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Oct. 27, 2005 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:10
October 27, 2005, Thursday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
Oh, man, my North Carolina mistress is not happy with me.
Oh, man.
Well, folks, uh conservative crackdown theory validated.
Greetings and welcome.
It's the award-winning thrill packed ever exciting, increasingly popul.
Is that is that Ditto Cam up and running out there?
Good.
Because I I ordered that thing to be on from the top of the program.
So it's available at www.rushlimb.com.
Great to be with you.
Here's the phone number if you want to be on the program.
Ha ha ha.
I am wearing body armor today, folks.
Telephone number 800-282-2882.
And the email address is rush at EIBNet.com.
All of it, grab audio soundbite number one.
Let's go back to last Friday.
This is what I said on my program about Harriet Myers and what I thought the strategy was going to be that would engineer the result that we had today, and that is she withdrawing her nomination.
Senators Lindsey Graham and Sam Brown back have made a document request in the White House.
Republicans have made document requests to the White House.
I mean, we we just don't we've we've got to see what you can do.
And some people are thinking that this is the way out for the White House.
Sorry, Senators Brownbeck, we just we can't do this.
Use this as a because this is a signal.
When when two when Republicans ask the White House for documents, you know what a big brew ha-ha document requests are.
Executive privilege and all that.
She was the president's personal lawyer.
There's no way they're going to get these documents.
Well, when Republicans are asking for it, not Democrats, uh, I sense, you know, my nose sensing a strategery here.
Just keep a sharp eye on it.
And uh here it is, basically a week later, seven days later, uh six days later, we have uh Harriet Myers withdrawing her nomination today on the basis of this.
Uh, that these documents cannot be produced.
And it was, in fact, two Republican senators requesting them.
Because what this says to the White House is that the Republican, they were on the Judiciary Committee said, okay, look, um, we we simply don't have enough to vote for her right now, and we need more information, and the White House cannot release these documents.
Uh, because of executive privilege and so forth.
And so the signal is sent from Republicans on the Judiciary Committee.
It can't count on us.
We don't have enough to vote for her now.
And I think also uh it's being it's being spewed out there that Senator Frist called the uh White House last night.
I said, I don't have the votes.
I also think this, I think the Washington Post yesterday uh published a story that that uh uh featured excerpts of a speech.
We talked about this yesterday that Miss Myers gave back in the uh early 90s, admittedly it is twelve years ago.
If you read the full speech, folks, it's it's it's uh it's disappointing.
It's not that she's just a moderate, not a conservative.
Some of the things that she articulated in the speech are actually quite liberal.
And so I think you have a confluence of events here.
Um the here's here's the here's the upshot of it.
And I want to go back, and I'm holding here in my formerly nicotine stained finger right here, and it's currently in the October issue of the Limbaugh Letter.
There it is for you watching on the Ditto Cam.
There's the new cover.
We put the Wall Street Journal op-ed that I wrote uh as a bonus in uh the October issue of the newsletter.
I thought it might be worthwhile to review some of the things that I wrote in this piece.
But what what has happened out there?
If you've been watching any television today, you've no the left is going nuts.
The left is having a conniption.
Chuck Schumer, Barbara Boxer, Ted Kennedy, they're all talking about how this is a a victory of the extreme right wing.
Why the extreme right wing has taken over the Republican Party, and they're worried to death about it.
It's then that what they don't understand, or what they do understand, they just don't want to put it this way.
There is no extreme right wing.
There is the conservative movement, which is the Republican Party.
And I told everybody, and when I wrote this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, everybody talked about how this distraction and this this this friction in the conservative movement representative a crack up, and it wasn't.
It was a crackdown.
You have unity now.
You have energy.
People are excited about the possibilities here.
They're ready to rally around the White House and move forward with all these other things that are on the table.
Not just this Supreme Court nomination, but you got this whole CIA leak investigation.
Rumors continuing to fly over that, although we have news today that there will not be anything coming from the special prosecutor's office today.
Democrats went out there, got brand new suits and ties, brand new shirts, took them with them to work on Wednesday, all ready to be on TV last night, proclaiming the death of the Bush administration.
They wake up today, they find not not only are there no indictments today, but Harriet Myers has withdrawn, and the conservative movement has unified fully behind President George W. Bush, and they are scared because they know that conservatism is the majority opinion when it comes to cultural and social issues in this country, and they are deathly afraid.
