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June 22, 2005 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:23
June 22, 2005, Wednesday, Hour #1
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It uh it's it certainly seems, ladies and gentlemen, the Senate is awash in tears uh lately.
Uh Senator Dick Turban uh apologized, said he apologized.
We'll examine whether this was indeed or is an apology.
Some people have their doubts.
But we're gonna do something more than that.
We're gonna get beyond the apology.
We're gonna look how this look at how this actually works for Republicans versus Democrats in Washington, and we will revisit the Trent Lott episode, and you will see a marked difference in the way both parties deal with uh these kinds of things.
Greetings, welcome Rush Limbaugh here, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, and three hours straight ahead here from the Limbaugh Institute for advanced conservative studies.
So Durbin says he apologizes.
Now, if we take that at face value, I mean I guess that means that all his other comments last week, attacking Republicans, etc., uh were then bold face lies as well.
And I find it just fascinating.
Here, here Durbin is apologizing for whatever he thinks he did.
And by the way, here here's here's really the crux of it.
Durbin said some of some may believe that my remarks crossed the line.
To them, I extend my heartfelt apologies.
He basically, folks, he's he's he's apologizing if you were offended.
He's not apologizing for what he said.
He's apologizing if you were offended by what he said.
Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line.
To them I extend my heartfelt apologies.
He doesn't retract the remarks, and he doesn't say I was wrong.
Now you might think this is nitpicking, uh, and you might say, come on, Rush, just move on, can you?
And and that's what the Libs are all saying, and I find that an interesting phrase, move on.org.
Come on, Rush, let's move on.
It's over with now.
Let's get on with it.
Well, this is not how it went down when Trent Lott was put through this.
And that's part of what I want to review as we uh go through all of this now.
And of course, we will take your your comments uh on this.
Uh Senator Durbin also continued to blame uh uh people like me.
He didn't mention me this time, but he blamed people like me for ginning this up uh into a into a huge controversy.
And even the Washington Post today uh the comparison that ends the conversation.
Senator is latest to regret Nazi analogy.
Uh it's by Mark Liebovich, and here's how the story starts.
Someone should uh should post a sign in the Senate cloakroom or wherever important people who uh should know better will see it.
The sign would warn politicians against comparing anything to the Nazis or Hitler or the Holocaust.
These comparisons are not a good idea, repeat, not a good idea.
It'll only bring a massive headache, as Senator Richard Durbin has learned.
So once again, the the the mainstream press in Washington advising Durbin and others how not to have to go through this again.
Not to don't say it because it's wrong.
If you want to avoid this, don't do this.
If this were a Republican who had said this, there would be no advisory pieces in the Washington Post, no helpful hints, uh nothing of the sort.
And even in this piece, I, ladies and gentlemen, get blamed for being a participant.
And one of the causes of this increased rancor.
All of this is consistent with the escalation of political rhetoric in general, says Deborah Tannin, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown and an expert on political discourse.
She mentions the Senate debate over filibusters in which the nuclear option loomed.
And conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, who rails against feminizes.
It's all part of the same verbal inflation, Tannin says, adding that feminists generally refrain from torturing people.
Folks, they can't keep me out of the news no matter how they try.
It's just, I'm now responsible.
I have heated the political rhetoric.
It's because of people like me and the nuclear option being used by Republicans that Durbin did this.
Because people like me and the Republicans have simply turned up the Gas turned up the juice here on all of the incendiary rhetoric and we're heating it up.
And it's really, it's not Durbin's fault, just nobody else.
It's just it's just part of the way things are going.
What is this line here?
Uh Deborah Tannin adding that feminists generally refrain from torturing people.
What's the I'll tell you what have well she I she's she's a political expert when she's needed to be a political expert.
She's another linguistics expert.
This one from Georgetown, George Lackoff rhymes with is from Berkeley.
Uh but but uh you heard about Berkeley?
This is funny, they're gonna close down this Thomas Jefferson school because Jefferson had slaves, and the name of the town Berkeley comes from a former slave owner who was actually an apologist for slaves and slave owners.
And we'll get to that in the it in in due course.
But I mean, I d Howard Dean's throwing my name out there again today.
Uh and in the Washington Post, I am listed as a contributor.
