(station break)

RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 THE RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW 05/03/04
RUSH: All right. Everybody have a good weekend? Ready to go? I’ll tell you what – I’m not longer tired, ladies and gentlemen. I know on Friday I was dragging. I was complaining. Well, I wasn’t complaining. I was just advising you. It was an exhausting week last week. Had to do a lot of things, but it’s all better now. Everything cool, raring and ready to go. Greetings and welcome. You are tuned to the nation’s most listened to radio talk show and there’s a reason for that. It’s the best one, and it’s a good show, and we’re happy to have you along. Telephone number is 800-282-2882 and the e-mail address is [email protected]. We are coming to you today from the EIB northern command. We are in our – in our facilities and complex, our busy broadcast complex, here in Manhattan – always good to get back here to the founding home of the EIB Network. Great to be with you, ladies and gentlemen. All right. So much stuff today and it goes – it crosses the spectrum. It runs the gamut. So let’s just get started with it. First off, these pictures – these pictures of these prisoners of war. There’s a lot of – you know, the Brits are denying that the pictures that ran in the Daily Mirror are even genuinely and legitimately out of Iraq. The equipment in those pictures they say they’ve never sent to Iraq. Uniforms are incorrect. People don’t do that. And these American prisoners of war – have you people noticed who the torturers are? Women! The babes! The babes are meting out the torture. Well, (laughter) there – I’ve just been asked if I’m surprised. You know, I can get into a lot of trouble here (laughter) with this. I don’t know. Part of me is not. Yes. I’m surprised. I am surprised. I do not believe – I do. I will go to my grave placing women on the pedestal of gentleness (laughter). Yes. I know it’s – well, on the surface, it’s a smart move, but in real life, it could be incredibly stupid, but regard (laughter) regard – no. Who cares? In fact, women are tougher than – you know. And let’s all just be honest about this. I mean, this business of the weaker sex is all bunch of trumped up stuff they teach you when you’re five years-old and you end up living your whole life that way and just – it’s just one big mystery that never gets solved. At any rate, ladies and gentlemen, I just have – I have a tough time believing all this. There’s some question, now, that some of these photos have been doctored and that are not totally legitimate. And I think what needs to happen here, we need to keep this in perspective. Here’s the way I see this. About as many soldiers are said to be involved in these outrageous acts of torture against the Iraqi prisoners as there have been plagiarizing and fabricating reporters working for The New York Times, USA Today and other papers around the country. We have as many indecent acts by these soldiers as we RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 have plagiarist reporters working for mainstream media, partisan media institutions, here. I mean, it’s awful when it happens. It just – it – don’t you just hate it when it happens? But it doesn’t mean the entire institution is disreputable. Doesn’t mean the military is all bad and it doesn’t mean that the media is all bad – just because you got some plagiarists out there, making things up, making up quotes, making up people, saying they were places, when they weren’t. You know, torture is torture. Plagiarism’s plagiarism. But it – and I think that we need somebody with expertise to get to the bottom of this. And I think we should send Kerry over there. John Kerry, who has lots of experience in war atrocities. He admitted to committing them. He came back from Vietnam and he’s testifying there before the Senate. He says, I did this, and I did that, and what Kerry said he did is far worse than what’s depicted in these pictures. I mean, can we be honest, here? What Kerry said he did and what Kerry said other people, other soldiers did, in Vietnam – And by the way, we need to point out again that he did not report these atrocities when he saw them. He did not go to a commanding officer and say, “I think this is ridiculous what’s happening here what I saw. We’ve got to stop this.” Or, he didn’t say, “It’s ridiculous what I’m doing. You got to stop me.” No. He waited until he got back home, joined the Veterans – Vietnam Veterans Against the War – and then started telling these tales, spinning these stories. And the acts that he described he saw committed by US soldiers make these torturists, or these torture acts that are ostensibly depicted in these photos rather tame. So send John Kerry over there. He’s looking for a theme for his campaign. He’s working on his sixth or seventh theme now. And my stack of stuff is loaded with more news about the trouble Kerry is in. You better pick a VP real fast and he better come up with a theme and there’s even a story here about the Torricelli option being used. They don’t get it right. It’s a New Jersey story, but I mean, they don’t get it right. They don’t get right what Torricelli did and why he was pushed out. Rather, they make it sound like he just quite because of bad polls. They totally forget the scandal. Cookie! Get that – get that montage we put together, of the lawyer describing what Torricelli took illegally and what he said at the same time on the floor of the Senate in denying it. Because what – I’m going to do this again because the story in the New Jersey paper, here, does not accurately portray it. But the point is, everybody in the Democratic Party’s starting to get nervous. I mean, it’s every day, now. There are stories that are being written in Time. Now, Karen Tumulty – get this. You got to love this. Karen Tumulty in Time Magazine. “Kerry may be too smart to be a good candidate.” (laughter) He’s so RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 smart, he can’t speak in ways that we common peasants can understand. (laughter) Oh! And of course, here’s Bush, the village idiot. Bush can’t speak in a way that anybody can understand. Did you see the White House correspondents’ dinner? Did you watch on – ? I tuned in because I wanted to watch Bush’s speech and it was just amazing. I can’t figure out why – well, I mean, I know. I know why the media hates him, but I – he practically did a tribute to the media and the risks that they’re taking for their lives in covering Iraq, along with a tribute to the men and women of the armed forces. And he had a couple of well-timed jokes, but most of it was pretty serious stuff and it was all tribute-oriented. It was very, very good. And, you know, I said, grab – in fact, grab audio sound bites, one and two. I’ll get to the Tumulty story in great detail, here, in just a second, but she’s in Time Magazine. “Kerry’s too smart.” Just too smart. He may be too smart to be a good candidate. I want to go back. This is what I said on Friday on this program. This is my analysis of the President and Vice President’s meeting with the 9/11 Commission. RUSH (on tape): They always mis-underestimate George W. Bush. That’s his word, by the way – mis-underestimate. It’s – it’s the same vocabulary as the word, strategery (sic.). They always mis-underestimate him and I think that they were – I’ll bet you they were dazzled – RUSH: Yes. And I want now to go to – what was this? FOX News Sunday, Chris Wallace, hosting. Panel discussion. They had Brit Hume on there, Bill Kristol and Juan Williams and C.C. Connolly of The Washington Post. CONNOLLY: Time and time again, George W. Bush has benefited from being under- estimated and I think this was another example of that. For all of the build up about how he has to take Cheney along, and will they let it go more than an hour – he apparently stayed for about three hours, from the reports we’ve gotten. He answered most of the questions himself. And once again, sort of comes out better than people were expecting. RUSH: So, see? It always happens, folks. So that just another, see, I told you so. A Rush prediction echoed in the mainstream partisan media – not that FOX is, but C.C. Connolly is. She’s a Washington Post. That’s just FOX being balanced with their panel discussion. I’m sure you’ve all heard, John Kerry took another spill, riding his $6000 bicycle in Concord, Massachusetts. He took a spill from his bicycle yesterday afternoon. Was not injured, a campaign official said. “He was riding with Secret Service agents through Concord, about 18 miles north of Boston, when his bike hit a patch of sand and he fell.” RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 Obviously, he was changing positions at some point in the ride and this is what caused the spill. Have you seen any pictures of this? You – I have. Not of the spill. You know, if this – if this were Gerald Ford – I mean, first, Kerry slips and falls on a snowboard out there in the elite ski slopes of Idaho and blames it on a Secret Service agent sworn to protect his life. Now, he’s riding with Secret – I don’t think he blames it on anybody this time other than his changing positions, but there are no pictures of this. If this were Gerald Ford, if this were Bob Dole, there would be pictures, moving pictures, video stills everywhere. I saw videotape – I was watching CCN this morning and they had videotape of Kerry on the bicycle with the Secret Service agents, but they didn’t show the fall. Now, I don’t know that there is videotape of the fall. Well, I don’t know if maybe the cameras were just stationed at a checkpoint – you know, checkpoint Charlie – in honor of Kerry’s Vietnam service. In case you don’t know, John Kerry did serve in Vietnam. So he was going by this checkpoint and looked fine. He waved and all that sort of stuff and then the camera did just – this picture went – then they switched to something else. So I don’t know if there’s video of him falling, but if there is, it’s been embargoed, shall we say. The poll data that’s coming out this week over the weekend also not good for Kerry. We’ll get into all of that. We have a light-hearted stack here today. Do you know that people are shopping less at grocery stores because of rising gasoline prices? Yes, folks! It’s serious out there. These are dire economic times. People are risking malnutrition in order to buy gasoline so that Dick Cheney and Halliburton can continue to get rich. Rising gas prices are forcing people to avoid major supermarkets and instead, they’re cruising into convenience marts. Now, correct me if I’m wrong about something. Are not prices in convenience marts a little more expensive than in grocery stores? Yes. Yes, they are. So something’s strange about this story. I will unlock the mystery, you know? (laughter) Because it doesn’t make sense. Yeah. For financially pressed consumers, this is – Ira, Ira Dreydoofus of the Associated Press. (laughter) His name is Dreyfus but it needs to be doofus with the Dreydoofus for the story. Ira Dreydoofus. It’s coming down (laughter). Coming down to a choice between spending on gasoline, or groceries and gasoline is winning, a food industry analysis finds. Oh, it’s the food industry upset here. So you combine the Atkins diet and rising gas prices and big bread, big sugar, big milk and big cheese are about to go bankrupt. Back in just a moment. RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 RUSH: Yeah. We’re just speculating here, folks. These torture pictures with the – with the women torturers? I mean, and Marv Albert looking at those pictures is going to say, hey! That doesn’t look so bad! You know, if you look at – if you, really, if you look at these pictures, I mean, I don’t know if it’s just me, but it looks just like anything you’d see Madonna, or Brittany Spears do on stage. Maybe I’m – yeah. And get an NEA grant for something like this. I mean, this is something that you can see on stage at Lincoln Center from an NEA grant, maybe on Sex in the City – the movie. I mean, I don’t – it’s just me. All right. Here’s this New Jersey story, folks. Now, I don’t know who wrote this. This