RUSH: Snerdley, I think it’s a sign of effectiveness. Snerdley is all upset because last night on MSNBC Chris Matthews… (sigh) You know, I don’t know if he’s lost his mind and it would be insensitive to mock him and make fun of him until he goes through some rigorous therapy. I’m not a psychiatrist; I’m a radio guy. Last evening Chris Matthews went on MSNBC and told his audience that he heard me say that I want to roll back — he HEARD me say! — I want to roll back Harry Truman’s integration of the US Army. I don’t think 
we’ve mentioned Harry Truman on this program in a week, and we certainly haven’t talked about the integration of the US Army for I don’t know how long. He said that he heard me say it. Now, the other day I got a note. Larry Elder was substituting for Sean Hannity, and some guy called Larry Elder and said, “You know, Limbaugh is running around calling Obama tar baby!” Well, I’ve not called Obama tar baby. Who did? It was some Republican Colorado Congressman. I think, Snerdley, this stuff always happens, this stuff always happens when a new level of effectiveness has been reached. That’s really what all this means, but I don’t know about Matthews. There’s some seriously wrong here.
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RUSH: We’re always happy to go back and correct the record. Never, never, did we talk about anything other than rolling back the Democrat agenda for the last 65 years. I don’t even recall using the number 65 million, 65 years, 65 this or what have you. But all I could think when I heard about this… You know, Matthews didn’t say that he heard somebody else say or that somebody told him. He said that he heard me say that I want to roll back Truman’s integration of the US Army, and he didn’t twitch and his eyes didn’t glaze over. There was no spittle coming down the chin. He just said it! He had a fierce scowl on his face when he said it. “Rush Limbaugh wants to end Truman’s integration of the Army.”
All I could think was, “Where’s his staff?” Are they following in the footsteps of Al Sharpton? Are they trying to create attention? You know what Sharpton says now, Snerdley, did you hear this? Sharpton says he did all that on purpose to set the bait for me! (laughing) To set the bait for me. Listen, he wants to preach to my choir. Well, who wouldn’t want this audience? Problem none of them has the ability to go out and get it on their own, don’t have the slightest idea how. They’re all a bunch of parasites, every one of them. But it’s comical on one hand because it just always happens when there’s utter panic setting in on their side about their other prospects.
And I guarantee you, folks, they are scared to death over what their prospects are with Obama and this economy and the undertow of conversation about Hillary or somebody 
running against Obama. I I mean, that’s being talked about in Democrat circles. I don’t know how real it is, but I know that there are people talking about it. There’s an unsettledness out there, a disquietedness, a general sense of panic. This is not how it’s supposed to be. You know what? The Chris Matthewses and the media are very close to the rioters in London, in terms of anger, disappointment. This is not how it was supposed to be! We were supposed to have utopia. This was a new kind of politician, and the politics of old was supposed to vanish, and there really wasn’t supposed to be any more opposition to a president.
Everybody was supposed to sign up, and there was gonna be this massive, nationwide love affair — worldwide love affair — not only for Obama, but for our country again. We were supposed to have an economic rebound. None of this was supposed to happen, and they have no choice but than to look at themselves when trying to explain why all this has happened. They have held near supermajorities for much of the last four years in the House of Representatives, then in the Senate, and now they add the White House to it. Every day they wake up and look out over the country, and they see the consequences of what they believe, and in those rare moments where the reality permeates and they admit the truth to themselves, they realize it’s their policies that have done all this.
As it was pointed out the other day, these people all have 401(k)s as well. They all have retirement accounts, and they’ve all got kids, and they’ve all got futures to be concerned about — and, you know, at some point they start saying, is my kids’ future worth supporting this guy? Now, they’re not ever gonna voice that, so when these moments of panic and disquiet set in, you go out — just like the rioters in London — and you attack who you think is responsible for foiling all this, and it’s clear that in the case of many on the left Obama would have been a stunning, overwhelming, resounding success…if it weren’t for me. So now I become the focal point of blame, I become the target. But how in the world you go out there and tell your audience that you heard me say that I want to roll back Truman’s integration of the Army?
And you do this, by the way, on the night that the president of the United States pulls this little trick with that picture at Dover, which many of the SEAL Team Six families had asked the White House not to do. “No cameras, please. No pictures at Dover. We don’t want any of this.” We haven’t gotten to this point yet in discussing it, but, folks, that is truly… What Obama did at Dover with that photo, that is as disrespectful and shameful as… It’s hard to rank it in discussing over shameful moments of this regime, but turning it all on me? You have to ask: Where was the staff? Did they bother in the commercial break to say, “You know, Chris, that didn’t happen.” But, you know, of all the shortcomings at MSNBC, not seeking help for the troubled Chris Matthews, that’s about as low as they can get. Clearly he’s in need of serious assistance over there.
