By Kate Conway

After a pat on the back for his new hi-def video feed, Rush turned to his first serious story of the day: the earthquake in Haiti. Of course, in Rushland, an international natural disaster represents a prime opportunity to lay one more criticism on our president. And what did he do wrong now? He responded too quickly, given that he took three days to publicly address the Christmas Day bombing attempt.

LIMBAUGH: I want you to remember it took [Obama] three days -- three days -- to respond to the Christmas Day Fruit of Kaboom bomber. Three days. And when he came out after those three days, he was clearly irritated that he had to do it. He didn't want to do it. He comes out here in less than 24 hours to speak about Haiti.

[...]

Oh, this is what he lives for. He lives for serving those in misery. Now don't misunderstand here, folks. See, this is -- I wonder -- I don't have the whole press conference, but I wonder: Did he apologize for America before acknowledging we are the only people on Earth that can possibly help them out down there in any significant way?

Recall, it took Bush six days to respond to a similar attempt -- the so-called shoe bomber, Richard Reid -- but, of course, this isn't the comparison that Rush wanted to draw. And he was not finished politicizing the tragedy, instead taking the opportunity to sling another gratuitous “communist” attack Obama's way:

LIMBAUGH: That place, Haiti, has been run by dictators and communists. And how long is it gonna be, how long is it gonna be before we hear Obama and the left in this country say that what we really need to do is reinstate the communist Aristide to the leadership position down there to coordinate putting the country back together? The Haitian economy is entirely dependent on foreign aid. They produce nothing -- zilch, zero, nada.

Surging ahead, Rush dragged Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz into the fray, criticizing her remark that "[i]t is wrong, especially in a region as prosperous as this one, for us to continue to allow the desperate situation that exists in Haiti to continue." In this, Rush apparently heard “it's our fault” that Haiti has the problems it has.

But at least someone was benefitting from all that pain and suffering. Wait, what? That's right, Rush helpfully stated that the earthquake was “made to order” for Obama to improve his image with the black community in this country:

LIMBAUGH: Yes, I think in the Haiti earthquake, ladies and gentlemen -- in the words of Rahm Emanuel, we have another crisis simply too good to waste. This will play right into Obama's hands -- humanitarian, compassionate. They'll use this to burnish their -- shall we say -- credibility with the black community, in the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community, in this country. It's made-to-order for 'em. That's why he couldn't wait to get out there. Could not wait to get out there.

Later in the show, Rush couldn't resist returning to the topic one last time -- this time to express sympathy for impoverished people whose lives have been devastated? Nope, it was to discourage American citizens from making donations to help Haiti, particularly through the White House website (which, by the way, is not taking money but providing links to the Red Cross and other organizations):

LIMBAUGH: Would you trust the money's gonna go to Haiti?

CALLER: No.

LIMBAUGH: But would you trust that your name is gonna end up on the mailing list for the Obama people to start asking you for campaign donations for him and other causes?

CALLER: Absolutely.

LIMBAUGH: Absolutely right.

CALLER: That's the point.

LIMBAUGH: Besides, we've already donated to Haiti. It's called the U.S. income tax.

Yeah, ending up on a mailing list. Now that would be a disaster.

Finishing out the hour, Rush cited a post on Greg Sargent's blog The Plum Line, to inform us that the Democrats are panicked about Scott Brown, the Republican candidate for Massachusetts' U.S. Senate seat.

Rush leapt into hour two with some grandiose gesticulating accompanying a little verbal self-hug when he introduced himself as “El Rushbo, the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-caring, all-sensing, all-feeling, all-everything Maharashi.” It turned out that he was congratulating himself because the Boston Globe took down a story about McCormack after he criticized it. Except that it remained posted as of the Limbaugh Wire's press time.

Exhilarated, Rush went on to demand that Coakley make a statement on the event, asking where McCormack's fellow reporters are, and suggesting that an organization dedicated to journalists killed in action (which he declined to name) get involved.

Rush then stated that he tried to stay out of the Massachusetts Senate race, and then went on to note that a campaign ad made by Coakley features him calling Coakley a Democratic “sock puppet.”

Rush moved on to an attack on the government's handling of the economy, returning to his tired distortion of reportedly stolen climate research emails in the process:

LIMBAUGH: There is no net increase in finance in the private sector. In fact, it's being depleted. There's been much less put into it than has been taken out of it. And that's why there is not only no growth, that's why we are shrinking. The private sector's shrinking; the public sector is growing. So this is a new technique. This is right out of those emails from the climate university -- the Hadley Climate Center over there at East Anglia University, which I always thought was in Africa for some reason. I was stunned to learn it was in England. But nevertheless, those emails were all about fabricating data to hide the decline in temperatures, and the White House picks right up on the technique to hide the decline in jobs.

Incidentally, the Congressional Budget Office disagrees with Rush's analysis of the private sector.

Rush next read from an article discussing Obama's interview with People magazine, titled “Obama concedes he hasn't brought country together.” Needless to say, Rush emphatically agreed. He pointed to health care reform as an example, saying that health care has no support from anyone outside the Democratic party, and not even support from a majority of Democrats. Unfortunately, the example he picked is dubious.

Just in case you weren't clear on Rush's feelings for the current administration, Rush rounded out the second hour with the following:

LIMBAUGH: You need to know the truth here. This -- it's going to be doubly difficult to overcome all this because we have a president and his political party governing against us. They are standing in our way.

Rush jumped into Hour 3 reading an AP article about Obama requesting more money to fight the war in Afghanistan. Rush criticized this as hypocritical given Obama's supposed hesitation to send more troops based on cost. After a brief diversion in which he mocked Barney Frank, Rush continued to insult Obama, calling him inexperienced, cold, detached and poorly educated. He repeated the debunked claim that Obama has barely acknowledged terrorist attacks on U.S., and declared that the Democratic Party is imploding.

Rush then said that Prop 71, a California initiative which sought to advance embryonic stem cell research, has failed, before turning to Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate in Massachusetts' Senate race. He read from a Boston Herald article and attacked Coakley for claiming that she is not “privy to the facts,” surrounding an incident outside a campaign event involving The Weekly Standard's John McCormack. Rush demanded that Coakley make a statement.

Rush went on to agree with a caller who declared that pushing down a Weekly Standard reporter was an act of terrorism, saying that this is a “passionately made good point.” He went on to say that pushing down reporters is a “taught technique,” and suggested that both Obama and Coakley condone the use of violence:

LIMBAUGH: I thought in this year Obama was gonna focus on bringing everybody together. But I guess what Obama's doing, Coakley is -- is -- implementing, is Obama's technique, you hit us and we hit back twice as hard.

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