We've got audio sound bites for all these Democrats and all these liberals who are just fit to be tied, trying to cast this as somehow the extreme right wing has taken over.
No, what's happened here is that the conservative movement has demonstrated its size.
And the conservative movement has demonstrated its power.
And there was no conservative movement during Watergate.
I don't know what's gonna happen with the CIA business and this leak thing, but whatever happens, the left is not gonna have as easy a time getting rid of a president this year as they did back in 1972 when they got rid of Richard Nixon.
And this is an illustration of what the left faces and they know it.
As I wrote in the Wall Street Journal, we conservatives are never stronger than when we are advancing our principles.
And that's the nature of our current debate over the nomination of Harriet Myers.
Now let me jump forward to other parts of this that are relevant.
Some liberal commentators mistakenly view the passionate debate among conservatives over the Myers nomination as a crack up on the right.
They are giddy about splits in the conservative base of the GOP.
They are predicting doom for the rest of the president's term.
They are predicting gloom for Republican electoral chances in 2006.
As usual, liberals don't understand conservatives and never will.
The Myers nomination shows the strength of the conservative movement.
This is no crack up.
This is a crackdown.
We conservatives are unified in our objectives.
We are organized to advance them.
The purpose of the Myers debate is to ensure that we are doing the very best we can to move the nation in the right direction.
And when all is said and done, we will be even stronger and more focused on our agenda and defeating those who obstruct it just in time for 2006 and 2008.
And that is exactly where we are today.
Lest anyone forget, for several years before the 1980 election, we had knockdown battles within the GOP.
The result?
Ronaldus Magnus won two massive landslides.
The real crack up has already occurred on the left.
The Democratic Party has been hijacked by 60s retreads like Howard Dean, billionaire eccentrics like George Soros, and left-wing computer geeks like MoveOn.org.
It nominated John Carey, a notorious Vietnam era anti-war activist as its presidential standard bearer, who, by the way, today is call for U.S. surrender in Iraq.
Well, what else?
What would you call it when he demands we start pulling out of there?
And he's got that Vietnam experience, and he's calling on it again.
Surrender.
The party's major spokesman are old extremists like Ted Kennedy and new propagandists like Michael Moore.
It's great presidential hope is one of the most divisive figures in U.S. politics.
Hillary Clinton.
I don't know if you saw it last night.
Susan Estrich was on O'Reilly's show.
She's written a book, The Case for Hillary Clinton.
O'Reilly said, what does she stand for?
And Susan Estridge couldn't give one answer.
Where does she stand on a rock?
I don't know.
Well, what about abortion?
I don't know.
What about National Health Care?
I don't know.
What they're trying to do with Their party leader, their presumptive nominee, is to shield her from taking any positions whatsoever.
And why?
Precisely because what I have been trying to tell everybody.
They cannot be honest about what they believe in.
If they are, it is doom and gloom for them.
It is Sayonara.
It's time to throw the dirt on the grave.
And so their presumed leader, their presumed nominee, has to run around with books written about her called A Case for Hillary Clinton, which basically address her entitlement to power.
She's been through so much with that dastardly husband of hers.
She hung in there.
She worked with him.
She did her best.
And now she's a nice woman, and it's her turn.
That's the case for Hillary Clinton.
Not what she believes on any issues.
Because if they start telling us that, it's over for Hillary Clinton, and there is no case.
So nothing has changed here, folks.
The left acting like even today, this is a big victory, but I am telling you they are quaking in their boots.
The nomination of Harriet Myers was the big victory for the left.
That's what they were privately celebrating.
Now that that nomination no longer exists, they're back to quaking in their boots.
The Democratic Party's favorite son is an impeached, disbarred, held in contempt ex-president Bill Clinton.
The Democratic Party today is split over the war and a host of cultural issues, such as same-sex marriage and partial birth abortion.
It wants to raise taxes but dares not say so.
It can't decide what message to convey to the American people or how to convey it.
And even its once reliable allies of the big media are not as influential in promoting the Democratic Party and its agenda as they were in the past.
Now, some of you disagree with me about that, but they can't promote their agenda.
All the media can do is try to rip George Bush apart, rip Carl Rofe to shreds.
