RUSH: Somebody sent me a note saying nobody recognizes Oprah without the wig and the makeup. What is that about? Is there a picture of Oprah out there that I don’t know about? Or is she in a movie where she doesn’t look like herself? Everybody assumes I know everything, so they send me these notes sometimes and I don’t know what they’re talking about. Sometimes I get emails without any data in them. And so I’ve been perplexed by this for the last 20 minutes.

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RUSH: Okay, now, I finally figured out what this cryptic message about Oprah was. See, I don’t care about Oprah in the first place, so I don’t stay informed and up to date on Oprah. I don’t know what Oprah’s doing. So I get this note, “No one recognizes Oprah without the wig and the makeup,” and I said, “What the hell is that about?” Well, I finally found out what it’s about. Grab audio sound bite seventeen.

Apparently last night on Entertainment Tonight (figures), Nancy O’Dell interviewed media mogul The Oprah, and during a discussion about whether The Oprah still experiences racism… What is she, the highest-paid woman on TV in the world? So naturally they would do a discussion on whether Oprah still experiences racism. It makes total sense, doesnÂ’t it? She’s got her own TV network. She’s got her own magazine.

She’s one of the wealthiest people in the world. She’s probably the wealthiest media person in the world on a talent side of things. She’s a billionaire. She just won the Medal of Freedom from Obama. By the way, speaking of that… I think it’s the Medal of Freedom. It’s some presidential medal, and there’s like 17 of them that were announced, and there’s not one conservative individual on the list. Not one!

Not one.

Now, granted, they’re chosen by the president or staff or whatever. But not one. I’ve got the list here. I almost threw that away, too. I might have thrown it away. I don’t remember. I’m throwing more and more stuff away but I think I kept that. Not one conservative on the list, and understandably. Politically, Obama’s a big liberal Democrat, but he’s also the great unifier.

He’s also the one working real hard with people, to bring us all together, supposedly, which is a crock. Everybody knows it. Anyway, back to Nancy O’Dell and Entertainment Tonight, and the question about whether or not The Oprah still experiences racism. Nancy O’Dell said, “Just a couple of weeks ago, you faced a shopping incident while you were in Switzerland attending Tina Turner’s wedding.”

OPRAH: I didn’t have my eyelashes on, but I was in full Oprah Winfrey gear, and I go into a store — which shall remain unnamed — and I say to the woman, “Uh, excuse me, may I see that bag right above your head?” and she says to me, (mocking her accent) “No. It’s too expensive.” Uh, one more time I tried. I said, “But I really do just really want to see that one,” and she said, “Oh, I don’t… I don’t want to hurt your feelings,” and I said, “Okay. Thank you so much. You’re probably right. I can’t afford it,” and I walked out of the store. Now why did she do that?

RUSH: Well, obviously she’s a racist scum who thought you as a black person couldn’t afford anything, certainly not that bag, and she wanted you out of the store. That’s what we’re all to conclude. Why not mention the brand name? Who was it? Gucci? Louis Vuitton? Is that how you pronounce it? Vuitton? Who was it? Tell us who it was! By the way, this is not the first such incident with the Oprah.

There was a time when the Oprah was in Paris and she went into some highbrow, very upscale, elitist, retail establishment, except it was right at closing time and they would not open the store. I think I’ve got this right. It’s very close to this. They would not open the store for her. So the Oprah went to the nearest camera and microphone and said that this store didn’t want her in there for whatever reason, that it wouldn’t open up for her.

I think that there was a racial component implied there as well. You know, I look at this a whole different way. If I were Oprah, I would be thankful that I could go someplace and not be recognized! I’d be happy about it. Now, we’ve all been insulted by retail people. It happens. I don’t know if she’s looking at a $400,000 purse, either. We don’t know how much the purse costs, do we? (interruption)

It was a $35,000 purse! That’s why it’s on the top shelf so that it can’t be easily… It was a $35,000 purse. I mean, if Oprah walks in there, I guess she did not have on the wig or make up or whatever it is that makes her look like Oprah. If it were me, I’d be ecstatic that they didn’t recognize me. Oh, correction: It was a $38,100 bag that they told the Oprah she couldn’t afford. Of course, The Oprah could buy the store if she wants it.

Anyway, I get this note, “No one recognizes Oprah without the wig and the makeup,” and I think, “What in the world?” (interruption) Are you surprised that? The Swiss Tourism Office, the government of Switzerland has apologized to the Oprah for the retail store. (interruption) It’s Switzerland! (interruption) Well, what do you mean, “Who cares?” Switzerland is ideal. I mean, it’s what liberals here tell us we all want to be like.

Sweden, Switzerland, all of these European countries. Have you guys…? Let me ask you. Speaking of TV shows, this is great. Have you seen the new NBC show — well, they’re four or five episodes into it now — called Crossing Lines? Have you seen that? Oh, this is a show that’s funny without trying to be. This is classic. It’s on NBC Sunday nights at 9:00, but it wasn’t on this past Sunday because they had the Football Hall of Fame.

