RUSH: Now, the extended stack here on the McChrystal and Petraeus thing. I’m stunned by the herd, the stampede — actually I’m not stunned, but I wonder where the intellectual honesty is. The media herd, ‘Oh finally, we got a commander-in-chief, this guy asserted control, he’s showing he is not going to mess around, why, this guy, this guy, how Obama took over.’ What? He’s the president of 
the United States. He’s been there 18 months. We’re getting all these stories, ‘Whew, wow, finally Obama shows up,’ is what they sound like. So he fires McChrystal. He inherits Petraeus. He didn’t hire Petraeus. Petraeus was there. Petraeus was hired by George W. Bush. Obama’s constantly complaining about all the problems he inherited from Bush. Now he’s inherited Petraeus. He got Bush’s general, who his party and his voters hate. And by the way, MoveOn.org has removed their Petraeus ad from their website. Oh, yes. Remember that full page New York Times ad, General Betray Us? It’s gone. And their good friends at like-minded Google have removed the ad from their caches, so you can’t see the ad. It’s gone everywhere. They hated Petraeus, and now they’re praising Obama for one of the smartest moves he’s ever made?
And let’s not forget the media. The media was right in there bamming up on Petraeus during the hearings in the Senate leading up to the surge. Look, it is technically inaccurate — this is another important point, I think — technically inaccurate to say that Obama replaced McChrystal with Petraeus. He didn’t replace him with anybody. We have a void. We’re down one four-star. McChrystal was a four-star general. He is gone. We have not elevated anybody. We simply took Petraeus from his CENTCOM commander’s job and sent him to Afghanistan. McChrystal has not been replaced, technically. Meanwhile many of the same people who said that McChrystal had to be fired because of his criticism of the Afghan policy, the withdrawal deadline, the rules of engagement, the same people are now saying they hope Petraeus will stand up to Obama and get him to forget the withdrawal guideline and change the rules of engagement. I’m watching this. Where is intellectual honesty? Where’s anybody in the media’s concern for credibility? Well, I know it sounds funny, and it is, but we’re talking about the nation at war here at the same time.
They get rid of McChrystal because he was insolent, disrespectful, critical of the president’s policies. So they go out and they get rid of him and they hire Bush’s general, and the same people who are mad at McChrystal for criticizing the policy now say they hope Petraeus can convince Obama to change the policy. Were it not for me, my friends, your head would be spinning. We’re going around the world here 360 degrees. I have stopped the globe putting the focus on all this. We still have incompetence, we have cheerleading on parade, we do not have serious accountability going on here, nobody’s reporting any of this accurately, because it’s all about Obama, ’cause they know, everybody in the State-Controlled Media knows it’s a disaster. They haven’t got the guts to say it, but he’s an absolute embarrassment and a disaster. That’s why they’re having orgasms today over what? He hired Bush’s general. Having orgasms because finally he’s acting like commander-in-chief.
So the same people who said McChrystal had to go because he was criticizing the Afghan policy now say they hope Petraeus will be able to convince Obama to change the policy. The New York Times hated Petraeus so much they gave MoveOn.org a half-price deal on their full-page Betray Us ad. The New York Times, and they’re right in there with all of the rest of them today singing Obama’s praises. I want just one of them, I don’t care, CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, LA Times, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, I don’t care what paper, I want one of you to put, if not a headline, a subhead: ‘Obama Turns to Bush General.’ It’s the truth. It is precisely what’s happened out there. And the Betray Us ad scrubbed from MoveOn.org’s site, and it’s all gone from the Google cache. Google, you know, left-wing buddies of MoveOn.org. Let’s go to the audio sound bites. This is Obama January 14th, 2007, Slay the Nation. This is during a discussion about the status of the Iraq war.
OBAMA: We cannot impose a military solution on what has effectively become a civil war. And until we acknowledge that reality, we can send 15,000 more troops, 20,000 more troops, 30,000 more troops, I don’t know any expert on the region or any military officer that I’ve spoken to privately that believes that that is gonna make a substantial difference on the situation on the ground.
RUSH: He was talking about Petraeus’ surge. Doesn’t matter how many troops, it won’t work, no matter how many troops were sent. Flashback, Biden, September 9, 2007, Meet the Depressed, Tim Russert: ‘General Petraeus said in a letter to his troops that we’ve not had the political reconciliation we thought we would have, been much slower, but there’s some hope. Then he said my sense is that we have achieved tactical momentum. We’ve wrested the initiative from our enemies in a number of areas of Iraq. We are, in short, a long way from the goal line, but we do have the ball, we’re driving down the field. Is that what you expect him to say tomorrow?’ This is a question for Senator Joe Bite Me on the eve of the Petraeus hearings. Here’s Bite Me’s answer.
