Hour 3: Limbaugh Launches Dishonest Attack On Huffington Post's Iran Coverage

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the “commie bastards” of the AMA
By Simon Maloy

Rush got this final hour a-rolling by declaring that he's going “out on a limb” and predicting that Obama will not get national health care. Rush said there are just too many forces aligned against him, what with moderate Democrats defecting and doctors being tired of being treated as villains in the health care debate. Also, Rush said, back in the '90s the Clintons took years to roll out their health care plan, but Obama's trying to get all this done in two months.

Then Rush returned to the UK Telegraph story on the “bulldozing” of American cities, which reported that Dan Kildee, the Michigan man who reportedly came up with the idea for doing so in Flint, Michigan, “has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.” Rush said Kildee is a liberal Democrat politician from a family of lifetime government workers, and that Obama loves his plan to bulldoze Flint so much that he wants Kildee to figure out how to do it in 50 other cities. Kildee, however, says that the Telegraph article is wrong, and that “the Obama administration did not ask him to spread the word about the shrinking cities concept.”

Rush then moved on to Newsweek, noting that last week Evan Thomas said Obama was sort of like of God, but this week Newsweek has a column by Robert Samuelson, who wrote: “It's hard to know whether President Obama's health-care 'reform' is naive, hypocritical or simply dishonest. Probably all three.” Rush found it interesting that the magazine that called him “god” last week is now calling him hypocritical and dishonest. You know, he's right. That is strange. It's almost as if they have differing editorial voices within the publication.

After the break, Rush said he wanted to “clarify” his prediction from earlier that Obama won't get national health care -- he's not in any way telling people to back off because it's already dead. Rather, said Rush, he thinks it's going to fail because there's been sufficient energy brought to bear against it, and that level of energy has to be maintained.

Then Rush moved on to the San Francisco Chronicle, where a columnist reported last week that “jobs from the stimulus [are] hard to find.” Rush said that they already aired that sound bite of Biden saying they were “wrong on the stimulus” (actually, Biden said they were wrong on the unemployment projections). Rush said “of course” the stimulus jobs aren't there, unemployment rose after the stimulus passed.

Rush then took a call from a man who claimed that Obama is setting up a straw man on pre-existing conditions -- people can't be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions, but they can be denied treatment for a certain period of time. The caller then described how he was able to obtain insurance for his severely disabled son after their Medicare payments ceased. Rush said this is an excellent point, but Rush also said he's going to get a lot of calls from people who have preexisting conditions who are going to disagree with what the caller said. Rush also wanted to make another point -- this caller's son's disability is the kind of condition for which we need insurance. We don't need insurance for people going to the hospital for a sore throat.

Rush's next caller was a doctor from Texas who said she read Obama's speech to the AMA today, and said that Obama essentially said that coverage will be denied in order to keep costs down. Rush asked her if she, as a doctor, was inspired by Obama's speech. The caller said no, and that she's not a member of the AMA because they're too liberal. Rush said the AMA is just like the American Bar Association these days -- they're run by “commie bastards.” That's an interesting claim, considering that members of the AMA contributed more money to Republicans than Democrats during every election cycle from 1998 to 2006.

Next in the caller queue was a man who said that the first real chance we're going to have for change is the 2010 elections, and Republicans should look for potential candidates in the pool of car dealership owners who've been put out of business. Rush said he likes this caller's thinking, and that there are a lot of people who've had their businesses taken away from them by Barack Obama. Rush also wanted to remind us again of the Gallup poll and the 40 percent of Americans who self-identify as conservatives. All the GOP has to do is run a full-bore conservative campaign, said Rush, and if Republicans had nominated a conservative in 2008 they could have beaten Obama. That's why they want to destroy Sarah Palin. Rush said that if you're a Republican and you want to win anywhere in the country -- except for Maine and Massachusetts -- run as a conservative.

Last in line for the callers today was a man who said that Obama's courting of the AMA is a public relations ploy, and what the public doesn't understand is that the AMA does not represent America's physicians or their interests. Rush said he knew it -- Obama goes out there and talks to a left-wing group, and this is designed to make everyone think all the doctors support him. Almost makes you wonder what a doctors' group that has actually come out in support of a public health care plan thinks of Obama.

After one more break, Rush treated us to yet another of his hilarious parodies, this one of “the president's new policy on Miranda rights to terrorist detainees.” What's sad, of course, is that the entire premise of this parody is undermined by the fact that this “new” policy of Obama's is actually a continuation of Bush's policy. A shame too, since Rush's (intentional) parodies are usually spot-on ...

Rush closed out the show by saying that people are being gunned down in Iran, and yet Ann Wright of the Huffington Post wrote this morning about Israeli police attacking “international protesters of Israel's invasion of Gaza, illegal settlements and the apartheid wall.” Rush said they're gunning down people in Iran, and this is what the left-wing media is worried about. A quick glance at HuffPo's homepage should demonstrate exactly how off-base and dishonest this attack by Rush is. And in case you're reading this after they've changed the homepage, here's a screenshot taken at the time Rush made his comment.

Anyway, that's it for Rush and that's it for us on this lovely Monday. We'll be back tomorrow, and we do hope you'll join us. Until then, spend your time wisely by checking out Media Matters' Limbaugh archives.

Greg Lewis and Lauryn Bruck contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: Are you a member of the AMA?

CALLER: No.

LIMBAUGH: All right. You know about them, I'm sure.

CALLER: I do, but they're a little too liberal for me.

LIMBAUGH: Well, it's like the American Bar Association. They're just a bunch of commie bastards anymore.

CALLER: In a way.

LIMBAUGH: They are. They are -- just a bunch of commie bastards anymore. The ABA leadership, American Bar Association -- tort lawyers run the whole thing. I just wonder if the AMA is, you know, a similar special interest group. All Obama has to do is promise the AMA some money.

America's Truth Rejector

Rush put together a parody of “the president's new policy on Miranda rights to terrorist detainees” -- a policy that was actually started under Bush:

LIMBAUGH: The White House has asked us to facilitate the president's new policy on Miranda rights to terrorist detainees in Afghanistan and anywhere else we happen to find them.

[begin audio clip]

ANNOUNCER: Attention all terrorist detainees. Now a reading of your new Miranda rights by our commander in chief, President Barack Obama.

OBAMA IMPERSONATOR: Dear terrorist detainees, since I am unable to reach out to each one of you personally, I have recorded this message to give you hope. Under our Constitution, you, as an American citizen, have certain rights. You have the right to remain silent about any knowledge you may have concerning future terrorist plans. Anything you say is unlikely to be used against you in a court of law since your actions are our fault. You have the right to an attorney from the ACLU who truly sympathizes with your case since they too hate America and you have the right to hate America, Israel, the West, indoor plumbing and return to jihad as soon as possible when you leave our care. Thank you for your commitment to giving back to a cause greater than yourself.

ANNOUNCER: This concludes a reading of your new rights as our guest here at Guantánamo Bay. Have a lovely day.

[end audio clip]

LIMBAUGH: Well, there you have it -- the official word from White House now on how the terrorist detainee Miranda rights are going to work.