Rush Limbaugh Program - January 19, 2006, Thursday, Hour #3

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Jan. 19, 2006 - Rush Limbaugh Program

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January 19, 2006, Thursday, Hour #3

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	Thank you, Johnny Donovan.
	What a pleasure it is being here in my final hour now at the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, the world headquarters, or at least the East Coast branch of the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
	And as a fellow student, I remind you we never have a final exam, but we are tested daily.
	The professor will be in tomorrow, Professor Walter Williams.
	And then Rush should be back in the seat come Monday.
	But you can actually be with Rush and almost be in Russia's golf shoes with him if you go to rushlimbaugh.com because they have now posted pictures from Russia's round one at the Bob Hope Desert Classic.
	There are loads of Rush fans lining the course.
	They've got signs, they've got banners.
	I suspect there's a cigar or two being handed across the lines.
	Pictures, it's all on the site.
	In fact, it's on right now, and they'll be posting more pictures each day at rushlimbaugh.com.
	By the way, that tournament is going to be covered on USA Network today and tomorrow from 4 till 6 p.m. Eastern Time and Saturday on ABC from 3 to 6.
	So tune in and turn on and log on to RushLimbaugh.com, and you'll see Rush, I'm sure, having a ball back at the Bob Hope Desert Classic after being away for a while.
	The New Horizons probe has lifted off successfully.
	It had been delayed a few times.
	They tried like three times, and this is, I think this third time was the charm.
	It was supposed to be 1.40, then 2 o'clock.
	It was moved around.
	It did lift off.
	And it's only going 3 billion miles.
	It will take 10 years.
	That may be the most secure job anywhere right now.
	That if you're on that program, you go, well, I got a job for 10 years.
	Kick back, put your feet up.
	10 years to the very edge of our solar system to Pluto.
	Kind of exciting.
	Kind of amazing.
	Great American technology.
	We've talked about the war on terror, the war on Walmart, the war on our border with Mexico, and now the war on our president and our country.
	It's just one thing after another.
	One of the first would have been, of course, Harry Belafonte calling President Bush the greatest terrorist in the world.
	When he was there with Chavez, you know, he said, no matter what the greatest, no matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W. Bush says, we're here to tell you, not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people support your revolution.
	Blah, blah, blah, blah.
	You had she who should not be mentioned, she who should not be named, talking about being on the plantation.
	That's the way the Republican parties have been doing everything they're doing.
	You got people referring to the Republican Party like organized crime just below the Vegas mafia of the 70s.
	Dirty Harry said that.
	You got a guy running for Senate in Ohio, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Paul Hackett, calling some conservative Republicans religious fanatics and comparing them to terrorist mastermind and out with his new Christmas end of the year message, Osama bin Laden.
	And there's no shame.
	There's no, well, we got to be careful while we're at war.
	There's nothing anymore.
	In fact, this guy was called to apologize and he said, hey, I said it.
	I meant it.
	I stand behind it.
	Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Paul Hackett in Ohio.
	He tells the Columbus Dispatch, quote, the Republican Party has been hijacked by the religious fanatics that, in my opinion, aren't a whole lot different than Osama bin Laden and a lot of other religious nuts around the world.
	He also, by the way, happened to say that the practice of denying homosexuals equal rights is un-American, which moved the Columbus Dispatch to ask if that meant the 62% of Ohioans who voted to ban gay marriage were un-American.
	And he says if that's what they believe, if what they believe is that we're going to have a scale on judging which Americans have equal rights, yeah, that's un-American.
	Well, it goes on and on and on, and somebody who is paying attention to it all and writing about it is Byron York, the National Review Online, and he, in fact, joins us here on the Rush Limbaugh program, which, by the way, you can do too at 1-800-282-2882.
	That's 1-800-282-2882.
	You can log on to at rushlimbaugh.com.
	Byron, hi, I'm Paul W. Smith.
	Nice meeting you.
	Hi, Paul.
	Great to be here.
	So you get the I mentioned this the other day, and the Al Gore thing is almost embarrassing.
	The poor guy's just dying for attention, dying to get himself in the news on things.
	And so now he's doing this, forgetting all about echelon, forgetting all about everything that he used to do and his administration used to do, or when he was in the Clinton administration.
	And I'm afraid I'm thinking that if it wasn't for guys like you and the internet and others that no one would even remember.
