RUSH: Well, folks, conservative crackdown theory validated. Greetings and welcome. It’s the award-winning, thrill-packed, ever-exciting, increasingly popular Rush Limbaugh program. Is that Dittocam up and running out there? Good, because I ordered that thing to be on from the top of the program. So it’s available at www.RushLimbaugh.com. It’s great to be with you. Here’s the phone number if you want to be on the program. (Laughing.) I am wearing body armor today, folks. Telephone number, 800-282-2882, and the e-mail address is Rush@EIBnet.com. Altamont, grab audio sound bite #1. Let’s go back to last Friday. This is what I said on my program about Harriet Miers and what I thought the
RUSH ARCHIVE: Senators Lindsey Graham and Sam Brownback have made a document request of the White House. Republicans have made document requests of the White House. They say, “Hey, we just don’t know enough. I mean, we’ve got to see what you can do.” And some people are thinking that this is the way out for the White House. “Sorry, Senators Brownback, we can’t do this,” ta-da, ta-da, ta-da, ta-da, and use this as a — because this is a signal. When Republicans ask the White House for documents — do you know what a big brouhaha document requests are, executive privilege and all that? She was the president’s personal lawyer. There’s no way they’re going to get these documents. But when Republicans are asking for it, not Democrats, I sense, you know, in my nose — (Sniffing) sensing a strategery here. Just keep a sharp eye out.
RUSH: And here it is basically a week later, seven days later, six days later, we have Harriet Miers withdrawing her nomination today on the basis of this, that these documents cannot be produced — and it was, in fact, two Republican senators requesting them, because what this says to the White House is that the Republicans, they were on the judiciary committee, said, “Okay, look, we simply don’t have enough to vote for her right now and we need more information,” and the White House cannot release these documents because of executive privilege and so forth, and so the signal is sent from Republicans on the judiciary committee, “You can’t count on us. We don’t have enough to vote for her now,” and I think also it’s being spewed out there that Senator Frist called the White House last night and said, “I don’t have the votes.” I also think this. I think the Washington Post yesterday published a story that featured excerpts of speeches (we talked about this yesterday) that Ms. Miers gave back in the early nineties. Admittedly it is 12 years ago. If you read the full speech, folks, it’s disappointing. It’s not that she’s just a moderate, not a conservative. Some of the things that she articulated in the speech are actually quite liberal, and so I think you have a confluence of events here. Here’s the upshot of it.
Now, I want to go back — and I’m holding here in my formerly nicotine-stained finger, right here — and it’s currently in the October issue of the Limbaugh Letter. There it is for you watching on the Dittocam. There’s the new cover. We put the Wall Street Journal op-ed that I wrote as a bonus in the October issue of the newsletter. I thought it might be worthwhile to review some of the things that I wrote in this piece, but what has happened out there if you’ve been watching any television today, you note the left is going nuts; the left is having a conniption. Chuck Schumer, Barbara Boxer, Ted Kennedy, they’re all talking about how this was “a victory of the extreme right wing.” Why, the extreme right wing has taken over the Republican Party, and they’re worried to death about it! What they don’t understand — or what they do understand, they just don’t want to put it this way — there is no extreme right wing. There is the conservative movement which is the Republican Party, and I told everybody when I wrote this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, everybody talked about how this distraction and this friction in the conservative movement represented a crackup, and it wasn’t. It was a crack
You got this whole CIA leak investigation, rumors continuing to fly over that, although we have news today that there will not be anything coming from the special prosecutor’s office today. Democrats went out there, got brand-new suits and ties, brand-new shirts, took them with them to work on Wednesday, all ready to be on TV last night proclaiming the death of the Bush administration. They wake up today; they find out not only are there no indictments today, but Harriet Miers has withdrawn, and the conservative movement has unified fully behind President George W. Bush, and they are scared, because they know that conservatism is the majority opinion when it comes to cultural and social issues in this country, and they are deathly afraid. We’ve got audio sound bites of all these Democrats and all these liberals who are just fit to be tied, trying to cast this as somehow the extreme right wing has taken over. No, what’s happened here is that the conservative movement has demonstrated its size, and the conservative movement has demonstrated its power, and there was no conservative movement during Watergate. I don’t know what’s going to happen with the CIA business and this leak thing, but whatever happens, the left is not going to have as easy a time getting rid of a president this year as they did back in 1972 when they got rid of Richard Nixon — and this is an illustration of what the left faces, and they know it. As I wrote in the Wall Street Journal:
“We conservatives are never stronger than when we are advancing our principles. And that’s the nature of our current debate over the nomination of Harriet Miers.” Now, let me jump forward to other parts of this that are relevant. “Some liberal commentators mistakenly view the passionate debate among conservatives over the Miers nomination as a ‘crackup’ on the right. They are giddy about ‘splits’ in the conservative base of the GOP. They are predicting doom for the rest of the president’s term and gloom for Republican electoral chances in 2006. As usual, liberals don’t understand conservatives and never will. The Miers nomination shows the strength of the conservative movement. This is no ‘crackup.’ It’s a crackdown. We conservatives are unified in our objectives. And we are organized to advance them. The purpose of the Miers debate is to ensure that we are doing the very best we can to move the nation in the right direction. And when all is said and done, we will be even stronger and more focused on our agenda and defeating those who obstruct it, just in time for 2006 and 2008,” And that is exactly, when all is said and done, where we are today. “Lest anyone forget, for several years before the 1980 election, we had knockdown battles within the GOP. The result: [Ronaldus Magnus] won two massive landslides. The real crackup has already occurred–on the left! The Democratic Party has been hijacked by 1960s retreads like Howard Dean; billionaire eccentrics like George Soros; and leftwing computer geeks like Moveon.org.
