And greetings and welcome back, music lovers, thrill seekers, conversationalists all across the fruited plan, the award-winning thrill-packed, ever exciting increasingly popular Rush Limbaugh program back, fastest three hours in media.
My lucky here, it's already Wednesday.
There's been a slow week for you, actually, because I wasn't here yesterday.
When I'm not here, I know the day drags for you.
But it's already Wednesday.
We're already two hours down in our three-hour excursion into broadcast excellence.
Uh telephone number if you want to be on the program today, 800-282-2882.
And the uh email address is rush at eIBNet.com.
Now, look, a lot of you people and me email I've been checking.
You're really raking Tony Snow over the calls, and some of you are even having the audacity to rake me over the calls for a uh what you think was a softball interview.
I told you, didn't have enough time to debate, Tony, and I'm not folks.
Honestly, uh debating Tony on this is not is not the way to kill this.
Uh the way to kill this is to mobilize power, power which I, for the first time admitted having uh today in 19 years.
When this thing comes out of the Senate, because it is going to come out of the Senate.
They're going to get this done.
And it's it's this illegal immigration business.
And it's as we said, it's mind-boggling in in many ways.
Uh but look at we're all sick and tired of being lectured to on this.
Uh I know a lot of you are personally sick and tired of it.
You don't need to be lectured about it because you're living the problems created by illegal immigration every day.
And we're all being told to believe something it's not credible.
That an incompetent government's gonna all of a sudden become competent.
That a massive number of new bureaucracies are going to perform efficiently, as existing bureaucracies are not.
No, give me this, it could happen.
Oh, yeah, everything's a wing in a prayer here.
But it still boggles my mind that we're not inviting these people here, and and they're they're coming on their own, and we're acting like we owe them something.
I'm talking about the illegals.
And we're going out of our way to not hurt their feelings and make sure they citizens and so forth.
The whole focus on this has always been annoying at me as something that's just unreal.
Uh uh we respond by acting like we've we've done something wrong to them.
And we've got we've got to apologize.
We gotta we've got to make a man.
Oh, sorry, you came here illegally, and because we have a law that says you're illegal, you've been stigmatized, we're sorry.
We're sorry that our stupid laws made you illegal.
So we're gonna have new laws, and and you'll find a way to become legal now.
Uh all this predicated on the assumption that we can't deport them because we couldn't round them up.
Well, now they're going to be asked to turn themselves in.
That's that's uh yeah what I just tougher sancts.
I don't believe the tougher sanctions are ever going to be enforced.
I don't I just don't see it.
And I uh what I told Tony, I firmly believe it won't be long if this thing ever does become law.
You know, this business about they've got to pay the fine, what is it, five thousand dollars or some sort of thing as sliding scale.
You know how long it's gonna be.
You can we can make book on this.
How long is it gonna be before Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reed and any number of other Democrats start crying and moaning about wow, that's such a high price.
These are just people doing jobs American people won't do.
How could we think of being so cruel to charge them so much?
And these would be the authors of the legislation that will institute these quote unquote fines.
Uh and and so pass the collection off, the fine collection off on uh on their on their future employers.
Uh look, uh everybody understands here that if this passes, 20 years from now, we're gonna be wringing our hands in again.
Gee, what a bad law is we gotta do something more something else.
Just like Simpson is only 86.
We uh gave amnesty to what was it, three and a half million of them.
Now we're to 12 to 15.
Got to do something.
Simpson is only was gonna fix it all.
Didn't.
And this won't.
Uh the public uh public understands that because we didn't take enforcement seriously.
Uh uh look at.
I hate to be brutally frank sometimes because it hurts people's feelings here, but we're being asked to believe it the same government That allowed three of the Fort Dicks six to remain here despite their expired visas will now somehow make sure that doesn't happen.
Three of the Fort Dick Six, and these were people plotting a terrorist attack against our soldiers at uh at at Fort Dix.
Well, look, it when bureaucracies start making promises, uh, that's look, we're all sensitized to this, and we've all been through it.