BIDEN: I think he’s dead-flat-wrong. The fact of the matter is that this idea of these security gains we made have had no impact on the underlying sectarian dynamic, none, none whatsoever.
RUSH: That’s the current vice president of the United States saying no way Petraeus knows what he’s talking about. Flashback. September 11, 2007, on Capitol Hill during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Iraq, Senator Hillary Clinton said this to General Petraeus.
HILLARY: You have been made the de facto spokesman for a failed policy. The reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief.
RUSH: She just called him a liar. She said he is nothing more than a stooge for the White House. Hillary Clinton, now the secretary of state, this was just three years ago talking about General Petraeus, who now represents the smartest move Obama has ever made. Flashback. Nancy Pelosi, August 2, 2007, PBS NewsHour, Jim Lehrer. He says to her, ‘From your perspective –‘ are your eyebrows moving, Nancy? Are you okay? Okay, well, let me continue. He said, ‘From your perspective, Ms. Pelosi, what General Petraeus says in September about the surge is irrelevant in your mind?’
PELOSI: The purpose of the surge was to create a secure environment in which political progress could be made. That has not happened. The president’s own benchmarks are not being met. The surge was to make the area more secure so that the political solution could take hold and the measure will be, okay, did the surge achieve its purpose? Did the political progress occur? Amending the constitution, calling for provincial elections, having a law for the fair distribution of oil in the region, reviewing the order on de-Ba’athification, some of the president’s own benchmarks.
RUSH: Nancy Pelosi, one of the many Democrats who ripped General Petraeus. September 11th, another flashback, 2007, Washington, Capitol Hill, during the Armed Services Committee hearing on Iraq policy, Senator Obama said this to General Petraeus.
OBAMA: This is not a criticism of either of you gentlemen. This is a criticism of this president and the administration which has set a mission for the military and for our diplomatic forces that is extraordinarily difficult now to achieve. And there has been no acknowledgement of that on the part of this administration so that we have the president in Australia suggesting somehow that we are, as was stated before, kicking a-s-s. How can we have a president making that assessment?
RUSH: Yeah, that’s an interesting question. So here’s Obama talking to Petraeus, ripping Bush for saying, ‘Yeah, we’re kicking ass out there,’ how can we say that? And Obama’s admitting he’s looking for some ass to kick when he’s the president. Only the ass he wants to kick is BP, not the Taliban. Flashback. September 10th, 2007, Capitol Hill, the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Iraq. Robert Wexler, Democrat, Maryland, who said he was representing Florida. He questioned Petraeus. Here’s a bit of what he said.
WEXLER: The surge has failed. In truth, war-related deaths have doubled in Iraq in 2007 compared to last year. Tragically, it is my understanding that seven more American troops have died while we’ve been talking today. Cherry-picking statistics or selectively massaging information will not change the basic truth. It is my patriotic duty to represent my constituents and ask you about your argument that the surge in troops be extended until next year, next summer. I am skeptical, General —
RUSH: That’s Robert Wexler calling Petraeus a liar, essentially. And now Petraeus, the best move Obama has ever made?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let’s return to the audio sound bites. General Petraeus, George W. Bush’s general, despised, hated, lied to, lied about, accused of being a liar about the surge in Iraq, by Democrats and the left-wing media. Here’s Chris Matthews, another flashback. September 12, 2007, on Hardball. Matthews’ assessment of David Petraeus’ Iraq report.
MATTHEWS 2007: Petraeus and Crocker, this whole dog and pony show…
MATTHEWS 2007: I’m watching this dog and pony show….
MATTHEWS 2007: What do you make of the pony? You’re speaking well of the dog. What about the pony?
MATTHEWS 2007: It really is a dog and pony show.
MATTHEWS 2007: The hypocrisy and the dog and pony show…
MATTHEWS 2007: The Petraeus dog and pony show…
RUSH: Chris Matthews is also one of those now saying, ‘Smartest move Obama ever made! Why, he asserted control. Why this is really great. He fired that guy, he put Petraeus in there.’ These people despise Petraeus. You know, in truth they don’t. The bottom line is they didn’t despise Petraeus. They hated Bush, anything associated with Bush had to fail so they were in the chorus trying to defeat Petraeus. This is — this is just so delicious flashback. September 6, 2007, montage. Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Jack Murtha, Jim McDermott, Susan Swain all referring to Petraeus’ pending report as ‘the Bush report.’
