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Feb. 20, 2006 - Rush Limbaugh Program
34:47
February 20, 2006, Monday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
Half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair.
Greetings, folks.
Great to be with you.
I love being here on these three-day holidays, these Monday holidays, because the people of this country that aren't necessary aren't working.
And it just gives us an opportunity for an even larger audience.
Welcome to the Rush Limbaugh program, the nation's leading radio talk show program that meets and surpasses all audience expectations on a daily basis.
I am firmly ensconced here at the prestigious Attila the Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
Telephone number, if you want to be on the program today, is, as always, 800-282-2882.
The email address, rush at EIBNet.com.
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All right.
I'm going to start with a couple of CI Told You Sos.
My friends, as I have told you, I know the media and I know the left.
I know the Democrats like I know every square inch of my glorious naked body.
Not just I know them like the back of my hand.
I know these people.
This is what I said last Friday on this program.
I can announce to you what the action line, the media action line is on the Cheney Whittington story through the weekend and in the next week.
Are you ready?
The action line is, this doesn't solve anything because this is symptomatic of a larger problem.
This whole week, the media is going to say, is an example and an illustration of a much larger problem with the White House, and that is secrecy, attempting to control the news, keeping facts from the American people, blah, blah, blah.
So that's how they are going to keep this going.
And that's exactly what is happening.
It is almost word for word what they are even saying.
What they said on the Sunday shows yesterday, what they're saying today.
Newsweek and Time both have this as the cover story.
Of all the things happening in the world today, with Al Gore and Clinton both now siding up with our enemies in the war on terror and blaming Europeans and Americans for the war on terror, you would think that there are huge story opportunities for the covers of these News Weekly magazines.
But no, it's the Cheney story.
So the action line, and of course, the action line is what is it that's going to move the story?
The media has an action line.
They have a progression.
They have a desire.
They have a hope.
The news is not what happens anymore, folks.
The news that's reported today is simply what the media hopes will happen.
As in Whittington dying last week.
They were all sitting around running a vigil after he had the heart attack.
Ooh, but if he dies, why?
That means Cheney could be charged with a felony.
Yeah.
Ooh, if he dies, that means Cheney might have to resign and go to jail.
Yeah.
That was the action line last week.
Well, they're disappointed, so they're not going to let it go.
Whittington came out.
We parsed Whittington's statement last week.
Whittington came out and just read these people, the Riot Act, in a very classy and dignified way that they didn't understand.
And so since Whittington's okay and there's no animosity at Whittington Harbors for Cheney, the story has to continue.
And the action line is, this is a solvity thing.
This story's not over.
This is a great illustration of what's really wrong with this country.
Cheney is a secret.
Cheney keeps secrets.
Bush doesn't tell us anything.
Now, to illustrate, we have a little montage here of Senator Clinton, Maureen Dowd, the famous Modo of the New York Times, Senator Barbara Boxer, Holly Bailey from Newsweek, and Katie Couric with NBC and Bill Clinton.
This is a montage all over TV all weekend saying that this story is part of a larger story, the administration's penchant for secrecy.
Exactly what I told you on Friday would be the theme.
The refusal of this administration to level with the American people on matters large and small is very disturbing.
It covered all the problems of the Bush-Cheney administration.
Secrecy and stonewalling, then blowing off the rules that are at the heart of our democracy.
It really speaks to Vice President's penchant for secrecy.
The Vice President, you know, has penchant for secrecy.
The Vice President's penchant for secrecy.
The administration has an enormous penchant for secrecy.
So the talking points went out.
How about all these different individuals, all Democrats, using the same phrase, penchant for secrecy?
What's great about it is precisely what I told you they would do.
Let's go.
Good morning, America.
Yesterday, host Bill Weir interviewing Clinton, the former president, a horndog.
And Weir says, I want to get your comment on the big story of the week here, the Dick Cheney hunting accident.
Your wife said another example of this administration cloud of secrecy.
Your friend James Carville and the forehead, Paul Bagala, they want more investigations.
Do you agree, oh, exalted president?
