RUSH: One-minute speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives.
MCDERMOTT: Mr. Speaker, I rise today out of disgust over recent comments by Rush Limbaugh about child hunger. A few days ago I was sent Mr. Limbaugh’s response to the news that more than 16 million children will face, quote, ‘a summer of hunger,’ quote, ‘because they won’t have access to free or discounted meals they usually get at school.’ Mr. Limbaugh ultimately recommended these children ‘Dumpster dive’ — Dumpster dive! — to find food until school starts back up. In the midst of a deep recession that has forced millions of Americans to face the daily fear of losing their homes and failing to provide food for their kids —
RUSH: Who’s fault is that?
MCDERMOTT: — all Mr. Limbaugh can contribute —
RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
MCDERMOTT: — is another awful example of shameless and callous commentary. Ask yourself: When is the last time that Rush Limbaugh missed a meal? Take a look. You judge for yourself.
RUSH: What, did he have a peculiarity of me on an easel on the House floor? (laughs) Baghdad Jim McDermott, that’s yesterday. Here is Jim Moran today on the House floor, one-minute speeches.
MORAN: There have been 379 incidents involving threats and abuse towards census employees so far this year. That’s more than double the violence that occurred during the last census in 2000. The reported incidents have consisted of robberies, assault, violent threats, being held against their will, and carjacking. They are doing very important work, and getting paid very little for it. Ironically, it is the work of census takers that will ensure that each American receives their fair share of federal resources. I’m afraid that this abuse may be directly tied to some of the anti-government rhetoric that is coming from some people in this body, and the Republican noise machine — in other words, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and countless other so-called shock jocks. Rather than disparaging federal employees, this body should be applauding the work that they are performing.
RUSH: That’s Jim Moran. It was Baghdad McDermott yesterday and Jim Moran today. He’s from Virginia. You see what’s happening here. This is serious. When these kind of guys start leveling these anti-government charges at you on the floor of House of Representatives, they are setting up what they hope will be some issue or incident of violence down the road where they can say, ‘See? See? Limbaugh is causing it!’ For the record when’s the last time we talked about census workers on this program? I mean, it has been weeks. It has been awhile.
The last thing I remember saying about census workers is talking about them, and how they are being perceived out there doing their jobs, and the last story we did on a census worker was one who talked about, ‘My God, I can’t believe how angry people are at the government out there.’ We’ve also heard about how the census workers are being hired and fired and rehired and fired and rehired and fired to build up the employment numbers. They’re hired and a lot of people aren’t doing anything. Hired, fired, hired, fired, all of it to make it look like there’s new job creation going on. But nobody on this program has ever suggested don’t participate with these people. Not in the census. There is some other sort of wacko community survey that some people are running around trying to get you to give information on, but I don’t know what he’s talking about. They just make this stuff up because it fits the template, and it is very serious stuff, while statement being hilarious.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Whoever is out there — it might be Media Matters, it might be somebody on Jim Moran’s staff, congressman from Virginia. Whoever is out there either monitoring this program or whoever is taking transcripts of this program and editing them and giving them to Baghdad Jim McDermott or Jim Moran so they can head up there and make statements about me on the floor of the House, please hear this. To Congressman Moran I say, ‘All the armed robberies against small businesses are encouraged by left-wing hatemongers like Jim Moran. They’re always trashing businessmen, they’re always trashing capitalism, they are always trashing corporations. They’re always talking about how these people are ripping off the American people about how they’re abusing the American people.
‘Jim Moran and his ilk are encouraging people to steal, to rob, to threaten their fellow citizens and hold ’em responsible for this kind of crime.’ Hey, it’s only tit-for-tat, Moran. If you’re going to run around out there and make up things I have not said about the census as ‘anti-government rhetoric,’ what about you and all of your rhetoric your entire career? Anti-business, anti-military, anti-Big Oil, anti-Walmart, anti-Big Drug, you name it. Is there any wonder, Mr. Moran, why there’s so much hate in this country? It’s because of people like you and your colleagues in the House and the Senate and everywhere else Democrats are found. You’ve been ginning up hatred against private sector entrepreneurs, businessmen and individuals for as long as I’ve been alive. I also think that Moran encouraged terrorists to try and attack our country. His constant attacks on George Bush gave aid and comfort to the enemy — and not just Moran.
Baghdad Jim McDermott goes over to Baghdad to say (paraphrased), ‘We love Saddam Hussein. We don’t think we should be an invasion here.’ You guys have drummed up so much anti-American sentiment around the world by criticizing George W. Bush that I think you, Congressman Moran — and you, Congressman McDermott, you two — and all of your colleagues are primarily responsible for the recruitment of terrorists all over the world, not Guantanamo and not the war in Iraq and not the war in Afghanistan, but people like you have been running down your own country and running down your own president, encouraging our enemies to take action against us. Doesn’t talking up income redistribution encourage robbery, Mr. Moran? I mean, you want to take from people something they’ve earned that’s not yours to give to somebody else.
You want to take from people who work and give it to people who don’t work. Does that not encourage robbery? Are you not in fact robbing people yourself, Mr. Moran, by virtue of your so-called progressive tax policy? In fact, didn’t Jim Moran cheer the looting of BP? Wasn’t he all for the looting of BP? So you guys want to play this game, ah, you go right ahead. Jim Moran? I know Jim Moran is the guy who hit a seven-year-old kid. This was long before Bob Etheridge did it, another Democrat. I think Moran went out there and slugged a seven-year-old black kid. He thought he was stealing his car! Jim Moran thought a young seven-year-old black kid was stealing his car so he hit him, and why did Moran assume the kid was stealing the car? Well, because policies made by Jim Moran have kept people poor and minorities for the longest time.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Plattsburgh, New York. This is Howard, and great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. I just want to thank you for the Limbaugh Institute and its beautiful campus in the shape of America.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Thank you very much.
RUSH: You bet, yes.
CALLER: I just want to back up briefly here to the attacks on census workers. I would love to see a demographic breakdown of those incidents because I kind of suspect that they’re mostly happening in the bluest of the blue cities and the bluest of the blue neighborhoods, and that’s my comment.
RUSH: Hang on just a second. I’m telling a guy who’s got eight iPhones, buy ’em. (laughing) Go ahead. I’ll take ’em. We multitask here. I know exactly what you’re talking about. He was talking about Jim Moran accusing me of inspiring violence against census workers, and where it’s happening is in the blue states and the blue neighborhoods, where, ahem, the blue voters are, and if there’s violence being committed against census, it’s not happening in the red states. Howard here is exactly right. But whatever, this program doesn’t inspire violence in any way, shape, matter, or form, on anybody.