	Well, you know, I think that there's obviously a lot of anger on the left right now, but I think you have to kind of separate some of the reasons.
	On one side, you have the kind of moveon.org crowd, the Daily Coast crowd.
	And, you know, I think you have to kind of give them credit for believing what they believe.
	A lot of them, all of them, were against the war in Iraq from the get-go.
	And a lot of them were against the war in Afghanistan.
	You know, the day after the September 11th terrorist attacks, the top people at MoveOn.org circulated petitions calling on the United States to exercise restraint and not use military action against al-Qaeda.
	Now, that's a very, very fringe, non-mainstream position, but they believe it very much, and they've been consistent all the way through.
	Now, what's happening is I think they're getting angrier and angrier, not only at George W. Bush, but also at their Democratic representatives, because the worldview is Republicans are evil, and Democrats are either too weak or too cowardly or too disorganized to stand up to that evil.
	So they're kind of boiling over, and there are a few bright spots in their worldview, and one of those is Al Gore, who gives them that old-time religion.
	But haven't they noticed that it's not working?
	Well, you know, you would think so.
	And, you know, for the part of the office holders, you know, the other people, the Nancy Pelosis or the Harry Reeds, I mean, they're experiencing this enormous amount of frustration as they realize every day that they really don't control anything in Washington.
	I mean, these Alito hearings were just proof that, you know, if the president sends up a good, qualified nominee to the Supreme Court, if you only have 45 votes, you can't win.
	So they're getting very, very frustrated.
	But their problem is they don't really know what to do.
	There was an incredible story in the Washington Post last month, and it was so great that the Washington Post put it on page A23.
	But anyway, Nancy Pelosi had come to the Washington Post editorial board, and they do this a lot with newsmakers, and they'll interview her about various things.
	And this was in the post story.
	Pelosi said Democrats will produce an issue agenda for the 2006 elections, but it will not include a position on Iraq.
	Now, Pelosi tried to say that was a great thing, and it showed you how Democrats were open to differing points of view, but what it really showed you is they don't know what to do.
	So I think you have a kind of a collection of an angry base and a confused and frustrated leadership now, and they're just kind of in a mess.
	Byron York is with us, National Review White House correspondent, and you can join us too at 1-800-282-2882, 1-800-282-2882.
	Back to Vice President Al Gore saying that the president has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently.
	He said an awful lot.
	I foolishly got the entire transcript.
	I don't know why I did that.
	I sat through it.
	Well, then I really feel sorry for you.
	But one of the things that he said, and no one's made a big deal out of it, but you, Byron, is that he did say that the president has an inherent power to take unilateral action during an emergency.
	He absolutely did.
	He declared that the president of the United States has the inherent authority to do what he believes is necessary to defend the country.
	Well, you know, one of the problems for Democrats in this is that from 1993 to 2001, they control the executive branch.
	And what presidents do is they assert presidential authority.
	And when Democrats controlled the White House, they did that very thing.
	And I wrote last month that back in 1994, and Rush talked about this quite a lot, that Jamie Gorellik, who was then the number two person at the Clinton Justice Department, testified before Congress that the Department of Justice believes that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches, and by that she means break-ins, for foreign intelligence purposes.
	That was their position.
	And the thing that Gore was honest enough in his speech to include one paragraph in a very, very long speech saying that, well, you know, the president does have this authority.
	And so then you think, well, gee, isn't that the ballgame?
	And then Gore said, no, the president has done too much of this, and it's been too long.
	So he really seemed to be arguing that it was a matter of degree as opposed to actual quality.
	Well, I know that our Rush Limbaugh show listeners want to weigh in on this and want to have a chance to speak with you, Byron.
	So we're going to open that phone line at 1-800-282-2882.
	1-800-282-2882 and continue talking about this, which really boils down to the war on our president as we continue on the Rush Limbaugh program.
	I'm Paul W. Smith.
	As we continue here on the Rush Limbaugh program, 1-800-282-2882, Paul W. Smith in for Rush, you go to rushlimbaugh.com and you can find Rush with all kinds of new pictures there at the Bob Hope Desert Classic and more pictures being put up each day.
	And we're spending some time with our guest talking a bit with Byron York about what's going on.
	The war, I mean, plain and simple, the war on our president is really the way I've put it.
