By Greg Lewis

Rush calls Sen. Menendez a “buffoon” after Menendez told listeners to “turn off” Limbaugh

Rush began his last radio broadcast of 2009 by crowing that he was awarded the “Radio Personality of the Decade” by Mediaweek.

Limbaugh got his daily health care diatribe going by airing a sound clip of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) on the Senate floor last night calling for people to “turn off” Rush Limbaugh and leave politics “in the cloakroom.” Rush derided Menendez, calling him a “buffoon” and declared that ideology was the only way to beat the bill.

Then Rush highlighted a floor speech by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) last night claiming that certain parts of the health care bill would be “impossible” to repeal or amend. Rush called this outrageous.

After the break, Rush stated that when Obama and Democrats win, America “loses big time.” He then responded to an email that was a call for mobilizing people and money to defeat the health care bill. Rush said that public outrage won't work when Democrats have a “dictatorial frame of mind.” Rush also discussed the various conservative rallies held in Washington, D.C. in recent months. He criticized what he called a lack of mainstream media coverage of the events, but also blamed the lack of turnout. Limbaugh said that peasants “didn't show up with pitchforks.”

Rush continued his ranting against the health care bill by stating as fact that “there are death panels in this bill,” adding that they couldn't be repealed. He added that nothing the founders of our country faced which caused them to rebel is “nothing” compared to what is happening because of health care reform alone. He described it as “pure fascism,” as well as “un-American” and “unconstitutional.”

Rush: health care reform entitlements will “obliterate tolerance”

Following another break, Rush took a caller who brought up the news that Rep. Parker Griffith from Alabama switched parties to the GOP. This launched Rush into a discussion of how the Democrats are more committed to what they believe in that the GOP since they are “willing” to lose their majority to pass health care reform.

Rush added that the new health care reform entitlements would “obliterate tolerance” in this country because it would cause Americans to blame each other for health care costs (or something like that, it was difficult to follow once Rush Limbaugh -- !! -- predicted that health care entitlements would obliterate tolerance) . Rush said there would be “citizen-on-citizen confrontation” and that this was all “by design” to create chaos and make everyone as dependent on the government as possible.

Limbaugh closed out the hour by appearing to walk back his earlier comments on the tea party rallies. He said that the they worked as “spontaneous things” and said that the long view is to replace the current Republican leadership.

Open Line Tuesday? Rush takes callers who suggest purposeful mass layoffs, bash the poor, and other protests of health care reform

The second hour of Rush (and second to last of the year!) got going with Rush declaring a “see I told you so” moment. He said that he had predicted Democrats would be talking about the historic context of passing health care, and aired a clip of DNC chairman Tim Kaine doing just that. (Imagine! Democrats flaunting a likely legislative achievement.)

Then Rush took a rather strange call. The caller presented his idea to protest the health care bill, which was for all small businesses to literally cut their payrolls by 50 percent in order to overrun the unemployment offices so that they couldn't deal with the crisis. Rush toyed with the caller and his idea for several minutes. Rush said that he “philosophically” liked what the caller was saying, but joked that his comments might cause the AP to run a story tonight reporting that Limbaugh calls for millions to be laid off. Rush said it was a “tough” call, and came back from the next break and suggested a softer strategy, like having workers go on strike like they do in France.

The next caller on the show responded to the previous caller. The caller was a welfare caseworker who said that she hands out food stamps and medical cards, and said the previous caller's plan would drive states close to bankruptcy. The caller then went on to ramble about her affection for Limbaugh and talk about how she sees people on food stamps going “crazy” in supermarkets, buying candy and Red Bulls. Rush said the point was that we are the greatest country in the world, yet the poverty level is at an all time high, which he blamed on Democrats and Obama.

Rush continued to explain his theories to the caller, complete with some good ol' Rush Limbaugh poor-bashing:

LIMBAUGH: This is by design. This economy is coming to a slowdown, and the difference is that it's on purpose. I -- I -- and a lot of people don't want to believe this because they can't understand why anybody would want to do it. All you have to do is look at what they're doing with health care to understand it. It's power, it's control, and it's power in perpetuity for them.

