RUSH: Was that Hugo Chavez charming the United Nations, or was it Howard Dean? You know who’s going to be jealous of this speech that Hugo Chavez gave, ladies and gentlemen? Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd of the New York Times. There’s going to be a lot of jealousy among the libs wishing they had said exactly what Chavez said, as powerfully. They’ve gotten close, but no cigar here. Greetings, welcome, Rush Limbaugh, Excellence in Broadcasting Network, and we’re here at the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies. The telephone number is 800-282-2882, and the e-mail address, Rush@eibnet.com. Hugo Chavez just concluded about 20 minutes ago his raving lunatic address at the United Nations, and they were charmed. They gave him a rousing round of applause when he finished, and they laughed throughout.
He was holding up a book by Noam Chomsky, noted communist sympathizer — hell, not “sympathizer,” noted communist — and he referred to President Bush as “El Diablo,” the devil. He shows up on the podium, crossed himself, looked heavenward, put his hands together and said, “The devil was here yesterday. The place still smells of sulfur.” And I’m thinking, you know, did he read this off of a liberal blog? Did he get this at the Democrat Underground? Did he get this at MoveOn.org? Did he get this at, what is it, the Daily Kos or whatever it’s called? Because it was very close to what the libs and the Democrats have been saying about President Bush for three, four years, maybe even longer. And, of course, he comes to our country and threatens us on our soil.
He said one thing, by the way, I agree with, and that is the United Nations needs to be moved out of the United States. I’m all for that. He suggested it go to Venezuela, down south, as he referred to it. Even this Madam President, secretary, whoever she is, standing behind Chavez was chuckling, was laughing during the speech when he held up the Noam Chomsky book, when he called Bush “the devil,” hell, the whole place started laughing. I don’t know if our delegation sat there and took it or if they walked out. There was no camera movement to the audience — well, there was. They singled out the Venezuelan delegation when he was speaking. Other elements of the Star Wars bar scene. I didn’t recall, I didn’t notice any focusing on the US delegation. We have a couple sound bites here. Female translator, Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan president, here’s the first of two sound bites.
TRANSLATOR: I think that the first people who should read this book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is in their own house. The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself is right in the house. And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday, the devil came here, right here, right here. And it smells of sulfur still today. This table that I now standing in front of, yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer to as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world, truly, as the owner of the world.
RUSH: I should point out, ladies and gentlemen, that MSNBC did not cover the Chavez speech, perhaps saving the rant for Chris Matthews tonight so that he couldn’t be accused of copying anybody. They did, after it was over, do a little bit of a report on it. The wire services have yet to record and write the full impact, just as the wire services did not get anywhere near reporting the primary contents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech last night at the United Nations. We’ll have more on that. But he was praying! He actually prayed to God for the delivery of the 12th Imam, which Mahmoud believes will happen in the next two years. In his Shi’ite belief, the 12th Imam shows up and that’s the end of the world, that’s how we achieve peace and tranquility. He thinks it’s going to happen in the next two years, and he prayed for it last night at the United Nations.
And of course he was treated with profound respect by media. CNN, did, as I predicted yesterday, show a side-by-side of President Bush and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Fox’s anchorette was appropriately outraged and called Chavez a kook. But, you know, there’s a reason why this stuff happens. There is a reason why these guys feel emboldened to come to our country, even though the United Nations is technically sovereign territory, it’s still our soil, it’s in New York City, there is a reason why these guys feel comfortable and even emboldened coming here saying these things, and I’m not going to pull any punches. It’s because they’re just echoing the president’s enemies in this country, be they the American left, some members of the Democratic Party, and all of the Democrat left-wing blogosphere, many university professors had their sentiments echoed today by Hugo Chavez. We have one more sound bite, again with a female translator.
TRANSLATOR: I think we could call a psychiatrist to analyze yesterday’s statement made by the president of the United States. As the spokesman of imperialism he came to share his nostrums to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation, and pillage of the peoples of the world. An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: “The Devil’s Recipe.”