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RUSH: Barry in Atlanta, great to have you on the program, sir. You’re up first today. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, how you doing?
RUSH: Very good. Thank you.
CALLER: I want to preface this by saying, Rush, you’re my favorite. I’ve been with you since the very beginning in ’88.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that, sir. Thanks very much.
CALLER: Okay. And, a side issue, but my ex-wife went to high school with you, but that’s neither here nor there. (chuckles) Um, I think Chris Matthews is a bonehead and everyday he shows it even more, but I’ll tell you what he’s talking about: He played the clip of what you said yesterday, where he said we need to turn back every Democratic initiative of the last 50, 60 years or something like that. That’s what he’s talking about.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: He basically then looked at every Democratic initiative for the last 50, 60 years, and those were only two he could come up with that made any sense. (laughing)
RUSH: Yeah, meanwhile, it is his party that is the party of segregation.
CALLER: Exactly, exactly.
RUSH: J. William Fulbright, his party.
CALLER: That’s his premise; that’s what he’s talking about.
RUSH: Yeah. We’ve got the sound bite. Here it is. There are two of them. Talking about the Wisconsin recall elections first.
MATTHEWS: Let’s listen to Rushbo today and what he said about what it meant last night.
RUSH ARCHIVE: [T]he people of Wisconsin have fended off what amounted to a government-union takeover. [edit] … If the taxpayers of Wisconsin can win against all those odds, we should be able to do the same thing in every state, and in Washington, DC. We ought to be able to roll back Obamacare. In fact we ought to be able to roll back everything Obama has given us over the last two and a half years. We should be able to roll back the whole Democrat agenda for the last 65 years. Yes, we can!
RUSH: So “the whole Democrat agenda for the last 65 years.” Now, you gotta be… (laughing) You gotta look long and hard. You have to be looking for it, you have to be shameless to make a statement like that and then say this.
MATTHEWS: (huffing) Well, here’s Rushbo with his agenda. He wants to get rid of the integration we did under Harry Truman in the United States armed forces. That was what Truman did since ’46, which is 65 years ago. He wants to get rid of the Brown case, of course integrating our schools, at least the public schools. He wants to get rid of Medicare/Medicaid, the Civil Rights Bill, the Voting Rights Bill, the ability to vote at the age of 18. What else is on this guy’s freaking list of what he wants to ro…? Is this the right-wing agenda, John? This is bigger than Wisconsin! Is this what the Rushbo crowd would like to do if they could win elections, to get back — everything back to World War II that it — was done progressively for this country for race or youth or sex or whatever?
RUSH: You know, in actual fact, Truman had to desegregate the US Army by executive order rather than through legislation, and do you know why? Because everybody knew that the congressional representatives of the Solid South, all white Democrats, would have stonewalled any legislation. Nobody wants to admit it today, but everybody knows that the old segregationists were all these Democrats back when Strom Thurmond was a Democrat, J. William Fulbright, Herman Talmadge, and it was another Democrat, Woodrow Wilson, who segregated the military! The Democrat agenda fought desegregation in the army and everywhere else. But, you know, folks, this is… (interruption)
No, Snerdley, I know it’s getting worse but it’s only a testament of effectiveness. This is what you have to understand, to take a statement like, “Roll back the whole Democrat agenda for the last 65 years,” everybody with a modicum of understanding means, we gotta get rid of the socialism, we’ve got to reduce the size of government, we have got to get government out of being the central facet in everybody’s life. We do have to repeal Obamacare. We do have to fix Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. They’re busted, they’re bankrupt, they don’t work! Democrat social programs have led to what’s happening in London. The same thinking, the same type of mentality. It has led to the paralysis of law enforcement, for crying out loud.
Liberalism has led to the paralysis of law enforcement because the people committing these crimes are entitled in liberalism because they have been so put upon, they are so 
disadvantaged by whatever socioeconomic unfairness that we have to understand their rage — and if they destroy somebody else’s private property, we can’t stop ’em. It would be racist to try it. Discriminatory to try it, insensitive, politically incorrect, or what have you. The Democrat agenda fought segregation in the Army, and it fought it everywhere else! Tip O’Neill country was segregated: Boston! And Chris Matthews was his LA, legislative assistant or whatever high ranking high position. He was more than a spokesman for him.
But, Snerdley, you make the mistake of taking all this personally. You do take it personally. You can’t take it personally. These people are looking at the utter implosion of everything they believe in. Everything they believe in can be pointed to and said to be responsible for the decline of the United States of America as an economic power, as a military power, as a bulwark of freedom. They get up every morning, they look at themselves in the mirror, and they see the reason that there is mass dissatisfaction with government. Who runs it? Whose policies are in charge of government right now? Well, they’re gloating in Europe that their growth rate’s better?
