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RUSH: Here is Kathleen Parker’s column — and, of course, Kathleen Parker, you can correctly assume, is a woman, and this is her piece on, you know, how to avoid criticizing Hillary in order to create sympathy. You don’t want to do that. ‘Will women vote for Hillary Clinton only because she’s a woman? That question keeps getting bounced around and I’ve recently revised my answer from ‘no’ to ‘yes.’ That is, yes, women will vote for Clinton because she’s a woman — if men target her as a woman. Translation: Gentlemen, if you don’t want another Clinton in the White House, do not say unkind things about her persona, demeanor, appearance — even if bull’s-eye true. Not even in your own kitchen with your own wife. Women have radar for anti-woman sentiments — and all guys have them to some degree. Blame Mom, if you haven’t already. And no one has benefited more from being a victim than the candidate formerly known as Hillary Rodham Clinton. The truth is, Clinton might not be a senator from New York if not for her victimization as first spouse. How soon we forget the circumstances of her rise to power. It may be arguable that Clinton is a good-enough senator — that’s not the point — but it is inarguable that she won the office in 2000 because women rallied around her. Overall, women voted for Clinton over Republican Rep.
‘Rick Lazio 60 percent to 39 percent. In upstate New York, typically a Republican stronghold, women voted for Clinton 55 percent to 43 percent. And that rally had as much to do with Clinton the Victim as Clinton the Candidate. … But,’ gentlemen, Hillary Clinton ‘should lose the presidency for legitimate reasons, not because men find her unappealing. … Let men criticize Clinton personally and a funny thing happens. Contaminating the air is a slight whiff of misogyny that women recognize and recoil against. When men speak derogatorily about Clinton’s looks, all women feel a little bit wounded. What woman can withstand such scrutiny, after all? Women may attack each other — I’ve been known to observe the shrillness of Hillary’s voice — but when a man does it, something female kicks in among even the least girly of us. Bottom line: What women have in common with Hillary Clinton will always exceed what they have in common with men. This is powder room wisdom. Two women can disagree on the most controversial issues at the table, but when they head to the ladies’ room, inevitably together, they see eyeball to eyeball real fast over the most basic, and ultimately most important, matters. Hair, for instance. But also, seriously…’

(interruption) Calm down! You have problems with this? (laughing) ‘The deeper Ken Starr cut into Bill Clinton’s very private life, the more men felt sympathy for and aligned themselves with the president. In the locker room, schadenfreude has its limits. Will women vote for Hillary just because she’s a woman? Only if men attack Hillary as a woman. So be nice, boys, or you may end up choking on the words ‘Madam President.” I’m wondering now having read this if I can no longer refer to Mrs. Clinton and her ranting and screeching as reminding me of first and second ex-wives. The one thing in here that I (interruption) — Snerdley is doubting all of this, but the one thing in here, I think, that makes sense is that you can go up to a woman — Snerdley, try this — the most beautiful woman that you see, and ask her, ‘What does it feel like to feel beautiful?’ and she’ll tell you she doesn’t know. She doesn’t feel beautiful. They all think they got something wrong. There’s some flaw somewhere. So they rally around other women who are — especially if they are unattractive, and men start laughing about it, making jokes about it, then there will be this ‘bonding,’ so to speak. That, I think, is a great point. But it’s true, Mrs. Clinton… Look, I also think to go back and re-fight all that garbage in the nineties is a loser. Mrs. Clinton and the future of America that she would make it is the issue here, and that’s essentially what Ms. Parker happens to be saying.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Before we go to the break, folks, I want you to think about something. Since 1969, I, as a red-blooded American male, have been told that all women want is to be equal. They want to be equal. They want equal pay; they want equal this; equal opportunity. They want to be equal. They want to join the military, fight in the foxholes. During these 40 years as a man, I have to sit up, put up with all the fun being made of the way I look, Obama has to put up with Maureen Dowd making fun of his big ears, but let a guy say something derogatory about a woman’s appearance, all of a sudden these people that want to be equal start saying, ‘You can’t say that about me!’

