Rush Limbaugh Program - December 19, 2006, Tuesday, Hour #1

All Episodes

Previous Next

Dec. 19, 2006 - Rush Limbaugh Program

36:39

December 19, 2006, Tuesday, Hour #1

Large

Audio Only |

Scroll

Time	Text
	Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
	And greetings once again, thrill seekers, music lovers, and conversationalists all across the fruited plane.
	It is I, the misunderstood and harmless, lovable little Fuzzball Rush Limbaugh here at the EIB Network and the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
	Three hours of yet another excursion into broadcast excellence straight ahead.
	So happy and delighted to have you with us, ladies and gentlemen.
	A telephone number, you ought to be on the program today, 800-282-2882.
	The email address is rush at EIBNet.com.
	Donald Trump hijacked all three cable networks this morning, shortly after 11 o'clock, for one of the funniest, albeit most ridiculous, displays I have seen.
	Well, you could say it was pathetic.
	It was.
	It had us cringing here.
	The whole thing just had us cringing.
	And you know, a little after 11 o'clock today, Trump was to announce the fate of the current Miss USA Tara.
	I forget her, Tara Connor.
	Is that what it is?
	Yeah.
	Tara Connor.
	And ultimately, folks, the verdict here is that New York City is to blame.
	It's just a young girl from Kentucky.
	She came to the bright lights in a big city.
	She's overwhelmed with all the party chances, all the party opportunities.
	So she went out there and she made the most of it.
	Just wasn't prepared for it.
	Had a meeting with Trump today at 10 o'clock, and Trump said he's going to give her a second chance because she's a good person.
	He opened by saying the form he had to fire a Miss USA or somebody back in the, or Miss Miss World.
	He had to fire somebody because, frankly, she was doing a horrible job.
	And she deserved to be fired, even though she was a good girl.
	She was doing a horrible job.
	This girl was doing a great job and can serve as a role model for other troubled people because we all have demons and so forth.
	And you just got to hear this.
	I mean, here's Trump, a portion of his remarks leading up.
	We're jipping this.
	We're joining it in progress.
	I knew from the moment he started what was going to happen.
	This is too big a PR opportunity to pass up.
	Get the ratings up for next year's pageant.
	Nobody's watching these pageants anymore.
	And this will help.
	And of course, it's a personal opportunity for Trump to be a good guy.
	Here is just a portion of what he said.
	I've always been a believer in second chances.
	Tara is a good person.
	Tara has tried hard.
	Tara is going to be given a second chance.
	Young people today have a tough road.
	There's no question about it.
	Alcohol, drugs, life, and especially in this city and a couple of other cities.
	It's tough.
	It's not easy.
	I believe, after speaking with Tara, I believe that she can do a tremendous service to young people.
	She's agreed to go into rehab.
	I believe she can be a great example for troubled people.
	And she's troubled.
	For troubled people throughout this country, throughout lots of countries that have problems with alcohol, that have problems with life.
	So she's troubled.
	And so this is probably about a half of what he said, maybe a little bit less than half.
	But it's the gist of it.
	Here is just a small portion of a Q ⁇ A.
	The actual statement that Tara Connor made before the Q ⁇ A started was just classic.
	It was just classic.
	She was near tears throughout the whole thing.
	She thanked Trump about 14 times.
	She thanked his woman, I think is what the closed captioning said, not his wife.
	She learned a lot from Trump's woman.
	And she's eternally grateful for this second chance.
	Somebody on the in the audience, and the audience was all media, and they all applauded, by the way, when Trump announced that she was going to get a second chance.
	Reporter out in the audience is, are you an alcoholic?
	I wouldn't say that I'm an alcoholic.
	I think that that would be pushing the envelope just a little, but I'm willing.
	I mean, anytime that anyone gives you free anything, let's talk about therapy or let's talk about any kind of rehab.
	We all have personal demons that we have to face at some point or another.
	Anytime that anyone gives you free anything, let's talk about therapy.
	Was the rehab free and the therapy free or was the booze free?
	I'm not quite sure.
	Anyway, I believe in second chances too.
	Don't misunderstand me.
	I never had a doubt that Trump was going to get rid of this babe.
	Have you heard some of the allegations made again?
	I hadn't.
