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Nov. 24, 2006 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:45
November 24, 2006, Friday, Hour #3
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Let me ask you people a question out there.
How many millions of Americans the past four or five days have been feverishly trying to figure out whether or not their instant messages have been recorded somewhere, And if so, how do we race them?
Now, I know the genuine perverts don't care.
Genuine pervert's a pervert, but those of you out there who've been engaging in these in instant messages or emails that can you imagine the national panic that's going.
Question, how many of you would love to have your private IMs and emails blasted all over the drive-by media?
Greetings, my friends, welcome back.
Rush Limbaugh, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network.
The U.S. intelligence services, worthless and rotten as they are, say that the North Koreans are inching closer to a nuclear test.
Looking very carefully at this, interestingly, the Russians and the South Koreans, the Russians, is what's interesting, have joined with the United States, South Korea to object, to strongly denounce usual worthless diplomatic terms and make people like Kim Jong-il just laugh between his bites of dog.
They continue to make these tough statements against the test.
But there's a part of me, folks, I wish the North Koreans would launch their nuke and just be done with it.
I mean, you want to take Foley off the front page?
Have the North Koreans launch their stupid little nuke test.
And then you know what we would get then?
We would get an immediate shift from the Democrats.
They would forget about Foley, and the media template would be, Bush hasn't done enough on North Korea.
But it would take Foley off the front page.
It would highlight the real issues that we face in the upcoming election.
By the way, the Drive-By media is now breathlessly reporting.
I was watching Fox News at the top of the hour.
The FBI, the Justice Department, has now formally launched its investigation.
And they are demanding that every Foley record be preserved.
All of these drive-by media organizations now breathlessly reporting that the FBI is actually now investigating.
Just by the way, Justice Hastert asked that they do.
And this would be the same FBI, which in July, when presented with the emails, not the instant messages, but with the emails, apparently decided not to pursue the case.
And nobody seems to remember that.
Nobody seems to remember that when the first little couple of emails came out and they were shown the FBI, yeah, nothing to investigate here.
Brian Ross, ABC, brilliant, brilliant investigative journalist.
No, I didn't see a Pulitzer here.
Why should I investigate that?
Well, no, we've got the anniversary of Katrina to destroy the Bush administration again with.
We got the anniversary of 9-11 to build up the Clinton administration.
I don't have time for a bunch of little CD emails from a third-rate congressman from Florida that I never heard of.
No one seems to remember all that, though.
Now, I'm assuming, ladies and gentlemen, that the FBI will look into who had these instant messages for all this time.
Now, when they say they're going to preserve all Foley records, I assume that means all the records on Foley's computer, but there are a whole lot of other Foley records out there that are on computers of other people.
And I wonder how far this investigation will go in upturning or turning up, downturning whatever information about Foley on other people's computers, like Democrats, perhaps.
Grab audio soundbite 3A, if you will, Mike.
This is Dick Morris who was on Hannity and Colms last night.
And Hannity said to him, when innocent people are smeared, Dick, I've got to believe that people would tend to side with the people that are being smeared.
And I see that this is happening more and more in this scandal.
And that's going to backfire on the Democrats by focusing on what it has to know, because you know that some of the Democratic congressmen knew.
I had a reporter who told me today that she knows that one very prominent member of the Democratic leadership knew about this for months.
And we came out through it.
It's a big story.
Came out, yeah, but it's up to her to break it.
Yeah, see, that's the thing.
Dick knows, but it's up to her to break it, meaning the infobabe.
But he says he knows from a reporter that the Democratic congressman leadership knew about this for months.
Isn't it interesting that that story hasn't been broken?
Isn't it?
In the process of trying to destroy Hastert, in the process of trying to destroy Hastert over all this, in the process of getting duped conservatives to go along with the notion that Hastert ought to quit, that Hastert ought to step down.
Here's Dick Morris on television last night.
See, I talked to a reporter.
There's a Democrat member of the leadership's known about this for a long time.
Nobody's interested in, of course they're not, folks, because that's not what this is about.
