RUSH: The people at MSNBC are unhinged. It seems like MSNBC both yesterday and today was playing my Today Show interview in toto: 11 minutes yesterday, 12 minutes today, which is an eternity in television. And the people at MSNBC are unhinged and upset that their network is running that interview and eating up their airtime. Chris Matthews, who has been concerned and complaining about the right ‘inciting violence,’ made a prediction this morning.
MATTHEWS: You guys see Live and Let Die, the great Bond film with, um, with Yaphet Kotto was the bad guy, Mr. Big?
WOMAN: (giggling)
MATTHEWS: In the end they jammed a big CO2 pellet in his face, and he blew up. I have to tell you, Rush Limbaugh is beginning to look more and more like Mr. Big. And at some point somebody is going to jam a CO2 pellet into his head and he’s going to explode like a giant blimp. That day may come.
WOMAN: (giggling)
MATTHEWS: I think he’s Mr. Big. I think Yaphet Kotto.
WOMAN: (giggling)
MATTHEWS: Are you watching, Rush?
RUSH: Yeah, Chris, I’m watching, and I can’t keep a straight face. I am laughing myself silly watching you people come unhinged over this. Now somebody… What is all this talk of ‘civility,’ Chris. I mean, look at what’s happening to our discourse and you people are always blaming us on the right for this and now you’re advocating that somebody pop my face with a CO2 pellet and blow me up like Yaphet Kotto in Live and Let Die. Here’s our next Matthews bite. This is what really, really bugs them about all this.
MATTHEWS: It’s so interesting, Rush Limbaugh having the financial power — that’s probably bothering a lot of commentators (snickering).
WOMAN: (giggling)
MATTHEWS: The fact on that he’s got the hundreds of millions of dollars from success on the right that he’s able to be even in the game of buying a football team or having a co-ownership.
WOMAN: The salary like, you know, he renegotiated a contract last year for $400 million. It’s a huge amount of money. I don’t know any other journalist that gets paid that much money. (giggles)
MATTHEWS: It’s interesting, because the one thing about this city, spending all these years in Washington, which can be a — a — a tough city because you have wealthy people moved here for national reasons, local African-American community which is not wealthy. It is, you know, it’s middle class in most cases these days, but it’s tough. And there’s a lot of natural rivalries going on here. But he comes into a sports team like St. Louis which can be more, you know, a little more tough on the race front there down there, I’ll bet.
RUSH: Jeez! (laughing) They’re babbling. I can’t translate it. It’s babbling incessantly. It doesn’t make any sense. That was just pure drivel. Look, the first part of the bite is what’s telling: ‘I don’t understand how he’s made that much money, on the right…’ (translating) ‘We on the left are supposed to be the ones making that kind of money! We’re the ones that went to the right schools. We’re the ones that plotted career paths for ourselves. We worked all the right media channels, went to Harvard! I worked for Tip O’Neill. I’ve written for the New York Times! Oh, I don’t understand, Limbaugh is making all that money on the right.’ And you notice again who injects race into this: It’s them! They can’t escape it. They are the ones who look at people and don’t see human beings, they don’t see Americans. They see victims. They see black here, a woman over there, see gay or transgender or an Hispanic or whatever. And yet they run around saying they’re the ones with no judgment in them. They’re the ones with all the compassion and all the heart — and, man, the hate that they are spewing lately is a greater quantity than I can remember, maybe ’cause it’s all being directed at me. Nancy Snyderman just continues to be beside herself. Next, she found out that Bill Maher thinks that the government swine flu vaccine is something that should be avoided. This is yesterday afternoon Dr. Nancy Snyderman on her show.
SNYDERMAN: More politicizing today at the whole swine flu vaccine debate. Last week conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh told Health and Human Services secretary Sebelius, ‘Screw you! I’m not getting the [H1N1] vaccine.’ Quite elegant conversation from him. Now liberal Bill Maher has added his two cents.
MAHER: Conservatives always say about health care, especially, you know, ‘You gonna let the government run health care? They screw everything up.’ So why would you let them be the ones to stick a disease into your arm? I mean, I would never get a swine flu vaccine.
SNYDERMAN: What is wrong with these guys?
RUSH: What’s wrong with you, Dr. Snyderman? The question needs to be asked of you: We are independent thinkers. We don’t follow the horde, we are not sheep, and we don’t look at government officials as infallible. We look at them with suspicion. We always — you should, too — look at anybody with the kind of power government officials have with a little suspicion. In fact, it’s what the mainstream media’s constitutional job is, and they’ve totally abrogated it. So when there are people like us who do look with suspicion and curiosity at the power of people in government, you find it outrageous. You want us to just bow down and kneel and follow every order issued by people who have no competence or experience in any area in which they are working? Many of them are the czars without any constitutional or congressional approval because they’ve never had to go before confirmation hearings. (interruption) Yes, I know about Dr. Snyderman’s history with Bill Clinton and Hillary. I know all about it. I’m not going to get into it because it’s not about… (interruption) You didn’t know it? Well, I am not going to engage in vicious gossip about people whether it’s true or not. Dr. Snyderman is challenging my intelligence and my honesty and credibility when it is hers that needs to be looked at. She is somebody who looks at the government, listens to what somebody says, and says, ‘We must obey! We must obey! We must not even question,’ and I say: ‘To hell with that!’