By Adam Shah

As the show began, we were wondering just how Rush would deal with his controversial statements about Haiti, in which he said Obama will use the Haiti earthquake to boost his credibility with “light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country” and “we've already donated to Haiti. It's called the U.S. income tax.” At the top of the show, Rush said he was tweaking the media yesterday, and it worked out perfectly. We suspected he was referring to his Haiti comments, but Rush didn't explain further for the first two hours. Although he mentioned Haiti a couple of times, Rush spent most of the two first hours in his comfort zone, defending the super-rich -- in this case, banks -- from the evils of taxation and tying Obama to ACORN, Alinsky, unions, and Hugo Chavez. But in the third hour, he finally did discuss those comments and, naturally, apologized for nothing but complained that he was taken out of context and attacked a caller for criticizing him by saying she had “tampons in her ears.”

Rush then said he was the only media personality who had not gone down to Haiti. He then said the media were concerned about their own accommodations in Haiti and played a clip of an MSNBC reporter stating that he had spent the night in a tent. To be clear, Rush's only discussion about Haiti in the first hour was a criticism about what other people were saying about Haiti.

Rush: Obama is purposely knocking down the U.S. economy

Rush then moved on to domestic news. He discussed a poll stating that a majority of Americans would vote against President Obama if the elections were held today. Rush crowed that 50 percent said they would probably or definitely not vote for him while 39 percent said they would vote for him. Rush added that many people say he's been a failure.

Then it was time for a quick mention of health care. He said that there is a secret backroom deal between labor unions and the White House over “Cadillac” insurance plans. Since the media are reporting on it, it's not clear how secret it is. Rush said of the reported deal, unions were always going to be exempt. They are the base. They are the goons that keep people in line.

Moving on to President Obama's proposal to levy a tax on banks to recoup TARP funds, Rush attacked Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). Saying that Frank is out there telling people that we are going to control salaries wherever we can.

Rush declared of Obama's plan to increase taxes on banks that he had foreseen that Obama was going to cause a downward recessionary cycle and must be doing it on purpose. Rush added that he had predicted this on the same day he had declared that he wanted Obama to fail.

Rush also crowed about retail sales being down and the number of new requests for unemployment benefits going up. Given this obvious statement, why is any negative economic news “unexpected,” Rush asked. Rush added that only someone doing this on purpose would employ the policies we are enacting. It would be insane to expect sales to go up in this climate. Rush also stated that there is no recovery.

Tooting his own horn some more, Rush stated that he predicted the decline in auto sales. It is because of cash for clunkers, which moved up car sales. Rush then complained about the Associated Press using the term “stubbornly high unemployment” to describe job numbers. He suggested that this term showed that the media were portraying unemployment as an entity that Obama is fighting in a “death match.”

Returning to health care reform, Rush proclaimed: “Now the truth has come out” courtesy of Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). He said that Weiner had made it clear that, in fact, everybody does get health care in this country. Weiner said:

WEINER: And it's the same way, frankly, every single day, that when people go into a hospital or an emergency room, there is some question asked, let me see your insurance card. But at the end of the day, we care for them. So we really don't have a discussion in this country about whether or not we're going to have health care for everyone. We really do.

The only question that we're having now -- and it seems so almost silly. It's so petty -- is how are we going to distribute that health care? How are we going to pay for it? How are we going to make sure that everyone has it at an affordable level?

We need to keep that in mind. We are not having an argument here about whether or not people are going to have health care, only how we are going to pay for it, and how we're going to do it efficiently, and how we make sure that people who need it can get it before they enter a hospital emergency room. But that's the debate we're having in Washington.

Rush concluded that the cat was out of the bag. What Weiner was talking about was “redistributing” health care. Of course, treating people in emergency rooms is extremely expensive and is therefore not “efficient” as Weiner said. And Rush himself has said that a crucial component to health care reform is controlling costs.

Rush moved on to another topic. He noted reports that with Ted Kennedy's death, Cape Cod may have to accept the windmills that Kennedy long fought. What about Kennedy's legacy, asked Rush.

Rush then returned to the weak economy, explaining that it is all Obama's fault. Rush said: It's on purpose, folks; I'm telling you, it's on purpose.

A commercial break, and Rush returned to two of his favorite stories combined into one -- stating that a stimulus grant had gone to Penn State professor Michael Mann who, Rush said, is knee-deep in “Climategate.” Of course, since Climategate involves large-scale distortions by the right-wing media, there wasn't much for Rush to say on the subject.

