RUSH: For those of you that didn’t see this last night — and frankly, I have not seen this replayed much on television, especially today — this is the president in his opening remarks. This is how he opened the State of the Union last night.
THE PRESIDENT: Tonight I have the high privilege and distinct honor of my own, as the first president to begin the State of the Union message with these words: Madam Speaker. In his day, the late congressman, Thomas D’Alessandro, Jr., from Baltimore, Maryland, saw Presidents Roosevelt and Truman at this rostrum, but nothing could compare with the sight of his only daughter, Nancy, presiding tonight as speaker of the House of Representatives.
RUSH: There was robust applause. We’ve edited the applause out in the interests of time. That is the epitome of class, if nothing else. He understands, regardless her politics, what an achievement it is for anybody to become speaker of the House. It doesn’t happen much. There haven’t been a whole lot of those compared to, you know, the number of people that host radio shows over the course of years or other kinds of work, and he acknowledged that — and boy, she was preening like a queen. The blinking hadn’t started yet; the chewing her cud hadn’t started yet. “Rush, why are you doing that? Here’s the president so classy, and you say that she looked like she was chewing her cud.” Well, I paint word pictures, and William Shakespeare said, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” The fewer words you can use to paint the picture the more effective the painting of the picture is. I can sit here and use countless words to describe it.
“Yeah, she looked like she was chewing on something, chocolate or something stuck in her teeth. Maybe the teeth weren’t right in there. Who knows?” If you’ve ever seen a cow chew cud, this is what looked like was going on. I’m not commenting on her role as speakerette of the House. I’m just describing what I saw, and the eye blinking started. That was distracting. People had to change channels, had to find a channel where the view did not include Pelosi and Cheney. Cheney was blinking two or three times a minute. She was clocked at 25 to 40 times a minute. I kid you not! People did some research on this. Cheney is sitting there all relaxed and confident, conserving his energy. He has been through these things so many times, he knows it’s a dog and pony show; it’s a circus. I think the blinking as I said earlier was Morse code. I think it’s how she was signaling her lieutenants on the Democrat side of the aisle as to when to stand up, when to cheer, when to sneer, when not to. Next Bush sound bite is #12. This is the segment where the Democrats did not stand after this remark.
THE PRESIDENT: This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we’re in. Every one of us wishes this war were over and won, yet it would not be like us to leave our promises un-kept, our friends abandoned, and our own security at risk. Ladies and gentlemen, on this day at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. Let us find our resolve and turn events toward victory.
RUSH: Again, we’ve edited the applause out of all of these. Half the room stood up. Pelosi did sort of a jack-in-the-box thing. She was halfway up and halfway down and then she grudgingly stood up because she knew that the camera was going to be on her. Cheney bolted up like he’d been launched out of a cannon. So there was a lot of this up and down stuff going on. But the Democrats, on their side of the aisle on the floor, didn’t budge. They sat on their hands. We had the call yesterday, a soldier in Wiesbaden, Germany, who said, “Where’s the resolution for victory? Where’s the resolution for defeating the enemy? I’m a member of the military. Where’s that resolution?” It would have been great for Bush to contrast the resolution that he knew was coming today from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and ask them: “Produce a resolution for victory and put some meat in it.” I wish he’d done that, but he didn’t. Next, this is the president asking the Democrats to give the plan time to work and support the troops.
THE PRESIDENT: Ladies and gentlemen, nothing is more important at this moment in our history than for America to succeed in the Middle East, to succeed in Iraq, and to spare the American people from this danger. This is where matters stand tonight in the here and now. I’ve spoken with many of you in person. I respect you and the arguments you make. We went into this largely united in our assumptions and in our convictions — and whatever you voted for, you did not vote for failure. Our country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq, and I ask you to give it a chance to work, and I ask you to support our troops in the field and those on their way.
RUSH: Now, they applauded that because that was “the troops.” Everybody stood up. Pelosi beat Cheney out of the chair on that one. They want to be seen as supporting the troops, the hypocrites. But that was a pretty good line. “Whatever you voted for, you didn’t vote for failure.”