Same thing with Scooter Libby, go out and destroy Tom Delay.
They can't advance an agenda.
They can only destroy their enemies.
Or try, because they don't have an agenda they can be honest about, folks.
The mainstream press is not out advancing an agenda.
Do not assume that this, or make the mistake of assuming that whatever power you think the press has in causing the CIA investigation to go on and on and on and get rid of Rove and get rid of Libby or whatever happens here.
Don't mistake that for massive influence.
The polls do not show around the country that most people think Rove or Lib or anybody else did something criminal here.
They don't have the power to move an agenda forward, and that's key.
They may think they have the power to take out their enemies through the legal system, but that's it.
The American left is stuck trying to repeat the history of its presumed glory years.
They hope people will see Iraq as Vietnam, the entirety of the Bush administration as Watergate, and Hurricane Katrina is the Great Depression.
Beyond looking to the past for their salvation, the problem is that they continue to deceive even themselves.
None of their comparisons are true.
Meanwhile, we conservatives will continue to focus on moving forward and making history.
Not trying to repeat it.
By the way, I have a question.
Hurricane Katrina reminds me of this.
As I sit here today and speak to you, somewhere between three and four million people in Florida are without power.
Grocery stores do not stock perishables without power because they will perish.
Three to five hour lines for gasoline have resulted, not because of a shortage, but because there's no power.
So it's a three to five hour wait average on Florida, and the maximum purchase allowed is twenty dollars.
Florida Power and White says that it will be until November 22nd until full power is restored.
That's a full month after the hurricane struck.
My question is this.
You haven't.
I want to ask you this.
If New York City experienced some kind of interruption to its power supply, and the people of Manhattan and the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, and so forth were told, hey, November 22nd, you won't have your power for one month.
What do you think would be the lead story on the news?
I mean, it's there's there's a four million people between three and four million without power in South.
I know some people, well, hey, come on, Russia, it's Florida.
Everybody knows Hurricane Alley.
Those people be prepared for it down there.
Don't ask for I'm not asking for sympathy.
I'm simply illustrating.
We couldn't we couldn't get away from post-Catrina coverage, could we?
I just I've been wondering, folks, am I gonna get one of those two thousand dollar debit cards they gave away down in New Orleans?
Okay, we may as well get started with this.
Let's go to Exeter, New Hampshire.
Bill, you're up first on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network.
Hello.
Hi, Rush.
Hi.
I uh I'm just calling to tell you I'm greatly disappointed that Harriet Myers has uh had her nomination withdrawn.
I don't necessarily think she did it.
I think she was asked to do it.
Uh you think she was asked to do it?
Yes.
And I think uh guys like you rush, who I still have a high regard for, uh, were largely responsible for that.
Yeah, I know you think that.
I know a lot of people think that.
I've uh I've gotten some messages to that effect in my email today.
I'm sure you have.
I sent one myself, by the way.
Yeah.
Um I think it's it's just it's just too bad.
Because I think not only was she a good candidate, and I believe she was good because I trust the president, and apparently you don't, but also because uh it's gonna have an incredible impact on his ability to carry out an agenda that I thought was important to you just as it was to me.
Yeah, uh it is, and I disagree with you about 180 degrees.
I'm sure I I know you have listened to you religiously, and I've heard you do that and take great pride in the fact that uh you were gonna bring her down.
Uh well, you know, that this is uh I want you to listen to something today.
Grab audio soundbite number two.
I walked in today and and uh Cookie said, Boy, you're you're all over the media today.
She made me listen to uh this.
You know who's clicking his heels, right?
Rush Limbaugh.
Yeah.
Oh, he's just tell us.
All those guys rant about Harriet Myers.
That was CNBC this morning, uh Squawkbox, the host Mark Haynes.
So I I've been on a rant on Harriet Myers.
You know what's happened here?
I haven't I didn't say that, Rush.
No, no, no.
I'm just but but you you didn't say that, but but you you you basically said I was gonna be happy.
You said I've been carrying the water on this, or whatever you whatever your phrase was.
I said you were one of the people who helped uh who helped bring her down.
Uh one of the people to help bring her down.
I actually uh didn't consult with anybody.
Uh there are a lot of people uh on the conservative side of the aisle trying to take credit for this today, uh, Bill.
