RUSH: Here’s the transcript of what Dingy Harry said and we’re looking for it, we’ll have the audio, but this is what Dingy Harry said on the floor of the Senate at noon Eastern time today:
‘Madam President, earlier this month I came to the floor to discuss some comments made by Rush Limbaugh. Following my remarks, more than 40 of my Senate colleagues and I cosigned a letter to the chairman of Clear Channel, Mark May [sic–Mays], telling him we wanted him to confer with Limbaugh regarding the statements he made.’ Is that not audacious? The United States Senate getting hold of the CEO of a private corporation to confer with me over words that I had uttered. ‘I’ve since spoken to Mark May about this. Mark May, in fact, called me regarding this letter. This week, Rush Limbaugh put the original copy of that letter up for auction on eBay. Mr. President, we didn’t have time, or we could have gotten every Senator to sign that letter.’ What is that? Yeah, if we only had time, we could have gotten everybody to sign. How come not one Republican signed it? They had a couple of days to do this. I tell you, that’s an amazing statement. Had we had more time, well, was it not worth taking the time, if this was such an important issue? If you would have taken the time, Senator Reid, wouldn’t a hundred signatures really have had an impact on Mark Mays, the CEO of Clear Channel, more than 41 and totally partisan signatures since it was all Democrats.
‘He put the letter up for auction on eBay,’ continued Mr. Reid, ‘and I think very, very constructively, let the proceeds of that to go to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation that provides scholarship assistance to Marines and federal law enforcement personnel whose parents fall in the line of duty. What could be a more worthwhile cause?’ Rehabilitating Senator Reid is a worthwhile cause, which is I think what this is. ‘I think it’s really good that this money on eBay is going to be raised for this purpose. When I spoke to Mark May, he and I thought this probably wouldn’t make much…’ So he’s been involved in it now, huh? (laughing) He’s now wormed his way into this! He’s not matching. I don’t think he’s going to match, and he hasn’t apologized for this, by the way.
‘When I spoke to Mark May, he and I thought this probably wouldn’t make much money, a letter, written by Democrat Senators, complaining about something. This morning, the bid is more than two million for this. We’ve watched it during the week. It keeps going up, and up, and up. There’s only a little bit of time left on it, but it certainly is going to be more than two million. Never did we think that this letter would bring money of this nature,’ said Senator Reid. ‘And for the cause, Madam President, it’s extremely good. Now everybody knows that Rush Limbaugh and I don’t agree on everything in life. Maybe that’s kind of an understatement. But, without qualification, Mark May, the owner of the network that has Rush Limbaugh, their auction is going to be something that raises money for a worthwhile cause. I don’t know what we could do more important than helping to ensure that children of our fallen soldiers and police officers who have fallen in the line of duty have the opportunity for their children to have a good education.’
Think of this. He’s using the word ‘we’. He has inserted himself into this, ladies and gentlemen! It’s going so well, it’s something nobody by his own admission ever imagined — they want in on it! We’ve got the audio now. Let’s just listen to it rather than me read it.
HARRY REID: Earlier this month, I came to the floor discussing comments made by Rush Limbaugh. Following my remarks, more than 40 of my Senate colleagues and I cosigned a letter to the chairman of Clear Channel, Mark May, telling him that we wanted him to — to confer with Rush Limbaugh regarding the statements he made. I’ve since spoken to Mark May about this. Mark May, in fact, called me regarding this letter.
RUSH: It’s Mays.
HARRY REID: This week, Rush Limbaugh put the original copy of that letter up for auction on eBay. Mr. President, we didn’t have time or we could have gotten every Democratic Senator to sign that letter. But he put the letter up for auction on eBay. And I think very, very constructively, let the proceeds of that to go to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. What is the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation? It provides scholarship assistance to children of Marines and federal law enforcement personnel whose parent dies in the line of duty, as well as health care assistance for disabled children of fallen troops. What could be a more worthwhile cause? And I think it’s really good that this money on eBay is going to be raised for this purpose. When I spoke to Mark May —
RUSH: Mays.
