Rush couldn't help but lead today's show with a “Justice Brothers” parody of the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton coming to Harry Reid's rescue over comments reported in Mark Halperin's new book Game Change. After bizarrely fantasizing about “bigot” Harry Reid starring in a movie similar to Ku Klux Klan homage film Birth of a Nation, Rush further waded into the controversy surrounding Reid's comments by claiming that Reid was “complimenting Obama's being able to hide his half-blackness”:

LIMBAUGH: To be fair, Harry Reid -- the way we look at dingy Harry's statement that Obama spoke with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one, is as a cynical manipulative politician. He meant this with all due respect for Obama. Reid was complimenting Obama's ability to act a part, to play a role, when it was politically expedient. See, in Harry Reid's view and in Joe Biden's view, the problem with Jesse Jackson and Reverend Shapton as Democrat presidential candidates was that they had black dialect, and they weren't light-skinned enough. That was a problem. But Obama comes along -- he's light-skinned and when he doesn't want to he doesn't have a Negro dialect, and so that's a home run. He was complimenting Obama's being able to hide his half-blackness.

Later in the show, Rush called Reid's comments “devastatingly racist.”

Rush falsely claimed Republicans “got in line” in deposing Lott

Rush commented that Democrats find excuses for their own scandalous behavior, such as indiscretions in the “blowval office” and destroying the economy. Building on the conservative freak-out du jour, Rush not only compared Reid's reported comments to former Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott's praise of Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist campaign for president, but said that Reid's comments were “worse.”

Limbaugh added that Lott's comments were “harmless” and falsely claimed that the Republicans “got in line” in deposing Lott -- despite the fact that congressional Republicans subsequently elected him to Senate Minority Whip in 2006.

Throughout the show, Rush obsessively repeated the less-than-reliable claim that former President Bill Clinton commented to Sen. Ted Kennedy that a few years ago Obama would be getting them coffee. Here's how Rush characterized Kennedy's reaction:

LIMBAUGH: I know the real reason that Teddy Kennedy was mad and offended when Bill Clinton said, “Hey, come on man. You know, this guy would have been fetching us coffee a couple years ago”. What made Teddy Kennedy mad was it's women get him coffee, it was Negros that brought Ted Kennedy his booze. And that's why he was all offended.

Later, Limbaugh referred to the “plantation mentality” of the Democratic Party.

Rush also falsely claimed that Obama hasn't singled out Al Qaeda as a targeted enemy.

Rush ignores jobs created by stimulus bill

After the break, Rush complained about the nation's unemployment rate and simultaneously claimed that there's nothing a president can actually do to jump-start the economy.

In the second hour, Limbaugh returned to the unemployment numbers, promoting an Associated Press article that claimed stimulus road projects haven't had an effect on unemployment. Needless to say, Limbaugh did not note that the Congressional Budget Office concluded the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act created or saved between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs.

The first caller of the day unequivocally stated that Harry Reid “is a racist.” Not objecting, Limbaugh used the opportunity to claim that Mark Halperin “sat on” Reid's comments to sell more books and that a journalist would never sit on similar comments made by a Republican. Rush also called John and Elizabeth Edwards “vicious, mean, extreme people in many, many ways” and that new accounts about them in Game Change are “devastating.” Must be the word of the day.

Rush's second caller defended Democrats' economic policies, to which Rush responded that Democrats were destroying the free market.

Talking with a third caller whom Limbaugh identified as black because he appeared to have a “Negro dialect,” Limbaugh once again claimed that the Democratic Party has “destroyed the black family.” Oddly enough, Rush also claimed that the American people were the biggest enemy of the Democratic Party. And in case you were curious, according to Rush, “liberalism is lies.”

After the break Rush speculated about the reaction if Sgt. Crowley had said what Reid said, compared Reid's comments to Dom Imus, complained that no one is talking about Bill Clinton's reported coffee remark, and played a series of sound bites of Democrats criticizing Lott in 2002.

“Salt is necessary”

Commenting on recent calls for more regulation of New Yorkers' salt intake, Rush speculated: “Once they get health care, this is the kind of stuff -- and even worse - that's going to be coming down the pike. This will be the new norm. Everything we do will be in the context of health care and the expense that it will cost to protect us, and to cure us, and to make us well once we get sick. This is just a harbinger.”

Wrapping up, Limbaugh promoted the story of a judge who recently threw out evidence against a terror suspect that was obtained through alleged mistreatment. Rush neglected to inform his listeners that the prosecutors still found sufficient legally obtained evidence for the judge to rule that the suspect had been detained legally and was an associate of Al Qaeda.

Michael Timberlake and Mike Burns contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: Harry Reid is damn near old enough, he might have been an extra in that movie Birth of a Nation for all we know. Maybe one of his parents might have appeared in it.

