On Tuesday's PoliticsNation on MSNBC, during a discussion of conservative figures comparing ObamaCare to drug addiction, guest Joe Madison attacked Rush Limbaugh as a "fat ass," and raised the talk radio host's past addiction to the painkiller Oxycontin as the liberal talk radio host bristled at the comparison of drug addiction to government-run health care. Madison began his rant:
Let me tell you, they just can't stand the fact that they've got a very smart, intelligent black man that has out-thought them, out-campaigned them, beat them twice without any controversy. The nerve, the absolute nerve to use crack cocaine, something that destroyed individuals, destroyed families, practically destroyed communities, to compare it to something that heals people, that brings families together, that allows them to save money, allows them to be well is absolutely absurd.
He continued:
And fat ass Rush Limbaugh really has some nerve. Here's a man that even talked his maid into stealing drugs from her husband so that he could have a high. So, I mean, let's call it what it is. These people simply have lost their freaking minds. They just can't handle it.
A bit later, he mocked white-majority parts of the country as "lily white" as he lambasted an Arizona Republican for using the phrase "shuck and jive" with regard to President Obama. Madison:
So here you have these folks who primarily live in these lily white congressional districts for the most part, and then they're trying to use black vernacular to try to sound like they're hip and that somehow Obama is just too black to be president of the United States.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Tuesday, October 1, PoliticsNation on MSNBC:
AL SHARPTON: The desperation from the right wing has been remarkable to watch. They've compared the new health care law to communism, to terrorism, to slavery, and now this.
BILL O'REILLY, FNC: Correct me if I'm wrong, if they sign up to the exchange, then they'll have it. So it's getting them out of the house or the crack house or wherever they are to get them to sign up. But if they sign up, they have it.
SHARPTON: The crack house? Millions of uninsured including millions of American children, but they must be crack heads? Really? And it's not just one out of touch TV personality saying it. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann says quote, "President Obama can't wait to get Americans addicted to (the) crack cocaine of dependency of more government health care."
Addicted to crack cocaine? Comparing health care opportunity to getting hooked on crack cocaine? Let's remember this comes from the same esteemed member of Congress who once said that ObamaCare, quote, "literally kills people." But the nastiness doesn't end there. Here's Rush Limbaugh today.
RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: School kids, I found out, still going to get breakfast, lunch, snack, ecstasy, whatever else they get. All of the welfare checks and all of the food stamp cards are still usable. They have not been shut down. Everybody in Obama's base depending on government is going to have a fine day.
SHARPTON: So what's with all this coded language? Food stamps, drugs, slavery. Is this really about the health care bill? Or is it about something more personal and ugly? Joining me now is Dana Milbank and Joe Madison. Thank you both for your time. ... Joe, this is a pattern now, so what's behind this talk?
JOE MADISON, TALK RADIO HOST: Let me tell you, they just can't stand the fact that they've got a very smart, intelligent black man that has out-thought them, out-campaigned them, beat them twice without any controversy. The nerve, the absolute nerve to use crack cocaine, something that destroyed individuals, destroyed families, practically destroyed communities, to compare it to something that heals people, that brings families together, that allows them to save money, allows them to be well is absolutely absurd.
And fat ass Rush Limbaugh really has some nerve. Here's a man that even talked his maid into stealing drugs from her husband so that he could have a high. So, I mean, let's call it what it is. These people simply have lost their freaking minds. They just can't handle it.
SHARPTON: Dana, when you hear people comparing government dependency to drug use and slavery, I mean, what are the implications of dog whistle politics in this fight over health care?
MILBANK: Well, I think that last bit about losing their freaking minds has a lot to do with it, certainly in Michele Bachmann's case. So if there's a defense for her, it's that she says all kinds of crazy things about all kinds of topics. Now, there's two things going on here. There is without question an element among conservatives who just have a very personal whether it's racially tinged antipathy towards this President. There's also a larger group of Republicans who really can't stand ObamaCare. So I think none of us can really get into it and say, you know, how many are in each camp and what's going on here.
Clearly there's an element of sensitivity that they may have crossed the line because, you know, just in the last few minutes, they were out there promoting legislation to try to fund the District of Columbia. So that has elements of it in there, too.
SHARPTON: Now, Joe, I want to raise this to you. There's a Republican National Committee man in Arizona who mocked the Obama administration's decision to delay certain parts of the Affordable Care Act in a Facebook post. Here's the quote on the Facebook post. "Some people wonder why I cannot figure out why I believe Obama is shucking and jiving on Obamacare."
Now, he isn't the first Republican to use that term. Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh used it. Before I get your thoughts, Joe, I went to the dictionary because a lot of people may not know like you and I know what shucking and jiving comes from or what it means.
The dictionary of American slang says about shucking and jiving, it's "black slaves sang and shouted gleefully during corn-shucking season and this behavior along with lying and teasing became part of the protective and evasive behavior normally adopted towards white people in traditional race relations." That's the definition.
MADISON: Boy, you are too smart for television, Al. I'm telling you.You broke it down. Like my grandfather used to say, put it where the goats can get it right to the root of it. That's an old country term just like shucking and jiving is an old country term. So here you have these folks who primarily live in these lily white congressional districts for the most part, and then they're trying to use black vernacular to try to sound like they're hip and that somehow Obama is just too black to be President of the United States.
Look, I'm about calling it like it is and speaking plainly about this. But, you know, the reality is, you know, they also said crack cocaine. Now, wait a minute. Didn't you just say in the last segment 97 percent of Massachusetts residents have what amounts to Obamacare. They just call it Romney-care. So that means that they're crack addicts. It also means since Congress passed the law, House of Representatives are crack addicts, the Senate are crack addicts, and the Supreme Court that voted that it was constitutional.