RUSH: We’re still at $65,100 on the eBay auction of the Harry Reid letter — we call it the Harry Reid ‘smear letter’ — signed by Harry Reid and 40 other Democrats, a letter filled with factual errors that they know are factual errors. They knew they were factual errors when they wrote and signed the letter. Several members of this audience are sending letters to various signatories of the Harry Reid letter, and they continue the smear in their response form letters to their constituents. Barack Obama’s letter says (paraphrased):
It’s gotten to… You know, $65,100 now is unaffordable for a whole lot of people, so what we have done is put a PDF file of all four pages of the letter in blazing, brilliant full color, suitable for free download. Many people have said, ‘Hey, I can’t afford that $65,000, but I’d love to donate something to the MC-LEF for a copy.’ Well, you can do that, but you don’t have to donate in order to get it. We want as many people to have a copy of this letter as possible. It’s the United States Senate’s official smear of a private citizen. I know I’m a public figure, but I’m a private citizen. I’m not a politician. I’m not running for office. I have no influence over what government does in terms of having votes there. I’m not a candidate for anything. So that’s the distinction. I’m working in the private sector. The Constitution is supposed to protect people like me, all of you, from this type of action from the federal government. That’s what’s so historic about this, and whoever does end up being the high bidder for the Harry Reid letter is going to have a genuine historic document, with all those signatures. You’ve got Ted Kennedy on there, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Some people have said, ‘Rush, that Robert Byrd signature looks too neat. I’ve seen him on TV. I don’t think he could sign his signature that plainly anymore.’ Maybe not. Who knows? He’s probably got some authorized person to sign for him if he didn’t do it himself. It doesn’t matter. It’s genuine in terms of it representing Senator Byrd. So you can download the PDF el freebo. There’s a link right at RushLimbaugh.com for the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation website where you can then go there if you want to donate a little bit of an amount of money. That’s up to you. We treat you as adults here, not kids. You’ve already paid for this letter, because they wrote it and signed it during the course of normal business hours. The auction goes for about two more days, until 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, and then we’ll be announcing next week what future plans we have. You get the Halliburton Attaché Case, and a thank-you letter from me and a picture of me on stage in Philadelphia last Thursday night presenting the attaché case and the letter for the first time in public.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Andrew in Sacramento, I’m glad you called. Thanks for the call.
CALLER: Jiu-Jitsu dittos, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.
CALLER: You know, when this phony soldier thing started, I thought it was going to be another good example of how Republicans are great on defense. And what you’re showing is this new model of how you cannot just block the pass down at the line of scrimmage. You’re not just intercepting the pass; you’re actually returning it for a touchdown. And we need a strategist like Lee Atwater to pick up on this model and start scoring on defense instead of just preventing stuff.
RUSH: Yeah. Now, you’re raising a can of worms here because I don’t like talking about myself.
CALLER: (laughter)
RUSH: Now, listen to you.
CALLER: We love you out here —
RUSH: No — wait. I’ve had a lot of people ask me — and I have not wanted to get into — you’ve had the call so I’ve gotta answer this, and I don’t way to say just, say, ‘Yeah, good point,’ and move on. But, Andrew, hang on here just a second. Okay, people have asked me, ‘Aren’t you afraid? Are you not worried what they’re going to do to you?’ No, I’m not. That’s the point. I think that your desire for the Republicans to do Jiu-Jitsu, in order to do something like this, you… (sigh) I just don’t like saying this.
CALLER: You know when the Republicans —
RUSH: You can’t be afraid. Look, on this, what was it that gave me the foundation, if you want to say the strength, the impetus, the drive, the ambition to do it, there were two things. A, they were lying through their teeth, demonstrably so, they were wrong. I didn’t do anything. Other people made up something I didn’t say. They said that I said it. These guys all bought it and go to the Senate floor to denounce me. They are attempting to disrupt my business. I am not going to sit here and let that happen. I’m also not going to sit on the radio and start whining and moaning about it and so forth. We had the chance to get that original letter. This is just throwing it right back at ’em. The second thing that you have to be able to do with something else, in my case, I’ve got 20 million people who are willing to support me and sustain me through all of these controversies. They have not been affected by all these lies, and distortions, and smears, so I’m confident that what I do here is going to be understood and supported.
The confidence is what allows me to go into this thing without being afraid of what’s going to happen. Now, when you talk about Republicans in Washington, I think that one of the big problems that they’ve had is they’re afraid of it backfiring because they don’t have the media on their side. I can’t tell you — and this is understandable — I can’t tell you the number of times Republicans have said, ‘I’d love to go out there and say X about whatever Democrat idea, but I won’t get covered. I’ll call a press conference, the media will show, they won’t report what I said,’ and in large part, they’re right. But there are ways to overcome that. See, I have an advantage. I don’t need the media to report what I said. I am the media. I am the record. So I think they all see it. Andrew, there’s another aspect of this that has a bit of a downside, too. I think that this was a little on display in the campaign in the November ’06 elections. I think that a lot of elected Republicans had begun to rely on the fact that talk radio is going to take the Democrats on for them so they don’t have to. Now, I didn’t want to say any of this, but I figure I had to say it to you since you brought it up and you called about it.
CALLER: Right. I think you’re right. Of course, you’re right.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: (laughter) Well, the only example of offense we’ve seen, that I can think of, is that Contract with America, and what you want to do is you gotta get on offense, and the only opportunity for us to get on offense is to pull the Jiu-Jitsu type move on them, then we gotta bust our ass.
RUSH: That’s an excellent point. A lot of people say, ‘Why don’t you go on TV and explain this?’ Because I would immediately be on the defensive. I’ve got nothing to explain. They’re asking the wrong people to appear on TV. Now, I’ll go on TV and explain the auction and so forth. But last week, I’m not going to go on television to give my side of this. There aren’t two sides of this. There is what happened, and the other side, if they want to say there is one, is a total lie and made up. Well, if I go on television and accept the premise that there are two sides to this, I can’t help but be on defense, and I’m not going to be on defense ever, but especially on this, so I don’t go. I think the lesson here is we’ve gotta stop accepting the premise of so much of what the Democrats and the liberals put forth policy-wise or whatever because the reaction is always on the defensive. And frankly, Republicans are playing pretty good defense right now, with all of these things going on. They’re showing some guts in being defensive, in stopping these things. But when you have your chance at power, when you win the majority, you’ve gotta be able to go on offense and implement some things. I think they still retain a defensive attitude largely brought on by fear that the media is going to rip ’em to shreds and so forth, which is a real concern for them, especially in the House because they run for reelection every two years. The media can create stories that grant opponents opportunities for TV ads that are full of smears and lies as well, and those things I’m not shackled by, because I’m not an elected official. But I think it would be a fun thing for you guys to try in your social circumstances, where, if you happen to run into a bunch of liberals, and when they say some of these outrageous things, that you don’t understand how any thinking, engaged human being could possibly think about Iraq, or about Bush, or about anything… ‘I’m not going to talk to you about it. Your premise is so off whack, I can’t even address it. You have no clue,’ rather than argue with them from a defensive point of view when you do. When you let them set the premise and establish the subject that’s being debated you’re automatically granting them a superior position. This is what I don’t do, which is why I don’t do a lot of television interviews because I’d sit there and say the premise of your question is wrong, the premise of your question is wrong, the premise of your question is wrong.