RUSH: In the meantime, Keith in Chicago. Welcome to the EIB Network. How are you?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Hello there, Rush. (Rustling and unfolding a piece of paper.)<\/p>\n
RUSH: Hi.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, let\u2019s — I\u2019m going to give you a hypothetical. Let\u2019s say I\u2019m a soldier in Iraq — Iraq. I\u2019m a liberal, okay?<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yeah.<\/p>\n
CALLER: I\u2019m in a Jeep with my buddies —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yeah.<\/p>\n
CALLER: — who happen to be avid Rush Limbaugh fans.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yeah.<\/p>\n
CALLER: We\u2019re all putting our lives on the line.<\/p>\n
RUSH: (Laughing.)<\/p>\n
CALLER: An hour a day I\u2019m listening to why liberals are bad for America. Boom! I get blown up.<\/p>\n
RUSH: I don\u2019t think — in the first place, Keith, I don\u2019t think that you tune in Armed Forces Radio in the Jeep. I think this is not for people actually out —<\/p>\n
CALLER: Okay, only a hypothetical anyway. But let\u2019s say in the barracks, in my tent, wherever.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Okay.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Let\u2019s just say… I\u2019m a liberal.<\/p>\n
RUSH: All right. Let me turn this around on you, Keith.<\/p>\n
CALLER: I want to know why I\u2019m bad for America as I\u2019m putting — because I know that liberals are dying right now, just like conservatives are.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Mmm-hm.<\/p>\n
CALLER: So what I\u2019m trying to figure out is —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yes?<\/p>\n
CALLER: — what good are you doing for me by telling me that me and my ilk are bad for America, and for the war against terror —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well, wait a second now, wait a second — I have a problem with your premise.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Ooooh. Oh.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yes, because see, this is a neat little trick that the left is ginning up.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Not trick. This is from me.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Nooooow. Look, you guys all get the same stuff from the same websites. You all say the same thing. I mean, I\u2019ve heard this already. My e-mail is overwhelming with this analogy.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, maybe because —<\/p>\n
RUSH: That\u2019s why I\u2019m prepared for it.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Okay. Okay.<\/p>\n
RUSH: I don\u2019t accept the premise. I don\u2019t say the words “liberals are bad for America.” What I say is, “Al-Qaeda is bad for America, and liberals don\u2019t believe it.” What I\u2019ve said is that Saddam is bad for America, and liberals don\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n
CALLER: I totally —<\/p>\n
RUSH: “Liberals think that George Bush is more dangerous for America than our enemies.” That\u2019s what I say.<\/p>\n
CALLER: I\u2019m a liberal, Rush, and I don\u2019t believe any of those contentions that you\u2019ve made. So then your premise would be wrong.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well —<\/p>\n
CALLER: I\u2019m a die hard liberal.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Okay, if you don\u2019t believe it, then you\u2019re driving along in your Jeep and you laugh it off because I\u2019m wrong! Be a man about it!<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, that\u2019s —<\/p>\n
RUSH: If you think I\u2019m wrong, you laugh it off and be wrong about it. If the bomb goes off, the bomb goes off. You chose to be there.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Right. Listen. I\u2019ve been listening to you for 15 years.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Thank you.<\/p>\n
CALLER: And, you know, it\u2019s been — I\u2019m a regular caller. It\u2019s been 15 years since the demise of the free — um, the, uh, the, um… The Fairness Doctrine, right?<\/p>\n
RUSH: No, actually close. No, it\u2019s closer to 20, about 18 years. 1986.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Eighteen years, okay. Okay.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You know what\u2019s happened since the Fairness Doctrine was demised?<\/p>\n
CALLER: I\u2019ve followed it closely, actually.<\/p>\n
RUSH: We\u2019ve gone from 125 talk stations in America, to 1,400.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n
RUSH: There are more liberals on the air and conservatives than ever before. There are more ideas being expressed than ever before. It\u2019s the greatest thing that ever happened to radio and communications and First Amendment.<\/p>\n
CALLER: And a good amount due to your entertaining and for some informative show.<\/p>\n
