RUSH: This just arrived in my e-mail stack, in my anonymous — I’ve got a filter — you don’t need to know who sent it to me, doesn’t matter. But it goes back to my stirring monologue in the first hour about how the American people don’t want defeat; the American people don’t want to lose; the American people don’t want to de-fund soldiers; the American people do not want to deny soldiers reinforcements on the battlefield. They don’t want to demoralize them. As you recall, when the House passed its nonbinding resolution against the surge, there were 17 Republicans that signed on with them. One of them was North Carolina Congressman Walter Jones. Walter Jones has been given a lot of support from conservatives in North Carolina, but he’s been very, very wrong on the war.
We mentioned his name on this program, and I’m sure it was mentioned a number of other places, too, after he signed on and flipped and went over with the Democrats on this. Well, today, Congressman Walter Jones sent a letter to Congressman John Murtha. He applauded his leadership in properly equipping and training our armed forces but also urged chairman Murtha not to cut off funding for US troops in Iraq. Now, this is a flip-flop without the flop. Something has happened. Congressman Walter Jones must have heard from the American people about this, certainly his constituents in North Carolina. I think this is a reflection of what is really happening in this country, not what the Drive-Bys are telling us is happening or what polls are telling us is happening. If a majority of the American people, which would have to include some conservatives, really wanted the war to be de-funded and for the military to be demoralized and for the surge not to happen and for no equipment and for no reinforcements to be sent to the troops, then Walter Jones wouldn’t have heard anything but praise from his constituents.
But he apparently got enough grief that he sent Murtha a letter urging Murtha not to cut off funding for US troops in Iraq. Here are a couple of excerpts from this letter that Walter Jones sent. “However, I believe that we must take great care to ensure that any effort to provide for our armed forces not be used as a proxy for resolving larger issues concerning the war in Iraq. Any attempt to starve the war as a way of bringing it to a conclusion,? which is the slow bleed strategy of Murtha’s, ?rather than through a serious policy debate about the best way forward would be wrong.? So Walter Jones wants back in on the Republican side on this. He doesn’t want to be associated with Murtha. This is proof, I think, of my point in the first hour. The American people are not on board with the Democrats on this. One more excerpt. ?I have been and I will continue to be willing to hold accountable those institutions and individuals who have made serious misjudgments leading up to and during the war in Iraq, but I also have assured the citizens of eastern North Carolina and our brave men and women in uniform that I will never vote to cut off funding for our troops in the field.? So he’s sort of flipped as far as he can here without being called a flip-flopper, but clearly he got a little grief. It wouldn’t have happened if the Democrats and the Drive-Bys are right that most Americans want defeat. They don’t. The Democrat Party owns defeat.