RUSH: (Laughing) I’m sorry. I’m outraged by it, but I can’t help but laugh. Folks, the more people hear about this, all this is going to do is rally people to the president. If Drive-By Media members are silly enough to come out and even placidly endorse this, or act as though he has a reason for saying this — and they will. I mean, if they’re out there supporting a movie that depicts the assassination of President Bush, well, why are they going to be upset about this? But make no mistake about it, folks. This event today and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last night, preceded by the stage being set for them to feel comfortable doing all of this and saying these things by the Democrats in this country, the American left and their kook blogosphere base.
What was said today by Hugo Chavez is just different words but the sentiment, we hear it every day. We hear it every night. We hear it in the Drive-By Media. We hear it at the Toronto film festival. We hear it in a book advocating — well, not advocating, but explaining — how President Bush could be assassinated. Liberals did not denounce that. In fact, they recommended it. They are filled with hate, as you know, they are filled with rage for this president, and they have made no bones about it. The United Nations General Assembly already arrives with that kind of hate because they are a collection of thugs and dictators and tyrants. They have been emboldened by the appearance of both Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez. But, believe me, the table was set for this by the so-called loyal opposition in this country, the American left, Democrat Party.
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RUSH: All right, more on Hugo Chavez as the program unfolds, ladies and gentlemen. I have mixed emotions about this. As an American citizen I’m outraged that this happens, but there’s a reason for it. As I say, there’s a reason — the table has been set, the stage set, the paradigm established by the so-called loyal opposition in this country. The thrust of his meaning is no different than what we hear daily from the Drive-By Media and the Democrats, the American left in this country. Words might have been a little bit different, but what’s different in saying Bush is Hitler and Bush is El Diablo? What is different in Hugo Chavez saying that we need a psychologist to analyze Bush and the American left saying that he’s an insane lunatic and what have you?
It’s the same stuff, just with different words, the rage and the hatred. And Chavez, this is the sickening part, the sickening part to me is that Chavez comes here, says it with confidence because he believes the vast majority of the American public is going to agree with him because he obviously listens to the US Drive-By Media in the way they deal with Bush. He sees the way Ahmadinejad, treated with great respect all over American television yesterday and last night, he can contrast that with the way George W. Bush is treated as a suspect, as a guilty suspect being interrogated each and every day by the Drive-By Media. There’s no doubt he feels that he’s in friendly ground, friendly territory, particularly inside the bar there in the Star Wars set.
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RUSH: Let me show you via audio sound bite the way Ahmadinejad was dealt with last night on CNN. I told you during yesterday’s program that when you watched cable news last night after Ahmadinejad made his speech and even before it, that you’d see side-by-side photos, side-by-side-video as though the two men are equal in stature around the world and we’re supposed to give equal weight, equal gravity to what the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran has the say. And, lo and behold, it happened. Here’s a montage of Wolf Blitzer who was standing by for the great Ahmadinejad for a full hour, and finally he appeared, what a great moment for the Drive-By Media, Ahmadinejad finally pulled up, held up. They were showing him and they were anticipating his arrival for one hour, breathlessly. Listen.
BLITZER: We are standing by to hear from the president of Iran momentarily. We’re standing by to hear from the Iranian leader. Stand by, we’re going to be going to his remarks momentarily, once he walks up to the podium. We’re standing by to hear directly from Iran’s president. We’re standing by for the speech of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. We’re standing by to hear from the Iranian president. The next speaker on the schedule is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He will be walking up momentarily. Here he comes right now. He’s just sitting down. He’s not there yet. He’s sitting down. All right, let’s listen in.
RUSH: Okay, the excitement was building. It was like the buildup to the Super Bowl, like a buildup to a presidential debate. What’s he going to say? What’s he going to say? Will he cream President Bush? Will he make news tonight? Jack Cafferty, the CNN gadfly political commentator devoted a portion of his commentary to Bush and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with this.