is a – this is – it’s a – we did this by virtue of a – just a search, but we found somebody from the Newark Star Ledger and over the weekend, and it says, “Jersey should be proud. People all over the country now are talking about what some have called the Torricelli option for John Kerry. The Torricelli option, of course, is named after the former US Senator from New Jersey named Bob who bolted from the ballot in 2002 after a precipitous drop in the polls. “Now, last minute switcheroo permitted the Democrats to save the Senate seat.” He didn’t decide to get out on his own. Torricelli didn’t say, oops. My poll numbers are bad. I think I’m leaving. He was in the midst of a scandal. He was forced out by the Democrats because his poll numbers were bad because of the scandal. And you remember, when he finally announced his resignation, who did he apologize to first? He apologized to Bill Clinton – Don Clinton – for embarrassing him and the Democrat Party. Now, just to buttress this – and I mean, some people may not remember this, but the Torricelli op – oh. And this story goes on to say, that’s why we’re hearing rumblings within both parties about pulling a Torricelli in the event their presidential candidates tank in the polls. Now, excuse me. Now I’m as informed as anybody on this stuff, and I am not aware of the Republicans trying to come up with a back-up plan, if they have to torch Bush. Is there any – what have I missed? Is there anything going on out there that says the Republicans are unhappy with Bush and might have to do a Torricelli on him because this story in the Newark Star Ledger yesterday – Sunday – indicates that, yes. Well, it’s not an option. I just want to put this Torricelli thing in perspective again for those of you who haven’t heard it. It wasn’t just – in fact, he had nothing to do with this decision. He was forced out by the Democrats. Here’s a little montage that puts it all into perspective. TORRICELLI: To challenge my integrity is beneath contempt. I do not deserve this RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 SIMON: Two watches – a Rolex watch – diamond earrings for his girlfriend. TORRICELLI: I have never – SIMON: The television set – TORRICELLI: – ever – SIMON: – oriental rug, the grandfather clock, other antique items – TORRICELLI: – done anything – SIMON: – suits – TORRICELLI: – at any time – SIMON: – approximately 14 deliveries of envelops of cash to Torricelli’s house – TORRICELLI: – to betray the trust of the people of the state of New Jersey. Never! RUSH: (laughter) I love that every time we hear it, every time we play it. The other voice you heard there was Brad Simon, the attorney for David Chang, who gave all of those things to Torricelli and that lead to the scandal that Torricelli, here, is denying had anything to do with his character on the floor of the US Senate. And this is what lead to his precipitous drop in the polls. And this is what lead to him being forced out and so the Torch factor as far as the Democrats are concerned is relevant only in the sense that it proved a way to get rid of a candidate who had already won his primary after such time as it was legal to name a candidate. I mean, they just – they had to go to the New Jersey Supreme Court, as you recall. And this was part of the ill-fated period of time in 2002 juxtaposed right up against the – what was it? The Wellstone Memorial, which was nothing more than a campaign rally, a just distasteful incidence, and it just hammered the Democrats. It gave them lots of PR problems, but the Torch factor is being brought up here as sort of a precedent, or as a means that Democrats have to replace John Kerry for whatever reason. Now, we have ABC News, Washington Post poll and it says that George W. Bush has an edge on Kerry on the personal attributes of compassion, values and likeability, and this is another reason Bush has improved his overall position against Kerry since the Democrat primaries. “Americans, by an eight-point margin, picked Bush over Kerry as friendly and likeable and as caring and compassionate and by a seven-point margin as somebody who shares my values and beliefs.” In the ABC News, Washington Post poll. RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 Now, this is an important result here because all of these characteristics – caring, compassionate, friendly, likeable, shares my values, relates to the common man, those are things that Democrats think that they have monopoly on. These are things liberal Democrats think they’ve owned for generations. Well, last week you might remember we had some extensive discussion on this program about why Bush cut Ashcroft’s knees out from under him regarding the Gorelick memo. Remember – after Bush came out, the 9/11 testimony that he gave, little press conference and – well, he didn’t say it, but – well, he did. But Scott McClellan, the Press Secretary, actually, it’s the President – very upset with the release of that memo and of course, that memo is crucial and it’s getting, I think, even worse for Gorelick. There’s a Wall Street Journal piece that puts this in even greater perspective. But we had a great discussion about why the President would not want to seek partisan advantage with this way, and I said, “It’s because these people just don’t go political. He wants to stay above it.” White House – his view of the presidency is – it doesn’t get down in the mud. He’s going to stay up here and not do these things. I think one of the new tone – all this is all rolled into one. I think this is why, in addition, to that’s just who he is that the results are the way they are in this ABC poll – likeability, compassionate, compatible, eight- and seven-point lead, respectfully – respectably – over John Kerry. Bad news for the Democrats. Back in a moment. (station break) RUSH: And here we are, firmly ensconced behind the prestigious golden EIB microphone. Rush Limbaugh from the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies. There's even more polling data on the lack of likeability of John Kerry. This is from the Zogby Poll. “Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry has a serious likeability problem, many voters seeing him as cold, aloof, and distant, this according to focus groups, recent polls, and election analysts.” Now, this complaint has dogged the Massachusetts senator throughout his political career – he looks – there he is there. He looks like a Saint Bernard, especially after the Botox. He just looks sad all the time. He's just really sad, mellowed out – no energy, no oompah. No pizzazz. “John Zogby said, ‘Yeah, it’s a problem for Kerry. When you're talking about selecting a leader, barring an unforeseen circumstance, you have to like that leader. Whether it’s an insurmountable problem remains to be seen.” Zogby also said clearly that is bolstering Bush at the moment, his likeability. The majority of Americans like him, though it’s not as wide as it was. RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 “When a CBS New York Times poll asked about 1,042 adults last week to rate the likeability of the two candidates, Bush was rated as likable by 57%, as compared with Kerry’s 48%. Late last month the AFL-CIO conducted a focus group, or a series of focus group interviews with undecided union members in St. Louis and Philadelphia who said that Kerry doesn't warm anybody up, and that Bush was viewed as more likeable and a strong leader. And Maria Cardona, the director of the Hispanic Project at the new Democrat network, said Bush is actually liked in the Hispanic community. He comes across as someone who understands the community. For Democrats that comes across as a challenge. So it’s – it’s tough out there. So the Democrats, “OK, what can we do to get this guy turned around? What can” – the press has taken this on now as a project. And they're talking about, “Well, we've got to pick a VP. And we've got to do it now. We can't wait.” Roger Simon had a piece in the Manchester Union Leader, has that theme, as does Ronald Brownstein at the LA – isn't it interesting the similarities as you go through the news each day? I mean here's a – here's a – Roger Simon I think normally for US News and World Report, “Kerry needs a VP.” Go to The LA Times, “Kerry needs a VP.” It’s like that press conference. They had six questions to the President, “Are you going to admit that you made mistakes? Are you going to admit responsibility? Are you going to apologize?” Six of those questions. And so he didn't give them the sound bite they want, so they just – they won't let up on it now. I mean, it’s part of Kerry’s speech. (As Kerry) “George W. Bush has not admitted any mistakes.” I mean, the theme – there's a central clearinghouse somewhere where this message goes out, and it ends up being coordinated all the way through from the Demo – what are you laughing at in there? You know this is true. From the highest, however high they are, spires of the Democratic machine, all the way down through the tentacles of the partisan media. And so now the theme is he needs a VP and he needs it now. He can't afford to wait. And a name is surfacing. Not Gephardt and not Edwards. And try this. Don't you love this? You people on the phones, be patient, going to you here in just a second, especially you, Tiffany, hang on, Cleveland. They are – Kerry, Kerry is doing background investigations and checks on people like Gephardt. And Gephardt’s only been in Washington for how – a hundred years? John Edwards, and here's Kerry, who could probably deserve a background check of his own, is now vetting these – I love this. I just – I love – and it’s all – this is the Eagleton factor, you know, from – from the – from the McGovern days. But there's a new name in the list now, and that's Wesley Clark, the commander and a hero of Kosovo. And this is to give Kerry some credibility on foreign policy and defense because he's just not able to pull that off himself. Anyway, I’ll have RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 details on all this and other things as the program unfolds right before your eyes and ears. But first to Cleveland, Tiffany, glad you called, thanks for waiting, and welcome to the program. TIFFANY: How you doing, Rush? RUSH: Couldn't be better. Never better. I'm wonderful and fine, thank you. TIFFANY: Well, I must tell you that I listen to your program a lot. And you know, I agree with a lot of the things that you say. I'm a Generation X-er, so I don't really identify with either party. But I got to tell you – RUSH: Oh, hey, hold the – don't say that you're just – you're just going to – you're just going to – or you're going to pique my curiosity. What do you mean? Generation X. I'm getting confused. Could you give me a range? I'm not going to specifically ask, but can you give me a range of your age? TIFFANY: Oh, actually I'm 25. RUSH: 25. TIFFANY: I'm 25. I'm one of the people that was born between 1965 and ’79. RUSH: OK, all right. So you're 25. What is – what – why – why do you say that as a member of Gen X you're not a member of either party? What – I don't get that? TIFFANY: Because 44% of us are independent. RUSH: Who? TIFFANY: 44% of us are independent. RUSH: 44% of Gen X-ers are independent? TIFFANY: Absolutely. RUSH: I'm not buying this. Where – where – I haven't seen that poll data. TIFFANY: I'm sorry? RUSH: I haven't seen that data. I haven't seen where 44% of people between whatever age group you just mentioned are independent. RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 TIFFANY: Oh, yeah, check it out. Howe and Strauss, they’ve done a lot of work on this, RUSH: Well, why are you independent? TIFFANY: Go ahead. RUSH: Why are you independent? TIFFANY: I'm independent because I look for the truth. And I'm proud to be an American, but at the same time all of this political party stuff, it just doesn't – it doesn't do anything for me. I want to hear the truth. I want to hear, you know, with the issues, what's really going on, so I vote for the best candidate. I'm not into the party line thing like my parents were. I don't care about that. I care about the truth. RUSH: All right. How do you