RUSH: From the American Spectator today, this is The Prowler: ‘Senate Democrats who’ve spent the week attacking Rush Limbaugh received much of their information about the controversy from David Brock’s Media Matters as well as from MoveOn.org, which jumped on the attack-Rush bandwagon when it saw some potential for fundraising. That Democrats had not done their homework became clear on Wednesday, when Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid had his staff call over demanding that the Pentagon put liberal radio hosts on Armed Forces Radio.’ The dirty little secret here is that Congress has nothing to say about who’s on Armed Forces Radio. But Dingy Harry, taking whatever information is fed to him, calls the Pentagon, and he says, (paraphrasing) ‘Why are there no liberals on Armed Forces Radio?’ The problem is that Armed Forces Radio already broadcasts extensive shows from National Public Radio. Only one hour of this program is on Armed Forces Radio network. There are plenty of other liberal hosts, there used to be more, but they have gone bankrupt, and they are out of business. There used to be a lot of liberal hosts and there still are some.
Wesley Clark was also unaware that some liberal hosts at NPR were staples of the military’s entertainment and information broadcasts, and Clark headed up the NATO command. So it continues to just be amazing to find out what these supposedly best and brightest among us don’t even know and what they will believe from people who just feed them anything. Folks, I gotta tell you, we had these cuts from David Israel from the floor of the House. He is from the district where the broadcast engineer of this program resides. We played those sound bites yesterday. They were just over the top; they were embarrassing. This guy should be embarrassed to show his face in public, being so uninformed and sounding so ridiculous. The broadcast engineer sends me a note, says, ‘This really scares me. If this guy can’t get this right, what the hell does he know about what he’s voting on?’ We could ask that about every damn one of these people that’s joined this. Dingy Harry and these people in the Senate, when can we ever believe anything they say again? If somebody lies to you once, it’s not a stand-alone event. We know they lie constantly. This is so blatant and so wide out in the open, that it ought to have everybody questioning exactly what these people are voting on, what they think they see when they read legislation — if they do — or any time they open their mouth.
Now, it’s getting ridiculous. If this wasn’t ridiculous, try this. We have some bites here. This is a montage, last night and this morning, from CNN, Fox News, on the latest allegation by Elizabeth Edwards. Mr. Snerdley, have you heard about this one? Listen to this.
CHETRY: Elizabeth Edwards taking some shots at Rush Limbaugh.
CARLSON: The latest wave of protests against conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
COLMES: And this just in. Elizabeth Edwards now is questioning Rush’s draft deferment during the Vietnam War. We’ll have all those details. The latest on the left versus Limbaugh.
RUSH: (laughing) You know, let me make something very clear. The Democrats are running against me. They are not running against Fred Thompson; they’re not running against Rudy Giuliani; they’re not running against Mitt Romney; they’re not running against Mike Huckabee; they’re not running against Ron Paul. They are running against me. Make no bones about it, folks. Make no mistake. Some radio show on Air America last night interviewed Elizabeth Edwards, and said this about interviewing her.
GREENE: I got a note from your PR person, who is wonderful, and she said, ‘I’m sure you have talked about the offensive Limbaugh comments on the show. Elizabeth is the daughter of a career Navy pilot, and this has got her furious. Please feel free to ask her about it.’
RUSH: So the Edwards PR people are sending out to friendly media types the questions they want to be asked when Elizabeth Edwards shows up. So, dutifully, the Breck Girl sends his wife out to attack their main obstacle: me. And this is on the same show, the guy you just heard.
MRS. EDWARDS: My classmates went to Vietnam. He did not. He was 4-F, which is a — had a medical disability. The same medical disability that probably should have stopped him from spending a lifetime in a — in a radio announcer’s chair, but didn’t —
RADIO HOST: (laughing)
MRS. EDWARDS: Exactly.
RADIO HOST: That’s very funny, Elizabeth.
MRS. EDWARDS: But it’s true, isn’t it, if he has an inoperable condition that doesn’t allow him to serve, presumably it should also allow him not to — not to be able to sit for long periods of time in the way he does.
RUSH: Inoperable. No such thing as inoperable. I don’t even want to dignify any of this with reactions to it, because it’s so irrelevant. But it is clear, ladies and gentlemen, they’re running against me. Here’s another bite from Elizabeth Edwards on that radio show last night.
MRS. EDWARDS: I think that this is a serious enough sense that the people who — who fund him, the people who buy ads on these — that allow him to be on the air, need to be asked if this is really what they stand for? Do they really think it’s all right for somebody who has never served to denigrate the men and women who have, simply because they’re expressing an opinion? Which, frankly, I thought that’s what we were fighting for.
