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MORAN: Great to talk to you, Rush.
RUSH: So tell me, what do you think of this controversy and how is it affecting you?
MORAN: I’m on vacation. I was home yesterday listening to the radio and start to hear the attacks. I saw the ads. I think they’re inspirational. They remind me of going back, like how lost I felt right after 9/11 and then seeing on the news when George Bush went down to the Trade Center, put his arm around the firemen, the words he spoke of… I don’t know if “defiance” is the right word, but they were inspirational. They made me feel like, “Wow, this isn’t just going to be another terrorist attack that we’re going to sit back on our asses — excuse me — and do nothing,” and for these people to attack these ads, it’s nothing less than slimy. There’s a lot of things I disagree with with the families, the victims, of the way things have to be done, that the World Trade Center has to remain like an empty pit. I don’t agree with that. I think we should build them bigger, the same way, because by not building them back I believe they’ve won. Our enemies have won. And if we build something defiant, then we’re telling them, “All right, let’s see you knock these ones down.” I don’t know —
RUSH: No, I hear you. I understand totally. You have all these different designs, and I think what you’re referring to is that many of the family members want a giant memorial right there at Ground Zero on the footprints —
MORAN: Yeah.
RUSH: — of the Twin Towers, and some people think that’s maudlin, that, as you say, terrorists win. What we ought to do is. My take back then was we don’t even need a holiday on that day because theme these people were going to work. It was a normal day for them and the terrorism and the attacks not only stopped them from working, they stopped an American election taking place that day in certain states, and they also used our own planes to kill us. And I’ve always thought that what we need to do is honor those people doing what they were doing, and that is going to work —
MORAN: Yes.
RUSH: — being Americans, and that would dovetail nicely with your suggestion: rebuild the Towers maybe even taller.
MORAN: Yes.
RUSH: What about —
RUSH: (laughing) Mecca and Medina. I can’t claim credit for… Maybe I did. I don’t remember what all I say on this program, it sounds like something I would say. (Moran laughing) But, Mike, you were there, you lost your brother —
MORAN: Yes.
RUSH: — in the rescue effort, and that’s — you know, we talked to you shortly after all this happened, you had also — refresh our memory, what was it — Hillary Clinton was at this rally where we just played you —
MORAN: At the concert for New York, yes.
RUSH: She was booed there; is that right?
MORAN: Oh, yeah, it was — she was booed pretty good. I mean —
RUSH: Why was that — my memory, why was she booed?
MORAN: I mean what I told you on the radio at that time is that people didn’t want to hear her, that feel-good, touchy-feely just insane words that don’t really mean anything.
RUSH: It was a solemn moment and people were trying to politicize it, and some people that, you know, weren’t thought to be genuine about it.
MORAN: Yeah.
RUSH: Well, as you hear this whole Democrat series of talking points, that we ought not even bring this up as part of the campaign, how does it make you feel as somebody who lost a family member there, and were part of the rescue effort yourself?
MORAN: Alls I can think, “How slimy can you get?” It makes — offense. The big thing that was being written in the dust in the windows, putting on the bumper stickers, was that “We Will Never Forget.” And not only has John Kerry and all these people seem to have forgotten already, but they don’t want any images shown that will remind you. And if I can tell you, like the talking points that those people hit about the president reading to the school children. I mean when I think back about that, when the guy whispered in his ear and gave him the news and Bush had that stony look on his face? You do not want to play poker with that man. I mean, talk about resolve and discipline to not frighten those kids and to not panic. It was inspirational.
MORAN: I tell you, I know I’ve heard you say a number of times. I think it’s one of the most classic cases of, you know, the unions collect the dues and they kind of go their own way. You know, there’s no polling of the members who they think they should support. I know who I’d support. I see that guy, the president of the International Association of Firefighters, he’s on the stage right next to Kerry every time. I don’t care if it gets me in trouble. I disagree. The only way those guys will have died in vain, all those firemen. The firemen and all those civilians and the cops, they were the first soldiers that fell on this War on Terror, and the soldiers that we lost subsequently in Afghanistan and Iraq, the only way all those people’s lives were lost in vain is if we turn around now, John Kerry becomes president and we turn around to France and UN and we have to kowtow to everything the international community says, and then we let things slide back to the hell it was over there before we took over.
RUSH: Can’t add much more to that. That’s right on the money. How are you doing now, Mike?
MORAN: I’m doing very good, Rush. I’m married, very happily married and, you know, working and we have a lot of great young guys in the firehouse, and…
RUSH: So you’re still firemen? You’re still there fighting the blazes?
MORAN: Oh, yep. Yep. No, I mean, alls I can tell you is, “How could you ever leave while the country was still under threat?”
RUSH: Well, that’s incredible. I know you guys are called New York’s Bravest, and there’s a reason for it. I’m honored that you called us today, Mike. It’s great to hear from you, man.
MORAN: Rush, I love you. If I couldn’t hear you pointing out these things and verbalizing the initial rage that… Even my wife came home yesterday. She was listening in the car, and if I couldn’t hear you verbalize these feelings for me first, I would lose my mind.
RUSH: I don’t want that to happen, you got too great a mind. (Moran laughing) Thanks very much. Keep using it, Mike.
MORAN: Rush, thank you very much.
RUSH: Nice to talk to you. Mike Moran, New York firefighter.
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