	Well, I had not until this morning.
	Apparently, she was with the Miss Teen USA, and they were smooching on each other and sharing adult beverages when they were not 21, underage and so forth.
	All of this, of course, is New York City's fault.
	So we need New York City reform here.
	In politics, it was the money that made good people bad people.
	We corrupted bad people in politics with the money, and now New York City is corrupting our young people.
	Blame it on the trans fats.
	Well, I don't know if she's eating trans fats.
	She doesn't look like she eats much.
	Speaking of which, speaking of that, there's a story here in the stack.
	Let's see.
	Dutch women's breasts are expanding.
	They're getting bigger.
	And they want this to happen.
	And it's all because of the diet that they're eating.
	Anyway, there's lots of wacko stuff out there today, folks.
	Also, have remember the guy, Jeff from Solon, Ohio?
	He was the guy everybody thought was tricking me.
	His mother wouldn't let him spend any money on Allen Brothers steaks.
	And so he called here, and everybody thought he was angling for a freebie.
	And people, you know who you are.
	You responded an email with sufficient anger, mad at me that I didn't see this obvious trick and succumbed.
	Well, he's been listening and he's fed up with all of this allegations that have been made by some of you people.
	His subject line here is, I did not scam you.
	Rush, I'm the one to whom you generously gave a rush pack.
	I want to assure you, I'm not a scamming liberal, but a recently graduated high school student working to achieve my dreams.
	Thanks again, Jeff, in Solon, Ohio.
	So he doesn't say whether he's liberal or conservative.
	Well, he says he's not a liberal.
	He said he's not a scamming liberal.
	He could be a liberal, but he's not a.
	And this is fabulous.
	Lord Moncton, the Viscount of Brenchley, has sent an open letter to Senators Rockefeller and Snow in response to their recent open letter telling the CEO of ExxonMobil to cease funding climate skeptic scientists.
	Lord Moncton, former policy advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, wrote this, you defy every tenet of democracy when you invite ExxonMobil to deny itself the right to provide information to senior elected and appointed government officials who disagree with your opinion.
	Lord Moncton is, this is the letter we told you about that Rockefeller at Olympia Snow wrote to the CEO of ExxonMobil, basically telling them to shut up.
	That climate change, human-caused climate change and global warming is not disputable anymore.
	And to stop influencing the deniers, the global warming deniers, and to stop funding them and to stop making these points and so forth, or we're coming after you.
	I mean, it wasn't stated, but I mean, when you get a letter like this from two U.S. senators, and what was odd about this, or not ironic is a better word, Jay Rockefeller would be nowhere, no-how, nobody were it not for the fact that his great-great-grandfather discovered oil in Saudi Arabia.
	The Rockefeller fortune derives from oil, and it was a trust.
	You know, a big trust had to be busted up, and it led to all the standard oils and so forth.
	And it's now nowhere to be recognized by any of its original names.
	But the business that made Rockefeller who he is, Rockefeller's Lucky Sperm Club, folks.
	I mean, he just happened to have the right mom and dad and grew up like Ted Kennedy, Lucky Sperm Club.
	That's who these people are.
	But now he's an all-powerful, mighty United States senator, and he's sending out these disguised threats in the form of letters to ExxonMobil's CEO.
	And British Lord Moncton is telling them to shut up.
	You have no right to have these people deny themselves their First Amendment rights.
	They have the right to free speech and can say what they want to say, just as you do.
	The Charleston, West Virginia Daily Mail has called an intemperate attempt to squelch debate with a hint of political consequences.
	Senators Rockefeller and Snow released an open letter.
	It was on October 30th when this happened.
	To Rex Tillerson, who's the ExxonMobil CEO, insisting that he end Exxon's funding of a climate change denial campaign.
	The senators labeled scientists with whom they disagreed as deniers, a term usually directed at Holocaust deniers.
	Some voices on the political left have called for the arrest and prosecution of skeptical scientists.
	The British Foreign Secretary has said skeptics should be treated like advocates of Islamic terror, must be denied access to the media.
	Lord Moncton said skeptics and those who have the courage to support them are actually helpful in getting the science right.
	They do not, as you improperly suggest, Senator Rockefeller, obfuscate the issue.
