One Part French Revolution, One Part Race Baiting = Rush Limbaugh

If you thought Rush Limbaugh would simply be content to just echo his fellow conservatives in a misguided and counterfactual attack on Michelle Obama by comparing her to and calling her “Marie Antoinette” you would be very wrong. Today, he added to that smear the racially charged rhetoric that he's employed for years.

As he referred to her as “Michelle 'Antoinette' Obama,” Limbaugh also claimed that the allegedly insensitive actions of the Obama family were taking place because they “look at it as if they are owed” these luxuries because of past racial discrimination. He added that they are “flying all over the country while everyone else is tightening their belts, 'cause they deserve it. This is owed to them.”

At this point it's worth noting that press secretary Robert Gibbs explicitly said that “It's a private trip and is being paid for that way,” but even so I don't think anyone expects that any member of any first family should or would travel without a security detail and the standard staffing commensurate with what is, after all, the family of the American president.

But the introduction of the racial component went even further over the rails, when Limbaugh later said that “the media” feels Mrs. Obama “deserves” the trip because of America's “slave past,” adding “It's only fair that people of color get their taste of the wealth of America, too.” This has nothing to do with what has happened so far and is even more disconnected from reality than the initial charges of so-called elitism. It's just the injection of the most divisive issue for no good reason.

In other words, another day on the radio with Rush.