determine who the best candidate is if you're an TIFFANY: Well, I research, and you can watch C-SPAN, you know, get a lot of good information from there. But do a lot of research on my own. And as a Generation X-er obviously there's a lot of information out there for us, so we go on the Internet, check out both parties. I've gone to Republican and Democratic Party (inaudible; overlapping dialogue) and everything. RUSH: OK, I got it. I got it. OK. There's one simple question, then. I just have one TIFFANY: Oh, sure, go ahead. RUSH: When you finish your research – TIFFANY: Yes. RUSH: – when you've done all your research on whatever it is, a candidate or an issue, the big question, how do you know that what you know is right? TIFFANY: Well, it’s a little thing called your Third Eye. I think all of us pretty much RUSH: No, no. Let me – let me go at this another way. Do you have – do you have as part of your soul, do you have a set of core beliefs and issues? RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 RUSH: Well, then shouldn’t that be where you go to determine whether you know something is right or wrong, instead of something called the Third Eye? None of us have a Third Eye. Some of us have a little voice in our heads. TIFFANY: (laughter) (inaudible) with you, come on, Rush. We all know what the Third RUSH: This is a segment of the population I admit to not knowing much about, the TIFFANY: Well, I’ll tell you what. This morning you said something about those pictures of the prisoners. And I got to tell you, I was absolutely disgusted seeing that. Absolutely disgusted. Those soldiers, what they did was absolutely disgusting. I mean, we are occupying their country, and they don't – RUSH: Oh, you're an independent, are you? You're an independent, are you? (laughter) Where have I heard that term, “We are occupying their country.”? TIFFANY: We are. We are. RUSH: We’re – yeah, but we’re – yes – TIFFANY: Resolution 40-41 said the UN would take action, not the US. We are occupying their country. We went in illegally, we’re the criminals. RUSH: All right. You've just proven my point. You're not an independent. You're a TIFFANY: Oh, man. RUSH: Yes, you are. And the fact that you don't understand these pictures and are able to put them in context and perspective is another illustration that not only you’re a Liberal, but you're young. This is war. TIFFANY: Here we go. Here we go. RUSH: And let me tell you what was probably going on. This is – let me tell you what was probably going – if – if these pictures are genuine – you know there's two sets of pictures. There are the British pictures that show up in The Daily Mirror and the Brit military officials are denying that they are legitimate. The pictures that – that you're talking about with the female – what do you think about that? Female army torturers? TIFFANY: Oh, trust me, I'm OK – you know what? In China, the main people that are the Communist police? See, they're female, too. We’re the stronger sex. We’re not the weaker sex. RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 RUSH: Clearly an independent here. OK, so – so – all right, so you get these women and they're torturing these men – those pictures showed 60 Minutes, and the best we can determine, these pictures were taken by the soldiers that were there. That's – that's what we found out. Now, I’ll bet you there's a possibility, I don't know, but there's a possibility is what's happening here that this is not torture. This is part of interrogation that is to come later. This is humiliation. This is – this is the kind of humiliation and embarrassment that is taking – taking place to soften people up for the interrogation which happens next. This is a war, Tiffany. TIFFANY: Oh, my God RUSH: And one of the biggest impediments to winning a war is television and pictures. TIFFANY: What if they did that on our soil, to our citizens, would it still be considered RUSH: Have you heard of 9/11 and the three airplanes that flew into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the – the – that landed near – in the field in Pittsburgh? TIFFANY: Why do we always have to go back to 9/11? RUSH: Because that's what this is all about. What do you think this is about? TIFFANY: – letting it happen. RUSH: What? TIFFANY: What? RUSH: Yeah, well, I didn't hear the first two words of what you said – TIFFANY: I’m sorry. RUSH: I didn't hear the first two words of what you said, which is why I said, “What?” TIFFANY: I said if you start doing some research on 9/11, you'll see that our government had a lot to do with letting it happen. RUSH: OK. You know what? You sound like you're going to star in another Democrat RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 TIFFANY: Oh, my God. RUSH: Come on, Tiffany, Tiff – Tiffany, Tiffany, Tiffany, you know – TIFFANY: Just because I don't agree with you on a couple things, my God. RUSH: No, Tiffany, no, you misunderstand, Tiffany – TIFFANY: – partisan politics is that we get labeled for no reason – RUSH: Tiff – Tiffa – Tiffany. Take a breath. Don't torture me here. TIFFANY: I'm trying not to, you're so great. (laughter) RUSH: Tiffany, you know, I – I love you. You have to understand this, I love you and I want you to be right. I don't want you to sound like a kook. I don't want you to sound like a typical Democrat kook that is coming to define the Democrat mainstream. The fact that our government knew this was going to happen? You actually – no, wait, do you actually believe that? You believe that George Bush – hold it, no, no – Tiffany, Tiffany, let me – Tiffany – TIFFANY: What happened with World War II (inaudible; overlapping dialogue) with RUSH: This is torture. I am going to ask you this question. Do you actually believe that the President of the United States knew this was going to happen and allowed it to happen for whatever cockamamie reason you can come up with to explain it? And then you see these torture pictures and you think that is worse than what happened on 9/11? And you have come to an independent conclusion that somehow this is outrageous and this must be stopped? And in the whole process of doing this, we are engaging in activity we have no business being involved in? This is what's – this is dangerous, Tiffany. You're smarter than this, and I don't know who has gotten to you to – to – to bend and flake and form and shape your mind this way, but you got to wake up. Because you're – you – you're saying things here, A, independents don't say, Liberals say. And B, enraged, infuriated, irrational Liberals are saying because they can't come up with anything to explain why they're losing routinely and regularly on a daily, weekly, yearly basis. TIFFANY: I got you. You think I'm a fan of John Kerry? RUSH: No. Did I say that? TIFFANY: No, but I'm saying I'm not a Liberal and I'm not a Conservative. I'm an RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 RUSH: You are not. You are mouthing exactly what Liberals believe. And you cannot have independently come to this because people who are rational and logical and intelligent do not believe that George Bush or the government knew 9/11 was going to happen beforehand specifically on that date and in that way, and let it happen. Intelligent, rational, thinking, independent-minded people do not believe that. And if you do, then I'm suggesting you have been corrupted by whatever research that you've done, and with whomever you have conducted the research. Now, as to my original point, that these torture photos, that you can see this on stage at a Britney Spears or Madonna concert any day of the week, I stand by it. We’ll be back. Stay with us. (station break) RUSH: Half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair, Rush Limbaugh, the happiest and most optimistic member of the media in America today. Jason, in New Braunfels, Texas. Nice to have you on the program. Welcome, sir. JASON: Hey, Rush, how are you, man? RUSH: Couldn't be better, man. JASON: I got to tell you, I want to tell Tiffany that if she could please stop calling national programs and acting like she knows a thing about Generation X. Number one, Generation X goes from 1965 to 1980. They comprise approximately 38 million Americans, six in 10 of whom are from divorced parents. This is what I do for a living. I go out and talk about generational marketing. RUSH: I was going to say, you divorce – I misunderstood when you – I thought you said you do for a living is divorce parents, and I was going to ask you a question about that. You mean you study it, is what you do? JASON: No, no. And my parents do – they stayed married, actually. But what she was talking about, while it is true, it is a natural tendency of Generation X, that latchkey generation that came home to empty houses because of a number of reasons, many of which, if you do the research, go back to an increase in government and Liberalism, and nothing else. It has created a very entrepreneurial, independent-minded generation, 40% of whom think they will see a UFO in their lifetime before they see their name on a Social Security check. So when the Democrats and everybody else starts talking about, “We’re going to protect your Social Security,” a significant chunk of us go, hey, don't do us any favors. We were around for the dotcom bust. We've got a very, very realistic, real-life – RUSH: OK, let’s cut to the chase, here. Where do these people lean politically? RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 JASON: They're more conservative. We’re independent-minded small business owners, and when it comes down to who’s going to best make an economy that works for us, the entrepreneur, the small business, it’s the Republicans, no doubt about it. RUSH: Well, OK. All well and good, and I – I hope – I hope you're right about that. But you got to also – I mean, every generation has its fringe characters. I mean it’s entirely – it’s entirely possible, I mean Tiffany is a Gen – Generation X-er and she – I'm sure she believes what she believes. It’s – it’s a crime. It’s a shame, it’s a – it’s not a crime. It – it’s criminal. I mean, it’s criminal that this has been done to her, is what I'm talking about. But nevertheless, I appreciate your call, Jason. Thank you a whole lot. Let me give you some details here on this – this story from Ira Dreydoofus of The Associated Press. “For financially pressed consumers, it’s coming down to a choice between spending on gasoline or groceries, and gasoline is winning, a food industry analysis finds.” Well, this is a major shift because, you know, in not the too distant future, the recent past, we were always told that the – the decision was food or medicine. Now is been a seismic shift in American culture. Now it’s food or gasoline, and food is losing. This is the report by the Food Marketing Institute released at the annual trade show in Chicago over the weekend. They said that “Given the economic environment, it’s not surprising that more shoppers are buying food today in discount stores and other low-price venues than ever before.” So? You know, this – so what? If those places are available and people are going there, so what? This is just another blindside on Wal-Mart, folks. Sounds to me like they hate Wal-Mart out there, and people are deciding to go to the Wal-Mart grocery store to pick up their peanut butter and jelly, or whatever, because gasoline prices – this – It never amazes me. People – always during the Christmas season, we get these reports that “Customers are waiting, shoppers are waiting for the post-Christmas holiday sales. People are watching their budgets tighter than ever this year,” they say every year. “People are really shopping for the best deals on Christmas gifts this year.” They do every year. Everybody does. The vast majority of people are always out there price shopping. So now we've got gasoline have spiked, and if there are alternatives that offer lower costs on food and people go there, what's the panic? This is being presented as some sort of crucial, seismic cultural shift. All it indicates is that consumers are smart, economical, and resourceful. And it shows how resourceful the US economy