Limbaugh Joins Other Conservatives Grossly Exaggerating Size Of 9/12 Rally

http://mediamatters.org/items/200909140032 Rush claims more people attended 9/12 protests this weekend than Obama's "immaculation" -- according to the British press By Greg Lewis Rush began the week promoting inflated turnout numbers of the weekend's 9/12 rally in Washington, as promoted by the British press: LIMBAUGH: What an event that was on Saturday. In fact, folks, there were more people at that event on Saturday -- according to the British press -- than there were people who showed up at Obama's immaculation back in January. By contrast, the Washington, D.C., fire department -- the closest thing to an official estimate that we've seen -- pinned the crowd in the 60,000 to 70,000 range. Then Rush pointed out the Obama speech currently taking place. Rush said that Obama flew to New York to commemorate the crash of Lehman Brothers, but he "refused" to fly to New York for 9-11. Rush says Joe Klein and Sam Tanenhaus were playing the race card on Sunday shows when talking about Rush Moving on, Rush grappled with the media's coverage of him over the weekend. He started off withTime's Joe Klein and The New York Times' Sam Tanenhaus. Rush responded to criticism from both by accusing them of playing the race card (neither brought up race in their respective sound bites, by the way): LIMBAUGH: Well, what is his point? His point, these people -- lookit, they're playing the race card right now. They are losing this debate, and they're going back to their time-honored clichés and templates. Rush still calling community service "the first step toward fascism" Rush went on to rant about how media figures like Tanenhaus and Klein thought all of Obama's policies were supposed to happen by acclamation. But Rush's "pièce de résistance" was a clip from Saturday night on CNN Newsroom in which host Don Lemon asked his guest, author Tim Wise, if race was a factor in what was gong on. Wise responded by pointing out how Rush said on his show last Friday that community service is a step towards fascism, and also decried multiculturalism. Rush responded to Wise: LIMBAUGH: Race has nothing to do with this. Multiculturalism has nothing to do with race. This has to do with there being two or three completely different Americas now. We are trying to save this country as it was founded for anybody who wants to join us. We don't care what their race, their ethnicity, their religion happens to be. Community service is the first step toward fascism. When you take the event of 9-11, they leave this out. You take the commemorative celebration of 9-11, turn it into community service day? 9-11's not about community service; 9-11's about remembering the dead and remember who killed the dead and what we're gonna do to make sure it doesn't happen again. It's not about advancing president Obama's political agenda. Rush went on to read this American Thinker post about the rally, and said what happened on Saturday needs to be kept up for four years. Then Rush discussed a quote by Republican pollster Frank Luntz in Ross Douthat's most recent New York Times column, in which Luntz said the protest wasn't a Democrat or Republican thing. Rush didn't agree with Luntz: LIMBAUGH: Let me tell you something, I know Frank Luntz, and sometimes I even like Frank. But he couldn't be more wrong about this. I'm here to tell you that when the Republicans under George Bush were spending like never before, you didn't have this kind of thing happen. This is a conservative ascendancy. This most definitely is a Republican-versus-Democrat thing. Rush went on, changing gears to Rep. Joe "You Lie!" Wilson's hypothetical apology: LIMBAUGH: With Joe Wilson out there taking heat, demanding -- in fact, if I were Joe Wilson, what I would say, "I'll apologize as soon as Pelosi apologizes to the CIA. She gets there and lie -- I'll apologize as soon as she apologizes for calling half the country Nazis." He said he's not going to apologize anymore -- good for him. Rush concluded this rant by depicting the colliding forces at play at the protests: LIMBAUGH: This most definitely is a left-right thing, or if you don't like that formulation, this most definitely is a capitalist, free market economy versus a fascist, socialist economy kind of thing. Or if you want a different formulation you can say, this is freedom versus tyranny. This is liberty versus tyranny. That's what's driving this thing. It has nothing to do with people upset with how things are going in Washington on the part of both parties. Rush calls David Brooks, Ross Douthat, and Frank Luntz "phony conservatives" Rush continued to elaborate on his point that the protests were against Democrats. After the break, he called out "phony conservatives" like David Brooks, Ross Douthat, and Frank Luntz. He went on to describe the "conservative ascendency" currently taking place. Then Rush said he knows Obama is in trouble because "they have launched the race card." Rush said the race card was from Page 1 of the Democrat [sic] Party playbook, and the Democrats would have us believe there are no legitimate concerns with Obamacare, just that people who oppose it want to stop the first black president. His proof that the race card had been launched was the most recent column by Maureen Dowd and a Newsweek cover story about a study noting that "Kids as young as 6 months judge others based on skin color." Rush continued to discuss the Newsweek story on the other side of the break, and said people thought the election of Obama was supposed to make all of that go away -- although Rush pointed out that he predicted just the opposite, that Obama would exacerbate race problems. Anyway, Rush said the Newsweek story was another