Rush: Democrats have become the “Kamikaze party”

By Tom Allison

Rush seemed genuinely happy to have the week done with, saying he was tired of dealing with all the “garbage” of the week, and again characterized his efforts as “going to war”:

LIMBAUGH: I'm telling you what -- this week has seemed like a week to me. I mean, every day seems like a day -- well, I mean, dealing with this garbage? Getting up every day and going to war, you know. And I'm asking for more troops, too. And I can't call any of them up on my own.

Echoing a lot of conservative media today, including Glenn Beck fill-in Pat Gray and Michael Savage, Rush claimed that Senate Democrats “bought” Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and other Democrats, “the same thing Nancy Pelosi did in the House.” Rush concluded that the Democrats have become the “Kamikaze party” and the “equivalent of political suicide bombers” because they plan on voting on a bill that, to Rush at least, is unpopular with American voters and will bankrupt the country.

Rush justified his outrageous comparison of Democrats to suicide bombers with numerous falsehoods. Perhaps he was inspired by having Sarah Palin on his show on Tuesday because he again claimed that there are death panels in the legislation that will decide who, among the elderly, will live and die. Second, Rush falsely claimed that Americans “can be put in jail for failing to buy health insurance.” And finally (and predictably among the Limbaugh Wire crew), Rush jumped on the “government is taking away your mammograms”^TM bandwagon.

Wrapping up a very busy first segment, Limbaugh read from reports that Gallup will put Obama's approval rating below 50 percent and criticized Obama's trip to Asia.

Back from the break, Rush mocked MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell as “brave” when she “grilled” Palin supporters in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He went on: “It takes guts to grill a 14-year-old.” Too bad Palin commented that the supporter herself claims she's 17. Rush went back to correct himself, naturally blaming his staff for misinforming him.

Rush: “That mammogram stuff ... it's in the bill”

Rush's first caller kicked off some fearmongering about the government task force's non-binding recommendations:

LIMBAUGH: Who was it? Democrats? Somebody's out there saying -- maybe it's Health and Human Services -- “No, no, no. That mammogram stuff, that's not -- that -- we're not -- that's not going to be part of the bill. We're not going to accept that recommendation.” But it's in the bill. It's in Senator Reid's bill; it's over in the House bill -- the delay of mammograms until the age 50. The whole thing here, Natalie, is very basic. Why in the world should you have to be told by a government when and when you can not get your breasts looked at?

Rush promoted this James Taranto op-ed in The Wall Street Journal criticizing Obama as incompetent and a climate change skeptic website, climatedepot.com. He also hyped an American Thinker blog post that reported on allegedly hacked emails from Britain's Hadley Centre that show climate scientists covering up data that undermine claims that the planet is warming.

Rush's second caller hoped for a Palin presidential run in 2012 because Obama would be re-elected in a landslide. Rush defended Palin, claiming Going Rogue is “full of policy” and commented that she is more patriotic than Obama and loves America more.

Inexplicably, Rush concluded the first hour commenting that anyone who supported John Edwards for president or vice president has no credibility in criticizing Sarah Palin.

Rush then segued into a criticism of the left for using children in environmental protection and healthcare reform ads:

LIMBAUGH: Ah, my friends, this is just -- this is -- isn't this wonderful? Exploiting kids like this, lying to kids, and then making the kids go out and lie, scaring the kids. This is from the president's website. This, essentially, has his endorsement. This is just sick.

Rush then played one of his lovely parody advertisements featuring children of the EIB...

Rush spent a lot of time reminiscing about his 25 years as host of The Rush Limbaugh Show, informing his sure-to-be-disappointed listeners that he does not plan on launching his own 24-hour cable channel like Oprah Winfrey.

Once again echoing a tired conservative falsehood, Rush suggested that Sen. Harry Reid is somehow being disingenuous over the Senate's health care reform bill because taxes are front-ended and benefits start a few years later, despite CBO's estimate that the bill will continue to reduce the deficit:

LIMBAUGH: Then we heard -- and we know it's true -- that when they send these bills down to the Congressional Budget Office to get scored, they have to score them in 10-year increments. I guess that's policy. And the way they come in with these low numbers like Reid got for $848 billion is that the health care aspect doesn't start -- the benefits, the spending doesn't start until year three or four, but the tax increases and everything else start immediately.

Rush also postulated that the Democrats will be in trouble in 2012 because voters will be feeling the new taxes but not feeling the benefits, ignoring the benefits that would begin right away.

Rush read from this Real Clear Politics post on how the proposed cuts to Medicare, designed to reduce fraud and waste, would be the Democrats' downfall.

Moving on, Rush read from a Politico article on Obama “receiving friendly fire” on the economy and suggested that the likes of Rep. Maxine Waters are upset only because the Congressional Black Caucus are getting “shut out of the slush fund.”

Later, Rush told a caller that it was “an interesting statistic” that last winter in Fairbanks, Alaska, was colder than the winter that Al Gore was born, as if picking temperatures from the same day 50 years apart has anything to do with long-term trending climate change.

Back from the break, Rush reminded his listeners that Obama's half-brother in Kenya doesn't have running water, and claimed that that's how the environmentalists would have all of us live: “with a hole in the backyard.”

