Limbaugh at CPAC: Liberals are deranged; Obama is a socialist, community=communism

Felled by the flu, your blogstress found herself unable to subject herself -- in person, at least -- to the hatefest that was the Conservative Political Action Conference, which took place this weekend in Our Nation's Capital. C-SPAN, however, denied her the pleasure of a blissful recovery, as she could not responsibly look away as more than 8,000 people assembled to declare their hatred of the new president.

And so she found herself tweeting the closing speech by none other than the sociopathic Rush Limbaugh who, one must marvel, has convinced a certain segment of the regular white guy cohort that the cause of all his ills are liberals decrying the granting of millions in TARP money to the inheritors of Merrill Lynch, whose then-executive, John Thain, spent $1.2 million for the renovation his office (including a $1,400 wastebasket).

While CPAC usually features elements of a freak show of hostile wing-nuttery (remember Ann Coulter calling John Edwards a "faggot"?), this year's conference reached a new high-water mark of paranoid authoritarianism, wherein the tropes usually advanced by a dedicated fringe were adopted by ostensibly mainstream Republicans. Newt Gingrich described Barack Obama's economic agenda as socialist, as did many of the CPAC speakers. And in introducing Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), Cliff Kincaid reiterated his claim, recently cited by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), that Obama was not born in the United States.

If this is the idea factory of the Republican Party, it is clear that the hard right, which had been pushed to the margins in the Bush-Cheney years, is again ascendant. It might be tempting to see this as a good thing, given how crazy they sound, but in an era where people are hurting, and likely to hurt for some time to come, these people are dangerous. Don't get too smug, liberals.

Below find your écrivaine's tweets of Limbaugh's speech.

Rush: Nation is under assault "from within" as never before because of Obama.
15 minutes ago from web

Rush: "Why would I want [Obama] to succeed?" O's agenda, he sez, is the restructuring of the country so capitalism and individualism die.
16 minutes ago from web

Rush referred to Maggie Rodriguez of CBS News as The Early Show's "anchorette".
#cpac 25 minutes ago from web

Rush: "Conservatives are naturally happy." Longer: It's a big country; there are so many to hate. A veritable cornucopia!
#cpac 30 minutes ago from web

Rush: "Were it not for Kerry's varicose veins, he'd be totally colorless." Then Rush wiped the sweat from his own quivering jowls.
#cpac 41 minutes ago from web

CPAC audience laughed when Rush said that John Kerry served in Vietnam.
#cpac about 1 hour ago from web

Rush: No need to fear liberals, because they're deranged. Better policy ideas are not the way to beat liberals .[Just call them names.]
#cpac about 1 hour ago from web

Rush: Welfare destroys families by making fathers unnecessary. [U-S-A chant from crowd.]
#cpac about 1 hour ago from web

Rush: Recession of the '80s was worse than this one. Obama doesn't mention it because we got out of it with tax cuts. Addie: What?!
about 1 hour ago from web

Rush: Our culture being "reoriented" so that the people who make the country work are cast as "the enemy".
#cpac about 1 hour ago from web

Rush: Joe Biden wondering how Jindal got his shift off from 7-11 to give the response to Obama's speech to Congress.
#cpac about 1 hour ago from web

Rush: Dems are "socialist, collectivist, Stali--" Cleverly stopped short of saying the full word, "Stalinist".
#cpac about 1 hour ago from web

Rush: Liberals don't care about raising revenue; it's "about control". Subprime crisis the fault of Barney Frank, Chris Dodd & Bill Clinton.
about 1 hour ago from web

Rush: Poor people are poor because of government aid, because aid destroys ambition.
#cpac about 1 hour ago from web

Rush: Obama trying to "foment anger" over a "created crisis". Rush declaring war on the War on Poverty.
#cpac about 1 hour ago from web

Shorter Rush: Obama wants to destroy America.
#cpac about 1 hour ago from web

Rush: Obama "gifted" and "talented". Are "gifted" and "talented" the new "articulate"?
#cpac about 1 hour ago from web

Rush: To take the country back, all we conservatives need is to nominate the right candidate. #cpac about 1 hour ago from web