This is not about finding out who wasn't protecting the churr.
This is not about finding out anything other than what can we as Democrats do to ensure that there's little Republican turnout as possible in November so that we win the election.
This is Zogby and Reuters poll that I talked about last hour, which breathlessly states that, why, look at this, why Democrats are leading in 11 of 15 competitive house races.
That's what the Foley mess is about, is that poll that came out today from Zogby and Reuters.
Since the FBI has now begun its investigation and has quarantined, by the way, would that have been a good thing to do to Foley?
When you go back and the House leadership sees and the Democrats, whoever it is that knew about these emails, not the instant messages.
Maybe they should have quarantined Foley.
I mean, I'm warning all the pages, they say, beware of Foley's advances.
Anyway, will they quarantine Foley's data?
They quarantine Foley's records.
I'm assuming that this FBI, which found nothing to investigate in July, will look into who had these instant messages for all this time and who released them and who is benefiting from their release.
That's the thing that we always have to ask ourselves.
Who is benefiting from this?
And isn't that patently obvious?
The Democrats think they are the ones benefiting from this.
So you just follow the trail.
These instant messages, in some cases, are three years old.
Ladies and gentlemen, Howard Feynman, we have a little soundbite of him yesterday, breathlessly on hardwall, talking about how the Christian right's so bummed out by this that they've had it and it'll stay home, develops the theme even further in a piece in Newsweek called It Takes a Sex Scandal.
The real world cares about the Foley emails, he says.
If Democrats can't win now, they're doomed to become modern-day Whigs.
You know, Howard and all the rest of you in the drive-by meeting, would you stop and think about that if Democrats can't win now?
You note that the context in which they're saying this is not because Democrats are right on the issues and not because Democrats have a great agenda for the continued advancement and peace and prosperity of America.
No, the whole theory on Democrats winning now is that the Republicans are so screwed up that we have so successfully argued against Republican turnout.
The Democrats can't win after we've done for them what we've done for them now.
I think it's quite telling what the objective here is and what I have been trying to drill into as many people's heads as possible.
This is about suppressing conservative turnout.
Read the supposedly benign and ambiguous emails, Mr. Feynman writes, that the House leadership has known about for nearly a year.
If they were so benign, why did they warn Foley to have no further contact with the boy in question?
And if they did warn Foley, why didn't they launch an investigation?
I think they did.
Howard, correct me if I'm wrong on this, folks, but I think that the kid in the email and his parents wanted it that way.
I think the kid and his parents didn't want this made public, correct?
Then Howard says this, it's going to get uglier from here.
The GOP will respond by unearthing old stories of sexual misconduct on Capitol Hill.
I know that the search is on for complaints, however old, about unnamed Democrats who might have come on too strong to male or female pages.
How are we supposed to let those go, Howard?
Are you saying that that's irrelevant?
That it's just Republicans trying to say face, that the Republicans, all they're doing is going out and trying to find out old evidence of Democrats who have been perverted with pages?
That'd be a good title of a book, Perverted with Pages.
Regardless, we just supposed to let that go, Howard?
That's not relevant, Howard?
It's only relevant when Democrats can turn up such stuff about Republicans, but when the Republicans do it in response, that's just nothing.
Democrats are focusing for now on Hastrt's fate and the who-knew-what-when angle, but we'll soon get back to Foley himself and those excruciatingly explicit instant messages.
Okay, what that means is if Hastert refuses to step down, they're going to go back tomorrow, tonight, the next day, whatever, and dribble-drabble, squirt out some more Foley instant messages that just seem to be popping up here automatically at random and so forth.
So that's where we are.
FBI official investigation underway.
Foley's records impounded and ordered preserved back after this.
Stop the music.
Stop it.
Stop it.
There has been a resignation, ladies and gentlemen, involving the Foley case.
A top aide to Representative Thomas Reynolds last week approached ABC News to try to get its investigative unit, Brian Ross, to withhold sexually explicit instant messages that now disgraced Representative Mark Foley sent to teenage boys who worked as pages.