The more people that have these debit cards every month, waiting for the government to load them up with benefits so they can go to the Huck's and pick up some Red Bull and candy, the happier people like Obama are. I mean, it's hideous. These people are anathema to the traditions, institutions that -- that have made this country grow.

Following another break, Rush had another idea on how to protest health care. He suggested that businesses just “don't” send payroll taxes to Washington. He continued to discuss the sorts of restrictions on freedom that was imposed on colonial America by Great Britain. Rush went on to predict that all the anger out there today would somehow manifest itself into “something huge,” but he wasn't sure what it would be exactly.

Towards the end of the hour, Rush took another caller. This one described himself as a former progressive who said he would refuse health care and let the government take him to court, and said that the government couldn't put him in jail for a fine. Rush noted there were exemptions in the bill for “financial hardship” and wondered if that defeated the purpose of the bill's intent to cover those in need.

Rush attacks the wrong “Nation”

And then we found ourselves at the final hour of Rush Limbaugh for the remainder of the decade. Rush didn't disappoint -- he treated us to one of the most hilarious gaffes we've heard from him in weeks.

It appeared that Rush wanted to get into the annual “War on Christmas” fun before the holiday, and he did so by attacking The Nation magazine. Rush said a recent article run in The Nation showed how they were “excited” about the War on Christmas. Rush read lengthy excerpts from the article and continually trashed The Nation for being secularists who, essentially, hate Christmas.

So what was so funny about this? Well, despite Limbaugh's all-out attack on The Nation and its publisher “Hurricane Katrina” vanden Heuvel, the article was not from The Nation at all. What Rush was reading was from was an article on the AOL News website Sphere.com, under their “Nation” section. Not The Nation.

Rush spent the remainder of his program taking callers and speaking out against health care reform. Rush said that “bribing” senators on health care was a “tantamount admission” to what a lousy piece of legislation it is.

One of the callers on the show wondered if Democrats ever realize that Republicans might get power back and appoint Dick Cheney to head the “death panels,” which the caller said would be like “peace on Earth.” Rush went on some more about Democrats taking “dictatorial” powers. The next two callers offered various means of “civil disobedience” for paying taxes, such as organizing everybody to file their taxes on paper on April 15. Rush wasn't sure if this would work since most people don't have to pay income taxes. He also predicted that Democrats would find a way to punish all of these acts of “disobedience.”

And after some festive music, courtesy of Mannheim Steamroller, Rush Limbaugh signed off for 2009. Like clockwork, however, he'll be back in 2010. But so will Media Matters' The Limbaugh Wire, ready to document every falsehood, smear, and outrageous statement every day that Limbaugh is on the radio. Merry holidays!

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

Highlights

War on the poor

LIMBAUGH: The chaos that we're seeing has been created. The chaos is on purpose. The employment situation is on purpose. Everything that Obama has done since he took office has been contra-indicative of what to do to create jobs. He is doing just the opposite of what's necessary to create jobs. He is -- he is stifling investment, he is offering no incentive whatsoever, he's got these health care plans and cap-and-trade lurking in the future. People who are going to be responsible for investing in business or lending money to people have no idea what the rules are going to be. This is by design. This economy is coming to a slowdown, and the difference is that it's on purpose. I -- I -- and a lot of people don't want to believe this because they can't understand why anybody would want to do it. All you have to do is look at what they're doing with health care to understand it. It's power, it's control, and it's power in perpetuity for them. The more people that have these debit cards every month, waiting for the government to load them up with benefits so they can go to the Huck's and pick up some Red Bull and candy, the happier people like Obama are. I mean, it's hideous. These people are anathema to the traditions, institutions that -- that have made this country grow. Oh, it's not just people going to be looking at what they're eating. You wait until somebody has a big-screen TV next door to you when they're illegal and they call the government on you. I mean, citizens are going to be pitted against citizens once this health care thing passes. It's disastrous.