Man, we wish you could lead us again.
I didn't feel the need to get into the pylon.
I think the White House should have said something about it sooner, but I don't know what else there is to say there.
I think that it's gotten a little more light than it would have because the administration has an enormous penchant for secrecy, for not telling anybody anything about anything.
Oh, Bill Clinton talking about an enormous penchant for secrecy.
But, you know, both he and Hillary have flipped on this.
I think back in February, oh, a week ago or so, Hillary said, I didn't want to pile on.
You know, she used that term.
Clinton used that term yesterday.
But back earlier this past week, I read a quote from Clinton in which he basically, well, you know, you got to cut some slack here.
I know a lot about quail hunting.
I've been out there.
I've pulled a bunch of triggers in my life, and I've had all kinds of things.
There's two kinds of quail hunts out there now.
If they're actually out there hunting wild birds and these birds are wild and they're flushing them out there and you don't know where everybody is and those birds sping up and you can understand that.
You've got to cut him some slack.
But if this simply quail farm where these little birds are raised and pampered like Democrat welfare state recipients and then all of a sudden they're released and they think they're flying away free and the vice president's out there shooting them.
If it's that kind of thing, then I think we got to look at it very, he said this.
But they've forgotten everything they said because the marching orders went out.
Let's go back, ladies and gentlemen, Monday, September 21st, 1998.
President Bill Clinton's deposition, grand jury deposition, 110 times in four hours and 30 minutes of testimony, Bill Clinton said, I don't remember.
This is in chronological order, no repeats.
It's going to take two and a half minutes.
Here is Bill Clinton, who has the audacity to talk about secrecy and not being forthcoming.
Let's listen to his grand jury testimony.
Every phrase here is not repeated.
This took, as I say, four hours and 33 minutes.
We can condense it to two minutes and 30 seconds.
I don't remember when they were, although I have no specific memory.
But I do not remember.
I just don't know.
I don't remember.
I don't remember that.
I don't remember who.
I don't remember what the bag was.
I don't remember that, sir.
I just don't remember.
I don't remember what else.
I didn't remember the cherry chocolates.
I don't remember that.
So I'm telling you what I remember and what I don't.
To domestic my memory.
I was trying to remember.
My memory is not clear.
I've searched my memory for this.
I don't remember that.
That doesn't mean that my memory is accurate.
I asked them to help me because I couldn't remember the specifics.
And I'm sorry I don't remember.
Just because I don't remember it.
I just don't remember it.
You asked me if I remember.
I don't.
I don't remember when I said that.
I don't remember.
Don't recall what they were and don't recall whether I had given them.
I did not remember giving her a gold brooch.
Didn't remember you remember.
I don't remember exactly.
I do not remember.
I certainly don't remember.
I don't remember him.
No, I don't remember him saying that.
I don't remember anything you just told me.
I don't remember the other thing, and I can't tell you that I remember that.
I was trying to remember.
I was trying to remember that.
I was struggling to remember them.
So I didn't have perfect memory.
I honestly tried to remember.
I have forgotten.
I literally can't remember.
My memory is not what it was.
I was trying to remember.
I was doing my best to remember.
I didn't remember.
I didn't remember what.
So I don't necessarily remember based on the best memory I had.
I may have been confused in my memory.
I've tried to remember.
I've tried to remember.
I don't remember all that.
I don't remember what.
I don't remember what I said.
I don't remember to whom I remember.
I don't recall that.
I don't remember that.
I don't remember.
I don't recall.
Certainly have no memory of doing that.
I don't remember anything.
I have no recollection, but I do not remember.
I have no way to remember them.
I do not remember what I said.
I don't remember to whom I talk.
I honestly don't remember.
I do not remember.
That is not my recollection.
My recollection is that slightly different from that.
I don't have any memory of that whatever.
I was struggling to try to remember.
I don't have any memory of it.
I don't remember.
I don't remember exactly.
I don't remember that.
Well, again, I don't recall.
I don't recall.
And I've searched my own memory.
I'm not sure that I do remember that.
I'm trying to remember.
