All Episodes
Previous Next
June 18, 2007 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:22
June 18, 2007, Monday, Hour #3
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
I want to start this hour by sharing a story, and I don't want it to be a downer.
I want to tell it because I'm the guy who gets to guest host Russia's program today and the microphone's in front of me, and I think it's a story that needs to be told.
So I'm going to tell it.
It's a story that many of you already grasp and understand.
As background, in the last hour of the program, we were talking about the latest strategy with regard to the surge in Iraq.
And I criticized Democratic politicians and some of the media who have already decided that the surge has failed, even though the surge is only starting.
And I suggested that their motivation is that they want it to fail.
They're rooting for it to fail because they're rooting against Bush, they're rooting against America because that serves their political purpose.
And the thing that drives many Democratic politicians more than anything else is winning the next election.
No issue, no consequence, no impact in the world is more important to them than that.
I do not want to include Americans who are opposed to the war in that group.
The thing that motivates most regular Americans who oppose the war is concern for the troops and the loss of American lives.
That's what motivates most of the sincere opponents, left, right, apolitical, whatever.
The Democratic politicians, I believe, are different.
While we all say that we support the troops, do we really think about the troops?
Do you know what the high temperature today in Baghdad is?
It's the same temperature the high they've had for the last three weeks.
It's a hundred and ten.
You think I'm making that up?
Look it up.
It's been a hundred and ten, low eighty-three for like the last three or four weeks.
One hundred ten.
Now much of the United States this today are is seeing a pretty good heat wave.
Eastern half of the country very, very hot.
Temperatures in the upper eighties, low nineties.
Las Vegas, they're a little over a hundred.
I've been in Las Vegas when it's been over one hundred degrees.
It's out there when it was one hundred two.
We're talking in Baghdad 10.
Secondly, while some of these soldiers don't have to be wearing all of their equipment, not many of them are walking around with t-shirts and a short and shorts on.
Those that have the worst duty, particularly those that are now part of the new aspect of the surge in which they're an open combat in these neighborhoods.
They're wearing three layers of clothing.
They've got a big heavy helmet on, some of them have body armor.
They're wearing these thick heavy boots, and it's a hundred and ten degrees.
Can you imagine how miserable those conditions are?
It's really something.
And if you sit back and think about the jobs that they are doing, you realize how extraordinary this is, particularly given the conditions that exist over there.
This isn't a walk in the beach.
What they are having to put up with, what they are having to do because they have been called to duty is really extraordinary stuff.
And I bring it up, and I don't mean for this point to sound like it's pandering.
I bring it up because last night, flipping around on one of the cable channels, I see a report about how Paris Hilton is holding up in jail.
You've seen that report too, because every one of these channels does an update on it every day.
And they mention that Paris' sister Nikki went to visit her in jail over the weekend, and Paris is strong and Paris is doing better, and Paris has gotten a little bit more strength, since she was hauled back to jail, bawling and crying like a little baby.
What not only bothers me is that we are spending so much time worrying about how Paris Hilton is doing, but that some people actually care how Paris Hilton is doing.
The Story, I'm not criticizing the coverage of the story per se.
Paris Hilton is for reasons that are beyond me something of a celebrity.
And when she got thrown in jail, it was rather compelling.
When they decided to let her out of jail, it then became important because it allowed every hustler out there like Sharpton to say, say, this is proof that there's two kinds of justice in America.
It was important that she be put back in jail because what she did was a sufficiently minor offense, but one that did require that she be jailed.
That was important.
There was some news there.
But every day, wondering how little precious is holding up.
Oh, she was so distraught when she was hauled in.
How is she handling the jail?
She's twenty-six years old.
She's older than a lot of those soldiers who are over there in Iraq.
Let's worry about how they are holding up.
Because their conditions, walking around in full combat gear, being shot at, are a lot worse than how they've got her protected in her little bubble of a cell in the LA County jail.
Several months ago, my program in Milwaukee, we were contacted by someone who had served two tours in Iraq.
And she said she wanted to come to the radio station and just kind of see what it looks like.
She's a fan of my show.
