RUSH: Over the weekend there was this massive rally at the World War II Memorial, and Sarah Palin showed up, Ted Cruz showed up, Rand Paul showed up. There were people that clashed with the cops. They took down barricades blocking the World War II Memorial and they dumped them outside the White House. Now, this group was upset with the closure of memorials in Washington due to the shutdown stalemate and it was organized by something called the Million Vet March, but it soon took on a more political tone.
According to NBC News, the president was in the White House at the time the protestors arrived. Video from cameras on the White House lawn showed people carrying barricades. You know, everybody’s asking what were Ted Cruz and Palin doing showing up over there? The real question is how in the name of Sam Hill does this happen in the United States? How in the world does the National Mall get shut down to World War II vets but opened to illegal aliens to have an amnesty rally? The big news is that American veterans sought to protest this and did take it to the White House. That is the news. Now they’re being excoriated for being kooks and freaks, and so are Palin and Cruz.
First the audio sound bites. We have Palin, we have Mike Lee, we have Cruz. This is Sunday afternoon, and Sarah Palin was interviewed by Greta Van Susteren about all this and she said, “Why are you down here on the memorial this morning? What are you doing?”
PALIN: I’m here to hopefully help show the veterans that America’s heart for our veterans is immeasurable, and we think it’s atrocious that our military is being used as political pawns in a political gain, and we’re gonna change that. And we appreciate these guys who are the good guys in the Senate picking up the fight for us. But there are a few things that we can do to show our support and that’s why I’m here.
RUSH: “Senator Lee, what about you? Why are you here?”
LEE: This belongs to the people and we’re here to show our solidarity with them. This is not a tool to be used against them in a political fight. This is theirs.
RUSH: “Senator Cruz, what about you? Why did you show up here?”
CRUZ: Our veterans should be above politics. It is shameful that the administration is barricading and trying to shut down the memorials. Weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed funding to open every memorial in this country and president Obama and the Democrats are blocking it. They are trying to play games, and the American people know they are trying to play games. They need to come together and fix this problem and stop holding our veterans hostage.
RUSH: So on MSNBC this morning on the famous Morning Joe show, F. Chuck Todd showed up, the former political director for NBC, and he described it as “odd,” the decision that Cruz and Palin made to attend this rally on Sunday. He said, “Yesterday it was Cruz and Palin doing this odd protest and you’re just sitting there going, ‘What planet are you guys on? What planet are you living on?'” F. Chuck’s talking about himself. He says, “I’m sitting here watching this, and thinking, ‘What planet are these people on?'”
Now stop and think: Chuck Todd thinks it’s odd that a former governor and a sitting senator would join World War II vets protesting the fact that their memorial is closed. He can’t understand what in the world they would be doing. It’s just confusing. “What planet are they on?” He can’t for the life of him understand it. So what does this mean? Lending your support to World War II veterans is odd? In whose mind? Fascinating.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Claire, Wilmington, Delaware, it’s great to have you on the EIB Network. Glad you waited. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. I just want to make a few points. The first one was Orson Welles once said — and I’ll paraphrase it — that the further people get from the truth, the more they hate the people who actually speak it. I think that’s what we can say is happening right now with Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Rand Paul. I want to make another point that’s of irony. Last week, there were eight senators who were arrested at the immigration rally, and they wore that as a badge of honor. I mean, they were proud.
It was almost a photo op for them. But there’s this constant demonization of the Tea Party and the people like Mike Lee who have never been arrested. He’s never done anything wrong other than want our country the way it was founded. I was just thinking this as I was waiting for you on hold. You know, I’m trying to think how to say this right. When it came to Occupy Wall Street and the immigration rally, the police and the law enforcement were not sent out in droves as they were with what happened yesterday.
And I have to guess that the reason that would be is because if it’s orchestrated by a certain group — and everybody knows what the parameters are — you don’t have to send the police out. You already know who the players are. You already know what’s going to happen. But if you have a group like the vets yesterday where they didn’t know what was going to happen — because these people truly were representing their rights — well, then you might be more inclined (because you’re not in control of those people) to send out the forces to come against them.
I think the Democrats… I mean, I know a lot of them here in Delaware and they’re good people, but if this isn’t enough… Last week when the Democratic Party stood with the illegal immigrants and allowed them to enter our parks but did not stand with our veterans, if that isn’t enough to sway the 3 or 4% that voted against Romney — if that isn’t enough to wake up the true, good Democratic people– to say, “Hey, wait a minute, what’s going on,” I don’t know what will. I really don’t.
RUSH: Well, I’ve been asking myself that about various events in the news for years, for five years. I’ve been asking, “If this doesn’t wake people up, if that doesn’t wake people up, what will?” You talk about these Democrats that got arrested with honor. I mean, they did, because they’re reliving their past. If you look at the people that got arrested, they had previously been arrested in their youth during the civil rights marches or during the Sixties anti-war days, and it’s a badge of honor to be arrested by the quote/unquote establishment, even though they’re it now. But it was all for show. It’s to show solidarity with the downtrodden, solidarity with the people who were taking it on the chin, solidarity of people being victimized by the rich and the heartless and so forth.
CALLER: The veterans, of course, we know there were Republican and Democratic veterans, and these are people that have actually done something for our country, and every darn one of us ought to pay these people homage for what they gave. And if that’s how they’re going to treat the people that have done for us, everyone should be quite threatened for their children if the illegals are more important than the people that have actually done for us.
RUSH: Well, here’s the thing. I don’t know that they’re not. In fact, I tend to think that — and I will admit that there’s a lot of wishful thinking in this and maybe even a little hope, but I’m of the belief that people all over this country are outraged by this. They’re outraged — to the extent they know it, to the extent they know about it, which is another factor here: To the extent they know about it.
The fact that the National Mall was closed to World War II veterans but opened for illegals to march in protest of this oppressive government for not letting them become citizens — and then for Nancy Pelosi to show up and thank Obama personally for making that happen — I think there are millions of people out there livid about this who don’t have any outlet for it.
So you don’t know about it, and they don’t have the media covering them and the media’s not outraged by it. So there aren’t any stories about it. So you think it’s all happening in a vacuum. You think, “Well, what’s going to wake people up?” Frankly, I think all kinds of people are waking up and that’s why Cruz and Mike Lee, frankly, are still doing what they’re doing. It’s why they haven’t been shut down yet.