And I sent a friend of mine a note today.
I said, you know, this is gonna be funny.
There's gonna be all kinds of people out there on the right trying to take credit for this and listen to what's gonna happen to me.
I'm gonna be defending myself against callers saying, hey, I had nothing to do with this.
Well, everybody else is trying to take credit for it.
Look, uh, this is not about who gets credit for what.
This has happened.
And and the the the point now is it's a good thing.
Well, it's gonna cost me money, Rush.
I'm heavily invested in the stock market.
That's one problem.
Number two, my taxes are gonna go up because he's not gonna be able to get that through to Congress.
Number three, I think you've damaged the ability of the man to do his job.
I think you I th I think you're no, you're you you're going at this the wrong way.
What everybody's now on the same page.
He's gonna have the entire support of the conservative movement, the whole party behind him.
This is a renewal here today.
This is precisely why I wrote that Wall Street Journal, Op-Ed Peace.
This is a this is a conservatives, they've had an argument.
We've unified.
There's gonna be more energy behind this president.
I'll I'll tell you what.
Uh you well, you wait and see.
I don't want to make any predictions on what would have happened had Harriet Myers uh gone through with this because I that's not gonna happen now.
I don't deal with what ifs.
I'm just telling you you're reading this wrong.
You're reading this entirely wrong.
There, there this this is this is a uh a red letter day.
The left has gone from being on the offense of this to the defensive.
The left is scared to death.
They are scared to death that they're fine.
We're gonna get a nominee to this court that they don't want.
They are they're already talking filibuster again.
They're already talking extreme right wing.
You've got to start thinking the right way about this, and that's the uh the the method of doing that is to get is to be on offense.
Uh this is this is this is not a bad thing.
And I I will I'll tell you this, I will go so far we'll never be able to know this.
But I'll bet you there are people in the White House who are now happy.
Because this was tearing people apart.
No president likes to be distanced from his party.
No president likes to have opposition within his own party.
What's important now, and I want you to hear me on this, folks, I want you to hear me, because I don't want to have to be playing tapes of myself next week, reminding you that I said this.
It is now time, we now have a grand opportunity for the president of the United States and all of his supporters, of which I am perhaps the most eager to take on the liberals for a change rather than the president arguing with his own party.
It's time for the president to start picking fights with his real enemies, the Democrats and the left in this country.
And that's what this opportunity affords, and it was what is likely to happen.
Because he's going to need friends in the days ahead with all this other uh garbage that's going on out there that's aimed at destroying his administration.
And we are all his friends, and you just watch and see.
We will be right back.
You're listening to Rush Limbaugh on the Excellence in Podcasting Network.
Thank you.
I thought that would never end.
We are here.
We are back at 800 282-2882.
The email address is rush at EIBNet.com.
Folks, you're gonna have to you have to trust me on this.
No, seriously.
Uh there's a there's such a tremendous opportunity here to uh to breathe new energy into the into the administration and uh and the whole conservative movement now to take down the liberals.
As I was saying before the the uh previous break, uh it is time we got refocused on our enemies, and we are not our enemies.
The the president's enemies are not on the right.
The president's enemies are on the left.
It's time to get focused on them.
He has done his best to show the hand of friendship to his enemies.
He has gone overboard, he's gone out of the way.
He has accommodated them in so many different ways.
And look at what it's gotten him.
It hasn't gotten him anything, and it's time now, he's got three years left in this administration, and it's time to get unified.
And I'm telling you, there is a there's a happiness and a and a and a swinging from the rafters kind of joy out there today, folks.
Uh and in addition to that, I think it that there's something else that that that I don't know if you've picked up on it, and I don't know if if uh well, if you haven't, you will.
But there's also a sense of of uh of contrite.
No but nobody that I know, and look, I don't know everybody on this side of the aisle, and I'm sure that there are some people out there beating their chest, saying, hey, I did it, I did it, I did it.
Notice me, notice me, notice me.
But that those are people uh who I think are in the minority.
The the the majority of people, uh, as a result of the Myers nomination today, did not enjoy it.
I didn't enjoy it.
Most of the there was not a power trip.
This I said this was about principles.
And we conservatives are never more unified than we were advancing our principles, and the opposition to Harriet Myers was more about advancing our principles and an opportunity to do so that had been taken away than it was anything about her.