HARRY REID: — I think that he and I thought this would probably not raise much money, a letter by Democratic Senators complaining about something. This morning, the bid is more than two million on this. We’ve watched it during the week. It keeps going up, and up, and up, and there’s only a little bit of time left on it. But it’s certainly going to be more than two million. Never did we think that this letter would bring money of this nature —
RUSH: Stop the tape here, stop the tape. Do you see what’s happening here? This is a clever move, rather transparent, to totally take the credit for this. Had he not sent the letter — ‘we’ didn’t think it would ever generate this kind of money; ‘we’ think it’s great to raise this kind of…; ‘we’ think this — he’s hoping that this is the angle the Drive-Bys will cover. Harry Reid is taking credit for writing the letter that gets this money raised for the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. Resume tape.
HARRY REID: — the cause, Madam President, extremely good. Now, everyone knows that Rush Limbaugh and I don’t agree on everything in life, and maybe that’s kind of an understatement. But without qualification, Mark May, the owner of the network that has Rush Limbaugh, and Rush Limbaugh should know that this letter that they’re auctioning is going to be something that raises money for a really worthwhile cause. I don’t know what we could do more important than helping make sure that children of our fallen soldiers and police officers who have fallen in the line of duty have the opportunity for their children to have a good education. Think about this. More than $2 million, this is going to really help. And that’s, again, an understatement. There’s only a little bit of time left.
RUSH: Wait ’til you hear what’s coming.
HARRY REID: — so I would ask those that are wanting to do more, that they can go to the Harry Reid, search — actually go on say ‘Harry Reid letter,’ this will come up on eBay. I encourage anyone interested in this with the means to do so to consider bidding on this letter and contributing to this worthwhile cause.
RUSH: Hang on here.
HARRY REID: I strongly believe that when we can put our differences aside, even Harry Reid and Rush Limbaugh, we should do that and try to accomplish good things for the American people.
RUSH: Okay. Put our differences aside? Has he apologized? He is trying to horn in and act like he’s part of this whole thing, folks. This is unbelievable! And now he’s out there soliciting contributions on eBay, and believe me, this is what he hopes, of all of the past two weeks, that the Drive-Bys pick up on. Well, I wasn’t going to do this. I wasn’t going to go back in time. But let’s go back, Monday, October 1st, 17 days ago, on the very same Senate floor, Harry Reid said this.
HARRY REID: Last week, Rush Limbaugh went way over the line, way over the line. While I respect his right to say anything he likes, his unpatriotic comments I cannot ignore. During his show last Wednesday, Limbaugh was engaged in one of his typical rants. This one was unremarkable and indistinguishable from his usual drivel, which has been steadily losing listeners for years, until he crossed that line by calling our men and women in uniform who oppose the war in Iraq, and I quote, phony soldiers. This comment was so beyond the pale of decency that we can’t leave it alone. And yet he followed it up with denials and an attack on Congressman Jack Murtha, who was a 37-year active member of the Marine Corps, a combat veteran.
RUSH: I wasn’t going to go back and relive this because it’s ancient history, and we’ve been moving forward. Senator Reid, you did not mention that I am matching whatever the final total is. That is ‘we.’ You were offered an invitation to come on this program and say to my face what we just replayed you saying, that I am unpatriotic, and all of the other smears and lies that you believed from Media Matters for America or whether you knew were smears and lies and just went ahead with it anyway. So now, all of a sudden, this is ‘we’? You and I have buried the hatchet? You haven’t even apologized for this yet and now he wants credit for helping raise this money, as though he’s been involved in it all along. It’s Orwellian. It’s surreal. It’s alternate universe. It continues. Senator Reid, I asked you, I suggested that you and Senators in the Senate who could afford this match it. I haven’t heard whether you want to match the final total. I pledged to do so from the get-go. By the way, one more time, it’s Mays. It’s Mark Mays. There’s an ‘S’ on the end of his name.
HARRY REID: Rush Limbaugh took it upon himself to attack the courage and character of those fighting and dying for him and for all of us. Rush Limbaugh got himself a deferment from serving when he was a young man. He never served in uniform. He never saw in person the extreme difficulty of maintaining peace in a foreign country engaged in a civil war. He never saw a person in combat. Yet he thinks that his opinion on the war is worth more than those who have been on the front lines. And what’s worse, Limbaugh’s show is broadcast on Armed Forces Radio, which means that thousands of troops overseas and veterans here at home were forced to hear this attack on their patriotism. Rush Limbaugh owes the men and women of our armed forces an apology.