And there's a natural uh and and intelligent skepticism that uh that arises arises when uh when all of this happens.
Now, I just um I wanted to say all this to you now because uh d debating Tony on this is not is not going to accomplish anything other than make you think I'm a tough guy.
Uh and no, I'm not gonna take any of that gruff.
I don't care.
I'm not gonna bow down to the White House.
That's what you would have ended up thinking.
Now you're probably thinking, eh, the limbaugh White House lackey.
This is not the place to do this.
The place to aim at this is the people who are doing the legislation.
Uh and that's uh and that's in the Senate.
And I will not forget Jeff Sessions, a good friend, Senator from Alabama.
We had to bite last week.
Jeff Sessions out there saying they're trying to ramrod this legislation through so fast that Rush Limbaugh won't be able to read it and tell the American people what's wrong with it.
And they were trying to do that on a procedural motion uh to to limit debate on this.
It's 600 pages uh long.
And I think I think that whole uh policy or plan has has uh has since been confirmed.
I mentioned earlier that the Senate uh earlier today rejected the defunding of the Iraq war and bring the troops home by March 31st of 2008, and it wasn't even close.
It was 67 to 29, the whole thing went down the tubes.
And of course, uh you you you uh can make the ask the question well, I thought the will of the people.
The Democrats keep telling us the election last November confirmed the American people won out of Iraq.
This is the third vote here that's failed on its own without pork being added to it or some other gimmick to get people to vote for.
Twenty-nine people voted for this.
Two of them were Senator Hillary Clinton and uh Barack Obama.
And and and of course they voted for it because there was no pre they don't they don't run the risk of it passing.
So this this given give them freedom to just go out and vote for it, placate their base, their presidential candidates.
If this if this bill ever would had a chance of passing, I guarantee you, Mrs. Clinton wouldn't have voted for it.
Because the Democrats are not going to pull us out of Iraq.
Now, I want to use this as a as a segue into there's a brilliant column in the Wall Street Journal today by Bernard Lewis, and Bernard Lewis uh is probably the greatest living scholar and historian on Islam that that there that there is.
And I want to read you that the whole piece is great.
It's um I don't know if they've put it on their opinion journal site, uh that's important because it's free.
If they've put it at Opinion Journal.com, we could link to it.
Otherwise, it's on their pay site and wouldn't be able to link to it.
And I don't want to read the whole thing to you, just the last two paragraphs uh make the point.
Stage one of the jihad was to drive the infidels from the lands of Islam.
Stage two to bring the war into the enemy camp, and the attacks of 9-11 were clearly intended to be the opening salvo of this stage.
The response to 9-11, so completely out of accord with previous American practice, came as a shock.
And it's noteworthy that there has been no successful attack on American soil since then.
Now, what was shocking about our reaction was we had 25 years of these kind of attacks, not 3,000 people dead, but we didn't do diddly squad.
We didn't do anything.
And bin Laden had commented on that.
And in fact, bin Laden had talked about the blackout Black Hawk Down situation in Mogadishu where we couldn't take casualties and ran out, and he thought the the American resolve in these kinds of endeavors had evaporated.
And so the response by the United States of the United States in 9-11 was shocking to the militant Islamists.
And as Mr. Lewis again reminds us, it's noteworthy that there has been no successful attack on American soil since then.
The U.S. actions in Afghanistan and in Iraq indicated there had been a major change in the U.S. and that some revision of their assessment, the Islamists' assessment, and of the policies based on that assessment was necessary.
However, More recent developments, and notably the public discourse inside the United States are persuading increasing numbers of Islamist radicals that their first assessment was correct after all.
That our reaction and response after 9-11 was unique, and it doesn't signal a change in America.
It was the result of a particular president.
And now the Islamists, according to Bernard Lewis, only need to press a little harder to achieve final victory.
It's not yet clear whether they're right or wrong in this view.
If they're right, the consequences, both for Islam and for America, will be deep and wide and lasting.
Now, again, Bernard Lewis is probably the greatest living historian and scholar on Islam.
And the the point of this, the headline of his pieces was Obama right.