Uh as uh uh to the to the to the reason, uh uh cause, if you will, the reason for all this incendiary rhetoric floating around.
All right, how are we gonna do this?
Let's let's start, I guess.
Let's just go through the motion with the audio sound bites.
Let's start with Durban first, and let's go back and uh go to June 14th.
Here is the despicable, disgusting Durban comparison of our soldiers to Nazis and Poltt.
Now he's the number two man in the Senate.
And because of, you know, he he ought to be made to resign that position.
Because it is is this not worse than what Trent Lott said?
I mean, it certainly is, in anybody's estimation, except the DC culture and establishment.
So here's Durban back on June the 14th.
If I read this to you and didn't tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have happened by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime, Paul Potter others that had no concern for human beings.
Sadly, that's not the case.
This was the action of Americans in treatment of our their own prisoner.
He hasn't taken any of that back.
He just said he is sorry if anybody was offended by, but he didn't say he was wrong and he didn't take it back.
And he uh uh also uh uh ladies and gentlemen, has never been to Gitmo.
He's never been went to Iraq, but he's never been to get you would think he'd want to go if it's this bad down there, you'd think he'd want to go down there and take a look at it.
Now, he first apologized.
We'll get to the apology sound bites now.
He first apologizes if anything he said offended the memory of the Holocaust.
This is last night on the Senate floor.
I made reference to the Nazis, to the Soviets, and other repressive regimes.
Mr. President, it is very clear that even though I thought I had said something that clarified the situation, to many people, it was still unclear.
I'm sorry if anything that I said caused any offense or pain to those who have such bitter memories of the Holocaust, the greatest moral tragedy of our time.
Nothing, nothing should ever be said to demean or diminish that moral tragedy.
But yet again, he simply apologizes for the feelings that it caused.
He doesn't take back what he said.
Um and then here come the here come the tears.
The Senate awash in tears.
This is last night on the uh on the Senate floor, Durbin tears up while apologizing if anything he said cast a negative light on the military.
Cast a negative light.
He called them Nazis.
What do you mean, if anything he said cast a negative light?
Listen to this.
I'm also sorry if anything I said in any way cast a negative light on our fine men and women in the military.
Stop tape.
How how could it not?
I uh I I'm also sorry if anything I said in any way cast a negative light on our I am sorry forecasting a negative light, and I take it back.
That's an apology.
Here he continues to say he's sorry if anything he said cast an What do you of it did?
You compare them to Nazis, Soviet gulags, poll pot.
Here's the rest of it.
I went to Iraq just a few months ago with Senator Harry Reid on a delegation, bipartisan delegation.
The president was part of it.
When you look into the eyes of the soldiers, you see your son, you see your daughter.
They're the best.
I never ever intended any disrespect for them.
Some may believe that my remarks cross the line.
To them, I extend my heartfelt apologies.
There we go.
So some may believe my remarks they did cross the line.
You're not taking aback.
You didn't erase the line.
The line's still there.
Your words are still over the line, and you're apologizing to people for making them feel bad.
Now I know what you're saying.
Rush, can't you just let this go?
Come on, Rush.
Come on, Russ, come on.
I mean, he apologized.
Can't you just let it go?
This is only gonna see, you're just gonna make everybody think the right wing is just a bunch of wackos and freaks.
Stick with me on this, folks.
Stick with me.
You've been with me long enough to know that we don't do anything here without a major point with a big exclamation point to be followed.
Uh and that's what's gonna happen here.
So just stick before you come on, Rush, be nice, will you?
Be big about it, be bigger than Durbin.
Except you I just want to show you how Washington works here, and I know how short memories are.
Just sit tight.
Let's let's finish up with Durbin here before we go to the break.
Let's think we're gonna let me check the roster here.
Yeah, this is the last Durbin.
He ends up here by quoting Abraham Lincoln, who was shot in the temple.
Remember that joke that he told about Lincoln.
A lot of people think that he's Jewish.
Yeah, Abraham.
And uh he was uh shot in the temple.
Everybody laughed big time on that.
Still haven't heard an apology for that one.
Anyway, here he is, he invokes Lincoln's name.
There's usually a quote from Abraham Lincoln that you can turn to in moments like this.
Maybe this is the right one.
Lincoln said, if the end brings me out right, what is said against me won't amount to anything.