	They assist in clarifying it by challenging weaknesses in the consensus argument, and they compel necessary corrections.
	And once again, we're back to this.
	There can be no science if there's consensus involved.
	And all of the global warming scientists use that word consensus to give their argument the force of power and certitude.
	The consensus is that there can't be consensus in science.
	If you've got consensus, there isn't any science.
	Science is.
	Facts are the earth is round.
	If a consensus of scientists say it's flat, it doesn't change the fact that the earth is round.
	Just because a consensus says that our models predict X, Y, and Z 15, 20, 30, 40 years from now, computer models are not science either.
	And you cannot make the case that they are.
	Proven fact is science.
	Anything else isn't.
	And Rockefeller and his bunch, I mean, what kind of a threat was that anyway to send this letter out telling them to shut up or risk the consequences, calling them deniers and this sort of thing?
	It really is an example of the condescension and arrogance and the overall presumption of power these people think they have.
	And this is liberals, folks.
	Make no mistake, Olympia Snow is a liberal, even though she's a Republican.
	When you say something they don't want to hear, and they want to debate you because they can't beat you, they want to shut you up, discredit you, or ruin you.
	One way or the other.
	We'll be back.
	More broadcast excellence right around the proverbial corner.
	I want to read you a couple more excerpts from the letter that Lord Moncton, the Viscount of Brenchley, former policy advisor to Lady Thatcher, has written to Senators Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snow.
	You acknowledge the effectiveness of the climate skeptics.
	In so doing, you pay a compliment to the courage of those free-thinking scientists who continue to research climate change independently despite the likelihood of refusal of publication in journals that have taken preconceived positions.
	They hate mail, the vilification from ignorant environmentalists, and the threat of loss of tenure in institutions of learning which no longer make any pretense to uphold or cherish academic freedom.
	He also went after them for comparing ExxonMobil to big tobacco.
	Your comparison of Exxon's funding of skeptical scientists and groups with the former antics of the tobacco industry is unjustifiable and unworthy of any credible elected representatives.
	Either withdraw that monstrous comparison forthwith or resign so as not to pollute the office that you hold.
	I find it interesting that it takes somebody from across the pond in the UK to respond.
	I mean, we responded here, but this is a former high government official.
	There was nobody in the Republican Party that dared say a word about this.
	Did you hear anybody say it?
	Well, who cares whether they're gone?
	Lord Moncton's gone.
	He's not here.
	He's in the UK.
	He found time to write a letter to these guys.
	He concluded this, I challenge you, Senator Rockefeller and Senator Snow, to withdraw or resign, because your letter is the latest in what appears to be an internationally coordinated series of maladroit and malevolent attempts to silence the voices of science and others who have sound grounds rooted firmly in the peer-reviewed scientific literature to question what you would have us believe is the unanimous agreement of scientists worldwide that global warming will lead to what you.
	you excitedly but unjustifiably call disastrous and calamitous consequences.
	This is just more evidence that I have been right from the get-go about what the environmental movement is.
	It is a shield.
	It's a cover.
	It is the home of renegade former communists internationally.
	And it is a way for liberals to promote big government in the ways I've described to you.
	And I don't need to waste my breath going over and over it again.
	I'm just glad that Lord Moncton had the fortitude and the courage to reply.
	I don't know where else this will be reported.
	I got this off the PR Newswire, which is not exactly an online news service per se, but it's nevertheless very welcome.
	And it was jazzed to read it.
	Here is Brian in Fort Lauderdale.
	Brian, you're up first today on the EIB network, and it's great to have you with us.
	Hey, Rush, how are you doing?
	Fine.
	I'm calling about this beauty pageant thing.
	I'm afraid it just sets the wrong precedent.
	While I'm very much for forgiveness and second chances, it's the title of somebody that's supposed to be pure and integrist.
	No.
	You've missed the evolution of Miss USA.
	This is a woman supposed to represent America as it is, and she's doing a bang-up job.
	Okay.
	But what about the aspiring young girls that might want to hold that position one day and find themselves in a compromising position and suddenly, you know, it's okay, they'll just forgive me and give me a second chance.
	Isn't that the lesson, though?
	I mean, this has always been a forgiving society.
	Even in court, this is something we've chronicled.
