RUSH: How many of you people know who Matt Hasselbeck and Mack Strong are? Matt Hasselbeck is a quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks. Mack Strong is a running back for the Seattle Seahawks, and they went out there and they visited President Bush last week in Bellevue, Washington.
‘The Seahawks quarterback and fullback gave the 43rd president a No. 43 jersey with his name on it at a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser for Rep. Dave Reichert at the Hyatt. At the time, Hasselbeck called it a thrill and said it was a win-win, this opportunity to meet the president and get out of a team meeting. But as soon as he saw the picture of the two players with Bush, Gary Wright, the team’s vice president of administration, said he was concerned about negative reaction. Maybe in really red Republican states, it would not have been a big deal. But Washington is a blue state, and deep, deep Democratic blue in King County. So objections were raised, and Hasselbeck heard them and read them. He got nasty voice mails, e-mails and text messages. ‘I had no idea,’ Hasselbeck said. One guy told him: ‘I hate you, I’ll never wear your jersey, I’ll never like the Seahawks again.’ … As evidence were these responses to Angelo Bruscas’s blog posting on seattlepi.com: ‘How dare Hasselbeck declare Bush an honorary Seahawk,’ wrote one. ‘Who is Matt speaking for? Bush is no Seahawk. He is the worst president of my lifetime, and I’m almost 60. Shame on you, Matt.’ ‘To learn that two of the most popular Seahawks are strong (Bush) supporters ruins the season for me and my family,’ wrote another.’
You people need to get lives! For crying out loud, do you know how many NFL players I know that love Democrats? It hasn’t destroyed my love for the game. You people are just nuts. You people on the left are lunatics. You are certifiably insane. You can’t really be fans of the Seattle Seahawks if your fandom can be shaken and destroyed. What kind of emotional midgets are you? The new castrati, you don’t have any business being football fans. You’re not tough enough to be football fans. If you can’t handle your quarterback liking a certain president without having to destroy your season, go see a shrink. Tell you what, you people need help. What happens to you liberals in Seattle when they do a flyover? They ever fly military jets over the game when it starts? That must freak you out. In fact, I’m going to violate my rule here. I’m going to talk about myself for a second. I made a new rule because I was accused of being self-absorbed yesterday, talking too much about myself.
This is in San Diego when the stadium was then called The Murph. It’s a horseshoe, a Super Bowl, Denver Broncos and the Washington Redskins. The Redskins blew ’em out that day. I’m sitting in the closed end of the stadium in one of the end zones and Herb Alpert goes out there to play the national anthem. The teams are lined up, the giant American flag covers the entire field. I think this is my first Super Bowl in person. They said on the PA system that there was going to be a flyover of, I guess, Navy jets. I’m not sure which. I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be cool,’ because I’ve never seen one of those, either. So Herb Alpert is out there playing, and I’m scanning the stars, the skies, looking for these jets and all of a sudden on my left I saw them, and I saw them heading on a downwind leg. For you pilots, you aviation people, a downwind leg, you’re flying parallel to the stadium but away from it. And as they turn toward the stadium, you see them coming and I’m saying, ‘How are they going to pull this off? How are they going to time this so that they show up just as soon as Herb Alpert finishes the national anthem with his trumpet?’
Well, he had to hold the last note for a little longer than normal, so it kind of stuck in the air for a while, but then those jets flew over — folks, it was my first fly over. They’re right above you, and the noise, I stood up and I started pounding my buddy who is now my caddy at the AT&T, Ed Tatosian, I started pounding him on the shoulder, ‘Damn it, Ed, how in the world…’ I shouted this as loud as I could, ‘How in the world can you be a Democrat after seeing that?’ There were two people in front of me that were from Washington who turned around and said, ‘We’re Democrats.’ And I said, ‘Well, how can that be?’ It was the most patriotic thing. I got goose bumps when that happened. I couldn’t wait to get home. I had VCR’d the game, I couldn’t wait to get back home to Sacramento to see what it sounded like. The sound on television is nothing compared to being there.