It may well be. Their credit rating’s better than hours. They get a higher credit rating than we do and so do the frogs. The French have a higher credit rating than we do. That’s why I say, “It’s too late to run around and say I hope Obama fails.” That train left the station. He has succeeded. Truman had to desegregate the US Army by executive order rather than through legislation because everybody knew that congressional representatives of the Old South — people Chris Matthews thinks are the epitome of justice and fairness — are the old racists, the old segregationists, the old Democrats. Truman had to desegregate the Army by executive order because it woulda never happened if he would have relied on the legislative process.
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RUSH: We must never forget: Woodrow Wilson segregated the whole US government in the first place. Democrats equal segregation in this nation’s history. That’s why there was a Republican Party in the first place. You know, folks, I gotta tell you something: 23 years ago — we had our 23 anniversary back on August 1st — and I must tell you, 23 years ago I (hee-hee-hee) never imagined that I would be so effective, so loved, and so popular, that they would create an entire television network devoted to misreporting or reporting what I say on the radio every day. That’s what MSNBC does, it exists to report what I say on the radio every day. Who else can say that about a TV network?
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RUSH: Just a little closing of the loop here: “In May of 1948, Richard B. Russell, the Democrat Senator from Georgia, attached an amendment to the Selective Services Bill that was then being debated in Congress. The Russell Amendment would have granted draftees and new inductees an opportunity to choose whether or not they wanted to serve in segregated military units.”
Now, Richard B. Russell was a Democrat, and he wanted to give new inductees the opportunity to decide whether or not they wanted to serve in segregated units. In other words, “Do you want to have to not spend any time with any blacks?” A Democrat attached an amendment to the Selective Services Bill giving new inductees the opportunity to say, I don’t want to serve with blacks. He was a Democrat — and, by the way, a Democrat revered to this day. Even after President Truman’s executive order — and remember, Truman’s executive order desegregated the Army rather than through legislation because everybody knew congressional representatives of the Solid South, the old Democrats, all white would have stonewalled any such legislation.
And even after Truman’s executive order, the Democrats still tried to make desegregation in the Army voluntary. And this Russell, so revered, is the Russell the Senate Office Building is named in honor of. You want to know one of the first acts of the newly formed NAACP? Snerdley, as a CP, what do you think was the first — one of the first — acts the newly formed NAACP? (interruption) It was to oppose Woodrow Wilson’s segregation of the US government. The NAALCP practically came into existence to oppose Democrat Woodrow Wilson’s segregation of the US government! That started in 1913 — and, by the way, in 1913, most of the NAALCP’s leadership was Republican.
The NAACP was only incorporated in 1911, so they are a relatively a young group by national standards. There is so much racial history in this country that is 180 degrees wrong in the way it’s told, the way it’s reported, and obviously the way that it is understood. But the larger question, Chris Matthews asked, “What does Rushbo want to do? Does he want to roll back all this…?” Chris, let me make it very simple for you: I want to get rid of every liberal Democrat policy which has led to or contributing to the decline of the United States of America as an economic powerhouse, as the lone greatest place on earth for economic opportunity. To the extent that the liberal agenda is destroying that and has destroyed it, damn right we want to get rid of it!
What do you think the Tea Party’s all about?
The Tea Party is about reducing the size of government and getting it out of people’s lives, rejecting the notion that only government can make the right decisions for people. We do not believe in “economic justice” as defined by government being in charge of economic outcomes. We don’t believe in “social justice” as being defined as government deciding who gets what and when and where and how, and who doesn’t get what. We don’t believe in that. Self-reliance, rugged individualism, self-interest, lifting all boats. So, yeah, short answer to your question is, get rid of it, and we opposed you guys every chance we got, and if it hadn’t been for Republicans there would not have been a Civil Rights Act of 1964!
A greater percentage of Republicans supported it in the US Senate than did Democrats. Not a “greater number,” listen carefully: A greater percentage. Because, of course, the Democrats vastly outnumbered Republicans in the US Senate back during that era. But we don’t want London to break out in this country. Sadly, it already is. We don’t want lawlessness. We don’t want failure, the guaranteed failure of minority populations in this country! We want them to have every opportunity for success as anybody else does.
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RUSH: New York, back to the phones. Tom, great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush. Listen, I just want to make a quick point about Chris Matthews and just how crazy he is. An example of the fact is these commercials that he’s been running, that run incessantly on his network. He’s actually running a commercial, Rush, that is antithetical to everything they’ve been talking about for the last two years regarding this birther issue. I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but he actually runs a commercial touting “American exceptionalism,” saying that an example of American exceptionalism is the fact that Barack Obama came from another country and was elected president of the United States.
