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July 18, 2007 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:24
July 18, 2007, Wednesday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
All right, my friends, I confess I went to bed with Barbara Boxer last night.
I woke up with Hillary Clinton.
Yes, my friends, I tuned into C-SPAN.
I really, really tried to stay awake.
I really, really tried.
But this, who's the real woman between Barbara Boxer and Hillary Clinton?
I don't know.
Well, let's leave that alone.
I mean, gentlemen don't tell.
But this political stunt last night, this all-nighter, the Senate sleepover, Harry's hoax was nothing more than a fundraiser.
You know, my friends, the only people, the only people in the world who can depend on Democrats are our enemies.
It really is.
This thing was amazing.
It went down to defeat, by the way.
52 to 47.
Senate voted to block the Democrats' bid to pass an Iraq troop withdrawal amendment legislation.
You know, we got news here today.
There's a Zogby poll out.
Voters unhappy with Bush and Congress.
Bush's popularity is what it is, but Congress's numbers keep plummeting.
They are lower.
And this list last night didn't help, folks.
By the way, greetings and welcome.
It's a Rush Limbaugh program.
Here's the phone number if you want to be on the program today, 800-282-2882 and the email address, rush at EIBnet.com.
The Congress numbers just keep plummeting here.
83% said Congress was doing a fair or poor job.
Only 14% rated Congress excellent or good.
14%.
You can talk about Bush all you want, but I mean, you know, I have to tell you, I think we need to start talking about Harry Reed as the most incompetent majority leader in modern history.
He cannot deliver for his kooks.
They talk about Bush being incompetent out there, folks, but Bush beats Reed and Pelosi and Merthyr.
He beats these people every damn time on this.
Even with four Republican defectors, Hegel was one of them, Olympia Snow, even with that, Bush beats these people on this every time they try it.
Harry Reid's lost control of the Senate.
He's in the majority.
He cannot deliver for his kooks.
In fact, he's losing votes every time they pull this.
Every time they try one of these things, they get fewer votes.
So maybe the thing we need to do is just continue to do all-nighters and expose these people as the incompetent libs that they are while their poll numbers are driven into the dirt.
He needs to get back.
Harry Reid needs to change his focus.
He needs to get back to doing what he does best and at sleazy land deals with his kids.
Time for him to go home to Searchlight Nevada, wherever he lives, because he's in the big leagues now, but he can't seem to swing the bat.
The bat just stays on his shoulder.
And when he does swing, he misses.
If I'm a Democrat or liberal, I would demand new leadership.
They can sit there all day long and complain and whine about Bush, but I'll tell you, Harry Reid is proving to be an embarrassment.
All-nighter, 24 hours, could not even tire the Senate into voting for cloture.
You know what I think the biggest debate was last night?
I don't know how much you watch this, Mr. Snirdly.
The biggest debate last night is I saw, I was amazed at how fresh-faced they were after this all-nighter and how fresh they looked and so forth.
I think the biggest real debate last night was, all right, how do we appear here?
Do we look like Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith goes to Washington all drawn and haggard and unshaven, tie undone, collar array, in a state of disarray, or do we bring in the best makeup artists we can, the beltway look, shaved, made up, hairsprayed, shirt ironed.
And you can see if you watch this what won the night.
McCain was powerful.
We've got some audio soundbites coming up from him.
He's really, you can say what you want about his presidential candidacy implosing, but he imploding.
But he gave a floor speech yesterday that just took it to Dingy Harry, and it was really good.
Barbara, Kay Bailey Hutchison, also.
Very successful.
You know, brevity is the soul of wit.
And I made a little note.
Kay Bailey Hutchison said, what are we doing here?
None of these amendments can possibly be passed into law.
So the Democrats are going to judge this one of two ways, because this was a fundraiser.
If they really wanted to get this done, why don't they try their own nuclear option?
You know, why don't they try to break this filibuster and say, you know what, this is too important.
Whatever the nuclear option was on filibustering judicial nominees.
They're not serious about this.
This was a hoax.