Islamists always believe the U.S. was weak.
Recent political trends won't change their view.
This is a comment on the Democrats, their presidential well, the whole party, just racing against time as the most important thing for the world is to get us out of Iraq.
We are the problem.
And as Zawahiri said, the number two guy to bin Laden last week, said that the Democrats attempting to pass all this legislation is proof that we've already lost...
That the Democrat Party has nailed that down.
Whereas after 9-11, we caught him off guard.
Of course, the Democrats just the opposite, think that our reaction to 9-11 made him hate us even more.
So it's an interesting piece.
We'll link to it if we can.
But he makes the point, and it's he knows these people.
He knows them, studied them, scholar, says they're reassessing the position, thinking we can be had.
And all and based solely on the fact that they're listening to the Democrat Party.
He doesn't say that.
Calls it the debate in this country, but wink wink.
We all know what that means.
Be right back.
Stay with us.
Documented to be almost always right, 98.6% of the time, according to the latest uh audit uh from the Sullivan Group, the opinion auditing firm that I use.
I'm Rush Limbaugh, serving humanity simply by being here.
Have you heard about Governor Schwarzenegger's latest health care proposal?
Try this.
Schwarzenegger's plan would tap physicians.
This is from the Los Angeles Times a couple days ago, would tap physicians to help pay for universal health care.
I read this, and I am still not convinced this is for real.
I'm not convinced that this is satire.
Listen to this.
He wants to tax two percent of doctors' gross incomes to help pay for universal health care.
Now there's a doctor in the story, and he points out why not tax teachers if you want to improve education?
Why not tax politicians for being dumb?
How about taxing lawyers for pay the favor the cost of irresponsible legislation?
This I mean, I where does this come from?
Like this does not compute.
Tax doctors two percent of their gross incomes.
Once if that ever actually happens, the the the rest of us are cooked.
Uh because look at the whole Democrat Party plan is to blame is to create problem.
Every just create as much belief in the sense in the in the in the notion that everything in life is a problem, and it's an insurmountable problem.
It's a crisis, and somebody's responsible for it.
And we're going to tax those people who responsible.
I mean, it's this is just mind-boggling.
By the way, that Bernard Lewis story is at opinion journal.com.
So it's uh that's a that's the Wall Street Journal's free website.
We will be able to uh link to that.
Uh Michael Bloomberg, the uh mayor of New York, uh, put aside one billion dollars to run for president.
Uh this is Ross Perot on steroids, folks.
This this is and he wants Chuck Hagel as his running mate, or Hagel wants to be his his running mate.
You know, don't laugh at this.
A billion dollars, and he's got millions more than that, billions more than that.
Uh this is gonna be interesting.
Uh I mean, this is a guy that trans fat bans smoking ban uh green up the city.
I mean, is is is is the country really ready for somebody Who absolutely believes in our freedom to abort babies but not to smoke or eat trans fats in uh in public?
I mean, anything can happen, and this is just a um an example of it.
All right, here's uh Beth in Flint, Michigan.
Beth, thanks for waiting.
I really appreciate your patience.
Hi, Rush.
Ditto's for Flint.
I can't believe I'm talking to you.
Yes, well, it's it's it's true, and it's it's uh it's a day worth celebrating and marking on your calendar so you never forget it.
Definitely.
And please, I am one of those people who never wants you to take a day off.
It's never as much fun if you're not there.
I appreciate that.
But there is life to be lived.
Okay, I'm calling um because of what you said earlier about the um grocery prices in California going up.
Uh it is it, I mean, it just makes sense.
It's obvious that if the price of gas is going up, then the price of delivering goods goes up.
So the price of goods has to go up.
And so the public gets hit at the pump and at the store and everywhere else.
Well, I'm you're very wise.
You're very wise economically.
When transportation costs go up because of fuel costs, everything is gonna go up proportionally.
Corn, uh a bushel of corn is what's rising because of ethanol production.
But the real reason for the story, it's a and she's right.
I mentioned this in the first hour of the program.