MATTHEWS 2007: Washington awaits the Bush report on Iraq.
OLBERMANN 2007: President Bush via his surr-a-gate, General David Petraeus, delivers his report.
MURTHA 2007: It’s not Petraeus’ policy. It’s Bush’s policy!
MCDERMOTT 2007: …the report the White House is writing for General Petraeus.
SWAIN 2007: …the Bush report.
RUSH: That was Baghdad Jim McDermott: ‘The report the White House is writing for General Petraeus.’ Flashback, September 6, 2007, floor of the House, Baghdad Jim McDermott spoke. He said this…
MCDERMOTT 2007: ‘We’re Kicking Ass in Iraq’ might be the headline of the report the White House is writing for General Petraeus to deliver to the Congress next week. Here’s what the president’s kick-ass assessment translates to on the ground: Ten US soldiers killed so far this week, 793 US soldiers killed so far this year, 3,752 US soldiers killed since the beginning of the war, and 27,186 US soldiers wounded since the beginning of the war — AND 71,000 documented Iraq civilian deaths since the beginning of the war, although the actual number is much higher.
RUSH: So here’s Jim McDermott, House floor, rebutting the president and General Petraeus on behalf of Al-Qaeda. Audio sound bite number 32. This is Dingy Harry April 19th of 2007 at a press conference talking about General Petraeus.
REID 2007: I believe, myself, that the secretary of state, secretary of defense — and you have to make your own decision as to what the president knows — that this war is lost.
RUSH: (doing impression) ‘This war is lost. This war is lost.’ That’s Dingy Harry, April 19th, 2007, talking about Petraeus. It’s also ironic, my friends, that Obama claimed yesterday he was firing McChrystal because he didn’t want any division on his national security team, but in the same announcement he said that he and McChrystal were in total agreement on policy. Now, he said it! Whatever McChrystal or his aides said in the Rolling Stone article was aimed at the folks who opposed Obama’s policy. That would be Joe Bite Me, Kerry, Jones, Holbrooke, Eikenberry. But they kept on. The guy who was loyal, the guy on BHO’s side, was canned. If he really wanted to get rid of the division in his national security team, he should have gotten rid of Biden, Jim Jones, this Holbrooke guy, and Eikenberry. We’re still not through.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Look, we got an inept commander-in-chief. We got some of the media pretty much admits hasn’t been a commander-in-chief up until now — and I, frankly, am still not inspired. We have the Drive-By Media cynical ecstatic, practically orgasmic over the choice of…Bush’s general! Who they all claimed to say was a lying sack of whatever, only doing Bush’s bidding. He was a sock puppet. They impugned his honesty and his integrity. They accused him of losing the war with his strategy. Now, all of a sudden, (doing Howard Cosell impression) this is the best move Barack Hussein Obama has ever made. I’m sorry, my friends, I’m not buying it at all. I think the intellectual dishonesty, the void here of any media integrity whatsoever to talk about what this story’s really all about is striking.
They were trying to make Petraeus into William Westmoreland here from the Vietnam days. If that doesn’t work, they’ll try to turn him into Lloyd Bucher, who was commanding the ship that was taken over by the Koreans or somebody boarded it. I don’t know what it was. I’m having a mental block. You remember that? (interruption) Jimmy Carter’s fiasco, I forget where it was. Lloyd Bucher, I forget what the name of the ship was. That’s right, it was the USS Pueblo. (interruption) They were trying to make Petraeus into Westmoreland. Westmoreland was lying about the body count, the KIAs and so forth. That’s what they were accusing Petraeus of back in 2007 was cooking the books and lying about the number of casualties. That’s what Moran was all about. Now the personification of the vilification of the entire Iraq strategy is a hero to these same people?
I’m sorry, folks. I can’t get on the bandwagon. Not because I’ve got anything pro or con about Petraeus. In fact, if you want to go even further with this, you might say — and some might look at it as a stretch, but you might say — the Rolling Stone piece has actually presented us an unexpected opportunity, because now Petraeus can win the war, and there’s nothing Obama can do to stop him. (sigh) Well, I admit that I am applying a lot of logic here. But everything Obama’s got is now rolled into Petraeus. They’ve doubled down, tripled down. Everything is now up to Petraeus. So if Petraeus wants to go win this thing… You know, when Obama said, ‘I don’t like the concept of victory,’ blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So because a left-wing general who somehow maneuvers himself into an interview with Rolling Stone and gets canned.