“It nominated John Kerry, a notorious Vietnam-era antiwar activist, as its presidential standard-bearer,” who, by the way, today has called for US surrender in Iraq. Well, what would you call it when he demands we start pulling out of there? And he’s got that Vietnam experience, and he’s drawing on it again: Surrender. “Its major spokesmen are old extremists like Ted Kennedy and new propagandists like Michael Moore. Its great presidential hope is one of the most divisive figures in U.S. politics, Hillary Clinton.” I don’t know if you saw it last night. Susan Estrich was on O’Reilly’s show. She’s written a book, “The Case for Hillary Clinton.” O’Reilly said, “What does she stand for?” and Susan Estrich couldn’t give one answer. (summarized exchange)
“Where does she stand on Iraq?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, what about abortion?”
“I don’t know.”
“What about national health care?”
“I don’t know.”
What they’re trying to do with their party leader, their presumptive nominee is to shield her from taking any positions whatsoever — and why? Precisely because of what I have been trying to tell anybody: they cannot be honest about what they believe in. If they are, it is doom and gloom for them. It is
So nothing has changed here, folks. The left acting like even today this is a big victory, but I’m telling you they are quaking in their boots. The nomination of Harriet Miers was the big victory for the left. That’s what they were privately celebrating. Now that that nomination no longer exists, they’re back to quaking in their boots. The Democratic Party’s “favorite son is an impeached, disbarred, held-in-contempt ex-president, Bill Clinton. The Democratic Party today is split over the war and a host of cultural issues, such as same-sex marriage and partial birth abortion. It wants to raise taxes, but dares not say so. It can’t decide what message to convey to the American people or how to convey it. And even its once- reliable allies in the big media aren’t as influential in promoting the party and its agenda as they were in the past.” Now, some of you disagree with me about that but they can’t promote their agenda. All the media can do is try to rip George Bush apart, rip Karl Rove to shreds — same thing with Scooter Libby. Go out and destroy Tom DeLay! They can’t advance an agenda, they can only destroy their enemies or try, because they don’t have an agenda they can be honest about, folks.
The mainstream press is not out advancing an agenda. Do not make the mistake of assuming that whatever power you think the press has in causing the CIA investigation to go on and on and on and get rid of Rove, get rid of Libby, or whatever happens here, don’t mistake that for massive influence. The polls do not show around the country that most people think Rove or Libby or anybody else did something criminal here. They don’t have the power to move an agenda forward, and that’s key. They may think they have the power to take out their enemies through the legal system, but that’s it. The American left is stuck trying to repeat the history of its presumed glory years. They hope people will see Iraq as Vietnam; the entirety of the Bush administration as Watergate, and Hurricane Katrina as the Great Depression. Beyond looking to the past for their salvation, the problem is that they continue to deceive even themselves. None of their comparisons are true. Meanwhile, we conservatives will continue to focus on moving forward and making history, not trying to repeat it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay, we may as well get started with this. Let’s go to Exeter, New Hampshire. Bill, you’re up first on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: I’m just calling to tell you I’m greatly disappointed that Harriet Miers has had her nomination withdrawn. I don’t necessarily think she did it, I think she was asked to do it.
RUSH: You think she was asked to do it?
CALLER: Yes. And I think guys like you, Rush, who I still have a high regard for, were largely responsible for that.
RUSH: I know you think that. I know a lot of people think that. I’ve gotten some messages to that effect in my e-mail today.
CALLER: I’m sure you have. I sent one myself, by the way.
RUSH: Yeah. I think I read it.
CALLER: It’s just too bad, because I think not only was she a good candidate, and I believe she was good because I trust the president, and apparently you don’t, but also because it’s going to have an incredible impact on his ability to carry out an agenda that I thought was important to you just as it was to me.
RUSH: Yeah, it is, and I disagree with you about 180 degrees.