RUSH: (Laughing.)<\/p>\n
CALLER: Why do I listen? Why do I listen?<\/p>\n
RUSH: I don\u2019t know why.<\/p>\n
CALLER: You know why I listen, because I want to know what my opposition is doing.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Keep track of the “enemy.”<\/p>\n
CALLER: Not the enemy.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Don\u2019t listen to what Al-Qaeda says; listen to what Rush Limbaugh says.<\/p>\n
CALLER: You know, what I want you to know, though? Liberals die for this country.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yes, they do.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Every. Single. Day.<\/p>\n
RUSH: In fact, you know what? You have not heard me condemn John Kerry\u2019s military service in Vietnam.<\/p>\n
CALLER: No… Well… I\u2019ve heard —<\/p>\n
RUSH: No you\u2019ve not. You\u2019ve heard me laugh that he won\u2019t let us forget it, but I have not joined the chorus of people that condemn his service.<\/p>\n
CALLER: And you know what, because — or Max Cleland for that matter. My bottom line is this.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well, why do you want to bring up Max Cleland?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Let\u2019s say —<\/p>\n
RUSH: See, you guys are skating on thin ice when you bring up Max Cleland.<\/p>\n
CALLER: The guy has no arms [sic–one arm, no legs]. For Christ\u2019s sake, what do you want? What do you want? What better sacrifice could he give?<\/p>\n
RUSH: I\u2019ve never criticized him.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, others have.<\/p>\n
RUSH: And what have they said?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Oh, uhhhh, questioning his patriotism.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Nope.<\/p>\n
CALLER: I know you don\u2019t see it that way.<\/p>\n
RUSH: It didn\u2019t happen. You\u2019re talking about Saxby Chambliss and the Senate campaign —<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yes, I am.<\/p>\n
RUSH: — and that was on a vote about the Patriot Act but nobody “challenged his patriotism.” You guys, the reason why the left thinks that is because they know they\u2019re on weak ground when it comes to patriotism, because they know the things that they say are dangerously close to being perceived as having a problem with patriotism. So you\u2019ve built up this wall and say you\u2019re going to redefine patriotism as equaling criticism of America. You want “dissent and criticism of America” to equal “patriotism” so that you can be called patriots in your normal state, criticizing the country. I know how this game works. Suppose a conservative, a Jeep load of conservatives, is driving along in Baghdad, outside the green zone, and they\u2019re fiddling around with their Armed Forces Radio Network tuning dial, and at the time their Jeep is out all they can pick up is NPR, and as they\u2019re listening to NPR.<\/p>\n
All they hear is about what a rotten bunch of people are in Iraq because of the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal. What do you think is going to happen to their morale? What do you think does happen to their morale? This stuff all balances out. For every example, you can give me of some liberal soldier driving around hearing me. He\u2019s got one hour of me; he\u2019s got eight or ten hours a day he can listen to of NPR. He\u2019s got more than his share. People don\u2019t have top listen to it, either. So, you know, the notion that I say liberals are bad for America? That\u2019s what you hear me saying but I don\u2019t say it. I\u2019m just saying you guys have got a proportion problem. You guys seem to always find America as the single source of blame rather than our enemies. You just heard Madonna (audio). I mean, Madonna is much closer to what the left in this country is saying and thinks and acting than anybody else is. “Bush, Saddam, same thing.” Look at the leftist protesters. You\u2019ve got “Bush equals Hitler” all over the place. We don\u2019t make this stuff up, and that\u2019s all I say. I mean, it bothers us that you can\u2019t recognize our enemies are our enemies and our friends are our friends. So be it. I\u2019m glad you called, Keith. It\u2019s always a pleasure.<\/p>\n
COMMERCIAL BREAK<\/p>\n
(Janet Jackson bumper music) Uh, ladies and gentlemen, you know, this business about liberals being bad for America. I\u2019ll tell you what. Liberal ideology is dangerous for America. I mean, there\u2019s no question. I clearly have said this over and over again, and I\u2019m not backtracking from it, but I\u2019ve never called them “un-American” or “challenged their patriotism.” All I\u2019ve said is the truth. Liberals cut the defense budget every time we\u2019ve been preparing to fight a war against Al-Qaeda. Liberals undermine the CIA at the very time we should have been strengthening the institution to fight Al-Qaeda. The liberal representatives in Congress, as I speak, seek to undermine the war effort with committee hearings aimed at the besmirching the war effort, our troops and our commander-in-chief. There\u2019s no question that\u2019s what this is all about. This is an effort to derail the war effort, in a political sense, to hurt George W. Bush and to set up grounds for impeachment if he wins reelection.<\/p>\n
