All right, ladies and gentlemen. I want you to put your thinking caps on, but I want you to know at the outset here that I know the answer to what it is I’m going to present to you here. I have two quotes from Howard Dean who, by the way, is out there now claiming that he’s a “fiscal conservative” and not a liberal. I mean, all these Democrats, especially Howard Dean, who is on two magazine covers this week, Newsweek and Time (people wondering if this is coincidence), is the front-runner on the Democratic side, now. And all of the Democratic Party, from the DLC on down, is working overtime behind closed doors trying to do something about this.
On the other hand, Howard Dean is, in his own way, playing this at times with what some would have to call cleverness, if nothing else. Now – as you know because you have been regular listeners for many, many moons (a little Indian lingo there) there is a propensity recently for elected Democratic officials to mention my name and this program. After the elections in 2002, Daschle and Gore came out and many, many times criticized me, ripped me, and claimed I was responsible for all sorts of bad things happening to them, both professionally and personally. They have discussed this effort to get a new liberal talk radio network going as a means of denying this turf solely to me.
And over the weekend, Howard Dean mentioned my name twice: once the sound bite was aired on Crossfire Saturday night, and then he’s quoted in the New York Times, which has a story on the front page today by Robert N. Toner headlined, “Disdain for Bush Simmers in Democratic Strongholds.” This New York Times story basically says that the core Democrats out there – you rock-ribbed, core Democrats – loathe Bush. You hate him; you despise him. It’s not “dislike.” It’s utter, pure, unadulterated hatred, and it’s all over the place. In this piece, there is a quote from Howard Dean about me. I want to get you that quote in just a second.
I want to play you this sound bite, and again it is from Nashua, New Hampshire, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean at a campaign stop. I think this aired on Crossfire Saturday. The cue sheet says he said this on Sunday, so I’m not sure when he said this other than it was over the weekend. But it is a different quote than that which appears in the New York Times story today. What I want you people to try to figure out is what’s different about it this time. This doesn’t even really equate to Clinton calling KMOX in St. Louis after the election of ’92. I think that call came in ’93 or ’94, but Clinton was not up for reelection. The House races were coming up, perhaps.
Clinton called KMOX, complained about me, that there was no “truth detector” following me (Of course not. That’s because I am the truth detector) and that I had three hours on the radio to say whatever I wanted and nobody could respond to me. The president of the United States with the bully pulpit that he has complaining about me, which led to me saying, “Hey, I am the equal time here. No reason to balance me, Mr. President. I’m just one lone, meager little voice out there against all the networks and all the newspapers and all the magazines.” So, you know, Daschle has mentioned my name, as has Gore. They’ve all, you know, come up for air now and then to rip me. But never, I don’t think, the way Howard Dean has here. It’s a short little sound bite. It’s only 11 seconds – and again from Nashua, New Hampshire, here it is:
DEAN: “We’re going to give Democrats a reason to vote. This is not going to be a election about the worst of two evils. This is going to be a time when Democrats are proud to be Democrats. We’re going to stand up against Rush Limbaugh and the right wing.”
“We are going to stand up against Rush Limbaugh and the right wing.” Now, what’s going on here, folks? I’m not a candidate. I’m not going to be getting votes that would otherwise go to Howard Dean. I’m not on any ballot, and yet Howard Dean out there trying to secure the Democratic presidential nomination running against me. In this New York Times story, again by Robin Toner, datelined Des Moines, comes this quote: “When Dr. Dean entered the room, sleeves rolled up, looking as if he was ready to fight, he was greeted like a rock star. ‘It’s time we stood up to this president and stopped being intimidated by the Rush Limbaughs on the radio,’ he said. ‘We can do better than that.'”
So on two separate occasions, Howard Dean saw fit to again act as a Democrat – or act as they have acted – and make my name prominent. But this is something different. This is new, despite all these other mentions. And so my question to you people – and, see, I know the answer. If I were to give you the answers, when I say something, there’s nothing left to be said about it. So I’m going to leave this one open for you people to analyze this yourselves, as members of this giant think tank: the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies. Play audio sound bite #3 again, Mike. This is the focal point here. This is what I want you to zero in on and try to tell me what’s different about this:
DEAN: “We’re going to give Democrats a reason to vote. This is not going to be a election about the worst of two evils. This is going to be a time when Democrats are proud to be Democrats. We’re going to stand up against Rush Limbaugh and the right wing.”
Again, that’s at Nashua, New Hampshire, just at a regular old campaign rally. He’s going to stand up against me and the right wing. Now, I’m not on the ballot. I’m not running for any office. Why in the world mention me in this context? He’s not criticizing me as a host. He’s not doing what Daschle and all these other guys have done, expressing fear they can’t deal with me. Dean’s past that. Dean’s acknowledging that I’m an 800-pound gorilla in the room here, that the Democrats are just going to have to ignore. I’m going a little farther than I intended here in seeking an answer, an analytical answer from those of you.
