{"id":9335,"date":"2014-05-16T16:44:42","date_gmt":"2014-05-16T16:44:42","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-05-16T16:44:42","modified_gmt":"2014-05-16T16:44:42","slug":"general_shinseki_democrat_hack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/05\/16\/general_shinseki_democrat_hack\/","title":{"rendered":"General Shinseki: Democrat Hack"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: We\u2019ve got veterans dying because they\u2019re not getting adequate medical care. Do you remember this name Shinseki, this guy that\u2019s running the VA. Eric Shinseki, do you remember why he\u2019s famous? Do you remember why he\u2019s even at the VA? Shinseki was one of the first uniformed military people to trash Bush and the Iraq war for the Democrats back in the second term of George W. Bush. And I\u2019ll never forget, John Kerry, who, you may not know, served in Vietnam, was running around quoting Eric Shinseki day in and day out. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m gonna have one of my researchers look into it. I\u2019m gonna find out exactly when it was that Shinseki first popped up as a uniformed — this is key now, active duty uniformed critic. He was one of the first and he became an instant hero of the left and the media. So they put him over at the VA, and just like everybody else in this administration, they can\u2019t run diddly-squat. But you tell these people that our troops are raping women and terrorizing children in Iraq, and they\u2019ll believe it just like that, and they\u2019ll make a move to put \u2019em on trial just like that. You put \u2019em in charge of actually doing something for people and they fail miserably. But you put \u2019em in charge of caring and saying how much they care, and they excel at it. <\/line><\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Eric Shinseki. His notoriety began even before the Iraq war began. Eric Shinseki was a uniformed Democrat, actively opposed to Iraq before it started. John Kerry loved him, the John Kerry that served in Vietnam, constantly quoting him. One of the things that Shinseki said, he was the Army chief of staff at the time. I mean, this isn\u2019t an insignificant position. General Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, told Senator Kerry he was going to need several hundred thousand troops — this is in response to a question of the committee — several hundred thousand troops. <\/p>\n

General Shinseki said there was no way to win the Iraq war. No way to go in there. No way to occupy unless we sent several hundred thousand troops. And then John Kerry said they retired General Shinseki for telling him that. The president hasn\u2019t listened. This was in a debate on October 8th, 2004. This was Kerry talking to the American people in a debate. So Shinseki\u2019s been a hero of these people for a long time. If you think you\u2019ve heard the name, that\u2019s why. Army chief of staff opposed Iraq, said it wouldn\u2019t work, it\u2019s impossible. Bush wasn\u2019t adequately prepared, no way. Kerry loved it. Now the guy\u2019s running the VA into the ground, patients are dying. <\/p>\n

New York Times praised Shinseki back in 2009<\/a>. A second act for General Shinseki. They love this guy. You have to understand, folks, this is classic. The guy\u2019s not qualified to run anything except in his own mind and the in minds of these leftists \u2019cause he cares. He made his bones, he came out, he humiliated Bush, he thought. He criticized Bush. He was anti-war, anti-Iraq. And he was the one that allowed all the Democrats to — let me reset this picture here for just a second because the vote authorizing use of force in Iraq was a two-phased vote. <\/line><\/p>\n

The Democrats misread the public mood, and when the original vote authorizing President Bush to use force in Iraq was taken, a lot of Democrats voted against it. And then they learned that the vast majority of the American people were for it and they demanded a second vote. Bush acquiesced, okay, if you want to vote again, go ahead. He had the Republicans in Congress, go ahead and let \u2019em vote again. So the Democrats could all go on record as supporting the use-of-force authorization in Iraq.<\/p>\n

Now, another thing that you may not remember. This didn\u2019t happen overnight. Bush spent 18 months building up his case, making his case, traveling all over the country and making speeches, going to the UN and, you know, General Powell, the weapons of mass destruction. But my point is — I\u2019m not trying to relive the WMD thing. The point is Bush didn\u2019t say on a Friday we\u2019re going to war on Monday and do it. It was a year and a half. The president made his case.<\/p>\n

The American people overwhelmingly supported him in the first vote to authorize use of force. I mean, the president even withheld action until Congress had voted. He gave them an opportunity to be part of it, and the first vote, a whole slew of Democrats voted “no.” And the outrage directed at them from the American people was such that they demanded a second vote. Hillary, John Kerry, all of them ultimately in the second vote voted to go to war in Iraq. That\u2019s why everything that they did after that is hypocritical and phony baloney, plastic banana, good-time rock ‘n\u2019 roll because they voted for it. <\/p>\n

They wanted to act like they never did. They then spent six years saying Bush lied. Well, we went back and found out that Bill Clinton in 1998, in the midst of the Lewinsky scandal, used almost the same statistics and the same reasons. It was uncanny, the words that Bill Clinton used seeking support from Congress to use force in Iraq in \u201998 that Bush used in 2002, 2003, really was uncanny. And when Clinton wanted the authorization to use force in 1998, every Democrat voted for it without thinking about it, granted, Democrat president, Democrat Congress, you got it. <\/p>\n

Here comes Bush, four, five years later, same arguments, folks, do not doubt me, same arguments, Democrats want no part of it, \u2019cause they politicize everything. Then they see that the American people are all for it, they demand a second vote. And after the second vote, General Shinseki pops up and says, well, this doesn\u2019t have a prayer. You can\u2019t do this without hundreds and hundreds of thousands of troops, we\u2019re not ready, this isn\u2019t gonna work, and that\u2019s all it took. <\/p>\n