She had a chance to listen when she was in Iraq over the internet to my program.
She's back home, and she was being going back to Iraq for, I believe, her third tour.
And she wanted to come and see the studio and see what it's like.
Now, anybody who's been in radio means that you're coming in to see absolutely nothing.
It's going to be a giant letdown.
The studio that rush this is I'm in a great studio.
This is a I mean, there's there's windows in here.
Russia's a bookcase.
You know, by the way, what's is this a pro Al Gore book that he has?
I keep staring at this bookshelf, and it's far enough away in my eyes, it's sufficiently bad that I can't read any of the titles of this is one.
It says gore, and there's his picture.
Rush Limbaugh.
I better not be talking about anything else that Rush Limbaugh has in here.
I should just as soon not mention that.
This is a beautiful studio.
Most radio studios are dungeons.
They're just dumps.
The one that I'm in in Milwaukee is okay.
My producer sits in a little cubby hole.
He's got a bunch of dials in front of him that look like an airplane control panel.
And then there's me sitting in a room talking to myself with a microphone in front of me.
Why anyone would want to tour or see that, I don't know.
But she said, well, could I come over to the radio station and see it?
And my reaction was okay, she's a soldier.
Of course we have to do this, even though we don't normally have any kind of tours.
It's not like she's a group.
She said she was come would come by myself, come by herself, and I told my producer, set it up, have her come in for 20 or 25 minutes, just watch you do the thing and get it taken care of.
So she came in.
Her name is Tiffany.
Again, I don't want to sound like I'm pandering here, but I was surprised.
First of all, She is drop dead gorgeous.
She's a pilot.
She flies missions that are over very dangerous areas.
She was a young woman who would have everything in the world going for her, even if she weren't in the military.
She is somebody who could probably do anything.
She was very bright.
As I said, she's extremely attractive.
She had a smile that was a mile long.
And she's going back to Iraq for the third time.
She could do anything.
But instead, what she's doing is going to serve her country in a 110 degree hellhole where people are shooting like crazy because they don't have, they don't want to live in any kind of peace.
And she's going over there to do that.
I hope nothing happens to her because I now feel this slight little connection because She came and toured our studio.
But I worry a whole lot more about her and how she's doing than about Paris Hilton.
And there's something wrong with the millions of Americans who care what's happening to Paris Hilton, but don't give three minutes of thought to these soldiers.
As for the Democratic politicians, and some, not all, some of those anti war types, well, that's what we're saying.
We're trying to save the soldiers.
It's about time that you come around.
I don't buy that for a moment.
I don't buy that for a moment.
They are interested in political goals.
Those of us, though, who are supportive of the military and supportive generally of the war and supportive of the use of the military in the war on terror, also need to understand that these actually are real live human beings who have volunteered to do the very thing that we prattle on about and talk about, and they are taking tremendous risks.
We're all products of our own experiences.
Given the kind of show that I do in the community I'm in, I get a chance to meet a number of people who have come back from Iraq who have served in the military.
They never fit the caricature that people on the left want to draw.
The people on the left say, well, these are people that are there because they have no other options in life.
They don't have a good education, they're kind of coerced into having to join the military.
These are people that are from the lower economic classes.
You hear this again and again and again and again.
And I never meet anybody that fits that stereotype.
Everyone I have ever met who has served in Iraq is an intelligent person with a lot going for him or herself, a lot on the ball.
They made a conscious career choice.
You never ever see these people in the media.
You want to find a soldier in the media, it's somebody who's grumbling, somebody who has a complaint, justified or not.
How often do we see this type of person?
The soldier who is happy and proud to be serving and supports the effort.
We never profile that kind of person because we're too doggone busy watching another 15 minutes every hour on cable on Paris Hill.
That's my story.
I'm Mark Belling sitting in for Rush.
I'm Mark Bellings sitting in for Rush Limbaugh.
Dorothy, somewhere in Southern California, you're on the EIB network.
Yes.
I'm here, and I'm telling you you are doing a fabulous job.
This is the best report on the war I've heard in many, many months.
Well, thank you very much, Dorothy.
I want to ask you some questions, though.
What do you want to ask me?
