RUSH: Okay, folks, I’m being hounded. People’s memories here are just too long. I’m being hounded here for all these sound bites about me that I started the show talking about. I go through the first 15 sound bites in the roster today and just skipped them because they’re all about me, and so people ask, “Are you gonna play those?” Okay, I figure now that we’ve let all but a half hour of the show go by we can get into some of this. Let’s go to the top of the sound bites, Mike. Go to number one here. I gotta note from Cookie last night. I just gotta tell you. Cookie sent me an e-mail, “Look, could I please have an exemption from our ban on any audio from Al Sharpton’s show?” And I said, “Why?” She said, “‘Cause he said something hilarious about you.” So I relented, not knowing what it was. I knew I wasn’t gonna find out ’til the show started today. I get the roster about two minutes before the show starts that’s when I found out what it was. So last night — Sharpton calls his show Politics Nation — and he had Jonathan Capehart, an editorial writer for the Washington Post on as his guest.

SHARPTON: No greater defender of racial harmony than Rush Lumbard (sic) also brought in race today, Jonathan. Let me show you what he said.

CAPEHART: Oh, boy!

RUSH LUMBARD ARCHIVE: What’s next, folks, a cartoon on MSNBC showing Herman Cain with huge lips eating a watermelon? What are they gonna do next? The racial stereotypes that these people are using to go after Herman Cain, what is the one thing that it tells us? It… Well, it tells us who the real racists are, yeah, but it tells us that Herman Cain is somebody, don’t you see? Can’t have… We cannot have a black Republican running for the office of president. We can’t have one elected. We can’t have an Hispanic. The left owns those two groups.

RUSH: Now it’s time for Sharpton to respond. This is what Cookie thought was funny…

SHARPTON: Now, aside from the fact that, uh, Mr. Lumbard’s the one that has done thing against President Obama with songs like Proper Negro —

CAPEHART: Right!

SHARPTON: — and all the other kinds of things, uhhh, and he has this imaginary MSNBC story when we have real racial derogatory references that he’s made and others on the right about the president.

RUSH: Proper Negro? Proper Negro. Now, this is interesting. (interruption) No, it’s Rush Lumbard. “Rush Lumbard is the one who’s done things against Obama with songs like the Proper Negro.” Now, he’s obviously confusing with the ‘Magic Negro,’ but it’s a window to his mind. “Resist We Much!” Resist We Much. Here’s Jonathan Capehart with his theory on all this…

CAPEHART: The thing that galls me about Rush Limbaugh and — and Ann Coulter suddenly showing concern about all this is like, “Why is all of a sudden this concern, y’all?” After years of stereotyping and derision and putting down African-Americans and people of color, why suddenly are you rallying around the defense of this one man?

RUSH: Now, this is an editorial writer for the Washington Post: Jonathan Capehart. You ever heard of Clarence Thomas, Mr. Capehart? You ever heard of Thomas Sowell? You ever heard…? This idea that we are rallying around “this one black guy,” why? Why are we rallying? With all the racism that we’ve been exhibiting all these years, why all of a sudden are we rallying around this guy? This is an editorial writer for the Washington Post. Here’s Ann Coulter. She was on Maude Behar’s show on Headline News last night.

MAUDE: Your friend Rush Limbaugh was… Didn’t he call, uhh, Obama the “Magic Negro”? What does that mean? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN, the “Magic Negro”?

COULTER: It’s apparently —

MAUDE: It comes from both sides, is what I’m trying to tell you.

COULTER: It was the title of an article in the LA Times. He was quoting the title. That’s what it comes from.

MAUDE: Oh! Didn’t he also say that he was an “affirmative action president”? They’re always asking —

COULTER: I don’t know!

BEHAR: — let me see your grades —

COULTER: That’s his show!

BEHAR: — let me see your birth certificate —

COULTER: Invite him on your show. I don’t know. You’re bringing up stuff that I don’t know. I happen to remember the “Magic Negro.” Now you’re going into stuff I never even heard before that someone else said that I never heard ’em say.

RUSH: She’s saying, “I’m here to talk about me. Why are you asking me about Limbaugh? The ‘Magic Negro’ thing came from the LA Times,” but Behar didn’t even hear that. She’s a total idiot. She didn’t even hear that. “Well, didn’t — she call him — he called him affirmative action!” They don’t want to know the truth. They’re not interested in it, because the lies that they’ve constructed for themselves are just much too easy to adhere to — and then last night on The Last Word, Lawrence O’Donnell had Tom Brokaw on. Brokaw’s got a new book called The Time of Our Lives: A Conversation About America; and O’Donnell said, “You know, one of the first to drag race into this coverage loudly was Rush Limbaugh yesterday on his show; and I found Rush Limbaugh in your book in a surprising entry where you write that Rush Limbaugh took to the airwaves to declare me ‘a self-hating liberal.’ Now, with much of what Rush says we can never figure out what he means. Did you have any idea what Rush meant?”
BROKAW: No. I think he’s… Maybe he’s used that, uhh, on a couple of occasions, except I wouldn’ta got my first job in Omaha or my second job in Atlanta or I wouldn’ta been hired by the network if my skin pigmentation had been one shade darker; and when I said that Rush described me on the air as a self-hating liberal; and I say in the book I go on to say that Rush of all people should know that people like us who make a very good living, uh, talking about ourselves cannot be self-hating. We think we’re grand, in fact.

