PALM BEACH, FL – Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh took his personal war with liberals to a new level last week, telling a caller to his nationally syndicated show that “part of me likes” the fact that four Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) activists were kidnapped by an Iraqi insurgent group. “Here’s why I like it,” he explained, “I like any time a bunch of leftist feel-good hand-wringers are shown reality."
Addressing the kidnapped activists, Limbaugh said, "[Y]ou’ve met the bad guys, and you tried your technique on them, and now you’re blindfolded in a room with guns pointed at you and knives at your throat. I don’t like that," according to a transcript of the show. Then he added, "But any time a bunch of people that walk around with the head in the sand practicing a bunch of irresponsible, idiotic theory confront reality, I’m kind of happy about it, because I’m eager for people to see reality, change their minds, if necessary, and have things sized up."
Another caller informed Limbaugh that CPT had recently ended an "Adopt-A-Detainee" letter-writing campaign in which religious congregations and anti-war groups were urged to write letters protesting alleged abuses of detainees. Limbaugh replied, “You know they’re going to blame Bush for this. … They wouldn’t have been kidnapped because they wouldn’t have been there in the first place if Bush hadn’t gone and caused the war and created all these terrorists. I mean, these people are liberals, they’re warped. Well, I mean, that’s why there’s – I’m telling you, folks, there’s a part of me that likes this.”
At that point, he paused and responded to an off-mike comment from someone in his studio. "I know, let them take me out of context,” he said. “I don’t care anymore."