Limbaugh: “What's the Race in Mexico? It's Not Mexican”

By Kate Conway

Perhaps a little short on material today, Rush revisited his primary topic from yesterday, spending most of the first hour ranting about Mexican President Felipe Calderon's visit to the U.S. Predictably, Rush again took particular issue with Calderon's criticism of the Arizona immigration law, repeatedly attacking Calderon as a mere prop for Obama, suggesting that Calderon was bribed with a state dinner to visit the U.S. and parrot Obama's talking points. Accordingly, he dubbed Calderon "Senor Wences." Rush also attacked Democrats who applauded Calderon when he addressed a joint session of Congress, claiming that it is unprecedented to applaud an ally as they “rip our states.” Rush then suggested that Calderon's remarks on racial profiling were unwarranted because Mexican is not a race. He accused Obama of throwing down the race card by engaging Calderon on this issue, and then threw down a race card himself, suggesting that the administration's purported hostility to border enforcement is motivated by a desire to rally the Latino vote. Rush managed to connect Calderon's visit to unfounded accusations from the right that Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner “apologized” to China for the Arizona law, saying that in just a week, Obama had agreed with both Chinese and Mexican criticisms of the country.

Turning his rant into a whirlwind of conspiracy theories, Rush said that boycotts of Arizona are the kind of thing that lead to civil war and declared that it is “not coincidental.” Rush then insinuated that there might be something sinister in John Brennan's speaking Arabic to an audience at New York University Law School and referring to Jerusalem by its Arabic name -- which Rush called the “Islamist” name -- before once again downplaying the severity of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He suggested that much of the oil heading toward Florida will evaporate after some time in the Florida sun, just as gasoline evaporates quickly when you spill at the pump. Rush accused the Sierra Club of being a part of a group of people that wants disasters to occur because they're political opportunities to blame capitalism. This group of people wants the oil disaster much like they want the tumult and chaos in Arizona, Rush said, and they are willing to watch the private sector be destroyed if it will further empower them. He then ridiculed the idea that we can't drill our way to energy independence as “idiocy” and “sophistry” and declared that drilling is the only way we'll achieve energy independence.

Briefly returning to his lead topic, Rush suggested that Calderon's statements about assault weapons can be attributed to Obama's dislike of guns and the Second Amendment. He then declared that none of the great achievements of the past are acknowledged; instead, we apologize and are now importing our allies to parrot Obama. Rush then attacked CBS chief White House correspondent Chip Reid, asking if Reid had any plans to do some real reporting anytime. He then said that White House reporters are “watching the orchestrated pummeling of the country” and asked if they are “White House stenographers.” Rush didn't have anything positive to say about the economy, either: In spite of “cheery” sales reports from a number of the nation's retailers -- which Rush read on air -- he declared that proof the economy is not recovering is in the fact that Wal-Mart isn't doing as well. From this, he concluded that we can all agree the stimulus didn't work, at least not from “our perspective,” although “it probably worked like a champ for Obama.”

Here are some highlights from today's show:

Limbaugh: “I think we can all agree [the stimulus] didn't work, not from our perspective; it probably worked like a champ for Obama”

Limbaugh tells reporters they are “watching the orchestrated pummeling of this country” and asks if they are “White House stenographers”

Limbaugh declares: “The Mexican president is Señor Wences ... the ventriloquist dummy from the Ed Sullivan show”

Limbaugh on LA's Arizona boycott: “This is the kind of stuff that starts civil wars folks; this is not coincidental”

Limbaugh: “What's the race in Mexico? It's not Mexican”

Limbaugh: Sierra Club is “part of a group of people who wants a disaster; they love this disaster”

Limbaugh: “We have never before had an ally ... rip a country, rip our states, and have the Democrat Party stand up and applaud”