	I'll never forget, I always confuse this defendant's name with somebody else's, I think, Richard Allen Harris, but the man that killed Polly Kloss in the sentencing phase of the trial.
	And look at what he did.
	He kidnaps this poor girl.
	It just treated, killed her, and raped her.
	Unspeakable things.
	Here's the sentencing phase of the trial.
	And everybody's wondering, will he show remorse?
	Why should that matter?
	Why should it matter?
	And instead of showing remorse, he flipped the bird to the cameraman inside the courtroom.
	And that angered them more than any of the details of the crime.
	Up until then, there had been some sympathy.
	Well, maybe this guy's a little sick.
	You know, who can't imagine doing anything like this?
	He hope he shows remorse.
	There's this big thing about saying, I'm sorry.
	The press has been demanding that the president admit his mistakes and say, I'm sorry.
	And he hasn't done it.
	This is a society right now.
	We have evolved to the point where we know that everybody makes mistakes because everybody's imperfect.
	Nobody is perfect.
	Everybody does things wrong.
	And people who hold themselves out as morally superior, they're going to take the biggest fall because they're going to screw up too.
	But if they just apologize, and if they just do it the right way, our hearts melt.
	And we love Trump for being understanding and compassionate and giving this young woman a second chance because nobody wants the woman's life to crumble.
	Need to grab her by the shoulders, take her and do whatever is necessary to straighten her out.
	She's obviously admittedly got some problems here.
	And so this is a feel-good society right now.
	And while your take is, I'm sure, held by a lot of people, what kind of signal is this sending?
	The Trump people hope the message is that there are always second chances, but no more.
	He did say one more mistake and she's fired.
	She'll be replaced and she's out of there.
	So it's, I'm not saying that you're wrong.
	I'm just trying to tell you where our culture is today as I perceive it.
	Yeah.
	But usually it just turns out, you know, I'm sorry that I got caught and that, you know, it's not really a heartfelt, you know, I'm changing kind of thing.
	You know, repentance is turning around, going the other way, not just feeling bad that somebody called you on it, you know.
	Well, most, it's in circumstances like this, there's always a tipping point where you either realize that you've got a problem and you have to deal with it, or somebody else close to you does, somebody that matters to you and is able to change.
	That doesn't happen to everybody.
	That's one of the sad things.
	But what you're saying is very clear.
	I understand.
	This is a nationwide honor.
	This is a nationwide contest.
	And she is chosen on the basis of the talent and the swimsuit of course, the speech.
	You know, I want world peace and this sort of stuff.
	And the swimsuit and the swimsuit and the swimsuit.
	And yet here's the best we can find to represent America in this manner.
	And she's this, and yet it doesn't disqualify her.
	I know you're saying that our standards are shrinking.
	And you're right, they are.
	We'll be back.
	Your guiding light, man, a living legend and way of life and the excellence in broadcasting network.
	I've been thinking about this, folks.
	Mr. Snerdley and I have been talking here during the break about whether or not our cultural standards are declining as they relate to the controversy swirling around Tara Connor, who is the current Miss USA.
	And Snerdley made a great point.
	He says, how can you say our cultural mores have declined?
	Our standards have declined.
	The Miss USA pageant's strictly about the swimsuit contest.
	And she still looks good in a swimsuit, so she still deserves a title.
	She did not disgrace the swimsuit.
	And she didn't disgrace the swimsuit pageant.
	That's basically your point, correct?
	And so the basic reason she was chosen has not been damaged, has not come under assault.
	Nobody's out there saying, uh-oh, she doesn't look good in the bathing suit anymore.
	And they'll say, so really, folks, well, you have to look at this.
	I think Inex Nerdley has a point.
	Hillary Clinton says that she wouldn't have voted for the Iraq war if she knew then what she knows now.
	As she continues to assess a possible presidential candidacy and the contours of a Democrat nomination fight, she has taken another step away from her 2002 vote, authorizing President Bush to attack Iraq by saying that she wouldn't have voted that way if she knew everything she knows now.
	Now, she's been asked very often if she regrets her vote authorizing military action, and she usually answers with an artful dodge.
	This is, by the way, an ABC news report, saying that she accepts responsibility for the vote and suggesting that if the Senate had all the information it has today, that there would never have been a vote on the Senate floor.
