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 we never have a final exam, but we are tested daily.
	The professor will be in tomorrow, Professor Walter Williams, and then uh Rush should be back in the seat come Monday.
	But you can actually be with Rush and almost be in Rush'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.
	And 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 four till six PM Eastern time and Saturday on ABC from three to six.
	So uh tune in and uh turn on and uh 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 I think this third time was the charm.
	It was uh supposed to be one forty, then two o'clock, it was moved around, it did lift off, and it's only going three billion miles.
	It will take ten years.
	That may be the the most secure job anywhere right now that if you're on that program, you get well, you got a job for ten years.
	Kick back, put your feet up.
	Ten 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 uh and our our country.
	It just it's one thing after another.
	One of the first uh would have been, of course, Harry Belafonte calling uh President Bush uh the greatest terrorist in the world.
	Uh when he was there with uh uh Shaves, 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 uh uh she who should not be uh mentioned, she who should not be named, uh, talking about uh the the being on the plantation.
	Uh that's the way the Republican parties have been doing everything they're doing.
	Uh y you got people referring to the Republican Party like organized crime just below the Vegas mafia of the 70s, uh Dirty Harry said that.
	Uh you got an uh uh uh 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 uh out with his new Christmas end of the year message, Osama bin Laden.
	Uh and it's i it 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 unAmerican.
	Which moved the Columbus Dispatch to ask if that meant the sixty-two percent of Ohioans who voted to ban gay marriage were unAmerican.
	And he says if that's what they believe, if what they believe is that we're we're going to have a scale on judging which Americans have equal rights.
	Yeah, that's un-American.
	Well, uh, it goes on and on and on, and uh 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 Rush Limbaugh.com.
	Uh Byron, hi, I'm Paul W. Smith.
	Nice meeting you.
	Hi, Paul, great to be here.
	So uh you get the the I mentioned this the other day, and it's the the Al Gore thing is almost embarrassing.
	The poor guy's just dying for attention to dying to get himself in the news on things, and so now he's doing this uh forgetting all about echelon, forgetting all about everything that he used to do in his administration used to do, or when he was in the Clinton administration.
	And it and if it I'm s I'm 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 uh remember.
	Well, you know, I think that uh there's there's a lot there's obviously a lot of anger on the left right now, but I I think you have to kind of separate some of the reasons.
	Um on one side you have the kind of move on dot org crowd, the daily coast crowd, um, and you know, uh 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 the the day after the September eleventh 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.
	Um but they believe it very much, and they've been consistent all the way through.
	Now what what what's happening is I think they're getting angrier and angry or not only at George W. Bush, but also at their at their democratic representatives, because the the world view is Republicans are evil, and Democrats are either too weak or too cowardly or to z too disorganized to stand up to that evil.
	So they're they're kind of boiling over, and there are a few bright spots in their worldview, and 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 you would think so.
	And and you know, uh what the for the for the part of the office holders, you know, the other people, the Nancy Pelosi's or the or the the Harry Reeds, I mean, the they're uh experiencing this enormous amount of frustration as they they realize every day that they really don't control anything in Washington.
	I mean, these these Alito hearings uh were just proof that, you know, if the president sends up a good qualified nominee to the Supreme Court, if you only have forty-five votes, you can't win.
	Uh so they're getting very, very frustrated and and and but their problem is they don't really know what to do.
	Uh there was an incredible story in the Washington Post last month, and it was so great that the Washington Post put it on page A twenty three.
	But anyway, Nancy Pelosi had come to the Washington Post editorial board, and they 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 two thousand six elections, but it will not include a position on Iraq.
	Now Pelosi's 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 of an angry base and uh and uh and a confused and frustrated leadership now.
	And they're they're just kind of in a mess.
	Byron York is with us, uh National Review White House correspondent, and uh you can join us too at 1-800-282-2882, 1-800-282-2882.
	Back to uh Vice President Al Gore, uh, saying that the the President has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently.
