Swine Screw

by digby

This pretty much says it all:

Last night, Rush Limbaugh came to Washington, D.C. to address the President’s Club Dinner, a meeting of wealthy donors and supporters of the Heritage Foundation. The audience included Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), as well as various millionaire trustees of the Heritage Foundation, like Thomas Saunders. After more or less reprising his radio show routine, Limbaugh went on to brag about his $400 million contract with Clear Channel Communications. As he continued to gloat about his show’s success, Limbaugh mocked the idea that Americans are suffering, noting, “I’ve never had financially a down year” despite the “supposed” recession:

LIMBAUGH: But during all this growth I haven’t lost any audience. I’ve never had financially a down year. There’s supposedly a recession, but we’ve got – what is this May? Back in February we already had 102% of 2008 overbooked for 2009. [applause] So I always believed that if we’re going to have a recession, just don’t participate. [laughter]

I’d love to hear him say that on the air.

Meanwhile, as he’s bragging to a bunch of fat cats about how he avoids recession by being a rapacious, greedy pig Rush’s employer, Clear Channel, is laying off people by the thousands. Here’s Eric Boehlert:

Drowning under massive debt and desperate to cut more costs, Clear Channel took an ax to its payroll — again — and hacked hundreds of radio pros out the door. Program directors, morning show hosts, production pros, news anchors — all of them tossed over the side. A “bloodbath,” one newspaper called it. (In Albany, New York, the entire on-air staff at a Clear Channel music station was sacked; same with a radio outpost in Exeter, New Hampshire) The most recent blizzard of pink slips (one industry report pegged it at “nearly 1,000”) came in the wake of a January purge, in which 1,850 Clear Channel employees were let go. So already this year the company has shed nearly 3,000 employees, or 12 percent of its workforce. Also, last week, Clear Channel’s parent company announced it was suspending its matching contributions to employee 401(k) retirement programs.

Every single day Limbaugh demonstrates why he is the poster boy for everything people loathe about the GOP.