All Episodes
Previous Next
Feb. 26, 2014 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:57
February 26, 2014, Wednesday, Hour #1
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
This is unbelievably hilarious.
And I had no idea it happened.
I had literally no idea I was CNN last night.
I was the totality of CNN programming last night.
And I didn't even know about it.
I just now found out about it when Cookie sends me the audio soundbite roster.
There's something like, let me count it again here.
There's something 10 audio soundbites.
And you know what it's all about?
I happen to say that the governor of Arizona is being bullied.
Is there any doubt she's being bullied?
And yet this was thought to be the most outrageous, insensitive, over-the-top comment that anyone could make about what's going on in Arizona.
The fact that I said that Governor Brewer was being bullied.
Look, when the National Football League threatens you with taking the Super Bowl away from Phoenix, unless you do what they want you to do.
Are you being bullied or not?
I mean, I don't even, it's just, it is hilarious.
And I'll let you hear the sound bites and this N-word thing in the NFL that blew up last night and this morning in the media as well.
So we got a smorgasbord here today, folks.
I mean, this is an unending buffet line.
You just, you got to hear this stuff, and you will, if you hang in there, be tough.
Day three of the N-word, and now, let me tell you what's been added to it.
Somebody has come out and said some media person, the N-word, that's the wrong thing.
We got to look out for gay slurs on the field in the NFL.
The N-word, I mean, that's common.
Black guys are calling themselves that with terms of endearment and all this gay slurs that are the real problem in the NFL.
Oh, folks, I can't begin to describe the literal gold mine here.
Anyway, greetings.
Rush Limbaugh, most talked about, radio talk show and host in America.
Telephone number if you want to be on the program, 800-282-2882, and the email address, LRushBo at EIBnet.com.
Now, let me give you a little news story here to set something up.
This is a story out of CBS, Eyeball News, Los Angeles.
Southern California lawmakers who support legislation to discriminate against gays and lesbians now have one less hotspot to visit in West Hollywood.
David Cooley, the founder of the Abbey Food and Bar located on North Robertson Boulevard, has announced that the popular gay bar will add any legislator in any state who votes for bills to allow for discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, tranny people to a deny entry list.
So if any legislator votes in a way this guy doesn't like, they're not going to be let into his bar.
Of course, that's cool.
That's heroic.
That's right on.
But let somebody that bakes cakes for a living not want to bake a cake for a gay wedding, and you've got a major sin that has been committed.
A major human rights violation has been committed.
And we've got to do something about it.
And by the way, the Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder, as we mentioned yesterday, is out telling state attorneys general that if they don't like certain laws that their legislatures have passed, just follow the lead of Obama and don't enforce them.
They're perfectly within their legal rights to not enforce laws that they don't like.
So here's where we are.
Eric Holder can lawfully refuse to enforce laws.
Eric Holder can tell state attorneys general not to enforce laws.
A bar owner in West Hollywood can deny entry to anybody he thinks is not sympathetic to LGBT issues.
But a business owner in Arizona cannot lawfully protect and adhere to his or her religious views which are constitutionally protected.
And the effort to make that bakery or any other business, wedding photographer, wedding cake baker, to force them to do business with people that they religiously object to, why, that's not bullying anybody.
This is the way it ought to be.
Can we agree, ladies and gentlemen, selective enforcement of the law is wrong?
Isn't that a starting point for civil society?
Somebody thinks that selectively serving customers based upon religious beliefs is intolerable.
Can that same person argue selective enforcement of the law is fine and dandy?
I mean, why is one okay and the other not?
Why can the president choose to ignore laws on the books, not enforce them?
Attorney General, ditto.
How can he tell state attorneys general, hey, you don't like it?
Don't enforce it.
A bar owner in West Hollywood, you're not getting in here if you're not sympathetic to gay issues.
But somebody bakes cakes or takes photos in a business refuses when a gay couple walks in, then all hell breaks loose.
So, you want to hear some of the sound bites?
Let's go.
We'll start here with Mike Taibbi.
This is on the Today Show today.
Oh, yeah, it was beyond CNN.
It was in local Arizona.
Eyeball news there, too, as well.