	He said an awful lot.
	I I foolishly got the entire transcript.
	I don't know why I did that.
	I got to I sat through it.
	Well, yeah, I then I really feel sorry for you.
	But I I 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 uh from nineteen ninety-three to two thousand one they control the executive branch and what what presidents do is they assert presidential authority and when Democrats controlled uh the White House they did that very thing and and and I wrote last month that uh back in nineteen ninety four and and Rush talked about this quite a lot that Jamie Gorellick who was then the number two person of 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 uh the the 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 and and so then you think well gee if isn't that the ball game 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 uh I know that our uh Rush Limbaugh show listeners want to weigh in on this and want to have a chance to speak with you Byron so we're gonna open that phone line at one eight hundred two eight two two eight eight two one eight hundred two eight two twenty eight eighty two 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 uh continue here on the Rush Limbaugh program, one eight hundred two eight two eight eight two uh Paul W. Smith in for Rush you go to Rush Limbaugh.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 and we're uh uh spending some time with our guest uh talking a bit uh with the Byron York about about what's going on.
	The war I mean plain and simple the war on our president is uh is really the way I've put it just trying to find a little piece of paper that uh Kit gave me just a moment ago uh on uh Hillary Raddam Clinton because uh one of the 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 uh Jeff is on a cell phone in Detroit and uh you're joining Paul W. Smith and Byron York from the National Review.
	Hi Paul and Byron how are you?
	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 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 and use that key term our national defense and our national security and that she would just blasted him for it.
	And I guess I I'd like to get your feedback and opinion on that.
	Well there's a there's a couple of things.
	One I I think you're right that that a lot of Democrats are basically twisting themselves into pretzels uh on this trying to uh be opposed to whatever Bush is doing uh at any given point uh for example uh you may remember in the two thousand four campaign John Kerry and every other Democrat you know very passionately accuse George W. Bush of taking his eye off the ball in the war in terror 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 had 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 subject suspects and they want to impeach him for it.
	So I mean they're they're they're trying to oppose Bush at every turn but it's it's really not working.
	I think frankly at some point you're gonna see and you we're seeing it now they're gonna decide to just go after this culture of corruption thing uh a lot harder where they might be able to get more traction.
	Yeah and I and they probably will get more traction there but the hypocrisy level and and I'm so glad that you uh pointed that out Jeff here's the actual quote uh from Hillary Radham Clinton.
	I have no problem saying her name, but the guy said to me uh before.
	No, I know, but you I can explain to the listeners, because I'm very open and uh up front with uh our listeners here.
	Uh the guy said uh uh there was a story I had uh yesterday, I think, about uh Hillary Rodham Clinton, and they said if you mention that, you know, our listeners go crazy and that'll go off in another direction and you know, whatever, whatever.
	So I that's why I started saying she who should not be mentioned.
	Uh but now that the uh she's been mentioned, we'll uh 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 U.N. before we do anything.
	She wants the UN 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 the nations of concern.
	They didn't want to upset the rogues.
	So uh I mean, come on.
	Yeah, well, you know, look, it's true, and they they you may remember they uh they spoke over and over again in the run-up to the Iraq war of the rush to war.
	And it was it was kind of a slow walk to war as uh after Bush made the decision in the summer and fall of two thousand two to go to the United Nations and to make this case, uh 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 uh in the run up to the war.
	Now you're you're exactly right, he's doing the same thing with with Britain, uh France and Germany uh in this approach to the the Iranian nuclear uh issue, and and they're gonna I mean they're gonna have to take action in some way, and I think we're 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're we 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 you know, that 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, uh as we're getting closer to the elections, uh, do you think that this awesome uh rhetoric that we have now, as the Democrats as they start to calibrate their strategy, is it going to is it going to be ratcheted up?
	Is it gonna moderate at all?
	I mean, I just think that it's uh uh number one, I mean, what what do you think their strategy is gonna be with that rhetoric?
	And number two, where do you think we stand?