CAFFERTY: Ahmadinejad against Bush on the world stage playing this chess game. I love this thing that’s happening between Bush and Ahmadinejad. This little guy is playing his cards pretty good so far. Bush got The Price is Right slot, and this guy gets, you know, some Monday Night Football time.
RUSH: Yeah, who saw it? That’s CNN’s Jack Cafferty who used to be WNBC TV in New York. Yes, “I love this! I love this thing! I love what he’s saying. This little guy is playing his cards right.” Little guy? He’s a pip-squeak! He’s a third-rate dictator appointed by the mullahs, the ayatollahs in Iran. Folks, I’m playing this not to upset you. I’m showing you how the Drive-By Media set the stage for all the hate and the personal attacks against the president of the United States. Now, in the old days, when Khrushchev showed up — and that’s what a lot of people say, “We haven’t seen anything like this since Khrushchev banged his shoe.” I don’t know about that. Yasser Arafat showed up wearing a pistol. I mean, the place up there is a repository for anti-Semitism, ladies and gentlemen, United Nations is.
But when Khrushchev shook that shoe and pounded that shoe, this whole country was outraged, other than the pockets of communist sympathizers we have, but they were very minor, they didn’t get a whole lot of adulation in the media back then. The whole country was outraged. Today, I don’t know. I don’t get any sense of that. I mean, I know there’s outrage among all of you, but it’s patently obvious here that were it not for the Democrat Party. Give me a name. What’s different in what he said substantively from John Kerry or from Nancy Pelosi or from Harry Reid or from Howard Dean or Richard Durbin or Chuck Schumer? Of course, those people are not just remarks about President Bush, but of conservatives in general. So these leaders, Chavez, Ahmadinejad, as I’m sure patrons of the Drive-By Media in their countries, they watch.
What do they watch? CNN, CNN International, BBC, BBC World Service. What do they read, Reuters and AP? Probably get the New York Times. As I say, you know, a couple people really jealous today of Chavez, and that’s Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd of the New York Times. And as I said, MSNBC never even covered this thing because they can’t let Chavez become the star of the network. That’s Chris Matthews. They gotta let him have this rant. And if they put Chavez on there, it will be Matthews that’s apparently copying. They’re not even dealing with it much. Chavez got a press conference coming up in about five or six minutes, he’s going to meet with reporters. That will be interesting, too. I can predict some of the questions that we’re going to get.
“Why do you think he’s the devil? Why do you think he needs psychiatric help? Why do you think? Did you really mean it?” giving him the chance to say it again. There will be no condemnation. There will be no criticism, just journalistic curiosity, and it’ll be full of laughs and yuks. Chavez will be laughing. He’ll be cracking jokes about all this. The press will be laughing along with him. Mark my words. But there is an upshot to this, or rather, an upside. Whereas back in the fifties when Khrushchev was banging the chair with his shoe, everybody just united, “We’re not going to put up with this, not about our country, not about our children or grandchildren, not from this bloated bigot from the Soviet Union, this baldheaded communist thug.”
I’m predicting that as this keeps up — and this is probably, ladies and gentlemen — you know, in the old days, had this happened, the Democrats would have said, “Hey, hey, hey! You shut up, Chavez, and you shut up, Ahmadinejad. Nobody criticizes our president like this. We’re not going to put up with this.” That would have happened in the old days. They might have said under their breath, “That’s for us to do. We can criticize our president.” You’ve heard the old saw, you get in an argument, get in a discussion with somebody ripping their own family members and you join in and say, yeah, your sister is sort of stupid, yeah, you can say it’s a family member, but outside the family somebody cannot say it.
The family closes ranks no matter how crazy they are. They’re not going to allow outside, external criticism. In this case I’m going to wait to see the denunciation of Hugo Chavez, if it comes. It should have come already. Democrats, everybody should have gone to the microphones, rushed to the microphones, “we are not putting up with this,” but they aren’t, because they know that their base loved what Chavez said, and they don’t want to run afoul of their base. My point, ladies and gentlemen, is that this is only going to rally even more Americans to the support and to the side of President Bush, which I think it’s been doing for quite a while anyway. Richard Holbrooke last night was brought on CNN after the speech by Ahmadinejad and said this.