Then Rush moved on to a story about Rep. David Boren (D-OK) criticizing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for regulations Salazar is announcing regarding oil-and-gas drilling on federal lands. Rush tied this to offshore oil-and-gas finds (although Oklahoma has no shore that we know of) and attacked Salazar as an “extremist out the wazoo”:

LIMBAUGH: It is interesting because -- I had to rush through this story -- I forget this, this Oklahoma congressman's first name -- his last name is Boren -- and he sent a scathing note to the Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, who basically has placed drilling for oil and natural gas on federally owned lands off limits. Not totally, but significantly, and Boren wrote, “what your action here is not hurting big oil, you're hurting small business, mom-and-pop oil companies.”

Now you guys say you're interested in energy independence, and these independents in Oklahoma -- this guy's constituents -- this is their bread and butter. Natural gas is one of the cleanest fuels we have, and apparently there's lots of it thats been placed off limits now by the Obama administration. So they speak out of both sides of their mouths -- “Energy independence, green technology” -- well, I guess it's not green technology. This guy Salazar is a -- he's an extremist out the wazoo.

Is Rush trying to extend the right's witch hunt against Obama administration personnel to Ken Salazar? We at the Wire can't think of anyone else who would call the moderate Salazar -- a former senator from Colorado -- an “extremist.”

TARP, ACORN, Alinsky, Chavez, and Marxism, oh my!

Rush then went on a long rant about TARP. Somehow he blamed Obama for banks being forced to take TARP money. Of course, that happened under Bush, but facts shouldn't get in the way of a good argument. Rush tied this all to Saul Alinsky and ACORN (favorite Limbaugh bogeymen) and then claimed that Obama has proclaimed that there are not going to be any free markets in the future. Rush then declared that Obama's plan to levy a tax on the largest banks to help pay for the destruction they have wrought is an appeal to “100 percent class envy” and declared that Obama “hates these people”:

LIMBAUGH: They've already paid most of the TARP money back, and getting rid of these bonuses would not make a dent in how much TARP money there was. They're nowhere near $700 billion in bonuses. There's still $200 billion of TARP money that's not spent. What the hell is he talking about here? I'll tell what he's talking about: 100 percent pure class envy. He wants you to hate these people, and he wants your support because he wants you to believe that he hates them too and he's getting even with 'em. At the end of the day, you're no better off.

Regardless what he does to these Wall Street executives and these fat cats and their compensation packages and their bonuses -- he can strip 'em, he can cut 'em in half, it's not going to change your life at all. It's not going to put an additional dollar in your pocket. Repaying you the taxpayers is another one of these euphemisms, it's just that. This guy's already placed us $12 trillion in debt. Repaying this is chump change; it's nothing. This is pure 100 percent politics.

Rush also said that Obama is nationalizing businesses like Hugo Chavez. He added that Obama is nationalizing and threatening businesses like Hugo Chavez, that Obama is a “dismal failure,” and that Obama is a Marxist. He asked why Obama doesn't complain about the waste of taxpayer money by ACORN, and the costs created in our economy by big unions. He said that the people that need to be taxed are Fannie and Freddie and General Motors.

“Now to Saul Alinsky,” Rush said (uh oh!). Bank stocks have taken a big hit. It's not about returning TARP money. Controlling banks and mortgages has been the goal of Alinsky and groups like ACORN for a long time. And now Obama can do it. Alinsky directed much of his anger against banks, Rush added. Rush read from a book asserting that ACORN and other groups saw banks and financiers as a way to keep minorities down. Rush then went on to point to the Community Reinvestment Act as a problem, completing the Alinsky/ACORN/Community Reinvestment Act bogeyman trifecta.

Rush ended the hour with a short segment that continued on Alinsky. He asked: Now don't we want bank profits to go up? Isn't that the purpose of bailing out the banks? He concluded that Obama had declared banks the enemy, saying they are demons, taking a page out of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. We thought the purpose of TARP was to stop the financial meltdown, not to increase bank profits, but maybe Rush knows President Bush's and his Treasury Department's motives for pushing TARP better than we do.

Obama is leading us into socialism or fascism -- “probably more likely fascist”

Rush began the second hour by continuing on the bank story -- actually, it was more like repeating almost everything he said for the first hour. Like a broken record, Rush said Obama is doing this to distract from his utter failures. He is also attacking a highly-visible sector in the private sector because that is how he's been trained. It's all about hatred of the banks -- giving you people the pitchforks and having you storm Wall Street. Rush says your life won't get better -- banks will just increase ATM fees. Rush also repeated his point that we bailed banks out to get them to make profits. Now we're punishing them for being successful. Rush said “I want to go back to Saul Alinsky” and again said that Obama was taking a page out of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals by attacking banks. Rush then tied this back to ACORN and the Community Reinvestment Act.