If the end brings me out wrong, 10,000 angels swearing I was right wouldn't make any difference.
In the end, I don't want anything in my public career to detract from my love for this country, my respect for those who serve it, and this great Senate.
I offer my apologies to those who were offended by my words.
There you go.
I promise you that I will continue to speak out on the issues that I think are important to the people of Illinois and to the nation.
Now, how do you hear this?
I'll tell you what, uh the way I hear it.
Look, I'm I I apologize if you were first the Lincoln business.
Hey, look, you know, uh, if what I said was right, it doesn't matter what anybody else says, I'm gonna be right.
And if I was wrong, it doesn't matter who defends me, I'm still gonna be wrong.
That's just for icing.
He gets to the point here, I offer my apologies again to those who were offended by my words.
Uh, and then he says, I'm gonna keep saying them.
Then he says, I promise you I'm gonna continue to speak out on issues that I think are important to the people of Illinois and the nation.
And if your feelings get hurt, I may apologize again, but I'm gonna keep speaking out.
All right, now, for those of you saying, come on, Rush, come on, can you let it just sit with me?
Stick with me on this.
We'll be back.
Continue here in just a second.
And we're back.
We're having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have here.
Uh, folks, uh, join us on the EIB network and the Limboy Institute 800-282-2882.
So, uh, so so Dick Durbin says uh that some may believe that my remarks cross the line.
But he doesn't say he thinks that.
He didn't say my remarks crossed the line.
He said, some of you may think my remarks cross the line.
And if you do, I'm sorry for offending you.
But I'm gonna keep speaking out on these issues.
So he didn't take the words back.
I'm sorry he didn't take it back.
Come on, Rush, give him the benefit.
Just stick with me, folks.
Let's continue with the audio sound bites.
Last night on the Senate floor, John McCain, who has to hurt insert himself into virtually every story that there's gonna be a lot of press on, rushes to the Senate floor to praise Durbin and ask that we put this behind us.
The Senator from Illinois just made a heartfelt statement.
One of apology.
All of us, I believe, who've had the opportunity to serve in public life from time to time, have said things that we deeply regret.
I know that I have.
I can't speak for the other members of this body.
But I would like to say to the Senator from Illinois, he did the right thing, the courageous thing, and I believe we can put this issue behind us.
And I thank Senator from Illinois.
Courageous thing here.
So why why does it have why doesn't uh Durban have to go on an atonement tour like Trent Lott did?
Why didn't he have to go to sensitivity training?
Why didn't he have to go meet Abraham Foxman?
Why doesn't he have to run around?
Why didn't he go apologize to all the different Jewish groups in person like Blot?
Lot had to Lott had to show up on black entertainment TV for crying out loud and sit there with some of those stone-faced anchors who didn't care that he was there.
We're going to accept his apology no matter what.
Lot apologized five times and they never accepted it once.
And after he apologized five times, the White House dumped all over him, and they took his Senate leadership position away from him and created an enemy out of him for now on until Bush leaves office.
Five times Lott apologized.
Not once was it accepted.
Over a remark, he made it a birthday party.
And yet, this that Durbin did was courageous.
That's not, we're not finished here.
Do the Republicans demand that he resign his leadership post?
Do they refuse to accept the apology?
No, they accept it and move on.
Last night or actually this morning on Fox and Friends, Mitch McConnell was there, and uh E.D. Hill says some have suggested that the he he should uh be canned from his job as a minority whip.
Do you think that's going too far?
Look, that you know, leadership posts are up to the Democratic uh conference.
Uh that'll be for them to decide.
I I think we're probably gonna move on from this uh front from this point and and to other issues.
Yeah, we'll get back to Bolton and the filibuster.
Yes, sir, Bob.
Now, folks, don't misunderstand me.
I'm I don't care whether Durbin resigned his post or not.
I'm just trying to show you the differences in these two parties.
I'm trying to show you a party with gonads and a party with linguini spines.
And I you tell me which party is which.
I'm trying to show you which party's got the guts to act like winners, which party has the guts to act like they have spines, and which party, despite the fact that they lose, still acts like they run the show.
As far as Durbin going or staying, I don't know.
If he stays, fine.
I think he's a poster child here for the Democratic Party, and I hope he keeps talking, and I haven't changed my mind.
