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March 21, 2007 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:29
March 21, 2007, Wednesday, Hour #1
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Time Text
Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
I I I got home about uh what was it, 9 30 last night, and I went and checked the email as uh always do, and there was a couple frantic notes from HR, uh trustee chief of staff, saying that the office of Governor Schwarzenegger, California had been trying to reach us all afternoon, wanting to come on the program today.
And I knew I knew yesterday this was the case.
They said, hey, look, this is this wasn't personal, it is rushed not a Californian, and it doesn't matter what anybody says, I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do.
That's what Arnold meant.
So that's how it happened.
Anyway, Governor Schwarzenegger will appear on the program at exactly one hour.
Greetings, and uh he wanted to appear, and so we said, fine.
Love to have him.
Telephone number 800-282-2882.
If you want to be on the program, the email address is uh rush at EIB net.com.
So Governor Schwarzenegger, in an hour, he will be calling in from uh from California.
We'll have him on for the first segment of the uh of the program.
Uh his um Adam Mendelson was uh from his office called and said, Well, you know, we can't believe the way the media is treating this, we want to set the uh set the record straight.
So I knew what this was yesterday.
I got all kinds of uh, you know, people asking me, Why did you treat him with such kid glove?
Why why didn't you fire back?
I can't believe you sat there with I thought I hit back pretty hard on policy stuff.
I'm not one of these contrived rivalry guys, folks.
I mean, I you know, there's all kinds of people in talk radio that pick fights with other people just for the sake of getting noticed, and it's cheap.
And it's often phony, and it's just it's uh it's a technique that's been used even before I got even before I started this program, and I've just never engaged in it.
Uh I just prefer to deal with this stuff in a dignified and classy way, as was the case yesterday.
More on that as the uh as the program unfolds.
The president has finally hit back.
Ladies and gentlemen, on the Democrats' demand for, and by the way, the Democrats have now issued subpoenas.
Uh what they haven't issued sub.
Well, they're gonna yeah, they've issued subpoena.
Well, th they they they ought to be ignored.
I mean, this is we we've got a we've got a great constitutional fight coming up here.
Uh the Democrats decided this morning since they're not satisfied with uh Rove and uh Harriet Myers coming up and just having a conversation with these senators.
Uh Chuck Schumer, you know, with underwear and a wad decided he's gonna issue the subpoenas and said, Nope, nope, this gotta be in public, it's gotta be under oath.
What are they afraid of?
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Uh, we have a lot of audio sound bites in support of this.
I want to start with last night on uh Anderson Cooper 360, a portion of a report.
Uh we got two bites actually from a report by John Roberts.
Conservative blogs have been aflame with complaints that Republicans have rolled over and demanding they grow a spine.
It's not just the president.
Nobody uh within the administration reacts to this stuff in an instinctive or visceral way.
I have a question.
Because CNN is the network that really ran with this Arnold irrelevant comment yesterday.
If I'm irrelevant, what are they doing putting me in news reports last night that indicate pressure from me changed the White House's attitude about this?
I mean, this is what I mean.
You know, when when when people lodge a bunch of uh criticism my way, it's just it's small fry, and I just let the stuff that's not true bounce off.
I don't even let it in and process it.
Uh and I think this then they did a couple bang-up reports on their website.
And our old our old buddy Carol Costello got back in action.
We have that sound bite coming up, but I just I just wanted to point out that hours after they ran this report about how I'm now irrelevant.
Uh, and if they went out and they talked to these meaningless, worthless, irrelevant so-called experts in talk radio to back up the claim that I'm irrelevant.
Here they are, hours later, running a piece with a soundbite of me in a story about how people like me pressured the Bush administration have changed their minds on how they're gonna approach this.
Here's the second John Roberts bite.
These conservative bloggers, uh we had a soundbite from Rush Limbaugh a little bit earlier in the program.
They've just been hammering the Republicans, calling them a bunch of wusses, saying you've got to stand up to these guys, or they're gonna hand you your lunch.