and market is that there are places that provide price and discount alternatives for people when faced with these choices. There's nothing here but good news portrayed as a crisis in the media. Back in just a second. RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 (station break) RUSH: I got to share with you a paragraph here from the – this – this crisis story on supermarkets versus gasoline, but we don't have time to do it now. And I – I really don't want to be disappointed in you Gen X-ers. HOUR 2 RUSH: Yes, yes, yeah, I’m ready to go. I’m just getting things in the order I want to get them in here. Greetings, my friends and welcome. Rush Limbaugh, your guiding light through times of trouble, confusion, murkiness, tumult, chaos, torture, and despair. As well as the good times, here on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, this is the nation’s most listened to radio talk show, a program which meets and exceeds all audience expectations on a daily basis. Our telephone number, if you’d like to be part of the program, 800-282-2882, and the e-mail address, rush@eibnet. Well, the plot thickens here on this crisis that we have uncovered, thanks to the great work of partisan media reporter Ira Dreydoofus (sp?) of the Associated Press. If you’re just joining us, if you missed the first hour of the program it’s all – you shouldn’t do that, folks, you shouldn’t ever miss an hour of this program because we can’t go back and repeat them. You can join my Website and be able to have access to archives of programs, you can do it that way, but we are carrying forth one – one little issue that I got into in some detail toward the end of the previous hour. There’s this devastating study out there. We have a cultural crisis in America. Shoppers are deserting supermarkets, ladies and gentlemen, and going to discount food outlets. (gasps) And the reason is rising gasoline prices. “For financially pressed consumers, it’s coming down to a choice between spending on gasoline and groceries, and gasoline is winning.” (gasps) Oh, no. Supermarkets are losing their hold on their customers who can go to other retailers such as discount stores. No! And I – you have to listen to this paragraph. This is a survey, by the way, that was taken by supermarket retailers, a trade group. More shoppers in the survey said that they were comparison shop – NOW you have to under – let me set this up, though. You have The Media (laughter) in conjunction with Big Food (laughter) trying to create a crisis out there, an economic crisis. And there’s a political component to this as well, but they want you to believe that the economy is just horrible, that gas prices are just throwing everything out of whack. We’re all hurting. We’re all in pain, so much so that we are forced to go to discount places for our food. Not – it’s the – it’s not being reported there’s great news in that there are discount places where people can still eat while affording gasoline at the same time. No, it’s RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 presented as a crisis. And get this portrayal of the average American consumer and shopper. “More shoppers said that they were comparison shopping, looking in newspapers for sales, using coupons and rebates, stocking up on bargains even if they don’t need the items right away, buying only what was on their grocery lists. More shoppers also were keeping grocery lists, the survey found.” What’s the tag line to this? The tag line to this is “Bush in Trouble.” Now this is only what we have all been taught to do our whole lives. Not just in the area of food, everybody bargain shops. That’s why there is a Wal-Mart. That’s why there was a K-Mart. That’s why there was – is, might continue to be a Martha Stewart. This is not uncommon, yet it’s being portrayed as such. But the conflict or the – it’s a little bit of conflict, because I was just searching, and get this – this is from the PR News Wire, “Time-starved families hungry for dining out together, study finds (laughter) almost 80% of families returning to traditional family dining.” Now how in the world, if rising gas prices are causing such a crisis in the supermarket community or sector, how is it that can – people can afford to be going out to eat more than ever. “Is the frenetic pace of life forcing families to spend less time together? According to a recent study conducted by the Coca-Cola Company and supported by the National Restaurant Association, NRA II, an overwhelming number of families are finding time to dine together despite busier schedules for both parents and kids. A random sample of more than 1000 adults with children in household participated this study. Respondents were axed (sic.) to answer questions based on their dining habits as a family and the level of importance they place on regularly dining together. Dining out is key to family connection. How can this be? How can we have people struggling, sweating, slaving away, traipsing after coupons in the newspaper, looking for bargains, making lists, and then driving with expensive gasoline to the discount food mart. How can that possibly go together with more and more people eating together out. And the nut quote here, the money quote in this story, according to the statistics – “Most people have a favorite restaurant. And that was more important to them than cost. Surprisingly, the family favorite restaurant outranked affordability and balanced menu options as the number one deciding factor when selecting a restaurant.” (crumpling paper sound). Cost doesn’t matter when going out. So you can’t believe all the stuff that you – This is really just – it’s a – Most people would look at this story and shoppers deserting supermarkets, say, oh-oh, more bad economic news. That’s why we are so crucial and important here, folks, putting this in perspective, helping you to understand the good news that resides in all of these stories. I don’t go to Publix. They just said, pretty soon I’ll be the only guy in Publix. I went to Winn-Dixie. You know, what’s that . No, I do go to – I do go to Publix, but I have a different car for Publix – I have – the car that’s OK to be dented (laughter). I don’t care if somebody opens their door into it, or scratches it, or if I RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 maybe don’t stop in time and run into one of – you know, a stray shopping cart or a lamp post. (laughter) I don’t say, honey, where’s the Publix car, I ask the Butler to go get the Publix car. It’s in the garage farthest away from – from the living quarters. So (laughter) you know, we just decided here folks, we’re still looking at these – these torture pictures out of Iraq. And I – I have to tell you, we keep looking at these and when you compare – in fact, HR had a good point. He said to me over the weekend, well, I heard there were torture pictures. I said, oh, my God, I don’t want to see them. I had trouble seeing passion of the Christ, now they want me look at these torture pictures.” Oh, no. And he was expecting broken heads, blood, guts, bones everywhere, and what he thought he saw was a typical skull and bones initiation when he finally saw the torture pictures. I thought – as I’ve said, it looked like anything you can see on stage at a Madonna, Britney Spears concert. And – and I can’t – I can’t get away from the fact that – that if we really want to investigate this, send Kerry over there to look at it because he’s got experience with war atrocities. He says he committed them. And if you – now, I’m serious folks. You’ve seen these pictures. And I’m – I’m not trying to make so much light of them, but you know, we are at war. This is – they’re – they’re being – there – there’s some question about the authenticity of these pictures and – Here’s another thing. You know people love to say – the people who oppose the war and the people who oppose war, period, always like to say, but don’t challenge my patriotism, I support the troops. Do we not hear this from them all the time. I support the troops, we support the troops. Well, what does that mean? I’ve always had a problem with people who are anti-war saying they support the troops because what do the troops do? Troops go to war. How can you say you support the troops but you don’t – you don’t support what they do? In fact, you actively oppose what they do while you say you support them. Well, here’s a little test who have seen these – these torture photos and are outraged by them. If you are anti-war, if you don’t like it, but you support the troops. Let me tell you what that would mean in this context. Supporting the troops would mean understanding that we don’t know everything there is to know about this yet and you shouldn’t jump to conclusions until we do know. And even if this is as bad as all the pre-pub suggests, it isn’t the whole military, and it isn’t all of the troops, and it is not common, and it is not rote. It doesn’t happen every day. It doesn’t happen often at all. And as I said earlier, I mean, you know, a lot of businesses have flaws. I mean there are about as many soldiers here accused of torture as there are plagiarists at The New York Times and USA Today, and throughout the mainstream media, but it doesn’t tarnish and sully the whole media. For – you know, just because USA Today had two editors quit after reporter had to quit after admitting he made it all up doesn’t mean that the Atlanta newspaper’s bad. And just because Jayson Blair RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 worked at The New York Times doesn’t mean that The Los Angeles Times – well you get – That’s a bad example. But you get my drift here. So you can’t tarnish the whole military here for this as people – you’re just so eager to do this and you’ve got to be – you’ve got to put the brakes on. And when you see people eager to tarnish the entire military here because of this, it ought to send up red flags, as many red flags as the torture itself. Too many people too excited about this. Too many people too eager. Too many people say, aha, see, and think they’ve stumbled across something good for them politically by virtue of the existence of these pictures, the authenticity – authenticity of which, by the way, still has yet to be verified. Quick time out. We’ll continue in just a minute. Stay with us. RUSH: I have another shocking controversy and crisis to report to you. This one out of Florida, ladies and gentlemen. The source here, the Ft. Lauderdale South Florida Sun Sentinel. Three Hollywood High Skrool (sic.) teachers have been ordered to stop using a survey after a complaint. The survey was designed to persuade students to become Republicans. The three teachers distributed the survey to 18-year-old student – can’t have this is the public schools. You just can’t do this. I don’t know what got into these teachers. This is an act of bravery that deserves a medal and I wish there were one to – maybe the EIB mauve heart (laughter) something like that. These three teachers distributed a survey to 18-year-old students that were preparing to register to vote. Some students, in fact, did register in skrool (sic.), right after completing the survey. Now what’s wrong with that? I thought that’s what we wanted. I thought we had MTV rock the vote. I had the – Democrats are out there with the WWE, WWF in the ring trying to – trying to body slam the vote. We’ve got all these efforts being made out there. You know, bicycle riders to register to vote, we got all kinds of efforts to register to vote. So here come these three teachers and they give these kids a survey and it – kids are so excited when the finish, they go register right there in school. Can’t have that. Why? Because they registered as Republicans, some of these students did. The survey was entitled “What political party do I agree with?” “It was written by Jose Roquette (sp?).” I don’t know whether that’s Hispanic or French. Anyway he teaches – or I guess it’s a he – “teaches government and economics, according to Scott Douglas who’s a parent and the Broward school spokesman, Joe Danzelli. Students were asked whether they agree or disagree with 12 statements such