By Terry Krepel
Guest host Mark Davis promised that Rush would return tomorrow, then stated that one emerging theme over the past week is that, to the left, conservative voices sound like bigotry. No matter how many thoughtful conservatives say otherwise, he said, liberals will believe conservatives are racist and are opposed to President Obama because he's black. Davis went on to criticize Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson for claiming there's a false equivalency between left-wing extremists and right-wing extremists and for supposedly lumping constitutionalists in with white supremacists. He criticized the idea that a Kansas City radio station had no choice but to run a campaign ad from a candidate making racially charged remarks, adding that to columnists like Robinson, “Rush sounds like that. I sound like that. Hannity sounds like that. But more importantly, you sound like that.” Davis began the second hour of the show listing black conservatives, adding that “it hasn't been about skin color for the longest time.”
Here are some highlights from the show:
Davis: Talk radio doesn't “incite”, it “spur[s] people to action” at the ballot box
Davis: Tea party events must “keep its eyes peeled” for liberal “plant[s]”
Davis: The only hate you'll find at a tea party rally is “hatred of an America gone astray”
Davis argued with a caller about which of the GOP candidates for the Florida Senate seat was more conservative. This was followed by another caller who argued that some conservative policies harm minorities, to which Davis responded by saying that welfare reform could have been considered that way at the time it was passed, but it was actually the “greatest thing in the world” to happen to blacks and other minorities. Another caller echoed Davis' claims that the media demonizes conservatives in the hope that they will be provoked into violence, and added that the media are planting people in tea party crowds with offensive signs; Davis appeared to concur.
Davis kicked off the final hour by saying he's not bothered by the prospect of stopping Saturday mail delivery, then claiming that a privatized Postal Service wouldn't deliver mail as cheaply as it does now. He then cited the absurdity of hospital employees taking smoke breaks outside the building before noting a story about a hospital testing potential employees for nicotine. Davis then criticized Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for supposedly planning to give bicyclists and walkers the same consideration as drivers in transportation planning. Davis talked to a caller who criticized doctors who tell her not to smoke but who she sees smoking outside the hospital, then took a call from a letter carrier who also advocated stopping Saturday delivery, but claimed that some private entity would deliver mail as cheaply as it does now.
Mike Burns and Oliver Willis contributed to this edition of Limbaugh Wire.