BREAK TRANSCRIPT


RUSH: Did you think about what I asked you to think about prior to the break here at the top of the hour? If you’re just joining us, and you haven’t had a chance to think about it because you didn’t hear me, let me briefly review. Kathleen Parker, syndicated column, urging men, do not criticize Mrs. Clinton’s appearance in the presence of women, or your wife, because you will drive your wife or women to vote for Mrs. Clinton because no woman thinks that she looks good, no woman thinks that she’s beautiful. Ask a woman that you think is gorgeous, ‘What’s it like to feel gorgeous?’ And they will tell you, ‘I don’t.’ They all think they’ve got some flaw. We know this. Now, what I asked you to think about was this. While the theory sounds somewhat plausible based on the types of women a man has known over the course of his life, I can’t help but go back to 1969 and the beginning of the modern era of feminism. All I heard was, ‘Don’t open the door for me! I can make my own reservations at the restaurant! I just want to be equal! If you’re going to buy me a book, go out and buy a book on rape and read it yourself so you understand what a vile predator you can be.’

I heard all of this stuff growing up, as I turned 20. I heard all the demands that men lose their jobs for less qualified women just to level the playing field, and we want equality, and we want to be treated fairly, and blah, blah, blah. Now all of a sudden — and during that period of time, and it’s always been the case, women can say whatever they want about men. We’re predators. We’re brutes. We’re fat. We’re ugly. We’re going bald. They can make fun of our appearance all day long, and we’re supposed to take it. If we act like it hurt our feelings or something, why, then we’re wimps. You know the drill here. Yet all of a sudden, after — since 1960, 1970 — 37 years of demands for equality under the rubric of feminism, it turns out that we are told by a woman, Kathleen Parker, that if you make some comment about Hillary’s appearance, it’s going to drive women right into voting for Hillary. You can’t do that. So what has become of all this quest for equality? Well, it was always phony to begin with. It was a demand made but a situation not really desired. Human nature is what it is, and we’re not equal. Men and women aren’t equal. So here we are: Mrs. Clinton is first female candidate for president, and she’s gotta be treated like a girl.

She can’t be treated like one of the guys. She has entered a man’s world here, and she’s demanding to be treated like a girl. She played that card last week. And now we’re told, don’t make fun of her, don’t do this, don’t do that, we can make fun of Barack Obama’s ears all day long. We can make fun of Joe Biden’s hair plugs, that Chia Pet haircut that he’s got, or hair transplant, and we can make fun of John Kerry looking like a Labrador retriever, and people laughing. We can make fun of Bush and the way he looks or Dick Cheney, but we’re told we can’t do that with a woman deemed to be the most powerful woman in the country running for president, we can’t do this, and if we do it’s going to drive women right into her camp? So where’s all this quest for equality? I’ll tell you what: This quest for equality has become the chickification of our culture and our society. You know it and I know it. Chickification is taking over the schools. It’s taken over much of local television media. Look at the stories you get on the Nightly News and your local station, and it will be about the dangers in the sandbox at the preschool, which is not news. But that’s what it will be. Or it will be how men are leaving their wives, or stranding their wives, or not paying the bills, the child support and all that. It’s been totally chickified — and then there’s this.

This just cleared the wire during the top of the hour break. Marianne Means, who is a columnist for Hearst newspapers in Washington, this headline is laughable. ‘Hillary Clinton Fights Back — Like a Man.’ Quite the opposite! Fights back like a man? She sends her husband out there to explain her gaffes. She plays the gender card and says you can’t hit the girl. ‘We all knew that gender would inevitably be the subtext of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. But the surprise,’ writes Marianne Means, ‘is that the issue has erupted so early, with so much venom. It may actually be a good thing to get it all out in the open right away. The candidate herself says she thinks her rivals are attacking her because she is the runaway Democratic front-runner and therefore the fattest target…’ Marianne Means said that, not me. It was Marianne Means here that just called Hillary ‘the fattest target.’ I’m just reading the piece. ‘…not simply because she is female. She is both accurate and generous. This is not a picnic. She cannot be patronized, the fate of previous female presidential aspirant such as GOP Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C. Hillary Clinton is tough and must be confronted. And she fights back. Like a man.’

This is so full of crap. It is, folks. How does she fight back like a man? She says, ‘Don’t hit me! Don’t hit me! I’m a woman.’ She’s trying to immunize herself from criticism by hiding behind her gender. Men don’t do that. This is what the women Drive-Bys call fighting back, by sending your husband out and saying: ‘Don’t hit me! Don’t hit me! You can’t hit me, I’m a girl.’ I mean, this whole thing is hard to get through. Let me read a couple more quotes. ‘It all surfaced dramatically in an Oct. 30 Democratic debate…one of the moderators singled her out for attack.’ Tim Russert. See? It’s exactly my point. She was asked a question: What about driver’s licenses for illegals in New York and Governor Spitzer’s plan? That’s an ‘attack,’ to the modern-era feminists who wanted equality. You can’t even ask a female candidate a question without it being called an attack? ‘The men were over the top and their complaints about her vague answers not particularly useful.’