Liberals today put their pursuit of power ahead of the national interest. Whatever mess they make, they\u2019ll fix it in their own image when they get their power back. This is why 400 liberal professors yesterday called for the beginning of impeachment investigations against the president and his top advisors. Four hundred liberal professors demand impeachment investigations begin, and then we\u2019ve got all these ex-State Department people claiming that Bush is ruining our foreign policy. (story) These are all liberals. It is patently obvious to anybody that wants to be objective why they\u2019re doing this, and it certainly is not to assist the effort in which the country finds itself. Randy in Brunswick, Georgia. Hi, welcome to the EIB Network.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Heeeey, good afternoon, Rush.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yes, sir.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Hey, you know, I had a 23-year career in Armed Forces Radio. I can\u2019t imagine a better way to have ever had a career in broadcasting. A blast. I lived in eight countries over 17 years of it, and I must say, in the tail end of my career when I was at broadcast center north of Hollywood they were going to bring in Rush Limbaugh\u2019s show at the tail end of, you know, middle part of \u201993 —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yes.<\/p>\n
CALLER: — and I was just shocked. I was a big screaming liberal. I\u2019d had all those years of the teletype machines and UPI and AP and didn\u2019t know I had really probably been profiled a little bit by the posture of that particular news media, and so I was very anti-Rush. I said, “Oh, my God these troops overseas, remote areas, defending our freedom and they\u2019re going to get propaganda like this,” and I was very upset.<\/p>\n
RUSH: (Laughing.)<\/p>\n
CALLER: But at the time we didn\u2019t have the Internet. We didn\u2019t have all the news sources we got today where people can go out there and kind of look around and find, and I really as I\u2019ve stepped back and watched it over the years and flipped to being a strong conservative here in south Georgia. I\u2019m very impressed with your work. I\u2019m very jealous you\u2019ve had such a great career in radio. Damn! I\u2019m working in a federal office and saying, “Man, I sure miss those days on the radio,” and now that you\u2019re all over the world talking about to our troops — and saluting the troops — I\u2019m just very proud of what you do.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well! Well!<\/p>\n
CALLER: (Chuckling)<\/p>\n
RUSH: You\u2019ve made my day! You\u2019ve give me a great sendoff here, Randy. That\u2019s very nice to say. I appreciate that.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, you know —<\/p>\n
RUSH: It was Armed Forces Radio. You\u2019re hearing me on Armed Forces Radio that started to change your mind about things?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yes, it was. You know —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well.<\/p>\n
CALLER: — and it took a long time —<\/p>\n
RUSH: This is what the left is scared of, by the way.<\/p>\n
CALLER: I used to seethe listening to you driving to work, but over time, especially since 9\/11, especially since it\u2019s time for somebody to get whacked over there and quit playing games and trying to get along with them, and what\u2019s going on today with this — looks like our guy in Saudi has been killed, and the Berg stuff and everything. I\u2019m just very upset. If they think these people are playing around with us, we\u2019re really messing up. There\u2019s a lot of great people all over the world, and I love the world, served a lot of years in it, but I was real shocked that these governments in some of my favorite countries kind of stuffed us over the last couple of years.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Randy, I\u2019ve got to run because of time. I wish I didn\u2019t. But I appreciate it. Thanks so much. Great to hear from you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUSH: In the meantime, Keith in Chicago. Welcome to the EIB Network. How are you? CALLER: Hello there, Rush. (Rustling and unfolding a piece of paper.) RUSH: Hi. CALLER: Well, let\u2019s — I\u2019m going to give you a hypothetical. Let\u2019s say I\u2019m a soldier in Iraq — Iraq. I\u2019m a liberal, okay? RUSH: Yeah. CALLER: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n