This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by this summer's “powder keg”
By Simon Maloy

If there's one thing Rush Limbaugh dislikes, it's being referred to as the “leader of the Republican Party.” Just last week, he denied to a caller that he was the GOP's leader. At the time, the Limbaugh Wire predicted that Rush would reverse himself on that one. Well, Rush hasn't come right out and said, “I am the leader of the Republican Party,” but, right now, RushLimbaugh.com is flogging this American Thinker article, the second sentence of which is: “Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the Republican Party.” Just thought we'd point that out.

Anyway, happy Thursday to everyone. Let's get started.

Rush opened up the show attacking The Washington Post for “running cover” for Obama and repeating his claim that Democratic requests for the names of AIG bonus recipients are “McCarthyesque.” Rush then declared that the AIG bonuses were “issued by Obama,” and that if there is a scandal here, it is Obama's scandal. Of course, the Bush Treasury Department worked with the Fed in carrying out last year's bailouts and buying AIG stock, despite the existence of the bonus contracts.

Further widening the rift on the issue between conservatives in the media, such as himself, and conservatives in Congress, Limbaugh went on to air Rep. Ed Royce's (R-CA) rationale for voting yea on the House bill to tax AIG bonuses at 90 percent, and claimed that Obama voters will love a 90-percent tax rate “because Obama and the Democrat Party have been ginning up hatred and class envy for corporate executives and the achiever class in this country for years, for decades.”

From there, Rush revealed his dystopian vision for the summer -- “civil unrest” spurred by high gas prices and “amnesty” for illegal immigrants who then join unions. Rush called this a “powder keg” situation, which Obama will love because “this is an administration whose objectives require chaos.” Just before the break, Rush returned once again to the teleprompter fixation, reading from Barack Obama's teleprompter's blog.

On the other side of the break, Rush once again mocked Jay Leno for putting on free shows for the unemployed in Detroit.

Another break, and Rush returned to the summer powder keg of gas prices, illegal immigration, and unions, this time throwing in the Employee Free Choice Act for good measure, and repeating his colorful description of EFCA: “You're working at your small business, and Tony Soprano walks in, and got a lead pipe with him, and says, 'We're going to unionize this place.' ” Rush made sure to make clear that he wasn't saying the fuse of the powder keg will be lit, but the keg itself will be there. Rush said it's all part of the engineered chaos Obama is using to promote his agenda, and Obama's town hall in Costa Mesa “fits in the master plan,” in Rush's words.

Rush then aired audio of Obama saying at the town hall: “So for everybody in Washington who's busy scrambling, trying to figure out how to blame somebody else, just go ahead and talk to me, because it's my job to make sure that we fix these messes, even if I don't make them.” Rush's thoughts on this? Obama sounds like Bart Simpson... He didn't offer a whole lot in the way of explanation for that one.

Rounding out the hour, Rush played off reports that New Jersey is contemplating a ban on bikini waxing, declaring: “I wish the government would just stay out of women's crotches.” After that bit of ribaldry, it was time to get biblical, as Rush suggested that Obama, in accepting blame for the AIG bonuses, was comparing himself to Jesus.

Highlights from Hour 1

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: Barney Frank and the Democrats insist -- and Andrew Cuomo, the attorney general of New York -- insist that the names of the recipients of the bonus be made public. This is -- it's McCarthyesque. It is McCarthyesque.

What is happening here? And all the while, there's Obama out there doing what -- when he gets in trouble, what does he do? He goes to the people. It's sort of like -- he has the ability that Reagan had.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I think most of the people that voted for Obama, or a good percentage of them anyway, would love this. They would just love these people getting a 90-percent tax break or cut, a tax increase, and they would love their privacy being -- because Obama and the Democrat Party have been ginning up hatred and class envy for corporate executives and the achiever class in this country for years, for decades, and it's -- this is -- it's all coming home to roost now.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: The barrel price of oil is now flirting at 50 to $52. That's what I said. Thank you, Mr. Snerdley. “Yeah, up to 51 this morning.” Exactly what I said, flirting between 50 and $52. Gasoline prices in parts of the country are up 8 percent. Gasoline prices are going to -- now, you know what happens in the spring? Gasoline prices always go up for a while, then they come down in the summertime. But prior to Memorial Day, you can make book on the fact that gasoline prices are going to go up.

If gasoline prices start ticking back up in the midst of this recession, in the midst of all of this unemployment, and the administration continues to start fast-tracking the amnesty for illegal aliens for the sole purpose of getting them in this country to join unions, you are going -- we are going to have a powder keg situation this summer. And I will state to you that it is a powder keg situation that President Obama will relish. Remember, this is an administration whose objectives require chaos.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: You throw in the fact that he now is encouraging these people to get amnesty so as to join unions, and couple that with card check, which they are -- I know some Democrats are starting to back away from this, but the administration is not. They are hell-bent on getting card check.

And again, just to refresh your memory to explain card check. So many things are labeled and titled in ways in Washington that they mean the exact opposite of what they'll do and that's what card check is. It's called the Freedom of Choice -- it's the Freedom of Employment Act or something. It's the exact opposite. There is no freedom. This is an open ballot.

Imagine this: You're working at your small business, and Tony Soprano walks in, and got a lead pipe with him, and says, “We're going to unionize this place, or at least, we're going to vote on unionizing this place, and we're going to vote in public. Everybody's vote is going to be known.” And Tony Soprano is standing there with his lead pipe.

Well, how many people are going to oppose Tony Soprano? How many people are going to vote no? Nobody wants their kneecaps busted -- I'm speaking figuratively of course.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I want to replay this sound bite here because this has almost Biblical overtones -- President Obama's teleprompter telling him to say that he'd take responsibility for a mess that he didn't create.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: This sounds awfully familiar, I'm sure, to a lot of you people who are people of faith. What was Obama's teleprompter telling him to say here? The teleprompter essentially told Obama to say, “I'll pay for your sins, even though I'm innocent.” That's what the prompter told Obama to say and he said it. “I'll pay for your sins, even though I'm innocent.”

However, ladies and gentlemen, you and I both know that President Obama is not a savior. He can't even make a cabinet.