example of what obsessive racists the left are -- they look at people and see categories, and they gave us hyphenated Americans. Rush said they prefer celebrating diversity to the glory of the melting pot. There used to be a "distinct American culture," said Rush, but now that's not happening. Rush: "I didn't become a racist until somebody called me one" Then Rush told an anecdote that he also told "a guy" who is currently writing a book about him. The story was from his childhood, about the poor neighborhood his family's maid came from. Anyway, Rush's point was that he wasn't a racist until somebody called him one: LIMBAUGH: I didn't become a racist until somebody called me one, when I started this radio show. I wasn't a racist up until 1988, and then somebody called me one. And ever since I was called a racist, I've been one, according to the peop -- the media. And yet I never was one, and not one now. And all of you are racists simply because you oppose Obama. Every bit of this was predicted. Now the thing to do -- the thing to do here is laugh at it. Pivoting for a moment, Rush discussed an idea he had for the next series of protests. He explained what it takes for stories to get appropriate attention from the media, and talked about how thousands of conservative protests haven't been covered, but tiny left-wing protests have been. Rush said his idea was to hold the next set of protests outside of local and national network headquarters and dare the media to cover them. Rush added that he wasn't trying to "create" protests, but he wants it to happen spontaneously. After another break, Rush took the first of several callers today who attended the protest in Washington on Saturday. Rush and the caller reminisced about their favorite signs they saw. Rush described the discrepancy in reporting about attendance numbers between the British press and the U.S. drive-bys. The next caller also talked about his experience at the rally. The second hour began with Rush talking about Maureen Dowd making fun of Obama's ears during the campaign. Rush compared what Dowd later said to Obama about needing to toughen up, to what Dowd wrote about Joe Wilson in her recent column. Then Rush dug into his Stack of Stuff, beginning with a West Virginia newspaper blog post about Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) recent remarks about health care reform. Next up was an AP pollabout people still worrying about the economy. Rush said this was "great news" for Obama because "he loves this kind of chaos." Rush added: LIMBAUGH: I'm gonna tell you right now, there's no way a community organizer is a capitalist. It's impossible. It's simply impossible for a community organizer or a community service group like ACORN -- they've been busted again in Brooklyn, by the way, by the same guy, James O'Keefe. Then Rush read an ABC article about the slowing pace of stimulus spending, and took issue with the claim that a million jobs had been saved by the stimulus, which Rush called "BS." He finished off the segment with another AP poll about country's low trust of the news media. After the break, Rush went back to 9/12 rally attendance, again citing the UK Daily Mail as reporting 2 million protesters having shown up -- the article actually seems pretty conflicted, with the headline claiming there were "a million" (nowhere in the article does it claim two million) and a caption describing "tens of thousands of people" who "converged on Capitol Hill." Rush says pro-Obama health care rallies "are staged" Then Rush played audio bits of the CNN "infobabe" covering the protests and being heckled by the crowd. Rush read a quick Politico post about Joe Wilson, and got back to the phones with a caller who talked about her experience at the protest. Rush said the difference between this rally and the pro-amnesty and pro-Obama rallies was that Democrats have to send out marching orders, and pro-Obama health care rallies "are staged." Rush continued to discuss how there was no leader who organized the 9/12 protests -- people went to Washington out of their own volition and passion. Rush went on to say that if he gave out "marching orders," the media would have used that to discredit the protests. He went on to congratulate his audience for the success of the rally. After another break, Rush spent some more time bemoaning CNN and their coverage of the protests. He aired a clip of CNN reporter Jim Spellman talking to anchor Don Lemon about the element of "outlandish conspiracy theories" about death camps and protesters comparing Obama to Hitler. Rush claimed the Hitler signs are from "Lyndon LaRouche Democrats" (more on this idiocy later). Rush went on again about left-wing protests being drummed up by the White House and union thugs who beat up people who show up at tea parties. Rush complained that nobody called it "racist" when union thugs beat up a black conservative at a St. Louis health care town hall last month. Rush aired another bite from Spellman, who said that you didn't see much misinformation that is usually out there at the march in Washington. Rush said this was journalistic malpractice on the part of CNN, for discussing various aspects of the movement, and then saying those aspects weren't on display at the event they were reporting on. Rush briefly mentioned that Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) wrote a bill that would allow Obama to "take control of private Internet networks" in event of a cyber emergency -- which is completely false. Rush seemingly forgets all of his Obama-Hitler/Nazi comparisons from a few weeks ago Then Rush read a commentary by CBS' Bob Schieffer about how Joe Wilson's "You lie" outburst was "not America's proudest moment." Rush disagreed with