Shinseki gave the Democrats the cover to run away from their “yes” votes on the use of force in Iraq and allowed them to pretend those “yes” votes never happened. And so over the next six years, the Democrats and the media did everything they could to destroy Bush, to secure defeat in Iraq so they could hang that around Bush\u2019s neck. You remember the Daily News stories of the body counts, all the stories of terrorism committed by American troops. <\/p>\n

The now deceased Pennsylvania Congressman had an airport named after him. John Murtha. Some of the stuff that they were saying about our troops, folks, was unconscionable. And it was all political. But the guy that really paved the way for all these Democrats, particularly in the Senate, to run away from their authorization to use force votes was Eric Shinseki, uniformed, Army chief of staff, ripping into Bush gave \u2019em all cover. Because here\u2019s a military guy, expert, he\u2019s Army chief of staff. So he was paid back by being named VA — here\u2019s the New York Times story in 2009. <\/p>\n

<\/a>“Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, the retired Army chief of staff who presciently predicted that stabilizing Iraq would take more troops than had been committed to the invasion, pledged Wednesday to transform the Department of Veterans Affairs to better fulfill the nation\u00c2\u2019s promises to those who have served in uniform.” As Obama\u2019s nominee — Obama hadn\u2019t even been immaculated yet. This is before the inauguration, January 2009. This is two days, in fact, January 14, two days before I went public and said, “I hope he fails.” Just to give you some timeline. <\/p>\n

“As President-elect Barack Obama\u00c2\u2019s nominee to head the second-largest bureaucracy in the government, behind the Pentagon, General Shinseki said that if confirmed he would streamline the disability claims system, use new information technologies to improve the delivery of benefits and services, and focus on unemployed and homeless veterans. … When he retired in June 2003 after 38 years as a soldier, General Shinseki was the highest-ranking Asian-American in United States military history.” That speaks for itself, too. <\/p>\n

So that\u2019s the guy they sent over there to run the VA that\u2019s made an absolute mess of it, as big a mess of the VA as Obama has made of Obamacare. It\u2019s such a tragedy. It is a genuine tragedy that these people are in leadership positions. They just don\u2019t have the qualifications. And, I\u2019m sorry, folks, but caring just isn\u2019t a qualification, not by itself.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: October 8th, 2004, St. Louis, Washington University. It\u2019s the second debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry, the haughty Senator John Kerry, who at one time in his life served in Vietnam. They\u2019re talking about the Iraq war. Remember, Kerry was part of the cabal that asked for a second vote. After first voting “no” on the use of force, they all wanted to vote “yes” to get on the right side of public opinion. And then Shinseki came out and said, “You can\u2019t do this without multiple hundreds of thousands of troops.” And, by the way, he was not right. I mean, the surge, the maximum number of troops we had in Iraq\u2019s 170,000, and Shinseki said we needed at least twice that. But we pulled it off with the surge, and we eventually got out of there victoriously. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s happened since is another story, but the Iraq war — see, the problem is too many people think we lost it. The media has got everybody convinced we lost the Iraq war, that we were humiliated, Bush didn\u2019t know what he was doing, because there weren\u2019t any weapons of mass destruction. So it was all lost. It was just a humiliating experience for the US and another reason why we shouldn\u2019t use our military very much. See, the left loves military failure, particularly when they\u2019re not in the White House, because it just gives \u2019em another bit of ammo to advocate for not using the military, except for Meals on Wheels type thing, social experimentation, this kind of thing. But military failure, “Oh, yeah, man. See that? We have no business being in Iraq.” <\/p>\n

Now, if the hashtag doesn\u2019t work to get the girls back<\/a> you wait, these same people are gonna say we should send maybe some armed drones in there instead of just camera-equipped drones. But I just want to play for you, 2004, St. Louis, presidential debate, here\u2019s John Kerry, who just a year earlier had voted for the Iraq war.<\/line><\/p>\n

KERRY: We didn\u2019t have enough forces. General Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, told \u2019em he was gonna need several hundred thousand and guess what? They retired General Shinseki for telling him that. This president hasn\u2019t listened.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, my point in playing this is Shinseki has been a hero to the left since 2003. He got the VA gig because of it. Kerry was one of his big champions, loved him, loved him, uniformed military Army chief of staff ripping into Bush. That\u2019s all the cover they needed. I got sick and tired of hearing the name Shinseki here, Shinseki there. He was the only person according to the media or the Democrat Party that had any military credibility. Rumsfeld didn\u2019t have any, General Myers didn\u2019t have any, nobody active duty prosecuting the war had any credibility. Shinseki had all the credibility. And now look at the VA under these people. It\u2019s an embarrassment. It\u2019s worse than an embarrassment. It\u2019s a disaster. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, one other thing with John Kerry. He claimed that George Bush fired Eric Shinseki for his disagreement statements on Iraq. Not true. Shinseki\u2019s retirement was announced in April of 2002, long before he testified about the Iraq war. His retirement was announced easily a year and a half before he said anything about Iraq. So Kerry just made that up.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. Shinseki has fired somebody at the VA. They got a scapegoat. Have his name right in front of me but he\u2019s gone. Shinseki stays, predictably so. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: We\u2019ve got veterans dying because they\u2019re not getting adequate medical care. Do you remember this name Shinseki, this guy that\u2019s running the VA. Eric Shinseki, do you remember why he\u2019s famous? Do you remember why he\u2019s even at the VA? 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