Rush is wee-weed up over Obama's word choice, policies

By Greg Lewis

“Open Line Friday” started with Rush exclaiming, “we're all wee-weed up today, folks.” This line, of course, was a play on Obama's remarks at the Organizing for America National Health Care Forum, which Rush promptly played the audio of. The audio clip also included Obama saying that “sometimes it seems like one loud voice can drown out all the civil, sensible voices out there.” Of course, Rush's ego determined that the president could only have been referring to Limbaugh himself.

Next, Rush went to the Drudge-touted Politico post about political analyst Charlie Cook forecasting that Democrats may be in trouble in 2010. Then it was on to a CNBC article about the new-home market remaining in a “deep slump.” Rush said that new homebuyers are wee-weeing themselves out there, and said that Democrats pushing for cap-and-trade and “Bucks for Butchers” isn't helping. Rush then explained that “Bucks for Butchers” was his new term for Obama's health reform, since Obama said doctors are getting “30 grand” for cutting off a foot.

Rush continued playing with the president's word choice, saying that Obama is the reason everyone is wee-weeing, and why Americans are wee-weed up over the economy. Rush even said that he was wee-weed up. Then he went over the latest Washington Post-ABC poll, reading the Post's write-up stating that faith in Obama has dropped as reform fears have risen. Rush declared the poll's finding shows a plummet that you can't get back, and attributed it to Obama's lack of consistency in what he says.

Rush's impeccable logic on illegal immigrant coverage in health reform: If they weren't covered, Hispanic groups wouldn't support reform

Then Rush went back to the notion that health care reform would cover illegal immigrants, asking why Hispanic groups would be supporting reform if it didn't cover illegal immigrants:

LIMBAUGH: Here are the groups: the League of United Latin American Citizens -- LULAC; the National Council of La Raza -- by the way, La Raza, the steering committee for Health Care For America Now; the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health -- uh, sorry, the National Latina Institute For Taxpayer-Funded Abortion. If illegal immigrants are not gonna get Obamacare, how come all of these Hispanic groups are lobbying for it?

It's worth noting that Hispanics are the most uninsured demographic group, which may very well be among the reasons these groups support reform.

After reading more about the Post poll, Rush aired more audio from Obama's remarks, where he said Washington is obsessed with “what is played on talk radio or what's said at a town meeting.” Once again, Rush took that comment as a shot at him, and called Obama a “crybaby.” Rush continued to read the Post's write-up after the break and said that the bottom line is that Republicans can't stop anything. Attempts at bipartisanship, said Rush, are just Democrats trying to get Republicans on board to share the blame when the “excrement hits the fan.”

Then Rush aired another clip from Obama's remarks, in which Obama highlighted the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll that found that many Americans are convinced of various falsehoods about health reform. Rush again showed off that impeccable logic by suggesting illegal immigrants must be included by virtue of reform's support by Latino organizations. He also repeated his talking point that we only spend money on the sick, so that means we're going to ration care. Rush also criticized Obama for not talking about substance, and mocked the president by impersonating his speech in his Bill Clinton-sounding voice.

After another break, Rush read from a Wall Street Journal column detailing the Department of Veterans Affairs' so-called “death book.” Rush said it was obsessed with death and deciding that your life isn't worth living. Rush read extensively from the column, and at one point referenced Dr. Kevorkian while claiming that Obama wants to get people “out.”

Rush led off the next segment with the first caller on “Open Line Friday,” who stated that she was appalled that our President said “wee wee.” Rush wondered what Obama meant when he said that. Then Rush aired a series of sound bites from a recent episode of Charlie Rose, featuring Doris Kearns Goodwin and Ariana Huffington discussing Obama in regards to the health care debate. The clip of Huffington that Rush aired included her asking why Obama hasn't taken a strong stand that would have led to fundamental change in banking and health reform. Rush asked what planet Huffington is on -- since we already know Barney Frank hangs out around Uranus -- and suggested that he might need to hire a translator for future Huffington sound bites.

Rush: “Obama's not doing one thing to end this recession”

The second hour of “Open Line Friday” got started with Rush declaring that the White House was in disarray, and there was angst in the state-run media over concern that Obama has lost his magic. Rush aired a few sound bites of Lesley Stahl on Morning Joe, in which she compared Obama's unpopularity to that of Reagan's during the recession during his presidency. Rush said this was a bad comparison:

LIMBAUGH: [T]he big difference is Reagan was trying to end his recession. Obama's not trying to end his. Very simple. Obama's not doing one thing to end this recession. He's doing things to compound it. Reagan was trying to end it -- he cut taxes. Obama is making it worse.