I don't remember her asking me that.
No, I don't remember.
I don't remember that.
I don't remember that.
I have no recollection.
I want to say I don't recall.
I don't have any memory of this.
I don't have any recollection.
I don't remember.
I have no recollection of that.
And I just don't remember it.
At this late date, I was trying to refresh my memory.
And I'm sorry to say, for reasons I don't entirely remember.
I do not know her memory.
I don't remember.
I do not remember.
I literally can't remember.
So from the administration that gave us secret and secret and secret and secret and kept them all from us.
Now we hear calls for Cheney to be more upfront and honest.
But there is a penchant for secrecy going on.
Anyway, we've made the point.
Got to go quick timeout.
Just a reminder again.
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Having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
I am Rush Limbaugh, the all-knowing, all-caring, all-sensing, all-feeling, all-concerned, maha-rushy.
Half my brain tied behind my back, just to make it fair.
800-282-2882, if you want to be on the program today.
See, I told you so number two.
And this one I'm especially proud of.
Last week, amidst all this furor over Cheney, was a column by a dunderhead in Raleigh by the name of Barney Barry Saunders.
And Barry Saunders led off his piece by suggesting that the Cheney shooting of Harry Whittington was really nothing more than a mafia-style message to scooter Libby.
Essentially, scooters, shut up, or you're going to get even worse than what I gave Harry.
And I read this piece, and it's on, you know, this is not a left-wing blog.
This is not a Kook blog.
This is a mainstream American newspaper, although to people familiar with it, it looks pretty familiar, one of these Kooksville blogs on the left.
And I allowed for the fact that this might be some satire, but it's tough to tell.
It'd be really tough to tell.
And when you consider the fact that there is no humor on the left, I mean, you don't find liberal people laughing at anything.
I mean, it's got to be horrible to be a liberal and wake up every day.
Can you imagine going to bed enraged, waking up enraged, being angry and ticked off all the time?
So when somebody wants to write a satire and the required ingredient to get it is humor and your audience is liberals, well, you're going to fail.
So the ombudsman of the Raleigh News and Deserter writes about the reaction that Mr. Saunders got because of my mentioning his piece on the show, and as I predicted, left out the fact that I said they'll probably say this is satire, which is exactly what they say in the piece.
It's by Ted Vaden, the public editor of the Raleigh News and Deserter.
Barry Saunders and Rush Limbaugh, why those are two names you wouldn't normally pair together, but the NNO Metro section columnist found himself being quoted unfavorably.
Quoted, period.
What is this?
Favorably or unfavorably?
On Limbaugh's talk program last week, the show stirred a heated discussion among readers and non-readers of the news and deserter.
Limbaugh hyperventilated over a...
Was I breathing heavily, Don?
You recognize heavy breathers, I know.
Was I.
I don't think I was hyperventilating.
I was having fun with it.
Limbaugh hyperventilated over a Saunders column on Tuesday that poked fun at the shotgun mishap of Vice President Cheney.
Accident my eye is how the column began, and you might guess how it goes on from there.
Do you believe that Saunders literally was accusing the vice president of intentionally shooting hunting buddy Harry Whittington as a warning to Libby?
Apparently, hundreds of folks did, writes Mr. Vaden.
Saunders said he got some 500 messages commenting on his column, most of them critical, some racist.
Limbaugh posted Saunders' picture on his website.
Limbaugh read it, whatever that means.
Limbaugh read about half the column over the air, but he left out the half that made clear that the NNO columnist was satirizing the affair.
Remember, Limbaugh tells his listeners, this is a mainstream North Carolina newspaper.
This is not a left-wing liberal blog.
So you got the kooks who somehow bought into this notion this whole thing was a plot of conspiracy.
Now you got this guy Saunders adding to it by suggesting that Cheney is sending Libby a message to shut up.
I received a bunch of calls and emails.
It was clear that some didn't get the humor in Saunders' column.
Can I go to the transcription of my very own program last week, which I am holding here in my formerly nicotine-stained finger?
Yes.
I recount everything that you just heard.
