Limbaugh Denies Haitians Decency He Received While Hospitalized

When Rush Limbaugh was hospitalized with chest pains, his fate uncertain, Rachel Maddow, myself, and many others urged transcendence of partisan rancor as a naturally decent response. Now, barely 2 weeks later, Limbaugh is using the heartrending tragedy of the Haitian earthquake to score points against President Obama, and even urges people not to donate to the relief effort. This is shockingly low, even for Limbaugh.

Emblematic of this right vs. left insanity is the fact that the left chooses to focus on the sizzly “black people” quote at Media Matters, and completely misses the really disgusting parts:

Transcript:

Yes, I think in the, uh, Haiti earthquake, ladies and gentlemen — in the words of Rahm Emanuel — we have another crisis simply too good to waste.  This will play right into Obama’s hands. Humanitarian, compassionate.  Uh, they’ll use this to, uh, to burnish, uh, their, uh, uh, shall we say, “credibility” with the black community, uh — in the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country. Uh, it’s made-to-order for .  That’s why he couldn’t wait to get out there, could not wait to get out there.

That Rahm Emanuel quote, by the way, refers to crises like the economic collapse and healthcare, and the fact that these are times to find lasting solutions rather than band-aids. I know how much Rush cares about context.

There are other crass attempts to trash Obama and Democrats while people are still dying in Haiti, but the worst parts are when he actually urges people not to give to the relief effort.

RUSH: We’re going to start in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Justin you’re first today.  Great to have you with us.

CALLER:  Mega Rush Baby dittos.  My question is, why did Obama in the sound bite you played earlier, when he’s talking about if you wanted to donate some money, you can go to WhiteHouse.gov —

RUSH:  Yeah.

CALLER: — to direct you how to do so.  If I want to donate money to the Red Cross, why do I need to go to the WhiteHouse.gov page and —

RUSH:  Exactly.  Would you trust that the money is going to go to Haiti?

CALLER:  No.

RUSH:  Would you trust that your name is going to end up on a mailing list for the Obama people to start asking you for campaign donations for him and other causes.

CALLER:  Absolutely.

RUSH:  Absolutely right.

CALLER:  That’s the point.

RUSH:  Besides, we’ve already donated to Haiti.  It’s called the US income tax.

I know there will be knee-jerk Dittoheads, sure that I’m taking Rush out of context, so go read the whole transcript. He repeatedly mentions the futility of giving any aid to Haiti, and lies about the WhiteHouse.gov information. At the very end, he weakly offsets the lies that the donations are made to WhiteHouse.gov, or that they are collecting emails here, but still evinces skepticism that the money will reach Haiti, and still doesn’t urge donations.

In fact, he’s such a small, petty excuse for a man that he throws in a lie that can only stand if his listeners don’t know how to click a link:

What I’m going to read to you is buried in a very long blog post about what Obama said about the earthquake. You get that first, you gotta read what Obama said, the maximum leader, you gotta read what he says and then you get to the bottom …”

Let’s check on that. This is the featured link at WhiteHouse.gov:

The President has been receiving updates on the urgent situation in Haiti late into last night and throughout the day, and top members of his team have been convening to formulate the government response.

You can also help immediately by donating to the Red Cross to assist the relief effort. Contribute online to the Red Cross, or donate $10 to be charged to your cell phone bill by texting “HAITI” to “90999.”  Find more ways to help through the Center for International Disaster Information.

Families of Americans living in Haiti are encouraged to contact the State Department at 888-407-4747.

Update: Watch the President’s remarks this morning below, or read the transcript.

Unbelievable.

Now, Rush doesn’t have a duty to urge donations, but if he didn’t want to help, he could have just shut the hell up. By urging his audience of millions not to help, Rush Limbaugh has undoubtedly caused harm to real Haitian quake victims. Cynics might crack that Limbaugh’s listeners wouldn’t have done it anyway, but I know many of them personally, and even good people can have crummy taste in radio.

Many on the left, including prominent liberal blogger Oliver Willis, point to this as proof that Rush deserved ill wishes as his survival was uncertain a few weeks ago. I maintain that it is impossible to deny someone’s humanity while retaining your own, a lesson that Rush Limbaugh doesn’t care to learn.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.