Kirk Fordham, Reynolds' chief of staff, acknowledged in an interview Tuesday that he approached ABC News Brian Ross last Friday with an offer.
Ross would get the exclusive story on Foley's resignation from Congress in exchange for withholding those salacious instant messages.
Fordham said he never discussed the offer with his boss Reynolds.
Instead, Fordham said he acted in an effort to shield Foley's family, especially his elderly parents, from the lurid contents of the instant messages.
Fordham has just resigned.
I think Fordham might have served as his chief of staff.
Yeah, he did.
Fordham worked for Foley for 10 years until early 2004, has remained in touch with his former boss in a purely figurative way, of course.
Kirk Fordham has resigned because of his attempt to get ABC not to run the news of the instant messages without telling his boss.
So Republican has fallen on the sword or has been thrown overboard or under the bus.
Interesting story here in the Washington Post.
Some say they felt uneasy about Representatives' intention.
In 1995, mail house pages were warned to steer clear of a freshman Republican from Florida who was already learning the names of the teenagers, dashing off notes, letters, and emails to them, and asking them to join him for ice cream.
According to a former page, it must be the silken swirl technique there being practiced.
Mark Beckheyman, now a graduate student in clinical psychology at George Washington University and more than a dozen other former House pages said in interviews and via email that Representative Mark Foley was known to be extraordinarily friendly in a way that made some of them uncomfortable.
This is 1995 when Foley just got there.
This is 11 years ago.
Now, stick with me on this.
11 years ago, Foley's elected to Congress in Freshman Republican.
Foley, yeah, he was part of 1994 class.
Of which I am an honorary member, by the way, I'm an honorary member of the freshman class, 1994.
So 1995, Foley's been there whatever length of time, not much, not even just a few months.
I don't know when the pages start.
Foley could have been there just a week or two, and already his MO was known.
Who sat on this?
11 years.
He's been known for 11 years as a former page who worked at the Clinton White House and for the Kerry campaign.
Mark Beck Heyman, who was a Republican page and is now a Democrat, said the attention was weird, and he provided a handwritten letter that Foley sent him after the page left Washington to return home to California.
The note suggested they get together during the RNC convention in San Diego in 96.
The email exchanges that have become public in recent days are between Foley and former mail pages.
None of those interviews.
Nope, nope, that's instant messages.
They keep confusing these.
None of those interviewed said they had received a sexual or suggestive overtone from him during their time on Capitol Hill, only when they were away from town, only when they were out of town.
Mark Foley knew that he could get away with this type of behavior with mail pages because he was a congressman, said Beck Heyman, who later worked in the Clinton White House and on Senator Kerry's presidential campaign.
But many on Capitol Hill, including Republican staffers, have known for over 11 years about what was going on and chose to do nothing.
Hey, Mr. Mark Beck Heyman, if this is all true, why didn't you guys use this in 2000?
Why didn't you use it in 2002?
Why didn't you use it in 2004?
Why didn't you use it in 96?
Why didn't you use it in 98?
If you knew this guy's out there acting as a predator against you and other male pages in the House, why did you hold and sit on this for 11 years?
So This guy who was a Republican page, now a Democrat, worked in the Clinton White House and on Carrie's campaign, says that this, yeah, this has been known for 11 years.
This Foley was a skunk for 11 years.
And get the last line of the story.
After one all-night work session, Beck Heyman's girlfriend, another page, offered to bring him breakfast.
Foley asked when she arrived if she was his girlfriend.
Beck Heyman said it was an odd conversation.
Now, what's odd?
Okay, you're sitting there with Foley.
Girlfriend brings in breakfast.
Foley says, is that your girlfriend?
That's odd.
Why would he ask me that?
Julie in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Welcome to the EIB Network.
Great to have you with us.
Hello.
How are you?
I'm fine.
Thank you.
I just wanted to tell you a funny story.
I've listened to you since 2000.
And in 2004, I decided to go back to college after being out of high school for 10 years, much because of what I've heard on your show about how you can do anything.
You should do anything.
You should not be okay with mediocre, et cetera, et cetera.