The men were over the top? Her opponents? So not only can the moderator not attack her with a question, her opponents can’t even get in the game by disagreeing with her because that, too, is ‘over the top’ and an ‘attack.’ I’m sure Marianne Means is a leading feminist out there. Let’s see. ‘That set off a boys-versus-girls fracas. Clinton referred to the presidency as an ‘all-boys club,’ perfectly accurate but not terribly politic. Her rivals and some whining females complained she was unfairly playing the gender-victim card. GOP candidate Mitt Romney, who is increasingly the meanest candidate in the game…’ (laughter) Marianne, do you know who the meanest candidate in this game is? It’s Hillary! Hillary Clinton is Nurse Ratched! She is the meanest candidate. Mitt Romney? ‘Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the GOP class act…’ When was this written? This was yesterday. So she might have written this before the b-i-itch question that he got. See. Moving on.

‘The media and her rivals tried to make a big deal of the fact some Clinton staffers suggested questions that those attending Clinton rallies could ask the candidate. CNN, normally a sensible news outlet, labeled it ‘plant-gate’… Oh, for pity’s sake! The Bush White House regularly controls those who get to see the president. He never goes anywhere that is not a military installation or an otherwise protected, pre-screened environment, and unexpected questions are never asked. Why doesn’t CNN call that coward-gate?’ See? This is exactly what I’ve been told to think about. We have been told for 40 years women want to be equal, and now she’s in the presidential race, and anything that is said that is the starkest criticism is unfair. It’s an ‘attack’ because she’s a girl, and then this ridiculous assertion that she fights back like a man. ‘Another book, ‘Women for President’ by Erika Falk, contends the male-dominated media is biased against female candidates.’ The male-dominated media? The media’s been chickified! ‘Well, that was a quarter of a century ago. So now, at last, we have come to Hillary. And her critics portray her just as the book predicts — chilly because she is professional, politically cagey and efficient. Just the qualities we look for in male leaders.’ So that proves another point. What do feminist women think of men? Professional, cagey, efficient? Just what we look for in male leaders? Again, that’s Marianne Means. There’s such a disconnect here, an amazing disconnect, on something as simple as reality.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

Here is Nancy in Great Neck, New York. Nancy, I’m glad you waited. Welcome to the Rush Limbaugh program.

CALLER: Oh, I — hello?

RUSH: Hi.

CALLER: Oh! Oh, Rush! Oh, thank you so much for taking my call. This is such a pleasure, such a treat. You have no idea. I’m very nervous, so please bear with me.

RUSH: I will. I learned to do that a long time.

CALLER: Earlier you were talking about the chickification of society, and I couldn’t agree with you more. You look at the sitcoms, you look at all the television programs that make men out to be the dumbest things on the face of the Earth, and it’s insulting. It is absolutely insulting. Men are kind of like white bread, milquetoast these days, the liberal men that I see around in my area —

RUSH: Exactly.

CALLER: — my neck of the woods.

RUSH: You are a woman right on line to my heart.

CALLER: Thank you so much. But what I wanted to call about was, you were talking about Hillary before, and this poor, ‘Don’t hit me. Don’t attack me, and I’m a woman. I’m a woman.’ Well, remember, what we consider here in New York, I believe, the fatal mistake that Rick Lazio made during the Senate debates?

RUSH: Yes?

CALLER: When he stood up, and he approached Hillary?

RUSH: Yes.

CALLER: That was taken as such a confrontational, such a male thing.

RUSH: He invaded her space, Nancy.

CALLER: He absolutely did. Now, there were a lot of us who believe that that was such a fatal mistake that that could have been one of the reasons why she got the Senate seat. Now, if she thinks that it worked then, her whole image might be to turn things around.

RUSH: Oh, she’s already said this is in their playbook. The Lazio strategy, they’ve already admitted that they’re playing this card again. When they played the gender card last week that’s what this was all about.

CALLER: I wish I could talk to you every day on the radio, and I’ve tried calling numerous times. This is the first chance I’ve had to get through, and I just wanted to say thank you so much for bringing rational, thoughtful discussion and your take on everything just calms my nerves and makes me less afraid of the nuts that are out there, when you can dissect everything and make so much sense.

RUSH: Well, I appreciate it. That’s very nice. That is very, very, very perceptive of you, and you’re very nice to say it. Thank you so much.

CALLER: Thank you so much, Rush, and keep going, keep up with the great work.

RUSH: Well, will do.

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