So he's under a lot of pressure from a lot of different angles.
That would be the irrelevant uh Rush Limbaugh, John Roberts, the irrelevant.
I think, you know, the bottom line here is that uh uh I I and I said yesterday, I uh and the day before, too.
I'm I have been befuddled by the White House intransigence on this and the lack of understanding, it seems, I mean, just on the surface, it seems the White House had trouble understanding that Bush is the target of all this.
Rumsfeld's not the target, and Libya was not the target.
Rove is not the Rove's not who they well, they'd love to get Rove's scalp, what's left of it.
Uh but but Bush is the target here, and he has to know this.
And they can't get to him, so they're trying to get everybody around him.
Well, the president finally held a press conference uh late yesterday afternoon and said this.
We will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition aimed at honorable public servants.
The initial response by Democrats unfortunately show some appear more interested in scoring political points than in learning the facts.
It will be regrettable if they choose to head down the partisan road of issuing subpoenas and demanding show trials.
When I have agreed to make key White House officials and documents available, I have proposed a reasonable way to avoid an impasse.
I hope they don't choose confrontation.
I will oppose any attempts to subpoena White House officials.
Now that has meaning.
This business using the term show trials, the fact that he's offered a reasonable compromise, he is finally not putting up with this.
So you have to ask, has the tipping points finally been reached?
Has he finally gotten tired of trying to deal with these people openly and fairly?
Because he had to know.
He had to know they were going to reject this.
They're on the war path.
They're trying to keep the country in total tumult and chaos.
Uh not just over the Iraq war.
They don't want the people of this country feeling comfortable.
They don't want the people the Democrats know.
They want the they don't want the country feeling uh at ease, they don't want any contentment or even happiness out there, and they've got their their buddies in the drive-by media ratcheting up all this tension and angst that everybody is feeling, and that's their objective.
The President finally uh here reacting in a way that says he's gonna fight them.
Here's another part of what he said.
It was natural and appropriate for members of the White House staff to consider and to discuss with the Justice Department whether to replace all 93 U.S. attorneys at the beginning of my second term.
It is common for me, members of my staff, and the Justice Department to receive complaints from members of Congress and both parties and from other citizens.
And we did hear complaints and concerns about U.S. attorneys.
Some complained about the lack of vigorous prosecution of election fraud cases.
While others had concerns about immigration cases not being prosecuted.
These concerns are often shared between the White House and the Justice Department, and that is completely appropriate.
Spelling it out in black and white that there was nothing wrong here, and that everything happened that happened was totally appropriate, making the case for the actions taken by his DOJ and by himself and uh and his entire crew, finally standing up and fighting back.
This did not sit well with Chuck Schumer, who made a beeline for the Senate floor.
Mr. President, what is the objection to having a transcript?
If there's nothing to hide, nothing wrong with the transcript.
What is the objection to an oath?
If there's nothing to hide and everyone's telling the truth, there should be no objection to oath.
And what is the objection to having this discussion in public?
Because if we want to restore the integrity of the U.S. attorney's offices in the Justice Department, that can't be done by someone whispering to someone else in a back and darkened room.
It must be done in public.
Dark.
There's nothing about the room to be.
Chuck Schumer is full of Pablum here, as is his buddy Dick Durbin.
Uh we read the uh letter that uh Schumer wrote uh to uh James Comey, who was assistant or the acting attorney general when Ashcroft was out of there about the uh claim investigation, demanding every bit of information there was about it and encouraging it to go forward, clearly uh inserting himself into a function of the Justice Department,
and we've also discovered a similar letter by Dick Durbin, one of Schumer's partners in this crime, who attempted to influence another piece of uh of action by the Department of Justice and a U.S. attorney, and I'll share that with you as the program unfolds today.
The very thing that Schumer and Durban and Democrats from time immemorial have done, uh, they now accuse of happening in the Bush administration as though it's for the first time.
