October 3, 2007

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The phony soldier smear is going on out there -- so we are forced to continue, not really forced, because it's an opportunity to continue to discuss this.  Today, all over television after posting on the Internet yesterday, was the mad bomber of Bosnia.  That would be General Wesley Clark known affectionately here as Ashley Wilkes.  General Clark is lying through his teeth today.  His impetus, purpose for going on television, is to get me taken off of Armed Forces Radio.  On MSNBC this morning, General Clark said that I have a long history of disrespect and criticism of uniformed military personnel, a long history.  This is Kafkaesque.  The Hillary Clinton front group, Media Matters for America, has taken two of my words, "phony soldiers," and used hundreds and thousands of words now to manipulate it into a smear.  

They are even saying I selectively edited a minute-and-a-half from my show transcript to hide some nefarious thing.  I hid nothing.  The edit was simply for substance and brevity.  What happened was I was talking to this caller, Mike, and we discussed the phony soldiers thing, and he wanted to go talk about the weapons of mass destruction.  He starts talking.  While he's talking -- and you people watching the Dittocam saw this -- I'm waving in to Mr. Snerdley and I'm on the IFB, I'm talking to him, nobody else can hear me because it mutes my microphone going out. I said, "Print out the phony soldier commentary for me that we did yesterday; print it out."  So he printed it out, the caller is vamping and going on, I'm reaching back to the printer, I grab the update, said, "Look, I don't want to talk about weapons of mass destruction, Mike, it's moot right now, doesn't have any relation, we're there, this is about something much more."  

Then I read the commentary.  The minute-thirty-seven was simply vamping to pick up the commentary off the printer from Mr. Snerdley's computer in the other room.  They're trying to make some big scandal out of that.  So now I am also hiding from you truthful, in their minds, evidence that I have referred to all of these soldiers who disagree with the war as phony soldiers, which was never uttered, was never said.  I'll tell you what's happening here.  Bill Bennett put this well to me in an e-mail today.  He said, "We've reached a new day when anything said, no matter how violently torn from context, is presented however one wishes and accepted as fact by the interpreter. It is the death of meaning."  I'll tell you what else this is.  This is a reflection on the thinking and tactics that will be employed with the full weight and power of the federal government, should Hillary Clinton become president, because all of these people that are working at these front groups that she has founded, along with George Soros, are going to end up being her administration.  

They are going to be rewarded with high government positions, from where they can unleash investigations on people that they want to deal with one way or the other.  So what we have here is a dry run, sort of a rehearsal for if she wins, the little people at Media Matters for America, and John Podesta will be back as chief of staff, The Center for American Progress, all these different think tanks and organizations she's set up, these are little schools for people to learn how to conduct investigations on people that Mrs. Clinton doesn't want to deal with.  So that's what's happening here.  This is also a great example for the campaign 2008 playbook.  Now, back to General Clark.  We have a couple of sound bites from General Clark from the Today show today.  Here is Wesley Clark, Meredith Vieira talking to him, says, "You started this e-mail campaign to get Limbaugh off the Armed Forces Radio.  It's a drastic step.  Why do you think it's necessary?"

CLARK:  His comments just cross the line.  I think there's a lot of people serving in Iraq, a lot of veterans who have served, a lot of veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan who have thoughts about the war that aren't necessarily in agreement with President Bush.  That's their right as American citizens.  It doesn't mean they weren't great soldiers.

RUSH:  And it doesn't mean that I have ever criticized them as soldiers.  I've never criticized them as phony or anything else.  Never, never, never, never, General Clark.  There is no long history of me showing disrespect and criticism for uniformed military personnel.  I'll tell you what, another thing going on here is you've got all these watchdogs, but who examines them for honesty and credibility?  Why is it that the watchdogs are simply accepted as infallible instantly after they publish something?  I think that it's because they're all liberals on the other side of this.  It's amazing what people who really wanted to learn about this could learn, just visit my website, or even better, listen to the program, rather than these little excerpts that they're playing.  It's really surreal.  When they play the excerpt, I'm talking to the caller, and I say, "yeah, phony soldiers."  From that we've got this?  We've got denunciations on the House floor.  We've got a condemnation letter sent by Senator Reid and a denunciation on the Senate floor, from two words?  