	Just trying to find a little piece of paper that Kit gave me just a moment ago on Hillary Radham Clinton, because one of the first questions we have here, Byron York, has to do with the ⁇ oh, I mentioned her name.
	She who should not be mentioned.
	Jeff is on a cell phone in Detroit, and you're joining Paul W. Smith and Byron York from the National Review.
	Hi, Paul and Byron.
	How are you?
	Good.
	Good.
	I'm very pleased to be able to speak to you today.
	I guess the premise for my question is, do the Democratic Party take us all for children or idiots that don't have a memory?
	I seem to remember leading up to the Iraq war, one of the big criticisms of Kerry and Clinton and the rest of the gang was that our president didn't allow diplomacy and was going against our European allies and how dare he diminish them.
	And so the way I see it, the administration gave the forefront in dealing with the Iranian crisis over to the Europeans and said, hey, guys, let's give diplomacy and peace a chance.
	And now that it's failing, I saw her on the news today blasting the Bush administration for wasting time and that they outsourced, as she put it, our national defense and our national security, and that she would just blasted him for it.
	And I guess I'd like to get your feedback and opinion on that.
	Well, there's a couple of things.
	One, I think you're right that a lot of Democrats are basically twisting themselves into pretzels on this, trying to be opposed to whatever Bush is doing at any given point.
	For example, you may remember in the 2004 campaign, John Kerry and every other Democrat very passionately accused George W. Bush of taking his eye off the ball in the war and terrorism, being so distracted by Iraq that he takes his eye off the really important thing, which is al-Qaeda.
	Now we find out in the last month or so that George Bush has his eye very much and his ear very much on Al-Qaeda the whole time and has been aggressively trying to pursue al-Qaeda suspects, and they want to impeach him for it.
	So, I mean, they're trying to oppose Bush at every turn, but it's really not working.
	I think, frankly, at some point you're going to see, and we're seeing it now, they're going to decide to just go after this culture of corruption thing a lot harder where they might be able to get more traction.
	Yeah, and they probably will get more traction there.
	But the hypocrisy level, and I'm so glad that you pointed that out, Jeff.
	Here's the actual quote from Hillary Rodham Clinton.
	I have no problem saying her name, but the guy said to me before.
	No, I know, but I can explain to the listeners, because I'm very open and upfront with our listeners here.
	The guy said there was a story I had yesterday, I think, about Hillary Rodham Clinton, and they said, if you mention that, you know, our listeners go crazy, and that will go off in another direction, and, you know, whatever, whatever.
	So that's why I started saying she who should not be mentioned.
	But now that she's been mentioned, we'll continue.
	She said, I believe that we lost critical time in dealing with Iran because the White House chose to downplay the threats and chose to outsource the negotiations.
	Now, Byron, this is the party that she represents that wants us to go to the UN before we do anything.
	She wants the U.N. to handle everything.
	The president blew everything by not going to the U.N. and getting our allies involved in everything.
	We call them the axis of evil in the Clinton administration, in the Clinton years, which she was a very big part of.
	They wouldn't even say the rogue states.
	They call them the nations of concern.
	They didn't want to upset the rogues.
	So, I mean, come on.
	Yeah, well, you know, look, it's true.
	And you may remember they spoke over and over again in the run-up to the Iraq war of the rush to war.
	And it was kind of a slow walk to war after Bush made the decision in the summer and fall of 2002 to go to the United Nations and to make this case, really an overwhelming case that Saddam had ignored all of these United Nations directives.
	So Bush sort of did precisely what they wanted to do, and I think precisely what was the right thing to do in the run-up to the war.
	Now you're exactly right.
	He's doing the same thing with Britain, France, and Germany in this approach to the Iranian nuclear issue.
	And they're going to have to take action in some way.
	And I think we're in the run-up to that right now.
	And all Mrs. Clinton can say is that he's outsourced diplomacy, when in fact we were doing it, I think, in a way that both parties would probably agree is the best way to do it.
	Well, outsource is going to be the key word, too, because it ties into the jobs and all of that.
	Outsource, outsource, outsource.
	Stephen is in Wichita, Kansas, and on the Rush Limbaugh Show with Byron York of the National Review.
	Thanks for having me, Byron.
	I want you to know that I consider you a great champion of intellectual honesty, which I appreciate tremendously.
	Well, thank you very much.
	I appreciate that.