Uh, they know full well what they're doing because they're gonna get cover from their buddies in the drive-by media on this.
Now, I was asked uh yesterday or last night.
Uh somebody asked me if I thought that there's a chance that the Democrats could overplay their hand in all this, all these investigations and all of these demands for some documents and the issuing the subpoenas.
Is the country going to get tired of this?
I was asked, like the country got tired of all of the uh uh never-ending investigations of Bill Clinton and uh rallied around him with these sixty percent approval numbers all during the uh impeachment embrolio.
And it's a good question.
Uh you know, the the Democrats are doing a good job of keeping the country in total chaos and tumult and angst, along with their buds in the uh in the drive-by media.
But the answer to the question is this uh if i i i it depends totally on the congressional GOP and the way they react to this.
Uh don't expect the American people on their own to get fed up with this.
I mean, they might uh to a certain degree, but if the congressional Republicans also start acting like this is this is way over the top, you're going way too far, we've got other things to do.
So the Democrats know they can't legislate anything.
They don't have the votes in the Senate to get anything done that comes out of the House.
They're having their own troubles in the House getting anything passed.
Look at the minimum wage bill.
Nothing is happening.
They can't accomplish a thing legislatively.
They can't move one bill forward, and they can't, they don't have veto-proof majorities in either house, so they can't move any legislation.
The only thing they can do is these constant, never-ending investigations, harassments, which they told us they were going to do.
So whether or not this uh uh reaches the American people and and fatigues them and burns them out and makes them throw up their arms in frustration totally depends on the congressional Republicans.
Uh, you know, the uh and and to what extent the country is tired of the president is a is a factor in this as well.
Uh we'll just have to see.
It's gonna be interesting, though.
Now, about these subpoenas being issued.
Here's what I think uh I, the irrelevant Rush Limbaugh.
Uh this is this is what I think the White House ought to do here.
I think the White House ought to be prepared to do a slow bleed litigation strategy.
Take it right to the end of his presidency.
You know how slow courts can move.
He needs to go out and get some bulldog lawyers and fight this, just paper these people to death, motion after motion after motion, uh, appeal after appeal after appeal, just bleed this thing out, ignore these subpoenas during this whole process, bleed them out, and and uh take this all the way to the end of his presidency if it's possible.
The courts are naturally slow.
There's an opportunity to use that slowness uh to his advantage uh in the process rallying his base, rallying his supporters by finally fighting back, get some uh get some support on the wing from the congressional republicans, Senate Republicans is uh as well, if that's possible.
And this could be fun to watch.
This uh this this uh could be, if all this happens, if it's done right, could be a turning point.
Brief timeout, folks, sit tight.
The EIB network and L. Rush Bowl right back after this.
All right, former Vice President Al Gore pulling shenanigans before a um a House committee today looking into global warming.
This is John Dingall's committee.
A number of rules that Gore asked to be relaxed in his case.
Normally the uh witnesses have to submit their written opening statement 48 hours in advance.
Gore asked for a dispensation for 24 hours.
Uh he was granted that by the Democrats who run the committee.
He still didn't get it in on time, got it in late uh last night, early this morning.
Uh, and then Al Gore refused to show up at the hearing during the Republican side's opening statement.
He refused to show up.
Uh and uh John Dingle made excuses for that as well.
There was nothing the Republicans do about it.
They are powerless in the House of Representatives.
Gore uh, this is not being televised.
Uh, it's not on C-SPAN one or two.
There's some streaming audio and video of it.
The cable nets are cutting into it now, and then but not very much.
The Gore also asked for a 30-minute opening statement, by the way, which is also seldom allowed.
The Democrats granted him a 30-minute opening statement.
Uh, you normally get a maximum of 15.
Uh, and it one of the things that he said, he's he was tested, it's the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
He said that climate change presented America with its thermopoly moment.
You can't I mean, you can't that he's trying to make it uh play here on the on the movie 300.