We now have a general who’s gonna win the war despite what Obama wants. You know, I told you. I don’t do this very often, blow my own horn. I told you they would never close Gitmo. I told you that all of that was nothing but a bunch of rhetoric to satisfy the lunatic, insane fringe base that populates their websites out there and their television network. I told you they were never gonna close Gitmo. And I’m going to tell you right now, this July 11th withdrawal? They may bring a couple people home just to say that but it ain’t going to happen. It isn’t going to happen, mark my words — unless we win by then. ‘Cause I also told you this. I don’t care who they are. The biggest pacifist, the biggest sissy in the world could be president but if he’s a Democrat, he only wants America to lose when he’s not president.
The Democrats hate the military, and they don’t like it being victorious, but I don’t want to sit there and be saddled with the results of the military losing while they are in office. After all, LBJ essentially lost it but look who they ended up giving credit to it for: Nixon. JFK and what’s-his-face, LBJ, essentially blew that war sky-high with ‘the best and the brightest,’ and they dump it all on Nixon before it was all over. Not that Nixon didn’t deserve some of it but let’s face it: That war was lost because Walter Cronkite said it was over, and even LBJ said, ‘If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost America.’ Thankfully there was no president who will say, ‘Oh, my God I’ve lost Olbermann, I’ve lost the country. Oh, my God, I’ve lost Chris Matthews, I’ve lost the country.’ That can never be said.’ Oh, oh, my God, I’ve lost Sergeant Schultz, I’ve lost the country,’ cannot be said. ‘Oh, no! Oh, no, I lost Katie Couric, I’ve lost the country.’ It will never be said. ‘Oh, no, I lost Diane Sawyer? Oh, no, I’ve lost the country.’ It will never be said. ‘Oh, no, I just lost Brian Williams…’ You think Obama sits there, ‘Oh, no, I just…’ In the first place he never loses these people but even if he did, it wouldn’t mean anything like it did when what’s-his-face, LBJ lost ‘Klondike.’ My, how times change. (laughing) Yeah. And it will never be said, ‘Oh, my God, I’ve lost Ted Baxter, I’ve lost America.’ It’ll never be said. Okay. ‘I lost David Brooks, I’ve lost America.’ No, it will never be said.
Greg in Wisconsin. It’s great to have you on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Mega retired Air Force dittos to you. How you doing?
RUSH: Very well, sir. Thank you for calling.
CALLER: Hey, I’m looking at this McChrystal situation, and I’m thinking how the Dems are very calculating, liberals. I served 27 years in the United States Air Force, and you’re right when you claim we should all know by now that they just don’t like the military. So do you think that very possibly, he’s either looking at this ( and you just touched on it) to pin a loss in Afghanistan? By using Petraeus, they’ll pin that on Bush, but, looking at it the other way, Afghanistan is his war. Biden’s already said some things earlier this year, some successes in Iraq, they’re trying to take credit for it. Now, Petraeus goes into Afghanistan and wins, or we stabilize the country to where they can start growing their own government, et cetera, don’t you think the libs would take full credit for that?
RUSH: Hell, yes!
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Hell, yes. Of course they will. But they’re not going to give Petraeus the credit. Obama will get the credit. ‘Cause Obama had the courage, the strength, the foresight to get rid of the mad dog general and bring in this great guy Petraeus. Oh, yeah! That’s the hope. That’s why Petraeus has to go win this thing. Otherwise, if it doesn’t happen, Obama does not want to say, ‘Well, I inherited that General Petraeus. I inherited it. I didn’t lose that war. That was Bush’s general.’ I wouldn’t put it past Obama to say that if things blow up over there. We hope that they don’t, by the way.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s more. Joe Biden, now Vice President Bite Me. On February 10th of this year on CNN’s Larry King Live, Biden was talking about, well, Iraq.
BIDEN: I am very optimistic about — about Iraq, and this can be one of the great achievements of this administration.
RUSH: I play this because somebody called last hour, ‘Do you think Obama’s going to take credit for Afghanistan?’ Yeah, yeah, he might deserve some of the credit for not getting up and getting out of there, but certainly not in Iraq. They deserve no credit, and yet there’s Senator Bite Me — well, I’m sorry, Vice President Bite Me — ‘I’m very optimistic, Larry, about Iraq. This could be one of the great achievements of the administration.’ They didn’t lift a finger! This administration has done zilch, zero, nada.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, the day after Biden said, ‘This Iraq thing, this is going to be one of the great achievements of this administration,’ that was February 10th of this year, February 11th, White House daily press briefing, a reporter said to Gibbs, ‘The vice president last night said the Iraq war could end up being one of the president’s greatest achievements. Now, given the vice president was in favor of a partial partition of the country and President Obama opposed the surge that helped stabilize it, how is it one of the president’s great achievements?’
