By Greg Lewis

Rush started today's show by going through his Stack of Stuff. Rush noted that he has been “ridiculed” by the media over global warming, and promised to elaborate on that more later, since “we don't make this program all about me.” Uh huh.

Moving on, Rush noted that Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) sent a letter to Obama saying he's eager to attend the bipartisan health care reform summit to present his ideas to Obama. Rush exclaimed that the deal is already done, since yesterday, one of Pelosi's staffers “leaked” the “trick” they would use to pass health care reform without Republicans.

Then Rush talked about how liberals, during the “last 3 or 4 years” of the Bush administration, would “whine” about the loss of civil liberties and privacy from the Patriot Act, domestic spying, etc. With this in mind, Rush read a recent CNET article by Declan McCullagh reporting that the federal government is “pushing” to track cell phones. Rush asserted that Obama wants to be able to monitor and track you, and get records of where you've been.

Next, Rush noted Sen. Inhofe's Al Gore igloo, and then touted that he had “found” Al Gore. This was a lead-in for the latest Paul Shanklin skit portraying Gore in Rio de Janeiro.

Rush again took issue with Obama referring to terrorists as “folks,” saying that this would confuse Bill O'Reilly's audience because “folks” is O'Reilly's word.

Then Rush read a Bloomberg report that Obama said he would be “agnostic” about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000. After the break, Rush said that he looked up the definition of “agnostic” on his cell phone, and concluded that what Obama meant was that he was “voting present” on tax hikes.

Rush parrots oft-repeated CRA falsehoods, claims affordable housing “was designed to wreck the whole system”

Following the next break, Rush launched into a heated rant filled with old, discredited claims about the causes of the financial crisis that Rush refuses to let go of. After airing a sound bite of Joe Biden on Larry King Live claiming that “we inherited” many of these problems from the previous administration, Limbaugh went off. Rush suggested that Obama and Biden should rename the New Madrid Fault “Bush's Fault,” since that's all these people ever have to say.

Then Rush said that as a Senator, Obama voted for every spending bill that came down the pike, and he and Democrats were asking Bush to spend more after they took control of Congress in 2007. From here, Rush continued his blaming of the Community Reinvestment Act for the financial crisis, pinning all of the blame on Democrats and liberal policies:

LIMBAUGH: So what exactly, I need to ask -- what exactly did the Republicans do to reduce regulations. Honestly? What specifically did they do that eliminated key regulation that would have prevented the housing collapse? Specifics, please. They can sit around here and they can blame Bush and blame the Republicans all they want, but I want to know what the Republicans did. Because the truth of it is, they did it. The Community Reinvestment Act was hatched by Carter, it was expanded by Clinton, it was used by ACORN and their allies to wreck the housing market by wrecking the mortgage market, by demanding that mortgages be given to people who could no way pay them back. Ergo, the sub-prime mortgage crisis. It was called affordable housing, and it was designed to wreck the whole system. AIG and the rest, I mean, the -- I mean, I'm not -- I don't defend AIG, but they were treating loans -- derivatives, if you will -- that was based fundamentally on loans developed by liberal policies.

Rush went as far as to say that Barney Frank and Chris Dodd should be in jail with Bernie Madoff for these policies:

LIMBAUGH: Meanwhile, in case you don't know it, Obama still has not killed the Community Reinvestment Act. Obama still supports it. Obama still supports the very thing that caused the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the first place. ACORN still supports it. Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, both of whom should be sharing a cell with Bernie Madoff, still support it. So let me challenge. They're not going to come on this program and debate me. I know they're not going to do that on health care. Let me challenge them again. Obama and the Democrats, eliminate the Community Reinvestment Act and all laws that compel banks to make loans to poor people that can't afford them.

Rush has made this claim before, but he's been consistently wrong on this issue. The idea that this piece of legislation created the subprime mortgage crisis is a discredited myth.

Rush concluded his rant by calling for Democrats to eliminate the Community Reinvestment Act, and by claiming that Democrats want all of us on food stamps “on purpose,” depending on the government.

Towards the end of the first hour, Rush talked about how the media have started insulting the American people as too stupid to understand what's going on, and arguing that there's too much democracy. Rush said this is what they did during the Clinton years, too.

Rush goes after Biden's comments on Iraq

Then Rush focused on other comments Biden had made on last night's Larry King Live about the war in Iraq. Biden had said that troops leaving Iraq this summer “could be one of the great achievements of this administration.” Rush was pretty outraged about this, claiming that it was Biden who “proclaimed defeat” and opposed everything that led to a stable Iraq. Rush charged that Biden wanted to leave Iraq in defeat. Rush added that the Obama administration doesn't have an achievement and has not done “one thing” positively for this country.

Rush continued to talk about Biden's Iraq comments as the second hour commenced. Rush said everything Biden mentioned with Larry King “he inherited” from Bush. Rush went on to play sound bites of Biden in 2006 and 2007 speaking out against Bush's Iraq policy decisions. Rush said to the “military people” in his audience that the people running the show now are the most “dishonest” and “diabolical” people who have run this country in Rush's lifetime. Rush added that they are “sick” and “mentally unstable.”