	As we get into this, as we're getting closer to the elections, do you think that this awesome rhetoric that we have now, as the Democrats, as they start to calibrate their strategy, is it going to be ratcheted up?
	Is it going to moderate at all?
	I mean, I just think that it's, number one, I mean, what do you think their strategy is going to be with that rhetoric?
	And number two, where do you think we stand?
	What are the chances right now?
	Are we 50-50?
	Are we going to retain control?
	What's going to happen?
	Well, a couple of things.
	I mean, there's really two or three areas of attack for Democrats.
	And one is on the national security issue.
	And the White House would really, really, really like it if they continue pushing on the national security issue.
	If they talk about wanting to impeach Bush for being kind of mean to our al-Qaeda prisoners and going after Al-Qaeda, I mean, the White House and Republican Party will be very happy if Democrats pursue that.
	As I said before, they're probably going to get more traction with this whole culture of corruption idea of tying Republicans to Jack Abramoff and saying that basically Republicans have been in power for 12 years now and they've become fat and greedy and corrupt.
	Well, they won't say just like we, the Democrats, used to be, but that's the argument that they'll make.
	They'll probably get more traction on that depending on how much Republicans really pursue reform, which we're seeing a lot of that in this House race that's going on right now for House Majority Leader.
	The other thing they'll push, and they may get some traction on this, is stuff like the prescription drug plan.
	I mean, if the White House doesn't fix things like this, I mean, that's what elections are about.
	So they may get some traction there.
	Right now, it looks as if there's really it would be very, very difficult for them to pick up the seats they need to win in the Senate.
	And the same thing is probably true for the House.
	But we are in a kind of a volatile period.
	And if you look at the polls of Americans' opinion of Congress, they just say do you have a positive or negative opinion of Congress?
	The negatives are way, way up.
	They're not quite up to the October 1994 level, which is right before the huge Republican victories.
	But they are way up, and I think Republicans in the House have to be worried about that.
	All right.
	We'll let Chris ask his question from Melbourne, Florida, real quick, and then we'll get the answer after the break.
	Chris?
	Okay.
	Hi, how are you doing, Paul?
	Good, real quick with your question.
	All right.
	Hey, I was E7 in the Army, retired as an EO instructor, so I'm not as ignorant as most white guys about race relations and stuff.
	My question is, when she who must not be named was talking about running like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about.
	We know exactly what you're talking about, and we'll get Byron York's comments here on the Rush Limbaugh program up next.
	Thanks, Johnny Donovan, 800-282-2882.
	That's 1-800-282-2882 to be in touch with us and welcoming Byron York from the National Review.
	By the way, he's the White House correspondent.
	He is also the author of The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy, the untold story of how democratic operatives, eccentric billionaires, liberal activists, and assorted celebrities tried to bring down a president.
	And why they'll try even harder next time, and I'm happy to say congratulations to you, Byron.
	It's coming out in paperback next week.
	It'll be out next Tuesday with a new afterword.
	And basically, it's about how the campaign continues by other means, which is what we've been talking about.
	Our caller was asking the question about Hillary Rodham Clinton and the plantation remark.
	A remark that, you know, you've got Mayor Nagan at least has apologized and not using the chocolate thing and the God Mad at America thing.
	At this point, Hillary Rodham Clinton says she may be not using it anymore, but she's not apologizing for it.
	And people are trying to come up with reasons why it made sense for her to say something like that, in effect, that the House of Representatives, quote, has been run like a plantation and called the Bush administration one of the worst that has ever governed our country.
	Well, on the plantation thing, I'm not sure how it made a lot of sense in the sense that the House of Representatives, you know, representatives make, what, $150,000, $160,000 a year.
	They have a lot of perks.
	It doesn't seem to completely approximate the slave experience.
	On the other hand, it's the kind of thing I think that especially Democrats will say when they believe that the fact that their heart is in the right place will not lead to any great criticism from them.
	So that I think Mrs. Clinton would say that, you know, I have a great record on civil rights, unlike those Republicans.
	And you know exactly where I stand, and so I'm virtually incapable of making an insensitive remark.
	And go back to Senator Robert Byrd, who actually used the N-word on national television a couple of times and was not run out of town.
	So there is, I think, a certain different treatment for Democratic politicians who are perceived to be in the right place on civil rights as opposed to Republicans.
	And just look at Trent Lott, who are perceived to be in the wrong place, and they pay a much higher price.