Schieffer, and went on to rail against his commentary by saying that he was proud of the protests on Saturday and proud that Wilson would stand up to the horrible things Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are trying to do. Rush said he was proud of people trying to save the country from fascism. Rush continued to berate Schieffer -- he said there was no "meanness" in Wilson's outburst because "Obama was lying." Rush said the meanness started when Ted Kennedy savaged Bork and tried to destroy Clarence Thomas. Rush railed against percieved controversial remarks by Jack Murtha and John Kerry, and added in his Schieffer lecture: "You didn't think it was mean for the left to be calling George W. Bush Hitler?" Yes, Rush "Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate" Limbaugh just criticized Democrats for "calling George W. Bush Hitler." Maybe Rush should also ask Schieffer: "You didn't think it was mean for me to say that Barack Obama is like Hitler?" Rush returned from another break with a caller who said Judge Napolitano explained on Fox News that if health care passes, even if illegal immigrants aren't covered, the Supreme Court would likely overturn that provision and they would end up getting health care anyway. Rush agreed with the logic, and mentioned a "document dump" at the White House on Friday, "[a]nd one of the things that they dumped was verification is needed to ensure that illegals don't receive health care benefits. It's not in the bill. They need to put it in there. I mean, they were admitting that Joe Wilson's right." The next caller on the program recounted her confrontation with a liberal while she was on the Washington Metro subway system over the weekend over whether abortion was funded in the House health care bill. Rush warned the caller: LIMBAUGH: I was worried you might be shot like this abortion guy was -- I don't know, I forget where that happened. After some football talk, Rush started the final hour by discussing Obama's speech about the economy today. Rush claimed the purpose of the speech was for Obama to say "he fixed it." Rush complained about how often Obama was on TV, and refused to play bites from the speech in order to "hit back twice as hard." Then Rush talked about the previous caller, said it explained that abortion and coverage for "illegals" were in the bill, because otherwise you'd see pro-choicers and "feminazis" as well as "pro-amnesty groups" storming the gates of the White House. On that same note, Rush again forgot that for two weeks last month, he made incessant, non-stop comparisons between Obama and Hitler and Nazis: LIMBAUGH: Ladies and gentlemen, we've gone through the sound bites today here on the EIB Network, and the leftist state-run media is talking about the dark mood. The conspiracy theories, the dark undercurrent. Death camps, people comparing Obama to Hitler. Of course, that was the LaRouche Democrats doing that. Yes, LaRouchies were doing that, too. We'll concede that. But so was Rush Limbaugh. Anyway, Rush warned about the leftists wackos running the White House and Congress, and said that any right wing wackos were "safely out on the fringe." Rush went on to play sound bites of "wacko" David Axelrod on Face the Nation on Sunday saying he didn't think the protests were indicative of the nation's mood. Rush claimed that opposition to Obama's health care plans are mainstream. Rush went on to complain about how the beltway media was obsessed with process, and don't realize that we don't need all these bills -- health care, cap and trade, etc. "Screw the bills," said Rush. He said Democrats would probably end up using reconciliation. "Screw you is their motto." After the break, Rush read a Real Clear Politics article on the generic ballot, and brought up a Barney Frank article because he loved the headline. Then he took a caller who disagreed with Rush about the protests not being a Republican versus Democrat movement. The caller thought there was a movement to create a third party. Rush went on to warn about third parties and defended his point that the protests were about Democrats versus Republicans, not merely anti-government. Rush: 9/12 protests were as "anti-Obama as anything else" After another break, Rush said he would repeat his hour one monologue about the "left versus right thing" for the benefit of his listeners who were forced to listen to Obama's speech at the time. Rush went on to make all the same points as before, and talked about how the protests were as "anti-Obama as anything else." Rush summed up his theory of "conservative ascendency": LIMBAUGH: I still maintain that whether you're fully aware of it or not, that it is the fear of the dark undercurrent of Obama and whatever you want to call his policies. If you want to call them fascism, you're right. You wanna call them socialism, you're partially right. You wanna call 'em liberal, you're dead-on accurate. You wanna call 'em progressive -- whatever you want to call 'em -- they are left-wing radicals. This is a bunch of people who do not like this country as it's currently constituted. They are trying to reconstitute it. They don't like the fact that the Constitution is an object in their way, is an obstacle. One more break, and Rush closed out the program by again decrying the Ivy League blue bloods in the Republican Party, and why you shouldn't generally be anti-Washington because the GOP can't be equated with Obama's radicalism. The final caller of the show wanted more Joe Wilsons. Rush again praised Wilson, and added that Obama still hasn't apologized to Officer Crowley and hasn't offered Wilson a beer at the White House. Zachary Aronow and Zachary Pleat contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire. Highlights