It was fundraising.
And as I say, folks, it's crucial to remember that they keep losing votes each time they try this.
All right, moving on to something else.
As you might remember, if you were here yesterday, great economic news out there.
And I reported this great economic news.
Stock market crossing 14,000 for the first time, nearly doubling the Dow Jones industrial average in five or six years.
And I said, you won't see this in the drive-by media.
And I was wrong.
There was a report yesterday morning on a Today Show from a CNBC reporter who her name is the Street Sweetie.
And her name is Erin Burnett.
And she did a report with Meredith Vieira on The Today Show that was excellent.
So I played the report.
I played a montage of her report.
And at the end of it, I apologized for praising her because that could lead to her losing favor with her colleagues in the drive-by media.
When I, you know, I've been known to destroy the careers of journalists, thinking of the William Raspberry effect.
When I have praised their work, it upsets their colleagues, their editors and so forth.
What did you say that Limbaugh is praising?
Well, Joe Scarborough had the street sweetie on his show this morning on MSNBC called Morning Joe.
And we have three bites from the exchange that took place.
And here is the first.
One of these two journalists was brought up by Rush Limbaugh yesterday.
Interesting.
And I will tell you, I say Rush Limbaugh without a hint of sarcasm or irony.
I think he is one of the great voices in modern conservative America.
But one of these two people brought up by Rush Limbaugh, guess which one?
Aaron Burnett.
Aaron Burnett.
It was Aaron Burnett because of Aaron Burnett's report.
Here is bite number two.
And Rush Limbaugh's favorite, and I'm a Rush fan.
He's an entertainer and he's very smart, but he likes Aaron Burnett.
You're big with Rush.
Did you see this?
I saw this.
He actually was very funny.
He said he might get me fired by the end of the week.
Oh, yeah, exactly.
So I'm still here.
And I can't guarantee that tomorrow, you know, I won't have gotten a heave hoe, but I hope Rush is taking pity on me if so.
And later on, this occurred.
You know, it's sort of a half-kicker.
You know, I decided to go kind of down the limbaugh line here.
I want to talk a bit about China.
You know, when you hear all this rhetoric on Capitol Hill, you've got Schumer and Graham, Democrat and Republican, you know, threatening these tariffs on Chinese imports and people talking about the Chinese currency.
You know, living without China would be a death threat for most Americans.
You know, if China were to revalue its currency, you would see prices at Walmart go up, probably, according to currency experts, 15, 20%.
So I think we just good to put it out there that people should be careful what they wish for on that front, that China really is fueling a lot of the consumption that happens here.
Say hi to your parents on the farm for us.
I certainly will.
They love the rush thing, let me tell you.
I bet they do.
She did it again.
She did it again.
She deserves praise again.
She gave, she told the truth about China and our relationship with China and why it matters.
And she took to task some of the politicians who are trying to gin up a bunch of fear about it.
That's Aaron Burnett and Joe Scarborough, and it happened this morning on Scarborough's show.
At any rate, I got to take a quick time out here.
We'll do that and be back and continue your phone calls and all the rest of today's exciting excursion into broadcast excellence.
What are you frowning about in there?
Meeting and surpassing all audience expectations on a daily basis.
I am El Rushbull, the all-knowing, all-caring, all-sensing, all-feeling, all-concerned, all-everything.
Maha Rushi, serving humanity simply by showing up.
Some more data from this latest Dzogby poll, not just the information about how poorly Congress is doing.
14%, and last night didn't help.
Despite their dim views of government, majorities of Americans remain upbeat about their personal finances and security.
And nearly two-thirds are very or fairly confident their children will have a better life than they do.
There's a lot of optimism out there, and yet we keep hearing about this angst and the guilt and the unsettledness that has supposedly swept over our population.
In the national survey of just over a thousand likely voters, 66% said the president had done only a fair or poor job as president, 34% ranking his performance as excellent or good.
He is doing twice as well as Congress is in his approval numbers, even at 34%.
This is stunning.
