually “building things.” Products were being produced, explained Rush, and people were being paid for making things. Rush then falsely asserted that right now, the GDP “isn't growing.”

The caller probed further into Rush's logic, asking that, theoretically, since the government spent money producing and building things, then the government could cause a recovery in the private sector. But, the caller added, the government doesn't do that except in WWII, when they were forced to.

Rush affirmed his reasoning. He went on to say that one of the justifications for the stimulus was incorrect: “The infrastructure in this country is not falling apart,” said Rush, saying that everyone thought this after one bridge collapsed. This couldn't be further from the truth. In its 2009 report card, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave America's infrastructure a “D” grade. Rush is turning a blind eye to a very real problem facing this country in order to further attack and undermine the federal government's work to address it.

Rush went on to say that this is all a giant myth, and that everything the stimulus was premised on was false. Rush claimed the stimulus only funded make-work programs -- redistribution of wealth disguised as rebuilding infrastructure.

Rush went on to claim that there is “literally no comparison” between WWII and now, because during the war, it was private sector companies building the airplanes, etc, and the government was not overstepping its bounds. Rush said that history is clear -- there is not one instance where New Deal-type spending expanded American private sector wealth. He concluded that what's going on because of Obama and his administration “is hideous.”

After another break, Rush said that Obama's spending objective right now is to “cripple” the U.S. and take the risk out of the business cycle, replacing it with the government. Rush explained that the objective of Obama's spending is to make sure their party members and union members keep their high wages and benefits -- his spending is all political. Rush again contrasted this with World War II -- back then, we were spending on things that were desperately needed for the war effort. But that's not so with the stimulus spending, as we're “not getting anything that anybody wants.”

Rush concluded by proclaiming that for “them” to acquire power, we have to lose freedom and liberty. He asked for his audience to point to one thing in the Obama agenda that is helping the private sector.

Rush lauds Chris Christie's spending freeze, budget cuts

Rush spent the first portion of the second hour lauding and reading from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's speech declaring a fiscal state of emergency. Afterwards, he read a Newark Star-Ledger article about some New Jersey government workers choosing to retire instead of facing Christie's proposed budget cuts.

Rush defends Palin's endorsement of McCain

Next, Rush was prompted by a caller to address the recent controversy among conservatives over Sarah Palin's endorsement of John McCain in his primary battle with J.D. Hayworth. Recently, “Joe the Plumber” said he couldn't support Palin if she endorsed McCain. Rush disagreed. While he said Palin's endorsement was problematic, he said Palin is a Republican, not a third-party person. Rush implored to look at the reality of the circumstance, noting it would have caused problems in the other direction if Palin didn't endorse McCain.

After the commercial, Rush spoke more about pensions and how he's so rich that he doesn't have to depend on anyone for money. Then he got back to Palin. Rush restated that Palin is not a tea partier, but a Republican. One thing Palin knows, said Rush, is that McCain is the person who made everything happen for her by choosing her as his running mate. Rush said he understood why Palin was doing this -- she didn't have a choice in her mind, and that it was obligatory payback. Rush said that it frankly didn't matter to him, and that it didn't dampen his feelings about her.

Rush distorts Phil Jones interview to claim Jones had “pretty much come clean” about climate change “hoax”; calls for NOAA head to resign

The third hour began with Rush pointing out that Lake Erie had frozen for the first time in 14 years. Naturally, this meant that Rush was about to talk about the latest supposed-proof that climate change was a hoax. He pointed to a claim that the IPCC “made up” a conclusion that global warming was causing more hurricanes. Then Rush mentioned that the head of NOAA, Jane Lubchenco, had said on NPR that “weather is not climate” (which is a pretty accurate statement on its own) while defending climate change science.

Rush was furious about this. He said the bottom was falling out of the global warming hoax, claiming that climate scientist Phil Jones “admitted” that there hasn't been warming since 1995. This being The Rush Limbaugh Show, it should come as no surprise that Rush was plainly distorting Jones' recent interview. Rush went on to call for NOAA's Lubchenco to resign for not knowing that “hoaxster” Jones had “pretty much come clean.”

After some more discussion about pensions for government workers, Rush took a caller who talked about the Olympics and Joe Biden's pep talk to the American athletes. Rush noted that figure skating legend Peggy Flemming was injured in an accident while riding in Biden's motorcade. “This guy is a walking calamity,” Rush exclaimed of Biden. That was a cheap shot by Rush, considering the accident a) had nothing to do with anything Biden himself did, and b) the vehicle Flemming was in was rear-ended.

Then Rush read the latest about the bipartisan health care summit, this time from Ezra Klein and Jonathan Cohn. (I know, we're surprised, too. It's not often Rush gives much attention to sources that actually know a few things about health care reform.) The posts were about reports that Democrats would reach a compromise on health care before the summit, which Limbaugh took as more evidence that this was really a trap for Republicans.

After a caller turned his focus to the Toyota recalls, Rush spent the remainder of the program baselessly accusing the government and the media of hyping the recalls to benefit the UAW and government-owned GM and Chrysler. Rush said Obama was using the power of government ownership to go after a competitor, which he called Chicago thug politics.

Michael Timberlake and Kitty Kaletsky contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: Every time we capture -- I don't know how there's a “number two” Taliban guy left. We must have captured three or four “number two” guys during the Bush-Cheney years. I guess they keep putting up new “two” guys, “number two” guys. And we also don't know if if -- this guy's name, by the way, is Mullah Abdul Ghani -- Baradar, or Baraadar -- and it says here “deals a serious blow to the Taliban,” “also represents a potential turning point for the government of Pakistan.” but the Taliban is denying that the “number two” guy's been captured. So, who do we believe? The U.S. and Pakistan, or the Taliban? It's a toss-up. The jury's still out.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Isn't Mr. Obama just adjusting the ways in which he hopes to continue to dupe the dumb masses -- I mean, the whole Obama administration is a giant dupe. And it's been caught onto. He's no longer duping anybody, so they've gotta find a new way to dupe people. That's what this is -- they still can't be honest about what they're doing. They don't dare. So we'll keep a sharp eye on this, folks. We are not fooled.