Rush labeled health care reform vote the “Saturday night massacre”

By Tom Allison

Rush kicked off the show predicting that “political correctness will be our downfall,” not believing how often over the weekend he heard people ask why alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan would murder soldiers at Fort Hood. A theme for the show, Rush repeatedly compared Hasan to the 9-11 hijackers, commenting that they worshipped at the same mosque, visited strip clubs and bars before their attacks, and espoused similar views.

Despite the fact that a Republican-controlled Congress passed the prescription drug expansion of Medicare late on a weekend, Rush accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of pulling a fast one by holding the health care reform vote on a Saturday night when “no one was paying attention”; he called it the “Saturday night massacre.”

Rush wasn't placated by the Stupak Amendment that would effectively ban abortion coverage for some who have it now, incredulous that conservatives would be expected to support the bill. Rush declared that the legislation is not only anti-fetus (as the Stupak Amendment won't be in the final bill) but also “the most profoundly anti-life, at-all-ages, piece of legislation that has ever passed the U.S. House of Representatives.”

Echoing the Drudge Report and The Washington Times, Limbaugh falsely claimed that Rep. Bill Owens (D-NY), in his first day in office, broke four campaign promises at once by voting for the House health care bill, misrepresenting both Owens' campaign positions and provisions of the House health care bill.

Wrapping up a busy first segment, Rush echoed a lot of conservative blogs today and complained about Obama's absence from the 20-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Rush on Fort Hood: "[W]e could almost say that this is Obama's fault"

Limbaugh used the “if it acts like a duck and sounds like a duck” analogy to argue that Hasan was a full-blown Islamic terrorist. Limbaugh read from a UK Daily Telegraph article that Hasan “had told US military colleagues that infidels should have their throats cut.”

Rush also asked when President Obama would get blamed for the Fort Hood massacre, because of reports that Hasan thought Obama would withdraw all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and lashed out after Obama didn't. Limbaugh also mockingly hoped that FBI interrogators weren't waterboarding Hasan.

Rush also accused the media of politicizing the massacre:

LIMBAUGH: Now the drive-by folks are bending over backwards searching for the rationale, any rationale for the murders at Fort Hood, but, actually, they're not looking for a rationale; they're using the tragedy to justify their own personal claptrap: “Is America to blame?” They love this. This just gives them another bit of ammo to shoot at this country: “Is America to blame?” “Is the war to blame?” “Is Bush to blame?” “Is Cheney to blame for this?”

Rush then played an excerpt from Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-SC) appearance on CBS' Face the Nation -- where Graham and host Bob Schieffer agreed that Muslims don't have a “corner” on extremist violence -- in order to criticize the media for not acknowledging the significance of evidence of Hasan's extremist views.

Rush argued that Hasan was promoted to major because of political correctness, then doubled back, claiming that “approved minorities, approved victims are not held to the same standards”

Rush called Obama's reaction to the Fort Hood attack “striking” and called it “Obama's My Pet Goat moment.” Rush also didn't seem happy that Hasan's interrogators would honor his right of an attorney.

Rush: "[T]his whole bill is about death"

Kicking off the second hour, Rush repeated his claim from his appearance on Fox News Sunday that he feels like he's in a war fighting liberals who are trying to curb liberty and freedom.

Rush couldn't believe that House Democrats were cheering passage of health care reform on Saturday night, arguing that Democrats “just voted themselves out of office.” Rush then transitioned into another rant about the purported “freedom-killing” and “life-threatening” House health care bill:

LIMBAUGH: The thing that really frosts me about this is that this whole bill is about death. This whole bill is about rationing who gets coverage and who doesn't and under what circumstances. It is the single greatest tool a government will have to regulate every aspect of behavior. This is a freedom-killing -- and it is going to end up being a life-threatening bill.

Human beings will die earlier than normal, than necessary, because of this bill. There will be bureaucratic institutions, bureaucracies, which will make decisions on who gets treated and what kind of treatment they get and who doesn't get treated. But because they thought the bill had been improved -- to say that no money would be used to fund abortions -- that it was OK to support the bill.

Rush on Rep. Joseph Cao: “Cash Cao is his new nickname”

Back from the break, Limbaugh called the Stupak Amendment a “trick” to get pro-life congressional members to vote for the bill. Limbaugh of course smeared the sole Republican to vote yes, Rep. Joseph Cao from Louisiana. Rush claimed that “Cash Cao” was bought off with promises of Medicaid funding by Obama.

Later on, a caller said Limbaugh was “walking on thin ice” for calling Hasan a terrorist, warning that Obama would send his Marxist propaganda machine after him. In response, Rush again argued that Hasan is an “Islamic terrorist” and then read the majority of Fox News contributor Ret. Col. Ralph Peters' New York Post op-ed. Limbaugh promised to link to the op-ed on his website.