I never said a word personally about Harriet Myers, because I don't know her.
I remember telling you countless times in this program, she may be fine.
I don't know.
My opposition had nothing to do with Harriet Myers personally.
It was rather focused on the opportunity lost, but nobody I know was happy about this.
There were people, guts were churning over this.
There were people wringing their hands, there were people that were just beside themselves because they hated opposing what their president was doing, people that had supported him and gotten him elected and stood behind him through all of this.
And you know what I mean by all of this since 2001.
And the the the but you know, principle was there, and it forced some people to oppose this nomination.
It did not make people happy.
There is no sense among people I know of pulling off a power play here.
It's not about that.
It's about advancing principles.
For Harriet Myers, she is obviously a very gracious lady.
She's put the president's interests first here.
She knows the confirmation was going to be very difficult, and he has an opportunity now to go for the gold standard.
He has an opportunity To push the liberals, his real enemies, not us.
His real enemies are the liberals.
He has an opportunity now to push them back on their heels to change the direction of the party, to change the direction of the administration.
There are people, and when I say that there are people who were having their guts wrenched over this, I'm not exaggerating.
And because of that, or I should better say, as a result of that, uh, there are some people now that this has happened today who are feeling uh uh how should I put this?
Not not not sorry or things like that.
They want to demonstrate the president we're with you, man.
We're we're behind you.
We're so eager to do that.
This was not about opposing the presence this was not about people saying I'm more powerful than the president.
This is not about I don't like what's happening, I'm gonna get my way, and I have the power to it.
It's not about that at all.
And it was it was gut-wrenching and it was challenging and it was tough to be in opposition to the president, particularly with all else that's going on.
And now people are are thrilled, as I said, they're they're hanging with joy from the rafters here over the opportunity now to be unified once again.
Because everybody loves this president.
Everybody wants this president and this administration to maximize the opportunity we have.
Is a good man, a great man, has the opportunity for for real greatness here, and everybody wants this.
And there's a there's almost a sigh of relief today that we don't any longer have to be on the opposite side of something that we considered to be so principled.
There's almost uh it's like how can I express this?
Um, I don't want to say, okay, Mr. President, we're sorry, let's move.
Because it's not that we're sorry.
I we're sorry that all this happened.
We're not sorry for what what what role I'm not let me just speak for myself, the hell with this we business.
Everything I've said where I put we in front of it, put I instead, because I was grenching my gut.
I didn't like any of this.
This kept me up at night.
This had is the same situation with you because so many in you in this audience uh uh thought that I was wrong on this.
And uh, you know, it always you you roll the dice and you and you and you okay, what can I do?
Do I support the president even though I disagree with this?
Do I support the president because I know my audience does, or do I be myself?
And we've had knockdown drag outs on the phone over this for the past three weeks or so, and I'm just telling you there is a huge sigh of relief that this is over.
Everybody sees an opportunity now, and we want to be, I want to be unified behind this administration.
I want to be so supportive that there's nobody more supportive.
And the opportunity for that is here once again.
And I'm gonna tell you this.
When it comes to this special product prosecutor investigation, all this Harriet Meyer stuff, that's one thing, but I can't tell you how royally angry I am about this thing.
I cannot express without sheer profanity how angry I am about what's happening in this whole thing.
And the the uh the the unity that's going to be necessary to uh to fight this, because it's gonna need there's gonna be a fight that will ensue over this, I have no doubt about it, uh, is sorely needed, and there's an opportunity for that here now.
So hope this helps you understand.
This is not, again, speaking for myself, and I cannot speak for others.
In fact, I will admit that there are some conservatives.
As I said, I've done a lot of interviews lately over the uh fact that William F. Buckley is celebrating 50 years at National Review, and he's the godfather of the modern conservative movement, and I've done a lot of interviews, and people asked me uh various questions, and one of the points I've made to all the people who have asked me questions about it is there's no William F. Buckley anymore.
William F. Buckley was the unifying figure, William F. Buckley sort of anointed uh newer rivals and welcomed them in, and that that gave them status.
Today, the conservative movement's gotten so big that it's full of a bunch of competitors.
You got people who reach an audience of ten who think that they are making things happen in the country.
You've got people who think they that don't reach an audience of hardly anybody who think they're the ones that are getting this done.
