RUSH: Well, Dingy Harry has spoken up, ladies and gentlemen. ‘Ethics reform, a higher minimum wage and more money for stem cell research are the top items on the Senate agenda next year, the new leader of the upper house of the U.S Congress said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press.’ I’ve got a lot of news from the past couple of days that I want to touch on, and we’ll get to the Iraq situation. I think I’ve got it figured out over there what’s happening now. I do. I think this Hadley memo that ended up in the New York Times, I think they wanted this leaked. There’s no question that they wanted this leaked.
They wrote this for the New York Times. They wrote this thing to be leaked. They wrote this to get the impression out there this Maliki guy is not up to snuff. The real reason for this goes back to something I said Monday when we played the sound bite of the king of Jordan, King Abdullah, warning that there are ‘three civil wars’ about to break out in the Middle East, and I said, ‘So let them!’ You know, let the place just blow up! Let natural forces take place, and then let the cookie crumble as it crumbles and then pick up the pieces afterwards, because these things are going to have to happen one way or the other. We cannot stave this stuff off with diplomacy and solve the problem.
These forces are inexorable and something is going to burst, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the end result of this is just let this place blow up, just let the natural forces there take place, and then Bush and Cheney can go in and claim the oil in Iraq after it’s all done and maybe start building some condos and turn the place into a resort area after all of these factions have done away with each other that are causing all the violence. Bush is a much smarter guy than he is given credit for in all this. Now, back to Dingy Harry, because I can relate to this, and I’m thinking of joining Dingy Harry in this agenda that he has announced for the Senate, particularly the stem cell item, or plank in the agenda.
Dingy Harry ‘said he will tackle those priorities [higher minimum wage, ethics reform, and more money for stem cell research] after cleaning up the ‘financial mess’ that the outgoing Republican leadership has left. He was referring to nine long overdue appropriations bills covering 13 Cabinet departments for the budget year that began Oct. 1. ‘They’re just leaving town, it appears,’ Reid said in his office. ‘We hope that’s not the case, but it appears that’s what they are going to do. And so we’re going to have to find a way to fund the government for the next year.” Well, you guys are a bunch of liberal Democrats. That won’t be a problem. I never worry about the government being funded, particularly when Democrats are in charge.
But, it doesn’t matter. It will always be. I don’t care. It’s a non-existent fear. ‘The must-pass legislation totals more than $460 billion and promises to divert time and energy from other items on the Democratic agenda.’ So you see, Dingy Harry thinks that he’s been snookered here. Dingy Harry thinks the Republicans are playing a dirty trick on him by leaving all these appropriations bills undone and the Democrats going to have to spend time doing that rather than getting to their agenda. But, at any rate, Dingy Harry ‘hoped the president ‘will relent and see the light’ that the research gives hope to Americans struggling with illnesses and injuries.’
‘He said the Senate is ‘not even close’ to having the two-thirds vote necessary to override Bush’s veto, but he hopes some Republicans will join the Democrats after losing the election this month,’ particularly on stem cell research.’ Now, as you know, ‘Supporters of such research say it could lead to treatments and cures for a wide variety of ailments, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, as well as spinal cord injuries.’ Yes, we know this because the Democrats trotted out victims of all these diseases doing television commercials and campaign appearances in both 2004 and this past election. Even though there’s no evidence that embryonic stem cell research in 30 years has led to anything, we can’t deny people their hope.
So, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to — and I haven’t called Senator Reid on this. In fact, I’ve still not heard back from Senator Reid or Speaker Pelosi in my request to meet with them as the president did to discuss what we can do to make America ‘unified again;’ how we can all get along, discuss with them the state of conservatism and its future and what they would suggest that we here in talk radio do to enhance America going forward. Despite the fact that my plea for a meeting has been ignored, I would like to offer today support to Senator Reid on his efforts at funding, federally funding, embryonic stem cell research because I heard something the other day, and it changes the whole equation for me.
As you people know, I am deaf. I can’t hear anything if I take off my cochlear implant. I am 100% deaf. Wwhen I tell people that, I have to say it two or three times. It doesn’t compute. They think even deaf people can hear something. They look at my cochlear implant and most of them think it’s just a hearing aid. Some people think it’s like a Secret Service communications tool, but nobody grasps that I am
The doctors tried to counter this with two chemotherapy drugs. I’ve not gone into detail about this before, ladies and gentlemen, but I had to take prednisone, which is a steroid, and it is the worst-best drug in the world. I hated it. It affects people in all kinds of different ways. I had to take two chemotherapy drugs, and the reason for that was the chemo drugs slowed down and retarded the immune system and my immune system was out of control. But alas, nothing worked. Now, there is a cure. Doctors tell me that if there is a way to give birth once again to these hair cells that are lying down dead, if they can somehow be regenerated or made to grow and stand up again, that I would get my hearing back — at least in my right ear.
In putting in the cochlear implant I had to take the inner ear out, the doctors did, in order to make room for the cochlear implant. It’s possible I could get my hearing back in my right ear. So I stand to benefit from embryonic stem cell research, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to say to Dingy Harry today that — and I’m going to put it bluntly; I don’t want to leave anything misunderstood here: ‘I support the notion of killing babies in the womb if it means I might be able to hear him again,’ and I want Senator Reid to know that I am with him on this. I am dead serious, ladies and gentlemen. If it means I could hear, I don’t want my hope denied. I do not want my hope
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Eric in Parkville, Maryland. Hi. Welcome to the EIB Network, Eric. Great to have you with us.