Mike Taibbi, this is the way he set up the reporting of the story on the Today Show today.
If Governor Brewer does veto the bill, ultra-conservative talkers like Rush Limbaugh say they know who's to blame.
She's being bullied by the homosexual lobby in Arizona and elsewhere.
Folks, that little innocuous statement, which happens to be nothing more than an observation of what's going on, literally caused liberal brains and heads to explode last night.
You know, I didn't even know about it.
I wish I'd have known.
I wish one of you people would have called me so I could have turned it on.
Well, I know nobody watches CNN.
That's the thing.
In fact, speaking of, thank you, Mr. Snerdley, for that reminder.
They have now reached, the February numbers are in this February.
It is disastrous.
Anderson Cooper, for example, is down 47% year to year, 47% less audience this February than last February.
CNN in some day parts is down 50%, lost over half their audience from last year to this year.
I mean, It is a disaster over there.
You talk about being out of the mainstream, and what's hilarious is they're playing all of these soundbites to me, and people react to me as well, like I'm out of the mainstream.
These people can't even hold an audio.
I mean, 47%.
This is their big guy, Anderson Cooper.
I'll never understand any of this.
I really, you know, I go back a long time in the broadcasting business, and this just a few short years ago, I mean, everybody be gone, and there'd be a mass panic going on a long time ago.
Well, they've cleaned house two or three times, but they don't clean house with that.
They still think they got the hottest talent in the country.
They've got it.
It's inexplicable.
So, anyway, that's today's show.
Now, here is KPNX eyeball 12 news at 10 in Phoenix.
This is the anchor Lynn Su Cooney reporting about Mitt Romney and me on the Arizona bill.
Mitt Romney has become the latest high-profile public figure to criticize the bill.
Rash Limbaugh is on the other side saying, quote, the governor of Arizona is being bullied.
She's being bullied by the homosexual lobby in Arizona and elsewhere.
She is being bullied by the nationwide drive-by media.
She's being bullied by certain elements of corporate America in order to advance the gay agenda.
How is this?
How is this even a matter of discussion?
She is being bullied.
That is part of the way the left gets its way is to bully every opponent practically on every issue.
They've successfully bullied the Republicans into submission.
You know what the Republican position on this is?
Just, Governor Brewer, please just sign it.
Don't go away.
It's going to kill us if you veto.
Oh, God.
Oh, don't.
Don't.
Please veto it.
Do whatever.
They wanted to veto it and get them to go away.
Just please don't.
The Republican Party has been successfully bullied to the point now submission.
If this isn't bullying, what were the magic words?
Homosexual lobby?
Is that what lit their fire?
That's what it is.
If I would have, well, that, look, this Lynn Sukuni, look, I have nothing against, but Lynn Sukuni, she didn't even know what drive-by media is.
It was on a teleprompter.
That's hilarious.
It's hilarious.
He's being bullied by the homosexual lobby in Arizona and elsewhere.
She's being bullied by the nationwide drive-by media.
I love that.
Don't you love that?
The nationwide drive-by.
What is this if it isn't bullying?
This is the soap opera.
If it's not the gay lobby, it's the NFL.
It's in a number of other corporate interests.
They're also Apple Computer has weighed in on this.
I don't know.
What would you call it?
Pressuring?
Or is it invoking what's morally right?
How is this even controversial?
I'll tell you, as always, there is something else going on.
And when we get the soundbite nine, you'll hear what it is.
The forehead Paul Bagala at CNN gives away what the whole purpose of reacting to me this way is.
And it has nothing to do with the bill.
There is no tolerance for contrasting views.
In fact, Snerdley just asked you whatever happened to tolerance contrasting views.
In fact, speaking of that, did I put this Obama right here?
Evidence of formerly nicotine stained fingers.
Obama is a Washington Post story.
Obama urges supporters to correct misinformation from conservative news.
Obama yesterday called for his support.
Wait a minute.
This is Wednesday.
It says, yes.
Obama on Tuesday called for his supporters to correct their Republican friends when they spout incorrect facts they heard from conservative news outlets.
Like, if you like your insurance plan, you can keep it.
When the Republicans lie to you about that, you go out there and correct them.
