RUSH: Dean in Dallas, nice to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Yeah. Hey, what’s the deal with Newt? I saw him the other night appearing in an ad with Nancy Pelosi and calling for government action to address climate change. I mean what’s the deal? Has he gone to the dark side now?
CALLER: No, I haven’t.
RUSH: You want me to read it to you?
CALLER: Sure.
RUSH: You sound really excited. (laughs)
CALLER: (laughs) Well, I’m upset! I’m upset. (laughs)
RUSH: (laughs) You gotta listen to this with an open mind. Are you ready?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: ‘Many of you have written to me to ask why I recently taped an advertisement with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for The Alliance for Climate Protection, a group founded by former [Algore]. I completely understand why many of you would have questions about this, so I want to take this opportunity to explain my reasons. First of all, I want to be clear: I don’t think that we have conclusive proof of global warming. And I don’t think we have conclusive proof that humans are at the center of it.’ (sigh)
CALLER: But…?
RUSH: Yeah, right. ‘But here’s what we do know. There is an important debate going on right now over the right energy policy, the right environmental policy, and making sure we do the right things for our future and the future of our children and grandchildren. Conservatives are missing from this debate, and I think that’s a mistake. When it comes to preserving our environment for future generations, we can’t have a slogan of ‘Just yell no!’ I have a different view. I think it’s important to be on the stage, to engage in the debate, and to communicate our position clearly. There is a big…’ Is anybody doing that?
CALLER: No.
RUSH: ‘There is a big difference between left-wing environmentalism that wants higher taxes, bigger government, more bureaucracy, more regulation, more red tape, and more litigation and a Green Conservatism that wants to use science, technology, innovation, entrepreneurs, and prizes to find a way to creatively invent the kind of environmental future we all want to live in. Unless we start making the case for the latter, we’re going to get the former. That’s why I took part in the ad.’
CALLER: Don’t buy it.
RUSH: It doesn’t sound like you’re buying that.
CALLER: Not at all.
RUSH: Why not?
CALLER: I don’t know. Maybe my children want to be able to drive around in cars in the future like I have and my parents, and maybe their children want to be able to have air-conditioning in their homes, you know, in August in Dallas. And we need to burn the coal; we need to drill for gas.
RUSH: Have you heard what happened in Kansas?
CALLER: No.
RUSH: The governor there, Kathleen Sebelius, who is rumored to be Obama’s number one veep choice. I think I read this last night. We’re not going to add any more coal-fired power plants; we’re not going to do it. We don’t have anything else, if they’re not going to let us use nuclear.
CALLER: Geothermal, but it causes earthquakes.
RUSH: Not geothermal. It’s like wind power.
CALLER: (laughs)
RUSH: Now people are starting to complain about the noise from these windmills. Have you heard about this?
CALLER: Yeah, yeah, heard that.
RUSH: I can understand wanting to be — my problem with this is, from what I read, that Newt said we’re going to accept their premise; even though he says there’s no proof, that he’s not convinced that there’s global warming and manmade, we still have to be in the debate.
CALLER: Well, when I see him on the air with Nancy saying what he said, I get the idea that he’s for it, you know? He’s a proponent of it.
RUSH: That’s the power of the pictures.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: He’s appearing with her, accepting her premise. Yeah, I know, and that’s why he had to issue a statement. If there were somebody on our side actually out debating their premise and coming up with alternatives. But see, this is… I was talking to a friend of mine who is a very activist conservative in the philanthropy area, and is a policy wonk. And she said, ‘Rush, doesn’t it make sense for us to just almost exactly what Newt said, just get on board with this and then get our own ways of fixing it?’ She said, ‘It’s apparent that a majority of the American people accept this. It’s too late to change their minds and argue. We have to get into the debate as though the American people are right and then stop the left from what it’s doing by advancing our own ideas.’
I said, ‘You lose the debate when you accept their premise! You lose the debate! You have already conceded that they have a leg up.’
Anyway, that’s Newt’s explanation — and I hear you, when you say, you want your kids to have a better life than you had. That’s what you essentially said, and you instinctively know that if we start down a path like the liberals want to on this, your kids are screwed.
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