And I want to tell you, people, if you think that the approval rating for Congress is down because they're not passing massive legislation and getting things done for America, if you think that the disapproval of Congress is related to the fact that they can't pass a bill to get us out of Iraq, you are missing the vote.
People are, I think it's great news.
I love these low approval numbers for Congress and government overall.
I think the immigration bill, as I told you, the way it shook out, that was a great illustration for people to actually see.
You know, people who are on the fence about all this actually see the arrogance and conceit of big government and the inefficiency of bloated bureaucracies and organizations.
And when I say the arrogance and conceit, I mean the literal unwillingness to listen to the desires of the American people expressed in a vast majority that crossed all kinds of lines of demarcation.
A puzzling thing about the poll to me is Americans remain upbeat about their personal finances and security.
Well, that has to be threats, terrorism, and this kind of thing.
Two-thirds, majorities, nearly two-thirds, are confident their children will have a better life than they do.
That's also interesting because it indicates that maybe the drive-by media's efforts to drive down public attitudes and moods about the economy is not being as successful as some people assume they had been.
So there's reason for optimism out there because numbers of you are optimistic.
Now, let's go to Audio Soundbites from last night.
Here's Dingy Harry yesterday afternoon, actually, as he starts off on this Harry's hoax, the all-nighter.
I'm speaking today for the American people.
67% of the American people think the surge has been a failure.
Really?
Well, then, how come you're having so damn much trouble getting us out of there?
How come you lose votes each and every time you try this stunt?
Make no mistake.
This is nothing more than fundraising.
It's nothing.
And if their kooks ever figure that out, it's going to really make them, because the kooks are going to figure out, and people driving this, the moveon.orgs had candlelight vigils last.
Do you know how many people were in the Senate watching this last night?
Six.
In the Senate gallery, there were six people.
I mean, if this is something that 67% of the American people want to happen, us getting out of Iraq, it would be happening.
The Democrats, though, and their kooks are going to finally figure out, you know what?
They're fleecing us.
All this is fundraising.
They have no intention of passing these resolutions.
They can't get it done.
And, you know, if they start changing their focus here from Bush to Dingy Harry, and I think they will.
I don't think that's going to be long in coming.
Here are a couple of bites from Senator McCain yesterday afternoon lashing out at Dingy Harry.
The distinguished majority leaders, no longer Floyd, declared the war lost.
I was astonished.
I was astonished, Madam President.
I was astonished.
Because if we lost the war, then somebody won.
Does that mean that Al-Qaeda has won the war?
I love that.
I mean, right to Harry Reid on the floor of the Senate, he did say it a number of times that the war has been lost.
And of course, the drive-bys, they gave it an initial hour or two of a push when it happened.
But after that, didn't hear much about it.
So here's McCain reminding everybody who's watching this last night and the senators on the floor speaking directly to Dingy Harry.
Here's one more McCain bite.
No one can be certain whether this new strategy, which remains in the early stages, can bring about greater stability.
We can be sure that should the United States seek to legislate an end to the strategy as it is just beginning, then we'll fail for certain.
Mr. President, I read this earlier, this resolution.
This resolution incredibly says that we can only, the mission is restricted to only fighting al-Qaeda.
I guess that al-Qaeda will have to wear t-shirts that says that they're al-Qaeda.
And I guess our troops are expected, if someone's planning an IED, excuse me, sir, are you al-Qaeda or are you Shiite?
If you're Shiite, go ahead and plant it, please.
He's right on the money, right on just calling these people out.
And even with all of this, after all of this, the Democrats don't have a plan B.
They don't have a plan B for when we pull out.
They don't have a plan to protect the country.
They've got nothing.
They won't tell anybody what it is.
And that's why at this stage, this is all just fundraising.
And I want to remind you again, the dirty little secret is if they wanted to get this passed, they could.
They would find a way.
I don't think they really want to.
I don't think Dingy Harry likes losing votes every time he does this, but they're in the fundraising stage right now.
They're pontificating.