GIBBS: Look, putting, uh, what was broken back together and getting our troops home, which we intend to do in August of this year.
REPORTER: But the status of force agreement to bring troops home was signed before the president took office.
GIBBS: (stammering) Uh, uh, uh, something that, uh — something I think that, uh, the political pressure that the president, uhh, as — as a then-candidate helped to bring about. Look, I — I think that we will long debate Iraq. We will long debate whether at a very important moment in, uhh — in our efforts to root out terrorism, particularly in Afghanistan and on that border region with Pakistan, whether we took our eye off the ball. I — I think historians will debate that long after, uh, we’re gone. I think they will come likely to the conclusion that, uh, no single event took our eye off of what needed to be done —
RUSH: What a —
GIBBS: — in order to occupy a country that until we got there, didn’t have a single member of Al-Qaeda.
RUSH: What in the world?
GIBBS: So, look, obviously the vice president’s been deeply involved in fixing the political process there so that elections can be held —
RUSH: Good… My gosh.
GIBBS: — and so that our troops can come home, uh, as scheduled this summer.
RUSH: This is the absolute… That takes the cake. Not a single word of that was true. (laughing) This is reminiscently Baghdad Bob, you know, the PR guy, the spokesman for Hussein. We had thousands of troops about to take over Baghdad. (doing impression) ‘They’re not here! I am looking out the window right now. The troops are not here, see? Look! No Americans here,’ and here’s Gibbs, ‘Oh, yeah, we stabilized it. We put it back together, we made sure the elections took place.’ It was your party, Gibbs, it was Senator Kerry who wanted to cancel the elections ’cause they might be too dangerous! Actually Senator Kerry wanted to cancel the elections because he did not want them to work. The Democrats wanted nothing about Iraq to work! They are invested in total failure, and they were invested in total defeat.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Mike in Cincinnati. Welcome to the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Thanks, Rush. Hey, Rush, I’d like to make a comment, a prediction, really, about the McChrystal-Petraeus transition.
RUSH: Oh, yeah.
CALLER: Before I do that, that was a great counterpunch. You knocked that Church Lady out and you’re a super counterpuncher. You’re a puncher, but a great counterpuncher, too, that was phenomenal.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Wow. Here’s what’s going on with Petraeus. Obama hates all of us. He wants to sink the entire country. We all know that. He got rid of McChrystal, got Petraeus in there, who will now be spread way too thin eventually and I betcha any amount of money within a year he’ll fire Petraeus, the entire thing over in Iraq and Afghanistan will unravel and we’ll spend another trillion dollars for no good reason whatsoever.
RUSH: Gosh, I hope not. (laughing) I hope not but I would be hard-pressed to disagree with you.
CALLER: Yeah. I mean think about it, that’s what he’s doing. This poor Petraeus cannot — nobody can do that job now, and they hated Petraeus, now they love him. They don’t love him, they hate him. They hate everything about the military. I’m not even a military guy —
RUSH: Well, see, that’s the thing. I don’t know that they ever really hated Petraeus. They hated him because they thought he was an emissary of Bush, but regardless whoever they hated or didn’t hate the fact is now they can’t get around the fact that in order for Obama to save his bacon he’s had to go get Bush’s general. And I know what you mean when you say Obama doesn’t want to win. He himself has said so. And we have not replaced McChrystal, you’re right about that. Petraeus runs CENTCOM. That’s a big job in and of itself. Who’s going to run CENTCOM while he’s in Afghanistan? I guess he’s going to do both things. Well, both things involve Iraq and Afghanistan. And Iraq, I mean I don’t think there’s as much attention to holding things together now. There certainly was under the Bush administration. But, look, even if Mike is wrong, listen to this. He’s not a dumb guy. He’s probably an average citizen, look what he thinks this president is capable of. You know, in my lifetime I’ve not heard people talk about a president in these terms, wants America to lose, you know, wants to sack America. I never heard this before. A lot of people think it because of the actions the president is taking. Not just because of what he says.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Stanley, Chino Hills, California, welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Oh, thank you, Rush. I’ve been dittoing since 1988.
RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.
CALLER: I have a comment on the McChrystal firing or whatever you want to call it. If George Bush had taken a day and a half to fire a general, he would be accused of being a cowboy and shooting from the hip and all kinds of things. And here the mainstream press is calling him decisive. I don’t get it.
RUSH: Yes, you do. The mainstream press is a bunch of lapdogs. The very way they’re covering Obama is indicative that even they know he’s beneath the job. They know he’s not up to it. No question about it.