RUSH: Yes, here we are, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have. I’m Rush Limbaugh, on the cutting edge of societal evolution. It’s Jennifer in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, as we stick with the phones. Nice to have you with us.
CALLER: Thank you, sir. So let’s say, God forbid, the Democrats get their way and they’re able to de-fund the war. What is to stop us as citizens, to support our troops, joining together and buying war bonds in order to fund the war?
RUSH: Well, the correct answer to the question is: “If Congress, the elected representatives of the people, were to ever succeed in de-funding the war — which they will not — then that’s it. The Congress doing that is the equivalent of you doing it. If they refused to authorize funds, government funds for this, then the president has no choice but than to bring the troops home from Iraq.” You could go out and raise all the money you want with your friends, even a national effort to come up with the money to do so. I doubt that you’d raise what’s necessary, but even if you could, the president would be hard-pressed to use that money when the Congress, having passed a law prohibiting that. He couldn’t do it. But the reason I say that’s not going to happen is the president would veto it. They don’t have anywhere near the votes to override a veto. They don’t have the votes in Congress now to pass it. They’ve given it up. That was the early part of the program. They’ve totally given up the idea. They even failed to cut 20 billion, Jennifer, from the latest request the president’s made for Iraq and Afghanistan. Kent Conrad proposed cutting $20 billion in the Senate, and Dingy Harry threw it out.
CALLER: Do you think that they’re going to continue, to kind of keep this idea of cutting the funding floating because they perceive there to be public opposition to the war?
RUSH: I think they may keep talking about it and floating ideas, but they haven’t passed anything yet, have they?
CALLER: No.
RUSH: They’re in a quagmire, Jennifer. This is the point. All they can do is harass. They’ve issued their first round of subpoenas today to start investigating the administration over everything under the sun, and that’s been their plan all along. They’re not going to de-fund. They don’t have the votes to do it. They certainly don’t have two-thirds in both houses to override a presidential veto. They may continue to talk about it in an effort to gin up continued anti-war support among as many Americans as possible, but it’s backfired on them. What it means — the reason that they’re failing, the reason they’re flailing, the reason they’re in a quagmire, is precisely because the majority of the American people are not in favor of it, despite the polls that the Drive-Bys often cite and publish and that the Democrats cite themselves. If the polling data were there, if there were a mass majority movement on the part of the American people to de-fund and get out of there, it would have happened already.
CALLER: True.
RUSH: What bothers you about this? You’re in Fort Bragg. Are you a military family?
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: It just offends the hell out of you, does it not? You’re fed up with this near traitorous behavior and the fact that these people on the Democrat side seem to own defeat and can’t wait to bring it about, and it just offends the hell out of you.
CALLER: Well, that is part of it. But the other part is the fact that the Drive-By Media is filling minds-full-of-mush: people that cannot think for themselves, people who aren’t even from this country. I cannot tell you how many times people will come up to me and start telling me, you know, regurgitating stuff that they hear on the news about why we shouldn’t be at war. My husband’s life could be on the line.
RUSH: It’s frustrating.
CALLER: It is.
RUSH: I run into it, too, and last night —
CALLER: To hear people basically say that my husband is wasting his life, you know, everything he does every day…
RUSH: You’re going to have to learn to laugh at ’em.
CALLER: Yeah, and I do, and I just, you know, smile and nod, and think, “Okay, another ignoramus.”
RUSH: Exactly. If you start arguing with them? Cardinal rule here. If you get into an argument with a fool, people listening are not going to be able to tell the difference between you and the fool.
CALLER: Right. Never get into a pissing match with a skunk.
RUSH: Exactly right. There?s any number of phrases like this, philosophies that apply here.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: Big problem is that it bothers you. You need boundaries. Let it bounce off. You know it’s not true, so don’t let it in. Don’t start processing a bunch of stuff. We can all go nuts every day pondering the notion of how many idiots in this country buy hook, line, and sinker what’s in the Drive-By Media. But you gotta take faith, take solace, and comfort in the fact that they are a minority, and that they’re idiots.
CALLER: Yes. But I would like to see the conservative leadership in the government take a more proactive approach to positively spinning the things that are happening — and instead of fighting to not fund the troops, fight to support the troops, not just financially, but do more of the promoting those that are actually over there.
RUSH: Well, see, they have. You’re just not hearing about it. During the period of time when the Democrats in the House particularly were passing their nonbinding resolution opposing the surge, John Boehner, the Republicans, wanted to offer two other resolutions that supported the troops.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: And the Democrats said, “No. We’re not bringing those to a vote,” which they’re entirely permitted to do. They run the place. Republicans in the House are totally powerless. If you’re going to look to Republicans in the House to get anything done, please don’t. This is nothing against them. They have no power. It’s their fault they lost and they’re in the minority, and that’s all they can do is sit there and bellyache and moan. The Democrats are not required to bring any of their proposals to a vote. But they tried. They wanted two resolutions for a show of support. Nancy Pelosi shot it down. It got a few news stories, but not very many. I have to run and take a break here because of the constraints of time.