Later, Rush took a call from a listener who said Social Security would become insolvent sooner than predicted. This launched Rush into a lengthy monologue defending the virtues of Bush's would-be privatization of Social Security. Rush said it was a good plan, but Bush's mistake was to use the word “privatize” because it made people think the program wouldn't be secure. Rush said that Social Security will have to be privatized to prevent it save it from insolvency, but Democrats' opposition to it is taking this country off of the cliff.

The next caller on the show thought that Obama finally realized he should soften his rhetoric on Wall Street bonuses because that's where he's getting his tax revenue. Rush disagreed, explaining that Obama was softening because banks threatened to donate to Republicans. Rush went on to say that he doesn't care what Obama's motivation is, just that whatever Obama is doing is stopped right now dead in its tracks.

Following another break, Rush continued to harp on Biden's “pure hypocrisy.” Then Rush said that “idiot” press secretary Robert Gibbs said that the administration doesn't believe Iran is a nuclear state. Rush said this is the same administration that “didn't know” Iran had a second nuclear facility. Wrong again, Rush! According to the administration, the United States had been tracking the facility for years before they went public with it last fall.

The third hour began with Rush reading from a Michael Barone column headlined, “With absolute power, Team Obama grows stupid.” Rush added that Democrats thought that when they were elected on a wave of hatred for Bush that they had free reign to go on a tear, but misread the American people. Therefore, they are going to ram things through like the health care bill and cap and trade. Then Rush talked about the “trick” (or, widely reported tactic) Democrats would use to pass health care reform -- having the House pass the Senate bill and the Senate passing a side-bill through reconciliation. Rush said Republicans would be a side show if they went along with this.

Rush: Obama is “making it worse on purpose” and “has no compassion, no emotional connection to people”

After the break, Rush took a caller who explained her diminished economic circumstances. The caller also talked about how she has been watching Fox News, and is so sickened by the president for not tightening his belt and wasting taxpayer money on things like redecorating the White House. The caller thanked Rush for “stirring up the dust.” Rush responded with modesty. He claimed he didn't really do much to rouse people up, and that millions of people are realizing on their own what Obama is doing, which makes them agitated. Rush said all he does is validate what people like the caller think and give them information before it comes down the pike. Rush added:

LIMBAUGH: What bugs me more is this guy is single-handedly, along with his Democrat buddies up on Capitol Hill, making it worse on purpose. That's what frosts me. Making it worse on purpose while living the high life himself. The guys has no compassion, no emotional connection to people.

The next caller asked why Rush doesn't use the term “progressive” instead of “liberal.” Rush explained that the word “liberal” is “death at the ballot box,” making it more damaging than calling them progressive.

After some discussion of the jobs bill, Rush responded to MSNBC anchor Dylan Ratigan's response to Rush's criticism of Ratigan over his global warming reporting. Rush said:

LIMBAUGH: Well not quite, Dylan. At least I'm glad you admit that you have no idea, but when you said in your own reporting that's part of the science. Its not part of the-there's no settled science on this. Are you people not aware of the hoax this has all become? At East Anglia University, at the IPCC, the Himalayan glaciers.

I'm going to tell you something, Dylan. What's happening with these snowstorms is exactly, according to my climate scientists, I've got some too, and its settled as far as I'm concerned, Dylan. If these things continuing this is exactly what we're going to get with global cooling which shows you where we are. This equals global warming.

Then Rush noted that he was getting a lot of emails about his response to the caller about using the word “progressive.” Rush said not to be fooled by the term, and that he “knows the history,” but “progressive” doesn't hurt them as much as “liberal” does. Rush must not be watching much Glenn Beck anymore.

Michael Timberlake contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: What my point in telling you this is, is that millions of people are doing the very same thing you are. They don't need to be riled up, they are already are. They don need to be agitated, they already are. We're just -- the service I provide is validating what you think and giving you information before you know that it comes down the pike. I'm flattered by your compliment, but don't sell yourself short on this. You and multiple millions of others have had it, for whatever reason. If it bugs you that he's not being austere in his own life while everybody else has to tighten their belts fine and dandy.

What bugs me more is this guy is single-handedly, along with his Democrat buddies up on Capitol Hill, making it worse on purpose. That's what frosts me. Making it worse on purpose while living the high life himself. The guys has no compassion, no emotional connection to people.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Well not quite, Dylan. At least I'm glad you admit that you have no idea, but when you said in your own reporting that's part of the science. Its not part of the-there's no settled science on this. Are you people not aware of the hoax this has all become? At East Anglia University, at the IPCC, the Himalayan glaciers.

I'm going to tell you something, Dylan. What's happening with these snowstorms is exactly, according to my climate scientists, I've got some too, and its settled as far as I'm concerned, Dylan. If these things continuing this is exactly what we're going to get with global cooling which shows you where we are. This equals global warming.