CALLER: I know you have. I’ve listened to you religiously and I’ve heard you do that and take great pride in the fact that you were going to bring her down.
RUSH: You know, I want you to listen to something today. Grab audio sound bite number two. I walked in today and Cookie said, “Boy, you’re all over the media today. She made me listen to this.”
MARK HAINES: You know who’s clicking his heels, right? Rush Limbaugh. Oh, he’s just been on a rant about Harriet Miers.
RUSH: That was CNBC this morning, Squawk Box, the host Mark Haines. So I’ve been on a rant on Harriet Miers. You know what’s happened here —
CALLER: I didn’t say that, Rush.
RUSH: No, no, no. You didn’t say that, but you basically said I was going to be happy. You said I’ve been carrying the water on this or whatever your phrase was.
CALLER: I said you were one of the people who helped bring her down.
RUSH: One of the people that helped bring her down. I actually didn’t consult with anybody. There are a lot of people on the conservative side of the aisle trying to take credit for this today, Bill. I sent a friend of mine a note today. I said, “You know, this is going to be funny. There are going to be all kinds of people out there on the right trying to take credit for this and listen to what’s going to happen to me. I’m going to be defending myself against callers saying, ‘Hey, I had nothing to do with this,’ while everybody else is trying to take credit for it.” Look, this is not about who gets credit for what; this has happened. The point now is it’s a good thing.
CALLER: Well, it’s going to cost me money. I’m heavily invested in the stock market. That’s one problem. Number two, my taxes are going to go up because he’s not going to be able to get that through to Congress. Number three, I think you’ve damaged the ability of the man to do his job.
RUSH: No, you’re going at this the wrong way. Everybody’s now on the same page. He’s going to have the entire support of the conservative movement, the whole party behind him. This is a renewal here today. This is precisely why I wrote that Wall Street Journal op-ed piece. The conservatives have had an argument. We’ve unified. There’s going to be more energy behind this president. I’ll tell you what: you wait and see. I don’t want to make any predictions about what would have happened had Harriet Miers gone through with this, because that’s not going to happen now. I don’t deal with what-ifs. I’m just telling you you’re reading this wrong. You’re reading this entirely wrong. This is a red letter day. The left has gone from being on the offense of this to the defensive. The left is scared to death. They are scared to death that we’re going to get a nominee to this court that they don’t want. They are. They’re already talking filibuster again. They’re already talking about “the extreme right wing.” You’ve got to start thinking the right way about this, and the method of doing that is to be on offense. This is not a bad thing — and I will tell you this. We’ll never be able to know this, but I’ll betcha there are people in the White House who are now happy, because this was tearing people apart. No president likes to be distanced from his party. No president likes to have opposition within his own party. What’s important now — and I want to you hear me on this, folks. I want you to hear me, because I don’t want to have to be playing tapes of myself next week reminding you that I said this. It is now time. We now have a grand opportunity for the president of the United States and all of his supporters, of which I am perhaps the most eager, to take on the liberals for a change rather than the president arguing with his own party. It’s time for the president to start picking fights with his real enemies, the Democrats and the left in this country — and that’s what this opportunity affords, and it was what is likely to happen, because he’s going to need friends in the days ahead with all this other garbage that’s going on out there that’s aimed at destroying his administration, and we are all his friends, and you just watch and see.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Folks, you’re going to have to trust me on this. No, seriously, there’s such a tremendous opportunity here to breathe new energy into the administration and the whole conservative movement now to take down the liberals. As I was saying before the previous break, it is time we got refocused on our enemies, and we are not our enemies. The president’s enemies are not on the right. The president’s enemies are on the left. It’s time to get focused on them. He has done his best to show the hand of friendship to his enemies. He has gone overboard; he’s gone out of the way. He has accommodated them in so many different ways — and look at what it’s gotten him. It hasn’t gotten him anything, and it’s time now. He’s got three years left in this administration, and it’s time to get unified — I’m telling you, there is a happiness and a swinging from the rafters kind of joy out there today, folks, and in addition to that, I think there’s something else that — I don’t know if you’ve picked up on it, and I don’t know if… Well, if you haven’t, you will. But there’s also a sense of contrite — and look, I don’t know everybody on this side of the aisle, and I’m sure that there’s some people out there beating their chest, “Hey, I did it. I did it! I did it! Notice me! Notice me! Notice me!” But those are people who I think are in the minority. The majority of people, as a result of the Miers nomination today, did not enjoy it. I didn’t enjoy it. This is not a power trip.