Rush then said the subprime mortgage industry is the problem and attacked Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). We'll repeat once again: The Community Reinvestment Act did not cause the subprime mortgage meltdown, and Barney Frank pushed for regulation of Fannie and Freddie as well as for help for renters rather than the exclusive focus on home ownership that Bush had been pushing.

He then said the problem was that GM, GMAC, Fannie, Freddie, and Chrysler are the ones that took bailout money and haven't paid it back. He asserted that Obama owns all these companies. It gets tiresome to make the same point over and over, but Bush was the one who took over Fannie and Freddie, not Obama.

Rush also said that Obama wants people to think there's no way to get rich in this country because that opens the door to fundamentally transforming the country. He says that Obama will come out and say that capitalism has failed. Rush hedged, saying that Obama may not use the word capitalism, but that this will ultimately lead to people being more willing to accept socialism or fascism -- probably fascism.

LIMBAUGH: You need a demon, you need an enemy. You -- oh! Before you get consensus, you need polarization. You have to divide people. This is the essential element to Alinskyite-ism. You have to divide people, and you have to keep them so upset, so -- and despondent. The more they think that there's no hope, the more they think that there's no chance for a job the more the -- there was just a story yesterday, people think the opportunity to get rich no longer exists in the country. This is by design. Obama wants people to think this way because that opens the floodgates, it opens the doors to revamping the system.

At some point Obama is going to say -- and almost probably will use these exact words -- he is going to say “Capitalism hasn't worked. The old ways have been shown not to work. It's time for a new direction.” He may not use the word “capitalism,” but the whole point -- if you want to remake a country, remake a culture, remake a society -- it takes time, your first step you have to make the citizenry absolutely miserable. You have to make the people of the country think that there is no hope. You have to convince them that the system in which they're living will never succeed, will never help them, that the system in which they live is rigged against them.

That's how you make them open for change. So this business today of coming out and announcing a punitive tax on banks is just the next incremental step in forcing as many Americans as possible to essentially give up on the last 200 years of America and accept a transformation to a socialist or fascist type of a -- probably more likely fascist -- private ownership but government-directed.

Phew, time for the first commercial of the second hour. We hoped that Rush would use the commercial break to think up some new material. But alas, no. Right after the break, he again started attacking Fannie Mae and defending large banks. According to economists, banks were the leaders of the subprime crisis, not Fannie and Freddie. Rush added “Obama won't go on television to bitch about it.”

Then Rush took his first call. It came from an school superintendent who requested anonymity. The superintendent said that he had issued a report saying that zero jobs were created or saved by the stimulus money he received. Rush asked how much money the school got. The superintendent said that the state of Missouri gave them money but replaced the money they would have otherwise given to the schools with stimulus money. Since Missouri has an obligation to balance its budget, it's not like the state didn't benefit from receiving extra money, and perhaps the stimulus funds saved Missouri schools from cuts. But to get back to the caller, the caller said that the state refused to let him say that zero jobs were saved. Rush asked, so what did you do? Did you reject the funds? The caller said the funds had already been used, so he “wrote in a number.” Rush was ecstatic. “So you lied,” Rush said. The caller responded with silence. Rush said he wasn't accusing the caller of anything, but he was forced to lie. The caller still did not agree with Rush that he had lied.

Another commercial break, and Rush went to the overseas media, reading a story from the UK Guardian headlined “US cult of greed is now a global environmental threat.” He said that this is exactly what Obama believes. Rush read the first paragraph: “The average American consumes more than his or her weight in products each day, fuelling a global culture of excess that is emerging as the biggest threat to the planet, according to a report published today. In its annual report, Worldwatch Institute says the cult of consumption and greed could wipe out any gains from government action on climate change or a shift to a clean energy economy.” He then gloated about the views of the American left being uncovered (by the Brits). He then read all but two paragraphs of the article.

Why is Haiti suffering while the Dominican Republic is not?

Rush then took another caller who noted that Haiti shares an island with the Dominican Republic but there are no reports of damage from the Dominican Republic. Rush said he didn't know, that he wasn't a geologist. He then speculated that there don't appear to be too many building codes in Haiti. They probably have better building codes in the Dominican. It is interesting. He said that maybe it was due to topology, that there is a huge mountain range between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Rush said that he had once witnessed a hurricane that hit the Dominican but did not damage Haiti.

