RUSH: We’re just playing this cold for you. Let me explain it. Hillary’s got this new ad. She’s out there saying that to the Bush administration, way too many people in this country are invisible. Karl Rove launched a full-frontal attack on that ad when he was my guest on this program a couple of days ago, so we put this ad together. That’s how we do this stuff. We do it with humor. We make fun of them and illustrate who they are. One of the founding guidelines of humor on this program is that, to make it really funny, it’s gotta have an element of truth in it, and of course what you just heard is a great example of that. Open Line Friday. Back to the phones.
Ryan in the Netherlands. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you doing? Can you hear me?
RUSH: Yeah. I hear you fine.
CALLER: All right. It’s Ryan calling from the Netherlands. I’m from Minneapolis originally. Thanks for taking the call.
RUSH: It’s my pleasure.
CALLER: I wanted to call you about something you were talking about two days ago. I only hear your show with a day delay off the iPod. So I wanted to call. You were talking about how President Bush and Karl Rove, that they’re being so restrained in responding to criticism from the New York Times and from the Drive-By Media, that that was somehow to project more dignity on the presidency. I’ve been living in Europe since 1990, and I really think that in doing so they’ve been opening themselves to much more criticism from people in Europe, and they’re not even getting their talking points across to the media in Europe. So I just wanted to say it seems to me that that’s not really working, and wanted to get your reaction to that.
RUSH: Well, I don’t think it’s a strategy to make anything work. I think it is a simple philosophical belief that they have in how to respect the office, and to not take it down to guttural, partisan, political levels and respond to all of this stuff. Let me give you an example. They finally did it on this ad that Mrs. Clinton ran, that talked about how Bush sees only half the country, that most of the people in the country, in fact, are ‘invisible’ to President Bush.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Well, Dana Perino, White House spokesman, came out, and she launched an attack, and then Rove came on my program and launched an attack, and the Hillary people are out there publicly, laughing and saying, ‘We must have struck a nerve.’ Why, they love the fact that they think they got under Bush and Rove’s skin, and Dana Perino said, ‘Okay, we’re not doing this anymore. From now on, the RNC is going to respond to this stuff.’ It’s not because of the Hillary reaction. See, I think secretly the Hillary camp is worried that the White House did this, because it may shore up her support for the base. I find it fascinating, Ryan, that the stories came out after this that Hillary was happy because this will convince liberals that she’s truly liberal, being criticized by the White House. If you need the White House to convince them, it’s just ridiculous. They’re just I don’t think they’re doing it to get their talking points across, and Bush is not president to make the Europeans like him. That’s what he would tell you.
CALLER: Yeah, it’s just making my life more difficult over here as a Republican, though, I gotta say.
RUSH: Well, now okay! So it’s about you! You want Bush to give you some cover.
CALLER: Yeah! I think so.
RUSH: I understand that. But let me tell you something, Ryan. I understand that. I don’t know if you’ve heard yet the interview with Karl Rove —
CALLER: I did.
RUSH: — but in talking about this very thing with him, I said the American people — you know, your supporters — want leadership on this. You’re being savaged. Bush is being savaged, lied about, and you don’t respond to it, and of course, that makes your supporters think that they’re being savaged and lied about, and they’re not being defended, either. I understand exactly how you feel about this. But whether you agree with their philosophy or not, what it is is what I told you. He’s not going to demean the office.
CALLER: But over here it’s much more lonely because we don’t have a voice like you, Rush.
RUSH: Yeah, I understand. It’s a problem. By nature, wherever this program is not, life will suck.
CALLER: (bursts out laughing)
RUSH: Wherever this program is not, liberals will dominate and prevail. It’s been documented. But you’re in the Netherlands. What did I just read about the Netherlands?
CALLER: Oh, I’m sure you read tons of stuff about it.
RUSH: Is it something about…? I have a mental block. I can’t remember if I’ve got it in today’s stack or had it in yesterday’s. If it’s in yesterday’s stack, it’s down in Florida.
CALLER: Oy!
RUSH: Oh! Is it the Netherlands where everybody when they hit 90, is guaranteed a spot in a nursing home?
CALLER: Oh, you know what? That could be, but we’ve got waiting lists here for all kinds of medical stuff.
RUSH: That’s the point.
CALLER: You don’t want socialized medicine. I’m telling you, it bombs.
RUSH: People have paid taxes all their lives, high taxes, and expect the spot in the nursing home when they’re 90, and they can’t get in.
CALLER: Oh, yeah. There are waiting lists for nursing homes. There are waiting lists for all kinds of operations over here, yeah.
RUSH: Well, I’ve got a story in Australia today, from Sydney. There’s a clinic that does nothing but work on hearts. They’ve got 12 beds. They can only fill four of them because they don’t have enough funding (i.e., taxes) so it can take you three months if you’ve had a heart attack to be treated. So they’re reaching out to the private sector. They’re going to give up on the government. They’re going to reach out to the private sector.
CALLER: Yep.
RUSH: I’ll give you details of this as the program unfolds, but I think it’s the Netherlands where I was reading this story. I’m going to find it in the stack somewhere here. If not today, I’ll do it Monday.
CALLER: Could be.
RUSH: Thank you, Ryan. I appreciate the call. I’m flattered that you go to trouble to find the program over there in the Netherlands.
CALLER: Yeah. Hey thanks, keep it up.
RUSH: Will do.