And whether he apologized or not is irrelevant to me.
I'm just pointing out to you, I don't think he did.
I don't believe in these public apologies.
Anyway, I think it's all a bunch of the he said what he meant to say.
He said what he meant to say, and the real irony here is that while he's out there supposedly apologizing for hurting people's feelings, what's Nancy Pelosi doing?
She's organizing 133 members of the House to set up his investigation of what's going on at Getmo and to get us out of Iraq while Durbin's out there apologizing and praising the troops and the guards and everybody else.
And there's not one bit of scrutiny from the mainstream press on any of this.
Just reporting and praise.
And okay, Durbin did it.
Can we now move on?
And the Washington Post, we get a little story, tips for the Democrats, hint next time don't compare anybody to Hitler.
And by the way, the only reason they're doing it is because Rush Limbaugh invented a term feminazi.
That's the sum total of the Washington Post story.
Durbin did it because I popularized it first with Feminazi.
I haven't used that term on this program in years.
But it still gets to him, doesn't it?
And you know why?
Because it's right, because it's accurate.
And I'm not gonna apologize for I will apologize if it hurts your feelings.
But you know what?
I think if you're offended at your problem, it's not mine.
That's another thing about this bill.
Durbin's not in charge of other people's feelings.
He has no business apologizing if people are offended.
People's feelings are their own.
So if you're offended, it's your problem.
That's the way I look at it.
You can't go through life trying not to offend people, or you'll you'll end up being a wimp.
Anyway, who oh, uh Frist, Bill Frist accepted uh uh Durbin's apology this this morning on C-SPAN on the Senate floor.
Last night's uh statement from Senator Durbin both honored our troops and recognized the sacrifices uh of those who lived and died under the uh Grimm systems of Nazi terror of Soviet uh uh repression and and Cambodian uh genocide.
Um that is right and and fine and worthy.
Uh Senator Durbin took an honorable uh step uh yesterday uh afternoon, and I look forward to working with our colleague from Illinois as we move forward.
You can't be serious.
I wouldn't look forward to working with a guy.
The guy is holding up everything you want to do, Senator Frist.
You want this is the collegiality, and of course, our friends in the Senate.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
Durbin, after all this, is gonna think the slate's been wiped clean, and he's gonna continue to stand in the way of everything Frist wants to get done.
Nothing's gonna change.
All this collegiality, all this bending over forwards and backwards to be nice, to try to be bigger than everybody about this, try to be bigger than the Democrats.
It never works.
Doesn't make the Democrats like him anymore.
It isn't gonna get John Bolton a new vote.
It isn't gonna get him approved, he's not gonna get Social Security advanced, it ain't got to get anything done.
The Republicans are just afraid of the media ripping them to shreds if they refuse to accept the apology.
That's all this is.
We'll be back in a moment.
By the way, Brian, go ahead and turn on the ditto cam.
Uh, since this is my last day this week.
Little programming note, got a guy golf trip.
Uh I'm heading on this afternoon.
We'll not be here Thursday or Friday.
We'll be back on Monday.
Um, welcome back.
It's Rush Limbaugh, the EIB network.
Let's let I'm not through here, folks.
Just stick with me on this.
The best is yet to come here.
But um I'm telling you, why is Durbin apologized?
You don't think he's apologizing because it's a Republicans mad at him.
He couldn't care less.
I mean, the Republicans in the Senate have been saying things he wouldn't respond.
He could not care less.
He's responding, he's apologizing because you are upset.
He's apologizing because he's heard about it from average ordinary Americans, and you average ordinary people know who you are, all over the country.
Make no mistake about it.
If it was just a bunch of Republicans demanding it, he'd be still doing his Howard Dean routine.
By the way, little side note based on what's on cable TV news these days.
I um happen to be reading the Atlanta Urinal Constipation newspaper today, and they've got this thing called the vent section, and I saw something I and I didn't know this.
Uh uh they said the the the name Vandersloot, one of the suspects in the Natalie Holloway disappearance down in a room, Vandersloot in in the Atlanta Journal newspaper today.
Vandersloot apparently is Dutch for Kennedy.
And now back to the Dick Durbin circumstance.
I want to go back now to the Trent Lott episode.
We have just set the table for you here.