	Let's go back to our phone at 800-282-2882.
	And Mike is on his cell phone somewhere in Michigan.
	Where in Michigan, Mike?
	I'm in Traverse City right now, Paul Dodd.
	Ah, the cherry capital of the world.
	Rolling back to Detroit.
	And my question for Mr. York is his comment on the partial release of the Barrett report.
	If it's going to have an impact, if we will end up having the entire report released, we could be able to hear the entire report.
	And I also wondered what it's like having to be a substitute host for Sean Hannity and having to deal with Alan Colms.
	Wow.
	Well, a couple of things.
	I have not ever been a substitute for Sean, but I've dealt with Alan Colms a number of times on his radio program, and believe me, it's a handful.
	Now, what was the first question?
	The Barrett report?
	Oh, of course, the Barrett report.
	Well, you know, the thing is, there are about 150 pages, I think, redacted out of the Barrett report, taken out by the three-judge panel that oversees the independent counsel.
	And basically, there have been a number of reports, including reports by me, that say the really meaty stuff is in that redacted portion.
	But apparently, what's going to happen is members of Congress who request a full copy are going to be able to see it.
	So I have to believe that it's going to be leaked out fairly soon.
	Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa has been really dogged in trying to get this report out.
	I spoke to him last week during a break in the Alito hearings, and he said he wanted to see the whole thing out and that he would continue working to get the whole thing out.
	Now, what effect will it have?
	You know, I just don't know.
	It'll depend.
	Is it going to look bad for Senator Clinton?
	I just can't say.
	If it doesn't really affect Senator Clinton a lot, I think there's going to be, certainly on the part of a lot of people in the press, this tendency to say, well, you know, that was Henry Cisneros.
	It's ancient history, and it's just not that big a deal.
	I'll just say to Mike on his drive, I've worked with Alan Combs many years ago here in New York at a couple of different stations.
	He's a wonderfully nice guy, just terribly misguided in his politics.
	Let's go to Ron on his cell phone in Pennsylvania.
	Welcome in.
	Good evening, gentlemen.
	How y'all doing?
	Good.
	First of all, I listened to the rest of them of our show.
	I only sold it because that's the only thing he's not getting headed from New Jersey to Pennsylvania.
	Well, that's a screaming endorsement of the show.
	And I think you are doing a better job.
	That's honest truth.
	Your kids.
	This is going to help me get asked back to fill in a lot, isn't it?
	Yeah.
	Go ahead here, Ron.
	Okay, your guess.
	A lot of things you're saying, I agree with as a die-hard Democrat.
	The Democrats really do not know how to take on the Republic.
	All right.
	When the fuck comment for what Hillary Clinton said, I'm an African-American.
	Guess what?
	I agree with it.
	I know this administration.
	I worked in the military for his father.
	I know how he is.
	So, therefore, I'm not going to comment on that.
	So, I know the Republicans are doing it.
	Wait, wait, You worked for President Bush?
	The first Bush.
	What did you do working for President Bush?
	I saw like Kevin's cars clean, so to speak.
	You what?
	Am I missing something here?
	Well, it's a little wobbly there.
	Yeah, you're in the Pennsylvania Dutch country, I think.
	Yeah, yeah, up in the mountains here.
	Yeah.
	Anyway, the point is that going back to the Democrats.
	Well, I'm glad we solved that problem and the Democrats.
	The Democrats need to really know how to come out and say, you know what?
	The Republicans, we're in this situation.
	You did it wrong.
	Now it's time for the Democrats to do it right.
	No, but they don't know how to say it.
	And for Howard Dean, they need to take him time to a halt and let him drag through some mud or something.
	Gee, I'd like to let you stay on longer, Ron, but I got to move on.
	Byron, I don't know.
	That's the first time.
	No, that quote cannot be attributed to Byron York from the National Review or Paul W. Smith from the Rush Limbaugh Show.
	It is attributed to Ron about tying him to a hog, Howard Dean, and dragging him through the mud.
	Well, the problem with, you know, you hear, you know, if you read Democratic websites or listen to their speeches a lot, you hear a lot of pep talk saying we really need to stand up to George W. Bush.
	We need to fight for what we believe.
	But then the question comes down to what are we going to do?
	What do we actually support?
	And on the biggest issue that's really facing us today, which is in the war in Iraq, Democrats do not have a position.