RUSH: Elizabeth, you’re late to the party. You shoulda gotten in on this earlier, but all these people who have said that I made up these statements about things I say about military people have been shown and demonstrated to be abject, total liars, they’ve even admitted it in their own way.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is Elizabeth Edwards on a liberal radio show last night.
MRS. EDWARDS: I think that this is a serious enough offense that the people who — who fund him, the people who buy ads on these — that allow him to be on the air need to be asked if this is really what they stand for? Do they really think it’s all right for somebody who has never served to denigrate the men and women who have, simply because they’re expressing an opinion, which, frankly, I thought that’s what we were fighting for.
RUSH: First thing here, ‘I think this is a serious enough offense.’ There was no offense, Mrs. Edwards. No offense. The offense is, you buying into a smear. You should be embarrassed. You have a law degree. This is so beneath your intellectual capability. You look like an abject fool, alongside your husband, the Breck Girl! Which, by the way, what was his draft number? Where the hell did he serve? Show me where he’s such a big supporter of victory on behalf of the US military? You can’t! He’s part of the cabal trying to secure defeat for the US military. So you guys want to make me your number-one target, go ahead. I have body armor. I’m wearing it right now. None of your attacks are going to contain anything legitimate. As such, they’re just going to bounce right back into your mouth and you’re going to end up choking on it.
‘A serious enough offense that the people who fund him.’ Mrs. Edwards, this is a program taking place in the private sector. There is no funding here. An investment took place. We scrounged and we starved for a couple to three years, and then it started to grow. We have clients who get results, and they’re getting better and bigger results the last nine days than they’ve ever gotten, and they’re already huge to begin with. We are not a PAC. We don’t run around and ask for contributions. We earn what we have, and we don’t tell lies in court and emotional tales, and we don’t chase ambulances to do it. We’re in the private sector earning everything we do. We never walk around with our hand out. Whoever supports us on this program with advertising support gets far more in return that what they pay. That’s why they’re here. That’s why you will not talk them out of it, because this is a business. This is not a public entity. It is not a government program. There is no funding that takes place here whatsoever. One more bite from Mrs. Edwards, and again from this liberal radio show last night. Question: ‘Were you disappointed Senator Kerry conceded as quickly as he did?’
MRS. EDWARDS: I was very disappointed, not just because we didn’t count the votes, but because we promised people that if they stood in line, if they fought for their right to vote, that we would fight with them and I was very disappointed that the decision was made by the campaign, over John’s objection, not to fight.
RUSH: So now she’s deluded herself into thinking that they won the election but Kerry didn’t have the guts to count the votes in Ohio. He let down the voters. Come up with somebody else to campaign against because Kerry’s not on the ballot. I’m not on the ballot. I don’t want you to give up the campaign against me, Mrs. Edwards, I hope you keep it up. Her husband is not on the ballot yet. Well, he will be. He’s on these primary ballots. Well, we have a couple. May as well stay with us, because the Breck Girl, her husband went over to CNN, was explaining the difference between him and Hillary. Wolf Blitzer said, ‘You said that Senator Clinton wants to extend the war, ‘I will end the war.’ What do you mean by that?’
EDWARDS: She said that she will continue, and I think I’m quoting her now, ‘combat missions in Iraq.’ And from my perspective, continuing combat missions in Iraq is a continuation of the war, and I want to have very clear differences between myself as the Democratic nominee next fall and the Republican. They’ll be for continuing the war. I want to end the war. Senator Clinton wants less war, but wants to keep the war going.
RUSH: I’m going to tell you something, Senator Edwards, if you do happen to get the nomination, and if by some totally confusing quirk you happen to be elected president, the dirty little secret is you aren’t pulling troops off Iraq, either, because you’re not going to saddle defeat around your own neck. You know that Mrs. Clinton and Barack Obama and whoever the hell else answered this question about how long troops will be in Iraq after they win the White House are telling the truth. Hillary, Barack, and who else? I forget who else. Well, wait a minute. Edwards. Wait a second. Didn’t Edwards say that he would not make the commitment in that last debate they had? Didn’t Edwards say he wouldn’t make the commitment? That’s right! It was Russert, I think, that did the interview, and he asked a question about, ‘Would you make the commitment that the troops will be out by the end of your first term,’ and Edwards said, ‘No, I can’t make that commitment.’ Dirty little secret. We’re getting stories that are at variance with each other from the Beck Girl. Next question. Blitzer says, ‘Would you let Al-Qaeda have a free rein in Iraq?’
EDWARDS: George Bush says we gotta keep our troops in Iraq. We gotta keep combat troops in Iraq. Al-Qaeda is operating there, so we have to continue the war and keep our combat troops there. I think that’s wrong. I think the foundation for the violence in Iraq is the dispute between the Sunni and Shi’a.