RUSH: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! They’re running that as a promo on MSNBC?
CALLER: Yes, they are.
RUSH: It’s Matthews that says that?
CALLER: It’s Matthews that says it.
RUSH: Where is he? Is he in an abandoned railroad car graveyard when he says that, like Sergeant Schultz is? Where is he?
CALLER: No, he’s not. He’s actually, I believe, sitting — I don’t know — it looks like something that’s overlooking the White House, and he’s actually motions to the White House at the end of the commercial and he says, “You can’t do that in China or France. You can’t go to these countries and become Chinese or French,” and then he says, “American exceptionalism,” and he points to the White House.
RUSH: Well —
CALLER: It’s insane, it’s insane.
RUSH: So he actually says that that’s the definition of American exceptionalism that you can come from another country and be president?
CALLER: Yes. And he holds Obama out as the example.
RUSH: Yeah. Well, “respect we much.”
CALLER: It’s unbelievable. But I’d just like to add another quick point about Tavis Smiley. I was holding a long time and I heard you talk about that.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: The problem with these guys is they think wealth is a zero-sum game. What difference does it matter if the wealthy in this country double or triple their wealth by creating wealth, if everybody else still has what they have? Or even if their wealth improves?
RUSH: No, it’s an excellent question. But they believe that the only way that happens is if the rich steal.
CALLER: Well, they’re nuts. Because, as we know, the government is not the source of wealth. The people who create the wealth.
RUSH: Oh, yes, it is, for 48% of the population! You could have somebody in this country who’s 25, has ten kids (which is possible) and dies, and the government will send his heirs Social Security, disability, whatever, $155,000 a year total. The government will do it.
CALLER: It’s nuts. Abraham Lincoln said, “You cannot empower the poor by impoverishing the wealthy.” It cannot be done, Abraham Lincoln.
RUSH: Well, who was he? What did he know? (laughing)
CALLER: I tell you, I’ll match him up against Karl Marx any time. I’d like to see that debate.
RUSH: Look, “zero-sum game” is exactly the way to put it, in terms of the way they look at it. They just think that everybody’s entitled to stuff. “Economic justice” equals everybody getting stuff, whether they work or not. That’s the key to this. Whether you work or not, you get your stuff. You get what you’re entitled to. And then if it doesn’t happen, well, it’s not the government’s fault because the way you’ve been raised and taught that the government is the agent guaranteeing that you get your stuff. So it’s enemies of the government! Who are they? “Well, Republicans, corporations, all these other people that are taking their unfair share of stuff,” and that’s what these people really think.
Now, Cornel West is ostensibly a highly educated, Ivy League professor, and he misunderstands something that is fundamental — or maybe he doesn’t misunderstand it and everything he’s doing is just a joke based on partisanship or what have you. But it’s nonsense, you’re exactly right. In fact, if the people that hold 90% of the wealth in this country get wealthier, the whole country is getting wealthier as well. Those people need… (interruption) Well, I’ll stop. (laughing) No, no. (laughing) I’ll leave it to what Tom said. Tom had it right. Remember, I’m tired today. This is Mike in Whittier, California. Mike, I’m glad you waited. It’s really great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hi. I just wanted to call and let you know that you’re right about Chris Matthews needs help, but the help Chris Matthews needs is a priest, because he is possessed.
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: He’s possessed by the spirit of the late Senator Kennedy.
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: If you look at when he went off the reservation, so to speak, and got the way he is, it was right around when Kennedy died. As you look at old clips of Ted Kennedy, and then you look at Chris Matthews today, tell me they don’t sound the same. They sound exactly the same.
RUSH: That’s an interesting observation.
CALLER: I think we need to call in an exorcist for Chris Matthews.
RUSH: Interesting, interesting, interesting observation. I hadn’t, obviously, looked at it that way.
CALLER: Well, I haven’t been able to find any mental issues as far as, you know, at first I thought maybe Tourette’s or something, but the symptoms just don’t fit. But possession by the spirit of Kennedy? Yeah, that fits.
RUSH: You know, it is something ’cause I remember if you go back to the mid-nineties, Matthews at one time was a guest host on this program.
CALLER: Oh, yes, and I used to watch his show during the Clinton administration.
RUSH: Yeah, and at one time this audience really liked Chris Matthews. They enjoyed the content of his program over at MSNBC. Well, I’ll tell you: If we ever hear about Matthews doing the waitress sandwich routine like Kennedy did with Chris Dodd — if we ever hear about that happening, say with Cornel West or Smiley — then you may be on to something.