And I think one of the things that's happening to these people is the fawning press that they get from the drive-by media is giving them the wrong impression of the mood of the country and is giving them the wrong impression of the nation's opinion of them as members of Congress.
They never get tarred and feathered in the press.
They're never ridiculed.
Their ideas are always amplified.
Their personalities are adored.
Basically, every piece written about these people is a puff piece.
And at the same time, I'll give you an example.
One of the Chicago papers yesterday did a story about a trial lawyer meeting in Philadelphia.
And all of the Democrat candidates for president showed up and they found a staunch Republican trial lawyer from Philadelphia.
I don't remember his name right off the top of my head, but a staunch trial lawyer.
And he had decided that he'd had enough of the Republicans and he's going to donate to the Democrats.
And he's voting Democrat.
And that's, wow, so a staunch Republican.
Another Chicago paper has a blog today where another staunch Republican Chicago has decided to sign up for Hillary.
Some big guy that's apparently been a big Republican fundraiser.
So I continue to read the story.
Somebody did some research on this Philadelphia trial lawyer and found out that I'm going to give you a ballpark on the numbers because I don't have them right in front of me here, but found out since 2000, he's given the Democrats $9,000 and the Republicans like $600 or $900.
He's not a staunch Republican at all.
He may be a registered Republican, but he's given money to Kerry and he's given money to Gore.
He's given money to the midterm election and so forth.
So the drive-bys are writing these stories and this thing singing the Chicago, I guess, Sun-Times it is today about this big former Republican fundraiser signing up with Hillary.
And so the Democrats read this and I think they get the impression that Republicans are just fed up with any of their presidential candidates.
AP had a poll the other day.
The number one poll getter, vote getter in this poll of AP was none of the above.
All of the Republican presidential candidates, none of the above won.
So the Democrats see all this and I think they get this notion that Republicans are peeling away from their candidates left and right, big corporate givers and fundraisers peeling away.
And you combine that with all of the fawning coverage that they get personally.
And I think they've got themselves in a situation where they don't really understand how they look to people, which is good, by the way.
I hope they continue to be so arrogant and conceited about this that they don't get it.
But this thing last night opened a door, smashed right into it with their face before they had a chance to get through the doorway.
Here's Mrs. Clinton.
Many of us believe that it is time for us to move our troops out of harm's way in the middle of the Iraqi civil war.
We believe that is an appropriate military decision that will be made sooner than later.
I got a commercial break.
A recent report was an interim report.
Did not have very much good news in it.
In September, we will get another report, which I predict will be also mixed, which will put the best face on whatever the facts are.
But the bottom line will remain the same.
Well, that's what's that.
Our troops and their families are paying the price for this administration's policies.
Wow.
I wondered if I was going to get that.
I'm sorry, folks.
That was 45 seconds of absolute meaningless blather.
Boilerplate meaningless blather.
Thank you.
Here's Turving Humanity, Rush Limbaugh.
Half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair.
We got, let's see, what am I?
One, two, three more soundbites.
I told you I went to bed with Barbara Boxer and I woke up with Hillary Clinton watching this thing last night.
We got one more Hillary and two of Madam Boxer.
This was around 4.10 this morning.
Madam Chairman, I believe our troops, as well as the American people, deserve a vote.
Yes or no on this bill.
Do you believe in giving the president the continued power to pursue a failed strategy?
By the way, stop this second.
This is another stunt these people pulling all night.
One of the tricks was trying to make it look like the Republicans were preventing a vote on this.
It was the Democrats preventing the vote.
It was the Democrats trying to hustle up votes all night.
But they, the ones that were preventing the Republicans were not stopping anything here.
This was just rhetorical trickery.
And this is something I wanted to point out during the middle of the bite here.
Restore balance by this Congress.
Make your case and cast your vote.
If not, then put partisanship aside and stand with the bipartisan majority working to end this war.
Our message to the president is clear.
It's time to lose.
Start thinking of our troops and our broader position in Iraq and beyond.
Not next year, not next month, but today.
What a joke.
The one guy that is thinking only about that is George W. Bush.