Echoing other conservative media, Rush played Sen. Joe Lieberman's promise to filibuster health care reform that includes a public option for the dubious reason that it will have a negative impact on the deficit.

Back from the break, Rush read from serial health care reform misinformer Betsy McCaughey's November 7 Wall Street Journal op-ed, which Media Matters has thoroughly debunked. Rush also read from this BigGovernment.com blog post that shockingly confirmed that failure to adhere to the law might result in jail time.

Later, Rush was all too happy to promote former GE CEO Jack Welch's Boston Herald op-ed, which criticized Obama's economic policies. Limbaugh complained about the unemployment rate and read from this Associated Press article arguing that this recession is tougher than previous ones.

Rush also agreed with a Jay Nordlinger blog post, incredulous that people would call for gun control in the wake of Fort Hood.

Limbaugh wrapped up today's show with a striking prediction of dire consequences for the nation if the GOP doesn't win big in 2010.

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

Highlights

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: Last Saturday, House Democrats had the unmitigated gall to show up on a Saturday night when nobody was paying attention, after the unemployment number at 10.2 percent and commit a Saturday night massacre on this country. That's nothing other than a Saturday night massacre.

After securing the vote to destroy the best health care delivery system in the world and replace it with a massive, big government, trillion-plus dollar, job-killing monstrosity -- and I gotta tell you something here, folks, on this. That Stupak amendment -- I don't want to ever hear -- I don't want to ever hear anybody tell me again that Nancy Pelosi's stupid. She pulled a giant trick on pro-life Republicans and Democrats. Single-issue politics came roaring to the top here.

And when she put in the Stupak Amendment that convinced pro-lifers, hey, hey, abortion's not going to be funded; we gotta vote for it -- it was silly. I guess now we should all get behind this bill because of this -- that's -- well, that's what they're telling us. I mean, for crying out loud. I mean, this is -- one of my concerns, ladies and gentlemen, always was, you put abortion in it and forces will rally, then you pretend to take it out, and those people suddenly think they have to be for a bill -- that this is where this abortion stuff -- I just scratch my head.

OK, so we've been fooled, and the House has been fooled into thinking that abortions are not going to be federally funded under health care but for crying out loud when you look at the rest of the bill, it's about nothing but death. It's about the death of the living. This is the most profoundly anti-life, at-all-ages, piece of legislation that has ever passed the U.S. House of Representatives.

I mean, it's anti-life, depending on your age, depending on the severity of your illness, depending on your party affiliation probably, depending on a whole lot of things. It is anti-freedom, and, without that, you're not going to have a pro-life movement at all.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I'm sure they're not going to call this a hate crime. I'm sure this man's inner feelings are going to be probed regarding the Bush/Cheney war. You wait. But let's not forget this man had no problem with killing people, zilch, 'cause he wasn't -- this guy's not a pacifist. This guy is not a conscientious objector. He didn't like Americans in Afghanistan or Iraq.

And by the way, I mean, playing the game the way the media and the Democrats do, we could almost say that this is Obama's fault, because this guy said that he believed Obama was going to get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama hasn't done it and that's one of the reasons why the guy cracked.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Now the drive-by folks are bending over backwards searching for the rationale, any rationale for the murders at Fort Hood, but, actually, they're not looking for a rationale; they're using the tragedy to justify their own personal claptrap: “Is America to blame?” They love this. This just gives them another bit of ammo to shoot at this country: “Is America to blame?” “Is the war to blame?” “Is Bush to blame?” “Is Cheney to blame for this?”

[...]

LIMBAUGH: The thing that really frosts me about this is that this whole bill is about death. This whole bill is about rationing who gets coverage and who doesn't and under what circumstances. It is the single greatest tool a government will have to regulate every aspect of behavior. This is a freedom-killing -- and it is going to end up being a life-threatening bill.

Human beings will die earlier than normal, than necessary, because of this bill. There will be bureaucratic institutions, bureaucracies, which will make decisions on who gets treated and what kind of treatment they get and who doesn't get treated. But because they thought the bill had been improved -- to say that no money would be used to fund abortions -- that it was OK to support the bill.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: If we cede 2010, you can kiss the country goodbye as you know it. You can kiss it goodbye. There won't be an uprising. And if there is an uprising, even if Obama's defeated in 2012, I mean, it's -- look it, I remember during the Reagan years, one of the big things conservatives said they were gonna do is dismantle the Department of Education. Has that happened?

And people say, “Well we'll get up there and we'll reverse all this.” It doesn't happen much, folks. Entitlements, new bills don't just get canceled. They don't just get reversed or rescinded. You've got to stop them before they happen. And if we cede the 2010 election, it's disastrous. No way.