And this is what I say.
Now, I'm going to allow, I will suggest to you that if this man Barry Saunders column ends up getting a lot of attention, he will say that people obviously don't understand satire.
People obviously don't understand that I'm kidding, he will say.
There are better ways to do satire than this, I say, because he goes on to savage Cheney as a hunter and savage Cheney as this or that.
The reason I bring this up, though, is because I told you people mere moments ago that if you go to the right websites, you'll read that this was all done on purpose, that Whittington agreed to be shot by Cheney in order to take this Libby story off the front pages, the story that this Collins News Corporate North Carolina refers to.
So you got the kooks who somehow have bought into this notion.
The whole thing was a plot, a conspiracy.
Now you got this guy adding to it by suggesting that Cheney's sending Libby a message.
So I clearly allude to the fact that they will say it's a satire.
I didn't read the last half of it.
And their public entity didn't read the last half of this.
I clearly also say the last half of this goes on to make the point is this.
I'm running out of time here.
Point is this: that they selectively quote me, leaving out exactly what they say I didn't say.
I said they would allude to this as a satire.
I said it might have even been a satire, but it's a very poor satire because there is no humor on the left.
You got to be able to laugh if you're going to appreciate satire, and the left simply is incapable of that.
So another C, I told you so.
You local newspaper people really ought not aim your fire at me.
It's like trying to sink a battleship with BBs.
Stick to the little peons in your local communities.
Back in just a second.
Stay with us.
Yeah, stand by on Soundbite 5.
I'm going to tell you.
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To the phones, we go now.
Travis in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
I'm glad you called, sir.
Welcome.
Mega Ditto's Rush.
Thank you, sir.
How are you?
Couldn't be better.
Great.
Actually, that's not true.
If you want to know the truth, I'm in a foul humor today.
It's only my professionalism that makes you think I'm enjoying things today.
Well, maybe we can add a little more satire to your show now.
Perhaps.
What I was calling for is I watched the David Gregory apology.
Yeah, that was on Meet the Depressed yesterday.
Yeah, exactly.
NBS, right?
Did you, by the way, did you see Maureen Dowd on that show?
I did.
Did it strike you how just utterly stupid she is?
I mean, did that not just reach itself out of your television and grab you and say, man, this woman really is dumb.
To be honest with you, I can't really look at her for very long.
Well, I don't want to comment on that.
But anyway, what about Gregory?
Okay, well, he apologized, you know, for his actions towards Scott McClellan.
That's right.
And I wanted to know what your take is on the apology.
Was it.
Well, I tell you what, I'm going to use your call here to bounce off a series of soundbites from Meet the Press yesterday because they were fabulous.
Mary Madeline just skunked these people.
I don't know if they're aware how badly.
Here first is the Gregory apology.
Now, this is during the roundtable, I think.
They had Gregory and Maureen Dowd, Paul Juga, and Mary Madeline, former counselor to Vice President Cheney.
And Russert played an exchange from last week between Scott McClellan and David Gregory arguing in the White House briefing room.
And Gregory called McClellan a jerk.
So Russert says, David Gregory, looking back at that a few days later, what is your sense of this now as a journalist and a White House correspondent?
I think I made a mistake.
I think it was inappropriate for me to lose my cool with the press secretary representing the president.
I don't think it was professional of me.
I was frustrated.
I said what I said.
But I think that you should never speak that way, as my wife reminded me, number one.
And number two, I think it created a diversion from some of the serious questions in the story.
So I regret that.
I was wrong, and I apologize.
Well, that's big of him.
But what's more interesting, see, this doesn't answer it at all for me, folks.
I'm going to use the same tack they do.
The media still has a penchant for secrecy on this.
You know, they think Gregory thinks this apology is going to end it all.
It just creates new questions for me.
Why did he make himself the story?
Why did he make it, this story, all about whether or not the White House Press Corps got a hand-delivered transcript of Cheney's statement before this local little paper down in Corpus Christi got it?
Well, I can answer this.
These people think that they are as important as the administration.
They think they are a co-equal branch of government and they're being disrespected.