I said this was about principles, and we conservatives are never more unified than when we’re advancing our principles, and the opposition to Harriet Miers was more about advancing our principles and the opportunity to do so had been taken away than it was anything about her. I never said a word personally about Harriet Miers because I don’t know her. I remember telling you countless times in this program, “She may be fine. I don’t know.” My opposition had nothing to do with Harriet Miers personally. It was rather focused on the opportunity 
lost, but nobody I know is happy about this. There were people whose guts were churning over this. There were people wringing their hands; there were people that were just beside themselves because they hated opposing what their president was doing, people that had supported him and gotten him elected and stood behind him through all of this, and you know what I mean by “all of this,” since 2001. But, you know, principle was there, and it forced some people to oppose this nomination. It did not make people happy. There is no sense among people I know pulling off a power play here. It’s not about that. It’s about advancing principles. For Harriet Miers, she is obviously a very gracious lady. She’s put the president’s interests first here. She knows the confirmation was going to be very difficult, and he has an opportunity now to go for the gold standard.
He has an opportunity to push the liberals, his real enemies, not us. His real enemies are the liberals. He has an opportunity now to push them back on their heels, to change the direction of the party, to change the direction of the administration. There are people — and when I say that there are people who are having their guts wrenched over this, I’m not exaggerating, and because of that (I should better say, “as a result of that”) there are some people now that this has happened today who are feeling… How should I put this? Not sorry, they want to demonstrate to the president, “We’re with you, man. We’re behind you. We’re so eager to do that.” This was not about opposing the president. This was not about people saying, “I’m more powerful than the president.” This is not about, “I don’t like what’s happening. I’m going to get my way, and I have the power.” It’s not about that at all, and it was gut wrenching and it was challenging and it was tough to be in opposition to the president, particularly with all else that’s going on — and now people are thrilled. As I said, they’re hanging with joy from the rafters here over the opportunity now to be unified once again, because everybody loves this president. Everybody wants this president and this administration to maximize the opportunity we have. He’s a good man, a great man. He has the opportunity for real greatness here, and everybody wants this. There’s almost a sigh of relief today that we don’t any longer have to be on the opposite side of something that we considered to be so principled.
How can I express this? Because I don’t want to say, “Okay, Mr. President, we’re sorry. Let’s move on,” because it’s not that we’re sorry. We’re sorry that all this happened. We’re not sorry for what role we played. I’m not. Let me just speak for myself; the hell with this “we” business. Everything I’ve said where I put “we” in front of it, put “I” instead, because “I” was wrenching my gut. I didn’t like any of this. This kept me up at night. The same situation with so many of you in this audience thought that I was wrong on this — and, you know, you roll the dice. “Okay, what can I do? Do I support the president even though I disagree with this? Do I support the president because I know my audience does, or do I be myself?” And we’ve had knock-down-drag-outs on the phone over this for the past three weeks or so, and I’m just telling you there is a huge sigh of relief that this is over. Everybody sees an opportunity now, and we want to be — I want to be — unified behind this administration. I want to be so supportive that there’s nobody more supportive, and the opportunity for that is here once again, and I’m going to tell you this. When it comes to this special prosecutor investigation and all this Harriet Miers stuff, that’s one thing. But I can’t tell you how royally angry I am about this thing. I cannot express without sheer profanity how angry I am about what’s happening in this whole thing, and the unity that’s going to be necessary to fight this, because there’s going to be a fight that will ensue over the, I have no doubt about it. It’s sorely needed and there’s an opportunity for that here now.
So I hope this helps you understand. This is not, again, I’m speaking for myself — and I cannot speak for others. In fact, I will admit that there are some conservatives. As I said, I’ve done a lot of interviews lately over the fact that William F. Buckley is celebrating 50 years at the National Review, and he’s the godfather of the modern conservative movement and people have asked me various questions and one of the points I’ve made to all of the people that have asked me questions about it is there’s no William F. Buckley anymore. William F. Buckley was the unifying figure. William F. Buckley sort of anointed new arrivals and welcomed them in, and that gave them status. Today the conservative movement has gotten so big it’s full of competitors. You got people who reach an audience of ten who think that they are making things happen in the country. You’ve got people who think they don’t reach an audience of hardly anybody who think they’re the ones that are getting this done. You’ve got people that are on power trips, and I will admit it, and you’ve got people doing what they’re doing trying to tell themselves that they’re the ones causing the future of the country to go the direction it’s going. There are those people out there. They are a minority, and they are not accurate when they think of themselves as having that kind of power. They’re dreaming. But the bottom line is, for most of us, and I’ll just speak for myself, it hasn’t been about a display of power at all, folks, it’s been about the advancement of conservatism and principles and not squandering an opportunity. And I’ve tried to be as open and honest and clear about this in as many different ways as I can, including that Wall Street Journal op-ed.
END TRANSCRIPT
Rush Limbaugh’s Wall Street Journal Op-Ed…
<a target=new href=”/home/eibessential/rush_op_eds/a_crackdown_over_miers.member.html#0001″>(A Crackdown Over Miers, Not a “Crackup”)</a>
