Standing by the “Jackass” Remark

RUSH: Yeah. I know. People are calling me, people are e-mailing me saying: ‘You maybe want to take it back.’ The jackass comment. I said, ‘Why would I?’ Look, I’m happy it got everybody’s attention, and it really did. I mean it really did. This jackass comment, you know, it was a throwaway line and look what happened. I mean ABC, Jake Tapper and his cohort write it up, and for the most part, you know, I went back and I looked at the transcript at RushLimbaugh.com. For the most part they got it in context, for the most part most part they did. They left some things out of it that might have improved it, but, you know, nothing to complain about. I’m glad it got everybody’s attention. It’s the number one click at the Drudge Report, or it was earlier this morning.

Anyway, hi, folks. I’m — he-he-he — Rush Limbaugh. Everybody knows who I am and what we do here. So here’s the phone number: 800-282-2882. The e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.

You know, jackasses — and it really was a throwaway. I was really ticked off. I mean, this guy is talking about the most idiotic, ignorant things. The rich don’t need a tax cut, they’re already spending their money on flat screen TVs. He said the rich aren’t gonna take their money and go home, they’re not gonna take their ball and go home, that’s where the jackass comment came in. They already have, you jackass. They’re sitting on trillions of dollars of cash. They’ve already taken the ball and gone home and everybody knows this. They’re not investing any money. Corporations, large, medium, and small, they’re sitting on it. I thought this was all about creating jobs, saving jobs, whatever, that’s what Obama kept saying. The one thing about this jackass comment, I’m glad it had wide circulation, but it may not be correct because I still maintain all this is on purpose.

I just got so into this yesterday, adopted the position he really is an idiot and doesn’t know what he’s doing, that he’s an economic ignoramus. But, as you people who have listened regularly know, I don’t really believe that. I think this is all purposeful. I think this is all being done on purpose. I think Obama’s very pleased with himself. I think he’s very happy. I think he’s ecstatic. He’s got these economic advisors, one of them is Martin Feldstein, and they’ve done far more in economics than Obama ever has. They tell him what’s what and he just rejects it out of hand, and enjoys doing it, enjoys rejecting it out of hand. These guys were talking about the need for confidence throughout the economy. Confidence will breed growth. Confidence will breed investment. Confidence will breed, obviously, positive feelings, and so it will make people a little bit more willing to not hoard the cash that they have, they’re gonna go ahead and invest it. But he looks at it as spending. Here on one hand on the scales of justice, the Limbaugh Institute, he is an economic jackass ignoramus, doesn’t know what he’s doing. Or, on the other hand, he knows exactly what he’s doing; it’s being done on purpose.

We had a call yesterday, I was thankful for this caller who gave me the chance to point out once again that this is an intentional plan by the Democrats. This was the caller who said, ‘Why aren’t they worried? I mean here they’re about to get their clocks cleaned, they don’t seem worried about it.’ I got some e-mails about that. Some said, ‘Rush, you missed a golden opportunity out there.’ I’m amazed at the number of people who tell me what I miss. He said, ‘You missed the opportunity to tell people about voter fraud. The Democrats aren’t worried about it ’cause they’re gonna steal the elections and they’re gonna cheat and so forth.’ Yeah, well, they’re gonna try, but the scope of this is so massive that I don’t think there’s any amount of cheating here that could — I mean, the only thing they could do cheat-wise is cancel the election, you know, call martial law, cancel the election. They’re not going to do that. So anyway, not to be redundant, but I’m glad it got widespread attention. You should go to the ABC website, Jake Tapper’s blog, and look at the comments.

This is the ABC website. This is Jake Tapper’s blog and the comments are practically a hundred percent in agreement with what I said. So, in that sense, it was a brilliant move, it was a throwaway line, ended up being a brilliant move, another illustration of just how dead on my instincts are. I threw something away and it resonates coast to coast, east to west, north to south, and what it’s done is validate what a lot of people obviously think. A lot of people think he’s an idiot, economic idiot, he’s an economic ignoramus. Well, it is common sense, but again, back to the scales here. A lot of people would prefer to think that he’s just an economic ignoramus instead of he’s doing this on purpose. It’s easier and simpler to believe he’s just an idiot, an economic ignoramus, because it fits. The guy hates capitalism. He’s never been involved in capitalism. Well, he had one job in the private sector. He described it in his book as feeling like he’s behind enemy lines. His love and adoration goes to unions, public sector employees, growing government and so forth.