Bush doesn't talk to them.
Bush doesn't have them in for coffee.
Bush doesn't have them in for sex in the Oval Office like Clinton used to do.
He doesn't do any of these kind of things that make them feel like they're involved.
And so they're all bent out of shape.
That's why Newsweek has run stories on Bush and the bubble and so forth.
Let's move on to Maureen Dowd.
She's in total meltdown, I think, on this program.
She calls the Cheney, says he's like a phantom.
And then she also makes my see, I told you so come true by saying it's just symptomatic of the administration's secrecy.
I think that the reason this story has evoked such fascination is because the vice president is like the phantom.
We hear the creak of the door as he passes, but we don't know.
Stop tape a minute.
Stop tape.
I feel like I'm listening to a valley girl.
Resume tape.
What he's up to.
We don't know his schedule.
We don't always know where he is.
We don't know what Democratic institution he's blowing off at any given minute.
I'm just saying, hold it a second.
What Democratic institutions is he blowing off?
The mind wanders at that one.
What Democrat institutions, Democratic institutions, he's blowing off as the phantom?
This allowed us to see how his behavior and judgment operated pretty much in real time with a delay, but pretty much in real time.
And it covered all the problems of the Bush-Cheney administration.
Secrecy and stonewalling, then blowing off the rules that are at the heart of our democracy.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Could somebody tell me what rules she's talking about?
Oh, the article of the Constitution that says the White House Press Corps gets all news first?
Oh, that's the rule she's talking about.
Okay.
He's a filter to try and put the truth out in a way that would most suit their political needs, and then bad political judgment and bungling a crisis.
I mean, if there's one thing the Republicans are great at since Reagan, it's damage control.
But he is such a control freak.
He just has no use for you, Maureen.
It's no more complicated than that.
And why should he?
Why should Cheney even try to be cooperative with anybody in the White House Press Corps or the whole Inside the Beltway media?
So I'll tell you, had Cheney done what they wanted, had, well, I'll let Mary Madeline deal with that later because she does it very well in a bite.
But let me just, in my own way, if Cheney had put out a statement, they would have accused him of lying about it.
What is he trying to cover up?
They would have done the same thing they did.
They just had their anger ratcheted up here because they were left out of the loop in the first place.
So Madeline now goes after Maureen Dowd, nails all these people on the fact they're just mad that the vice president went around them to a local paper.
Absolutely not.
Don't tell me.
Don't tell me we got a machine-eating Republican spokesman.
Is it a bad machine or is it a bad cart?
Well, try it again.
I've heard this repeatedly for six years.
He's been the whipping boy for the liberals for six years.
And whenever he does go out on this show or he puts something on the top of the speech, he carries a day with his message.
He broke through in the campaign.
He wins the debate.
So, no, it doesn't diminish his effectiveness, nor has his role in any way been diminished at the White House.
I love this reference to blowing up the institutions of democracy like freedom of the press.
We are not engaged in a false debate.
We all have the same goal, which is to communicate with the public, to inform the public.
What we thought we were doing Sunday morning by having an eyewitness who was there who was an expert on hunting going to a paper that understands the culture, who had the capacity to get it up on the wire quickly, was communicating and informing the public, in which the vice president took responsibility, apologized, spoke to the reporter, was corroborated by the sheriff, and our office, the vice president's office.
I no longer work there.
I don't see how that's violating the rules of the institution, the hallmarks of our democracy.
We just didn't go through them.
And it just didn't go through the White House press corps is what she said, but they did call the press.
She added this later.
What if I called David instead of Catherine calling the Corpus Christi College?
And I said, I'm just going to talk to you.
I suppose David's first reaction, or any of his colleagues, would be, no, let's go through the process.
Let's call the pool.
Let's get everybody involved here.
No, I know that's not true because I've done this with Cheney reading frenzies before when he's had to go in for routine heart checks.
There's no such thing as you just put out a statement.
And if I ever did want to just give it to one guy on occasion, which I did, so I had the time to walk through it, they would take it.
