I have to tell you a quick little story. Thursday night last week, I had a bunch of friends arrive on Wednesday afternoon. I had fifteen people here through about one o’clock yesterday afternoon, and it was just a hoot, people from all over the country. But Thursday night I had to leave ’em, because I had to fly to New York for the annual Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation annual dinner and ball, and there was three people that received awards that night. Well, two people, Secretary of State James Baker, I was at his table, and Senator Lieberman, who received an award I have received from this group called the Johnny Mike Spann Award, the Semper Fidelis Award. And the band was there. The Marine Corps Band, I mean your blood was tingling while in the ballroom at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Senator Lieberman, I went over to his table, he was sitting with Roger Ailes of the Fox News Channel, and I went over and I said hello to Senator Lieberman, and we talked about Bill Buckley a little bit and the connection that both of us had to him. They’d already given me an award.
They’d given me the Brass Balls Award last November for fighting Dingy Harry on the Harry Reid Smear Letter and raising $4.2 million for the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. Dick Torykian was the master of ceremonies, replete in his camouflage tuxedo. There were over 600 people in the ballroom and he told the story of how the whole thing came about, and he called me up to accept some thanks, and I gave the details of the whole event because I don’t know how many of the 600 people in the crowd were fully aware of it. Then I sat down, I said, ‘Brevity is the soul of wit.’ I spent about ten minutes up there, went back and sat down. Senator Lieberman was the last speaker of the night, receiving the Johnny Mike Spann Award, and he was funny as he could be. He said one really nice thing. He said perhaps the greatest thing that the United States Senate had done all last year was take action that generated $4.2 million for the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. He was the only Democrat who did not sign it. He’s an independent now, but he was the only non-Republican who did not sign the Harry Reid Smear Letter.
I mentioned that in my brief remarks, and he thanked me for pointing out to the crowd that he had not signed it. And he said — I got a little embarrassed by this — he said, ‘With that act, Mr. Limbaugh proved that his heart is even larger than his voice, which is already massively powerful.’ And then he said, ‘Can you believe what an odd political season we are in? Here I am, Joe Lieberman, now an Independent, receiving an award from the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation and trying to convince Rush Limbaugh to support the Republican candidate for president. And Susan Baker, James Baker’s wife, jabbed me in the shoulder, said, ‘Yeah!’ (laughing)
That was a fabulous line. ‘Here I am trying to convince Rush Limbaugh to support the Republican,’ he said. ‘What a political year this is.’ So on my way out — I had to leave early because I had to fly back home here, get back with my guests. There were maybe five or ten minutes more to go when I left, but I had to get out of there and I stopped by Senator Lieberman’s table again, and I thanked him, and he said we need to stay in touch. I’d absolutely love to. Last time I saw him was at the 50th anniversary party in Washington for National Review. He was at Bill Buckley’s table because Buckley was the reason Lieberman got elected. We all hated Lowell Weicker, this RINO Republican, liberal Republican, and Buckley started BuckPac, a political action committee to get Lieberman elected, and it succeeded.
So it was just a great night, great cause, and genuine patriotism in that room, absolutely genuine patriotism. There was some real war heroes in that room, and they were introduced, and their stories were told, and as I mentioned in my little time at the podium, it was a true honor to be in that room with those guys, with those people. I’ll tell you what I said when I closed. I thanked Torykian and Pete Haas, Jim Kallstrom, one of the many founders of MC-LEF, and we were out at Torykian’s house back in 1995 when they were putting the whole idea together. He lives in Rockville Centre, and they had me out there talking about the whole thing, and I pledged my support to them at that point in 1995 and I thanked them for giving me the opportunity to be part of it, because it is just 100% pass through, everything donated goes to the children of Marines killed in action and, in many cases, law enforcement agents, children of them who are killed in action, same thing from other services. It’s an honor to be part of that organization, and I was happy to be there that night, and I wanted to mention this publicly.
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