Healthcare reform is worse than 9/11 ... duh

By Tom Allison

Despite being all too happy to criticize Obama for his vacation to “Marxist Vineyard,” Rush was off today on a golf outing, a month after a five-day golf trip last month. Fill-in host Mark Davis suggested that health reform presents a realer threat than the attacks of 9-11 because “most Americans did not expect to die from an al Qaeda attack” but health reform is a “life-or-death” issue.

DAVIS: But when you come at people with health care, when you come at people with something that is life-and-death for them -- even after 9-11, most of us did not expect a hijacked plane to fly into our homes, our office buildings, our schools, whatever -- 9-11, as vivid as it was, ultimately was still fairly theoretical. It was an attack on our country, an attack on our homeland, but it's -- by theoretical, I mean something that we properly recoiled at, something that we were properly repulsed by, something that properly motivated us, at least temporarily. But again, it didn't rise to something that actually threatened us.

Most Americans did not expect to die from an Al Qaeda attack, even after 9-11. This is different. Most Americans take a look at a health care system that they like, warts and all, and they don't want to cash it in for a government-run alternative. They don't want to. You mess with that, and you give people energy that turns them all into Energizer bunnies by comparison to some past political battles.

Davis invoked Americans forgetting the lessons of 9-11 to express his fear that the same would happen to the opposition's fight against health care. But because of the more real threat of health reform, Davis noted that resistance is still out there.

Despite his nostalgia for the unity felt in America months after September 11, 2001, Davis also lamented: “Nothing was asked of us. Go buy a car or the terrorists win.”

Davis said he had three comments about the passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy. First, Davis hoped that Kennedy's spirit was resting in peace. Second, Davis said that people should be aware of the Kennedy legacy, the decades of service, and the epic story of Ted Kenendy's life. Davis even called Obama's eulogy “magnificent.”

“The Democrats are no longer right on civil rights”

But third, Davis started digging into Kennedy's accomplishments. Davis claimed that Kennedy was “driving the bus” on Democrat's misguided policies on education and health, and concluded that “the Democrats are no longer right on civil rights.” Davis asked his audience, “Besides the 1960s civil rights era, can we agree on one policy that he was right about?”

Davis on National Day of Service: “Instantly, alarms are going off in my head”

After the first break, Davis was excited to have read a New York Daily News editorial about 9/11 becoming a national day of service and remembrance. Davis read from the following passage:

The concept of making service a hallmark of 9/11 anniversaries was championed by MyGoodDeed, an organization founded by family and friends of people killed in the attacks.

The group's mission statement calls for honoring “the victims of 9/11 and those who rose to service in response to the attacks by encouraging” good deeds and various volunteer activities.

“In this way we hope to create a lasting and forward-looking legacy - annually rekindling the spirit of service, tolerance, and compassion that unified America and the world in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks,” the statement says.

Davis' reaction:

DAVIS: Instantly, alarms are going off in my head, because those three terms that they use are so dependent on what you mean by them. Service toward what end? Tolerance of exactly what? Compassion -- person-to-person, or the peculiar kind of compassion that can only come through the conduit of government?

Apparently Davis missed the beginning of his program, where he regretted that “nothing was asked of us” after 9-11.

Davis also claimed that this “cheapening of 9-11” was coming straight from the White House. Of course, Davis didn't mention that 9-11 is a national day of service by statute -- which a majority of Republican senators voted for -- and former President Bush routinely called on Americans to volunteer in memory of the day.

Incidentally, calling the Daily News an “adventure,” Davis also referenced this column by Mike Lupica, claiming that he could make a Chappaquiddick reference.

Davis on Kennedy funeral: They're asking us to “drop to their knees and pray for Obamacare”

Later, a caller claimed that Juan Williams said on C-SPAN that there would be a new set of founding fathers in this country. Davis could not believe it. He said he would believe it if it was Joseph Lowery, Sheila Jackson-Lee or Rahm Emanuel and went on to praise Juan Williams as “level headed” and one of the most “clear-headed liberals, which isn't a very large group.”

After the break, Davis claimed that “no weird Wellstone memorial broke out” at Kenendy's funeral. That said, Davis played a portion of Kennedy's grandson speaking and accused him of hijacking and politicizing the invocation, concluding that they're asking us to “drop to their knees and pray for Obamacare.”