You've got people who are on power trips, and I will admit it.
And you've got people doing what they're doing, trying to tell themselves that they're the ones causing the future of the country to go the direction it's going.
There are those people out there.
They are a minority, and they are not accurate when they think of themselves as having that kind of power.
They're dreaming.
But the bottom line is for most of us, and I'll just speak for myself, it hasn't been about a display of power at all, folks.
It's been about the advancement of conservatism and principles and not squandering an opportunity.
And I've tried to be as open and honest and clear about this in as many different ways as I can, including that Wall Street Journal op-ed.
Scott in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Welcome to the program.
Nice to have you with us.
Hey Rush, thanks for taking my call.
You bet.
Hey, uh, I guess my whole question is uh.
The whole Harry Myers situation.
Shouldn't she have at least been been thought of to be competent until she proved otherwise in front of the Judiciary Committee?
Uh yeah, we again we we can we can talk about what ifs, but let me ask you a question about this.
Okay.
Since she hasn't been, since that, since she's not going to have her hearings because she withdrew.
And this is another thing.
Let's, you know, one of one of the problems we all have.
Okay, she withdrew, it's Limbaugh's fault.
She withdrew.
It's Krauthammer's fault.
She withdrew, it's somebody else's fault.
She withdrew.
No, okay.
So she's she she might have, should have, could have whatever gotten her shot at the hearings, but but that's not going to happen now.
So what?
I mean, what were what what do we what do we do about this?
I agree.
How does it how does that inform your future thinking on this?
Well, like I said, Russ, I agree.
I mean, this is a tremendous opportunity for us as conservatives to put in one of the people that should have initially been selected.
But I I think she should have at least been given given the right.
Yeah, well, uh I don't know what I uh the the uh uh.
You know the hurricane shouldn't have hit my house either.
Damn it.
I I shouldn't be having to run my generator 24-7 or worried whether I'm gonna get a diesel supply next week before it runs out.
You know, I shouldn't have to stay in New York paying all these stupid idiotic taxes all this week when I actually wanted to be at home.
You know, I should be able to be down in Florida with my studio down there.
Uh, but it may not have full power for another month.
Yeah, well, you know, a hurricane did hit my house.
My generator is running 24-7, and I do have to worry about a diesel resupply coming.
And everybody else has their own concerns and problems about this hurricane, some worse than others.
Miami Herald today, a editrix of the Limbaugh letter just sent me the story.
Miami Herald writing his big story about how the rich escape, the rich and wealthy escaped the wrath of hurricane, whatever it was.
What was the name of stupid hurricane?
I've already forgotten.
Wilba.
Yeah, focus on Naples.
Oh, the rich and wealthy at Naples.
Oh, yeah, they're already throwing barbecues, already having fun.
As though there are no wealthy people in Miami Dade, no wealthy people in Palm Beach County, no wealthy people in Broward County.
Stupid acidine newspaper.
What an ab so this is why there's no media coverage, huh?
Because everybody's assumed to be all hoity-toity and and wealthy down in Florida can put up with it.
Meanwhile, take a look at some of the people that are in in dire straits down there.
Uh it's just that's this it's a bit of a tangent.
But but the what do we do?
She should have gotten her chance, yeah.
Yeah.
Well, you know, you should have been a millionaire.
Where does that stop?
We'll we'll be back after this.
Stay with us.
And we are heading on down the tracks of truth.
The L. Rushboat program.
I am also known as the uh all-knowing, all caring, all sensing, all feeling, all concerned, all everything, Maha Rushy.
Uh harmless, lovable little fuzzball.
We're at 800 282-2882.
Listen to some Democrats on this.
First dingy Harry this morning on the floor of the United States Senate.
And what you are hearing, make no mistake about this.
What you are hearing is fear.
The radical right wing of the Republican Party drove this woman's nomination right out of town.
Apparently, Miss Myers didn't satisfy those who want to pack the Supreme Court with rigid ideologies.
The only voices heard in this process were the far right.
Her credentials, which are excellent, weren't good enough.
The right wing.
They want a nominee with a proven record of supporting their skewed goals.
So, Mr. President, I hope our president, the President of the United States, in choosing a replacement for his lawyer, and that's what she is, won't reward the bad behavior of this right wing base.
