Limbaugh's lament

By Capt. Fogg

My first thought was, he lied in every word

- Robt. Browning -

When the man behind the curtain speaks, Republicans listen. Others become speechless. It's all too predictable that Limbaugh would support Joe Wilson's outburst and not surprising that he claims to have been squealing "you lie" himself throughout the entirety of President Obama's health care speech.

He is lying, President Obama is. From the moment he opens his mouth until he ends the speech,

he grunted on his radio show yesterday. Of course, and as usual, no discussion of how or about what he actually lied ensued. Boss Hogg said he lied, that's enough, and Wilson never should have apologized and his colleagues shouldn't have pressured him to do so.

It reminds me of the first time I heard his radio show. I was driving through Georgia, in the days before satellite radio, and I decided to give him a minute to see what he was about.

[Rush] "I mean, the guy (President Clinton) just makes me sick."

[caller 1] "Ditto Rush! I see him and I want to vomit."

[caller 2] "Ditto, ditto -- oh ditto? Rush, everything about him is disgusting. He makes me sick, sick!"

The call and response chorus went on and on until I turned it off and I've only heard him a couple of other times in all these years -- I mean he makes me sick, but I can usually tell you why without inventing things.

That no plan offered by anyone provides health insurance for illegal residents of the U.S. isn't hard to determine, but Rush isn't about facts, he's about emotions -- hate, for the most part. It's easy for him to say that Obama is plotting:

to completely tear down the institutions and traditions that have made this country great.

It's impossible, however, to make a case for that without lying. In fact, his attempts to preserve some of those institutions are the basis for other Limbaugh anger crusades. I'm at a loss to understand what American institutions made America great and are now in peril from the concept of making insurance available to everyone, unless stupidity, dishonesty and perhaps insanity are institutions. I'm at a loss to understand just how:

SEC. 246. NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS.
Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

means the opposite of what it says without subscribing to Limbaughian logic. In fact, it proves that Rush is a liar, something all to easy to do, but one thing Rush knows is that the more absurd and preposterous the claim the less effective is the irrefutable proof of its falsity.

Rush knows and Rush profits and Rush keeps on lying and Republicans keep on following in his wake, terrified to disobey. It's not so much that he makes me sick but that he is the sickness.

(Cross-posted from Human Voices.)