By Zachary Pleat

Rush: “Democrats are like termites. Or cockroaches.”

After starting the show today by assuring everybody that he had not been “chickified” by judging the Miss America pageant last week, Rush talked about the great time he had, saying he “had a blast.” Rush then explained at length what judging involved. While talking up the Miss America pageant, he segued into a potshot at a group of women he despises:

LIMBAUGH: This is not Miss USA, which is a modeling and bathing suit show. This is a serious endeavor. The people involved in it are very serious, as are the contestants. And it's basically a scholarship program. They -- this bunch, Miss America Organization, donates over $40 million in scholarships to women every year. I don't think the feminazis are doing that. I don't think they're getting anywhere close to that.

Rush continued to share more from his experience of judging the pageant, playing a few clips from the show and highlighting some of his own questions. Rush would continue to talk about judging the pageant throughout the show.

Coming back from the first break, Rush raged about the new 2011 budget, which he said would cause a $1.6 trillion deficit:

LIMBAUGH: President Obama made it official this morning, announcing his record deficit budget -- $1.6 trillion. Our children will be paying dearly to fund Obama's political ambitions. Their children will be paying dearly to fund Obama's political ambitions.

He continued to complain about federal deficits and the new budget for much of the rest of the hour, falsely claiming that “it's a lie” that Obama inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit. After suggesting that only unions are exempt from taxes on high-cost health insurance plans, Rush then read part of a McClatchy Newspapers article to open his complaint that “just as the unions have been exempt from paying taxes on their health care plans, women and girls are being exempted from spending restrictions, i.e. the freeze.”

Later, Rush began his segment on health care reform by declaring that “Democrats are like termites. Or cockroaches,” because they are committed to passing health care reform. He then read a Los Angeles Times article detailing the effort to pass the legislation, apparently pleased to report that some states were seeking ways to end “mandatory” health care.

Rush says he's “having trouble not using profanity” today

For the second hour, Rush began by reading a Real Clear Politics blog post dissecting last week's State of the Union address and responded to a section of Obama's speech to House Republicans concerning deficits:

LIMBAUGH: Folks, I'm having trouble not using profanity here. This is just an out-and-out, bold-faced lie. He said it this morning. This is -- this has no grounding in reality. He has just -- if we're to take this seriously and connect the dots -- he has just ripped himself to shreds. He's just given us a bunch of reasons not to re-elect him. He's just talked about how irresponsible he has been. That's what you're doing here. He doesn't welcome any idea from Republicans.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: He is ripping his own administration and policies to shreds, trying to make you think that all of this is the result of George W. Bush.

Responding to a caller who thought that most Americans don't understand the differences between million, billion, and trillion, Rush returned to deficits and unemployment, falsely claiming that the stimulus did nothing to help create jobs.

After the half-hour break, Rush returned to debunked myths about the Climatic Research Unit emails and declared, yet again, that global warming is a hoax:

LIMBAUGH: So, this is the third thing involving the IPC -- IPCC. We have the fraudulent readings and left-out information to hide the decline from the East Anglia University Climate Center, the Hadley Climate Center, where bogus emails indicate the whole thing was fabricated.

Of course, Limbaugh and others in the conservative media distorted and misled about the CRU emails from the beginning.

After spending the first segment of his last hour ranting for a while about right-wing highlighting of Nancy Pelosi's air travel and later declaring it “obscene,” Rush then spent much of the second segment doing an extended advertisement for Hillsdale College, promising that his audience will hear from many Hillsdale students over the coming year.

A little later, Rush took a caller who claimed to be a meteorologist and assured Rush that she, too, doesn't “believe in” man-made global warming. Of course, this means little, since, as the Columbia Journalism Review recently pointed out, “most weathercasters are not really scientists.”

Michael Burns and Michael Timberlake contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights

LIMBAUGH: This is not Miss USA, which is a modeling and bathing suit show. This is a serious endeavor. The people involved in it are very serious, as are the contestants. And it's basically a scholarship program. They -- this bunch, Miss America Organization, donates over $40 million in scholarships to women every year. I don't think the feminazis are doing that. I don't think they're getting anywhere close to that.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: President Obama made it official this morning, announcing his record deficit budget -- $1.6 trillion. Our children will be paying dearly to fund Obama's political ambitions. Their children will be paying dearly to fund Obama's political ambitions.

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: Folks, we have got to keep up the pressure on this everyday, 'cause they're not stopping for anything. These Democrats are like termites. Or cockroaches.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: If you don't like what's happening to the country now, you will never like what's happening to the country now if a Democrat's in power. Never. That's, I think, our objective. To go about this policy by policy by policy, you can do that, but we've been doing that for years. That's right. We've got to turn this into ideological debate. That's why Obama out there, saying, “I'm not an ideologue. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not an ideologue.” Yes. He is first, second, third, and fourth an ideologue.

America's Truth Rejecter

LIMBAUGH: So, this is the third thing involving the IPC -- IPCC. We have the fraudulent readings and left-out information to hide the decline from the East Anglia University Climate Center, the Hadley Climate Center, where bogus emails indicate the whole thing was fabricated.