Listening To Rush
by digby
Anyone who doesn't subscribe to Media Matters' "Limbaughwire" is missing out on a profoundly important insight into the thinking of a fairly large number of Americans. Here's a piece of yesterday's dispatch:
Rush then complained about a school in St. Louis that is sending students to view the Gulf of Mexico oil slick, portraying the students the victims of indoctrinators disguised by educators. Rush then suggested that the Highland Park school can send those kids to the U.S.-Mexico border to see what the real problem is, adding that the problem isn't Joe Arpaio. Rush later declared that Boston should be added to the boycott list because people allegedly connected to Faisal Shahzad were arrested there on immigration-related charges.
Rush also tore into the cap-and-trade bill introduced by "the haughty John Kerry," claiming that it will replace cooking stoves in Africa and that the authors of the bill admit it will cause energy prices to skyrocket. Liberals want utility bills to be so high you won't use them, he said, because they want to control you. Rush then claimed that liberals' focus on debunking the discredited rumors about Elena Kagan's supposed sexual orientation is about baiting GOP senators to say something about it in order to paint them as bigots. Apparently, portraying Kagan as a "Chaz Bono lookalike" does not constitute focusing on her sexual orientation as far as Rush is concerned.
At one point Rush took a call from a man who ranted that Obama doesn't acknowledge white people, that Democrats favor Muslims and minorities, and that Obama won't send troops to Arizona to enforce immigration laws because he'll be perceived by Hispanics as "sending whitey" down there. Rush didn't interrupt the caller's rant, and when the caller asked Rush if his rant was too extreme, Rush responded, "you're right down the line." Rush got upset only when the caller said that Republicans weren't doing anything to oppose the Obama agenda. Rush also read at length from an attack on Obama and Kagan by The American Spectator's Quin Hillyer, which begins, "Who the hell does Barack Obama, this morally preening, arrogant hypocrite, think he is?" Rush then ridiculed Miss America contestants who claimed they wanted to "make a difference," adding, "Hitler made a difference."
Chris Matthews issued a challenge this week to any Republican who is willing to come on his show and say that Limbaugh is wrong. He has had no takers.
Every elected Republican is scared of this man and that should scare everyone else.
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