It's you people on the Democrat side don't have any kind of a plan, and you're running for president and you don't even have a plan.
And you won't have a plan until you get a poll that you can trust based on what the people that you believe represent the country tell you they want, which is not leadership.
Put partisanship aside?
Don't make me laugh.
It's time to start thinking about troops and our brook.
My God.
You know, you've got Al-Qaeda watching this last night.
I'm telling you, like I said at the top of the program today, folks, the only people in this world who can rely on Democrats is our enemies.
They can count on them every time they need assistance.
Here's Barbara Boxer.
She's on CNN this morning with John Roberts.
And he said, Did you accomplish anything last night?
Is this bill any closer to passage?
I think we accomplished what we wanted to.
We wanted to show the people who sent us and really gave us the reins of power in the Senate that we are willing to stay up through the night, work through the night to start bringing this war to a close and changing the mission of our troops.
We want to get them out of a civil war, get them back on track going after al-Qaeda and training the Iraqi forces and out of the middle of the civil war.
And I think shining the spotlight on this was important for us to do.
Well, let me find something here.
The New York Times even has a story that they agree.
Al-Qaeda, it's in the national intelligence estimate.
Here is this: We assess that Al-Qaeda will continue to enhance its capabilities to attack the homeland through greater cooperation with regional terrorist groups.
Of note, we assess that al-Qaeda will probably seek to leverage the contacts and capabilities of al-Qaeda in Iraq, its most visible and capable affiliate, and the only one known to have expressed a desire to attack the United States.
The NIE claims that the Al-Qaeda in Iraq is the biggest subsidiary of the whole Al-Qaeda bunch right now holed up in the caves of Pakistan.
And here's Barbara Boxer.
We need to get back on track going after Al-Qaeda.
Do they even know what they're saying?
More than ever, I am convinced that what this is, is this thing last night specifically was a fundraiser trying to, these people, you know, they're getting heat from their kooks, the fringe lunatic bloggers and so forth, their fervent anti-war crowd.
You know they're getting heat, and this is a response to it.
Now, don't make the mistake of thinking that's all there is, because if they could saddle this nation with a defeat and then blame it on the incompetence of Bush and the Republicans, they'd do it in a minute.
That's also one of the objectives.
They're just losing every time they try.
They lose more votes each time they try it.
The next question from John Roberts, CNN.
Didn't last night, just before midnight, you and a bunch of other senators get around Harry Reid and say, look, do we really have to have a roll call vote at 3 o'clock in the morning?
Can't we go home and get some sleep and come back at 5 a.m.?
So it was the Democrats who went to Dingy Harry.
So, wait a minute, all-nighter 3 o'clock quorum call vote?
You know, last time they did something like this, the Senate sergeant-at-arms was ordered to go physically get a senator who was not present because they had all been ordered to be present.
Bob Packwood of Oregon was dragged into the Senate chamber by the sergeant-at-arms feet first.
So Harry Reid announces this all-nighter, and he gets all hooked up about it.
And then Democrats go to him and say, Vote at three in the morning?
We can't go home.
The whole thing was a snut.
Here's Barbara Boxer's answer to the question.
Yeah, we didn't go home at all.
Yes, it is true that Harry was going to have a vote every three hours.
And some of the women senators appointed me, of course, to go speak with Harry and begged to have about four and a half or five.
But I slept in my office right down from here.
I'm in the Capitol studio now, curled up on my little couch.
So I did get about four hours.
So I don't know the point of the question, but here's the deal: we were up all night.
Why?
Because we did want the Republicans to have to stay there with us, which they did.
They had to do that.
Why?
Because every time we asked to have a vote on this amendment, Republicans said, no, no, no, you need to get 60 votes.
And, you know, the saddest tape is that the Republicans.
Stop the tape.
That is another line of utter BS.
Now they're trying to make it look like the cloture rule is something the Republicans invoked for the first time last night ever.
All those mean, rascally Republicans.
How rotten of them to make us have to have 60 votes.
How stupid do they think people are?
