This two minute call, archived here on the Media Matters website, is a real treasure.  Pamela in Baltimore, we salute you!  

The greatness starts just a few seconds in, when Rush is audibly startled to discover that his current caller is a black woman.  She prepares to read Rush the riot act, in as calm and sensible a manner as you could ever hope to hear.  So many anti-Rush callers allow him to bait them into flipping out, stuttering and stammering through their spluttering screeds.  Not Pamela!

Pamela starts by taking Rush to task for his comments about Obama spending his birthday night alone.  You can hear a really unpleasant whine in Rush's voice as he backpedals, pointing the finger at the AP for having used the word "bachelor" in their story about Obama spending his birthday alone.  

When she asks Rush flat out, "Why do you always reference him as a boy?"  Rush prevaricates, and then goes for the "he's clueless" and "he's inexperienced."

We all know what you mean, Pamela.  And you know what?  Rush does, too.  And his listeners certainly do.  When he uses the phrase "man child," this is clearly code for "boy."  And calling a black man "boy" is, shall we say, culturally fraught with significance.  None of that is an accident on Rush's part.  Just look at how careful he is to assert that he has never called Obama "boy."  "I've called him a man child," Rush says.

When Rush asserts that Obama is "the least qualified guy in any room he walks into," Pamela asks "So in your opinion, Sarah Palin has more experience than him, right?"

I have literally never heard Rush mumble and stammer, but that is exactly what he does.  For a brief moment, he is literally speechless.  You can hear him mentally scrambling for his footing.  Support Sarah Palin, or make a statement which is factually incorrect?  

Pamela's got Rush's number.  Where are you, Pamela?  Please come back - we need you!  We love you!  And for having rendered Rush Limbaugh speechless, I for one think you deserve some kind of award.

Rush cuts Pamela off, oh what a surprise, and what a shame!  By the end of the call, you could practically hear his nervous sweat.  Excellent work all around, Pamela in Baltimore.  We need more of you.

What Pamela is referencing, of course, is what sociologists call "coded language."  You are familiar with coded language, even if you don't know it as such.  When a sportscaster calls Johnny Weir's costumes "flamboyant," that's coded for "homosexual."  When someone calls something "urban," that's coded for "black, poor, and probably criminal."  

We use these codes all the time.  A polite term, to refer to something unpleasant.  It may be a shared joke, or just a presumed shared reference.  Code words don't fool anyone, but they build solidarity while allowing insults to be spoken aloud without repercussions.

Such is most certainly the case with Rush's use of "man child" to describe Obama.  Whenever Rush says "man child," his audience hears "boy," and the racist point is made.  And technically, Rush has deniability.  

But we all know the truth, and Pamela called him on it.

Photo credit: Flickr/barloventomagico