O’DONNELL: (haughty chuckling)

BROKAW: And I count him chief among those. He, at least, is an original. There are many wannabe Rushes out there that are looking for any opening and any opportunity.

RUSH: Okay. So that’s Brokaw and he’s talking about his book. I remember that. I did call him “a self-hating liberal.” We’ve got the bite coming up here in just a second, but they went on. O’Donnell said, “Look, one more quote from the book about Rush because he represents one side of the polarization of the country. You say that Rush earned his fortune creating an enormous audience of the faithful — or Dittoheads as they like to be called. They worship at the altar of Limbaugh, appreciating — never questioning — his researching. Do you feel that there’s a partisan absolutely never questioning one’s assumptions in today’s politics?” (sic) Listen to that question. Here’s the question Brokaw was asked again: “Do you think that there’s partisan absolutely, never questioning one’s assumptions in today’s politics? There’s a less possibility of hearing something that might change your mind from the other side?”

BROKAW: Rush, as I say, was at least an original. He was there first. He made it clear about who he was. I remember four years ago, or maybe it was eight years ago, he was questioning the conservative credentials of Dick Cheney.

O’DONNELL: (haughty chuckling)

BROKAW: I was driving down the Florida Turnpike, wide-eyed, listening to Rush Limbaugh talk about whether or not Dick Cheney was a true conservative. He obviously is a very powerful voice in the American political culture and we have no question about where he stands. But then, as I say, there are lot of Rush wannabes — and then across the political spectrum on the left, you’ll find a lot of people who don’t want to hear any ideas if they possibly come from right of center in some fashion.

RUSH: Whew. We do our best to keep up. (interruption) A lot of wannabes. A lot of wannabes. Tom, he’s going out of his way here. He… (interruption) No, no. He didn’t slam me. He’s going out of his way, there. There’s begrudging acknowledgment there. So let’s go back. It was November 5, 2008. By the way, I don’t remember questioning Cheney’s conservatism. I say too much on this program, and in so many varied circumstances, I’m not gonna sit here and deny it. It could have been a parody or a joke or a moment of satire. I don’t remember it, and I can’t think of a reason why I would have questioned Cheney’s conservatism, but you never know. This is November 5, 2008, and — ta ta ta ta ta — yeah, from this program. Brokaw was hosting Meet the Press at the time, and… (interruption) What are you laughing at? (interruption) What? (interruption) Well, I can’t! I can’t think of a time. It doesn’t occur to me to be critical of Cheney for a lack of conservatism. But as I say, I utter a lot of words here in many different circumstances, some satire and parody and who knows? I mean, that’s as close to a flat-out denial as anything in the world I would deny, but I’m curious about that. He said he heard it. He’s on the Florida Turnpike. Okay, again, November 5, 2008.

RUSH ARCHIVE: “If my skin had been one pigment darker, none of that would have happened.” He would not have gotten a second chance if his skin was one pigment darker? This self-loathing is just… (laughing) You’re right. It’s breathtaking to behold. If Tom Brokaw had been one pigment darker, he’d have just been Ed Bradley! He could have been president, for crying out loud, if he was just one pigment darker. He could have been Ed Bradley. He could have been Tom Bradley. He could have been Doug Wilder, could have been any number of people. One pigment darker? He’s making it out here, if he’d have been one pigment darker, he would have been a total miserable failure.

RUSH: I had the same reaction to that as when I heard Phil Donahue felt all guilty because of where he was born. He kept talking about “the accident of his birth” on his show. Phil Donahue said if he’d-a been born a hundred miles further south it would have been in Mexico or whatever and who knows what woulda happened to him; and I don’t understand the thinking of constantly going through life with all this guilt, particularly over something you have no control over, but I think that is the source of the guilt, interestingly enough. But I was floored. Brokaw actually was saying: One pigment darker, and he would not have had his career. History does not bear that out. (interruption) You like that line, “He could have been Ed Bradley”? (laughing) It’s funny you didn’t tell Lawrence O’Donnell about that line. He could have been Ed Bradley, could have been Tom Bradley! (laughing) Could have been Doug Wilder! Any number of people.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, it was just pointed out to me, folks, that Tom Brokaw in one of those sound bites was saying that he couldn’t be self-loathing because he, like me, has spent a career talking about himself and if you do that you can’t possibly hate yourself. You gotta think you’re grand. I thought Brokaw was reading the news all those years! He just said here he’s talking about himself all those years. I thought he was a news guy. It just goes to show how you can misunderstand people.