	But she's never gone this far as to make an official flip-flop.
	Now, you know, it's one thing for a cheesy senator like Kerry to do it or Rockefeller or any of the others.
	But somebody needs to teach this woman a lesson.
	It's a lesson that she should have learned when she was sitting in the Oval Office, sharing the place with her husband, Bill.
	The President of the United States doesn't get 2020 hindsight.
	It's not something he has access to.
	The President of the United States cannot rewind the TiVo and go back to before all presidents, I would include Clinton in this, all presidents do the best they can with the information they have at the time.
	Not everybody's judgment's perfect, and certainly that's the case with presidents.
	But it's easy, it is easy as pie for Mrs. Clinton to say now, now, on the cusp of the campaign as she's going out there, she has to do something about this Obama fever that's rocketing all over the place, and she is seeking the support of the madcap left, which is standard.
	I mean, you got to get that to get the nomination.
	And they're still hogtied on this war business, and they're still flipped out.
	I mean, Sean Penn got an award last night from the Creative Coalition, the first ever Christopher Reeve Award.
	And most of it, well, some of it, I can't even read to you because it would get me an FCC fine.
	Well, not me, but the station that broadcast the program would be fined by the FCC.
	It is just he calls for the impeachment of Cheney and Bush.
	He demands that Pelosi put it back on its head.
	That's just the minor stuff.
	It's that crowd that she's making this move for.
	But, you know, it's easy for her to say it now because she has no real responsibility.
	And she has the luxury of looking years back to reflect, but that's the thing.
	She is actually with this move trying to imply to people that this was her responsibility in some way and that she's made a mistake.
	And we're back to that now.
	Oh, Mrs. She's admitted the error of her ways.
	Why couldn't more people do this?
	Why couldn't more people admit that they are wrong?
	And why can't more people admit that they are sorry?
	You know how people run around and ask you every day they see you the first time they say, how you doing?
	I'm fine.
	They don't really care.
	And if you tell them the truth, then you stun them.
	How you doing?
	It's going horrible today.
	Oh, really?
	See you later.
	Well, It's the same way with these kind of announcements on changing my mind.
	I'm so sorry.
	Can you imagine if everybody run around, ran around all day long?
	I want to apologize for what I did earlier today.
	Or last night or yesterday or the week before.
	I feel so bad.
	I'm so sorry.
	I made such a mistake.
	And let me, can I give you a little, what I think is wisdom?
	How many of you people, this is a little bit of departure here, but it's more to the point of what I was just making.
	How many of you living in the present look back in your past and you see things, yeah, damn it, that was stupid.
	Wrong decision.
	Shouldn't have done it.
	I was just, boy, I really screwed that up.
	Now, we all do that, but it's not very healthy.
	What it is, is a way of beating ourselves up.
	What you have to do to put this in context is go back to the moment you made the decision.
	Did you purposely try to screw it up?
	Were you purposely trying to make a mistake?
	No.
	Most of us, at every moment in our lives, when we have to make a decision, big or small, we either follow our guts or we get advice or whatever.
	We do what we think is right at the time.
	Then years or months go by.
	We look back and some might say, oh, I wish I hadn't done that.
	That was a mistake.
	Well, it was, but you didn't try to commit the mistake.
	It wasn't like you were trying to screw up.
	So this business of going back and, you know, I would have changed my mind, but if I had known what I know, it's a cop-out and it is cowardly and presidents don't get that chance.
	Presidents are not allowed to do that.
	Let me explain it to you this way.
	Imagine there's a headline in the paper tomorrow or on cable TV sometime today.
	The president in a thought-provoking interview declares, if I knew then what I know now, I would not have gone into a rock.
	What would your reaction be?
	Would you be, oh, he's so, he's so humble.
	He's admitting a mistake.
	He's admitting that.
	Well, what's he admitting?
	Is he admitting he got lied to?
	Is he admitting that he lied to us?
	Is he admitting that, what's he admitting to?
	This is a luxury presidents don't have.
	And if he did it, despite all these cat calls and demands, the president announce his mistakes and go public with them and say he's sorry.
	The reason the press wants him to do it is because they know it'd be a death knell.
	Precisely they know it'd be a death knell.