And he said those 300 in that movie were great, and they did the right thing, and he called the House of Representatives today's 535.
So uh our battle of thermoplay.
He talked about the we we're witnessing the end of civilization unless something's done about it.
Uh Vaslav Klaus, the Czech president, uh, has also testified, and he repeated uh under oath what he has said uh earlier that we quoted.
Uh and and that is that the uh uh whole environmental movement has replaced communism as the primary threat to freedom in the United States today.
The uh Republicans of this committee are loaded for bear.
I'm I haven't able to follow it closely.
Don't know uh just how the questioning of uh uh of Al Gore has uh begun, but it is underway.
Uh I want to uh I want to get to a little bit of this Arnold Schwarzenegger stuff here before we go to the break, because he is going to be on the program shortly after one o'clock.
Now here's what's happening.
You know, he he commutes, he flies into Sacramento most days, doesn't stay there overnight.
And his uh plane is due to arrive at the airport at 10.
And when he uh gets off the plane, they're gonna hustle him into a landline in the nearest building, the nearest FBO where he comes in.
Uh and depending on delays on the runway, you know how air traffic control is.
If he has to sit out, they may be a little late, but he will be here with the within the uh first segment of the next hour.
Yesterday, this appearance on the Today Show, he's once again asked about me.
This is they're all irrelevant.
Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant, but it doesn't matter to me what anybody outside California is saying because it doesn't I'm I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do, blah, blah, blah.
Everybody thought that he was saying I was a hands bin.
I know Arnold Schwarzenegger, and that's not what he was saying.
And he, as I say, his office called uh late yesterday afternoon, a couple times, emailed actually, and uh asked to appear on the program today to set the record straight.
So they were mortified by the way they'd seen this treated in the uh in the media.
So we went back to the archives, because one of the things I opined yesterday was he probably just getting fed up with having my name thrown at him every time he's on this show.
Uh and other shows like it.
Let's go back to August 8th of 2003, was on Good Morning America.
Diane Sawyer and Arnold had this exchange on August 8, 2003.
As we heard, Rush Limbaugh coming in from the right, the Republican side has said you're not really a California Republican, you're a liberal.
Well, I don't want to get into that right now.
And then January 14th of this year.
Rush Limbaugh does not.
He was on with uh Stephanopoulos, re queue that.
January 14th of this year, ABC is this week with George Stephanopoulos, and they have this exchange.
Rush Limbaugh does not like your new agenda at all.
Well, at least we still like to smoke stogas together.
So at least we have something in common.
But does it bother you that conservatives like Rush Limbaugh think you're betraying them?
No.
I don't uh try to please the conservatives.
I don't like to uh oh try to please uh the liberals.
I like to please the people.
And February 26th of this year, CBS slay the nation with Bob Schaefer.
Somebody like Rush Limbaugh might say, What you really did, you just went liberal on us.
What do you say in response to that?
And I always say right.
I always said that you don't have to give up your principles, all you have to do is just serve the people.
And of course, then there was yesterday with Campbell Brown on the Today Show.
Rush Limbaugh is saying that you're not really a Republican.
You're a Democrat pretending to be a Republican.
Rush Limbo is irrelevant.
I'm not his servant.
I'm the people's servant of California.
What they call me if it's a Democrat or Republican or an Ascender or a change that this and that.
That's not my bottom line.
This is for them to talk about.
So I think that uh you know, I've just followed my instincts here.
That's what I've done my whole life and my whole career, and I think he just I won't say snapped, but I think every time he goes on one of these shows in Washington, throw my name at him.
And uh this is the first time that even he was not quote unquote diplomatic in his in his answer, got a little testy, and now wants to come on the program today to uh talk about it.
We have time for one more, a montage CNN wall to wall With the feud between Schwarzenegger and me.
There's a growing war of words between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rush Limbaugh.
California's Republican governor calling Rush Limba, and I'm quoting now irrelevant.