Rush took another caller who said that Rush's opening monologue was “stunning.” The caller said it's true that liberals demonize everything. The caller said that the banks are saying that Allan Greenspan twice put the country in a state of mania: the stock market crash in 2000 was due to Greenspan not dealing with the “irrational exuberance” in 1996. The caller said that Obama is mentioning “business as usual,” which is code for Goldman Sachs. The caller said, what about companies that took no money, like Ford. Rush said the caller made a great point, companies that didn't make money will be taxed. Companies that are government owned won't be taxed. Rush then went to commercial.

Rush went immediately back to the phones after the commercial. A caller said he'd read that Obama was thinking about picking former President George W. Bush to coordinate responses to Haiti. The caller speculated that Obama is setting Bush up to fail. Rush disagreed, saying people will love the nod to bipartisanship and the media will compare Obama favorably to Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina. Bush being out there will make it more personal for the media. It seems beyond belief that Rush would run with a conspiracy theory about turning to Bush to help with humanitarian aid, but Rush lapped it up.

Rush took another caller who said that the problem with health care reform is that it is forcing people to spread the risk between people in vastly different circumstances rather than just with peers. The caller said that we don't want to go back to the treatment of cancer payments with large dose of morphine. We hoped that Rush would say that the caller doesn't understand the idea of risk pools, but alas, no such luck. Rush said that Obama does want to go back to morphine for cancer treatments, and the only solution is to get the government as much out of health care as possible.

Rush segued into an attack on Medicare, saying that there aren't going to be any doctors taking Medicare any more, saying that Obama economic advisor Lawrence Summers had almost let that cat out of the bag. Then it was time for another commercial.

Remember when he did the ABC town hall and a woman spoke up and talked about her 95-year-old mother who wanted a pacemaker. Obama said give them a pill. This is of course a total misrepresentation of comments Obama made. What actually happened was, at a forum, a questioner asked: "[O]utside the medical criteria for prolonging life for somebody elderly, is there any consideration that can be given for a certain spirit, a certain joy of living, quality of life? Or is it just a medical cutoff at a certain age?" Obama responded, in part:

[E]nd-of-life care is one of the most difficult sets of decisions that we're going to have to make. I don't want bureaucracies making those decisions, but understand that those decisions are already being made in one way or another. If they're not being made under Medicare and Medicaid, they're being made by private insurers.

We don't always make those decisions explicitly. We often make those decisions by just letting people run out of money or making the deductibles so high or the out-of-pocket expenses so onerous that they just can't afford the care. And all we're suggesting -- and we're not going to solve every difficult problem in terms of end-of-life care. A lot of that is going to have to be we as a culture and as a society starting to make better decisions within our own families and for ourselves.

But what we can do is make sure that at least some of the waste that exists in the system that's not making anybody's mom better, that is loading up on additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care, that at least we can let doctors know and your mom know that, you know what? Maybe this isn't going to help. Maybe you're better off not having the surgery but taking the painkiller.

And those kinds of decisions between doctors and patients, and making sure that our incentives are not preventing those good decisions, and that -- that doctors and hospitals all are aligned for patient care, that's something we can achieve. We're not going to solve every single one of these very difficult decisions at end of life, and ultimately that's going to be between physicians and patients. But we can make real progress on this front if we work a little bit harder.

The third hour began with Rush reading a story from Mother Jones stating that Bush's policies harmed Haiti. Rush then read a story about investigations into criminal acts that occurred during the financial crisis is part of an Alinsky-like plot to criminalize all of capitalism. He added that capitalism is what allows us to bail out Haiti, not the U.S. government. Rush also said that he wished Obama would go after terrorists with the same energy he goes after capitalists. He also said that bankers won't get the same presumption of innocence as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed:

LIMBAUGH: So, if only the Obama administration would go after terrorists with the same zeal that they are pursuing evil capitalists. What they're doing, my friends -- Obama, the Democrats -- are criminalizing the making of money. Capitalism itself, and you can see it in the bank tax. They're persecuting the very people who do so much to help create investment and wealth in our country and around the world. The very people whose industriousnesses creates the wealth that is on display now in bailing out people in Haiti. The government can't do this. It is capitalism that made this country the greatest country on the face of the earth.