RUSH: Right. And he wants to pretend now that he’s all supportive of this and very happy about it, and that this is ‘we’ and we’ve buried the hatchet. I still haven’t been apologized to for any of this.
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RUSH: This attempt by Harry Reid to take to the floor of the Senate at 12 noon Eastern Time today to personalize this and make it about himself, you just know the mainstream media, the Drive-Bys, will get on this story now and Reid will end up being very positively portrayed. He has quotes about how ‘we’ never thought that the letter would generate this kind of money. ‘We’ never thought…? ‘Mark May and I…’ It’s Mays! ‘Mark May and I talked about this, and Mark May and I…’ Senator Reid, let me be clear about this one more time — actually, as many times as it takes. It wasn’t your letter that raised this money. It was your abuse of power that is responsible for raising this money. No other letter you have written would be… People wouldn’t pay a dime for it, Senator! This one represents an abuse of power: a federal government official, a US senator, getting hold — after besmirching me and smearing me by name personally from the Senate floor, gets hold — of the CEO of my syndication partner and asks him to ‘confer’ with me about something Senator Reid thought was said that was improper? Words? First Amendment? Free speech? That, sir, is an abuse of power. That is why your letter is historic, not because you signed it, not because 40 other people signed it, not because you wrote it. It is because of what that letter represents: a full-fledged, undeniable, 100% abuse of power, and that’s how this letter will be remembered by historians forever.
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RUSH: Translation for Harry Reid’s speech on the Senate floor today: ‘You win, Rush.’
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RUSH: A little aside here to the broadcast engineer: Be prepared for ‘stop the tape’ a number of times during this, and then we’ll play it in its entirety after I analyze some of this sentence by sentence.
HARRY REID: Earlier this month, I came to the floor to discuss some comments made by Rush Limbaugh. Following my remarks, more than 40 of my Senate colleagues and I cosigned a letter to the chairman of Clear Channel, Mark May —
RUSH: Stop. It’s Mays. It’s Mays, not ‘May.’ Why not repeat your ‘comments’? You called me ‘unpatriotic.’ You lied about something that I never said: smearing active duty troops who opposed the war. I’ve never done it, never would do it. That’s what your letter was. Forty of your colleagues, all Democrats, signed it.
HARRY REID: — telling him that wha– we — we wanted him to confer with Rush Limbaugh regarding the statements he made.
RUSH: Stop the tape. Confer with Mark Mays? The 41 Democrats who signed the letter wanted Mark Mays, CEO of Clear Channel, my syndication partner, to ‘confer’ with me about what I had said. When you run a business that’s federally regulated, and the Senate majority leader tells you that he wants you to confer with me, what he means is, ‘You get him to stop criticizing us! You get him to apologize. You make him.’ There’s an implied ‘or else,’ when the Senate majority leader calls a CEO of a broadcast company and says those things. That’s the abuse of power. That is the arrogant abuse of power and an attempt to essentially negate what I do, and to render me unable to do it.
HARRY REID: I’ve since spoken to Mark May about this.
RUSH: Mays!
HARRY REID: Mark May —
RUSH: Mays!
HARRY REID: — in fact, called me regarding this letter. This week, Rush Limbaugh put the original copy of that letter up for auction on eBay. Mr. President, we didn’t have time or we could have gotten every Democratic Senator to sign that letter.
RUSH: Stop the tape. This is really insidious. We didn’t have time, or we could have gotten every senator to sign the letter! Do you know what that means? ‘It would have been even more valuable if all of us in the Senate had signed it.’ He is trying to twist this and turn this into something that it never was. Classic, the way liberal Democrats operate this way. Every Democrat senator did not sign it. He wanted to get it? Now to say every senator could have, he just didn’t have time? Senator Reid, write another letter and have the remaining senators, the other 51 or 50, whatever it is, 59, sign it. The way to do it is just write another letter and get their signatures. We’ll put it back on eBay and do it all over again. Resume tape.
HARRY REID: But he put the letter up for auction on eBay, and I think very, very constructively, let the proceeds of that to go to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. What is the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation?
RUSH: Stop the tape. So now, all of a sudden, what I did is a good idea, a ‘very constructive idea,’ to take his letter that attempted to destroy me and put it up for sale on eBay. Now he’s going to describe the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation.