An LA Times story, there's new panic.
Food prices.
California rising faster than they ever have.
Oh no, oh no, we're not gonna be able to afford food, we're all gonna die.
I mean, that's what they want.
They want you in a constant state of panic and tumult and chaos, and they want you to feel like a victim.
There are unseen powerful forces trying to screw you and even kill you.
It's like this idiot from the Center of the Science Public Interest suing Burger King because they're killing customers by using trans fat.
That's right.
Burger King wants to kill its customers.
The sad thing is there are people in this country who buy into this.
Yeah, Burger King's trying to wipe us out.
Really?
Okay.
That would that that would make a whole lot of sense.
Our car dealers want you to die too in crashes.
Don't believe it's airbags.
I mean, where does this but go ahead?
Okay.
But my point is that uh like I'm I'm a conservative in almost every single way you can imagine it.
But I do a little bit feel like a victim of these gas prices because I'm having a hard time believing that the price of gas has to be $349 a gallon when the Exxon by itself in 2006 made $39.5 billion in profit.
Now you're just destroying every bit of credibility you established with your analysis of food prices.
See, you they've got you.
You have been hooked, Beth.
Tell me what tell me what you think.
No, no, seriously.
That's just gonna there's no wrong answer.
Well, there are obviously wrong answers, but uh I'm not this isn't not trying to trick you.
Tell me what you think the top two factors, top three factors are in the price of a gallon of gasoline.
Or no, take it back.
A barrel barrel of oil.
Give it give me the top three factors in the price of a barrel of oil.
I I'm guessing the actual price and the taxes that they pay and the taxes that they state comes.
No, no, what is it that determines the price?
Determines the price.
You know, you're gonna probably say, um Don't don't tell me what I'm probably gonna say.
That's wifey.
Tell me what you would say.
At the current place that we are right now, I think it I think at least part of it is strictly greed.
Because they can.
Because they uh Because they know we have to have it.
And I mean Beth, are you nine and a half billion dollars in one year, one?
Beth, Beth, Beth, time out.
Are you really conservative, or did you just say that to get past Mr. Snerdly?
Because he's easy when women call.
And he'll believe anything a woman tells him.
So you think it's fair that Exxon not okay, sorry, he must have It's not a matter of fairness.
Is it is what is it fair that restaurants charge six hundred dollars for meals?
Is it fair?
No, but you don't have to go get away.
Wait a minute.
You you you you are you have become victimized.
You think that there is a giant man behind a curtain out to destroy you by arbitrarily setting the price of a barrel of oil and then what gas.
And it's clear to me you don't have, and I'm not I'm I I know I sound passionate here.
I'm not being critical.
I want You to learn.
I want you to understand how wrong you are about fairness and greed and all of this.
Everybody's greedy.
Because everybody does what they do for money.
Even liberals.
They set up these nonprofits to make it look like they don't care.
But how are they surviving?
By the donations of suckers that they send their fundraising letters.
Everybody does it for the money.
And if you want to find an answer to most questions that you don't know, follow the money, and you'll get an answer.
In this case, the people that are responsible for the price of a barrel of oil are not doing anything other than trying to make money from it.
But they're more than just the oil companies.
It's something so few people understand.
I will continue to explore this for what it's worth when we come back.
And why am I the most dangerous man in America?
Because, ladies and gentlemen, I am right.
Now, I don't know where to go.
I've done this so many times I feel like I'm wasting time being redundant here on this on the price of oil and the price of gasoline.
Uh where was that woman from, Mr. Snowley, the last caller?
Where was she calling from?
She was uh Lake.
It was Michigan.
Flint, Michigan.
Yeah.
Well, she ought to go to Wisconsin.
They try to cut gas prices in Wisconsin, and the state told this little gas station, oh, you can't cut gas now.
You've got to sell for a minimum 9.2% over your wholesale price.
If you want to find out who's really greedy and who's really going to town on fuel prices, try your local, state, and federal governments.
They make pure profit on every gallon sold because they don't have to find the oil.
They don't have to transport it, they don't have to refine it.