	What w what are the chances right now?
	Are we fifty-fifty?
	Are we gonna get r re retain control?
	What's gonna happen?
	Well, um a couple of things.
	I mean, there's there's really two whether there are 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 in uh uh issue, if they talk about wanting to impeach Bush for uh uh being kind of mean to Al Qa our Al Qaeda prisoners and and going after Al Qaeda.
	I mean the White House and Republican Party will be very happy if Democrats pursue that.
	Uh as I said before, they're probably gonna get more traction with this whole c culture of corruption idea of tying Republicans to Jack Abramoff and saying that basically Republicans have been in power for twelve years now, and they've become fat and greedy and corrupt uh just like well, they won't say just like we the Democrats used to be, but that's that's the argument that they'll make.
	They'll probably get more traction on that depending on how much Republicans really pursue uh reform, which we're seeing 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, uh, and they may get some traction on this is stuff like uh the uh the prescription drug plan.
	I mean, if if if the White House doesn't fix things like this, I mean that that's what elections are about.
	So they may get some traction there.
	Right now, um 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 uh the same thing is probably true for the House.
	We're in a we're 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 levels, 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.
	Uh We uh uh we'll we'll let uh Chris ask his question from uh 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, uh I was uh E7 and l in the Army, retired as an E.O. 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 uh running like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about.
	And that's what 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 one eight hundred two eight two twenty-eight eighty two to be in touch with us and uh uh welcoming Byron York from the National Review.
	By the way, uh 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 while they'll why they'll try even harder next time, and I'm happy to say uh congratulations to you, Byron.
	It's coming out in paperback next week.
	It'll be out uh next Tuesday with a new afterword, and basically uh it's about how the campaign continues by other means, which is what we've been talking about.
	Our caller uh was saying uh asking the question about the Hillary Rodham Clinton and the plantation remark.
	A remark that, you know, you've got the mayor Nagan at least has uh uh apologized and uh and not using the chocolate thing and the God mad at America thing.
	Uh at this point, Hillary Radham 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 has uh that that uh in uh in effect that the uh 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, 160,000 a year, they have a lot of perks.
	It doesn't seem to completely approximate the slave experience.
	Um on the other hand, it's the kind of thing I think that the especially Democrats will say when they when they believe that the fact that their heart is in the right place will not uh lead to any great criticism from them.
	Uh so that I think uh Mrs. Clinton would say that, you know, I have a great record on on civil rights, unlike those Republicans, and uh you you know you know exactly where I stand and I so I'm virtually incapable of making an insensitive remark.
	And y go back to to Senator Robert Byrd, who actually used the N-word on national television a couple of times, and uh was not run out of town.
	Uh so there there is, I think, a certain different treatment uh for Democratic politicians who are perceived to be in the right place on civil rights, as opposed to Republicans, uh 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 uh Mike is on his cell phone somewhere in Michigan.
	Where in Michigan, Mike?
	I'm in Traverse City right now, Paul Dunning.
	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 gonna have an impact.
	If we will end up having the entire report release, we could be able to hear the entire report.
	And I also wondered what it's like having to uh be a substitute host for Sean Hannity and having to deal with Alan Colbs.
	Wow.
	Well, um uh a couple of things.
	I I I have not uh ever uh been uh substitute for Sean but I've dealt with Alan Combs a number of times on his radio uh uh program, and uh believe me, it's it's it's a handful.
	Um, the um what was the first question.
	The uh Barrett report?
	Oh, of course the Barrett Report.
	Well, uh you know, the the thing is is that there are about 150 pages, I think, redacted out of the Barrett Report, taken out by the the three judge panel that oversees the independent Council.
	And uh the basically there have been a number of reports, including reports by me that say the really meaty stuff is in that uh redacted portion.
	Um 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 uh fairly soon.
	Um Senator uh Charles Grassley of of Iowa has been uh really uh um dogged in trying to get this report out.