What can we do to help?
Well, you mean with regard to the war.
I called the White House line at least three times a week.
In fact, I called them a little while ago and then told them to tune in to your program because you are doing a fabulous job.
You called the White House and told them to listen to me.
I can't get anybody to listen to me.
If you can get the White House to listen to me, that would be a major thing.
Dorothy, thank you very much for those comments.
I appreciate it.
What a compelling caller with outstanding points she was.
All right.
Um sadly, I'll probably screw it up by going into what I'm going into right now.
Now this I by the way, I got an email from somebody who said, every single time you come on and sit in for Rush, I'm presuming this is how the person sounds, you talk about NASCAR.
Every single first of all, I often do the show when I fill in on a Monday.
Well, the races are on Sunday or Saturday night, so it will have just happened.
Secondly, NASCAR is one of the greatest American spectacles there is, so I have nothing to say about this weekend's NASCAR race, so that will disappoint that guy.
I'm going to talk about something far more boring.
I want to talk about the U.S. Open.
The U.S. Open was held over the weekend.
It is, by the way, finally over.
A guy who I will admit I have never heard of, won with a final score of about 847 over par, which I think was the low score.
In a way I admire The U.S. Golf Association, which runs the U.S. Open.
The Pro Tour does not run the U.S. Open.
It's run by a separate group, the United States Golf Association.
The majority of the players are part of the PGA tour, but some are.
International players, a handful of amateurs.
This is run by the association that oversees all golf, as opposed to the association that oversees professional golf.
And they've had this philosophy that they have taken to extremes over the last few years of believing that their tournament, the U.S. Open, ought to be this incredible test of the world's greatest golfers.
They not only choose the toughest courses in America, which is fine, they then make them even tougher.
They cut the greens so that they're like glass.
They make the pin placements in the most difficult parts of the greens.
They do everything they possibly can to make these courses unplayable.
And indeed, the very best score.
I was joking before, the very best score was five over par.
There won't be another tournament all year where that's the winning score.
There won't be anything even close to it.
If you watched any of it, and I watched most of the final round yesterday, I honestly don't think I saw one great shot.
All it was, all the highlights were merely guys trying to save par.
Get into trouble, try to save par.
Get into trouble, try to sink the seven foot, but nobody was sinking anything from 15, never mind the 95 footage they would often have.
Nobody was sinking anything from 25 or 30 because these greens were impossible.
On the one hand, I admire this, because they are completely bucking up against every other trend in our society.
While all of America is being dumbed down, while we're lowering the standards for everything, the United States Golf Association has decided with this tournament, they're gonna make it harder and harder and harder every year.
The same time in this country, we've got high schools now with 35 valedictorians.
You think I'm making that there is a high school that had 35 valedictorians.
Having five or ten is getting to be common.
Why single out one outstanding student when we can single out so many?
High school honor rolls have two thirds of the students on them.
Everybody is considered everybody has an honor student.
Everybody's the valedictorian.
Everything is made easier.
Everyone's a star, everyone's special, everyone's to be given esteem.
In the world of sports, every star now is referred to as a superstar.
Everyone is great.
Let's hype everything we have.
And in the middle of all of this, here's this one organization putting on this golf tournament where they're saying just the opposite.
Let's take the greatest players in the world and make them look awful.
There is something to be said for them for taking that approach.
However, however, it was awful to watch.
I mean, it was awful to watch.
I'm a medium golf fan.
I'll watch the major tournaments.
I like anything where there's a lot at stake.
I don't watch it week in and week out, but I'll watch the major tournaments.
I watch the Masters, I'll watch the British Open, I'll watch the PGA Championship.
The Masters is always thrilling.
It's that beautiful course.
It's in April, all the flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping.
And while it's a very difficult course, you see a lot of great shots, and the winning score is usually six, seven, eight, nine, ten under par.
The United States Open has gotten harder and harder to watch every year.
I'm sitting there watching this thing, watching one guy bogey after another after another after another.
The leader Cabrera, he's pretty much making par.
He isn't making one spectacular shot the entire round.
These are just guys out there playing for survival.