They don't have to do anything except stick their hand in their pockets and in your pockets and big oils pockets and so forth.
But there's so many factors in this.
One of them is it's a world market, and there is worldwide demand for this, and it's only going to increase as the Chinese continue to uptick technology technologically, more and more cars are being purchased and driven.
I mean, the solution to all this, let the liberals drive their little windmill cars and so forth and uh uh uh hybrids and so forth.
The problem is they try to force everybody into cars they don't want.
Then you've got the futures market.
The guys on Wall Street, and they're bidding up and bidding down the price of a barrel of oil, and there are many different types of crude, and those those things happen every day, and people have no idea of the effect on um on raw crude prices based on just the futures market.
Uh it is, after all, a commodity, and it is bet on like any other commodity is.
Uh but the idea that that um find it fascinating that there are people who actually believe it.
There's somebody or a committee or group of people behind a curtain somewhere to say, oh, time to ratchet up the price.
And it just happens.
And oh, we went too far.
Time to ratchet the price down.
Uh it's uh sadly to me, it's understandable why people believe this.
They can they everybody wants to be a victim.
Everybody wants to think.
They're trying to make Walmart into the next big oil.
Just look at their enemies' list, folks.
Look at the Democrat Party's enemies list, and you'll find out exactly who they are.
And they're they're not uh pro-capitalist in any stretch of the imagination.
Now look at this.
All to the global warming debate, species are dying.
We're cutting down forests.
We're doing we're denying uh native species their right to exist all because of our selfishness and our greed and so forth and so on.
A new chirp in the forest.
They've found a uh a new hummingbird in Colombia.
Uh the gorgeted puffleg is the name of the new herming bird.
Rare hummingbird.
We never knew it existed.
We're discovering new species all the time in Columbia.
Boasts a plumage of violent blue and iridescent green on its throat.
It's been discovered living in the cloud forests of southwestern Colombia.
The species was confirmed by two of the world's leading specialists on the puff leg, Carl Schuchmann, curator of uh ornithology at the zoological research museum in Germany, and F. Gary Styles from uh from down in the Institute Natural History at the University of Columbia down in down in Columbia.
Now, the bird, obviously, had been birds been doing fine.
They just found the bird.
We didn't even know it was there.
And what do you think the first thing that we're being told to do is Ornithologists are urging the government to protect the bird's tiny territory from the environmentally ruinous drugs industry, which relies on slashing and burning large tracts of land to grow illegal crops such as coca, the raw material and cocaine.
Well, this little bird's been just fine, been doing just fine without any help from us.
Despite being surrounded by leftist thugs growing coca, and now they want to save the bird by making more laws.
Just leave it alone.
The bird's doing fine.
It's surviving.
Just we didn't even know it existed.
Now all of a sudden we have to save it, even though it's able to save itself.
More wacko animal news, Irish science.
I'm not making this up, the French news agency.
By the way, do you see that new president of France is already inaugurated?
One week after the election, he's inaugurated.
Man, anyway, Irish scientists monitoring dolphins living in a river estuary in the southwestern part of Ireland believe they may have developed a unique dialect.
To communicate with each other, the Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation has been studying a group of up to 120 bottlenose dolphins in the River Shannon using vocalizations collected on a computer in a cowshed near County Clare.
Cut to the chase here.
These scientists believe it Irish dolphins have their own Irish accents.
No, it's a brogue.
It's a brogue.
You're confusing that with Mrs. Clinton's Southern dialect.
That's not an Irish.
Well, she's got one.
She hadn't brought it out yet.
But they look at the headline, Irish dolphins could have their own brogue science.
They don't talk.
How in the world can they have an accent?
They don't talk.
And yet, this will be all over the school.
Irish brogue.
Where did you hear that, little Jenny?
Alcoh teacher told me in school.
And everybody starts.
Sometimes folks, this is not a bunch of wise scientists saying this.
Anyway, we got John Edwards news.
Time for our update.
We have numerous Edwards updates, but this one fits the update to a T. That's our buddy Paul Shanklin and uh John Edwards and I am woman.
