Limbaugh slams Kennedy coverage: 'vomit and puke'?

Rush Limbaugh naturally spent his three hour program yesterday talking about the death of Senator Edward Kennedy.

Limbaugh is being misquoted very slightly by the likes of ABC and others are running one of Rush's comments this way:

I am going to vomit and puke all over everyone with this analysis today.

Here's what I heard (twice) and what the show's transcript says:

These people are just absurd.  It doesn't matter where you watch television today, even if you turn on Fox, you're going to get the syrupy, everything they say is going to be predictable, everything is going to be the staple, "We must put aside our differences for the day and respect the great work, achievements of Senator Kennedy," and vomit and puke all over everybody with this analysis today.  I was cracking up this morning when I heard this.  I was cracking up, and I wasn't cracking up because Senator Kennedy died, I'm cracking up because these people are making fools of themselves.  You give 'em too much time to talk on television and they will do it every damn time.  Barack Obama has had the torch passed to him? Ted Kennedy made him the last brother?  And the Kennedys ever loyal, the brothers, they were loyal to each other.  Barack Obama the last Kennedy brother, and Barack Obama is not even loyal to his own brothers.  Brother still lives in a hut.

It sounds to me like Rush is saying that mainstream media commentators like Chris Matthews are the ones doing the "vomiting and puking." I could be wrong.

Anyhow, Rush jokes at the beginning  of each show that he aims to "exceed audience expectations." But I'm not sure even regular Rush Limbaugh listeners expected their favorite host to be so blunt.

Limbaugh (and his callers) took the opportunity to compare and contrast the superior level of care Kennedy received with that received by ordinary Americans with similar conditions. Limbaugh's words were harsh, but beneath the bluster, many of his points were sound, especially when he addressed the broader issue of Kennedy's "great legacy" -- which was to legitimize "Borking", feed class resentments and grow Big Government:

I'm getting lots of e-mail. People are frustrated as they can be over the slobbering media coverage today over the passing of Senator Kennedy.  Folks, you're going to have to put up with it for a week. It's just the way it is.  It shouldn't surprise any of you.  But I think we need to look at Senator Kennedy in a number of ways.  I think Senator Kennedy... It would serve us well to remember that Senator Kennedy is a perfect example of the redeeming aspect of liberalism.  If a politician is liberal, and if the politician uses the government to take money from people who work and gives it to people who don't work, they are redeemed for every bad act on earth they commit.

Not everyone got to hear Rush Limbaugh yesterday. As we reported here, some radio stations in Kennedy's hometown of Boston pulled their regular conservative talk radio shows and brought in lesser liberal hosts instead. The substitutes lauded Kennedy's legacy, but not all listeners applauded; many called in to complain about the "censorship" of Rush.

Of course, the same liberals who applauded Ted Kennedy for "Borking" a gifted (conservative) Supreme Court nominee (thereby legitimizing the low level of political discourse we've endured for decades) are now calling Limbaugh and other conservatives "haters" for not dutifully jumping on the Kennedy eulogy bandwagon.

Many conservative bloggers took the opportunity to remember instead Mary Jo Kopechne, who was a victim of negligent homicide when Kennedy was at the wheel one night in 1969.

As one blogger put it:

If they’re going to talk about Camelot, then we get to talk about The Lady in the Lake.