Let's review what we've done.
Durbin apologized but didn't apologize.
He didn't take back his words.
He didn't say he thought his words crossed the line.
He said if you think his words crossed the line, he's sorry for hurting your feelings, and he apologizes for that.
He's actually apologizing for you being offended, but he didn't take his words back, and in fact, said he's gonna keep speaking out on these important issues.
And then we had Senator McCain run to the Senate floor to praise him.
And we had Senator Frist say the same thing this morning on the Senate floor.
It's all bygones or bygones, and we can move on and get back to the business of the Senate, which is obstructing everything that the Republicans want to do.
And we're gonna be happy to work with Durbin again, Frist said.
We're gonna be excited, we're looking forward to working with our colleague from Illinois as we move forward on the Bolton filibuster.
No action on Social Security, no action on judges, blah, blah, blah, blah.
We're looking happy.
And we're we're happy we're looking forward to getting back to the business of the Senate, working with our friend and colleague from Illinois.
And then Mitch McConnell said, I don't uh have anything to say about the leadership and the Democratic side of the aisle here.
That's their business.
Okay, that's what happened last night and today.
Let's go back, December 12th, 2002.
Want to go back and just replay you a prediction that I made during the Trent Lott controversy, and I said then, Senator Lott, if you want to end this, switch parties today, and the criticism of you will end.
If we want to end this now, and let's face it, we all do.
There's one thing and only one thing Senator Trent Lott can do.
Switch parties.
Become a Democrat today, and all this will be overlooked.
Now he'll have to resign the Senate because there would go our majority if he switched parties in the state in the Senate.
But I mean, for just personally for him, if he wants this all to go away, become a Democrat.
And it'll be overlooked.
Let's now look at a montage of how Democrats reacted to Trent Lott's apology.
And by the way, there wasn't just one Trent Lott apology.
There were five.
Trent Lott apologized five times.
Not one of them was accepted.
We have a montage here, December 2002 from Democrats and John McCain reacting to Lott's apology.
We got Governor Kumo.
We have former Texas Governor Ma Richards.
We have the former head of the NAA LCP qua easy infume.
We have uh Louisiana Senator Mary Landrew.
We have California Representative Maxine Waters and the president and founder of the Push and Monochrome Coalition, the uh Reverend Jacks, hmm, along with Senator McCain.
Here was what they had to say about Trent Lott's apology.
Trent Lott speaks for the Republican Party.
It was terrible.
If a Democrat had said what Trent Lott said, there'd been no question about whether or not that Democrat was stayed on or not.
We think he should resign, and we think the party should find a way to make that happen.
The real issue is does the Republican Party think this should be their leader?
I can promise you, if a Democratic leader said something like this or close to this, their leadership position would be pulled.
Trent Lott has made yet another statement, uh, consistent with his long history of supporting uh segregation and separatism.
And now it's gotten to the point where it's downright racism.
Trent Lott's redemption will come through action, not just through words.
I believe that Trent Lott ought to uh hold a press conference, uh, restate his commitment uh to equal opportunity, his abhorrence of discrimination of any kind, and answer questions and uh make a compelling case.
All right, now that's how the Democrats play ball in these sorts of circumstances, and this is how the Republicans play ball.
Durbin doesn't apologize, and we said that's great, Senator.
We're looking forward to working with you again.
Hubbahubba, let's move on.
You're a great guy.
Mario Cuomo, Trent Lott speaks for the Republican Party.
Well, so does Dick Durbin, but you didn't have a Republican anywhere with clout saying it.
You didn't have an elected Republican saying, we said it here, and we've been saying it for years and years and years, things like it, but you don't hear it from elected Republicans in Washington.
Ma Richards, if a Democrat had said what Trent Lott said, there would have been no question about whether or not the Democrat would have stayed on or not.
We just found evidence that Ma Richards didn't know what she's talking about.
Imfume.
We think he should resign, or we think the party should find a way to make that happen.
Landrew.
If a Democrat leader said something like this or close to this, then their leadership position would be pulled.
What did Lott say?
He just said, you know, Strahm, the country have been a lot better off you'd have won back in 1948.
You compare that to Durban, comparing U.S. interrogators and military people and America in general to Nazism, Stalinism, and poll potism.