Find out how Rush Limba is responding.
The war of words between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rush Limba will have a report.
The Terminator versus the guy who calls himself the most dangerous man in America, Arnold Schwarzenegger taking on Rush Limba.
This Arnold Schwarzenegger, a closet liberal.
Is Rush Limbaugh irrelevant?
Why are these Republican heavyweights caught up in a grudge match?
Rush Limbach firing back after Arnold Schwarzenegger calls him irrelevant.
It's the latest volley in a heated war of words.
We're going to show you how Rush Limbaugh is responding.
Up ahead, Rush Limbaugh says Arnold Schwarzenegger sold out.
That's with CNN.
After they promoted the upcoming piece with Carol Costello, which we'll have for you after the break.
After the break, all afternoon.
It was the most promoted story on CNN.
Be right back after the talk stone.
And I'm irrelevant.
In the spirit of global warming, this program's sizzling today, ladies and gentlemen, raising average global temperatures, a measurable amount.
Also in honor of Al Gore's appearance before a uh meaningless and and worthless uh House Committee.
Greetings and welcome back.
Now we just we just heard 46 seconds of unrepeated promos on CNN about this grudge match, this feud.
There is no feud, there is no grudge match, they're manufacturing it.
It's like the WWF.
But nevertheless, 46 seconds of unrepeated promos from Wolf Blitzer leading up to this report by our old buddy, Carol Costello.
Rush Limbaugh is a master at coining a loaded term.
Breat girl for Democrat John Edwards, Feminazzi for feminists, and Queen Bean Nancy for Democratic speaker Nancy Pelosi.
But why pick on Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger?
Rush Limbaugh calls himself the most dangerous man in America.
Because critics have long worried his powerful radio show shaped the political landscape.
And then came Arnold, who told the Today Show.
Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant.
It was a shot aimed at Limbaugh's loaded term for Schwarzenegger.
Closet liberal.
I don't know what happened to Arnold.
He obviously didn't have the leadership skills to articulate conservative principles and win over the public as Reagan did.
Some political observers say Schwarzenegger's smackdown is a sign Limbaugh's not the dominant force he once was.
Back in the day, his was the only conservative voice on the airways.
Now he's one of many.
Still, conservatives credit Limbaugh for the Republican takeover of Congress in 94.
They're good guys, they're Republicans, but they're not conservative.
I happen to be a conservative, and I happen to be oriented toward conservative triumph.
And conservatism won't triumph if we water it down and dilute it and say that people are 60% conservative or whatever happen to be the definition of new conservative.
Still, none of this means you'll hear any Republican running for president disrespecting Limbaugh.
They're still in the business of not offending anyone.
Schwarzenegger, who can't run for president, is free to shoot from the hip.
As for how Limbaugh responds to being irrelevant, well, on his show today, he said, I don't know how it is I can be irrelevant when every time Schwarzenegger shows up on the Today Show, they ask him about me.
And you know, Wolfie does have the number one talk show in America still.
He certainly does.
And this additional note uh the fight is continuing online.
The number one story on Rush Limbaugh.com right now is this Schwarzenegger sold out.
You know, Wolfie still has the number one show in the country.
Damn it.
All this, all this time devoted to uh has been.
By the way, we have uh we have a John Edwards update coming up later today, cla claims that he doesn't use much energy in the mansion of his.
Uh, and we're gonna dedicate it to Carol Costello.
Uh we sometimes do dedications on this program.
But isn't it not?
By the way, I want to go back to this global warming thing.
Vaslov Klaus, Czech Republic president, shows up and says, hey, you people better wake up because global warming has replaced communism as the single greatest threat to freedom in the world.
Where are our leaders?
Where are Republicans anybody in this country saying this?
We need to hear it from the Czech Republic president.
Now that's fine because this man grew up under communism and has credibility.
But where are people in this country?
Elected officials.
On the Republican side willing to say it.