It'd be like watching a basketball game if the hoop was 13 feet in the air, or watching a tennis match if the net was 11 feet up.
In the end, it was not very enjoyable to watch.
If you watch any kind of sporting event, You want to see excellence, you want to see achievement.
When they have the Olympics on TV, you want to see gymnasts do spectacular things.
You don't want to see them fall.
So I'm really torn in all of this.
Philosophically, I'm with them.
Philosophically, I'm with them.
But in terms of pure entertainment, I want to see people doing well.
It kind of reminds me of this year's NBA finals.
They are terrible.
Worst finals ever.
Brutal to watch.
San Antonio sweeps Cleveland.
Both teams are defensive oriented teams.
Ugly.
Now defensive basketball is what wins.
I'd prefer to see a team like Phoenix or Golden State, somebody that's running up and down the court and shooting.
It's prettier.
They do what they need to do in order to win, but it isn't that easy to watch.
I'm Mark Gullen.
1 800 282 2882 is the telephone number at EIB to Lexington, Kentucky, and Tom.
Tom, it's your turn on Russia's show.
Tom.
Let's do lunch on Friday.
Tom.
National Radio, his big chance.
Let's give up on him.
To uh Randy in Claremont, North Carolina, you're on uh the Rush Limbaugh program.
Hey, how are you doing?
I'm great.
It's a real honor to get to talk to you.
I've heard you many times, and I appreciate you filling in for rush.
Thank you very much.
Well, Tom in Lexington, Kentucky was your enabler because by uh by choking there, he allowed you to move to the front of the line, Randy.
Well, we a lot of us love to hear someone different from Rush because it it gives us a better aspect uh of uh you know more thought to don't don't even start to go there.
I get nervous whenever any when whenever it sounds like I'm getting comfortable in here, that that's when the uh staff presses that little button in my chair starts to stiffen up on the back.
Just don't like it too much.
You're gonna be gone in half an hour.
No, we we love to hear, but my reason for calling now I'm a little nervous, so please forgive me if I get kind of messed up.
Well, I'm real nervous myself.
This isn't my regular gig.
You and I are alike.
What's on your mind, Randy?
Well, I was listening to your comments about the U.S. Open, and uh a lot of us out here that play golf and love the game of golf appreciate a tournament like has been played the last several years.
It brings out what golf is really all about.
Golf is not a game to be uh marveled at and like a slam dunk contest or uh three-point shooting contest or something that's put on for the fan favorites.
It's a game of life.
It it it's to me the the most closest game can be played that demonstrates what life is all about.
It's not it's not nothing fair about it.
Jack Nicholas made the point one time.
Golf is not a it's not people.
Oh, yeah, go the best golf courses are the ones that are the least fair.
That's right.
But I know why you like this tournament.
You liked it because it reminded you of how you play.
Exactly.
I mean that's I understand that some golfers love the notion of seeing these superstars finally being humbled.
They have he looks as bad, he looks as bad as I look.
They have an unfair advantage anyway.
They have the best equipment money can buy, and they're out there and have trainers and and everyone else, and it's it's great to see them one, you know, once a year.
I mean, they're you're just sadistic.
You're your sadistic.
You ought to see the greatest pla pla players in the world absolutely humbled.
The fact that it is only one tournament.
It's one time a year.
Right.
And and and also the fact that you know, you can see every week, the OPGA, the champions tour, all these they they play on courses in nice like the rest of us do, and people shoot 20 under power and all that.
I mean, that's that's wonderful.
The tournament that we have in my hometown, Milwaukee.
They chew it's like it's called the uh the something classic now, first bank or something.
25 under power is what usually wins that.
I mean, they tear it up, they treat it like it's a putt puck course.
I'm not saying that that's what I want.
What I am saying is that for a major tournament that you're gonna invest hours in as a spectator or fan, you'd like to be able to see at least one shot where you say, gee, that was a spectacular shot.
I didn't there's not one shot I remember from yesterday's tournament that means anything to me.
Well, as Cabrera hit his his shot onto the green on eighteen.
That was a great shot.
To save par.
To save parr.
I mean, you remember that green.