Davis' first and only critical caller accused Davis of “hijacking” Catholic prayers at Kenendy's funeral and noted that the Pope called basic medical care a right. Davis called that the claim that Americans are dying without insurance fictitious and that everyone gets basic medical care, to which the caller responded with how easy it is for insurance companies to drop patients' coverage.

Slavery, Klansmen, and the race card, oh my!

Davis began another segment with a Washington Times editorial on Obama's “chief science adviser” John P. Holdren's 1977 book that explored the possibility of compulsory abortions to control population. This tired attack apparently still has legs despite Holdren's statement that his views have “evolved.”

By claiming that Republicans are opposing policies that no one actually disagrees with, Davis claimed the progressives are putting up a straw man argument in their efforts to reform America's health system. Davis also again downplayed the importance of millions of people who don't have health insurance. Finally, Davis went off the rails, invoking slavery, the KKK, and the race card:

DAVIS: Well, there you go. You're going to hear a lot about -- Gary, thanks, you're going to hear a lot -- oh, slavery's going to be invoked all over the place. Those of us who are daring to -- well, this is not the stuff of short-term legend. To oppose Obamacare is to be a hooded Klansman riding in the night looking for people to lynch, and I wish I were making this up. And the race card is being played so shamelessly.

Davis: “Dick Cheney could have written” WaPo article on torture

Davis claimed that Saturday's Washington Post article on how Khalid Shaikh Mohammed becoming an “asset” to the United States “backed the Dick Cheney view of waterboarding.” Of course, Davis didn't note that the article reported, and the 2004 CIA Inspector General's report confirmed, that KSM offered false information to get his interrogators to let up on the abuse, and that KSM even bragged that he “wasted a lot of their time.” Davis commented that you have to look at The Washington Post and say “thanks” and that “Dick Cheney could have written it.”

If that wasn't enough, Davis did his best imitation of a power drill and claimed that “There, I just tortured the audience.”

“We're the ones that don't care about skin color”

Toward the end of the show, Davis cited a Las Vegas Review-Journal column that claimed that Sen. Harry Reid told their advertising director, “I hope you go out of business.”

Davis then took a caller from Massachusetts who claimed that Ted Kennedy's education legacy was school busing in Boston. Davis said that busing “scared him to death” in the Washington, D.C., area and concluded that it “only took a decade” for Kennedy and the Democrats to be wrong on civil rights.

Discussing tomorrow's fill-in Walter Williams, Davis commented that to be black and conservative earns instant respect from white conservatives, because “we're the ones that don't care about your skin color.”

For the final segment of the broadcast, Davis agreed with a caller's theory that Gordon Brown consulted with Obama concerning the release of the Lockerbie bomber. Davis called the theory “not implausible” and praised FBI director Robert Muller's letter condemning the release but claimed that Obama didn't share his passion for the issue. Davis explained this claim by asserting that Obama will never criticize a Muslim country and commented that “the degree to which this president gets upset about the terrorist deaths of his countrymen is something that is in large question.”

Zachary Aronow and Zachary Pleat contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights

DAVIS: Now, civil rights in the '60s, I'm with ya. I mean, please, this was a country that was in need of a Civil Rights Act of 1964. I'm good with that. Who's not, you know? But the American left got so nutty -- and Ted Kennedy was driving the bus -- that the American left is wrong on civil rights now, doing things like advocating the continuation of the racism that is affirmative action. Deciding with race preferences and a justice in Sonia Sotomayor who craves them.

[...]

DAVIS: The concept of making service a hallmark of 9-11 anniversaries was championed by an organization called MyGoodDeed, an organization founded by family and friends of people killed in the attacks. So far, so good. The New York Daily News editorial writes, “The group's mission statement calls for honoring the victims of 9-11 and those who rose to service in response to the attacks by encouraging good deeds and various volunteer activities. In this way, we hope to create a lasting and forward-looking legacy, annually rekindling the spirit of service, tolerance, and compassion that unified America and the world in the immediate aftermath of 9-11.” This is what their statement there says at MyGoodDeed.

Instantly, alarms are going off in my head, because those three terms that they use are so dependent on what you mean by them. Service toward what end? Tolerance of exactly what? Compassion -- person-to-person, or the peculiar kind of compassion that can only come through the conduit of government?

[...]