In fact, some of the Drive-Bys are getting a little upset now that I'm occupying so much attention.  All morning long on MSNBC they've been asking their guests, "Why are we focusing on Limbaugh here? Look, we want to get out of Iraq and why isn't Congress doing anything about it?"  And that's the crux of this.  Congress can't get us out of Iraq.  If we've got 72%, or whatever the number is of people in the country, saying they want the war to end, how come the Democrats can't pull it off?  They're trying to distract from their own failures.  They're trying to distract from lying and deceiving their own believers, their own kook lunatic fringe.  That's all they're doing is trying to muddy the waters so people don't understand what's going on. They're just feeding them red meat because they can't follow through on their commitments and their promises.  So people are starting to wonder -- and the Drive-Bys, it's a little jealousy.  

You have to understand this, that most everybody else in the Drive-By Media would love to be censored on the floor of the Senate.  They would love that kind of attention.  They would love to be able to stir things up like -- (interruption) what?  People don't believe that?  You think people don't believe that?  Mr. Snerdley is telling me that you people mostly won't believe that.  Do you realize I'm getting e-mails from people, "Would you quit hogging the limelight?  You know, I got a book out this week and you're distracting from it.  How come you always do this?  How come I can't get this kind of attention?" I'm telling you, the Drive-Bys would love this kind of thing; they would love to be censored.  They loved being on Nixon's enemies list, for example.  It's the same thing.  By the way, Dingy Harry sent his letter. He asked all these senators to sign the letter to Clear Channel's chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and asked him to force me to apologize and to admit that I had said something so over the top.  He got 41 senators to sign it.  Not even all the Democrats.  No Republicans signed it.  

Now, some people say, "Senate condemns Limbaugh."  Bottom line, it's another Dingy Harry failure!  It's another Dingy Harry defeat.  He could not even get all the Democrats to sign the letter, folks.  Forty-one out of 100 senators is all that signed it, and no Republicans?  So he sends the letter to the chairman and the CEO of Clear Channel, who responded to it, page-and-a-half, it's on our website if you want to read it, and basically -- well, I'll just read it.  Basically it just says, look, Senator, we believe in the First Amendment here, and we're not going to impose.  Mr. Limbaugh has said what he meant, and that's it.  I think they sent the letter trying to -- Reid sent it out so fast trying to put this behind him.  So it's a huge defeat and failure for Harry Reid.  MSNBC reported this morning that their Capitol Hill correspondent reported that the House Democrat resolution has been put on the back burner because the Republicans have a competing resolution ready to go if the House Democrats offer theirs.  So they may be in retreat up on Capitol Hill.  They're not in retreat at Media Matters for America.  They're still over there trying to gin this up for a host of reasons.  I've got a couple more sound bites that I want to play for you, first from Wesley Clark and then Ted Koppel.  Here's the second bite from the Today Show today.  Meredith Vieira says, "What response have you been getting to your e-mail campaign to get Limbaugh off of Armed Forces Radio?"

CLARK:  It's a good response.  We've had 15,000 people come back and sign up on the website.  There are a lot of people out there who see this as an important issue where Congress should set the tone in condemning this kind of rhetoric which disparages our men and women in uniform.

