Here is part of a transcript from Rush Limbaugh’s radio show in which he engages a caller from Shreveport, Louisiana who attempts to make a connection between the war in Iraq and the Civil War. It’s completely incoherent, but it does make for some entertaining reading.
RUSH: I certainly know who Abraham Lincoln was. He’s one of the greatest presidents in the history of the country.
CALLER: Who said that —
RUSH: And it wasn’t because he defeated the south. It was because he preserved the union.
CALLER: He preserved the union by trampling the Constitution!
RUSH: He did not trample the Constitution. He suspended habeas corpus. He did do some things I wish Bush would do.
CALLER: Like kill 59,000 innocent civilians?
RUSH: Are you talking about Sherman’s march through Atlanta?
CALLER: And — and — and Grant’s shelling the city of Vicksburg. Hello?
RUSH: It won the war, didn’t it? You ever heard of Gettysburg? It won the war and that was the objective. I’ll tell you what I wish Bush would do that Lincoln did. Take all these anti-war agitators and send ’em to Canada. Send the National Guard in there. Send Harry Reid over to Baghdad if he’s going to be so socially —
CALLER: Like that Ohio Congressman Vallandigham, huh?
RUSH: Absolutely, like that Ohio congressman, that Democrat that was snatched out of his house and sent down to Jefferson Davis, who also didn’t want him.
CALLER: Well, at least I got you to acknowledge that.
RUSH: Acknowledge what?
CALLER: Well, the fact that Lincoln did have his secret police who went into people’s houses, pulled them out in the middle of the night, and had them — and had them —
RUSH: You know what? I hope before you die you learn to thank God for Abraham Lincoln.
CALLER: I hope before you die you learn what a racist and a bigot and a power-hungry maniac he was.
RUSH: I’m the racist and the bigot?
CALLER: I didn’t say you were. I said he was!
RUSH: Oh. Abraham Lincoln? How in the world you can call a guy who ended slavery a racist and a bigot? I have heard everything now. Everything, in 22 years of hosting this program, I have heard everything.
Thanks guys for reminding me why I teach.
great post–thanks…don’t know if you’ve seen this video of Ann Coulter, but it’s pretty classic:
http://www.minor-ripper.blogspot.com
I once heard Rush go on at great length about the genius of Founding Father George Wythe, while all the while mispronouncing his name. History must have been one of those classes he failed in college because of the “liberal professors” running amok at Southeast Missouri State, which apparently was the Berkeley of the Lower Midwest 😉