You're the only one that's ever put that idea in my head.
Is that right?
Your whole life?
It's been, yeah, it's been that kind of life.
But yes, that's correct.
And it was drilled in my head over and over again from listening to your show.
You know, go out and do it.
Just do it.
You know, make something better of yourself.
You have opportunity.
So I went back to school in 2004, and I had a professor who had a master's working on his second master's who was so book smart, you know, thought he knew everything.
And he would bring up arguments in class over the economy, amendments, laws, different things.
And I'm telling you what, the only thing I had done since high school was work, and then I started listening to your show.
I could go toe to toe with that guy and argue with him about anything and make him look stupid in front of the class just by listening to your show.
Did he know that he looked stupid or did he give you a problem?
Did he think you were being insolent and disrespectful?
He, no.
He was baffled.
He looked at my profile and he said, now, you've been out of school 10 years.
He said, you won't, this is your first year.
He said, how in the world do you know all this stuff?
And I said, I'm going to be honest.
I said, all I do is listen to Rush.
Oh, no, I knew that was coming.
And then he said.
He said, no.
He said, oh, that's just hate speech.
And I said, no, no, it's not.
And I said, you know what?
I didn't even know how uninformed and smart I was till I had got in this class.
And I said, and realizing everything I've heard from that show, how informed and smart and capable I really am.
And I said, you know, I couldn't believe it, you know.
And he said, well, doesn't he just talk bad about people?
Doesn't he just make fun of Democrats?
And I said, no, it's actually very educational.
And he said, well, I just can't believe it.
So I said, well, give it a listen sometime.
And he ended up listening, and he doesn't listen every day because of classes, but he ended up listening and said he rather enjoys the show.
I hope he's listening today.
Was your college in Oklahoma City?
Yes, it is.
Julie, I have to run because of time, but that, well, no, in fact, hang on.
I need to ask you a couple more things, or at least do a couple more things.
Hang on through the break.
We'll be right back.
Thank you.
I know.
And we are back.
Go ahead.
No, I didn't.
Greetings and welcome back.
It's Rush Limbaugh.
This is the EIB Network.
Fun, frolic, and frivolity for all, as well as serious discussion of the issues.
Julie, hang in there just a second.
I just figured it out.
I had this story, the Washington Post, this Mark Beckheyman guy who worked in the Clinton White House, then for the Kerry campaign.
Prior to that, he was a Republican when he was a page, became a Democrat later and is now one of the sources that Foley was catting around 11 years ago.
And the word was out 11 years ago, this guy was bad news, as far as pages are concerned.
The story ends with a reference I didn't understand.
Foley and Beck Heyman, the former page or the page at the time, are sitting there somewhere in the morning, and out of nowhere, the page's girlfriend brings him breakfast.
And Foley says, Is that your girlfriend?
And Beck Heyman says, This is an odd question.
And I'm sitting here thinking, What the hell is odd about that?
What in the world is odd?
In the context of this story, what is odd?
You got Foley, you got a page, and a girlfriend bringing breakfast, and Foley says, Is that your girlfriend?
And the page says, That's a very weird question.
And then it finally struck me, what probably was odd to Foley was that in this day and age, a woman bringing a boyfriend breakfast is just unheard of.
Now, back to Julie in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Julie, I couldn't let you go without thanking you from the bottom of my sizable beating heart.
No, because you're trying to thank you for opening up my eyes because, really, there was no one else around to do it.
And the only reason I started listening to you was the election of 2000.
I just felt I couldn't believe what I was seeing on ABC, NBC.
And I said, What would Rush Limbaugh have to say about this?
Let's get a different point of view.
And ever since then, I've been listening.
Sounds almost like divine intervention.
Right.
What would Rush do?
Yeah, well, I mean, of all people you can think of, and you hadn't listened before.
No, my sister has listened since you had your TV program.
Aha.
Yeah, she's listened and she's always talked about you.
And I almost felt guilty listening to you, but because I thought, oh, she'll be.
I said, well, my sister would love this.