	That was what I was reading to you before about Nancy Pelosi saying that their policy agenda for 2006 will not include a position on Iraq.
	So after you get through the pep talk, then you have to ask, look around and say, well, what do we do now?
	And Democrats have not been able to answer that question.
	Do you, you know, maybe Rush has asked you this before, but I didn't hear your answer.
	But I have for a very, very long time, probably since I've known of her, figured that one of the greatest, strongest hopes the Republican Party has to defeat Hillary Robin Clinton would be Dr. Condoleezza Rice, even though she keeps saying that that's not what her interest is, that she isn't considering or thinking about running for president.
	What are some of your thoughts on that, Byron?
	Well, right now, I believe her.
	And the other thing is that, you know, we have a number of Republicans who right now are not known all that well, with the exception of John McCain, who might be a very strong candidate.
	You know, I did a piece on John McCain for the new Republic magazine a couple of months ago and talked to people down in South Carolina, for example, and they said, well, if he comes down and tries to do the same old thing from 2000, it's not going to be a big success.
	But if he really does something new, we're quite open to him because we're very grateful for how much he campaigned, how hard he campaigned for George W. Bush in 2004.
	Then you have people like George Allen, you had Mitt Romney, Bill Frisk.
	So there are a number of candidates who may emerge as very strong candidates.
	And the thing about Connollies Rice is she has been Secretary of State, but she hasn't been elected to anything else or to anything at all.
	So you've got to wonder whether this would be whether her first run should be for the office of President of the United States.
	What would be the dream matchup then?
	Do you have one?
	Well, I have to tell you, there are a lot of Republicans I've talked to now who are willing to give McCain another look.
	These were people who were pretty strong for Bush in 2000.
	But they're saying, you know, okay, we hated campaign finance reform.
	He went all overboard on that, but it's over.
	And McCain is incredibly strong, incredibly hawkish on the war in Iraq.
	He's on the right side of all this lobbying reform stuff.
	He's been very good on federal spending, for example.
	So, you know, there are a lot of things to recommend him, I think.
	And clearly, there are a lot of things that anger a lot of the Republican base.
	But in terms of some, if Hillary Rodham Clinton is nominated, and that's certainly not a guarantee, but if she is, and if she's a strong candidate, then certainly somebody like McCain is somebody who has equal statute.
	And by the way, who else other than Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democrats?
	You know, I just don't know.
	They're not a bunch of, it's like a bunch of senators.
	They're not a bunch of very strong people.
	There's going to be a fight to run to the left of Hillary.
	And Senator Russell Feingold has been making noises about doing that.
	A person who might, you know, I was sitting there watching Al Gore speak the other day, connecting with the audience at DAR Constitution Hall here in Washington.
	And, you know, there are a lot of people who think that he might change his mind, decide to try to run to the left.
	Is somebody like Evan Bayh a real possibility?
	You know, I just don't know.
	Hillary may benefit just by the relative weakness of everybody else.
	Yeah, it seems like you'd be real hard-pressed to come up with another name right now.
	Right.
	I mean, a strong name, as strong as I believe Hillary Rodham Clinton will be.
	You know, I have to agree with you.
	But on the other hand, I mean, she really is a divisive figure, and a lot of people don't like her.
	Plenty of time to move further and further to the center.
	They're brilliant at that.
	Before you know it, she'll be talking like a Republican.
	But Paul, you have to understand that when you're in the Democratic Party and you want to move to the center, you only do that after you've locked up your base.
	I mean, you've got to have your base, too.
	And they're mad at her, and they might get more mad at her.
	So none of that will mean anything if she's running against a Republican, because they'd vote for her in any event against a Republican.
	But it might make a difference in the primaries.
	Congratulations, Byron York, on the vast left-wing conspiracy, the untold story of how Democratic operatives, eccentric billionaires, liberal activists, and assorted celebrities tried to bring down a president and why they'll try even harder next time.
	It's out in paperback coming up this next week, and it's always a pleasure talking with you.
	Great to be here.
	Byron York.
	He is very familiar to you here on the Rush Limbaugh program.
	I think we can go to Detroit here, and Gilbert is calling in maybe with the final word on the telephone here.
	Gilbert, welcome to the Rush Limbaugh program from my hometown area of Detroit.
	Hi, Paul.
	Longtime listener.
	Thanks.
