RUSH: Here’s Eric in Nashville. Eric, I’m glad you called, sir, glad you waited, welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Dittos to you, Rush, good to talk to you.
RUSH: Thanks very much.
CALLER: I want to say hi to my mom Sandy in Louisville and my buddy John down in Texas. Listen, this is being bandied about by folks as a First Amendment issue, the way some people want to talk about it as a First Amendment issue. As many — First Amendment — you know, tests of the First Amendment that we’ve seen paraded up and down the halls of government over the years, you’ve got a unique opportunity here to test the First Amendment, but not the free speech part of the First Amendment that we’ve been talking about. I’m talking about the last nine words in the First Amendment, that’s petition Congress for redress of grievances. They have attacked a private citizen. They’ve tried to smear you based on lies, based on fraud, and I think you have a unique opportunity here, Rush. I’ve got this mental picture of you strolling up the center aisle of the United States Senate and setting these people straight. And I think you’ve got a unique opportunity to do something like that.
RUSH: Well, there’s only one problem with that. I’m sure it’s true in the Senate. But nobody but a member or a member of their staff or a page is allowed on the floor of the House of Representatives at any time. I’ve been there. I’ve seen the House in action, could not go on the floor. Unless a member wants to make a special citation, if there’s some special joint session, something special going on like a head of state coming in. I think we are redressing them now.
CALLER: I think you are. (laughing)
RUSH: A lot of people are starting to weigh in on redressing them now. It is a dream. I have fantasized about being able to do that. But, look, this is what, day three that I have had my invitation out to Senator Reid to come on this program behind my microphones and say to my face what he said on the floor of the Senate on Monday afternoon. He hasn’t appeared. I don’t expect him to, but the offer is made in all sincerity, and it is made here again today. They’re always saying their ideas get frozen out. They don’t get discussed fairly on talk radio. Here’s a chance for Senator Reid to come on, say these things to my face, and we can talk about this smear, and we can talk about the truth behind this, if he’ll just come.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, on the Fox News Channel right now, they’re debating this. They got their little panel and roundtable, and Bob Beckel is just all atwitter because I have referred in the last hour, about an hour ago — and maybe in the first monologue segment of this hour — to today’s modern liberal Democrats as not being driven just by ideology, but that they are Stalinist-like. They are using the fear imposed by the state to intimidate, to try to intimidate private citizens from saying and thinking what they think. They are associating themselves with political operatives out there, Media Matters, and essentially interpreting my meaning for people, interpreting my thoughts. They are trying to do everything they can to control as much of people’s lives as possible. They’re not being honest about what they really think or believe. The truth is not important to them. What’s important to them is what they want, and so I said they’re Stalinist-like. So Beckel is all atwitter over this, and now they’re back saying, ‘Well, you know, the MoveOn.org was this. Limbaugh said this. It’s appropriate for Congress to disapprove of.’ Look, for anybody else who is going to go on one of these TV shows this afternoon or tonight, here’s the thing about this.
MoveOn.org — which is Media Matters. They may not be the same organization, but they have the same thinking. They’re the same kind of people — created the Betray Us ad. I did nothing. They also created the phony soldier smear. They want balance between their two mistakes? I didn’t do it. I didn’t do what they said. I didn’t think what they say I was thinking. (laughing) It’s absurd. They create both of these scandals. And now they want tit-for-tat treatment. So it’s laughable. It’s becoming laughable. I wonder if Harry Reid is beginning to regret that he did this. It didn’t work out, gang, like he thought it was going to work out. (interruption) It did not work in terms of shutting me up, silencing me, or anything. It did not work, Mr. Snerdley. He’s always been ‘endeared’ to the kooks. The kooks aren’t going anywhere. What he now knows is he’s got a bigger target on his back in terms of reelection in Nevada. You know, I guarantee you — and I’ll betcha some Democrats in the House and Senate are going to the leadership, saying, ‘You know, back off a bit.’ I mean, people are starting to say, ‘What are we doing, worrying about a single private citizen? We’ve got real legislation to work out up here,’ and I am doing a service preventing them from getting to that. There’s no question about it.