as, we pay too much in taxes, I am against abortions, or we should be harder on criminals. If the student agrees with the statements, the survey says they are Republican. Yeah. So? Yippee. Nothing making them agree with it. It’s left up to them whether they agree with the statements or not. RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 “But the school spokesman, Danzelli, said the survey was written by Roquette because many students asked him what party they should join. ‘I was very upset that it’s slanted. This seemed to be designed to convince 18-year-olds they should register Republican,’ said Douglas, the parent whose daughter, Magda received the survey. Douglas complained to the principal, Joyce Ferguson, school board member Lois Wexler and various Democrat activists. Mitch Caesar, the Broward Democrat chairman said he was shocked by the survey.” They were tricked. These kids were tricked into answering questions truthfully, which led them to conclude that they might have tendencies toward being Republicans. Well – yeah – well, I can understand – the Democrats, yes, that’s true. Democrats do have problems since John Kerry is on both sides of the issue. He’s for taxes and against them and for tax cuts and against them. Theoretically you could also have said this makes you a Democrat like Kerry. But, I mean, folks, come on here. I mean this – you know damned well that if this – if these questions had been designed to elicit whether or not you’re a Democrat – Are you for abortion? (laughter) Do you think people need to pay more in taxes? And if the answers came back no, instead of yes, what would they have done? I mean, it’s – it’s – it’s – it’s – You know, I always thought that schools were places – and I’m not being naïve here – schools were places where independent thought and learning was supposed to be the order of the day. Ha, ha, ha. What we find out here, that indoctrination is the – is the order of the day. Here’s Tim in San Antonio. I’m glad you waited, sir. Nice to have you on the EIB Network. TIM: Hey, Rush, how you doing’ today? RUSH: Pretty good, sir, thank you. TIM: Hey, I’m a little confused with what’s going on with Wal-Mart. Shouldn’t the Left be happy that I can go to one place. I can buy gas. I can buy groceries, and I can buy my household goods, and I’ve saved money on all three items – RUSH: No. You are supposed to be broke. You’re supposed to be in debt, you’re not supposed to be able to find bargains because the US economy is horrible, and Bush is supposed to be in trouble because of it. But because you can go out to Wal-Mart or anyplace else and save money in one area, when the price of some other commodity or – or other thing – gasoline goes up, that’s not good for Democrats. TIM: But I want the environment also, Rush, because I’m – I’ve polluted less because I’ve only gone to one place instead of three. RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 RUSH: Yes, but there’s – if you’re going to one place instead of three, there are two places that aren’t getting your business. TIM: (laughter) RUSH: And they’re in trouble. And they’re not getting your business, not because Wal- Mart exists, but because gasoline is too high, and that’s because Bush and Cheney are getting rich with Halliburton. Which is why we went to Iraq. You got to learn how to put all this into proper context. TIM: Well, I just feel like with gas guzzler, without the $300 muffler on it, I’m just RUSH: You know, I just bought a new car. I got a – what kind of car – what kind of gas TIM: I’ve got a ’84 Monte Carlo. RUSH: Ford Monte – It’s a Chevy. Chevy makes Monte Carlo. TIM: Yeah ’84, not – RUSH: Oh, ’84 (laughter). Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Cochlear implant time. I just – How do – how many miles a gallon does that thing get? We just lost him. He was – I just – I just got a new car, folks, I have to tell you this. And I figure it this way. I figure I get a quarter of a tank to the hour driving this thing around. The second I got this new car, tooling around out there, took it for a test drive, was gone for an hour, and I looked, and I’d lost a quarter of a tank of gas. I was down three quarters of a tank, just driving it an hour. I mean not all of it was – I took it on the highway, see what it did. This baby goes zero to 60 in like five seconds, little under five seconds, and weighs 6200 pounds. Ah, ha, ha, ha. Twin (laughter) Twin turbo V-12. I mean, when I drive by a gas station, I have to fight the damn thing. It just wants to pull in there, on its own. Tim in York, Pennsylvania. Nice to have you with us, welcome to the program. TIM: Wow, I’m so happy, mega Harley dittos from York, PA. RUSH: Thank you, sir. TIM: I’m honored to be here. Yeah, I got to say something, Rush. Where – where are they taking these polls? Is it – do you have to be a registered Democrat? RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 RUSH: Which poll are you talking about now? TIM: This gas guzzler, I’ve got to go to the discount grocery store. RUSH: This – I don’t know. But this is – this is a – this is a food industry survey that they took. It was in a – released the results at their food industry trade show in – in Chicago. I guess they had all the food on display people can no longer afford to buy. TIM: Oh, my gosh, I – I went out two days ago, I just bought my big gas guzzling SUV, I got a big Dodge Durango with the biggest V8 I could get in it so I could tow my V8 gas guzzling boat, and I’m not worried about gas. I’m – I (multiple conversations; inaudible) some people, I got – RUSH: No, be – that’s the point. No, no you’re right. Nobody’s worried about gas, they’re going hungry instead, that’s what the survey – (station break) RUSH: Yeah. Here we go. OK. Welcome back. Just getting my things in order, here, for the next phone call. It’s Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network. And as you can tell, we are, as always, having more fun than human beings should be allowed to have. Glen in Philadelphia. I’m glad you waited, sir. Nice to have you on the program. GLEN: Yes, Rush. I wanted to comment on the media. When I was younger, I can remember that they would mention about Eisenhower – RUSH: (laughter) The Media. (laughter) GLEN: That he couldn’t reach – that he could reach the masses because he was, he wasn’t really that smart and Adlai Stevenson was so smart that he wasn’t able to reach the common man and that’s why Stevenson lost. And being a youngster at that time, I grew up believing this until I got – obviously – until I got a little older and started understanding what went on. My brother had mentioned to me that Eisenhower wrote his memoirs, and a fellow that goes over it – you know, put it in book for him – checks for punctuation and misspellings – couldn’t find a thing wrong with this when he got done and he said it was the first time that that’s ever happened and I’m thinking to myself, Jeez. And here is a stupid guy that ran the country for eight years that ran around on golf courses. That’s all I remember the media saying. RUSH: Well (laughter), let me tell you about that. (laughter) RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 GLEN: Pardon me? RUSH: I have a great line about that. GLEN: What’s that? RUSH: Well, you see, Eisenhower came out of World War II. GLEN: Yes. RUSH: And what did he do to the enemy? He shot them. You know, and if they got in the way, they were there. He shot them. So he gets elected President and the figured out he couldn’t shoot members of Congress, so he said, “The hell with it.” And he just went, played golf. Joined Augusta National and played golf. And I’m convinced the less politicians do, in a day-to-day basis, the better off we all are. The less laws they make, the less they care about it, the less they mess around with all that, the better off we are. And Eisenhower – look it. It’s a joke, but, I mean, your point is well made about – and it just goes to show you how long elitists have been around. And elitism is typified by this business – Adlai Stevenson, too smart to reach the common man. Of course, it wasn’t Stevenson’s fault. It’s the common man’s fault for being so stupid and they just don’t know how stupid and dumb they are for missing out on such a brilliant opportunity as to be lead by Adlai Stevenson. Now, the reason Glen is bringing this up, here, folks, is because he’s been waiting since almost the beginning of the program, because I was given a little review of my John Kerry stack today. And there’s a story by Karen Tumulty in Time Magazine, which basically says that John Kerry is too smart to be a presidential candidate. And the headline of her piece is – and I kid you not – “What Kerry Means to Say.” And it – a sub-head – “He is tripping over himself on the trail, but not without little help from the Bush campaign.” Now, let me read to you just a few excerpts of this piece, again, “What Kerry Means to Say.” So here’s another member of the media (laughter) who has decided – ah. It’s a little private joke I have going on here, folks, but you have a member of the media, now saying, we’ve got to help the guy out. He can’t – it’s like remember when Kerry – see, this is back, I think, in the primaries, or shortly after. The primary’s still going on, but he’d either won the nomination, or was very close to it. And he somebody at CBS asked him a question. And 10 minutes later, the CBS producers, “Could you try that again? You didn’t give us anything we can use, here, as a good sound bite. Could you try take two?” And so Kerry did a second take and they used it! RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 My friends, this opportunity has never been afforded me. It would never be afforded Bush. In fact, when it’s Bush, they ask the same question six times, trying to trip him up to get the answer they want. With John Kerry, they let him answer it as many times as he needs to get it right, according to what they would like for him to say in a support sense. So the Karen Tumulty piece, here, “What Kerry Means to Say,” is an attempt to tell us because we’re too stupid to understand what he’s saying – what he means – so that we’ll get it. So that we’ll like him. And so that we’ll be dazzled, and mesmerized, and star struck, and impressed and eager to go to the polls to pull the lever, or punch the screen, or whatever you’re going to do for John Kerry. “Never had John Kerry encountered a more target-rich environment in the week that saw the Bush White House hauled in to explain itself to both the Supreme Court and the 9/11 Commission, not to mention the first anniversary of the aircraft carrier landing that turned ‘mission accomplished’ into a punch line. But what did the challenger, Kerry, find himself talking about for three days? The question of what, precisely, he tossed over a fence in front of the Capitol during an antiwar protest 33 years ago.” Karen Tumulty, not happy. Karen Tumulty, flummoxed. Karen Tumulty, in dismay. Cannot believe that her candidate is such a dunce, is such a dolt. And so it can’t be that he is a dunce or dolt. He just too far above us. And he can’t figure out how to get down to our level so that we understand his nuances and his brilliance. We’re all waiters at Tina Brown’s serious Manhattan dinner parties. “The point of contention,” back now to Karen Tumulty of The Media (laughter) “The point of contention was whether the much decorated Vietnam veteran who still carries shrapnel in his thigh threw away medals as he told a local Washington TV station in 1971, or ribbons, which is how he subsequently described them alternatively to everybody else. While political hands of both parties expressed wonderment over how it was that any politician could find himself on the defensive about his own medals for valor and sacrifice.” Yeah. Oh – grab audio sound bite – what is it? It’s audio sound bite number 10. You’ve got – did you see Dole, yesterday, on the tube? Bob Dole was on FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace. I watched a replay last night while I was on EIB One, coming up here. And there’s a newspaper story from the Associated Press that