And there's a reason for this.
Kate Michaelman, former president of the NAGs.
No, wait, she was not former president of Nag.
She was uh Yeah, Nayroll.
She's now the president emeritus of uh of Nayrol, pro-Choice America.
Kate Michaelman said some weeks ago, John Edwards, he's the guy of all the can, including Mrs. Bill Clinton, he's the guy that understands women's issues more than any other Democrat out there.
And so as a result, he's now, and we've got this from his website, Edwards launches women for Edwards, receives support from women leaders from across the country, announces agenda to address issues facing women.
And Michaelman's quoted in this thing.
I believe in John's deep and profound commitment to the issues that matter most in women's lives, from health care to a rock to poverty to our environment, environment.
I know that John There's a woman sitting in the other side of the glass.
Hello, Jody.
I'm just nod here.
You are a woman.
Kate Michaelman just said that John Edwards is more in tune with the issues that matter to you and your sisters than anybody else.
Poverty?
Is that something as a woman that guides not that you're in poverty, but are you running around all day wringing your hands over poverty and wondering which president's going to fix it?
Um Iraq, from the standpoint we've got to get out of there and we've got to lose.
Uh let's see, on the environment.
Are you, as a woman, these are now being told we're we're being told these are women's issues, the environment.
Are you, as we're up there burning all those thousands of gallons of jet fuel every hour, are you concerned about No, she's not concerned.
And of course, so here we have um all this we're being told now that Edwards is the smoker.
He's got the he's got it down pet when it comes to women's issues.
Uh now I know it's on his website, but there are going to be stories on this.
Uh this is this is how these things all start.
You get facts or you get a PR statement like this, goes to the drive-by media and they report it as news.
At any rate, a couple things here about about Edwards uh let's play Mike Huckabee last night from the uh from the debate.
Uh Wendell Gowler said the alternative minimum tax caught four million people.
Now, all I want to get here, this is 37 seconds.
All I really want is the last couple lines, and you've you've heard this.
Um so put up, I don't have time to edit it now.
Just put up with the first 30 seconds to get to the last seven.
If we had a fair tax, it would eliminate not just the alternative minimum tax, personal income tax, corporate tax.
It would eliminate all the various taxes that are hidden in our system, and Americans don't realize what they're paying.
It wouldn't be a revenue increase or a revenue decrease, revenue neutral.
But it also enables people at the lowest end of the economic spectrum to have a chance to reach the next wrong on the ladder.
Come on, come on.
It's the best proposal that we ought to have because it's flatter.
Right.
It's fair, it's finite.
It's family friendly.
Listen, listen to me.
And instead, what we've done is what Senator McCain has suggested.
We've had a Congress that spent money like John Edwards at a beauty shop.
All right.
So there was applause, people laughed.
Uh and the drive-by's are not happy.
This is a cheap shot.
That is the politics of personal destruction.
That is a personal assault.
Never mind the stuff they say about Bush, Republicans, me, whoever else.
So this afternoon on PMS NBC, the anchor at InfoBabe, Contessa Brewer, is interviewing uh Chris Matthews about the debate last night.
And uh she said, let's talk about Mike Huckabee.
He sort of had the humorous line of the night.
That was a said piece, though.
He brought that in with him.
These guys write this stuff down ahead of time with their staff people.
They bring it aboard and they waste our time with this set piece.
I'm far more impressed by the candidates who can respond intelligently and spontaneously to the actual debate than the people who bring in uh to me it's like bringing in notebooks with uh with information on it.
They're gonna bring these set pieces in with them.
It's embarrassing to everybody when they do these jokes.
So what you're saying is they go into this, they prepare, and they're gonna figure out a way to use this line somewhere in the news.
John Edwards paid the price for his haircut weeks ago.
To bring that up in front of that audience was pandering.
Let's face it.
Oh, come on.
I can't believe this.
He's actually upset because the line was good.
He's upset because it was funny.
Who cares whether it was canned?
The Democrats, hey, you media people, when do you not read something on the teleprompter for crying out loud?