	I spoke to him last week uh during a break in the Alito hearings, and uh 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 will it have, you know?
	I just don't know.
	Um it it it'll depend.
	If it is it gonna look bad for Senator Clinton.
	I j I just can't say.
	If it doesn't really affect Senator Clinton a lot, I think there's gonna be uh certainly in the part of a lot of people in the press, this uh 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 uh many years ago here in New York at a couple of different stations.
	He's a wonderfully nice guy, just to terribly misguided in his politics.
	Let's go to Ron on his cell phone in Pennsylvania.
	Welcome in.
	Good.
	Uh first of all, I listen to Russell M Bar show, only sold in the cause that's all the state's not getting headed from New Jersey to Pennsylvania.
	Well, that's uh uh screaming endorsement of the show.
	And I think you are doing a better job.
	That's honest truth.
	You'll get this is gonna help me get asked back to fill in a lot, isn't it?
	Yeah.
	Go ahead here, Ron.
	Okay, uh, you'll guess a lot of things you're saying I agree with as a as a diehard Democrat.
	The Democrats really do not know how to take on the Republic.
	I when Buck comment 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 I'm not gonna comment on that.
	So I know the Republicans.
	Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
	You worked for uh President uh Bush?
	The first Bush.
	Well what how what did you do working for President Bush?
	Uh uh saw like Kevin's cars clean, so to speak.
	You you what?
	Am I missing something here?
	I well, it's a little wobbly there.
	Yeah, you're in the Pennsylvania Dutch country, I think.
	Yeah, yeah, up in the mountains there.
	Yeah.
	Anyway, the point is that uh going back to the Democrats.
	Well, I'm glad we solved that uh problem and taken care of you.
	The Democrats the Democrats need to really know how to come out and say, you know what?
	Republicans were in the situation, you did it wrong.
	Now it's time for the Democrats to do it right, you know, but they don't know how to see it.
	And Paul's Howard Dean, they need to take him time to a halt and then drag through the mud or something.
	Gee, I'd like to let you stay on longer, Ron, but I gotta move on.
	Uh Byron, I don't know.
	That's the first now the that 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 uh about tying them to uh a hog, Howard Dean and dragging him through the mud.
	Well, the pr the problem with you know, you hear it, you know, if you read Democratic websites or listen to their speeches a lot, you hear a kind of a lot of pep talk saying we really need to stand up to George W. Bush.
	We need to fight for what we believe.
	Uh but then the question comes down to what are we gonna do?
	What do we actually support?
	And on on the biggest issue that's really facing us today, which is in the war, 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 two thousand six 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 uh you and you know maybe Russia's asked you this before, but I didn't hear your answer, but uh I have for a very very long time, probably since I've I've known of her, uh figured that w one of the greatest, strongest hopes the Republican Party has uh to defeat uh Hillary Rodham Clinton would be Dr. Condoleezza Rice, even though she keeps saying that that's not what her interest is, that she isn't uh considering or thinking about running for president.
	What are some of your thoughts on that, Byron?
	Well, right now I believe her.
	Uh and uh the the other thing is that uh you know, we have a number of Republicans who right now are not known all that well, it with the exception of John McCain, who might be very strong candidate.
	You know, I did a I did a piece on John McCain for the new Republic magazine a couple of months ago, and uh talked to people down in South Carolina, for example, and they said, Well, you know, if he comes down and tries to do the same old thing from two thousand, it's not going to be a big success.
	But if if 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 two thousand four.
	Then you have people like George Allen, uh he had uh Mitt Romney, Bill Friss.
	So there's there are a number of candidates who may emerge as very strong candidates.
	And uh the the thing about Connelly Rice is she has been Secretary of State, uh but she hasn't been elected anything else, and uh or to anything at all.
	So uh you you gotta wonder um whether this would be uh you know whether her first run should be for the office of President of the United States.
	What would be the the dream matchup then?
	Do you have one?
	Well, I ha I have to tell you there are there are a lot of uh Republicans I've talked to now who are willing to give McCain another look.