You ask me about tolerance.
Obama's urging his buddies to bully people.
They bring a knife.
We bring a gun.
Who said that?
It's Obama.
So the president is asking his own supporters to bully people who get their news from conservative media.
One more soundbite we got to go to break.
CNN New Day.
This is this morning.
This is their early show.
This is Anna Cabrera reporting on me and my remarks that Governor Brewer is being bullied.
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, igniting the rhetoric by saying Brewer is being attacked.
The governor of Arizona is being bullied.
She's being bullied by the homosexual lobby in Arizona and elsewhere.
Right now, no one knows for sure what the governor is going to do, but we do know she vetoed similar legislation last year.
I have no trouble admitting to you, folks, I find this absolutely such a teachable moment.
It is so hilarious.
There's no question she's being bullied, and yet I'm the bad guy for pointing it out.
There's no other conclusion you can draw in terms of the pressure that is being exerted on the governor in order to achieve the outcome they desire.
They're not just passively waiting for the governor to make up her own mind.
There's no passivity going on out there.
They're not any patience, people just waiting to see what she does.
Of course they're engaged here.
And, you know, I guess what bothers them is that they think bullying is exclusively a conservative thing.
That's what I'm turning around on them, calling them bullies because they're incapable of that kind of behavior.
You know, what would be, if they don't like bullying, what would be a better word?
Extorting?
Well, I know extorting.
Threatening.
Are they threatening?
Blackmailing?
How about hostage-taking?
Well, that's what they say about it.
They said Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, they took the budget hostage?
Are they holding some process hostage, the deficit of their hostage?
How about calling them?
Say they're taking hostage takers here.
That would really tick them off.
Your guiding line, Rush Limbaugh, the EIB network, and the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
They really, you know, this reaction to me, accusing them of bullying the governor, it is entirely possible that they do not see it that way.
They don't, they don't.
I will maintain to you that Drive-By Media has no empathy.
They have no ability to, they don't understand how you see them.
They do not understand how you react to what they claim is the news every day.
They're totally clueless about it.
There is no question that there is an organized campaign to harass the governor.
If they don't like bullying, I'll pull it back.
I will officially change my terminology.
If you don't like the fact that she's being bullied, I'll change it.
And I will say that the female governor of Arizona being harassed.
How's that?
We're witnessing a war on a woman with a drive-by media and all the vested interests here.
But they really don't see it this way.
They think they're reporting the news.
Well, I wouldn't go that far.
I mean, I'm not trying to portray them as detached.
But they're genuinely shocked that anybody would say what they're doing is bullying.
This is the soundbite from yesterday's program that sent them into orbit, folks.
She's being attacked for suggesting she might veto the bill for economic reasons.
I kid you not.
She's not saying that the veto would be for the reason they want to hear.
The same-sex homosexual advocates want her to veto it on the basis of human rights, civil rights, gay rights, and what have you.
The governor of Arizona is being bullied.
She's being bullied by the homosexual lobby.
That was it.
That launched it into the orbit and took them with it.
And they just, that's all they heard.
That became the story.
I actually hijacked the story from the governor of Arizona and became the story.
Now, here is CNN's The Lead last night is Jake Tapper speaking with former Congressman Jim Colby.
Tapper plays a clip of me saying that the governor being bullied and then said, Congressman, does it matter to you why the bill would be vetoed as long as it's vetoed?
I don't know what she'll say in her veto message, but I think it's important that it be done for several reasons.
I think it's morally incorrect.
I think it's unnecessary.
And I think economically it's bad.
And I think from a reputation standpoint, it just gives Arizona a black eye, and we don't need that.
And so I think we should avoid that.
So what just happened there?
Jim Colby just agreed with me.
You know, they play this soundbite, they can't believe that I actually think that she's being bullied because she wouldn't veto it for the right reason.
They asked Colby.
Well, I don't know what she'll say, but it is important that it be done for several reasons.
It is morally incorrect.
They do want this veto to happen with specific motivation behind it.
What is so wrong about reporting the truth about this?
Which is all I'm doing.
I'm just telling everybody what I am observing.
I'm not even accusing anybody of anything.