Did anybody did anybody birdie any hole yesterday?
Oh, yeah.
There was birdie's yesterday.
There was a lot of birdies yesterday.
Who?
When?
Well, I can't remember right.
I don't I don't either.
I mean, Kabara shot nine out of sixty-nine.
Right.
He was he had at least one bird.
par was seventy.
You know how they could solve this, by the way, and make everybody happy.
They could have simply on that course made the par seventy two instead of seventy.
After all, one of the par threes is two hundred and eighty-eight yards.
Simply add a couple of strokes to each of them, suddenly five over par is three under for the tournament.
It would have been the same see it would have been the exact same course.
They still did you see some of those bunkers?
The bunker Tiger Woods was in in the 17th hole, looked like he was in the pit of a volcano for heaven's sakes.
He's in this thing, and like fifty feet above him is where the grain is.
And they said, Well, this isn't that bad a lie.
Not that bad a lie.
He was buried.
I'm not criticizing it, by the way.
A big part of me admires their attitude.
I'm just saying it's not that easy to watch.
Are we thank you for the call, Randy?
Are we gonna give Tom another shot here?
Is that what we're doing?
Tom and Lexington, Kentucky.
If it were my choice, you would have had the one shot and out, but the rush staff believes you have the right to be on the program.
Go ahead, Tom.
Well, because I know more about golf than they do, so that's why I'm on that's why I'm not you're gonna take shots.
You should have to be extremely nice.
I'm very nice.
But you obviously d don't have have you ever played the game?
Yeah, I did, but I gave it up.
Yeah, well, that's why.
That's because you don't understand how how great some of the shots were yesterday that were hit.
I'm not talking about the ones on the rough.
I'm talking about some of the shots they're hitting off the fair way to knock it stiff on the wall.
You said you'd say he buried yesterday.
Well, Fuhrer had three in a row.
He did, you're right.
He was three down.
He got there's a little bit of hyperbole here.
But and but when you think about the great United States, and you say I'm not a a golf fan.
I am actually not a big one.
When you think about the great United States opens of the past, don't you remember certain shots?
I still think one of the greatest golf shots I ever saw, Jack Nicholas was playing the United States Open one of the years that it was at Pebble Beach, and the Pebble Beach has it's either the sixteenth or seventeenth.
They have that par three hole.
The par three hole that's o mostly over the ocean.
Is that the sixteenth or seventeenth?
you know 17th and Nicholas wrapped his tee shot and the ball hits the stick and bounces like six inches away and I think he was either tied or right on the lead it was a very very important shot So he was able to birdie the hole.
In other words, it was a brilliant shot.
I there was a guy who won the Masters, maybe late eighties, early nineties, Larry Mys, is that name right?
He chipped in from off the green, I think on the eighteenth hole.
What I remember are great shots, not the kind of chasing that's going on yesterday.
So I just my the point that I make is is that entertain as entertainment, it wasn't very good.
Oh, it was in terms in terms of a culture statement, however, what they are doing is going up against every single trend that we are seeing in this country about making everything so easy so that everybody always looks awesome.
Well, if you had watched the if you'd saw the last six holes, you would have been riveted because of the of the uh pressure.
See, playing the game a lot and doing what they're trying to do, you realize how much pressure they're under to execute the shot at the right time.
It isn't hard to do.
Do you watch do you watch the Masters?
Yes, I did.
Which do you prefer?
Oh, which I uh the the open is my pre was my preference.
It used to be mine too, but you watch the Masters and you'll see better shots.
I'm just saying it was very, very difficult to watch because of the way that they set up the course and the obstacles they put in front of those players.
I mean, when Johnny Miller, who's the commentator says about Tiger Woods, who is one stroke behind, he better birdie seventeen because everybody knows you can't birdie eighteen.
Well, what kind of a hole is that where they're saying it is impossible for the greatest player in the world to birdie it?
Well, because it's it's it's you have to hit at the right spot.
And you know, it's hard to do that when all the pressure is.
Hard they said it, they said he couldn't do it, and indeed he couldn't do it.
He's Tiger Woods.