The next sound bite of Stahl had her describing Reagan's ability to act “brilliantly” and suggesting that Obama find his own way to express his passion without crossing the line. Rush said this was “unbelievable” because Stahl spent years impugning Reagan because he's an actor, but now all of a sudden thinks he was great, and Obama should learn how to act, too. Then Rush played a “twin spin” of Shanklin parodies, and followed that up with a sound bite of Robert Gibbs explaining “wee-weed” at today's press briefing. Gibbs explained that the Obama meant that pundits get nervous for no particular reason, and that “bedwetting” is another term that could be used to describe it. Rush responded:

LIMBAUGH: So he did mean that. He did mean that people are wee-weeing out there. He meant -- first it was Nazis, now it's bedwetters, everybody's out there -- unruly mobs, unruly mobs or gangs, and now they're bedwetters, and now they're pee-peeing all over the place in August. And this dolt press secretary has just confirmed it.

Rush encouraging the birthers?

After the break, Rush celebrated the 50th anniversary of Hawaiian statehood with this inevitable Obama joke:

LIMBAUGH: Hawaiians of course famous for lots of things [...]Hawaii actually morphed into Kenya one day in 1961 then actually reverted back to Hawaii the next day. It's an amazing place -- that'll get 'em. That'll just, when they hear that one -- “Oh, no, Limbaugh's encouraging the birthers again.”

“Open Line Friday” carried on, with the next caller discussing her own and Rush's diets. After that conversation, Rush took a call from someone who didn't like that town hall protestors were being categorized as Nazis. The caller asked if anybody in the Bush White House called Cindy Sheehan a Nazi or a member of the lunatic fringe, or if they treated her with respect. Rush said the Bush administration treated her with sympathetically. Rush went on to say that Bush would not “get partisan” because he didn't want to lower the dignity of the office.

Then on both sides of the next commercial break, Rush discussed Sheehan's upcoming protest at Martha's Vineyard during Obama's vacation. Rush read about Charlie Gibson saying of Sheehan on his radio show, as Byron York paraphrased: “Thanks for your sacrifice. Now get lost.” Rush expressed a general sense of sympathy for Sheehan, and said she was used by the Democrats as a pawn who was eventually thrown away. They don't want any part of her protesting now that Obama is president.

The next caller on the show said that Democrats have to be most concerned about losing their fringe base. Rush elaborated on the problem faced by Blue Dog Democrats. He said if they vote against health reform, they will make Rahm Emanuel and Nancy Pelosi angry. If they vote for it, Rush speculated Rahm and Pelosi will send ACORN to their districts to make sure there is enough voter fraud so that their constituents won't matter.

Rush proceeded to discuss the politics of moving health reform through the House and Senate. Rush said that Harry Reid is “expendable,” and Democrats can find another “soft-spoken nerd” to run the Senate if he loses re-election. Meanwhile, Hillary could have been the next Senate leader if she stay there, but now her job is to go to Africa and kiss the graves of Obama's relatives. Then Rush read, at length, a Joe Conason column arguing that Rahm Emanuel isn't “tough enough.” Rush commented that the “kook fringe” on the left looks at Emanuel as a softie.

Rush proposes change in terminology -- instead of “death panels,” suggests “cash for caskets”

The final hour of this week's show began with Rush coming up with an idea to rename death panels, “cash for caskets.” He went on to brainstorm a graphic for his website to illustrate this idea:

LIMBAUGH: I like that. Cash for caskets. Cash for caskets to replace the whole notion of death panels. You know, you could use a Darth Vader-like figure assigning caskets to some seasoned citizen in a wheelchair or what have you, and the family of the seasoned citizen smiling, being given a check or some cash. Maybe include Geraldo in there -- you know, he's the grim reaper. He shows up on Fox and people die. That's how I knew Michael Jackson was actually dead was when Fox put Geraldo on there. That's how you knew.

Then Rush pulled up some more evidence that a civil war is brewing amongst Democrats. He read at length from Paul Krugman's latest column, titled “Obama's trust problem.” While reading the column, Rush took issue with Krugman's use of the word “progressive.” Rush corrected Krugman: "[I]t's liberal.! Statist! Socialist! There's nothing progressive about these people -- they want to take us back to the Stone Age [...] So they're not progressives." From that point on, Rush read “liberal” whenever Krugman used the word “progressive.”

Anyway, Rush digressed at several points as he read the entire column, but his takeaway from Krugman was that the most leftist radical president in history was behaving like a leftist radical, but the other leftist radicals think they've been punked. Then he read the second Joe Conason column of the day, this one declaring “bipartisanship is for suckers.” Rush also promoted Andy McCarthy's latest National Review column.