RUSH: Yeah, he didn’t answer the question. This is the kind of people we’re dealing with, but just so you know, I am the person they are running against. It is now clear as a bell. You should be proud, folks, that you are included in this. They’re running against you, too. They know that you are informed. They know that you are passionate. They know that you are inspired. They know that you are motivated. They know that you are voters. They know that you understand who they are. So, as they run against me, they run against you. We represent the single biggest obstacle they face to getting what they want. I don’t know what this says about the Republican Party, but I’ll take it. I’m happy to be raised up to this lofty perch of being enemy number one of the American left and the Democrat Party.
To the phones we go. Laura in Weimar, California. You’re up first on Open Line Friday. It’s great to have you here.
CALLER: Hi. Thanks for taking my call. I never called before, so I’m nervous. But anyways, my point is that, I think with the mainstream media focusing so highly on you, and so heavily on you, that they’re giving people who are kind of on the fence with what they really feel as far as politics goes, an open invitation to listen to you, if they haven’t in the past. Because they’re spending so much time talking about you that, if I was on the fence and wasn’t sure what I thought or what my opinions were, I would want to listen to you because they’re spending so much time talking about what you do on your radio show. So I think that they’re really shooting themselves in the foot.
RUSH: On this one, no question. Because if what you say is happening — and we who are highly trained specialists here know that it is — then these people, who are curiously turning in, are hearing quite a powerful denunciation of this whole effort, and they’re hearing it done factually, they’re hearing it done powerfully, and with good cheer.
CALLER: Hm-hm.
RUSH: They are not hearing what they would expect to hear if they happen to believe the lies that have come out of the mouths of elected Democrats in the House and the Senate and in other places. You’re very astute out there. And you know, by the way, you don’t sound nervous at all.
CALLER: Well, thank you. I’m really pleased to have an opportunity to share my thoughts, because I get so irritated with the talking heads on TV because they talk like we’re idiots out here in the normal voting world, and we’re really not, and I just think that it’s absolutely wonderful that in the heat of politics that we’re in now, that they’re basically giving you an open mic, to everybody out there who watches their show, to go, ‘Hmm, I think I’ll listen to Limbaugh today and see what he has to say.’ Because who wouldn’t? Curiosity is going to drive them to turn on the radio.
RUSH: Exactly right. Once again, you’re very astute out there, Laura. By the way, Laura, one of my all-time, top-ten favorite female names, too.
CALLER: Oh, thank you.
RUSH: It is. You’re in the list. Okay, I gotta run. I appreciate it. Have a great weekend, okay?
CALLER: You, too. Thank you so much.
RUSH: Are you a football fan?
CALLER: Yes, I am. I’m a Steelers fan.
RUSH: Steelers!
CALLER: And my husband likes the Seahawks, so we have a bit of a rivalry in our house. This Sunday my Steelers are going to crush my husband’s Seahawks.
RUSH: Yeah, it’s going to happen. I’m glad you called. It’s great to know that you’re a Steelers fan.
CALLER: I am. I think they’re great, and I think they’re going to have a great season.
RUSH: Hope so, hope you’re right. We’ll track it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Matt in Holbridge, Nebraska. We go back to you next on the Ike EIB. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, how you doing?
RUSH: Good. Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Great to talk to you. Dittos, by the way.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I just had a comment about the Mrs. Edwards clip you played last hour.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: About how if you didn’t serve in the military, you should not be allowed to criticize them.
RUSH: Wait. That’s not what she said. She said that my draft deferment was fake.
CALLER: Well, it was before that, she said —
RUSH: Yeah, you’re right, she said that, but she also said the draft deferment was fake, and then she said that people that don’t serve in the military shouldn’t be able to criticize it.
CALLER: Right. And she’s not the only one that I’ve heard say that. I’ve heard you play clips from other people that have said that, too. I heard it in the news, and by that token, she and about half of the Congress should be able to shut up, shouldn’t they?
RUSH: Well, see, she has a caveat. She’s buying into this smear. She says people who didn’t serve shouldn’t have the right, shouldn’t be able to criticize those who did.
CALLER: But she hasn’t served, either.
RUSH: No, nor has her husband. But, see, this is a convenient liberal trick. I face this. The first time I ran into this was early in this program, 1988 or ’89, I forget which, big battle over the defense budget, I get some call from a wacko liberal, who said, ‘You didn’t serve, what do you know about the military? You weren’t there. You had the chance to volunteer to kill commies, and you didn’t go. So what gives you the right to talk about the military budget?’ This is just more censorship. It’s an attempt to get people silenced, political correctness, or what have you. It’s censorship. Well, censorship only comes from the government, but it’s intimidation. It’s all based on the fact these people don’t want to hear the truth. It upsets their little perverted view of the way the world is. Thanks for the call out there Matt, appreciate it.