Jim Inhoff is one.
He's a uh senator from Oklahoma, uh, and uh he's one who will say it.
But uh aside from aside from him, it's uh it's not too many.
This is just it's a stark realization uh that that uh hit me after I read the report of what Vaslav Klaus had to say today before Dingle's committee in the House.
Santa Clarita, uh California.
Rich, as we start with you on the phones today, nice to have you with us.
Hey, irrelevant one, how are you doing?
Hey, hey, never better.
Thanks for the call.
Hey, um, you were talking about being friends with Arnold, and I just I don't want you throwing any softball that the guy voted for him twice.
And you know, when he went in calling our legislator, the uh legislators, the girly man, he has turned into a girly man himself, and I'm kind of sick of his spineless rhino uh way of dealing with with things.
He says he's for the people, but you know what?
It's Republicans that put him in office.
And uh, you know, I I want to make sure you hit him hard with some questions.
Well especially this global warming stuff he just signed into legislation.
I mean, give me a break.
I know, I know.
I've got I've got I've got all this stuff written down ready to go.
I f I find this amazing.
I've you um you are uh an example of a slew of emails I received ever since we announced on my website last night that Arnold would be appearing today.
You better not go soft, you better not be a wuss.
You better not be all chummy.
I don't want to hear about you guys good times you've had smoking cigars.
You you better not be like other people just want to get get along and be buddies with you.
You better hit hard.
Because if you don't, I'm never listening again.
That that kind of thing.
You're I'll still listen to you, but I just want to hold you in check.
Well, I understand that.
I understand that.
I I I know exactly where this sentiment comes from.
Uh you people out there are and I understand, and I'm one of you.
You are desperate for a fight here because you're getting everybody you see a bunch of timidity uh in people in your own party.
Now I just want to tell you we have five to seven minutes with Governor Schwarzenegger's what his office just told us uh in an email about twenty minutes ago.
And uh the the way these things work is if if he's enjoying himself, it'll go a little bit longer.
Uh but remember he asked to appear on the program today.
Yes, and also I bet they're listening now, and hopefully they're hearing from a California, you know.
This is give he should be giving you longer than five seven minutes, no matter how uncomfortable he is.
They know.
I mean, th they're not they're not in a vacuum.
They know how some of you feel out there.
That's that's why I say he gets asked about it every time he's on television.
Uh, and and that's why he they're they're they're clearly aware of this.
Look, there are ways of doing this.
I I'm I'm gonna follow my instincts here, and uh, there's there's no I don't have any any any set plan here.
There's no battle plan or any of that sort of thing here.
We'll just roll with it and see where it goes.
But um I I understand where you're coming from, and don't worry, it's it's not gonna be you know, they were nobody's gonna be talking about uh uh gay marriage after this interview.
You you need not you need not worry about it.
Well, thanks, Rush.
I appreciate it.
I listened to you since 1990 after I got out of the army, and you were someone saying the things that I would believe in.
So see, that another piece of evidence validated what you believed, did not create a mind-numbed robot out of you, right?
Exactly.
Exactly right.
Where were you in the army?
I was actually a combat medical specialist, and I was at Fort Knox, Kentucky, most of the time.
Well, God bless you.
Thank you.
Thanks for the call.
We appreciate it.
Up next, Richard in uh Richmond, Virginia.
What are the odds of this?
First calls Rich.
Next calls Richard from Richmond, Virginia.
Rich three times and two calls.
Richard, welcome to the program.
Hello.
Hey.
Uh I'm a former president of a college republican organization back in the nineteen eighties.
And at that point, in my mind at least, there were really three uh branches of conservatism or three uh aspects to conservatism.
One was that uh believed the Soviet Union was an evil empire that needed to be eliminated.
A second was that the economy was in an absolute shambles, or at least the government's relationship to the economy, and that there was reform needed to open up an entrepreneurial uh impulse and initiative.
