RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, as I said at the top of the program, it seems like it’s always left to me to say these things, the obvious that nobody else wants to talk about. Well, certainly nobody in the State-Controlled Media. The dirty little secret that’s not really a secret if you have your eyes open: our president is not respected by the commander in Afghanistan. It’s patently obvious. But he’s also not respected by our allies in the UK, Germany, France, and Israel, among others. He’s not even respected by our enemies. They mock him as weak. They laugh at him, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez. Fidel Castro is telling jokes about him now. He’s not respected by most of the governors along the Gulf Coast. He’s not respected by law enforcement. Remember Cambridge? He is not respected by most business people and entrepreneurs.
See, the point is that Obama uses his office to demand respect and to demand compliance, but on his own he’s not earned any of it. He does not have that kind of personality, except with his toadies on the left who respect him because they think he can speak well and he’s one of them in the intellectual sense. The truth is his actions, his statements and their consequences have been disasters. We’re living in the midst of a domestic disaster. We’re living in the midst of a foreign policy disaster. McChrystal shows Obama more respect than Obama shows respect for Bush. Again, dirty little secret. My point is that if you want to be treated with respect then act respectfully to others. Let’s not forget, this man, our president, ran down the US military for years during the Iraq war. He’s trash-talking all the time, whose ass can he kick next. He targets individuals. I am but one. He targets businesses. He targets politicians. He targets Israel. He smears; he attacks; he creates straw dogs. I’m making no excuses here, but observations are still permitted, right? And these are mine. Let’s skip sound bite seven; let’s go to audio sound bites eight and nine. Wolf Blitzer could barely contain himself last night on CNN.
BLITZER: Rush Limbaugh railing against Republican leaders who pressured Texas congressman Joe Barton to take back his apology to BP. We welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I’m Wolf Blitzer. You’re in The Situation Room. Get this: Rush Limbaugh slamming GOP leaders for forcing a congressman to retract his apology to BP. Rush Limbaugh wading into the Joe Barton controversy as well. That story coming. Wait until you hear Rush Limbaugh railing against Republican leaders. What did they do to get him angry? Rush Limbaugh with some angry words for Republicans over their response to a GOP lawmaker’s apology to BP. We’re going to tell you his take on the so-called shakedown comment.
RUSH: That’s a montage of Wolf Blitzer spending almost his entire show promoting a segment on me, and Wolf’s on for two hours. Now, I’m playing these sound bites ’cause this is going to happen tonight about this McChrystal business, the same thing. I am going to be attacked because it will be said that I defended McChrystal. And if you listen carefully, I lament the fact that McChrystal did this, I’m sorry, it’s an absolute tragedy this is happening in our country. This is the kind of thing we ought to be fomenting among our enemies. Now let’s go to the next sound bite, Wolf Blitzer introducing the segment on me.
BLITZER: Now listen to conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
RUSH ARCHIVE: We don’t have all the facts yet, but shakedown would appear to be the correct term if BP surrendered $20 billion to the White House under duress! Let me ask you a question. Would BP have done this on their own? They were already complying with existing law on liability. They were already up to $65 million on their way to a much higher figure.
BLITZER: Takes an interesting twist, this story right now, and when Rush Limbaugh is saying that, I assume Democrats, that’s music to their ears.
RUSH: Yeah, it is at first. (laughing) But then they come to realize just as in ‘I hope he fails,’ they still can’t get that out of their minds. As I say, folks, it always seems to come down to me and many others on our side to say these things because our guardians of democracy in the so-called mainstream media have abrogated their constitutional responsibilities.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, on this matter of respect, there’s a Rasmussen poll out there today that says the American people, a majority would prefer Hillary to Obama as president. You don’t want to argue with me about this respect business. McChrystal, by the way, don’t misunderstand, this guy is not flawless. His judgment can be severely impaired at times. He admits in the Rolling Stone piece that he voted for Obama. So don’t think this guy is flawless. He does have his problems.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: John King has his own show called John King USA, said this about me and my remarks about Joe Barton. Now, I’m playing these because you’re gonna hear them again tonight regarding McChrystal.
KING: It’s music to their ears. This is fascinating. It’s not the first time Rush Limbaugh who would identify himself as a conservative, not a Republican. Because Barton apologized they have decided to run for the hills. When you’re investigating BP, to negotiate this fund, there are a number of conservatives who want to have the conversation, should the administration have done this, was it appropriate and to ask about oversight of the money. What Rush Limbaugh is saying is that because Barton apologized to Hayward and because some Gulf Coast Republicans objected, he says they looked at the polling data and ran for the hills. Tension in a year when Republicans should have the wind at their back, when it comes to turnout, enthusiasm and intensity, it’s a risk.