They didn't say, stop, let's go through the process and get the whole pool there.
So it's disingenuous.
I'm not starting a false debate.
We're not undermining the hallmarks of a democratic institution, the freedom of the press.
But it's much ado about nothing.
Or in the words of Harry Whittington, what's all the hoopola about?
She's absolutely right.
Can you imagine if they'd called Gregory first?
No, you can't just give it to me.
You've got to give it to the whole White House Press Corps.
Like hell, that's going to happen.
And she's absolutely right.
Now, this next one is superb because she gets a couple shots off here at David Gregory and his feelings get hurt.
I thought you're in the big leagues when you're in the Beltway Press Corps.
And I thought you've got to be able to take the slings and arrows as well as dish them out here.
But to find out his feelings got hurt, Maureen Dowd tries to jump in and rescue him.
Gregory says to set this up: Mary, the vice president, accidentally shot a man for the first time since Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamill in much different circumstances, admittedly.
And the vice president's office doesn't feel an obligation to disclose that to the American people directly.
You do it through a ranch owner in Texas.
This strikes me as odd.
It strikes you as odd because you live in a parallel universe.
It did not strike Americans as odd.
Press reconnoitas saying, the vice president needs to apologize.
He did profusely and repeatedly to the victim of his accident, which was Harry Whittington.
Why is it that you ultimately, if the vice president did everything right by disclosing it the way he did, why did you do a big national interview this week?
Because you went on a jihad, David.
For four days, you went on a jihad.
Oh, okay.
All right.
How are you saving up for that line?
Mary, it isn't only the press.
He blows off the FISA courts.
He blows off the Geneva Conventions.
He blows off the UN to go to Iraq.
He wants to blow off everything.
He's got a fever about presidential erosion, just the way he had a fever about going into Iraq.
A hunting incident, the vice president could defend himself, but a hunting incident is a little different than the FISA court issue.
And then the NSA.
It is not.
See, it's part of the same pattern.
It was Paul Gaga that jumped in there.
See, it's part of the same pattern.
Exactly what I told you last week, the action line this week was going to be.
It's just an illustration of the penchant for secrecy that this administration has.
So, Mary wasn't through, had the skewer dowed again, and this is great because she calls her the diva of the smart set, which is one of the greatest slapdowns that I have ever heard.
Russert plays the video of Hillary Clinton saying, This administration from the top all the way to the bottom is to withhold administration to resist legitimate requests for information, to refuse to be forthcoming about information that's of significance and relevant to the job that all of you do and the interest of the American people.
Blah, Russert says, Mary Madeline, how do you respond to Hillary Clinton?
Putting aside the delicious hypocrisy there, what a missed opportunity.
What if Mrs. Clinton had come out and said, Do you know, I'm not a hunter, but I lived in Arkansas, and I understand this is an accident.
These sorts of accidents are not infrequent.
I don't agree with Dick Cheney on many things, as you know, but I do know Lynn and Dick Cheney, and I have to believe, like any human being, he must be feeling awful right now for shooting his friend.
And most of all, I don't know Harry Whittington, but there's a man lying in a hospital bed, and I think we should all pass our thoughts and prayers along to him.
Now, I'd like to talk about the serious business of this nation, things that I do not agree with the vice president on.
Well, Maureen Dow, the diva of the smart set, would be swooning.
Moms across the country would be saying, Hey, she thinks like me.
That's right.
A guy shoots his friend.
That's not relevant to my life.
Let's move on to serious issues.
No, that was a politically stupid thing to do, beside the delicious and just absurd hypocrisy of the forthcomingness of an administration.
And we will take a break, folks.
Be right back and continue here on the Rush Lindball program in mere moments.
Any of you people out there in Raleigh, North Carolina, or the surrounding environs know this guy, Ted Vaden?
He's the public editor at the News and Observer there.
Give this guy a call and tell him to turn the radio on and leave it on for a couple, three minutes, because I'm going to actually play the sound bite.
Well, the soundbite, go back and give you a hint of what I said verbatim, not read the transcript.
