RUSH: Bill in Clayton, Wisconsin, welcome to the EIB Network. It’s your turn, sir.
CALLER: Double mega dittos from the cheese capital, Wisconsin, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: I’m also a Vietnam era veteran. I was listening to the news today, and I, like you, listen intently to what’s being said. Robert Byrd made a comment on the bill that the Senate is sending to the president, and I could not believe what I heard. Now if the president does not sign this bill, he will be holding hostage funding for the troops. Now, I don’t know if that’s a big deal to you, but it sure sounds like a big deal to me.
RUSH: Well, look, I don’t blame you for being outraged. It is a big deal, but this is the word games that Democrats play. They’re trying to transfer total accountability of this to Bush. They come up with a bill that says, okay, we’ll fund your silly little war that we want you to lose, but you gotta get the troops out of there in less than a year, and if you don’t, then you are the ones holding the troops hostage. Stalinist, tyrannical tactics here. This is who they are. In truth, Bill, we want more of this. We want the arrogance and the conceit that leads to this kind of an attitude to even grow. The Democrats refuse to be this open about their radicalism leading up to the November elections. But now they’re feeling their oats. They’re feeling their power. And we want them to feel even more powerful. We want them to feel like they’re on a roll and that they can’t lose. We want them to take off all the camouflage and all the masking that they’re wearing and expose themselves for who they are. It looks like we’re not going to have long to wait for it to happen. You’ve heard about the dust-up between McCain and Murtha? In fact, I think we’ve got audio sound bites on it. Start with sound bite number ten. You don’t have to look it up, I just did. It’s audio sound bite number — you can trust me. Audio sound bite number ten. McCain makes a harmless joke, he went on Comedy Central, and he makes a joke —
MCCAIN: I had something really picked out for you, too.
STEWART: Did you really?
MCCAIN: Yes, it’s a nice little IED to put under your desk.
STEWART: It’s very lovely. Thank you.
RUSH: Okay, so it’s an IED, one of these explosive devices, a roadside bomb going off in Iraq, and he’s going to give Jon Stewart one over at Comedy Central. Jack Murtha yesterday on the floor of the House of Representatives said this about what McCain did.
MURTHA: Imagine a — a presidential candidate make a joke about IEDs when these kids are blown apart. It’s outrageous. That individual owes an apology to every troop that serves in Iraq.
RUSH: My rear end, Senator. You and your party are the ones that owe the apology. John McCain supports those troops, and they know it and nothing he said on that program comes anywhere near the destruction and damage that you, Congressman Murtha, have done to the troops. You are the one who has publicly broadcast to the world that they’re incompetent, that they can’t win, that it’s already lost, you and Harry Reid, and you go lose your temper on the floor of the House over a joke that happens on a comedy network. McCain replied.
MCCAIN: I don’t know how to react to that kind of hysteria on a comedy show. I’m going to use humor. When I was in combat and in tough situations, we used humor all the time, and all I can say is to Murtha and others, lighten up and get a life.
RUSH: Absolutely right. Lighten up and get a life. These people, they have no sense of humor, can’t take a joke about anything. But if you do a side-by-side comparison over who has done more damage to US military personnel in Iraq, John McCain doesn’t even get one little mark on his side of the aisle. Murtha’s got so many marks you need two pieces of paper to record ’em all. McCain then continued, always a loyal Republican, was on Larry King. And King said, ‘What do you make, Senator McCain, of the Gonzales issue?’
MCCAIN: I’m very disappointed, disappointed in his performance. I think loyalty to the president should enter into his calculations.
KING: Did you say you think Gonzales should leave?
MCCAIN: I think out of loyalty to the president, it’s — that that would probably be the best thing that he could do.
RUSH: So Senator McCain’s on a roll doing the right thing, and then does that. When are these people going to realize Gonzales going is not going to mean diddly-squat? It’s going to be harmful. It’s just going to throw more blood in the water, it’s not about him, it’s not about — we try to praise Senator McCain when we can, folks. We try. We work hard at it.