	But irrelevant senators like John Kerry and Hillary Clinton run down all day because they are not responsible.
	They can run around all day and say, you know, if I wish I hadn't voted, I wish I hadn't voted for welfare reform.
	I wish I hadn't voted for this.
	And if they all started doing that, what would be your reaction ultimately?
	You'd realize you have a bunch of pandering, indecisive, unprincipled people who are willing to go with the flow rather than stand on what they believe in.
	Everybody that makes a decision at the moment, and there have to be exceptions to this, you may know it's the wrong thing that in some cases, if we're talking morality or that kind of thing, I'm throwing those out.
	We all have weaknesses where it comes to morality, but when you're making a life decision, when you make a career decision, whatever, nobody, I can't say nobody, but the vast majority of people think they're doing the right thing at the time.
	It's only when you look back on it that you think, oh, gosh, that was a mistake.
	I shouldn't have done that.
	Well, how stupid am I?
	And you start beating yourself up, and that's not healthy, and that's not good.
	And then you start thinking, well, what if I could change it and so forth?
	You can't change what you did, but you can change what you do from the moment that you realized you thought you made a mistake.
	But the point is, you didn't make a mistake when you did it on purpose.
	You didn't try to screw up.
	Nobody purposely tries to screw up.
	I'll probably get calls on people.
	Oh, yes, I have purposely tried to screw up because it's helped me do this.
	There are exceptions to everything.
	But I think that this is a great illustration here of just who this woman is.
	These are the thoughts of someone running for president of the United States for commander-in-chief.
	And commanders-in-chief do not get to think this way because every decision they make has consequences.
	And you can't pretend the consequences didn't happen and just swipe them off and wipe the sweet clean by running around and says, Yeah, if I'd have known that, I wouldn't have done this.
	It's, believe me, it would be disastrous.
	Somebody better tell Mrs. Clinton this if she doesn't understand it, because you can't do this once you become president.
	And if you betray this kind of thinking or portray this kind of thinking to people, they're really not going to consider you in that rarefied air that they put presidential candidates in.
	Now, some people think that she may not have even meant it, that she may not have really, really meant it, that she's too tough, she's too combative, and too ambitious for all this nonsense.
	And whatever, I think, I think whatever she says or does, and it's just like Barack Obama.
	She knows she's counting on the drive-by media will give her a free pass for anything she says or does.
	And they tell themselves, she only said that because her two main threats are Edwards and Obama are against the war.
	We know why she's doing it.
	They won't hold her to task.
	They will not properly analyze this if they would, say, if President Bush did it or another presidential candidate.
	Besides, in the end, follow the money.
	Her statement saying, gosh, if I'd have known then what I know now, I would have never voted for this, is probably worth a few million dollars at the next fundraiser.
	We'll be back in a moment.
	All right, it's back to the phones here.
	It's Rush Limbaugh, the talent on lawn from God in full force and displayed in North Conway, New Hampshire.
	This is Steve.
	Hello, sir.
	Hey, Rush.
	I'm wondering why there isn't more on the double standard with Miss America.
	After all, Vanessa Williams had her crown taken away for racy photos, and I don't see the NAACP or anybody getting involved here.
	Well, now, wait, she was Miss America, right?
	Yes, she was.
	Yeah, this is Miss USA, and we're talking Trump.
	Well, it's still the same.
	It's still the same tale.
	I mean, yeah, but when did this happen?
	I remember it.
	I just can't remember the year.
	When did Vanessa?
	I don't remember the year either, but her crown was definitely taken away.
	Well, I know that.
	I remember that.
	This has to be something in the 70s or 80s?
	70s or 80s, right?
	Yeah, 70s, 70s.
	Well, that'll just show you how culturally rotten we've become.
	You know, nude photos that hardly anybody saw get you thrown out of the Miss America pageant after you've won it.
	And allegations and drink and consuming adult beverages under age get you a second chance at the Miss USA pageant.
	1984 for Vanessa Williams taking a dive there because of the nude photos.
	But, you know, she rebounded well from that.
	I mean, she did a great singing career.
	She appeared a lot of funny commercials and so forth, married to a time for one of the gang members at the NBA, who I think played for the Los Angeles Lakers.
	She came out of that really well.