Tiger Woods always makes the putt he needs to make, and his putt on the 18th, what did he miss?
By two and a half or three feet?
He missed by about seven inches.
I mean, they just made it so brutally difficult.
If this was the way every golf tournament was, I think that the sport would be a lot less popular than it is.
Because it's only the United States Open.
I guess it's okay, but it wasn't an easy thing to be able to be a spectator of.
Thank you for the call.
Hampton Bay's New York.
Fred, it's your turn on Russia's show.
Yeah, hi.
Listen, I'm not a uh golfer, I'm more of a duffer.
Uh but I have played Shinnecock a couple of times, and I played it before and after the uh U.S. opens that were held there, if you remember uh Fuzzy Zella won an eighty-six with a par 73 and uh Tiger Woods when he first began playing, broke his arm there trying to play the course.
They actually made the course easier for the professionals.
Did you like it that way or not?
No, I I really felt that I mean we'd been playing the course with a number five, a par five, about a five hundred yard hole with a dog light to the left, and with a stand of woods so that when you hit off the uh the T you couldn't see the flag, couldn't see the pin.
And the pros said, no, we can't have that.
You have to see the pin from the T. And then on I think it's I I get I I get your point.
By the way, I've got a trivia question for you.
How many times in the history of the United States Open has the champion ended up over par for the tournament?
Take a guess.
I don't know.
Maybe five.
Uh eight, but interestingly, twice in the last two years.
Last year, Jeff Ogilvie won it five over this year, On Hell Cabrera won uh at five over pars.
So it does appear to be a recent uh trend.
Thank you for the call.
We've got a great golf course in my area, Wisconsin.
It's called uh Whistling Straits.
They held the PGA championship there a few years ago.
This course is brutal.
It was the guy who built it, Herb Kohler of the Kohler Corporation had this vision of creating a lynx course like they have in Scotland, so the rough isn't rough, it's these long fields of hay.
They've got sheep grazing in the rough in the same way that they do in Scotland.
I mean, it's a replica, and it's right along Lake Michigan.
It's a stunning course, but it is all guys go up there and they just make fools of themselves.
It's an impossible course.
Well, for the PGA tournament, what they did is they cut a little bit of the rough.
They made the course easier, and the pros tore it up.
Now the PGA championship's the one that the players themselves run.
So they're not going to allow themselves to be made fools of, and instead, they took a really great golf course and they made it easier, and that angered a lot of people who normally play that course who wanted to see the pros be brought to their knees.
So I'm not saying that the opposite is the right way to go either.
I do admire the USGA for what they're doing.
As one spectator who invested four and a half hours though yesterday, you know who has the hardest time with that tournament?
ESPN.
Because I don't know how they ever put together 15 minutes of highlights off of that tournament because there was almost nothing to show.
My name is Mark Gulling and I'm in for Rush.
Mark Belling sitting in for Rush Limbaugh.
Look at MSNBC right now.
Paris Hilton gets out of jail June 26th after serving 23 days, five more.
Is there any difference anymore between the mainstream media and the paparazzi?
How do you even distinguish the two?
Eagle Bridge, New York.
Peg, you're on the Rush Limbaugh program with Mark Belling.
Hi, Mark.
I just have one question.
How can you possibly not talk about NASCAR?
If you follow it, you know we're four months into the season.
Michael Waltrop has finally made a fourth race.
He had a tenth place finish, and you're not even going to mention that national radio.
See, people are going to say that I talk about it too much when I come on here, and then I have people like you who just goed me into it.
If you want me to talk about the fact that Michael Waltrip finally qualified and he cracked the top ten, I assume you're some sort of Michael Waltrip fan.
I have Michael Waltrip everywhere on my own.
Is that a rug that he wears?
I don't think so.
No.
Is that his real hair?
I've met him, but I have never questioned him or touched him.
Because see, normally I can tell, and he's I I'm not sure about whether that was a nothing race.
Carl Edwards was there was nothing.
There was nothing.
Thank you for the call peg.
No, I'm not going to do it.
Even with that bait dangled in front of me.
I will mention an auto racing story, though actually rather extraordinary.