I'm watching the governor of Arizona be bullied by all kinds of people, the media, corporate America, the National Football League.
Of course, the various gay lobbies and interests and so forth are harassed.
What have you?
Anyway, there's still more of this, and we haven't even scratched the surface yet here on N-Word NFL today.
Hi.
Welcome back, folks.
Great to have you.
El Rushbow executing his scientist duties flawlessly while having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
Does anybody at this point even really know what this bill is about in Arizona?
I wonder how many people think that if the bill is signed into law, that gay people can't go to Chick-fil-A and get a sandwich.
I wonder how many people think that if the bill is signed into law, gay people can't go into Roots Chris and get a prime cut.
I wonder how many people believe that if the bill is signed into law, that gay people can't go buy wedding cakes.
That's the way it's being portrayed.
This law happens to be a religious freedom law.
The Constitution provides, in the First Amendment, freedom of religion.
The people that who, the people opposing this do not have any constitutional standing per se.
When you've got this West Hollywood bar denying entry to anybody the owner doesn't like for political reasons, there's no constitutional standing for that.
That's blatant discrimination.
But since he represents a minority and therefore in the eyes of the left, a bunch of victims, i.e. homosexuals, then they can't possibly discriminate.
They're victims.
They're in the minority.
He doesn't have any constitutional authority, nevertheless, for his discrimination.
However, people practicing their religious beliefs, guaranteed free religious beliefs with the Constitution, do indeed have standing.
That's really what the nub of the bill is about.
But that's all been forgotten because it's now been transformed, if you will, into it's been flaked and formed to fit into the daily liberal agenda soap opera.
And that's why a lot of people think that what's at stake here is gay people being able to go into a restaurant when it isn't.
So you see, it's perfectly fine for the attorney general to tell other attorneys general to selectively enforce the law.
If it's a law you don't like, screw it.
Don't enforce it.
He said, we're doing the same thing in Washington.
The president, if he doesn't like a law, he's just not enforcing it.
In fact, the president's writing his own laws.
You guys should try that.
That apparently is fine and dandy.
West Hollywood bar owner can discriminate against people he disagrees with left and right.
No problem whatsoever with that.
But this in Arizona, my golly, folks, you would think it's the end of civilized society.
And you know what I think?
I think the left, like a lot of people, they live in the past.
And I think in this issue, I think one of the reasons they gin this issue up is they are waiting.
They can't wait for the next Todd Aiken.
They can't wait for the next goofball statement from somebody that they think they can build up and bally who into some overall condemnation of conservatives and Republicans.
I mean, it's profoundly embarrassing.
And that's the kind of thing that they're searching for here.
Focusing on me happening to observe what millions of people are also observing, that there is bullying going on.
And there's no question that the governor is being bullied.
There's no question she's being harassed by people who have a vested interest in her vetoing the bill.
On the other hand, do you see a lot of activism on the part of people in favor of the bill?
Do you?
Are they bullying her?
Are they exerting pressure on her?
I don't see it.
They're laying low like scared to death.
So let us now return.
The audio soundbites.
Up next is Ken Cuccinelli.
He was on Crossfire last night, and they're talking about this.
And then they played that soundbite of me saying that the governor is being bullied.
It's all CNN did last.
They played that soundbite over and over, and they asked every guest what they thought of what I said.
So it's Cuccinelli's turn next.
And Van Jones, when it co-hosts at Crossfire, said, I want you to respond to Rush Limbaugh.
Do you think that the governor is being bullied?
Jeff Flake, senator from her state, is against marriage equality.
He's against domestic partnerships, against hate crime legislation.
He got 100% ratings at the Family Research Council.
He's against the law.
McCain's against the law.
Are they bullying Governor Brewer?
No, but a lot of other people are.
A lot of other people and entities are.
And this is the political correctness stampede.
Once they, whoever they are, that control much of the voice, and by that I don't mean actual control, I mean influence control, and they start rolling the steamroller and it's cool to go that way.
Well, then, you know, Katie bar the door.
That's what's bearing down on Jan Brewer.
Okay, so he just agreed.
Now, he said, no, McCain's not bullying her and Flake and a lot of other people are.