I've got a movie idea folks. I was thinking about this over the weekend. Here's a movie idea for the Senate Majority leader and his soulmate, Senator Robert Byrd, and we can call it “When Harry Met Robert,” and it's a buddy film. It begins when Harry Reid meets Robert Byrd at a KKK meeting, a touching story of how two bigots bond and go on to be important leaders in the Democrat Party.

I can imagine a compelling scene, my friends, when Harry and Robert enlighten those in a local bar on various Negro dialects, using busboys for an impromptu show and tell. And just to show their compassion for Negros with hard-to-understand dialects, Harry and Robert let them shine their shoes, and then tip them real big. Maybe flash a five-spot so everybody can see it. The shoe shiners are dark skinned Negros just to highlight the stars' tolerance. Here in the background you'd have a light-skinned Negro serving a young Bill Clinton coffee. And then after impressing the locals, with their brilliance and compassion, Harry and Robert get on a train headed for the nation's capital, and just behind them and emerging from the steam produced from the mighty locomotive is a light-skinned Negro wearing a conductor's outfit and without a hint of Negro dialect and he hollers out “all aboard.” And that's where the movie ends, you fade to black (laughs). The credits appear and you have Harry Belafonte singing “Day O. Day O”. I get chills just thinking about this movie, “When Harry Met Robert.”

And these guys are not through -- Blagojevich -- by the way, to be fair, and you know that's our middle name here at the EIB network; to be fair, Harry Reid, the way to look at dingy Harry's statement that Obama spoke with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one is as a cynical manipulative politician. He meant this with all due respect for Obama. Reid was complimenting Obama's ability to act a part, to play a role when it was politically expedient. See, in Harry Reid's view, and in Joe Biden's view, the problem with Jesse Jackson and Reverend Sharpton as Democrat presidential candidates was they have black dialect and they weren't light-skinned enough. That was the problem.

But Obama comes along, he's light-skinned and when he doesn't want to, he doesn't have a Negro dialect and so that's a home run. He was complimenting Obama's being able to hide his half-blackness. This is the way they look at it. The racism and bigotry in the Democrat Party on the American left its amazing that people don't catch up to it. These people, you look at how they're circling the wagons to cover for dingy Harry here.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: This year, he says he's gonna focus on what you care about, which is global warming. No, he says he's going focus on jobs. Do you want truth, ladies and gentleman? The government cannot jump-start the economy. I mean, its all in front of you. It's out there, 12 months of it to see. How many stimuli did we do last year and the year before? We did a bunch. They haven't done a thing. The whole concept of save jobs -- BS. What have they done? Nothing. But -- and aside from the Economics 101 of it and the math of it, I mean you cannot take $50 trillion, $50 billion, any amount of money out of the private sector and then put it back in and say you're stimulating something. You'd have to infuse money that's not already there, and there's no money to do that. You have to print it, you have to borrow or you have to tax it and then put it back. This is an old shell game, it's is an old trick, it's designed to enhance the growth of government.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: The point is that C. Edmund Wright's theory about why Obama chose Wright and Wright's church is the exact same thing that Harry Reid said, which is -- I really think -- if people stop to think about this and consider it, even further that what Harry Reid said is really devastatingly racist, because if he's saying, which he is, that only light-skinned blacks who don't sound black can be elected -- that's, that's more than just awkward, as the NAALCP says, that's much more -- they're laughing and -- that's how to translate what Harry Reid said. He's light-skinned and doesn't sound black.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: This is true of all -- most Democrats. These are not the sweet, compassionate, caring sort. These are vicious, mean, extreme people in many, many ways. Ideologically, personally. They are arrogant, they are condescending, they hold average people in contempt, or look at them with contempt.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: It's none of their business. It is none of their business how much salt I eat. Salt is necessary. They're going to cause more problems, getting more people frightened to eat any salt, and you have to have it. Once they get health care, this is the kind of stuff -- and even worse -- that's going to be coming down the pike. This will be the new norm. Everything we do will be in the context of health care and the expense that it will cost to protect us, and to cure us, and to make us well once we get sick. This is just a harbinger.

Now, I don't know if you know this, but there are brochures that Mayor Bloomberg is distributing in New York City. Safety tips when using heroin. Brochures on safety tips, the “How-Tos” of using heroin, including jump up and down before shooting up so that your veins will be more visible. So the New York City mayor sends out brochures to assist in people in shooting up heroin, but now is going to cut down or see to it that cut down -- we cut down on our salt intake.

Now something is just wrong. Well Rush, but you know, wait. It's a safety thing. These people are addicted -- safety. They're misusing -- the mayor is just trying to save people from getting overdoses and going to the hospital. Folks, I don't care what excuse you want to offer here. If they're going to pass out brochures telling people how to more safely inject heroin, then have them stop telling the rest of us to cut back on salt. Something is way out of whack.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Now I happen to think -- I believe that dingy Harry was being complimentary. And in the notion of being complimentary, he was being complimentary on the basis that Obama's got a great gift, Obama's got a great shtick, Obama can fool people.