CALLER: Hello. How are you? First, this is an honor. This is an honor.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: But there you go again. I tell you, you’ve gotta stop this. You said that you want to kill the baby to save your hearing. Now, I hear all across America — I can visualize it right now — a billion people are calling up Rush. They’re calling you up, to say, “Oh, no! Say it isn’t so! I’m never going to listen again. That’s it. That’s it, I’m done with you.” They take you serious. I love it.
RUSH: Well, how do you know I’m not? This is about hope.
CALLER: Exactly right.
RUSH: I’ve learned a lot from the last campaign, from the last election. This is about hope.
CALLER: That’s right.
RUSH: I hope to get my hearing back, too, and I don’t care. People can tell me all day long that there’s been no success in embryonic stem cell research. That doesn’t matter to me. This is about my hope, and I as a victim cannot allow my hope to be squashed.
CALLER: That’s right. It’s not about logic.
RUSH: Not in any way, shape, manner or form.
CALLER: It’s about feelings.
RUSH: It’s about me. It’s about feelings and it’s about me.
CALLER: (Laughing.) Oh, no.
RUSH: Let me tell you something: I’m just trying to be honest here. Everybody else that’s out there talking about the need for embryonic stem cell research doesn’t have the guts to say it as I said it. If you want to come up with a cure for whatever you hope to cure, you’ve got to kill babies in the womb in order to do it. You know, language has precise meanings. Words mean things. I’ve said all of my career, and so Dingy Harry, I’m reaching out. I’m trying to show these people I understand that they’ve won, that they have the power, and I’m trying to help them.
CALLER: Rush, God bless you for what you do.
RUSH: Eric, thanks.
CALLER: Wonderful.
RUSH: Thanks for the call. I appreciate it. Ron in New Haven, Connecticut. Hi, Ron. Welcome to the program.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Ditto.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. I want to point out three reasons why embryonic stem cells will not give you your hearing back.
RUSH: You can, but it won’t matter to me because it’s about my hope.
CALLER: Well, but you need to have self-knowledge. And here’s reason number one. You have already shown, it’s already been proven to you that your immune system is powerful, too powerful to be suppressed by immune-suppressing drugs. Therefore, if you introduce embryonic stem cell research which has genetic composition other than your own, your immune system will simply defeat the whole process, destroy those embryonic stem cells.
RUSH: It might work. If I keep trying it, it might work. We might come up with a way to defeat my immune system. I will not be denied my hope.
CALLER: Rush, you’ll have to take all kinds of immune drugs. But the second thing is that research has demonstrated — there’s only been one human trial ever in embryonic stem cells and that trial had to be discontinued because all it produced was precancerous tumors.
RUSH: I’m willing to take the risk because I want my hope.
CALLER: Well, Rush, if you really want hope, you’ve got to try adult stem cells. They’re taken from your own body, they have your own genetic complex, and therefore the immune system —
RUSH: Why do that? We already know that works. I have hope that what doesn’t work will work someday. I will not have my hope destroyed.
CALLER: Okay, okay. Rush, there’s one other thing, too. If an embryonic stem cell ever did pass muster, then you’d find it in your hospital pharmacy or on your drugstore shelf, and it would be able to be mass produced and there would be a large market for it, whereas adult stem cells would be taken from your body in a painstakingly careful procedure, and would be of no use to anybody except you. What is really going on is that embryonic stem cells would be very profitable, whereas adult stem cells, which would help you, quite likely, adult stem cells would not be profitable on the scale of something that you could put in a drugstore and market and advertise.
RUSH: Hm-hm.
CALLER: So that’s one reason why — but you’re being misled. Adult stem cells hold the promise that you’re hoping for.
RUSH: Of course I’m being misled. But I have hope.
CALLER: (Laughing.)
RUSH: I mean, all kinds of people try to mislead me every day, but I’m not going to let people who mislead me and tell me things that are not true destroy my hope. I’m glad that Senator Reid understands this. Senator Reid understands millions of Americans have hope, and they have hope in something that has never shown any possibility of success. But that hope must thrive, that hope must survive. That is what propels these people to continue to live. Otherwise, why put up with it at all? Why put up with the disabilities, the discomfort, the crippling effects of some of these horrible diseases. Without hope, where would any of us be? If there’s hope in something that’s never worked and people still have hope in it, then that hope shall not be suppressed.
I think Dingy Harry and the Democrats need to be applauded here for understanding what’s important in all this. It’s not the babies in the womb that are killed, it’s the hope of victims all over this country, that the Democrats hope to marshal and promote and convert to support that will never wane and never die. All I’m saying is to Dingy Harry that I want to help him articulate what he is suggesting. We are talking here about killing babies in the womb so that other Americans can have hope. I’m not going to beat around the bush like Michael J. Fox did. I’m putting it out there and explaining it exactly as it is and offering my assistance to Harry Reid in selling it to the American people.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
A caller says I’m the poster child for cloning. I might draw the line at cloning. You know, depends on whether the Democrats come out in favor of it. If Dingy Harry is in favor of cloning, if it becomes part of their agenda, you can count on the fact that I’ll be there. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder, I’m doing everything I can here to meet with Reid and Pelosi, and I think maybe they just discriminate against the deaf. I don’t think other people would have problems getting a meeting with Dingy Harry or Nancy Pelosi, but I’ve made repeated calls here on this program for such a meeting to discuss with them, much as the president did, the future of the country. I do have, because I’ve invested wisely, I do have a lot of land here in Florida. Maybe if I offered to swap some land for a meeting, then I could get in to see Dingy Harry that way.
END TRANSCRIPT
*Note: Links to content outside RushLimbaugh.com usually become inactive over time.
