We've been trying to figure out why, whenever Rush Limbaugh speaks these days from the comforts of his studio, all we ever see is placeholder cards or really bad webcam video. We also noticed, in his last couple of live public appearances, he was looking a bit, ah, portly, and naturally we wondered if there might be a health issue.

So we sent one of our C&L special investigators to get actual live footage from inside Rush's studio to find out what was up. This is what he sent us from this morning's remarks on Sonia Sotomayor.

Well, the truth, as they say, is Out There. Let's just say that Rush is now the living embodiment of the transformational power of right-wing politics.

Mark Halperin has the full transcript:

Do you think we should go to the mat stopping Sotomayor? Do you think we oughta go to the wall to oppose her? And I said absolutely we should. Once again, an opportunity to draw the distinct contrast that exists today between conservatives and those in the Republican Party to President Obama. I doubt that Sotomayor can be stopped. She should be. She is a horrible pick, she is the antithesis of a judge by her own admission and in her own words. She has been overturned 80 percent by the Supreme Court, she may as well be on the Ninth Circus Court of Appeals given all the time she's overturned. She has been reprimanded by a truly strong Hispanic judge, Jose Cabranes, she has been rebuked in writing by Cabranes for opinions that she wrote that had no bearing on the constitutional issues before her in the case that was being decided.

But here is why -- even though she may not be able to be stopped -- here is why Sonia Sotomayor needs to be opposed by the Republicans as far as they can take it. Because the American people need to know who Barack Obama really is and his choice of Sonia Sotomayor tells everybody, if we will tell the story of her, who he is. He got up in his announcement and said everything about her that isn't true: that she's great constitutionalist, that she doesn't use personal opinion, that she understands what her role is and the oath is of a Supreme Court justice. She has done just the opposite of that. She is a hack like he is a hack in the sense that the court is a place to be used to make policy, not to adjudicate cases, not to adjudicate constitutional law but to make policy. She's even admitted it.

She is the embodiment of the criticism of a judge or a justice who is all wrong for the highest court in the land. So of course the Republican Party should go to the mat on this because in the process of doing so, the American people will find out more about Barack Obama and who he really is, what he really believes in, and her choice -- this choice -- helps to tell the real story of Barack Obama. This is a debate worth having .

This is why this is actually a good choice in terms -- I mean, do I want her to fail? Yeah. Do I want her to fail to get on the court? Yeah, she'd be a disaster on the court. Do I still want Obama to fail as president? Yeah - AP, you gettin' this? He's gonna fail anyway but the sooner the better so as little damage can be done to the country.

So, here you have a racist. You might want to soften that and you might wanna say a reverse racist. And the libs, of course, say that minorities cannot be racists because they don't have the power to implement their racism. Well, those days are gone because reverse racists certainly do have the power to implement their power. Obama is the greatest living example of a reverse racist and now he's appointed one -- getting this, AP? -- Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court ...

So she's not the brain that they're portraying her to be, she's not a constitutional jurist. She is an affirmative action case extraordinaire and she has put down white men in favor of Latina women. She has claimed that the court is all about making policy. So yes, there's a golden opportunity. Take this to the mat. Take it to the wall. The people need to know what Obama really believes in and this is how it could happen. Now will the Republicans do it? That's another question.

[Audio courtesy Media Matters.]