And I ask you, did one Democrat dissent, did one other than Richard Daly, did one Democrat suggest we don't want this kind of man speaking for us in our party, particularly the number two leadership position?
Nope.
Did the Republicans come forward and say, we gotta get Lott out of here?
We can't put up with this.
This is bad news for us.
We gotta throw him overboard.
Yes, they did.
Now you might say, come on, rush!
One's about race and one's that's that's a it's a good point.
Uh I think it's time to stand up on this stupid race business, too.
A charge racism every time somebody makes one comment that the left disagrees with about it.
And as long as you keep running with your tail between your legs, they're gonna keep acting this way, and they're gonna keep forcing people from office this way to argue that this country is as racist uh and has not changed since the days of slavery and the 64 Civil Rights Act is just wrong.
It's it's it's blind, and it is uh purposeful.
Uh it's it's just silly.
Uh and then McCain says, I uh Trent Lott, press conference.
Yeah.
Restate.
Let him know.
He's not a racist, and I'm not either.
That's what I'm worried about.
He's gotta everybody's gonna think I'm a racist unless I go out there and dump on Trent Lyon.
I gotta do it to save myself.
Stupid party I'm a member of.
Damn it.
That's how the Republicans deal with this stuff.
Now, let me go to our Nexus research.
I am holding here the Gannett News Services, essentially USA Today from uh from uh December 11th, 2002.
Here's the headline Democrats reject Lott's apology.
Republican leader Trent Lott's apology for saying the country would have been better off if elected a pro-segregation president in 1948 fell flat with many black lawmakers and other Democrats on Tuesday, and some called for him to give up his leadership post.
Qua easy um fume, Senator Lott's statements, the kind of callous, calculated, hateful bigotry, and has no place in the halls of Congress.
His remarks are dangerously divisive, certainly unbefitting a man who is to hold such a highly esteemed leadership role as the majority leader of the Senate.
Tom Dashel said Monday he accepted Lott's explanation that uh Republican had not intended to endorse Strom Thurman's then ardent support of segregation.
However, after the critical comments from Maxine Waters, Dashell issued a second statement, saying his acceptance of Lott's explanation does not mean that I found the statement appropriate.
Regardless of how he intended his statement to be interpreted, it was wrong to say it.
And I strongly disagree with it.
Maxine Waters helped me get my mind right on this.
Maxine Waters spanked Dashel.
Dashell went out and took back what he had said.
Um then Benny Thompson, Mississippi representative.
It's obviously not enough from our vantage point.
This apology, it was insulting and not the words that you would expect from the next Senate majority leader.
Bob Menendez, Democrat New Jersey, Cuban American, called Lott's apology a day late and a dollar short.
That's story one.
Story two, December 12, 2002, Chicago Tribune headline, Lot Hope's third apology is the charm.
Lot hope's third apology is the charm.
Urgently trying to quell a growing controversy.
Mississippi Senator Trent Lott gave broadcast interviews Wednesday to expand on his apology for saying America would not have so many problems if it had elected Strom Thurman to president in 1948.
The words were terrible, and I regret it.
This was a mistake in the head and not of the heart.
I don't accept those policies of the past at all.
He actually took his words back.
He apologized for the words that he used.
Tom Dashel, meanwhile, called on President Bush to personally repudiate Lott's words.
As did DNC Chairman Terry McCaula.
Sources said the NAALCP, which already is called on Lott to step down, was mulling whether to run a television ad critical of Lott, though a spokesman denied it.
John Kerry, a 2004 presidential perspirant, became the first senator to ask Lott to step aside.
I simply don't believe the country can today afford to have someone made these statements again and again be the leader of the U.S. Senate.
So Kerry called on him to quit.
That's uh that's the Chicago Tribune on December, or yeah, December 12th, 2002.
Uh we get to the uh next story.
Uh it is the Lexington, Kentucky Herald leader, December 14th, 2002.
Headline, Lott's fifth apology.
It's so funny.
Lot's fifth apology brings little support.
Rival tests Waters for a leadership role.
Uh so he apologized five times.
The Democrats never once accepted it.
Uh and they forced him from the leadership position.
Actually forced President Bush in on the issue as well.
Now, you I just I wanted to go through this because I wanted just to show you.
In case memories are short.