Claiming that “there's nothing Democratic about the Democratic Party,” Rush ranted about the Democrats wanting dictatorial powers over the country:

LIMBAUGH: I think people do not understand who these people are. I don't think people have an understanding of just how radically left, anti-capitalist, anti-liberty these people are. I don't think people understand how devoted these people are to the government being the single citadel in this country for everybody.

I don't think people understand their radical thirst for total power. People do not understand that people like Pelosi and Reid and Barney Frank and Barack Obama and the Congressional Black Caucus, practically 80 percent of the Democrats in the House and Senate, have been yearning for this for their entire lives, many of them since the '60s. This is their utopia. They don't care; they've got it. It's within their grasp.

Rush then returned to his “Democrats as political suicide bombers” analogy, expanding his vision of health care as a suicide terrorist attack:

LIMBAUGH: I wish I could come up with an analogy that would properly convey the excitement, the passion, the single-mindedness they have about gaining, finally, after 200 years, dictatorial control over the U.S. government. That's what's going on. But, see, people don't want to look at it that way. You say that and “Oh, Rush. Come on. This is just standard Democrat/Republican party politics.”

No, it's not. It has gone way beyond that. These people, they're going to get -- here's the analogy: If they get this -- remember, I call them political suicide bombers. They're strapping the bombs on. The bombs are these health care bills -- they're going to get, with this bill, if it's signed into law, they're going to get their 72 virgins. They're going to get a lifetime supply of Viagra or Cialis -- their choice -- and they're not going to die.

They're going to get the 72 virgins in their offices or in the Capitol wading pool, or wherever they want them. And the Cialis and the Viagra, whatever it is, part of the health care plan that they will sign up for.

Right. Like Rush has any place in making jokes about Viagra...

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

Highlights

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: I'm telling you what -- this week has seemed like a week to me. I mean, every day seems like a day -- well, I mean, dealing with this garbage? Getting up every day and going to war, you know. And I'm asking for more troops, too. And I can't call any of them up on my own.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I can't read the tea leaves on this, and the reason I can't is Reid's buying votes. He bought Mary Landrieu with a $100-million provision in the health care bill -- Medicare exceptions for the state of Louisiana -- and it's a page-and-a-half long this little attachment to the bill -- well, it's not attached to it, it's part of it -- and it allows states who have suffered a major natural disaster within the last four years, three days, and 10 hours -- I mean, it zeroes in on Hurricane Katrina -- then you are eligible for $100 million additional in Medicare for the old folks and blah blah blah.

Landrieu is in trouble -- re-election down there -- and she needs to buy votes herself. Reid needs to buy votes. This is what Pelosi was doing over in the House. She was buying votes by giving individual members whatever they wanted.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Democrats are the equivalent of political suicide bombers. They have strapped political bombs to themselves. They are hell-bent on taking out as many Americans as they can with them. This is how this must be looked at. There is nothing remotely good about any of this. There's nothing compassionate about any of this. Just before they detonate their political bombs, which is what their votes against the wishes of the people they serve are, they may as well shout “Death to freedom! Death to freedom!” as they cast their vote.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Who was it? Democrats? Somebody's out there saying -- maybe it's Health and Human Services -- “No, no, no. That mammogram stuff, that's not -- that -- we're not -- that's not going to be part of the bill. We're not going to accept that recommendation.” But it's in the bill. It's in Senator Reid's bill; it's over in the House bill -- the delay of mammograms until the age 50. The whole thing here, Natalie, is very basic. Why in the world should you have to be told by a government when and when you can not get your breasts looked at?

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Ah, my friends, this is just -- this is -- isn't this wonderful? Exploiting kids like this, lying to kids, and then making the kids go out and lie, scaring the kids. This is from the president's website. This, essentially, has his endorsement. This is just sick.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Then we heard -- and we know it's true -- that when they send these bills down to the Congressional Budget Office to get scored, they have to score them in 10-year increments. I guess that's policy. And the way they come in with these low numbers like Reid got for $848 billion is that the health care aspect doesn't start -- the benefits, the spending doesn't start until year three or four, but the tax increases and everything else start immediately.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I think people do not understand who these people are. I don't think people have an understanding of just how radically left, anti-capitalist, anti-liberty these people are. I don't think people understand how devoted these people are to the government being the single citadel in this country for everybody.

I don't think people understand their radical thirst for total power. People do not understand that people like Pelosi and Reid and Barney Frank and Barack Obama and the Congressional Black Caucus, practically 80 percent of the Democrats in the House and Senate, have been yearning for this for their entire lives, many of them since the '60s. This is their utopia. They don't care; they've got it. It's within their grasp.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I wish I could come up with an analogy that would properly convey the excitement, the passion, the single-mindedness they have about gaining, finally, after 200 years, dictatorial control over the U.S. government. That's what's going on. But, see, people don't want to look at it that way. You say that and “Oh, Rush. Come on. This is just standard Democrat/Republican party politics.”

No, it's not. It has gone way beyond that. These people, they're going to get -- here's the analogy: If they get this -- remember, I call them political suicide bombers. They're strapping the bombs on. The bombs are these health care bills -- they're going to get, with this bill, if it's signed into law, they're going to get their 72 virgins. They're going to get a lifetime supply of Viagra or Cialis -- their choice -- and they're not going to die.

They're going to get the 72 virgins in their offices or in the Capitol wading pool, or wherever they want them. And the Cialis and the Viagra, whatever it is, part of the health care plan that they will sign up for.