And this is the political correctness stampede.
Once they get going, they just steamroller over everybody.
Ken Cuccinelli, Attorney General from Virginia, Tony Perkins, the Family Research Council on Aaron Burnett Out Front.
He said, soundbite number eight, what do you think about what Rush Limbaugh just said?
Is Governor Brewer being bullied by the gay lobby in order to advance their agenda?
I think what's happened is the water has been muddied, clearly, no question about that.
Too many people have gone to the Nancy Pelosi School of Public Policy.
They're going to dispose of this, then read it.
It's a one-page bill.
It's pretty easy.
It amends a 1999 law that essentially does three things.
The major thing it does is it says you don't have to leave your faith within the walls of your church or your home.
So he's simply saying you can be religious in your business, too.
You don't just have to be religious in church.
So look, there's no doubt that pressure is being exerted.
There are threats, economic, moral, you name it.
I mean, when the National Football League takes a day off from being concerned about the N-word and threatens the governor with removing the Super Bowl, what is that?
Apple Computer, Apple, or Apple Incorporated, sorry.
Apple just partnered with a Sapphire manufacturing firm that's located in Mesa.
The rumors, I guess nobody really, because Apple doesn't announce anything, but right now, Apple uses Sapphire to house the camera apparatus on the iPhone, protect it, Sapphire very hard, hard to scratch it.
They also use Sapphire on the fingerprint sensor, Touch ID.
The story is they're going to start making Sapphire for the entire screen of the new iPhone or iPhones, if there are two of them.
And the production is supposed to really, really ramp up.
And we're talking about Apple is maybe hiring 2,000 people, 2,000 new jobs in Arizona in Mesa at this Sapphire manufacturing.
They came out and they let it be known that they were very, very much in favor of the governor vetoing the bill.
And there's 2,000 jobs now.
What is that?
Mr. Limbaugh, that is simple moral pressure.
Oh, is that what it is?
Moral pressure.
It isn't bullying.
Oh, okay.
Well, then it's harassment.
There's no question.
The left takes ownership of certain words, and we can't use them.
Like gravitas and you name it.
And bullying is one of those things.
They own it, and only they get to use it, and only they get to define it.
So here I come, Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky radio talk show host, accurately describing what's going on, and there are howls and shrieks of heretical outrage.
And leave it to the forehead, Paul Bagella, to put it all in perspective.
He also appeared on Aaron Burnett Out Front last night on CNN.
That show is down something like 20% year over year.
It's a disaster at CNN.
My guess is I'm the one by playing these soundbites that's letting the country actually know what happened on CNN last night because left to your own devices, nobody is watching it.
But that's the discussion for another moment.
Here's the Bagala, the forehead, Paul Bagala, reacting to all of this and explaining what this has really been about, that all night last night, using me to bounce off of.
The Face of the Republican Party now is Ted Nugent, Rush Limbaugh, who said these foul things about the woman from Georgetown who testified on contraceptive file things.
That's the face of the Republican Party.
Republicans got to get a better face.
That's what they're attempting to do.
They're trying to Todd Aiken me, if you will.
They have these things that happened in the past, and they think, ooh, we can make it happen again.
We can do it again.
They never ever try to triumph in the arena of ideas.
They never once try to win or persuade people on the strength of the basis of their ideas.
The only arrows in their quiver are character assassination.
Efforts to discredit people.
That's all they've got.
And the forehead just explained what all that on CNN last night was about.
Now, let's go to the Today Show.
Back there today, this morning, the co-host Matt Wauer, who's back from Sochi.
Sochi, how do you pronounce where the Olympics were?
Sochi.
Okay, Matt La, he got back.
I guess he didn't fly out of Kiev.
He got back, and he's talking to former White House Communications Director Nicole Wallace, who used to be Nicole Devenish until she got married.
She married a guy named Wallace.
So now she's Nicole Wallace.
Well, no, but that's it.
People may not know that when a man and woman got married, the woman used to take the husband's name.
That used to happen that way, you know, in the old-fashioned days.
Well, I mean, that's not as common.
I mean, you can still find it.
The pockets of the country still happens, but I just, people might be, you know, I wanted to point out that her just how she be called Wallace when her name was Devenish.