You know, 2002 is three years ago.
Some people's memory goes back to yesterday, some goes back longer than that.
But uh I I just wanted to illustrate for you how the two parties play ball and how they're different.
And it's to me, it's it's sort of it's sort of sad.
Um, and I know why the Republicans do it.
It's it's the same way the the you you we've got this Klein book out there, and there are certain conservative commentators in a race.
They are in a virtual race to show the mainstream media they are not knee-jerk reactionary right wingers.
And so they're out there dumping on this Klein book.
They're dumping on Klein.
They're dumping on the whole concept of these kinds of scandal books.
Well, in fact, this may not even be what this book is.
But it's the same old thing, whether it's renegade Republican commentators, conservative commentators who desperately want the DC culture.
Please, please don't think of me as one of those talk radio guys.
Don't think of me, don't think of me as one of those right-wing wackos.
I think the Klein book sucks too.
And look what I wrote, and I was first out of the box with it.
Same thing in the Senate.
Hey, uh don't, don't please.
You know, I I want my profile in the style section to be good.
You know, we we accept Durbin's apology and and we're willing to forgive and forget and and move on.
We want you to write that we're growing here uh in in stature in Washington.
It's that's just uh the way things are.
That's what happens when the culture of Washington, D.C. is dominated by the left.
We'll take a break and be back after this.
Stay with us.
Okay, we got to hustle.
This section's gonna be a little short because it went long in the previous one.
We continue to follow Illinois Senator Dick Durbin around Washington.
Last night, as you know, was the Paint the Nation Blue rally.
Uh Durbin and Howard Dean headlined this.
Now, this is Dick Durbin last night.
Uh coming after his so-called apology.
Durbin was then forced to urge his fellow Democrats to applaud the troops, and they weren't in the mood for it.
We have a hundred and fifty thousand of the best and bravest Americans, our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters, people we love in our family, and those from other families, who, as I speak to you tonight, are literally risking their lives for America in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world.
Democrats stand proud, supporting those men and women in uniform.
Join me in giving them a proud democratic applause for all they give to America.
Now, that applause sounded bigger than it was.
That was not much of the room applauding, but here's Durban.
This is minutes after his apology.
Uh trying to talk about how proud he is of the troops in this.
But but what the crowd really wanted to hear was when Durbin got back to the Michael Moore movie and talked about Bush holding hands with the Saudi Prince.
That's what the crowd wanted to hear.
It wasn't that long ago.
The president was literally walking hand in hand across his Crawford ranch with a Saudi Arabian prince.
Well, when that amendment came up, the Republicans left.
They voted against it.
They wouldn't support it.
They believe presidents for time immemorial should continue walking hand in hand with Saudi princes and the leaders of the OPEC cartel.
But we don't believe that.
We believe America is stronger when we don't have to answer to countries like Saudi Arabia for our economic future.
We are stronger when we stand together as a nation for the right principles around the world and here in the United States.
We are stronger when we understand this land of opportunity has never been served better than when we had a Democrat as president of the United States.
And that's when the crowd went nuts.
Uh parts of his uh remarks, which they didn't do in the uh previous remarks, praising the uh the troops.
But here again, uh this is the party that votes against any oil exploration to make us independent of uh Saudi Arabia and their own president Bill Clinton walked hand in hand with Saudi Princes, happened all over the place.
We couldn't let this finish without Howard Dean uh last night, the Paint the Nation Blue rally, Howard Dean at it again.
This country is a democratic country with a big D. If you put even in places like Texas and Oklahoma, you put our message, our issues up against their issues, most people agree with our issues.
I am tired of being lectured to about moral values by people like Tom DeLay and Rush Lemboch.
Thank you, Governor Dean.
You know, if it it'd be an interesting test if you guys would put some issues up in some of these red states, but you don't put any issues up.
Nobody you don't have an agenda.
Your agenda is one of obstructionism.
Anyway, I just wanted to share all this with you folks, because it At the end of it all, you can just laugh.
The total absurdity of all of this.
Back here in just a second.
Stay with us.
All right, the first hour is in the can, folks, and uh we'll be getting to your phone calls on this and uh other items in the news.
We will share with you in the uh ensuing hours.
Ditto cams on, podcasting's up, club get mode t-shirt still available, by the way.
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