But the premise is, you have some crime fighters working for the International Criminal Court; and because they work for the ICC, they are able to go from country to country (Crossing Lines is crossing borders) without any problem whatsoever. They’re more powerful than InterPol. They’re more powerful than any local or state police agency, but the… Let me see if I can describe this for you. The producers and the network obviously think that Europe is the ideal, and that’s what we all ought to be.

Donald Sutherland plays the quintessential, perfect, wuss, namby-pamby European heading up the ICC. This show drips what they think is refinement. It drips what they think is political correctness. It just drips foreign accent. There’s not one American English accent in this show, except maybe for Sutherland. The head honcho is a guy from France and named Louie. There are a couple of famous actors in it, one, and the others are newcomers.

But to me, it’s hard to describe this. Maybe others wouldn’t see it the way I do. I see the show as being put together by a bunch of people who think Europe is the cat’s meow, that they’re the smartest, they’re the brainiest, they’re the most cultured. It is just… “If we could just be more like them. If we could just be more like these people.” That’s exactly it, and of course the International Criminal Court may as well be God.

They’re the smartest people in the world that work there and the most understanding, tolerant people. It’s just… We’ve always known that the modern incarnation of the left thinks we all ought to be like Europe. I mean, these people get around by trains, and Obama and the Democrats think trains… That’s a wet dream for these people. If you understand and if you’re able to detect the mind-set that puts this show together, it’s hilarious.

It’s not a comedy. They’re not intending to be laughed at. But I cannot watch this show without busting out laughing and pushing pause and rewind just to hear a couple of things. I even run around imitating some of the characters and their accents and their hoity-toity, elitist, above-everybody-else attitudes. (interruption) No, we do not know. We do not know that the salesperson based her judgment on the Oprah’s skin color.

The salesperson obviously thought that The Oprah couldn’t afford the $38,100 bag. Maybe it’s because The Oprah’s fat. (interruption) Well, that’s another thing. How was The Oprah dressed? She didn’t look like The Oprah, obviously. Was she wearing a jumpsuit with tennis shoes, maybe Air Jordans that were not laced up? Who knows? Maybe the judgment that the Oprah couldn’t afford the $38,100 bag had nothing to do with her race, because aren’t the Swiss enlightened in that regard?

I mean, aren’t Europeans?

There isn’t any racism in Europe, right? There really isn’t! There’s no discrimination. There’s no racism. There’s no class envy. There’s… (interruption) Oh, she was wearing a Donna Karen skirt and sandals. Hmmm. Hmmm. How…? (interruption) Would the sales clerk know it was a Donna Karen skirt? (interruption) Do you think the sandals did it? Switzerland, August, sandals? Look, don’t most people think that the fat and the obese are poor and stupid? Isn’t there that prejudice around out there?

Isn’t there?

Where do you see fat people? Where do you see them? You see them at places where things don’t cost very much. Well, I’m just saying. Isn’t it possible? I’m just throwing it out there.

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RUSH: There’s even more data pouring in here on the controversy in Switzerland involving The Oprah. The Oprah’s version, as told to that great journalistic enterprise Entertainment Tonight, The Oprah’s version was that she asked to see an expensive bag on the top shelf and that the shop person said that it was too expensive. So The Oprah said she tried one more time, “I really just want to see that one.” And the shop owner or the clerk said, “No, I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but you can’t afford it.” And The Oprah said, “Okay, well, you’re probably right, I can’t afford it.” And then left and called Entertainment Tonight.

Now the shop owner, Trudie Gotz, great Swedish name, told the BBC that The Oprah’s version here is not exactly what happened. The shop owner told the BBC that The Oprah was absolutely allowed to look at the $35,000 bag. They kept the bag behind a screen and then the shop owner Trudie Gotz said, “My salesperson wanted to give her the handbag in her hand. But she didn’t want to take the bag.” Now, didn’t want to take it may mean didn’t want to buy it. Who knows. I mean, it’s translation time here. So the shop owner further stated that the assistant, the clerk that had dealt with The Oprah had worked in that store “for a few years and takes care of the most spoiled customers from all over the world.” She knows how to deal with them. (laughing) She really said this, folks. She really said that we’ve got an expert dealing with the spoiled in there. “She’s really correct.” She knows how to deal with them.

The BBC may be racist because they’re presenting a version here that doesn’t dovetail with The Oprah’s version. BBC said: “Ms Gotz said her assistant spoke both Italian and English, ‘but her English isn’t as good. She tried to show Mrs Oprah the same style in other qualities, because maybe she didn’t understand what she wanted.'” So there’s a lot of backtracking here and CYA going on. These are Europeans. They’re not accused of racism. There isn’t any racism in Europe and there’s no class envy. There isn’t any class warfare. There isn’t any global warming. What else is there? There isn’t any poverty. I mean, it’s utopia over there. That’s why everybody’s so shocked. I mean, you would expect something like this to happen, say, in Alabama, but not Switzerland. I’m not insulting Alabama. I’m voicing the arrogance of the left.

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RUSH: Oh, I’m in trouble. I’m in trouble for my discussion about The Oprah. Mediaite has the headline, “Rush Limbaugh Calls Oprah Fat.” Is that news to them? That must be news. That must have never crossed their minds. Unbelievable.