RUSH:  They got more votes to condemn MoveOn.org in the Senate than they got to condemn me.  This just frosts them.  General Clark here -- Ashley Wilkes -- was asked, "Why should Congress be refereeing?"  "Well, we've gotta have the other side represented here.  If we're going to condemn MoveOn.org, we've gotta condemn Limbaugh, because Limbaugh has a long history of disrespecting and abusing uniformed military personnel."  They're throwing their hands up, "Is this what Congress does, referees disputes?  Why in the world don't we just get out of Iraq?"  "Well, I think we should get out of Iraq obviously, but we need civil discourse in this country."  It's just funny to watch these people make total blithering idiots of themselves.  Ted Koppel on the Today Show, following Ashley Wilkes, the mad bomber of Bosnia, Matt Lauer talked to him, said, "I watched you smiling as we were just discussing this Rush Limbaugh thing, and with all due respect to the general and to Rush Limbaugh and the members of Congress, is this really, in your opinion, what Americans want their senators to be talking about on the floor of the US Senate?"

KOPPEL:  No, let's have them focus on something really important.  It's ridiculous.  I cannot understand.  I mean, this is not the first time Rush Limbaugh has said controversial things or foolish things, and certainly not the first time I've said foolish things, but if that's the best that the US Senate can find to debate and discuss, God help us.

RUSH:  (laughing)  Putting it in perspective.  Now, General Clark, let's talk about him just a second here before we go to the break, the mad bomber of Bosnia.  Is this the same Wesley Clark who did nothing to try to prevent the mass murder of 800,000 Rwandans?  Is this the same Wesley Clark who was in a position to insist the Clinton administration and the United Nations send help to that region to try to stop the mass murder of 800,000 Rwandans?  Is this the same Wesley Clark who has never had to answer for his indifference to that genocide, and, worse, in the face of this genocide, in a public investigation, has never had to answer for it?  Is this the same Wesley Clark who was once a Republican who supported President Bush but then changed parties so he could run for president and then attack President Bush?  Is this the same Wesley Clark who could not muster any popular support for his hilarious run for the presidency?  

You see, this is why the mad bomber of Bosnia can't read a transcript or listen to an audio and speak truthfully about them.  He's no longer a general.  He's just another in a long line of liberal hacks, ladies and gentlemen.  Now, General Clark, we all appreciate your service in the military, but what you're doing now has nothing to do with your service.  It has to do with your decision to play mud ball with the left.  I don't know about you, Mr. Clark, but I go to bed at night with zero problems.  How do you sleep, sir?  How do you and the rest of the Clinton administration sleep knowing you did nothing about the genocide in Rwanda?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I'm going to go back, I'm going to stay on the mad bomber of Bosnia for a moment, ladies and gentlemen, and that is General Wesley Clark.  Do you remember, Michael Moore called George W. Bush a deserter, and Wesley Clark stood up for Michael Moore's right to say that?  This is a NewsMax story, January 22nd, 2004, during General Clark's ill-fated run at the Democratic presidential candidacy.  "In a response that could turn out to be General Clark's worst blunder yet..." and that's a tough call, because there were so many of them, "...the presidential hopeful said his supporter, firebrand filmmaker and propagandist Michael Moore, had a right to call President Bush a military deserter."  We have the audio sound bite.  It was a debate in Manchester, New Hampshire, January 22nd, 2004.  Peter Jennings said, "General Clark, this is really a simple question about knowing a man by his friends.  The other day you had a rally here, and one of the men who stood up to endorse you, was the controversial filmmaker Michael Moore.  You said you were delighted with him.  At one point Mr. Moore said in front of you that President Bush, saying that he'd like to see you, the general, President Bush, to be called a deserter.  Now, that's a reckless charge not supported by the facts, and I was curious to know why you didn't contradict him and whether or not you think it would have been a better example of ethical behavior to have done so."

CLARK:  Michael Moore has the right to say whatever he feels about this.  But to me it wasn't material.  This election is going to be about the future, Peter, and what we have to do is pull this country together.  And I'm delighted to have the support of a man like Michael Moore, a great American leader, like Senator George McGovern, and people from Texas like Charlie Stenholm and former secretary of the Navy, John Dalton.  We've got support from across the breadth of the Democratic Party, because I believe this party is united --

RUSH:  All right.