RUSH: Yeah, the timing of what Barton said is the only thing bad about it. What he said is true. And what McChrystal’s aides are saying in this story, it’s all true. The dirty little secret is it’s all true. That’s why it’s so objectionable. Last night on PMSNBC with Sergeant Schultz, he had on Anthony Weiner. You know Sergeant Schultz from Hogan’s Heroes. (imitating Schultz) ‘I know nothingk, nothingk.’ Sergeant Schultz said, ‘Why aren’t Democrats screaming from the top of every building in Washington that this guy needs to be replaced if he’s this close to Big Oil and has shown his cards when the Democrats are supposed to be the party so concerned about climate change and energy, moving the country forward? Why wouldn’t you want to try to take this guy out just on the shame alone?’ And Weiner said, ‘Forget Joe Barton, you’re focused on the wrong guy, Sergeant Schultz.’
WEINER: I have some empathy for Joe Barton. First of all, I think he’s a good guy, but he was not anything near even the first to say this. In ten minutes this afternoon on the Internet, here’s what I came up with. Other people who called it a shakedown: Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Price, the entire Republican Party. My concern is we shouldn’t be focusing on Joe Barton; we should be focusing on what Rahm Emanuel spoke about this weekend. This is a fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans. They support big business; we support trying to regulate them fairly. Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh are the leaders of that party.
RUSH: There you have it, that’s Anthony Weiner of New York, a congressman on with Sergeant Schultz on MessNBC. Now, I got a guy out there reading this piece because I can’t read it, but I got a guy reading this McChrystal piece in Rolling Stone, and he says, ‘I keep rereading it. I’m not seeing any significant disagreement or disloyalty for McChrystal to the administration or its policies.’ He’s not seeing a whole lot of disagreement. The aids are another matter. Now, Wolf Blitzer, what would you call this if this was not a shakedown? We proved it was a shakedown yesterday. These people are admitting it because Feinberg’s out there saying, ‘Well, Obama told me that we gotta get moving fast on this, Obama told me this, Obama told me that.’ There’s nothing independent about any of this. You drag BP in there and you say, ‘Okay, here’s what you’re going to do or else.’ It obviously was a shakedown. This is how this bunch works. Last night on Chris Matthews’ show, F. Chuck Todd talked about the Joe Barton situation and me. Matthews said, ‘One after another, Republican voices siding with BP against the American people.’ (laughing) One after another, Republican voices siding with BP against the American people? Chris, would it be too much to ask if this administration side with the American people just once? Anyway here’s the bite.
TODD: They know that it’s unpopular to side with BP and yet principally — and I think what you’re hearing there, particularly when it comes to when you’re hearing what Rush is talking about, principally I think there are a lot of conservatives that are uncomfortable with the idea of government being the intervening force here, that it goes against sort of their own principle of how they believe the private sector should be interacting with government and the problem is is politics is getting in the way because, guess what, BP is unpopular with everybody — Republican, Democrat, and independent. And so it’s politically — and that’s what I think is, frankly, I think the Republicans have been in a box on how to respond to this oil spill, politically more so than this White House.
RUSH: Essentially what F. Chuck Todd is saying is that I’m standing on principle in my remarks and I point out to the idealistic youth that Republican elected officials sometimes can’t stand on principle, they have to acknowledge the political reality of the situation, and that is the timing here was not the best for Barton’s comments. (interruption) Yes, the program observer has a question. What’s the question? Hm-hm. Hm-hm. Hm-hm. Hm-hm. Uh, the question is why is the media not troubled by the bypassing of the judiciary? I think the question answers itself. These are acolytes of Obama. They love Obama, they love the whole notion of almost a totalitarian type chief executive that they have engineered into power and so forth. Remember, when liberals are in power, Mr. Snerdley, all the separation of powers stuff goes out the window. And all this concern about power being usurped from Congress, legislative branch, the judiciary being over — it goes out the window.
You get a Republican in there and then all of these assaults on the Constitution that never take place are routinely cataloged and made mention of, accusations fly and so forth. You have a slavish devotion to the guy here, whatever he does. It’s going to have to be something egregious before they are in unison in criticism over something. Remember, Snerdley, when you talk about the media as well, they know the dire consequences the Democrat Party faces, and they will do anything to reduce those dire consequences to improve the Democrats’ electoral possibilities coming up in November. So when you give ’em an enemy like BP and now McChrystal, this is made to order for propping up a — look at the stories! Joe Barton turned a lousy week into a winner week for Obama. That’s all over the Washington Post. Joe Barton turned a lousy week into a big, winning week for Obama. That’s the perspective, because they want this to happen, so they’re gonna write that it has.