And then there was a third agenda which I never uh was agreed with, which was or at least a significant portion of it, which was for lack of a better term, the social conservative agenda or Christian right agenda.
And it seems that now uh the Soviet Union question is now essentially irrelevant.
No, it's not.
Okay.
Uh uh at least this is what's in my mind right now.
Well, the Soviet Soviet Union was not a conservative issue.
The Soviet Union embodied the threat to world freedom, to freedom of the individual, which is the foundational building block of conservatism.
Right now we have it has been replaced.
There will always be a threat to human freedom.
Most of the world's people are not.
That's why it's vigilant for us to maintain ours and do what we can to spread it to as many people around the world because it's a natural yearning of the human spirit to be free.
Today it's Islamo fascism.
But that that threat is not viewed nearly as seriously as the Soviet threat was because it's a different threat.
They don't have nukes aimed at us, uh, and they don't have guys like Brezhnev with the giant uh you know eyebrows out there and Khrushchev banging his chair at the UN or his uh foot shoe, whatever to UN.
It's a it's a much more subtle threat, but it's there.
And conservatism is what it is.
And and your your your um your your complaint about the uh the so-called social conservatives or the Christian right or the the social wing, conservatism, if you want to describe conservatism as a f as a stool that had three legs, you do have what you call the Soviet Union leg.
Uh and then you do have uh, you know, what would be I'd call the economic uh leg, and then you have the social leg.
But that sort of complicates the issue.
I must tell you also, Richard, that uh what you see you've been a conservative all these years, but when you say that you have this distrust, you never thought it should have been part of the conservative movement, the social aspects, and then you mention the Christian right.
It sounds like to me you're a little bit more of a moderate Republican than you are a conservative if you think the social conservative aspect is not valid or should not be part of it.
But let me try to give you a brief, because everybody's asked, well, what is a Reagan conservative?
What what what what is it?
Why is it conservative wise?
Some Republican not a conservative in your mind, and others are more conservative.
That's a long discussion for which I don't have time before the break here.
But let me just explain to you, in a nutshell, as best I can, in a broad sense, the difference in the two.
And let's accept some givens that all people in this, and I'm gonna be very charitable here, because in some cases what I'm gonna say is actually not applicable to some liberals.
But just for the general discussion here, we all want economic prosperity.
We all want opportunity.
We all want a chance at the American dream.
We all want to be left alone.
We we don't want to be hassled.
We don't want to have obstacles placed in our way by government in order uh or i in in the in the pursuit of uh of our dreams.
The question and the argument that we have in this country is how best to provide it, and that's where the line of debarcation is broad.
Because on the left, liberals do not believe that a majority of people have the ability to realize the American dream on their own.
Liberals have general contempt for the average American and average human being.
Liberals have a a condescending contempt for the abilities, the intelligence, the ambition, and desire of average human beings.
They must hold that view in order to be liberal.
Because liberalism is assuming people are helpless and hopeless, and then growing government and all kinds of state power structures to assist people in their incompetence.
And in the process, you you actually uh make your philosophy a self-fulfilling prediction.
You disable the competitive nature, you disable the entrepreneurial spirit, you disable the American dream, and you force people to focus on government and whatever benefits they can get as a means of getting by.
Conservatives have the ultimate faith in the individual.
Conservatives believe that the individual, rugged individualism is what defines excellence and its pursuit is what made this country what it is.
We believe that people can be better than they even know themselves or think themselves capable of being.
And we want to do everything we can to educate and inspire and motivate people along those lines.
We want a great country.
We want people who are individually able to raise families, to support them, to inspire them because they themselves are that way.
We want optimistic people of good cheer who have a hope that is realistic, that they can triumph over the obstacles that all of life throws at us.
Liberals think those obstacles are insurmountable because they must.
Now, that's the basic principle.
that's the basic difference.
So, okay, how comes how come some people are not conservative, some well, uh you you have to get to specific issues like abortion and gay marriage and this sort of thing, and that would be one way of doing it.
