RUSH: Charlie from Fairfax, Virginia. Hi, Charlie, welcome to the EIB Network. Great to have you here.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. It’s great to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I was at the town hall last night with the esteemed Howard Dean and Congressman Moran.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And I don’t even know where to begin. I don’t even know where to start it was so unbelievable, but I have to tell you: I don’t know if you saw all this stuff that happened on C-SPAN, because they covered it live.
RUSH: Well, I didn’t see it on C-SPAN but I have two audio sound bites here and it looks to me like from reading the transcript of the sound bites…
CALLER: Oh, absolutely! They couldn’t even get the, umm…
RUSH: (speaking softly) I haven’t…
CALLER: They couldn’t even get the PowerPoint slide to work right.
RUSH: …offered my…
CALLER: So it’s like —
RUSH: … conclusion.
CALLER: Oh, but you want our health care. Okay, anyway, Howard Dean was supposed to speak.
RUSH: Ah-ha.
CALLER: And he did not because the 20% of us that were totally outnumbered there —
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: — booed and heckled him so badly that he was not able to get up and give his 10- or 15-minute speech, whatever it was supposed to be. And Moran was so sad that he had to turn over every question, almost every question to Howard Dean —
RUSH: Well —
CALLER: And it was… He just couldn’t answer ’em.
RUSH: Yeah. As I was saying: Let’s listen to the audio sound bites together, shall we?
CALLER: Ooookay.
RUSH: All right. First this is Jim Moran at the health care town hall meeting. This is just one heated moment.
MORAN: I’m sorry, but I can’t even hear the governor and I’m sitting next to him, which means that there are hundreds of people in this gymnasium who can’t hear him because of a handful of people. These folks are not from the Eighth District!
AUDIENCE: (shouting)
MORAN: They really don’t belong here and I’m going to ask them to leave.
RUSH: Well, that’s a great way for a member of Congress to behave: ‘Just get outta here! Get outta my town meeting!’ So Howard Dean is trying to answer some questions for Moran.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Right. (laughing)
CALLER: Yes. Because Moran couldn’t answer them.
RUSH: That’s what we’re going to hear together, right now.
MAN: Experts? Who — who are these experts? Who?
MORAN: Well, ummm…
MAN: Who?
DEAN: Jim, ask for a show of hands. Who would like to get rid of Medicare?
MORAN: Yeah, yeah.
MAN: Help from Howard. Help from Howard. I asked you to answer, Congressman!
MORAN: Okay, fine.
MAN: You’re my congressman! Howard Dean isn’t my congressman.
DEAN: Let’s… Let’s have a vote. All those in favor of getting rid of Medicare, raise your hand.
RUSH: That was Howard Dean.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: So, yeah, it sounds like a pretty fun time to me.
CALLER: Oh, yeah, and we were down there on the floor. We were totally outnumbered and we got there early enough. There were plenty of union people there that got in there ahead of us and they passed out all their signs and they were obnoxious and they wouldn’t leave us alone.
RUSH: Charlie, I gotta tell you, I’m so proud of you people for showing up and doing this.
CALLER: Oh! I was so hoping you were going to say that, because there was an 80-20 split, and we shut him out. I’m so proud of us.
RUSH: Well, that’s great. You should be proud of yourselves.
CALLER: I. Am.
RUSH: This is great stuff. This is passionate America. We keep hearing, ‘The DNC and Obama’s ground soldiers are going to ramp up all these organized events.’ To do what? To pressure fellow Democrats to vote for government-run health care? That’s pretty bizarre. They claim to represent ‘real America.’ Really? Real America doesn’t need to be organized. Real America doesn’t need to be paid to attend town hall meetings. You showed up on your own, Charlie, as is everybody else showing up to protest these things. Real America does not want government-run health care. The DNC and Obama’s ground troops are not real America. They are operatives. And it’s visible. It’s on display. Now, this is not affecting Obama. He cares about it only to the extent that it’s going to make it harder to do but it isn’t changing his mind and it’s not changing these people’s minds in the Senate or in the House. In fact with the passing of Senator Kennedy it’s full speed ahead now, but Obama’s great uncle, a man by the name of… What is it? Dunham, Ralph Dunham. CNN got hold of Ralph Dunham at a town hall in Fairfax City, Virginia. Dana Bash spoke to Great Uncle Ralph Dunham about health care reform and Dana Bash said, ‘Do you feel like you have a good grasp of what’s in the plans for overhauling health care?’
DUNHAM: No, I don’t because the thing’s over a thousand pages long and the House and the Senate are going to straighten out the two bills and nobody knows what’s going to be in it, I don’t think.
BASH: Do you feel confused by it?
DUNHAM: I don’t really know very much about it. I don’t know whether to be confused or not. I’m hoping to get some information just like everyone else.
RUSH: Obama’s great uncle, a family member, doesn’t even understand the plan. He needs to start listening to this program. But I mean that’s just hilarious. Pensacola Beach in Florida. This is Steve. Hello, sir. Great you’re here.
CALLER: Mega dittos, Rush. I want to thank you not only for the middle class but you are the champion for the poor because, face it: If this does go through, the rich, the elite rich will have their own plan. They can afford any plan that the insurance companies put out there. It’s the poor and the middle class, we’re going to be forced to be put in this socialistic plan, and that’s what we’re upset about. And I think the politicians that are out there, I had an uncle who was a senator up in north Mississippi, and I tell you: He listened to his elite friends at the clubhouse that told him what to do and say, and he lost his seat years ago about that. It’s like how the government works. Look it, Hurricane Ivan wiped me out, wiped my house out. SBA came in and said, ‘Oh, we gonna help you, we gonna help you.’ I gave them all the forms to fill out. At the end of the day, they come back and tell me, ‘Oh, we can’t loan you any money because you don’t have any income.’ I said, ‘I need the money to rebuild my business!’ They said, ‘Well, we can’t.’ They couldn’t think outside the box and say, ‘We’re going to still help you.’ I said, ‘You know what? Keep your money. I’ll do it myself.’ I just reopened after almost five years being down. Now I’m reopened and it’s because of people like you that champion the middle class and now even have the poor you are championing. You’ve always done that. What’s wrong with these people?
RUSH: You know, you made my day saying that. I — I’m a little speechless, but I mean you’re… ‘Cause you’re right, but nobody’s ever said that to me. Thank you very much.