goes along with what Dole said. It’s unbelievable. The headline of the story, “Dole rises to Kerry’s defense over Vietnam.” Now, I want to play you what Dole said and you tell me, if this sounds to you like Dole is rising to Kerry’s defense. The question from Chris Wallace – “In your view, are ribbons and medals interchangeable and does this matter when we’re choosing a President?” RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 DOLE: I don’t think it matters. I mean, I don’t know whether he threw away his ribbons, his shirt, or his medals, or but I’m proud of mine, and I’ve kept them, and I think most veterans are. And I don’t know what possessed John – I don’t know. He came back, came out against the Vietnam war, but her made his point and he’s going to have to live with it. I think some of the things he said were probably not very good judgment, but he was a much younger man then, without much experience in public life, but that’s the record. WALLACE: And so, that’s something that people should take into account? Is that the – DOLE: Well, I think so. I mean, when you come back, when first you brag about all the medals you have and being wounded three times and things of that kind, then you throw everything away and join the other side, it’s going to be fairly hard to explain, particularly to veterans. RUSH: All right. Does that sound like Dole is defending John Kerry? Well, the headline here – who’s the info babe? Jennifer Kerr, K-E-R-R. Might be pronounced, “care.” “Dole Rises to Kerry’s Defense Over Vietnam.” Didn’t happen. You just heard it. There’s no way that that’s a ringing endorsement, or even a defense of what Dole said regarding Kerry. So – and here’s Karen Tumulty. She can’t believe either. She can’t believe that this is an issue. She doesn’t understand it. And we’re the stupid ones. We’re the ones out of touch, folks. We are the ones who think there’s something odd about a guy coming back, bragging about his medals and showing everybody and then making a big show of throwing them and not throwing them, but making everybody believe they were his, and then it turns out it was ribbons. And they don’t – they, in the media – don’t understand?! And this is all because John Kerry’s too smart? Just doesn’t know, understand how to talk to us? Get this. Here’s more from Karen Tumulty of the media. “But (laughter) the flap was instructive about the kind of traps the Bush campaign is adept at setting for Kerry, and a personality trait that makes Kerry walk right into them – that Bush allies would unearth and quietly slip the ’71 videotape to two news outlets – tells you that the Republicans are doing what the Kerry campaign had expected them to do all along – playing hardball – but that Kerry could be so ensnared in the ribbons versus medals controversy tells you why so many Democrats started to get nervous whenever the Massachusetts Senator opens his mouth without a script.” So it’s Bush’s fault? It’s – pardon – it’s – I’m incredulous! It’s Bush’ fault that Peter Jennings aired that 1971 video of John Kerry? No, Karen. He aired it because Kerry lied to Peter Jennings last December. It’s – unbelievable. The Bush allies – “that Bush allies would unearth and quietly slip the 1971 videotape to two news outlets tells you that the Republicans are doing what the Kerry campaign had expected them to do all along.” RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 So it’s Bush. It’s a trick, folks. It was hardball tactics. It was street tactics. Bush slipped a video to Peter Jennings and Peter Jennings was tricked into using it too. Unbelievable. You know what the next thing we’re going to hear is? Bush is the reason the last episode of Friends airs Thursday night. We’ll be back in just a second. (station break) RUSH: Little bump music, there, from Tommy Tight Pants. Rush Limbaugh back here in the EIB Network. Just one little more additional quote from the Karen Tumulty piece, a piece authored in total frustration over the ineptitude and ineptness of John Kerry, meant to be transposed as the ineptitude of the audience to understand what he’s saying. “Kerry’s verbal meanderings are partly a reflection of a mind that sees complexity in almost every issue. The son of a diplomat, educated partly in boarding schools in Europe, Kerry learned to look at current affairs from multiple perspectives. Says an advisor, ‘It’s not like he’s trying to shade the truth. He just over-intellectualizes his explanations.’” (yawn) Can you wake me up when it’s over? He doesn’t over-intellectualize anything. There’s – that’s – there’s the absence of intellectualization in these answers. His every answer is, “I – I have a better plan and I’ll do it smarter. We’ve got to find a way to be better, and I’m John Kerry.” And that’s it. I mean, here. Here, The New York Times. This is actually late yesterday, in the newspaper today. “Kerry Struggling to Find a Theme, Democrats fear. “Two months after Senator Kerry effectively captured the Democratic Presidential nomination, Party officials say his campaign’s being regularly out-maneuvered by the White House as it struggles to find a focus and to make the transition from the primaries to the fight with George W. Bush. Even while expressing confidence about Kerry’s prospects, Democratic party officials said they are concerned about how they are what they described as his trouble in settling on a defining theme for his candidacy, the pace of his advertising and his progress in setting up field organizations in battleground states. ‘George Bush has had three of the worst months of his presidency, but they’re stuck and they got to move past this moment,’ said Donna Brazile.” Meaning, the Kerry campaign. They’re stuck, even though Bush is having the worst months of his presidency. “While Ms. Brazile said she thought Kerry had the time and the political skill and the money to defeat what many democrats described as a highly vulnerable President, she said, this is a very crucial moment in the campaign.” And they go on to talk – here’s Edwards, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, who wants to be the veep, ostensibly, supposedly, “has told aides over the past two RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 weeks that he is concerned by signs of trouble in Mr. Kerry’s campaign, advisors said. Mr. Edwards disputed that characterization of his views in an interview on Saturday, saying, he thought Kerry was running a strong campaign.” Folks, it’s really bad out there and they’re talking about him behind his back. And then there’s somebody – people leaking what’s being said about Kerry behind his back and then these people are confronted with what they believe and they’re denying it. But “over-intellectualizes?” “Is too smart for the room?” “What Kerry means to say?” Look, Karen and all the rest of you in the media, let me tell you what the problem is and it’s real simple. It’s something called passion and I’m probably going to be criticized by people for offering assistance, here, but I feel confident that my advice will not be taken and acted upon by my good friends, the liberal Democrats that listen to this program. Your candidate cannot tell anybody why he wants to be president. I don’t think he knows. And until he finds out – or maybe he knows, but it’s such a specious reason, he doesn’t dare say. “I want to be President because I like the staff in the White House. I want to be President because I want a valet and it’s mine and not my wife’s. I want a – I want to be President because I want to be able to tell the head waiter of the table what I’m having instead of listening to my wife do it.” Whatever his reasons are. “I want to be President because I’m entitled to it because I was in Vietnam and I have shrapnel in my left buttocks.” Whatever the reason is, he either can’t say, or he doesn’t know, but it comes across as no passion. If you are passionate about something, you don’t have any problem communicating your desire because passion is the foundation of your desire, or it could be the other way around – desire, foundation of passion. It’s like a chicken or egg thing. The fact is clear that if you are desirous, if you want something – and this is a trait that all Presidential candidates have. You have to want it so badly, you put up with all this media anal exam you get every day and all this stuff that you go through – the end of your privacy, the delving into every aspect of your life. You got to really want something very badly to put up with that. And part of your passion is you have to think the country can’t get along without you. Now, it may not be healthy and may not be normal, but that’s what all these people have to one degree or another. John Kerry has a central theme and it’s futility. He looks futile. His campaign appears futile. His friends in The Media are getting worried at the futility, and he looks at America and thinks all of us are feeling futile. He thinks that the outlook that we have on our lives is futility. And so I guess he’s trying to relate to us, but there’s no passion for anything other than I mean, in fact, the passion on the Democrat side, period, is not for what they want to do for America. The passion they hold is, we hate Bush. We got to get rid of Bush. Beyond that, it’s a mystery. RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 So you can sit there, Karen Tumulty, and you can – and I’m all – listen. Trying to be helpful, here. You can sit there and worry all you want and wring your hands that this guy’s got to figure out how to communicate to all the rest of us peasants. And you can try to translate what he’s saying for us, since we’re too stupid to get it. Or you can lean on him to try to get more common in his life and approach and speech pattern, so forth. But until this guy finds a way to act like he really, really cares and wants this more than anything in the world, in a healthy sense, I mean, has got some passion for it, all this is academic. And, yes – I do know what I mean by the definition of the word, academic, as used in this context. Back shortly, ladies and gentlemen. The next hour, I’m going to develop a theme that I just briefly touched upon and that is this – is George Bush responsible for the final episode of Friends airing Thursday night? Were it not for Bush, in other words, were it not for Bush, would Friends still be a TV show after Thursday? It’s an interesting theory I’ve evolved. I’ll share it with you in due course. Stay with us. (station break) RUSH: There’s not enough time to be fair with other phone calls. So we’ll do this. You know, the final episode of Friends coming up on Thursday and I have – it’s possible that it’s Bush’s fault that Friends is coming to a close. We’ll analyze. Well, you know, Bush responsible for everything else. So we’ll try to explain this to you in a way that the Left will say, yeah. He may have a point. Also – and this Dole story, the headline, “Dole Comes to Kerry’s Defense,” is that there’s another little story in this AP dispatch. Governor Jeanne Shaheen is urging women to – and she says, “I know it’s hard – listen to Rush Limbaugh and call him and straighten things out.” And she’s part of the Kerry campaign. So be on the look out in there for women for Kerry. We haven’t – you’re still not getting any pro-Kerry phone calls. And nobody can tell you why. Yeah. Come on, gals. Let’s hear from you. HOUR 3 RUSH: Hi folks, welcome back. Great to have you with us. The final hour of today’s excursion into broadcast excellence is officially underway. Rush Limbaugh here in the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have. I am your host for life doing what I was born to do. Our telephone number if you’d like to join us is 800-282-2882 and the e-mail address [email protected]. You’ve seen the ratings for Nightline Friday night? They are down over the previous Friday. Well, this is when they – yeah, imagine that. The ratings for the episode, the issue, the edition of Nightline where they flashed the pictures of the RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 dead from the military in Iraq. Down, significantly so in some of the – in