Formula, there are people who think that Formula One is just the thing.
I kind of reject it because it's primarily run in Europe, and I refuse all attempts to Europeze American culture.
Anyway, Formula One is mostly in Europe.
There's only one race in the United States.
There's also one in Canada.
The race in the United States was held at Indy, the same place they hold the Indianapolis 500, except they run right through the Middle of the track, they're running through the infield and the whole thing.
The guy that won is Lewis Hamilton.
The media makes a big deal about it because he's the first black driver in the history of Formula One.
Formula One is very excuse exclusive.
Only a handful of drivers are even on the circuit.
Each car manufacturer is allowed only two drivers.
That's the extent of their team.
So just to make it is extraordinary.
And he is indeed the first black driver ever to compete in Formula One.
He's only 22 years old.
He won last week and he won again yesterday.
Aside from the racial aspect of the story, he is a potential superstar driver to be able to have this kind of success so early in his career in a sport where driving is really important.
But President Bush should pardon Scooter Libby now.
There is no reason not to.
The only reasons to even think about not doing it are political.
But there isn't a political reason not to do it.
First of all, it's the right thing to do.
Scooter Libby served President Bush's administration loyally.
The investigation of the whole Valerie Plame League was always an attempt to get top people in that administration.
They wanted to get Carl Rove because they presumed he was the guy that did it.
When they couldn't do that, the prosecutor.
Wasn't his name Nifong?
Wasn't that the guy that prosecuted cheap shot?
Fitzgerald had to come up with something.
So they nailed Scooter Libby, who never leaked anything, claiming that he misstated things in his grand jury statements, even though he had no motivation to misstate anything.
He was asked to rec to remember things that occurred three years earlier, and in two or three cases there were lapses.
It was not an attempt to cover up anything that he had done, and everyone knows it.
He is now facing for committing the crime of being a Republican serving in a Republican administration.
He is now facing the prospect of going to prison.
He's already halfway bankrupted himself on legal bills.
President Bush ought to pardon him, or at the very least, commute his sentence if he is to show any loyalty to the people who have stuck with him through a very difficult administration.
As for the downside, well, it'll be politically unpopular.
The Democrats are going to go crazy, the media upon him.
Duh, what's new?
First of all, the president's popularity can't go lower than it is.
Secondly, the media is going to crucify him anyway.
Thirdly, if you've noticed, the Democrats bash everything that President Bush does.
If anything, it might show some in his base who actually care about these things that the president still has the backbone to stand up to the other side.
Maybe it is the right thing to do when he's angering everyone on both sides over the issue of immigration.
As for doing it now, they're going to keep asking him every single day.
Get it over with and let this guy get on with the rest of his life.
And if people want to scream about it, have the knowledge that you did the right thing.
I'm Mark Gulling sitting in for Rush Limbaugh.
I'm Mark Belling sitting in for Rush Limbaugh.
Eustace, Florida.
Ellen, it's your turn on EIB.
Finally got Nifong out of there because he was doing a non-case and destroying lives.
Now let's do the same with Fitzgerald.
You know, Nyphong was the Duke prosecutor, the uh bogus lacrosse rape case, lacrosse team rape case.
Fitzgerald was the special prosecutor in the uh what was supposed to be the Carl Rove case and it became the Scooter Libby case.
What he did was awful.
And the fact that Libby was convicted is awful.
Now, conservatives who say that are often accused of being hypocritical on law and order issues.
The fact that a jury came up with the wrong verdict does not mean that I don't have a right to say so, even though I am a conservative.
Juries can come up with wrong verdicts, and they happen to in this instance.
This was always a political witch hunt, and that was proven by virtue of the fact that the left has not once, and the media nor Fitzgerald has even talked about indicting the actual guy who leaked the identity of Valerie Plame, Richard Armitage of the State Department, because he was somebody who was soft on the war.
He's somebody that the left likes.
He's considered to be a moderate, therefore he's somebody they never wanted.
This was always about getting the right political scalp, and Libby's was the most convenient one there.
If President Bush really values loyalty, he will pardon Scooter Libby and he will do so proudly.
▲
Export Selection