CLARK:  -- in wanting to change --

RUSH:  That's enough of that.  We got to the point of it.  So General Clark is fully supportive of someone's free speech rights to call the president of the United States a deserter, which is a lie.  It's this old National Guard story, folks, that they had to cook up forged documents to try to convince people were accurate.  By the way, that Dan Rather forged document story may as well come out of Media Matters.  It's the kind of stuff that's happening now.  Accuse people of doing things they didn't do, accuse people of saying things they didn't say, accuse people of meaning things they didn't mean.  Liberals have not yet won the right to define meaning from the words people say.  They have appropriated that right for themselves, and it's not going to stand, folks.  

So here is a giant hypocrite, General Clark, who sat around and did nothing during a genocide of 800,000 Rwandans, the mad bomber of Bosnia, fully in support of Michael Moore's right to lie under the context and the pretext of the First Amendment.  And yet General Clark's all over television yesterday and today, suggesting that I need to be taken off of Armed Forces Radio because I have a long history of disrespect and criticism for the brave men and women in the United States military.  No more ridiculous, worthless, totally untrue charge could be made.  But he is making it.  Now, Peter Jennings, after the answer that you just heard from the mad bomber of Bosnia, said, "Let me ask you about something you mentioned, then, because this question and answer which you and Mr. Moore was involved in, you had a chance to look at the facts.  You still feel comfortable with the fact that somebody should be standing up in your presence and calling the president of the United States a deserter?"

CLARK:  To be honest with you, I did not look at the facts, Peter.  I -- you know, that's Michael Moore's opinion.  He's entitled to say that.  I've seen -- he's not the only person who's said that.  I have not followed up on those facts, and, frankly, it's not relevant to me and why I'm in this campaign.

RUSH:  (raspberry) Down the tubes went General Clark's campaign.  He really was never a serious candidate in that race, but this finished it off.  So there he's admitting the facts don't matter to him.  He didn't look at the facts.  No, this guy can say what he wants.  When it comes to me, didn't look at the facts.  He's out there making an absolute blithering fool of himself, doesn't even know it.  I really think in his case he doesn't know it.  I think he's that dense.  I think he is that lazy.  I think he's become a political hack now, trying to get noticed, speech fees, this sort of stuff, getting all the accolades from the kook lunatic fringe out there that loves these kinds of guys.  Here he is admitting in 2004 the facts didn't matter; free speech is all that mattered.  But now, in my case, free speech doesn't matter, as well as the facts not mattering.  (laughing)  Thank you, General Clark.  You people on the left are making this too easy. 

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

NewsBusters: Wesley Wants Rush Whacked from Military Radio. Vieira: Treat Him Like 'Annoying Gnat'

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2007/10/03/wesley-clark-whack-rush-military-radio-vieira-treat-him-annoying-g

NewsBusters: FNC Shows Democrats Criticizing Troops: 'Who Said That? Not Rush Limbaugh!'

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2007/10/03/fnc-shows-democrats-criticizing-troops-who-said-not-rush-limbaugh

Radio Equalizer: Rolling Along. Smear Train's Next Stop: Land of Make-Believe

http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2007/10/anti-rush-limbaugh-smear-campaign.html

NRO: Limbaugh Makes His Case; He's Got the Story on the "Phony Soldiers" if Anyone Will Listen - Byron York

http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=NzQzZGJkM2E1NWI5NmNjMTAzNTQ4YTk1ZDRhZTMyNWY

NRO: Phony-Soldier Sympathizers Stoke a Phony Controversy - Andrew C. McCarthy

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZGY5ZTBmNDgzM2M1YzRiYjc5Y2ZlYjJlYmFhYWVlYjE=

American Thinker: Phony Soldiers, Phony Outrage, and Phony Patriotism - Chrisopher G. Adamo

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/10/phony_soldiers_phony_outrage_a.html