	She did get her second chance, not just with the pageant, but the country, the people, our society gave her a second chance.
	And you have to remember, as I mentioned, Steve, Tara did not dishonor the swimsuit pageant.
	She, you know, if her attraction in New York had been food, and had she gained some weight at the same time she had been assuming all these adult beverages and so forth, then it would have been she'd probably had a much tougher time getting this second chance.
	Russ in San Angelo, Texas.
	I love San Angelo, Texas, because you got to be going there to get there.
	You will never just run into this place by accident.
	Hello, sir.
	That's so true.
	Meghan Ditto's rush, and thank you for everything you do for our country and our military.
	You're welcome, sir.
	Well, I'm a little exasperated by Senator Clinton's comments, and I just hope the Republicans don't concede the point or that conservatives don't concede the point that it was a mistake to go.
	I would say if we could wind back the clock and we know everything we know today, I would still be calling my two senators, Cornyn and Hutchinson, and begging them to vote for the war.
	And absolutely, we are a safer country because we did this, and the brunt of the enemy's attack is now being suffered upon our military where it belongs instead of our civilians.
	We don't want to see our military suffer and die, but we have them so that we can defend our civilians.
	And I just cannot believe we cannot see that in this country.
	Well, because we haven't had another attack here, and so the impact of 9-11 has deteriorated in people's minds.
	Precisely, I think Iraq is one of the primary reasons why we haven't had an attack here, be quite honest with you.
	But, you know, I don't like this exercise of turning back the clock because it's pointless.
	It literally is pointless.
	All you do is beat yourself up over things that you cannot change.
	And to me, this is just obvious.
	But let's play the game.
	Let's turn it back.
	And let's take everything we did know then.
	You can't go back the things that we know now had we known then.
	The evidence back then, starting after the first Gulf Wall, all through 16 or 17 UN resolutions, UN inspectors being thrown out of Iraq, proof that Al-Qaeda had had operatives in Iraq in the 90s.
	No operational linkage to 9-11 was ever asserted or established, and that was not the reason for going into Iraq.
	We know that Joe Wilson lied and missed it, that the Iraqis were attempting to get yellow cake from Niger, despite what you've heard.
	We had been attacked on 9-11.
	We had a guy who was thumbing his nose at the world at the United Nations, refusing to open up to inspectors to check what he had for all of these years, all these inspections in terms of biological and chemical weapons, which we knew he had used on his own people, on the Kurds, for which he's just been found guilty and will be hanged as a result.
	All of this in the context just after 9-11, it would have been irresponsible not to deal with this in the way we dealt with it.
	How many of you, if I can draw you some kind of an analogy, look at Mahmoud Ahmad Dinejad today.
	Pat Buchanan has a column I read at World Net Daily Today.
	He thinks Ahmadinejad should have been the man of the year.
	Time magazine popped up.
	He got some interesting points in his piece.
	A year and a half ago, Ahmadinejad was the never-heard of mayor of Tehran.
	Today, he dominates the world with words.
	He doesn't fire a shot.
	He's got proxies that do it.
	He has proxies in Lebanon, proxies in Syria, and he's got proxies in Iran or Iraq.
	But he has totally dominated the news and the world.
	He has an army.
	If we decided to take care of Ahmadinejad militarily, he can't, there's no way he could compete with it.
	He would lose a war inside of a month with the United States of America.
	He is saber-rattling.
	He is threatening practically weakly to blow Israel off the map to end the United States as we know it.
	What are we doing?
	We're sitting around doing nothing.
	We're practicing words.
	We're trying to beat his words with our words in the form of diplomacy.
	But it isn't working.
	He's not intimidated.
	He's not shutting up.
	But in a contest of actual warfare, I mean, this guy couldn't beat the Iraqis in eight years back in the 1980s.
	There'd be no contest for us.
	And yet we're sitting around and apparently doing, well, we're not actually doing nothing.
	We're beefing up the Navy in the Persian Gulf, if you haven't heard that.
	And in a response to his words, which is a helpful sign.
	Quick timeout.
	We'll be back in just a second.
	If I knew then what I know now, I would have never ever bought a copy of the New York Times.
	If I knew then what I know now, I would have never, ever supported Kofi Annan for corrupt Secretary General of the United Nations.

▲