the – in the major markets. Now – now every way you look out there, ladies and gentlemen, newspapers, television, magazines, wherever you look, the final episode of Friends. Newspapers are running retrospectives over the years of some of the highlights of this program, but whatever you read, the final episode of Friends, the question comes up – the question arises because George Bush is so responsible for so much, Bush is responsible for rising gasoline prices which is forcing people to go hungry, or to shop in discount food marts, at some point will the Left attempt to blame George W. Bush for the ending of the Friends episode – the Friends series? And in that case, when will John Kerry pledge to bring Friends back on the air because George Bush killed it? Now, don’t misunderstand. I don’t expect Wolf Blitzer or Judy Woodruff to ever come out and accuse Bush of causing Friends to go off the air. I mean, I don’t think it’s going to be that blatant. But on the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised if – if either of them or both of them, or somebody in the media, would report that there are those in the Democrat Party who see a connection between the Bush presidency and the end of Friends. Now, I know you – what – Rush, what are you doing? This is valuable programming time. By the – can I ask a question? I need to ask some – look at all of you straight in the eye – I’m talking to my staff here, folks, but I want you to hear this. Here at the EIB Northern Command, I have my own private restroom, lock and all. And I’ve been in there a lot of times. There’s something different in there now, and I want to know who put my autographed Buzz Aldrin on the moon picture in the bathroom. There is – my – my autographed picture of the 18th hole on Pebble Beach is there. There’s my interview from “The Grill Room,” which is a column in a golf magazine. Bob – Bob Verdi. There’s potpourri – of course, there’s potpourri in there, but I’m talking about – of all things – Buzz Aldrin on the moon, an autographed Buzz Aldrin pic – it’s right there on the wall as I am in the bathroom. Now, Cookie did it – Cookie did it. What I would like to know is how do any of these pictures end up in a bathroom. It’s not as though I spend time in there, you know, looking at the walls and gazing around. It’s not a room I would take anybody into, say, “I want to show you my Buzz Aldrin autographed on the moon picture.” Yeah. Don’t give me, it’s the moon. I’m embarrassed to say this publicly. Buzz Aldrin is a hero of mine, and I’ve got an autographed picture of him on the moon, and where is it? Right above my toilet, in the bathroom. And – I mean, the – what do you mean “noticed, finally?” How long has it been in there? You just did it Friday. That's what I’m saying, because I’ve been in there a lot of times before this and there was nothing there. RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 If we’re going to put pictures on the wall of a bathroom, can I give you some suggestions? Like how about my Publix’s car, the one that I – (laughter) Give me a – just – yeah – a picture of John Kerry goes in there, something like that – Teddy Kennedy. You know, that’s who we need in the bathroom, for crying out loud. I’ll send you a picture of the car I take to the grocery store, when I go, because the one – I don’t care if it gets damaged. It’s in a far away garage. An autographed Buzz Aldrin moon picture, right there in the bathroom behind the toilet. I’ll never understand decorators. I will never, ever, ever understand decorators. All right, where was I? Oh yes. What I expect to happen with the media (laughter) and, well – well – it’s embarrassing is what it is. I mean, he’s got a – it’s the nicest little greeting on there from Buzz Aldrin – and it’s in the bathroom. If – I mean, I can understand it if I took people into the bathroom to show them my bathroom, but I mean, I haven’t developed that as a – as a habit as a host. “Here, let me show you my bathroom. Can I show you the drain in the shower? You know what goes in there?” Where was I? Oh yes. Is it any sillier than blaming Bush – this business about blaming him for the end of Friends – is it any sillier than blaming him for the stuff they blame him for now? You know, when Bush warned that the war on terrorism would be unlike any war in history, he was right, and he had no idea how right he was. So I have a question for you Liberals out there – and you Moderates, too, and you Independents. After the way that you are behaving during this threat to our nation and the world, do any of you actually think that your guy in office would unite the country? Do you think all you have to do is get rid of Bush and put John Kerry in there and magically the country is going to be unified? Is that what you think? Is this the way you behave during a war? You think any Democrat, any Liberal, any Moderate could unite us after the way you have been behaving? I mean, so your effort to say that Bush is dividing the country, Bush is responsible for all these outrageous things. I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody does try to blame Bush for what’s going wrong on television, such as Friends, because nobody wants it to end. Louis Farrakhan, Calypso Louie, “upset over the torture of prisoners in Iraq and other things. He spoke to the National Press Club in Washington today.” He had something he wanted to say to John Kerry and this is it. FARRAKHAN: Martin Luther King, before he passed from us, said, “I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than to justice, who prefers a negative RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 peace, which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.’ Senator Kerry – RUSH: Oh, my God. I don’t believe you. FARRAKHAN: – you come off as a moderate, a white moderate, who prefers order – RUSH: No, you don’t know what I’m going “I don’t believe this” about. One of the undeniable truths of life defines peace as the absence of threat and the presence of justice and he just stole it. Calypso Louie stealing from me to go after John Kerry. This is the only time I can ever recall Calypso Louie making sense about anything. He’s right about this, about moderates and they prefer order over justice. He’s exactly right. I have got to pause and gather myself, my friends. We’ll be back here in just a second. (station break) RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Boy, you ought to hear the excuses flying fast now about how my Buzz Aldrin autographed on the moon picture ended up in my bathroom on the wall. I get this note from Cookie. It says, “Well, I’m just – I’m sorry about it. The walls in there were bare, and I wanted to pretty up the place for you. Buzz was in a closet and now he’s in a better place.” Right. He’s in a water closet. You know. Let’s – let – let’s put a little caption under the picture. “The eagle has landed.” Let’s just close the loop on this. Here’s more of Calypso Louie. Oh, I have to – folks, this is eerie. It – it really is. The – one of my 35 Undeniable Truths of Life is a definition of peace, and I – in my – the way I wrote it says, “To oppressive regimes, to dictators, to communists or whatever, peace is the absence of threat. To free people, peace is the presence of justice.” And that’s exactly what Calypso Louie said here in that bite. He says that a negative peace, which is the absence of tension – replacing threat with tension – to a positive peace which he – peace, which he says is the presence of justice. This is eerie. This is really, really eerie. In a piece in which he rips John Kerry for being a moderate white. Now, here’s more Calypso Louie from the Washington Press Club today. Warning Democrats here what they have to do if they want his vote. FARRAKHAN: If you want our vote in this most critical election RUSH: Nineteen. FARRAKHAN: – I’m warning the black leadership – RUSH: Nineteen. FARRAKHAN: – don’t sell out your people – RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 RUSH: Nineteen. FARRAKHAN: – for that which the Koran calls “that which happened to the magicians of Pharaoh. They were promised wealth and myrrh, Mr. Pharaoh, and a slave may want some money and to be seen in the halls of power, but no justice coming to the suffering masses.” RUSH: What is he saying? FARRAKHAN: I conclude by saying I have been a faithful warner to you. I know that the Sanhedrin will meet after this speech and they will decide what to do with me. You may do as you please, but if this country is to survive, it must renounce and repudiate the doctrine of the Neo-Conservatives and distance this country from their agenda. RUSH: I think this guy is too smart for us, too, folks. I – I – I do not understand what he saying, other than his Neo-Con line. (laughter) Always a thrill to have Calypso Louie here on the program. Here, listen to one more. He gets a question here. This is Infobabe April Ryan of the American Urban Networks. She says, “You say in your speech that America’s on a course that is difficult for her to change and it seems at this time America, particularly black America, has to choose between the lesser of two evils. In your opinion, where would – where would you go at this point right now, as far as the election? If the election were held today, who would you choose?” FARRAKHAN: I would choose neither if it were up to me, but our people are the – I would say sold to the Democratic Party. As a result of that, the Democratic Party owes us something and we should demand it. Listen to me carefully. I listened to the words of Senator Kerry. He’s the flip side of the coin of President Bush. You will not find real change that will benefit the masses of black people – RUSH: Wrong. He’s not the flip side of the coin, he’s both sides of the coin. Calypso Louie doesn’t get it and – here’s a story – this is just – you wonder why we call him Calypso Louie. He took the time to explain it. FARRAKHAN: I was a calypso singer and Harry Belafonte was in the Broadway show RUSH: Dey-oh. FARRAKHAN: – and he had to go to Hollywood to make the movie Carmen Jones so they were asking for those who would audition for his role. I was one of those who auditioned, didn’t get the role, but if I had gotten the role, I would have to walk in his shoes and play his parts. Do you think NATO wants to walk in America’s RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 shoes and play her part as an occupying force? Do you think that NATO is stupid when your arrogance said you could go it alone, you didn’t need the United Nations? Now that you’re in there with your foot caught in a bear trap, you’re looking for help everywhere? RUSH: Don’t you like how this guy gets from point A to point B? (laughter) The scary thing is that there are people that understand him. Michael Jackson, call home. John in Houston, Texas, welcome to the EIB Network. I’m glad you called. Welcome. JOHN: Hey, I’m glad you got – I’m glad to be on your show, Rush. Hey, listen. Calypso Louie, there, you know what he’s doing? He is pretending, or thinking to himself, or setting himself as Jesus Christ before the Sanhedrin before they crucify him. That’s – I don’t know. That’s just a thought, but I mean he probably thinks he’s Jesus Christ, now. RUSH: Who knows. I – you know, he obviously thinks he’s something and he’s got some – some kind of a complex, but I – if you got that – I applaud you because you – you – you – you got – you got more out of this than I did. If – if – if you were able to come to that conclusion, then you are – you are far more elite and capable than I. Jeff in Short Hills, New Jersey, hi. Thanks for waiting. Welcome to the EIB Network. JEFF: Hi, Rush. How’s it going? RUSH: Pretty well sir, thanks. Never better, actually. JEFF: That’s great. I just wanted to comment on the pictures of the Iraqi prisoners. RUSH: Yes. JEFF: You know, a lot of people compare those images to the images of our civilian contractors that were mutilated and hung from bridges in Fallujah. RUSH: Did I lose him or is he – JEFF: Are you there? RUSH: Oh, there you are. OK, yeah. I thought – I – that there was somebody else that RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 RUSH: Don’t – you – you think that the – these pictures are not as bad as what you saw JEFF: Yeah, well, I mean like I just think it’s so strange that people are actually shocked by these images. I mean, look what they do to our people. I mean, look at the convoy that was attacked – the one that Hamil’s in. They mutilated those bodies. It’s just like – you’ve got to understand our enemies. Just like you said, we’re at war. RUSH: Yeah, I know. This is – this is one of the problems. You have a free press, free media. You’ve got now 24-7 news cycle and you’re not going to stop these pictures. You’re not going to stop this stuff from being shown. So it’s silly to lament it. But at the same time, it’s worth taking the time to try to inform people hey, this is – this is – this kind of stuff has always happened, you’ve just never seen it. And – and to act outraged by it and to penalize our effort here, we’re – we are the good guys, you know. We are the good guys. We are defending ourselves here. I don’t know. It’s frustrating. It – it – it – it – it never ceases, never – never ends and never ceases to frustrate me how – how these kinds of things can be globbed onto, taken out of context and assumed to be representative of standard operating procedure when they’re not. And like I said earlier, I mean, people love to run around saying “we support the troops.” These are people that don't support them but they know it’s unpatriotic to say that, so they say they support the troops, but they have to say next, “I don’t support what they’re doing, I – I – I’m not for the war, but I support the troops.” Good, well what do the troops do? Troops fight wars. They go out there – the purpose of troops is to kill people and break things. May we be honest? The purpose of armies – an old buddy from Sacramento, decorated veteran for Vietnam BT Collins, wrote a frustrated letter to the editor of the Sacramento Bee once when a – when a bunch of, you know, little Neanderthals out there were upset over some stupid atrocity that had been pictured in some war some place. He said, “What do you think the purpose of armies is? The purpose of armies to kill people and break things. Pure and simple.” And you should have seen the reaction that got. “Why, that’s terrible. Why, I never heard anything so mean. Why, I can’t believe you published that letter.” Well, what – what – it – this is reality. The purpose of armies is to kill people and break things. That’s – that’s how you define who wins. So these things are all part of it, and if everybody with this judgment is correct, this is far less, by the way, than what has been done to our own troops. RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 RUSH: And we’re back. I want to stick with the audio sound bites just a couple more. Old Duke Cunningham’s on a roll here, folks. This Vietnam jet fighter ace, Duke Cunningham, is a Congressman, and he is the first Vietnam fighting ace, and he is just firing both barrels at John Francois Kerry. He gave it to Bob Schaeffer (sp?) and Max Cleveland (sp?) on this chicken hawk BS by rattling off all of Kerry’s votes to cut defense. This on Sway the Nation yesterday, Congressman Randy Duke Cunningham, Republican of California. And Bob Schaeffer said, “Seems to me that what’s happening here, we have a war going on in Iraq, but somehow the attack operations of both this campaign seem to be trying to refire the Vietnam War. Let me just tell you about some of the rhetoric this week, much of it coming from the Hill. At one point, Senator Lautenberg” – he’s a Democrat – “called Vice President Cheney a chicken hawk and a House Republican called John Kerry ‘Hanoi Jane’ – or ‘Hanoi John,’ but I think you, Congressman, said, ‘We don’t need Jane Fonda as commander in chief.’” What – what – what – what’s going on here? CUNNINGHAM: Well, it’s not about Vietnam. It’s about Senator Kerry’s voting record that bothers me, since that time. And his rhetoric during that time and even today, the enemy uses that as propaganda. If you look, even after the World Trade Center, the first bombing of it, he voted to cut intelligence $6 billion. I mean, that was irresponsible. Max, my good friend on the other side here, George is building the F-22, our F-14s, 15s, 16s and 18s are deficient compared to the SU-30 and SU-37, which are Russian fighters, and he voted against those that mean our kids would die, and it’s just wrong. He votes against veterans’ COLAs (sp?), against military COLAs, and he votes against our defense and intel services, and that, to me, is irresponsible. And I don’t want somebody in there that's going to vote like Jane Fonda as commander in chief. RUSH: So Schaeffer says, “I mean, when you call somebody who won a Silver Star ‘Jane Fonda,’ you’re almost challenging your patriotism, aren’t you? I mean, irresponsibility may be one thing, but to accuse somebody of being ‘Jane Fonda,’ is that fair?” CUNNINGHAM: Yes it is, Bob, because he would vote just like Jane Fonda votes. He’s anti-defense. He’s anti-military. Liberal. And you don’t want somebody like that that would vote like Jane Fonda or Tom Hayden or Ramsey Clark or Ted Kennedy. People like that that would depreciate our military and our intelligence services in a time of war. SCHAEFFER: All right, well let’s see what a war – RUSH: You know, that is – that sort of just encapsulates this – encapsulates this in a nutshell. You know, brevity is the soul of wit, and it’s – it’s – it’s well known that the fewer words you use, the more powerful your impact. And for Duke Cunningham to say, yeah, he’d vote just like Jane Fonda votes, what more do you RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 need to know? What more do you need to hear about the guy? He’s anti-defense, he’s anti-military Liberal, and you just don’t want somebody like that that would vote like Jane Fonda or Tom Hayden or Ramsey Clark. (as Schaeffer) “How could you say he’s like Jane Fonda?” Because he’d vote just like Jane Fonda would, that’s how I can say it. I have an e-mail from a friend here I want to share with you. “I was thinking over the weekend about Charles Rangel saying that people had to go to Iraq because the economy here was so bad. And I was thinking of this when Mr. Hamil broke free over the weekend. Robert Hamil was a dairy farmer in Macon. Have you seen these people, these darling people from that town of his on TV? They’re so wonderfully American. They’re so happy that their son is OK. They’re going to have a parade that will never end, they said. The dairy farm he owned wasn’t working out to well. He needed to pay off some debts. So he sold his cows, he signed up to go to work in Iraq as a truck driver for a subsidiary of Halliburton. Not a glamorous job, not an easy way out. It was risky, but it paid 80 grand a year and he had a family to support. He didn’t sign up for government subsidy. He went out and got a job. Now, of course, Liberals are out there saying that people are forced to go to work in Iraq because there aren’t any jobs here and they’re saying it’s mostly minorities and it’s not fair, but Mr. Hamil is white, he’s not a minority. And bless his little heart, after he spoke to his family, he wanted to know when he could get back to work.” Imagine that, he’s – he gets taken prisoner, escapes on his own, walks a half mile to the nearest passing US convoy, takes people that rescued him – or found him – back to where his captors were and the captors are now captured. And he called his family and said, “I’m OK.” And he wants to go back to work. That is just powerful. And it’s just – I mean, it’s just – to me it is just so typically and positively American. Here’s a historic New Haven, Connecticut – “The Derby, Connecticut skrool (sic.) system is considering a plan that would give children food to bring home on weekends. Lenore Carloni of Sodexho, the company that runs the food services program for city skrools (sic.) wants to launch the Backpackers Program. Basically the program would give some food to needy children who otherwise might not have enough food on weekends. They would get a backpack on Friday stuffed with non-perishable food items. The backpacks would be returned on Mondays and refilled the next weekend. Lenore Carloni says she’s trying to find sponsors and volunteers for the Backpackers Program and has distributed a flyer to all teachers in the district. Organizers estimate it would cost about $5 for each child for each month.” Now, we’ve got school breakfast, every day, we’ve got school lunch. I have heard – isn’t there a program for school meals in the summer when there’s no school? RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 Yes. And now school meals on weekends. School meals on weekends. I – I think – I think it’s a much better – I was just going to say don’t give them backpacks. Give them gasoline vouchers so that their parents can go to the discount store and get some food, or else go to the restaurant, where more and more families are going to have communal dining time. Unbelievable. Here’s Patricia in – in Tallahassee. Nice to have you on the program. Welcome. PATRICIA: I can’t believe I finally got through. I’ve been listening to you for a while and – can I make a quick comment about Election 2000, since I was here? RUSH: You want to make a comment about Election 2000. Oh yeah, yeah. PATRICIA: Can I do that or – RUSH: Oh, you mean Election 2000 in Florida. Yeah. PATRICIA: Do I need to go straight to my point or can I make a comment about that? RUSH: No. You’re here. You’re there. You were – yeah, go for it. PATRICIA: I was actually really there. I worked for the state of Florida at that time and was in the capital often during the whole – where all the media would set up around the – around the capitol and everything. It was unbelievable, but the thing that was most interesting to me – and I tried to call you several times during the election – or during the post-election media campaign, but you were the only one that got it right. I swear, I thought you must have had some kind of – of mole in the capitol or something like that. You were the only one who gave the straight story. And even when I would go down there and question some of these reporters, they were just appalled that I was in any way supportive of Bush and they just couldn’t believe it. And it was just unbelievable to me how mean and misrepresentative they were of what was going on down here. RUSH: The media. PATRICIA: So anyway, that’s my comment. You were the only one who got it right. RUSH: The media strikes – I’m glad you discovered that on your own. Thank you. PATRICIA: But my comment was I am – agree with your earlier caller about the photos, and how it doesn’t even compare with what the photos that we’ve seen of the actual torture that has taken place with our troops, and the other folk that are over there in Iraq. RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/03/04 But I am more offended by the erectile dysfunction ads that come on during all hours of television. The other night, there were, I think, two different ones competing during prime time news hour on regular ABC, CBS, NBC types of programs. And I just can’t even believe it. I mean, I have young children. I’m sitting there watching the national news, and you have these erectile dysfunctions, and they’re trying to outdo each other. And they talk about the quality of the response and things like that, and I’m like come on. I can’t believe they’re even – RUSH: Our your kids watching with you, is that what you said? PATRICIA: Well, I mean, you know, we’re making dinner and – RUSH: OK, well I want to know what they ask you. I mean, what do they see these PATRICIA: Well, my kids are old enough that they know what that means. (laughter) RUSH: Oh. Well, how old are your kids? PATRICIA: Well, I have a 16 – a 17-year-old and a 12-year-old, but – RUSH: The odds are they’ve known about this for – PATRICIA: Oh, they’ve known about it. The thing is – RUSH: – years. PATRICIA: – we’re all embarrassed. We all turn red whenever those ads come on. I

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