I'm going to play for you what I said about this Barry Saunders column because, again, they wrote this piece saying that I misinterpreted and I lied to people, told people that this piece was not a satire when it was intended as satire, and I did just the opposite.
And I know why this happened.
It's because the people they listen to for accuracy as to what I say on this program don't quote me accurately.
They probably never heard me themselves at the News Observer on this.
So I'll give him time to get his radio turned on.
And in the meantime, let's see, John in Kensington, Connecticut.
You're up next, sir.
Welcome to the EIB Network.
Hi.
I had two comments.
Yes.
One is, I get the New York Times and the Hartford Current.
I guarantee you that they're going to determine that the Hartford Current, I mean, I'm sorry, the New York Times picture of the attorney that got shot was doctored because he looked a heck of a lot worse in the New York Times than he did in the Hartford Current.
Yes, I noticed that.
Or on Fox News.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's not surprising.
They photoshopped it.
They probably sharpened the resolution, changed the skin tone a little bit to make him look like death warmed over to show that his injuries were just horrible.
It's amazing this man's alive.
Look how badly Cheney hurt and injured this guy.
Drudge had a picture up that looked pretty normal.
Different versions of the picture, different versions of the same picture showed up in different publications.
I mean, there are photojournalists.
There are photojournalist editors.
I mean, they do monkey around with pictures.
We all know how to monkey around with our pictures now on our own computers.
To think that they're not going to do it at the New York Times, I mean, if they're going to editorialize in the news pages, why wouldn't they editorialize with pictures as well?
Bob in Mansfield, Ohio.
You're next, sir.
Welcome to the program.
Hello, Rush.
Hello.
Rushed, you there?
Yeah, I'm right here.
Hello, man.
Fox News Sunday yesterday with Alan Simpson was just a hoot.
I was just sitting there laughing, laughing, and when he finally made his comment about the crap about Cheney, I just about died, and so did Chris.
He said, I'm going to make a bumper sticker on that one.
Yeah, we've got that.
I was going to get to that the next hour, which I will do.
I've got a couple of Alan Simpson soundbites.
He was on Fox News Sunday yesterday with Chris Wallace, and he put the whole media attitude and atmosphere in Washington in just a perfect, perfect picture.
Made a perfect picture out of it.
Great perspective.
But I'll have that for you in the next hour.
Now, before we go to the break, grab audio soundbite number 13 because this is me from last February 14th talking about the Barry Saunders column at the News and Observer.
Remember, they had an ombudsman piece yesterday, which created the false impression that I did not understand what his column was about and therefore got all kinds of mean extremist people angry at Barry.
I don't know that this will teach them anything, but if it does, it'll teach them to actually call me or actually go to my website to find out what I say about something rather than people who have a career in misquoting me on their own websites.
I will suggest to you that if this man, Barry Saunders' column, ends up getting a lot of attention, he will say, people obviously don't understand satire.
People obviously don't understand, I am kidding.
There are better ways to do satire than this because he goes on to savage Cheney as a hunter and savage Cheney as this or that.
The reason I bring this up, though, is because I told you people mere moments ago that if you go to the right websites, you will read that this was all done on purpose, that Whittington agreed to be shot by Cheney in order to take this very Libby story off the front pages, the story that this columnist in North Carolina refers to.
So you've got the kooks who have somehow have bought into this notion this whole thing was a plot, a conspiracy.
And now you've got this guy adding to it by suggesting that Cheney is sending Libby a message to shut up.
You just want satire and parody and Limbaugh, who claims that's what he does, doesn't understand it.
I will allow for that.
The first half of it doesn't read that way.
So I clearly allow for the fact this is satire.
And I even make the editor's point.
If you read the second half of the piece, you understand that it's not.
I even say that.
And yet they run a whole piece yesterday castigating me for inflaming this and purposely getting it wrong.
Back after this.
Stay with us.
All right, first hour of this program officially in the can and on its way over to the secret warehouse housing all archives intended for display at the future Limbaugh Broadcast Museum.
The second hour's right around the corner.
We haven't even scratched the surface yet, folks.
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