DAVIS: There's an irony here, because isn't it Republicans, isn't it conservatives who usually get their chops busted for improper comingling of faith and politics? I can't remember the last time we pulled a stunt like this. So, just thought I'd share, because to have the general intercessions led off with a grandchild of Teddy -- and God bless that grandchild, he is blameless in this event -- essentially asking for the gathered congregation to drop to its knees and pray for Obamacare -- I hope you will pardon my unfettered revulsion about this.

[...]

CALLER: Did anybody in Gordon Brown's government check in with anybody in the Obama administration on a last-minute basis here to say, “Hey, guess what, guys, we're gonna do this. What do you think about it? Is it OK to do it? Can you give us cover?” I just can't believe that a decision like this that affects the relationship between our two countries could have been done without some sort of communication between our two governments.

DAVIS: That may not be so hard to imagine. I have the same question you do, and let's exa-- and since there's certainly no concrete answer forthcoming in the near term, let's see what might be the case, what seems like fair speculation. The reason I don't find it so outlandish that Gordon Brown wouldn't be calling Barack Obama is it seems like something he was trying to get away with largely in secret in his own country to avoid the supposition that it was related to oil. So the notion of increasing the likelihood of this getting telegraphed by calling the president and bouncing it off him, I mean, I don't know. It may have happened, but it's not implausible that it did not.

So with that, let's look at whether we think it did. And the first place to start with that is America's behavior after -- the American government's behavior after it. The president, what was the term he used? Disturbing, in the understatement of the year? I mean, a dip in the housing market is disturbing. This release of Al-Magrahi was an unmitigated outrage. FBI Director Robert Mueller wrote a very nice and stern letter about this, with passion apparently not shared by the president of the United States. But again, that would involve criticizing a Muslim country, something that you probably will not hear this president do, ever.

[...]

DAVIS: One would like to think that Gordon Brown would have picked up the phone to give the American president a heads-up that someone who killed so many of President Obama's countrymen was about to get a hero's welcome back in Libya because they were gonna release him. But I mean, just excuse me just for a moment, but the degree to which this president gets upset about the terrorist deaths of his countrymen is something that is in large question.

Outrageous comments

DAVIS: But when you come at people with health care, when you come at people with something that is life-and-death for them -- even after 9-11, most of us did not expect a hijacked plane to fly into our homes, our office buildings, our schools, whatever -- 9-11, as vivid as it was, ultimately was still fairly theoretical. It was an attack on our country, an attack on our homeland, but it's -- by theoretical, I mean something that we properly recoiled at, something that we were properly repulsed by, something that properly motivated us, at least temporarily. But again, it didn't rise to something that actually threatened us.

Most Americans did not expect to die from an Al Qaeda attack, even after 9-11. This is different. Most Americans take a look at a health care system that they like, warts and all, and they don't want to cash it in for a government-run alternative. They don't want to. You mess with that, and you give people energy that turns them all into Energizer bunnies by comparison to some past political battles.

[...]

CALLER: If you're intellectually honest, if you feel that people have a right to medical care, then you're saying that you're in favor of slavery, I guess, because all the people that have to work to provide it should just work for nothing.

DAVIS: Well, there you go. You're going to hear a lot about -- Gary, thanks, you're going to hear a lot -- oh, slavery's going to be invoked all over the place. Those of us who are daring to -- well, this is not the stuff of short-term legend. To oppose Obamacare is to be a hooded Klansman riding in the night looking for people to lynch, and I wish I were making this up. And the race card is being played so shamelessly.

[...]

DAVIS: But, so reaction number one is to look at The Washington Post and say, guys, thanks. I mean, wow. You've been kicking the war effort squarely in the teeth for most of its seven years, so to have an article in the Post that essentially sounds like Dick Cheney could have written it is refreshing.

[...]

DAVIS: The other reaction, though, is -- I would say it's from the left, except not even that's true, because if you go to Andrew Sullivan -- always in interesting guy, a blogger, one of the first bloggers actually over at The Atlantic -- is his rant that the Washington Post is now fully in bed with, you know, neocons and the far right. Dude, tap the brakes. I mean, the Andrew Sullivan writing and punditry record is filled with moments of libertarian conservatism, at times, but boy, on the whole so-called torture thing -- and I say so-called for obvious reasons; some people think waterboarding is torture, some don't -- apparently some people think it's torture to threaten somebody with drill. [drilling noise] Oh my God, I've just tortured the audience! [drilling noise] The sounds of torture. [drilling noise] Come on.