RUSH: Reckless releasing CIA interrogation memos. It’s reckless. Michael Hayden… Let me look at the sound bite roster. I want to see if I have Mike Hayden from Fox News Sunday yesterday. Doo-dee-doo-dee… Yes, we do. Grab sound bite 16. Mike Hayden, the former CIA director, says we have just totally blown up national security. Releasing the interrogation memos was very reckless thing to do. And, folks, I have to tell you something. Now, this is just me, but I’m born and raised in the United States of America. I love my country. I am proud of my country. And I believe in the uniqueness of it, for the good! Not only the people of this country, but of the people of the world. I think we have done great things. We have liberated people in bondage, slavery, involuntary servitude.
We have liberated political prisoners. We’ve liberated whole populations. We’re the ‘last great hope.’ We are the greatest force for good on the face of the earth. I can no more imagine… If I were to pretend to be president of the United States, I could no more imagine going anywhere — either in this country to make a speech or an appearance, or overseas with foreign leaders… I can’t relate to it. I cannot imagine sitting around a bunch of America-hating dictators and listening to it without getting angry as I can be. I cannot possibly. I cannot imagine myself standing up and agreeing with these people. You know, most chief executives, most presidents try to maintain a continuity based on a shared belief in the greatness of America.
Some presidents have different views of what was great, but we’ve never had a president, I don’t think, who didn’t think we were great…until now. Now we’ve got a president who doesn’t believe in the greatness of America. He feels the need to apologize for it and to sit idly by and even chuckle when this nation’s entire existence is ripped to shreds. And all he does is thank them for not blaming him personally for it, ’cause he wasn’t old enough to have participated in the rotten deeds that these people cite. I can’t relate. As an American, I just can’t relate to sitting around listening to this. I can’t relate going to a meeting where I know I’m going to hear it, and I can’t relate to not standing up and telling these people what I think of what they just said. I think coddling the people that hate this country, for whatever reasons, is just reckless as it can be.
Now, individually, all of these things alone probably are not a great indictment. But, man, they’re starting to add up — and now equity in the banks and equity in the car companies. And General Motors just announced they are laying off 1,600 salaried employees. General Motors just announced they’re laying off 1,600 salaried employees, and the sad thing is that when I see that report, I imagine that in parts of this country there are people cheering (clapping) and applauding. And there are people who voted for Obama who are cheering and applauding. ‘He’s getting it right! He’s punishing those that destroyed it. He’s punishing those people that ruined me and who ruined us, and it’s about time those white-collar people found out what it’s like to walk out of the door without a job.’
This is a man who has so emotionally connected with the people that hate this country that they applaud harm and bad news for individual Americans. They applaud it. They’re happy about it. These are the people that voted for Barack Obama. I can’t relate to any of it. Now, as I’ve mentioned before, the Republicans don’t have the votes to stop any of this in the House or Senate. The Senate is closer than the House. In the house, they can’t stop diddly-squat. The Senate has a little iffier time there, but not really by much. The only person that’s going to be able to harm Obama is himself, and the cumulative effect of these individual little things that most people — just happening in an isolated way probably — wouldn’t give much weight to, but giving up all of our interrogations… Here, listen to Mike Hayden talk about this. This is yesterday on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace’s question: ‘So you’re suggesting that we no longer will have the ability to extract the information that we need?’
HAYDEN: I think that teaching our enemies our outer limits, by taking techniques off the table, we have made it more difficult in a whole host of circumstances I can imagine, more difficult for CIA officers to defend the nation. [snip] [T]he really dangerous effect of this, Chris, is that you will have agency officers stepping back from the kinds of things that the nation expects them to do. I mean, if you were to go to an agency officer today and say, ‘Go do this,’ and, ‘Why am I authorized to do this?’ And I say, ‘Well, it’s authorized by the president. The attorney general says it’s lawful. And it’s been briefed to Congress.’ That agency officer’s going to say, ‘Yeah, I know, but I see what’s going on here now. Have you run it by the ACLU? What’s the New York Times editorial board think? Have you discussed this with any potential presidential candidates?’
RUSH: So he’s right. You’re going to have reluctance on the part of operatives at the CIA to follow orders. And, by the way, Hayden, this is very, very important here. ‘Why am I authorized to do this?’ ‘Well, it’s been authorized by the president. The attorney general says it’s lawful. It’s been briefed to Congress.’ Do you realize this waterboarding business, Peter Wehner at Commentary magazine has gone back and has found the quotes from Democrats back in 2002. They were briefed 10 to 20 times on what was planned with captured Al-Qaeda prisoners, and some Democrats said, ‘Is that all?’ I think Pelosi was one who said, ‘That’s all you’re going to…?’ Waterboarding was mentioned.
A lot of Democrats said, ‘You gotta do more than that. You gotta get everything you can from these people!’ But again, that’s 2002. Now, here in 2009, we have got to somehow find a way to punish the people that did this. So it’s just reckless. This is a reckless young man, and like I said: I don’t think it’s by accident. I think he’s been taught well. I think he’s smart enough to soak up what he’s been taught. And he’s smart enough to be able to regurgitate it back, what he’s been taught by the people that were formative influences in his life. I can’t relate to any of it. I can’t relate to giving up the nation’s secrets to our enemies like he’s done. I can’t relate to siding with dictators. They were just debating on Fox News what the Obama Doctrine is. Here’s a good definition of the Obama Doctrine.
‘The Obama Doctrine means criticizing past presidents, Democratic and Republican; apologizing for past American sins, real and imagined, to both allies and enemies of the United States, on domestic and, preferably, foreign soil — in the hope that doing so allows Obama to speak with greater moral force and clarity.’ See, the Obama Doctrine is all about making him look good. The Obama Doctrine is not about advancing the interests of the United States. The Obama Doctrine is about advancing his interests. He is totally willing to falsely trash the past of this country in the eyes of people who have not our best interests at heart. He’s totally comfortable trashing the country in front of people like that in order that they will like him, so that he will have ‘moral authority and clarity.’ My friend, Pete Wehner puts it well. He says, ‘The overriding goal of the Obama Doctrine is to make the person it is named after look good, rather than, and if necessary at the expense of, the nation he was elected to represent,’ and that pretty much sums it up.