America's Truth Rejector

LIMBAUGH: Now, by this time I have a simple question. Who cares what Obama or his people say about the economy and what they predict in the future? They have grossly wrong time and time again. Who cares what they predict?

Here's the truth. The American left, the liberals keep attacking the regulatory system that was in place before Obama was elected. When it fact it is mostly their regulatory system. They complained about inheriting deficits when, in fact, they pushed for even bigger deficits when Bush was president including Senator Obama. Senator Obama voted for every spending bill that came the pike. He cannot distance himself from all of this. In fact, he and Democrats were asking Bush to spend more. Look it, it's the Democrats that are [inaudible] that ran Freddie Mae and Freddie Mac and we just did a morning update today on the sorry shape they're in. They are so in debt, they've been bailed out, there's no hope that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are ever going to get whole. The people that run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac received tens of million dollars in bonuses, and meanwhile Obama's out there complaining about everybody else getting bonuses.

So what exactly, I need to ask -- what exactly did the Republicans do to reduce regulations. Honestly? What specifically did they do that eliminated key regulation that would have prevented the housing collapse? Specifics, please. They can sit around here and they can blame Bush and blame the Republicans all they want, but I want to know what the Republicans did. Because the truth of it is, they did it. The Community Reinvestment Act was hatched by Carter, it was expanded by Clinton, it was used by ACORN and their allies to wreck the housing market by wrecking the mortgage market, by demanding that mortgages be given to people who could no way pay them back. Ergo, the sub-prime mortgage crisis. It was called affordable housing, and it was designed to wreck the whole system. AIG and the rest, I mean, the -- I mean, I'm not -- I don't defend AIG, but they were treating loans -- derivatives, if you will -- that was based fundamentally on loans developed by liberal policies.

I'm getting really fed up with this notion that everything they inherited was Bush's fault. They have doubled on whatever was wrong. I want them to name whatever these regulations are that the Republicans did that created this mess. Because my memory is that George Bush a number of times tried to stop some of this stuff going on in the sub-prime crisis, and his poor regulator got up there, beat up by Barney Frank and whoever -- Chris Dodd -- and the regulators just lot their teeth and kind of slinked away. I mean, the problem here, folks, as it's always been, and I'm sure those of you who own operate small businesses will agree with me -- there are too many regulations, there are too many laws. You can't keep up with them now. There's too much government interference.

So here we have the left, Obama and his buddies with Biden out there on Larry King last night creating yet another lie that persists for decades, that deregulation caused this recession. It was liberalism, it was socialism, it was big government and there liberal groups that caused all this. Deregulation? There wasn't any deregulation. That's their favorite ploy, though. If you let the capitalist free-market system go wild, everything falls apart and only a precious few end up doing well, and everybody else gets creamed because the precious few doing well are stealing from everybody else. It's absurd, it's nonsense, but this is their constant refrain. Re-regulation, reform is always growing government, more regulation, more obstacles, more putting people behind an 8-ball with more obstacles in their way so they can't possibly overcome them to be successful.

We have inherited -- if you want to talk about inheritance, we have inherited what Obama and his party and his friends have created, and even if we win these elections in November, it is going to take two or three or -- I don't know, it's going to take a generation to fix all this. The damage they have done in, well, not just one year because the Democrats took over the House in 2007. And you can track -- you can track when unemployment started to track up. You can track when the GDP start to go to -- you can track any number of things to the Democrats acquiring more and more power, and finally Obama in November of 2008. Take a look at unemployment then. Take a look at unemployment in November 2008 and forward, and you will find that people in charge in knowing how run a business said, “Uh-oh, we in heap big doo-doo.” So we have inherited, folks, what Obama and his party and his friends have created.

Joe Biden -- Joe Biden was in the Senate for over 30 years. He was a big-spending, free-spending liberal. You will find no record at all of Biden demanding the government stop pushing banks to make loans to people that couldn't afford them. Biden dares go on Larry King last night and say he inherited all this? He helped create it. And any other Democrat in office for 20 years, 10 years, 30 years, joins Biden as an architect of this disaster.

Meanwhile, in case you don't know it, Obama still has not killed the Community Reinvestment Act. Obama still supports it. Obama still supports the very thing that caused the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the first place. ACORN still supports it. Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, both of whom should be sharing a cell with Bernie Madoff, still support it. So let me challenge. They're not going to come on this program and debate me. I know they're not going to do that on health care. Let me challenge them again. Obama and the Democrats, eliminate the Community Reinvestment Act and all laws that compel banks to make loans to poor people that can't afford them.

Let's get rid of some of these regulations, requirements that have lead to this snafu and this big problem. But they're not going to do that because they want the snafu, they want the big problem, they want radical redistribution of wealth. They have targeted the U.S. private sector, and they continue to do so each and every day, and now Obama's gone agnostic on middle-class tax cuts. Well, I can't say I'm for or not because they'll kill me for flip-flopping so I gotta act like I'm open for anything at this point, which is what he's doing, and he hopes to get away with that because of your perception of his superior intelligence.