So it fits in a lot of people’s minds that he really doesn’t know what he’s doing, so, ‘You jackass, you’re an economic illiterate’ happens to resonate I think a lot better than saying, ‘You sly dog, you’re getting away with doing this on purpose.’ People still, even now, don’t really want to believe that ’cause it’s harder to grasp, it’s harder to commit to than believing that the president is just — (interruption) No, I did not get any flak. Well, from people I know that I care about, you mean? I didn’t get any flak. No, I did not, Snerdley. Personally, people I know, people I care about, people whose opinion I trust, not one person said, ‘You went overboard there.’ I mean we’re talking about the presidency. You don’t just call a guy jackass. They said that they thought I went overboard on ‘I hope he fails.’ You know, I’m gonna tell you, Jake, and Steven Portnoy, the other guy that actually wrote the piece at Jake Tapper’s blog, I happen to think that jackass is pretty tame compared to other things that I have said on this program. I mean, Jake, don’t you think it’s pretty hard-hitting to accuse the president of purposely destroying America? I mean they write this as though, ‘Yeah, Rush, he’s pretty tough on the president each and every day, but this may have crossed the line.’ Jackass? I mean a jackass, they have big ears; they refuse to listen. I mean there are donkey jackasses out there.

Isn’t there a TV show on MTV called Jackass? Yeah, and it’s about jackasses trying to do stupid things. My reaction was, ‘They got upset over this?’ They did get upset over ‘I hope he fails.’ But I think it’s far more penetrating, far more hard-hitting to accuse the elected president of the United States of purposely trying to destroy the American private sector. I know they don’t highlight it, and you know what else, Snerdley, nobody’s ever denied it. This is something else that’s striking. I mean normally something like that is said, and if it’s really over the line, if it’s so ridiculous as to be unbelievable, somebody in the White House would laugh and say, ‘Can you believe how kooky they’re getting? Can you believe how insane they’re getting? The president is driving these guys nuts.’ I said it on Fox News Sunday. I went to church, you know, political church is Fox News Sunday or any of the Sunday shows, and I said to Chris Wallace, ‘He’s doing it on purpose.’ ‘Come on, Rush, do you really mean that?’ ‘Yes.’ They don’t even comment on that, and nobody denies it.

But calling him a jackass, you would think that all civility and decorum had been lost. But to answer the question, nobody told me they thought I went too far, nobody. But somebody at Mediaite raises the possibility, somebody writing about this at Mediaite. ‘Did Limbaugh go too far?’ And once again they totally ignore what I think are far more serious accusations, allegations, than to simply call him a jackass. Besides, the president, I think called Kanye West a jackass. Yeah, we have this, September 14th, 2009, a little over a year ago, CNBC, special program, an interview with the president. The chief Washington correspondent John Harwood spoke with Obama about the rapper Kanye West upstaging singer Taylor Swift at the MTV Music Awards. Harwood said, ‘Were your girls as hacked off as mine were that Kanye gave Taylor Swift the Joe Wilson treatment?’

OBAMA: The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person. She’s getting her award. What’s he doing up there?

HARWOOD: Why did he do that?

OBAMA: He’s a jackass. (room laughs)

RUSH: So the president of the United States calling Kanye West, one of the nation’s most beloved rappers, one of our national treasures, Kanye West, big-time rapper, a jackass, ‘He’s a jackass.’ Almost the same melody, if you will, that I used the term describing the president. Anyway, the real point of all this is taxes, tax cuts, what Obama plans on doing, the verbiage that they’re using as they describe this and talk about it. That’s what needs to be focused on.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, honestly, if these guys don’t like the term jackass, then why did they make it the symbol of their party? The symbol of the Democrat Party is a jackass. I would even go further than that. I would say calling somebody a jackass seems far kinder than to call ’em a Democrat these days. ‘You know, he’s a Democrat’ — that’s far more damaging to one’s reputation and character than calling him a jackass.