	Comment I wanted to make today was, well, a couple of things.
	But first, I wanted to say that in all of these discussions about the wiretapping and the president's use of authority, we're in place in the law that was never contemplated ever before, in which, you know, in an era of worldwide global communications, we have to be able to defend ourselves.
	And quite honestly, the president doesn't just have a right to go in and be tapping these phones and otherwise surveilling and trying to get information.
	He has a duty to do so, because if he doesn't, he could be subjecting the American public to attacks that he would be blind for later.
	It just seems to me that the whole idea of this case against the administration by the ACLU is completely misplaced.
	Well, I think you're right.
	And that brings us really to our end and our conclusion, Gilbert, and I'm glad you've done that.
	There are a couple of different Americas here.
	There are those of us who believe the president does have a certain responsibility to do whatever he can do.
	And we're hoping he's using all of this great technology that hasn't yet been revealed by the New York Times to keep us safe, regardless of what Osama bin Laden has said in his latest tape, because now they've said that for sure it's Osama, that none of that has mattered, and that's not why they haven't attacked us.
	Well, of course it is.
	He's not going to admit that.
	But the point is, it appears that there are those who respect authority and those who question authority.
	And it goes, David Brooks, I love David Brooks, and I don't put love and New York Times people together very often, but David does a great job.
	And when he wrote his piece the other day on losing the Alitos and talked about the liberals were doves, the ethnics were hawks, the liberals had questioned authority bumper stickers, the ethnics had been taught in school to respect authority.
	Like you, that's what I always have done.
	And I've never had a run-in with the police.
	I've never had a problem when I was pulled over.
	Not that I've been pulled over very often for speeding, of course.
	Yeah.
	But the fact of the matter is, it might have a lot to do with the fact that I have always, because this is how I was taught by my parents, I've always treated authority with respect.
	If a police officer walks up to the car, I say, yes, sir, yes, ma'am.
	Yes, sir, yes, ma'am.
	No, ma'am, no, sir, whatever it is, and treat them with respect.
	And I've never had a problem with them.
	Now, I know that I didn't grow up in a neighborhood where the police automatically made us scared when we saw them.
	And I understand that there are neighborhoods where that has been the case.
	And so it just seems to me that if you look at our world in a positive way and respect our president, just as I respected Bill Clinton, didn't agree with him politically, but he was our president.
	He was the president of the United States.
	Didn't mean that we didn't make jokes about him.
	He opened himself up to jokes and criticism through his own actions.
	I've criticized President Bush, agreed with him more than not, but he's made mistakes.
	So if you paid attention during the Alito hearings, as David Brooks so beautifully pointed out, you saw the way people look at different things.
	If you listened to the questions of Jeff Sessions, as David pointed out, a Republican, you, for example, heard a man exercised by the terror drug dealers can inflict on a neighborhood.
	If you listened to Ted Kennedy, you heard a man exercised by the terror law enforcement officials can inflict on a neighborhood.
	Kennedy railed against Gestapo-like tactics.
	Patrick Leahy accused Alito of rendering decisions, quote, in a light most favorable to law enforcement.
	He said that like that was a bad thing.
	There are many of us who think that's a good thing.
	And there lies the difference.
	Respect authority, question authority.
	Final words in a moment.
	Don't forget to log on, rushlimbaugh.com, and you'll see Rush pictures just being put up, new ones every day with the Rush Out of the Bob Hope Desert Classic.
	The Professor will be in tomorrow, and it'll be great listening in to Professor Walter Williams and then Rush back in the big chair behind the golden microphone of the EIB Excellence in Broadcasting Network on Monday.
	And I'm looking forward, good lord willing, to being back in my chair bright and early tomorrow morning on the Great Voice of the Great Lakes News Talk 760 WJR.
	Often I'm asked who I would like to interview, and I don't always have a quick, good answer, but I'm thinking today, since it was 300 years ago, two days ago, that this statesman, inventor, and editor, Benjamin Franklin, was born.
	300 years ago, wouldn't you just love to sit down with him and get his take on America today?
	Well, I'm not going to be able to do that, but I did love sitting in this chair and doing a lot of other magical things thanks to the executive producer Kit Carson and the team of Brett Winterbull and Mike Maimone and sitting in today too, Catherine, on the newsletter.
	This is a great group of people.
	I know you know that.
	We'll talk again soon.

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