So I wonder, for you little mental midgets, you Seahawks fans, I knew there was a reason your team lost to the Steelers in the Super Bowl a couple years ago. This is outrageous. You may be have created a head case out of your quarterback. He’s going to be worried if violence is going to happen to him because he’s a Bush supporter when he goes out and takes the field and tries to lead the team to victory. You leftists are just literally brain dead. You are insane. You are poison. A Bush derangement virus is eating your brains alive before our very eyes. To get all worked up over the fact the QB goes to a dinner, a fundraiser for a local congressman. So it’s a good question. What do they do with flyovers? I wonder if they even have ’em. They’re probably not allowed. Boeing has buildings out there where they make war planes. How does Seattle deal with this?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Sandy in Seattle, welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Oh, my gosh. (giggles) Rush.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: Hi. I prayed for you when you had your ear thing, and I can’t believe I’m talking to you. But, you know what?
RUSH: What?
CALLER: Here I am in Seattle, and I was at a Mariners game about two or three weeks ago. Of course we were playing the Yankees, and the place was packed, and the Blue Angels did their flyover more than once, and the place erupted. My friend’s son sang the national anthem and at the seventh inning stretch sang America the Beautiful, and everybody sang and everybody cheered. So I don’t know if it was full of Christians that day, but it was awesome!
RUSH: Full of Christians that day. (Laughing.)
CALLER: (Laughing.) But I’m so upset about Hasselbeck’s situation. I did not know that because I don’t read those wacky papers.
RUSH: Well, see, we do it for you here so you don’t have to subject yourself to that drivel.
CALLER: Yes, you do (giggles), and we really should have a Republican governor, but, you know, you heard about that: recount, recount, and more recount.
RUSH: Oh, I know. I remember it well. The Mariner stadium is right next door to the Seahawks.
CALLER: Seahawks. Oh, yeah.
RUSH: I’m stunned. I’m literally stunned that somebody didn’t try to shoot the Blue Angels down!
CALLER: Well, maybe they did, but I didn’t see it, because I was so caught up. It was so unbelievable, and it was a beautiful day.
RUSH: Wait a minute. Wait a minute, Sandy. Can you hang on for just a second?
CALLER: Sure.
RUSH: Because I got somebody who got a slightly different story from yours.
CALLER: Ohhh. Oh. Okay.
RUSH: Also from Seattle. This is Jason. Jason, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. Dittos from Seattle.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Hey, I just wanted to hit on a little bit about people in Seattle here. Actually, I was at a Seahawk game, it was a Seahawk-Cowboys game last year, and they did have a flyby by some Army helicopters, and the crowd did give a great response. But one thing I wanted to hit on is that here in Seattle every year, every summer, we have what’s called Seafair, and the Blue Angels come out.
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Just a second. I want to make sure I heard you.
CALLER: Yeah?
RUSH: There was a flyover of helicopters at the Seahawk game?
CALLER: Yeah, there was.
RUSH: And it didn’t get much response?
CALLER: No, it did. It did get a response.
RUSH: It did get response, okay.
CALLER: Yeah, yeah.
RUSH: How cheap. At least the Mariners get the Blue Angels. Helicopter flyover? Nothing against you chopper pilots, but, for crying out loud.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: Okay, so you’ve got the Blue Angels out there every summer, right? What happens next?
CALLER: Yeah. Well, the people of Seattle, there’s this big push to ban the Blue Angels from coming back to Seattle, and I know just personally, I’ve talked with people about it, and there is a lot of animosity about the Blue Angels coming to town. I was talking to a friend — actually a group of people, a couple of good friends — and I was like, ‘Oh, isn’t it great the Blue Angels are here?’ and this lady actually disagreed and said, ‘They’re vehicles of war,’ and it kind of echoes the whole attitude of Seattle toward the Blue Angels.
RUSH: Vehicles of war! (snickers) I’ll tell you, I’m getting so sick and tired of living amongst these literal idiots, blithering idiots.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Jason, thanks I want to go back to Sandy. Sandy, did you know this? They’re protesting the Blue Angels out there, trying to get them prohibited from ever coming back to Seattle to perform.
CALLER: No, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not happening, but I will tell you that a personal friend of my late precious husband Roy, Jim Horsley, former Blue Angel, goes to my church, and he’s so awesome, and I mean, you know, you get caught up in the glory of it all and I guess you miss this other stuff. It’s just disgusting.
RUSH: You do get caught up in the glory of it all.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Look, Sandy, Jason, both of you, thanks much for the calls. (laughing) These people, folks, are becoming more and more incomprehensible. It’s not enough just to laugh at them, now. Something more is required, deportation or something. Something! These people are not Americans. I don’t care, freedom of speech, freedom of thought, when you are actively engaged in trying to weaken the ability of your own country to defend itself and protect itself… (sigh) Maybe deportation is a bit strong. I think we just — well, institutionalization!