RUSH: Here’s Ken in Orlando. Ken, thank you for waiting. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Boy, it’s really great to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Mega dittos.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.
CALLER: I just don’t want you to let that one senator, the real space cadet from Arkansas, I believe it was, that you’ve mentioned early in the program.
RUSH: That would be Mark Pryor. You’re talking about the guy that wants a secret date in legislation to get out of Iraq that nobody in the White House, the Congress, and the military would know.
CALLER: Well, see, the military, that’s what I wanted to talk about, because I didn’t think it was the military. I thought he just said the White House and the Congress. What was coming in my mind is there’s tens of thousands of troops that, you know, have to like pack their bags really quietly so not to disturb the insurgents as they sneak out of Iraq, you know, I couldn’t picture it. The whole thing just seemed so ludicrous to me. I wanted to make sure that you set up something along the lines of your Club Gitmo or something else —
RUSH: You know what, you’re right. Here are the three institutions he wants to know the secret pullout date. He doesn’t want anybody outside the White House, outside Congress or the Iraqi government to know what it is.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: The military would be in the dark as to the —
CALLER: Yes. You would kind of think the troops would need to know about that and maybe talk to their families, you know, pick ’em up at the airport when they get home and stuff. Again, the whole thing just seems so ludicrous to me. Somebody really needs to hold this guy’s feet to the fire and not let him get away with that —
RUSH: A lot of people are going to think it’s not worth their time other than to, you know, sort of make fun of it like you’re doing.
CALLER: Yeah, well, at least, you know, to take this one shot at him, I’m glad I got a chance to talk to you —
RUSH: Well, I’m glad you did. It is absurd. Here are the details again. Mark Pryor, Democrat from Arkansas, key holdout on his party’s proposal to approve the $124 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan, which sets a goal of March 31st, 2008, to get out of Iraq. Unlike the plan’s Republican opponents, Mark Pryor wants a withdrawal deadline of some kind. He just doesn’t want anybody outside the White House, Congress, and the Iraqi government to know what it is. Now, the first thing to say is that if one member of Congress knows it, it’s going to get leaked.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: There’s no way of keeping a date like this secret. It’s just absurd. But he went further and said, ”My strong preference would be to have a classified plan and a classified timetable that should be shared with Congress,’ Pryor said yesterday. A public deadline would tip off the enemy, ‘who might just bide their time and wait for us to leave.’ Pryor said a classified plan would be provided by the president, shepherded by Senate committees and ultimately shared with Congress and Iraqi leaders. He is confident that the plan would remain secret, because Congress is entrusted with secrets ‘all the time.”
CALLER: Doesn’t the New York Times make their living these days busting secrets wide open and giving away information on everything?
RUSH: Well, how long do you think it would take — this legislation, I mean you classify it after a while, but we’re currently in Congress, debating the secret withdrawal date for American troops to leave Iraq — (laughing).
CALLER: It’s just so laughable. Again, I’m glad that at least I get a chance for you to remind people of how dumb some of these Democrat suggestions are.
RUSH: Well, he was asked a question. He said, ‘What if the president’s withdrawal plan didn’t include a deadline? Or what if it leaked through leaders in Iraq to the insurgents?’ And Pryor said, ‘Well, that’s all worth considering, but in the meantime at least you’d have a plan.’ (Laughing.) We have a plan now. The Democrats wrote it in the House. We have a plan.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: He just doesn’t want to support it because the date’s public.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: These people are falling all over themselves to sound intelligent. The exact opposite is happening.