RUSH: Folks, we are winning. I don’t care what anybody says, we are winning. In fact, I’ve got two stories to illustrate how we are winning. Here’s the first: ‘Chances for a U.S. resolution calling the mass killings of Armenians that began in 1915 genocide eroded dramatically last night, as sponsors dropped off in droves and senior Democrats urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to abandon her support,’ and they’re not going to have the votes to override the president’s S-CHIP veto either. Pelosi is just so bent out of shape; she’s just had it. She’s blaming the Senate for this — not the Armenian thing — but she’s blaming the Senate for not having the guts to do anything; everything over there is languishing. She’s got all these great contributions that she’s made as speaker of the House Democrats, all these great accomplishments and achievements, but the Senate is slowing ’em down. So she’s throwing the mud over there across the chamber at Dingy Harry. Everybody’s just climbing on Dingy Harry, and they’re climbing on her, too, but she’s trying to deflect it all.
‘The number of lawmakers supporting the bill slipped below a majority as four more withdrew from the legislation.’ This is the thing that nobody will convince me otherwise, that the Democrats, the leadership of the House, did this as a way of interrupting supplying routes to the troops in Iraq. This is the thing that Turkey has said, ‘You guys pass this resolution, you’re messing with a friendly ally here. You’re using our country to get supplies and materials to the troops, we’re going to attack the Kurds in northern Iraq, screw you, this is how you treat your allies,’ and the president said, ‘Don’t do this.’ They said, ‘We found some alternative supply lines and routes,’ but it’s silly to do this. Nobody will convince me that this was not a stealth way, a cowardly way of affecting negatively the success happening in Iraq vis-à-vis the surge because everybody is now acknowledging it. The death tolls are down; Al-Qaeda is on the run. The Democrats politically cannot afford a victory; they cannot afford the perception of it, they are so invested in defeat. They cannot share in a victory and they know they can’t because they’ve never been on the side of winning.
So if we do win, or if there’s really positive news, there’s no way Democrats with credibility can say, ‘We helped; we supported it.’ They can’t show up at any of the ceremonies welcoming the troops home because they’ve tried to undermine ’em. So this was a stealth way and it’s falling apart, and it’s falling apart because we had the guts and the courage to tell the American people what this was all about. There’s a reason why a bunch of Democrats are dropping off this thing like flies, and that is that there are some adults somewhere in that party who know it’s suicide to be associated with turning around victory in the middle of it, or altering the success that it’s taking and turning it negative, there’s a price for that that they don’t want to pay. So what Pelosi has been advised to do, senior Democrats urging Pelosi, by the way, who has a large population of ethnic Armenians in her district, just to declare victory with the committee vote and move away from the issue. This first was passed in a committee, then it goes to the full House, and that’s where it’s been bottled up. Look, just go out there and declare victory. You got your committee vote, declare victory, and move on. This is not a victory. This is another public humiliation. This is another defeat for Pelosi, who made a big deal about trying to lead her House Democrats to get this done, and she can’t get it done.
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RUSH: Here’s another story about how we’re winning. Actually, there are maybe four of them altogether. Here’s a story about how we’re winning. ‘Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest shareholder in New York Times Co., sold its entire stake today, according to a person briefed on the transaction,’ this sent the stock price at the New York Times Company ‘to its lowest in more than 10 years.’ That would be a decade, for those of you in Rio Linda. ‘The person declined to be identified because Morgan Stanley hasn’t made the sale public yet. Traders with knowledge of the transaction said Merrill Lynch & Co. sold New York Times stock worth $183 million in a block trade.’ It has been known that ‘Hassan Elmasry, managing director of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, has unsuccessfully challenged the Sulzberger family’s control of New York Times Co. through super-voting shares that give them control over the board. Shareholders owning 42 percent of the company, parent of the namesake newspaper and Boston Globe, withheld support from directors at the publisher’s April annual meeting.’
What this means is there are two classes of stock, as I understand it, at the New York Times. The family owns one class, and nobody else who owns any of the other class has any votes on the board. So they’re not going to lose control of the paper. But this Little Pinch is driving the price down of the stock. This is not going to make the family happy. This is the family’s legacy. So the Little Pinch may end up being in some trouble at some point, but the family is not going to lose this paper. There’s a conservative pipe dream that all this is going to lead to the family losing the paper. They’re not going to sit by and just let this continue to happen.
Another story about how we’re winning. Bill Clinton’s got this book. What’s this book? ‘Giving.’ Clinton has a book on charity which is basically how you give to him so that he can give to charity so he can look like he cares, and there were 750,000 copies of this book in the first printing, ladies and gentlemen. It has sold around 56,000 or 57,000. The book has tanked. With 750,000 copies, at least 650,000 to 700,000 are unsold. (laughter)
Here’s another one. The S-CHIP program. Even the New York Times has it. ‘Children’s Health Bill Dispute Turns to Income Limits.’ This story is all about admitting to the facts of my argument and a lot of other people that we’ve been making here, that the people that the Democrats are trotting out to sell this massive expansion of the program are qualified already as the program is currently constituted. The president brought this up in his press conference. Let me see, I’ve got the sound bite roster here of the president. President Bush held a news conference today, this morning. He really ate Pelosi’s lunch in this press conference, by the way. Here’s what he said about the S-CHIP program.
