You could feel the spittle ricocheting off the microphone at Rush Limbaugh's studio yesterday. "El Rushbo" as he likes to call himself, couldn't wait for the dull bass notes of his theme song to play out before weighing in.
"It was disgusting. It was reprehensible and it was predictable," Rush said as the opening theme faded into the background. "The office of the President of the United States was demeaned last night."
At first blush, it sounded as if El Rushbo had added his voice to the chorus of conservatives denouncing Rep. Joe Wilson, the hard-right Republican House member from South Carolina, for interrupting President Barack Obama's health-care speech Wednesday night by shouting: "You lie!"
Within seconds, it became clear that Rush wasn't talking about the bad behavior that caused so much opprobrium to fall upon Joe Wilson's shoulders and $200,000 to fill the war chest of his Democratic challenger overnight. It was Mr. Obama's speech before the joint session of Congress that had Rush gargling phlegm in a fit of high dudgeon.
"[It was] the most crude and disgusting performance by a president I've ever seen," Rush shouted from deep within the bowels of an alternative universe. After catching his breath, he described President Obama's speech as an ad hominem attack on himself, Sarah Palin and every conservative who ever questioned the wisdom of his health-care initiative.
When he finally got around to mentioning Rep. Joe Wilson by name, it was with an indirect rebuke: "Joe Wilson need not have apologized," Rush said in defiance of common sense and political reality. "I wish he had not."
He then launched into an attack of Republicans he accused of rushing to "denounce" Joe Wilson for "simply articulating what millions of Americans were saying." That's when El Rushbo issued a threat that probably has more than a few mainstream conservatives swallowing hard: "Censuring our own people on our own team [doesn't make sense]. We need new people in the game."
For his part, the congressman from South Carolina realized he had stepped into something foul immediately after doing it. He did not have the cover of other Republicans chiming in that he expected. Hecklers are generally cowards who expect the anonymity of a crowd to protect them. Joe Wilson found out the hard way what happens when the mob fails to materialize on cue.
For the rest of the speech, Mr. Wilson played with his BlackBerry and avoided eye contact with the rest of America. As soon as he could, he bolted the chamber. Within minutes, he was abjectly apologizing to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel by phone. He also released a statement to the media: "This evening I let my emotions get the best of me. While I disagree with the president's statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility."
After his Cabinet meeting yesterday, Mr. Obama graciously accepted Joe Wilson's apology and used it as an occasion to drive his most rabid political opponents wild with fury. "We all make mistakes," Mr. Obama said with the magnanimity of a cat that lets a mouse it has tired of playing with limp off to bleed to death in a corner. "He apologized quickly and without equivocation."
Huddled deep in the bowels of his studio, Rush Limbaugh raged as if someone were pouring burning coals on his head. He brayed and snorted like someone on the verge of a nervous breakdown, giving vent to paranoid ravings about the president, "weak" Republicans and the Democratic majority in Congress that would have been embarrassing coming out of the mouth of a certified crazy person.
"We have to get to the point where we can have a conversation about big, important issues that matter to the American people without vitriol, without name calling, without the assumption of the worst in other people's motives," Mr. Obama told reporters quizzing him about Mr. Wilson yesterday. "We are all Americans. We all want to do the best for our country. We've got different ideas but, for the most part, we have the same aims."
On the radio, Rush Limbaugh admitted what has become painfully obvious to most of the president's critics: "This is not your average presidential administration."
First Published: September 11, 2009, 4:00 a.m.