I said, she would love this, you know?
One thing I have to ask you, because this is, you said earlier in your call that nobody in your life had ever spoken to you about the positive aspects of you, the potential that you as an American citizen have, that you can be better than you think you are, you can do more than you think you can.
Nobody ever talked to you that way at any time in your life.
Let me tell you why, because when I was 17, and when I was 18, I had a baby.
So everyone said, well, just go get a job, just go pay your bills, just make it the best you can.
You know, because I had a baby at a young age, people were thinking, well, you know, you just would be doing good to be making more than that.
Even before that, I just, sometimes I make the mistake of, because I had a very normal childhood, and I had this typical middle-class, middle-America upraising, upbringing.
And it was via my whole family that I first, and I didn't put it in these words, but that's where I first became cognizant and aware of what I now call American exceptionalism.
And my dad and some teachers were constantly pushing me to do better than I was doing because they all knew that I could.
But, you know, I was not interested in what they wanted me to do well in at the time.
But still, the concept that there's a great land of opportunity out there, and all you have to go to do, all you have to do is go attack it, was not something foreign to me.
So it's why I'm one of the few members of my family that left home.
I mean, I left home when I was 20 and struck out on just following my dream.
I've told the story countless thousands of times.
What I'm amazed at is that, and I wonder how common this is, that up until the time you had your baby when you were 17, that the whole concept that there's greatness for you out there, that you are a special person, that you're better than average, that all it takes is a little hard work, that there's far more out there than what you think, was something that never occurred to you or was never taught to you.
Well, no, it was because I wanted to be a police officer.
I wanted to be an FBI agent, and everyone would say, oh, Julie, you know, you can't do that.
You could never do that.
That's a man's work.
You know, just put that idea out of your head.
So I would start to think, well, maybe I can't.
And that's where really...
See, that's distressing to hear because I think there's probably a lot of that out there in general.
No, you can't do that.
I mean, I've been told that too.
I was not told that by my family.
Right.
But I've been told that by people that fired me.
I've been told that by friends when I told them what I wanted to do.
It can't.
I mean, we all hear.
It's easy to be negative.
You know, you'll never go to the library and find a book on how to fail because we all do it.
Right.
And it doesn't take any special insight.
But these people that write books on how to succeed and how to think positively make millions because it's something that doesn't occur naturally, apparently, even in this country where I think it ought to be occurring.
But then you look at the political drivel that suffices as news most of the day for most people.
And the country sucks.
It's going to hell on a handbasket.
In fact, there's a shortage of handbaskets because the economy is doing so poorly.
Bush is lying.
People are dying.
It's a constant negative drumbeat by the Democratic Party echoed by the media.
So I'm not surprised that that stuff's easy to be caught up in.
But what did your parents do?
What did your dad do?
He was an accountant.
He was an accountant.
Well, that's not hard.
I mean, that's not easy.
That requires a lot of hard work and specific talent.
Maybe it was.
He wasn't around, so it was just my mother.
So I guess the idea of her having a daughter who wanted to be a police officer or FBI agent or whatever was just far-fetched.
Just, no, not my daughter, you know.
Don't you want to be a hairdresser, a waitress, a secretary, you know?
And I said, no, I would, you know, this is what I want to do.
And then came into the whole, well, you've got a baby now, so, you know, you're going to do good just to make it.
And I believed that for so many years.
I'm doing good just to make it.
And I thought, wait a minute, I can do way more than that.
Well, you know, it takes all kinds.
Not everybody is going to reach their potential, and not everybody is going to tap their full ambition.
It just doesn't, for a lot of reasons.
Some of them you just mentioned.
And other people will settle.
I mean, you, had you not happened upon this program, probably because what your mother had said enough times, you would have just said, okay, this is my lot in life.
And you would have tried to make the most of it and be happy and so forth.
And I think that probably happens more often than not.
But yet somehow you swerved and stumbled into this program.
And now you've gone back to college 10 years after you got up.
When did you start college again?
2004.
2004.
And this professor of yours, of 2004, I had been on the air 16 years.