	These were people who were pretty strong for Bush in in two thousand.
	Uh but they're saying, you know, uh okay, we hated campaign finance reform.
	He went all overboard on that, but it's over, you know, and he's McCain is incredibly strong, incredibly hawkish on the war in Iraq.
	Uh he's gonna be he's on the right side of all this lobbying reform stuff.
	He's been very good on federal spending, for example.
	Um so, you know, there are a lot of things to to uh recommend him, I think.
	Uh and then clearly there are a lot of things that that anger a lot of the Republican base.
	Uh but in terms of some if 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 uh who has uh equal statute.
	Then by the way, who else other than Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democrats?
	I you know, I just don't know.
	Uh that they're they're not a bunch of uh it's like a bunch of senators.
	They're not a bunch of very strong people.
	There's gonna be there's gonna be a fight to run to the left of Hillary, you know, and and Senator Russell Feingold has been making noises about doing that.
	Uh a person who might, you know, I was sitting there looking watching Al Gore speak the other day, connecting with the audience uh at DAR Constitution Hall here in Washington, and uh, you know, there are a lot of people who think that uh that he might change his mind, decide to try to run to the left.
	Um is somebody like Evan Bye a real possibility?
	You know, I just don't know.
	Uh she Hillary may benefit just by the relative weakness of everybody else.
	Yeah, it seems like uh it's r 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.
	Uh you know, I have to agree with you, and but on the other hand, I mean she really is a divisive figure, and a lot of people don't like her and 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 gotta have your base too.
	And sh they're mad at her, and they might get more mad at her.
	Um so none of that will mean anything if she's running against a Republican, because they'd vote for her uh in any event against a Republican, but it might make a difference in 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 I think we can go to Detroit here, and Gilbert is calling in uh maybe with the final word on the telephone here.
	Gilbert to welcome to the Rush Limbaugh program from my hometown area of Detroit.
	Hi, Paul, long time listener.
	Thanks.
	Um comment I wanted to make today was uh well, a couple of things.
	But first, I wanted to say that in all of these discussions um about the wiretapping and the president's use of authority, um we're in place in the law that was, you know, 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 uh surveilling and trying to get information.
	He has a duty to do so.
	Because if he doesn't, he could be he could be subjecting uh the American public to attacks that he would be blind for later.
	Um it just it just seems to me that the whole idea of this uh case against uh the administration by uh the ACLU is completely uh misplaced.
	Well I think you're right and and that brings us really uh to our uh end and our conclusion Gilbert and I'm glad you've done that.
	Uh 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 the point is there are th i 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 but uh David does a great job and when he wrote his uh piece the other day on losing the Alitos and talked about uh about the the liberals were doves,
	the ethnics were hawks, the liberals had question authority bumper stickers, the ethnics had been taught in school to respect authority like you, that's that's what I always have done and uh 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.
	Uh 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 and 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 him.
	Now I I know that I didn't grow up in a neighborhood where the police automatically made us scared when we saw them.
	And I all I understand that there are neighborhoods where that has been the case.
	And and so i i it just seems to me that i if you look at our world in a positive way and respect our president uh 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 if you paid attention during the Alito hearings as David Brooks so beautifully pointed out you saw the way people look at different things uh 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 uh every day with the rush out of the Bob Hope Desert classic the professor will be in tomorrow and uh it'll be a great listening in to Professor Walter Williams and then rush back in the big chair behind the uh golden microphone of the EIB Excellence and Broadcasting Network uh on Monday and I'm looking forward,
	good Lord willing to being back in my chair uh bright and early tomorrow morning on the Great Voice of the Great Lakes News Talk seven sixty WJR.
	Often I'm asked who I would like to interview and I and I don't always have a quick good answer, but I I'm thinking today, since it was uh three hundred years ago, two days ago, that this statesman, inventor, and editor, Benjamin Franklin, was born.
	Three hundred 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 uh 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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