After the break, Rush took a caller who said she knew what Obamacare would be like, because she had a bad experience with her HMO denying care to her daughter. She added that under Obamacare, there would be no oversight. The next caller was a car dealer, and compared the effect of Medicare on prices to the effect cash for clunkers had on prices. The caller explained that since cash for clunkers was announced, dealerships gradually raised prices in anticipation. Rush said that people don't want to buy cars from an Obama-owned company.

Rush came back from the next commercial time-out declaring that Muammar Gaddafi was the “original birther” when he said in September 2008 that Obama was denying his Muslim routes. The next caller on the show said that the lesson he learned from living under the tyranny of Chicago politics was that protesters needed to be relentless in making noise because the politicians are ruthless. Rush affirmed that behaving politely is how we ended up with the stimulus package.

Rush filled out the remainder of his program with content from his Stack of Stuff. The first article up was about the “female economy,” which Rush observed was “naturally” written by a “chick reporter.” Rush lamented the “chickification” of our culture, and mentioned how Ann Coulter jokes that the right to vote should be taken away from women because they vote for socialist things. Of course, Rush noted, Coulter doesn't really mean it, but it agitates liberals.

Rush also read about a study by global warming skeptic MIT professor Richard Lindzen, which found that carbon dioxide is “irrelevant” to global temperatures. Rush also read a “depressing” column by John Zogby about Americans “dialing back” on frivolities because of the recession. Rush refused to believe it, but if it is happening, it's being done on purpose by the people who run the economy. Rush closed out the hour with a phone call about Brett Favre playing for the Minnesota Vikings.

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

Highlights

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: If illegal aliens are not going to get Obamacare -- and he's been telling everybody that this week -- why are the following groups lobbying for Obamacare via Health Care For America Now? Here are the groups: the League of United Latin American Citizens -- LULAC; the National Council of La Raza -- by the way, La Raza, the steering committee for Health Care For America Now; the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health -- uh, sorry, the National Latina Institute For Taxpayer-Funded Abortion. If illegal immigrants are not gonna get Obamacare, how come all of these Hispanic groups are lobbying for it?

[...]

LIMBAUGH: What is the big difference between Reagan and his recession, and Obama and his recession? And I -- we need to pass this on so Lesley Stahl can understand it too. What is the big difference? Chad, you want to take a stab at this? What's the big difference in the two recessions? Nobody wants to say -- see, this is why there isn't another me. I'm giving everyone an opportunity to show that they can do -- no. Well he did have optimism, but the big difference is Reagan was trying to end his recession. Obama's not trying to end his. Very simple. Obama's not doing one thing to end this recession. He's doing things to compound it. Reagan was trying to end it -- he cut taxes. Obama is making it worse.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: So he did mean that. He did mean that people are wee-weeing out there. He meant -- first it was Nazis, now it's bedwetters, everybody's out there -- unruly mobs, unruly mobs or gangs, and now they're bedwetters, and now they're pee-peeing all over the place in August. And this dolt press secretary has just confirmed it.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: This is the 50th anniversary of Hawaiian statehood today, August 21st. I actually remember this as a kid, the 50th anniver -- I was just 8 years old. Hawaii is, of course, famous for lots of things -- Hawaii Five-0, grass skirts, leis, the flower necklaces -- I didn't mean to confuse the two, leis and then flower necklaces -- Hula Hoops. Hawaii actually morphed into Kenya one day in 1961 then actually reverted back to Hawaii the next day. It's an amazing place -- that'll get 'em. That'll just, when they hear that one -- “Oh, no, Limbaugh's encouraging the birthers again.”

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Hey, Coco, get Michelle at the website working on a graphic of that, cash for caskets. Get a bunch of old people, put 'em in a casket, with dollars signs and bills floating around.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I like that. Cash for caskets. Cash for caskets to replace the whole notion of death panels. You know, you could use a Darth Vader-like figure assigning caskets to some seasoned citizen in a wheelchair or what have you, and the family of the seasoned citizen smiling, being given a check or some cash. Maybe include Geraldo in there -- you know, he's the grim reaper. He shows up on Fox and people die. That's how I knew Michael Jackson was actually dead was when Fox put Geraldo on there. That's how you knew.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: You know, he keeps using the word “progressive” here, and it's liberal. Statist! Socialist! There's nothing progressive about these people -- they want to take us back to the Stone Age. Environmental policy, this health care policy, the kind of cars we drive, they want to take us back to the relative Stone Age. So they're not progressives.