And this guy had no clue what actually happened on this program, even though you don't need a secret radio or password to listen to it.
All you got to do is turn on the radio.
And as a guy teaching college, had no clue.
He just believed it was all hate speech, bashing Democrats every day and so forth.
And you were able to educate him.
How'd that make you feel?
I mean, I'm telling you, it was not until I walked in that class and he would start lecturing on certain things and I could argue with him and I could make him look really dumb that I was like, whoa, you know, I haven't just been listening.
I've been learning.
I mean, it was, I mean, it just made me feel wonderful.
And he was one of those guys that he believes everything he sees on TV.
Well, you know, Dan Rather said it, it must be true.
If the book says it must be true, he never questioned anything.
He was so institutionalized.
Right.
And so this is what the book says.
This is what it is.
He never questioned anything.
And, you know, that's one thing I've got from your program.
Don't just listen.
You've got to question.
Go out, explore, get knowledge.
Right.
Learn to read the stitches on the fastball.
Exactly.
And that's what I've done.
And I just didn't, like I said, I was just amazed that I could go up against a guy who had a master's for crying out loud.
Well, see, yeah, that's another thing to learn.
You said at the beginning of the phone call, there are countless book smart people who have lots of education, but it doesn't mean they have a lot of knowledge.
Yeah.
And so, I mean, it was just a little bit surreal, you know, not surreal, but, you know.
Well, what are you studying?
Police science.
Police or poly?
Police science.
Police.
So you're following your original dream.
That's fabulous.
Yes, I am.
Fabulous.
And I am almost there, too.
Terrific.
Well, damn it, I'm proud of you.
Thank you very much.
I mean, that is just awesome.
You held on to the dream for 10 years, and now you're doing it, and you're doing it at the university level.
That's just great.
And I've made the president's list every semester while I've got two kids, while I'm working full-time.
That is just incredible.
See, you are living proof.
To anybody.
And by the way, see, the great thing here, not only what it's doing for you and the way you feel about yourself and your future, but anybody else who comes in contact with your story, you're going to influence it in a positive way.
And so your life experiences are going to transfer to others and you're going to make them better because you're going to make them think it's also possible for them.
This is just terrific.
You gave me the big push that I needed.
Well, I understand that.
I understand.
Somebody had to.
I'm glad we were there when you tuned in at this propitious moment.
You happened to be listening.
We weren't bashing Democrats.
Now, do you have a computer?
Yes, I do.
Are you a subscriber to my website?
No, I'm not.
I'm sorry.
Well, you are now.
I'm going to make a compliment.
Yes, right.
Because you will not believe what all is there.
You think that you're informed and educated now.
Wait till you tap into the resources that are on my website.
And I'm also going to throw in a year subscription of the Limball letter.
That's the newsletter.
And give you a couple items from the EIB store that you can pick out.
So, Julie, hang on.
A nice man who will not ask you the name of your kids will be on the phone to tell you.
No, thank you.
You've made our day here.
Well, good.
You've made a big difference to me.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks, Julie.
We'll talk to you again soon and be back here in just a second.
Julie, don't hang up.
Stay on hold.
Back in just a second, folks.
Hey, Julie.
In Oklahoma City, I know you're still out there.
I'm going to add a couple of things to the surprise package here.
Recall this.
I'm just going to give her the house.
I'm going to throw in a select comfort bed, let her choose what kind she wants, and a rush pack from Allen Brothers.
So, HR, get her back on the phone after the program and we're going to organize all that.
We have people in the prize closet.
That's all they do is handle the freebies and the giveaways.
Most of them we never talk about because we're not into this for that reason.
But I am so impressed that after 10 years, when she went back to school, it was to follow her original passion and want to be in law enforcement.
And nobody was able ultimately to talk her out of it because she couldn't do it.
That makes our day here.
Even Snurdly is smiling.
First time today, he's forgotten about the Foley story.
Here is John in Libertyville, Illinois.
Welcome to the program.
Hi, thanks for taking my call.
You bet.