HOLBROOKE: President Bush’s speech was pretty good, as speeches go, but the theater here is remarkable. The world’s leading anti-Semite has been elevated to a mano-a-mano on the world’s stage. I don’t understand why President Bush would have allowed himself to be scheduled in the same day as Ahmadinejad, a tiny pip-squeak leader and an anti-Semite of the worst order, the worst since Hitler in some ways, is being given this coequal status.
RUSH: Well, isn’t that what people like you have sought? Isn’t that what you have assured us? Mr. Holbrooke, it’s people like you and Rand Beers and John Kerry and all the others who have been saying the UN is the repository of greatness, that the Bush administration ignores the UN, ignores our allies. You have said, along with your allies, that Bush has ruined the image of the United States throughout the world. This whole charade of last night today makes that assertion preposterous. That we, somehow, George W. Bush damaged the United States’ image? You guys keep harping on torture, you keep harping on all the things that went on at Club Gitmo and Abu Ghraib. What what do you expect people like Ahmadinejad and Chavez to do?
You’ve given them the guidepost. You’ve shined the light on the highway. You’ve showed them the road signs. You gave them the map. You showed ’em where to go. They’ve come and they’re bracing the United Nations as the greatest place on earth, although it needs to be reformed, they both think, because they don’t have votes on the Security Council or vetoes. But nevertheless, come on. You guys can’t have it both ways. It’s Bush’s fault? It’s Bush’s fault that Ahmadinejad’s at the United Nations on the same day? Can you imagine, Mr. Holbrooke, if Bush had once said, “I am not showing up on the same day Ahmadinejad does,” do you know what the stories would be then, and you know who would be leveling the charge?
People like you, “Bush is a coward, Bush is afraid, Bush doesn’t have the guts to meet a world leader, Bush is running scared.” You people want it both ways. You have so much hate and vitriol for this president, and you’re going to have blood on your hands, because you people have led us to this. You have created the atmosphere, you have set the table, you have created the circumstances which make these despot thug murdering dictators feel comfortable and confident and at home in the United States, in the United Nations, advocating the defeat of this country, insulting this country, insulting the president of the United States.
And they laugh while they do it, and your only response is to wonder why Bush showed up on the same day and let Ahmadinejad, so-called pip-squeak, appear equal. It didn’t even require that. Had Ahmadinejad’s speech been delayed a day, the Drive-By Media would have spared no trouble, no expense in portraying them as both equal anyway. This is going to come back and bite you people because it is obvious to casual observers that you have lost your faith and your love for the greatness that is America. You are troubled by what you think is a declining image of the United States, and you’re pointing fingers of blame at George W. Bush for causing it. And so when critics who basically echo your sentiments using different words, come along, you’re hard-pressed to disagree with them because it’s been your position all along.
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RUSH: So the Hugo Chavez press conference just started. The first question was somebody from the United Nations press organization. And welcomed him, thanked him for his speech. Chavez smiled and started laughing, and the first question to Hugo Chavez, “You mentioned four reforms today of the United Nations. Do you have any plans to implement those reforms, given the ability of the United States to block them?” I’m sure he’s going to get a question about El Diablo and sulfur and so forth, and they’re laughing and yukking it up, and Chavez is having a great time, and it’s not going to be a confrontational press.
He started off by saying it’s so wonderful to see so many familiar faces here, speaking to the assembled press corps. So, you know, I think it’s time — the president can’t do this, obviously, the White House can’t do this, but the RNC maybe could. I think it’s time to develop television ads, campaign ads that show Democrats trashing President Bush, and then Hugo Chavez calling him El Diablo. There’s not much difference. You could tag line, not much difference between the socialist dictators of the world and these Democrats of the United States today. If the Drive-By Media wants to do a side-by-side of Ahmadinejad and Chavez and Bush, then let’s do a side by side of these guys and Democrats, particularly Chavez and what he said today.
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