But um, any Republican who is oriented toward growth of government, the growth of the state, and the idea that people need infinite amount of help because they are incapable of on their uh of doing things on their own, uh uh doesn't qualify as a conservative to me.
And there are plenty of those.
They're liberal Republicans all over the place.
It's not it's not hard to uh uh make these disinctions or to draw up these these definitions.
And by the same token, the liberals in pursuit, and this is one of the big problems we face, the liberals in their pursuit of this agenda use government.
They train their youth.
They train their college students, they get them into nonprofits, they get them into Harvard and Yale for the express purpose of going to government, being a bureaucrat forever, growing government and controlling it and taking over.
Republican conservatives look at government as something that ought to be sort of out of the way and invisible most of the time.
So we don't target our people to go there because when you go there, you want to use it to enact your philosophy.
Conservatism does not use government to enact what it believes, it uses individual, it empowers individuals.
Conservatism wants to limit government.
And often going to government to limit it is not an attractive option for young people, but it is for the left.
So it's a challenge.
I gotta take a break.
I'm long here, folks.
So the next segment's gonna be short.
Warning you now.
There we go.
Welcome back, Rush Limbaugh, serving humanity, executing his signed host duties flawlessly, zero mistakes so far.
And there won't be any.
Al Gore said today uh before the Dingle Committee in the House of Representatives that we can cure global warming without any harm whatsoever to our economy.
Now, I'm I'm just I'm wondering here, do you think Al Gore has a consensus of economists to support that assertion?
The whole point of global warming is to do damage to the economy.
How can it otherwise be?
It's gonna cause tax increases, rollbacks in lifestyle.
It's it's it's it's it's absurd, but let's see if we can get a consensus of economists who will agree with Al Gore on this.
His statement, by the way, is the first sign I've seen that Al Gore's getting sensitive to criticism about this and is trying to address one of the major bones of contention that people have with this whole hoax.
Here's Lou in Tampa, Florida.
Lou, I'm glad you waited.
Welcome to the Rush Limbaugh program.
Hi, Rush.
Uh, welcome uh from a fellow Floridian.
Great to have you on the uh program, sir.
Rush, I uh I wanted to um I wanted to thank you for um for doing what you're doing.
I know you've been given some grief recently for not doing enough.
And I gotta tell you, you're doing exactly what you need to do.
You are a voice for us and what you're doing now with the president, uh, getting a message to him that he needs to fight for himself and fight for what he believes.
Uh there's no better message that could be sent to our troops who over there dying.
Uh families are suffering because they're doing what they believe is the right thing uh and they're willing to do it.
Um, what better message could the president send to those troops and their families but to show that he is willing to fight for himself, and in doing so, he fights for them.
That is uh that is an excellent point uh that you're making about uh morale boost for the troops here with the commander-in-chief engaged in his own battles.
By the way, for those of you just joining us and are wondering how in the world Lou from Tampa can call here and give me credit for influencing the White House reaction that the President had in his in his uh press conference yesterday, or his statement in which he said he's gonna fight these subpoenas, he's gonna offer rove up for you know Harriet Myers.
You go up there of a conversation, but I don't let them go uh under oath.
Uh Lou is not saying it.
CNN uh ran a report last night claiming that it was uh me uh and uh and others in the blogosphere that had forced the president to see the light out there.
So um uh that's if you missed that, we had those audio sunbites coming up early.
Lou, uh I appreciate it.
Very nice to have you on the program today.
All right, got to take a break here.
Governor Schwarzenegger again, a reminder uh in the first segment of the next hour, coming right up.
All right, program note.
We've uh moved Governor Schwarzenegger to uh the bottom of the hour.
132 Eastern Time, 133, still in the air, not down yet on his way into Sacramento.
He's got a ETA of uh 123-1023 on the left coast.
So, bottom of the hour now for Governor Schwarzenegger.
We'll be right back.
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