Newt Gingrich had it exactly wrong when he said that Dennis Hassard hadn't taken stronger action when he saw the first emails from Mr. Foley because he was afraid he would be charged with gay bashing.
It seems to me that you and every other Republican should be outraged at Mr. Hasser for not taking advantage of a golden opportunity to go to Mr. Foley with those initial emails and say, look, we have tolerated the open secret that you're homosexual for years and years and years, but this is something of a totally different strike.
And we want you to come up with whatever public reason you want to put out there to not seek reelection.
And no one would have ever known why.
And if they had, Haster would have had the emails to defend himself against any charge of gay bashing.
And I just think your take on it and Newt Gingrich's take is completely upside down.
The fact of the matter is, they chose to protect Foley.
They could have taken action based on these emails, but they chose to protect him instead.
The emails, not even the FBI thought, were worth investigating, number one.
The emails are quite different than the instant messages, which didn't surface, interestingly, until later.
There have been a lot of people that sat on this.
And some of them are probably Democrats as well.
You know, this is evolved now into political strategic scandal, not a, you know, for the children scandal or any of that.
A lot of things are coming to light about Foley, too.
He was a prolific fundraiser.
He was in tight with the Hollywood left.
And you don't just go to somebody and tell them to, that's a Bill Clinton tactic with Torricelli and Andrew Cuomo, but you just don't go to somebody.
They tried it the way they tried it.
Look at, you've got to stop this.
He was a valued member of the House.
He was not thought to be scum at the time this first thing happened.
And they thought they had dealt with it.
As to the gay bashing thing, I asked Hastert that yesterday, John, if that, and he denied it.
But let's go back and imagine if what, if the idea that this would not have come out, your scenario, is sort of ridiculous.
Foley would not announce that he might, depending on what pressure they had, I don't think they had enough to blackmail him into quitting at the time.
But had any Republican come out and demanded that a gay member of their caucus resign, and that would have leaked, that would have happened, the charge of gay bashing and intolerance would have been all over the country for a number of years.
But wouldn't Hassard have been armed against those charges by virtue of the fact that he possessed the emails?
I mean, no one was ever, no one was going to bash Hassert for being cautious about protecting a teenager.
I just don't see the logic of it.
Well, I don't think that's the modus operandi on the thinking on the Republican side.
They thought they had this dealt with.
They had sent a number of people to talk to him, and they thought that they had it dealt with.
I just don't say this doesn't seem to me that the theory holds any water at all.
They could have, I think you're right that there's a political calculation being made here, and I think it was made by Dennis Haster.
No, I don't.
If you want to think that, if you want to say that Hastert had a political calculation at the outset, go right ahead.
But don't think that that doesn't cancel out or cancels out this current political calculation and strategy that is going on.
You can't have one without the other.
I mean, what do we do about Barney Frank?
Would you tell the Democrats, John, that Gary Studs and Barney Frank should be approached and told to leave the House of Representatives by Democrats after the things they did?
I mean, they're held up as paragons, virtue, and victims.
It matters who you are in these circumstances.
It boils down to what I said on Monday and Tuesday of this week on this program.
That would be yesterday and the day before.
And that is the Democrats embrace and coddle the imperfect.
They promote human imperfection, even the human imperfection that is chosen by people.
And they coddle it, and that's how they make themselves feel compassionate.
They believe that human imperfection is what it is, that Republicans are largely responsible for it, but the Republicans, you know, they're the party of family values and right and wrong and morality.
So the Democrats just love it when they can play the hypocrisy card.
But in the process of playing the hypocrisy card, the Democrats aren't advocating improving anything.
They're not advocating making America better.
They're not advocating improving these kinds of circumstances so that they never happen again.
This is all about suppressing Republican vote.
Nobody here cares about protecting the kids.
You think that Hastert didn't care about that way back when Democrats don't care about it today.
That's it, folks.
Sadly, we're out of precious broadcast moments and minutes today, but there's always tomorrow.
Have to go to a super secret meeting.
It is super secret place.
Be back here tomorrow and not tell you a word about it.
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