Of course they prepared the Clinton question for the Republicans.
Here's another thing.
The um uh I'll never forget the debate that Clinton had with Bob Dole.
And Dole started talking about Clinton's morality and so forth, and Clinton comes out.
Well, I want to say no attack ever fed a hungry child.
And I was like, Oh no, I grabbed my heart.
You tell me that line wasn't scripted, and Clinton wasn't just waiting.
But no to these guys, Clinton was so brilliant.
Why everything was improv.
He didn't have to plan anything.
He's so smart.
Same thing with Mrs. Bill Clinton.
Uh just other illustration, a double standard, the two worlds we live in.
Quick time out, be right back.
And I had a comment about from Chris Matthews about it's just it's just pandering to go into a debate with staged setup lines.
Is it it I it's it's stupid.
It's truly stupid.
We all remember the Lloyd Benson line uh at Dan Quayle.
I knew JFK.
JFK was a friend of mine, Senator Yor, no at J.F. K. Uh and Reagan had a bunch of them.
I paid for this microphone to Jimmy.
There you go again.
Chris Matthews worked for Jimmy Carter.
You don't think that Chris Matthews did everything he could to get Jimmy Carter to say something funny or intelligence uh intelligent now and then is left to his own devices.
Carter couldn't pull any of that off.
It it's as though Chris Matthews cannot even expect to have credibility with with conservatives or Republicans watching MSNBC with a comment like that.
Just uh no such analysis had we offered a Democrat in a debate for him.
The guy had been waiting here for over an hour and a half.
I understand what that's like.
Josh Logan, Utah, thank you uh for waiting, sir, and welcome to the program.
Thank you, Rush.
Megata conservative ditto from beautiful northern Utah.
Thank you, sir.
Hey, I just have a quick comment.
I I I had a little more respect for you today when back when you were talking about your power in you didn't want to mention any candidate because you know it would just mean an absolute surge for them in the polls.
And you know, a question Well, that wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
That's not quite what I said.
I didn't choose a can't I have because I haven't decided on one yet.
Exactly.
But what I'm saying is you recognize your power that, you know, if you were to say anything positive or negative, it has a lot of sway.
And I just wanted to compliment you on that.
I I came across a quote a couple years ago, and it just it hits you to a T. It says the highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power and not abuse it.
I think that's I think that's fitting in this uh circuit.
That's brilliant that you uh remembered that.
I think it's perfectly fitting here.
Well, this was a big event today, folks.
I I've everybody has told me of the kind of power I have to move things to be used for good and evil.
Um in this country.
And you recognize when you need to use it and when you need to and when you need to use restraint.
And nobody gives you credit for the restraint, which amount of character.
The the powerful don't look for credit.
Um you never do anything self-serving.
I know that's why I call it Gods do not answer mail.
You would never draw attention to it to yourself.
Well, you know, it's it's uh I answer mail.
Don't misunderstand uh that.
I people know I answer email all the time.
I was just trying to point out it's it's it's people are always telling me that I have all this power, and I've always poo-pooed it.
I thought that's insulting to the audience.
It's not uh it's it just it's it's not inspiring, and it it it can turn people off.
And I think it was a major thing for me to admit, and it came in a call with from a Ron Paul supporter who uh was asking me to use my power in order to get his candidate some motion and movement in the uh in the campaign.
So, yes, there's no question.
Uh I have single-handedly the ability to move things in this regard.
Uh, but I don't I'm not conscious of it each and every it's not why I have this position, do this show or have this job.
But it would be silly to deny my power.
So I don't anymore.
Well, Nancy Pelosi, we'll have to talk about this tomorrow.
Nancy Pelosi has just instituted a new rule that hadn't been used since eighteen twenty two, hadn't been changed since eighteen twenty two to effectively shut the Republicans up on the House floor because they're being too successful procedurally.
So she's in effect already instituted a fairness doctrine for House Republicans.
They can I'll have the details for you tomorrow, and you'll probably hear about it before then, but you won't hear my take, and that's what counts.