Outrageous comments LIMBAUGH: Race has nothing to do with this. Multiculturalism has nothing to do with race. This has to do with there being two or three completely different Americas now. We are trying to save this country as it was founded for anybody who wants to join us. We don't care what their race, their ethnicity, their religion happens to be. Community service is the first step toward fascism. When you take the event of 9-11, they leave this out. You take the commemorative celebration of 9-11, turn it into community service day? 9-11's not about community service; 9-11's about remembering the dead and remember who killed the dead and what we're gonna do to make sure it doesn't happen again. It's not about advancing president Obama's political agenda. [...] LIMBAUGH: I didn't become a racist until somebody called me one, when I started this radio show. I wasn't a racist up until 1988, and then somebody called me one. And ever since I was called a racist, I've been one, according to the peop -- the media. And yet I never was one, and not one now. And all of you are racists simply because you oppose Obama. Every bit of this was predicted. Now the thing to do -- the thing to do here is laugh at it. [...] LIMBAUGH: I'm gonna tell you right now, there's no way a community organizer is a capitalist. It's impossible. It's simply impossible for a community organizer or a community service group like ACORN -- they've been busted again in Brooklyn, by the way, by the same guy, James O'Keefe and his woman running around his prost -- he's the pimp, busted them again, same damn thing, so it's Baltimore, Washington, and Brooklyn now where ACORN has been busted. [...] LIMBAUGH: You weren't bothered, Mr. Schieffer, when Jack Murtha accused Marines at Haditha of rape and murder, later exonerated and acquitted? You weren't bothered when John Kerry equated our troops to the terrorists storming homes of Iraqi women at night? That didn't bother you, Bob? You didn't think that was mean? You didn't think it was mean for the left to be calling George W. Bush Hitler? [...] LIMBAUGH: That just doesn't happen. I was worried you might be shot like this abortion guy was -- I don't know, I forget where that happened. But my gosh, I mean, the guy decided to get on the internet via his BlackBerry and researched it and found, sorry, it is in the House Bill? [...] LIMBAUGH: Ladies and gentlemen, we've gone through the sound bites today here on the EIB Network, and the leftist state-run media is talking about the dark mood. The conspiracy theories, the dark undercurrent. Death camps, people comparing Obama to Hitler. Of course, that was the LaRouche Democrats doing that. [...] LIMBAUGH: I still maintain that whether you're fully aware of it or not, that it is the fear of the dark undercurrent of Obama and whatever you want to call his policies. If you want to call them fascism, you're right. You wanna call them socialism, you're partially right. You wanna call 'em liberal, you're dead-on accurate. You wanna call 'em progressive -- whatever you want to call 'em -- they are left-wing radicals. This is a bunch of people who do not like this country as it's currently constituted. They are trying to reconstitute it. They don't like the fact that the Constitution is an object in their way, is an obstacle. Enemies list LIMBAUGH: Well, what is his point? His point, these people -- lookit, they're playing the race card right now. They are losing this debate, and they're going back to their time-honored clichés and templates. [...] LIMBAUGH: I was reading in the New York -- well, I had it pointed out to me. Ross Douthat, in his -- I hope I'm pronouncing that right, I really -- I've never heard his name pronounced, it's D-O-U-T-H-A-T, so I'm just pronouncing it as Douthat, Douthat, I'm pronouncing it as it looks to me. He had a quote from Frank Luntz, and Frank Luntz said that this is not a Republican or Democrat thing, this protest. People are angry at both parties. Let me tell you something, I know Frank Luntz, and sometimes I even like Frank. But he couldn't be more wrong about this. I'm here to tell you that when the Republicans under George Bush were spending like never before, you didn't have this kind of thing happen. This is a conservative ascendancy. This most definitely is a Republican-versus-Democrat thing. With Joe Wilson out there taking heat, demanding -- in fact, if I were Joe Wilson, what I would say, "I'll apologize as soon as Pelosi apologizes to the CIA. She gets there and lie -- I'll apologize as soon as she apologizes for calling half the country Nazis." He said he's not going to apologize anymore -- good for him. This most definitely is a left-right thing, or if you don't like that formulation, this most definitely is a capitalist, free market economy versus a fascist, socialist economy kind of thing. Or if you want a different formulation you can say, this is freedom versus tyranny. This is liberty versus tyranny. That's what's driving this thing. It has nothing to do with people upset with how things are going in Washington on the part of both parties. America's Truth Rejector LIMBAUGH: What an event that was on Saturday. In fact, folks, there were more people at that event on Saturday -- according to the British press -- than there were people who showed up at Obama's immaculation back in January. [...] LIMBAUGH: In fact, they had a big document dump on Friday afternoon at the White House. And one of the things that they dumped was verification is needed to ensure that illegals don't receive health care benefits. It's not in the bill. They need to put it in there. I mean, they were admitting that Joe Wilson's right.

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