HARRY REID: It provides scholarship assistance to children of Marines and federal law enforcement personnel whose parent dies in the line of duty, as well as health care assistance for disabled children of fallen troops. What could be a more worthwhile cause? And I think it’s really good that, um, this money on eBay is going to be raised for this purpose. When I spoke to Mark May —
RUSH: Mays!
HARRY REID: — I think that he and I thought this would — probably wouldn’t raise much money —
RUSH: Stop the tape. Stop the tape. He spoke to ‘Mark May’ — Mays — spoke to Mark May, and he and Mark May conferred, discussed this. ‘We didn’t think,’ he said, ‘it would raise that much money,’ as though he’s involved now in the fundraising effort.
HARRY REID: — a letter by Democratic Senators complaining about something. This morning, the bid is more than two million on this.
RUSH: ‘Rush, you win.’
HARRY REID: We’ve watched it during the week. It keeps going up, and up, and up, and there’s only a little bit of time left on it. But it’s certainly going to be more than two million. Never did we think that this letter would bring money of —
RUSH: Stop! Stop! ‘We’? Who is this ‘we’? Who is this? Senators who wrote the letter to raise money? They didn’t think it would raise this money, he and Mark ‘May’? The truth of the matter is, as they were watching eBay, they watched in horror! Everybody has to know they were watching in horror as the amount that was bid kept increasing. We have to assume here, ladies and gentlemen, that Harry Reid was mortified that this letter ended up in public on eBay — mortified and angry! You don’t do this to United States senators, and they watched in horror as a record was set on the amount of money raised for a charitable item on eBay. So now it’s time to make it look like, ‘We intended this all along.’
HARRY REID: — this nature the cause, Madam President, extremely good. Now, everyone knows that Rush Limbaugh and I don’t agree on everything in life, and maybe that’s kind of an understatement. But without qualification, Mark May —
RUSH: Mays!
HARRY REID: — owner of the network that has Rush Limbaugh on it —
RUSH: Clear Channel.
HARRY REID: — and Rush Limbaugh should know that this letter that they’re auctioning is going to be something that raises money for really a worthwhile cause.
RUSH: Yeah. Stop the tape. But why? Because it’s an abuse of power. So that was Dingy Harry. That’s the end of it, right, Mike? Oh, there’s another little snip? Okay. I thought I heard the end of the hiss that is common on super heterodyne diodes. Go ahead and hit the rest of it.
HARRY REID: I don’t know what we could do more important than helping make sure that children of our fallen soldiers and police officers who have fallen in the line of duty, have the opportunity for their children to have a good education.
RUSH: Well, match the bid then! Match the bid!
HARRY REID: Think about this.
RUSH: Match the bid!
HARRY REID: More than two million, this is going to really help.
RUSH: Right. Yeah. Then match the bid!
HARRY REID: And that’s, again, an understatement. There’s only a little bit of time left.
RUSH: Match the bid!
HARRY REID: So I would ask those that are wanting do more —
RUSH: Stop the tape. He doesn’t go to the 40 who signed and say, ‘Limbaugh said match the bid.’ Maybe he is talking to these senators, but keep in mind he’s on C-SPAN here, C-SPAN2 at noon. If he really wanted to raise money on this, he’d be sending out fundraising letters, letters out to the constituents. He’d have gone on the networks to do this, but he’s in the Senate floor here, or on the Senate floor doing his best to make it look like… He’s just trying to clean up the mess here, folks. The translation for these remarks is, ‘You win,’ meaning to me.
REID: — that they can go to the Harry Reid, and — search, actually go on say ‘Harry Reid letter,’ this will come up on eBay. I encourage anyone interested in this with the means to do so, to consider bidding on this letter and contributing to this worthwhile cause. I strongly believe that when we can put our differences aside, even Harry Reid and Rush Limbaugh, we should do that and try to accomplish good things for the American people.
RUSH: Um, put our differences aside? Okay. Where is the apology for calling me ‘unpatriotic’? Where’s the apology for repeating a smear and a bunch of lies from Media Matters for America? Mr. Snerdley, you’ve been paying attention to this while faking being sick all week. Have Harry Reid and I buried the hatchet on this? Does it seem to you, Dawn, like we’ve buried the hatchet? Do these remarks by Senator Reid make it seem like we’ve buried the hatchet? I didn’t think so, either, but I wanted to get outside opinion on this so as not to be too judgmental.
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