RUSH: John in Libertyville, Illinois. Nice to have you, sir. Welcome.
CALLER: All right. Thanks for taking my call. I think you have this exactly wrong. I mean I think that yesterday you spent the whole day telling us how liberals were sympathetic to Ahmadinejad, and if what you say is true, he walks into this liberal institution, here’s Bollinger, a big liberal and all these liberal students, and they rake the guy over the coals. You were totally wrong, and I gotta say, I think Mr. Bollinger did something that was so brave, and at the risk of offending you, I think to engage somebody directly that you take political issue with and tell them just what you think takes a lot more courage than sitting in a radio studio calling people you take political issue with names but never engaging them directly. And I think Bollinger is a hero.
RUSH: Really?
CALLER: I think that what’s really been revealed here is just how wrong you were yesterday.
RUSH: It’s always about me! By the way, I never apologize.
CALLER: I know that.
RUSH: What I said yesterday, I might have gotten pretty close. I’d have to go back and listen. Did I apologize yesterday? I did. I did say I was wrong about it. I said I was pleasantly surprised, and I gave this guy the biggest attaboy yesterday afternoon, John, you have ever heard. Are you still there, John?
CALLER: Yeah, sure.
RUSH: I did. I gave this guy the biggest attaboy, because I was totally taken aback by him. Then I started wondering, okay, what might have caused this? Motivation is not all that important, but I was still curious what caused this, perhaps funding and the criticism and so forth. By the way, the students were not universally raking him over the coals. He got a lot of applause, Ahmadinejad did.
CALLER: So did Bollinger during the introduction. Bollinger was being applauded for the excoriation that he gave.
RUSH: He was. Would you describe yourself as a liberal or a conservative?
CALLER: I don’t describe myself as either one of those labels, no. I try to think of myself as being more independent than that.
RUSH: More what?
CALLER: I try to think of myself as being more independent.
RUSH: Independent, okay.
CALLER: But, I mean, is that all it’s about with you, whether or not I’m a liberal or a conservative?
RUSH: No, I was curious. If you were a liberal, I was going to say it’s gotta be really tough for you to criticize Ahmadinejad.
CALLER: No, it’s not. I share Mr. Bollinger’s criticism of Ahmadinejad, and I think that most liberals do, and I think that’s why what you said yesterday was exactly wrong. I think that you didn’t expect this, what you said is true. He did walk into a liberal institution, surrounded by liberals, and rather than being sympathetic with them —
RUSH: John.
CALLER: — you told us they’re sympathetic with them, and rather than be —
RUSH: John.
CALLER: — sympathetic with him, they raked him over the coals —
RUSH: John.
CALLER: — they absolutely jolted him.
RUSH: John, John, I have played sound bite, after sound bite, after sound bite today of Drive-By Media members sympathetic to Ahmadinejad. I have played sound bite after sound bite of elected Democrats sounding just like him in attacking George W. Bush.
CALLER: Yeah. I’m talking about Mr. Bollinger, what Bollinger said.
RUSH: Well, fine. I’m coming to Bollinger. We haven’t heard anything like what Bollinger said for four years from anybody like him anywhere in academe. We haven’t heard it from a professor. We get Ward Churchill instead insulting us and calling us idiots and so forth for 9/11. That’s what we get out of academe. We don’t get what Bollinger said yesterday. Of course, I was shocked and stunned. I was in total disbelief here, almost hyperventilating, couldn’t believe it because the mask is off. We now know that people like Bollinger actually do believe that there’s a real threat going on out there and ought to be supporting George W. Bush rather than trying to destroy him. That’s the import of what Bollinger said yesterday. Thank you. You’re still up. (Clicking sound.) See, folks, another stirring example of when I say something about anything, there is nothing left to be said.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let’s get this Bollinger stuff out there on the table once and for all. The fact is, it was a boneheaded move to invite Ahmadinejad to speak. It had nothing to do with free speech. Bollinger was taking tons of heat: city, state, federal politicians threatening to cut capital funds and loans and all the rest from Columbia University. We don’t know what the donors were telling him, or his own board, but he clearly stepped in a pile. You put a bag, pile of manure in front of a liberal, and they will step in it, and he did. I think Bollinger knows that Ahmadinejad’s the enemy and evil, he knows it, he knew it when he invited him, but he invited him anyway. I don’t believe he denounced him because he knows he’s the enemy or he would have denounced him all along, for the last five years. I believe his little invitation was backfiring with those he needs, the donors, the board, taxpayers, and so forth, and so voila. That’s what happened yesterday.