RUSH: Yeah, and the New York Times story goes on and talks about how the income limits here are what’s really at work here. You know, the federal limit is $62,000, families of four making $62,000. But states have the permission, because it’s the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. States are not prohibited from setting an $82,000 income level for a family of four. And this is just absurd. And the president made it clear in his press conference today that this program is being taken way beyond its original intention, and it’s going to cost way more than anybody ever said. I’m not going to sign it. For Democrats, this has been an interesting ten days. They’re really taking a lot on the chin. They can’t get what they want in Iraq. They can’t get their S-CHIP thing done. They couldn’t do their Armenian thing. Dingy Harry’s smear letter backfired, biiiig time. That’s why I say it’s almost like the Republicans are more effective when they’re in the minority. It’s not that we’re getting anything good done. We are preventing a whole lot of bad stuff, and I’ve always maintained the Republicans were in the minority for so long they were much better at being in the minority than they were in the majority. Anyway, that’s for another time. People have been patiently waiting.
RUSH: This is Brian in Chicago. Hello, sir, and welcome to the program.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush. It’s an honor to talk to you. I love your optimism, but I gotta tell you from a guy coming from Chicago, I’m mad as hell. You were talking earlier about people being happy and upset with their personal lives.
RUSH: Yeah, yeah.
CALLER: Me, I’m perfectly happy with my life. I do love my city of Chicago. I love the lake. I love everything going on in my life, but when it comes to the government, as anybody in the town can tell you, it’s ridiculous. Between governor — we have Rod Blag-goof-oich as the governor here; we have Todd Stroger in Cook County, and then of course Mayor Daley in Chicago. It seems like whatever problems come up, the only possible answer is, ‘We need to raise taxes. There’s nothing else we can possibly do. Nothing else can be cut. There’s no way around it. Taxes have to go up.’
RUSH: Well, welcome to Democrats. You need to go next door and talk to people in Michigan.
CALLER: Why is that?
RUSH: Well, it’s statewide in Michigan! You’re just dealing with Chicago. Of course the state of Illinois is probably pretty high tax, too. But when they have budget, fiscal problems, raise taxes. Never ask whether the government can do with less. Never take that into account. It’s just these are Democrats. This is what they do. This is how they do it.
CALLER: They’re asking for more money. Today, there’s a vote going on in the city whether or not they’re going to ban smoking in all of the beaches and the recreational parks of the city. I’m not a smoker myself, but all I see is taxes going up and people’s rights going away. It depresses a person, Rush. It makes me sad. It makes me lose…you know?
RUSH: Well, no. Look, I totally understand when your taxes go up, and I understand when your freedoms are encroached upon. Yeah, I understand. When they start intruding on your life this way — that’s what I said. When they start getting involved in the private sector and interrupting things and screwing things up there, and the private sector would include you and your personal finances. No, I didn’t mean to mislead you about this. I know exactly your frustration, and I share it, and I wish more and more people would, because getting rid of these kinds of people from elective office is the only way it’s going to change.
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RUSH: Look at this, from the AP, just 19 minutes ago: ‘Representative Jack Murtha, a prominent Democrat, said Wednesday his party’s leadership underestimated opposition to a resolution on Armenian genocide and conceded that such a vote would easily fail.’ Look who they send out to make this announcement. They send out Jack Murtha to say it will fail. ‘They underestimated opposition…’ that’s not what happened, folks. Well, it probably is pretty accurate. What’s happened on this is it’s almost a repeat, without quite fanfare, of defeating the amnesty bill. People heard about this and flooded Congress. I probably was in error earlier when I said that there were probably some adults in the Democrat Party that realized what they’re doing. I think they got hammered again on phones and in the e-mail. I keep telling you that they have no idea how they’re perceived. They have no idea what people really think of what they say and do. This is another glaring example. They thought that they could get this done. They still live with this notion that they do have their monopoly. Even though they make targets out of members of the media, the new media that they oppose, they still act as though they have this monopolistic ability to get all this stuff done.
Barbara in Austin, Texas, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you?
RUSH: Fine. Thank you.
CALLER: I called because I have some concerns about the lack of Republicans stepping up to the plate to articulate their positions about health care. We may not like the plans that the Democrats are putting forward, but we are not seeing Republicans clearly stating where they stand and how they would deal with health care issues. I just do not believe that an ostrich position is an effective strategy.
RUSH: On something like this, you’re right. And there’s one word here that’s missing, that they could explain what’s missing. Can you take a quick stab, tell me what you think it is?
CALLER: No.
RUSH: Conservatism.
CALLER: (laughter)
RUSH: Conservatism.
CALLER: Conservatism is fine. Nevertheless, we have a huge issue here, and to ignore it —
RUSH: No, I agree. I’m saying conservatism provides the guideposts, the pathway for the ultimate position on this. There are plenty of positions, plenty of brilliant conservative scholars and experts in public policy that have presented all kinds of ideas that politicians could adapt, change, and support. One of the greatest ideas that’s been floating out there for the longest time is medical savings accounts. Let the process begin where the customer, the patient, is in charge of what his health care costs for average, ordinary medical treatment, doctor visits and all that, and let him keep what he doesn’t spend for his family at the end of the year, and I guarantee you you’ll have people shopping for the lowest prices with doctors, and the doctors will let ’em be competitive. There are ideas out there. The thing that Republicans and everybody is probably afraid of is, they see these polls that 55% want free health care, and they come out with something other than that, they don’t think they’re going to get reelected. There’s just nobody standing up for conservatism right now.