‘Celebrating’ Rush Limbaugh, the Energizer Bunny of hatemongering

Human Events, the conservative tome that the Wall Street Journal calls a “Bible of the Right” and Ronald Reagan termed “essential reading,” is celebrating “Rush Week,” — that is, 20 years of Rush Limbaugh on the air — in a big way. Fox News’ Sean Hannity kicked the week off with a tribute to Limbaugh, describing him as the “Babe Ruth of Broadcasting.” What an honor, for a guy whose home runs are often little more than racist and misogynistic rantings.

Here are just a few of Limbaugh’s more famous out-of-the-ballpark musings over the years:

— To a black caller to his show: “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”

(Source: Notable Quotables, mrc.org)

— On women: “I think this reason why girls don’t do well on multiple choice tests goes all the way back to the Bible, all the way back to Genesis, Adam and Eve. God said, ‘All right, Eve, multiple choice or multiple orgasms, what’s it going to be?’ We all know what was chosen.”

(TV, Feb. 23, 1994).

— On feminists: “Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society.”

(Media Matters)

— On drugs, before he was busted for Oxycontin: “We have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs.  And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up.”

(MSNBC)

— On Native Americans: “I don’t give a hoot that [Columbus] gave some Indians a disease that they didn’t have immunity against”

(Ought to Be, p. 45).

— Earlier this year, when a caller asked whether he thought John McCain would pick Sen. Lindsey Graham as his running mate: “I may be wrong … Lindsey Graham is certainly close enough to [McCain] to die of anal poisoning.”

(New York Daily News)

— On Mexicans: “If we are going to start rewarding no skills and stupid people — I’m serious, let the unskilled jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do — let the stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work.”

(Fairness and Accuracy in the Media)

— On sexual harassment: “Sexual harassment at this work station will not be reported. However … it will be graded!!!”

(David Brock, Blinded by the Right )

Human Events may be celebrating its “Man of the Year” this week, but for many of the rest of us, CBS News Washington producer Ward Sloaneput it well when he wrote about the state of conservative commentary on Feb. 27, after the death of another famous conservative commentator, William F. Buckley:

“In a way, it’s sad that people like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage are today’s mouthpieces for conservatism. What a far leap they are from the quick witted and smart [William F.] Buckley. … Buckley was not a hate monger; he was a serious-minded person who made reasoned and rational arguments for his cause. No apologies to Limbaugh, Savage or their listeners and adherents — they are no substitute for Buckley’s class and intellectualism.”

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