She got married in a very old-fashioned maneuver, took her husband's name.
Anyway, She's on the day show day, and Mount Wauer said the bill itself does force the question that the religious freedoms of one group trump the right not to be discriminated against for another group.
How do you answer that question?
You've got Republicans saying, I hear you, and understanding that the consequences of measures like this are so grave, not just for our party, but for our country to be viewed as not tolerating any group of people.
I think Republicans are saying, I hear you.
I understand the problems we've had in recent elections, and we're not going to get dogged.
We're not going to get painted with this brush that we discriminate against any group of people.
Right.
This is what we mean by bullied.
The Republican establishment is entirely reactionary, and they're just laying down.
Whatever you want, whatever you want, just don't call us anti-this.
Just don't say we're anti-this or anti-that, whatever you want, whatever you want.
Just don't call us any names.
If you call us names, that's the only thing it hurts.
It really hurts.
We don't want to be called names because we're not anti-anybody.
We're really not.
So please don't say that.
And they aren't.
The thing is, the Republicans are not anti-that's been totally manufactured, too.
But rather than fight it and defend it, let's just, you know, Governor, just veto the bill so we can get rid of the issue, which is the Republican modus emperinda.
Just let them have it.
Get rid of it.
I was also used as a reaction feature on Fox last night.
A different thing.
But I got to take a break.
Don't go away.
Time to go to the phones here on the EIB network.
We have a call from Tucson.
It is Sharon.
Thank you.
You're up first, and welcome to the EIB network.
Hello.
Hello, Rush.
Hello?
Hi.
Hi.
I'm so honored to talk to you, Rush.
I understand I'm the first caller, and I want to comment on the bill in Arizona.
The way that I read the bill and understand it is that this was made to protect business owners because of what happened in New Mexico, where the gay couple went in and wanted to have a cake made by a baker, and he didn't want to do it because he felt it was against his religious beliefs.
And then, you know, they sued, and apparently, you know, they closed him down.
Right.
Well, that's what this bill was intended for because, you know, the left always, the left is the one who discriminates.
They say you have free speech as long as you agree with what I say.
If you don't, then you don't have free speech.
That's exactly right.
That is exactly right.
And they bully you if they don't get their way.
The left is the one.
The gays that don't want to discriminate.
Now, if you want to be a gay person, that's your right.
But if you're a business owner or you're a person of faith and you don't, because of your right, where are the business owners, right?
Where are the people of faith right here?
The gays discriminate against them because they say, well, if you, you have to accept me.
You know, they're making that in our face.
Sharon, it's the power of political correctness.
It's what the Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli was saying.
That steamroller is now just mowing down anybody in its way.
And people don't want to speak up.
It's like we had a call from a woman a couple of months ago when Obama's approval numbers started plummeting.
She said, I think they've always been low.
It's just people were afraid to tell pollsters that they disapproved of the president because they didn't want to be thought of as racist.
Well, same thing here.
You ask, where are the people standing up for the business owner?
They're scared.
They know what's going to happen to them.
If they do, they're afraid of what's going to happen to them.
They're afraid the media is going to descend on them in the first place.
And who's the media going to bring along?
They're just scared to stand up.
The Republican Party's in the same boat.
Yep, but the people that wrote the bill, that was what it was intended to do, to protect the business owners.
They have a right.
Well, Matt Wauer kind of got it right here.
You do have a balancing.
You've got constitutionally protected religious freedom.
And how do you balance that against not discriminating against others?
And so the bill basically attempts to establish that a person's religious beliefs do not exist only while in church.
That he is free, he or she is free to practice them.
They believe, and they should respect other people's people's beliefs.
Right.
I've heard the question asked: why would you not want to sell your product or service?
And I've also, why would you go somewhere to buy something where you're not wanted?
And when you answer that, you understand what's going on here.
Why would you go, of all the places to go to wedding cake, why focus on the place that doesn't want to make one for you?
Think about the answer to that.
Back after this.
Another question that I'm going to re-ask here: why is there a political agenda attached to two men having sex with each other?
What is the political agenda in that?
Hmm.
▲
Export Selection