They are quaking in their boots over the so-called power of the right wing base, folks.
And it's it is the right wing base.
It's not the extreme right wing.
It is the Republican Party base that reared up on this and did demonstrate its power.
It was not a show of force for the sole purpose of expressing power.
It was oriented in principle and purpose.
But yet the demonstration of that power was there, and no less than the legal analyst at CNN Jeffrey Tubin today made that analysis, made that observation.
This is uh this this shows you how powerful the conservative movement in this country is.
Make no mistake, Dingy Harry can sit here and try to once again, as they've been doing for 30 or 40 or 50 years, characterize conservatives as the extreme right wing.
But it is the mainstream of this country, and it is why his party does not and cannot win national elections.
And he knows it.
And he's trying to do the only thing they can do is impugn, besmirch, and discredit his opposition because they don't dare advance an agenda of their own.
Here is Senator Kennedy today on the late edition of the Today Show on NBC.
Katie Curick said to him, You you talk about a litmus test, but don't many of the Democrats who would be confirming Harriet Myers have their own litmus test?
I'm against any uh litmus test.
Right.
We have seen an extraordinary march to progress over the period of the last fifty years.
And I think uh many of us on our side of the aisle don't want to go back.
We want to continue this march uh for progress and the progress that we've made.
What we're talking about now is uh a litmus test by the Republicans.
Yes, and we're talking about uh sort of the extreme wing of the president's own party that really brought this nominee uh down.
So they got their talking points faxed out.
This is the extreme right wing of the president's party.
I'm against the litmus test.
Let me go on record.
I'm all for litmus tests.
I'm going to announce a litmus test.
And I'm all for packing the court.
Damn right.
See my hand up, those of you watching a dinner camp.
This is what you do when you go to school when you want to be called on, or when you're being asked to agree or disagree with something.
My hands up.
We want to pack the court, and we do have litmus tests.
I want this court packed with constitutionalists and originalists.
And that's my litmus test as well.
Because that's what the founders intended, folks.
It's quite simple.
Quick timeout will be.
No, let me grab a phone call here before don't your finger away from the button in there, all them out.
My mistake.
Tess in Cincinnati.
Welcome to the program.
Nice to have you with us.
Hi, Rush.
Thanks for taking my call.
You bet.
Hey, you know, I would remind those liberals that uh our founding fathers intended the power to rest with the majority.
And we spoke.
This is not about not trusting the president, not even about Harriet Myers.
It's about we the people who went door to door, film bank, signs, all this, reminding the president of the agenda upon which he ran.
And I am, for one, ecstatic.
Good.
And I think there are more and more people out there like you than anybody cares to admit today, but you shall be heard.
We will be back after this.
Okay, a finger on the button here, all them up.
Good, hit it.
Andrew McCarthy, who writes a uh uh piece now and then for National Review Online today had a pretty good idea on the next judicial nominee.
How about Patrick Fitzgerald, the uh independent counsel.
Nominate him today to be the uh next Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
All right, Linda in Camnonton, Missouri.
Welcome to the EIB network.
Hi.
Thank you.
I can't believe I got through.
Here you are.
I'm not as excited as you are, because I think everybody's ignoring the elephant in the room.
I would love to see Mr. Bush nominate a flat-out conservative.
Yes.
But he's gonna have to contend with John McCain and his gang of fourteen.
And I don't bury them too.
I don't have any confidence we'd win that fight.
Uh well, I do.
It's time to bury it's time to bury them too.
It's time to get this nuclear option triggered.
This is exactly the point, Linda.
It's not McCain that's the that's the that's the elephant in the room, it's the nuclear option.
That's still the element in the room because this gang of 14 nitwits prevented it from being used.
It needs to be triggered and dealt with and voted down and been done away with.
Uh now, look, folks, I understand having trepidations out there, but that's not how we advance.
Let's not assume problems that we don't know to exist yet.
We might be able to derail a lot of problems simply with attitude, with confidence, with energy.
And if they still want to try to put roadblocks in a way, we just drive right through 'em.
Like Bruce Willis in one of those diehard movies.
You know, they can do it in a movies, we can do it in politics.
No, I'm serious.
That's what this is all about.
It's time to deal with some of this stuff.
Educate the American people about the bastardization of the whole judicial process.
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