But speaking of terrorists, speaking of terrorists, will these bank CEOs and other financial criminals be afforded the same presumption of innocence and other rights that we are no extending to those confused innocents who have been captured red-handed on the battlefield? Will the CEOs and the bankers be able to retract any and all statements they have made or might have appeared to be an admission of guilt? Will they be provided a dramatic forum where they can present their side of the story to the world without any fear of future retribution? Probably not. They will not be given the same presumption of innocence that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is given. After all, these banks and mortgage lenders were following the mandates of previous Congresses and presidents. They should be shown no mercy. This is exactly what is going on.

Rush moved on to health care, saying that Republicans are fighting and House Democrats keep coming out and saying that they can't accept what's in the Senate bill. He said that he hopes the bill might go down, but he can't get his hopes up that high.

Rush then moved on to stories that Martha Coakley's staff “roughed up” a Weekly Standard reporter, John McCormack. Rush said that Coakley saw the reporter being attacked and stood by and let it happen and now claims to having been stalked. He said that Coakley's goon Michael Meehan has fessed up, and asked if Coakley will act as the state's top law enforcement officer. While Meehan apologized for the incident, he said that he “clearly did not intend to cause John McCormack to trip and fall over that low fence.” Furthermore, McCormack has expressed doubt that Coakley saw him pushed. Rush then moved on to the story that nobody will be immediately certified as the winner of the Massachusetts special election for the Senate -- another right-wing fantasy conspiracy theory.

Rush then continued to discuss the Massachusetts race, saying that Coakley is more popular than Obama now, so Obama may not want to go. Rush then read an Investor's Business Daily story saying that a Coakley win may cost jobs in Massachusetts.

Rush responds to caller criticizing him on Haiti: She has “tampons in her ears”

Rush returned to the phones to take a call from April. Rush said that April was one of his all-time favorite names. April took Rush to task for disparaging the disaster in Haiti. April said that he shouldn't discourage donations because we pay income taxes. Rush said that he didn't discourage donations, that this was a lie. He said that he said there shouldn't be public donations -- that people should donate to the Red Cross, not through the government.

The caller asked why Rush made his comment that Obama boost his credibility with “light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country” by responding to the Haiti earthquake. Rush responded that this was a media tweak of the day and it worked out perfectly. He was just using Harry Reid's words -- throwing liberals' words in their faces. The caller wasn't buying it and accused Rush of evading the question. Rush responded that he was saying that Obama will politicize anything, including Haiti.

Rush then continued with April, who said to him: It doesn't sound like the president is making the Haiti situation political; it sounds like you are. Rush asked if April ever listens to Rush or just gets her information from places like the Huffington Post. Rush then asked if April ever heard of Barack Obama politicizing a national disaster. Rush said that the Democrat [sic] Party and Obama politicized Katrina. Rush attempted to change the subject, adding that Clinton implied to Kennedy that Obama was a slave.

Rush called April a blockhead and close-minded bigot and continued ranting about the media, April, and certain websites that transcribe his words. Rush said that Obama took three days to respond to the attempted Christmas Day attack but responded to Haiti very quickly. (If we're comparing Obama to Bush, Bush took six days to respond to the shoe bomber.) He then told April that she has “tampons in her ears” and moved on to another caller.

Rush took a caller from Jim, who went back to Rush's comfort zone -- patting Rush on the back. He then touted Heritage Foundation research as part of an in-show commercial about the health care bill, saying that the compromise to allow people to buy insurance similar to the ones government employees can buy is a backdoor public option.

Rush then took a call from Debbie, who asked if he would be at CPAC. She was disappointed to learn that he wasn't appearing but said she'd live with Glenn Beck being there. Debbie said that she was mad about Haiti because we've spent so much money on Haiti. Rush warned people transcribing his show that some lack of compassion was coming. Rush said that Haiti has been led by dictators or communists since the '30s and is a disaster. The problem is that there is no capitalism there. Debbie said we should stop giving money to “every Tom, Dick, and Harry” overseas and we should stop. Rush said it wouldn't happen. “We went to Somalia over one picture” in The New York Times, so we're going to go in here.

Rush was back from the commercial break and went right into an in-show commercial for Zicam and advised people to use Zicam naval swabs if they can find them on eBay.

Rush then went back to the subject of Haiti, saying that he was clearly just playing on Harry Reid's comments, and that's why he does the media tweak. The media fails every time he does it.

One last commercial break and Rush ended the show by saying the White House is doing all it can to highlight Katrina. Rush read a press release stating that the Bidens are going to Louisiana and South Florida over the next couple of days. Thanks Rush for ending the show with a conspiracy theory. Doubtless, we'll hear more about it tomorrow. We can't wait.

Kate Conway and Michael Timberlake contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.