People know the 60 votes for certain now after the immigration bill.
I'm talking about people that don't pay attention to this kind of stuff.
You and I do.
But people, oh, this is the Republicans said, no, no, no, no, you got to get 60 votes.
That's right.
You do.
That's a Senate rule.
And especially on matters of important national security.
You got to have 60 votes.
It's just a Senate rule.
And it's nothing new.
And here's Barbara Boxer whining and moaning.
The Republicans said, no, no, no, you got to have 60 votes.
I was shouting and asking for the broadcast engineer to stop the tape.
So I talked over a little.
There's probably not much of this left, but let's listen to it anyway.
Republicans are blocking us from a clear, simple majority.
And I think we're going to have that majority.
And that would be a huge step forward.
And yeah, we worked all night.
All right.
So they think we're going to have that majority.
Sad thing is, Republicans are blocking us from a clear, simple majority.
That takes chutzpah.
That just does.
To start complaining about the cloture rule.
That rule's 40 years old, 30 years, 12, whatever it is.
And it's constant.
It's required for every, they're just two exceptions.
That's what the judicial confirmation vote controversy was all about.
The nuclear option was a tool that the Republicans were going to use in order to stop the Democrats from invoking the filibuster on judicial nomination.
It had never been done before, and it wasn't constitutional.
And that's when the gang of 14 sprung up to head off this horrible, horrible crisis of dissolving the 60-vote rule.
So the 60-vote rule is etched in concrete.
It's etched in stone.
And to listen to her whine and moan about as though it has never been used before, and the Republicans pulled some trick out of their back pocket is laughable.
This is Amy.
Oh, Amy, one of my top 10 all-time favorite female names, Great Bend, Kansas.
Welcome to the EIB Network.
Hi, Russ.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
Better talking to you.
Wow, thank you.
Well, I called to make one point, but now that I've heard your tapes with Barbara Boxer, I've got another point.
Go right ahead.
Well, first of all, I just wanted to call and say thank you so much for your show.
My husband is in the U.S. Navy.
He's in EOD, which is Explosive Ordnance Disposal. and special ops.
And he's in Iraq right now today.
I just talked to him earlier this morning, Kansas time.
And before all the guys left, we were advised to actually quit by his command just to quit watching the news.
And I can see why, because of the kind of clips that you're playing.
They're just so dishenheartening.
And so I really wanted to thank you because your show provides such a balance for the wives and the families to hear just news that supports what our men are doing really means a lot.
Well, it touched my heart.
I appreciate that.
I've heard from a lot of people like you, military families this week saying the same thing.
And it's it really, you all are the ones that, you know, you're the precious ones here.
You're the ones that are involved in genuine sacrifice here.
And that's why most Americans, and don't believe this gobbledygooky gook that you see elsewhere in the media, most Americans are highly appreciative.
Even those who may not, some of those who don't support the war or the mission may have problems, but they're so few in number.
Most Americans have a great deep respect to the tradition of the U.S. military, this volunteer force.
Every time I get a compliment like this, I kind of get red in the face with embarrassment because it's you and your husband and all the other families who deserve undying gratitude.
I mean, I think that you are all owed a debt that nobody can ever fully repay.
Well, thank you.
Actually, we're stationed out in California right now.
But I'm in Kansas visiting Samle while he's away.
I see.
And I just wish Barbara Boxer would get on the same page as Sam Brown back and start supporting our president.
That ain't going to happen.
And when she said the thing that got me today, when you played that clip where she says, let's go get him back on the mission of going after Al-Qaeda, that's exactly what my husband is doing right now.
These special operatives are going out in the middle of the night, pulling very dangerous men.
And getting them away from hurting other people.
We just captured the top al-Qaeda in Iraq figure.
We just did it.
And I don't know if she knows what she's saying or she's preaching to a group of people that she knows are ignorant and stupid.
The way to translate what she said was, and in fact, I think she actually meant to say we should be focusing on bin Laden and Zawahiri rather than al-Qaeda, but she misspoke and doing so opened a lot of people's eyes.
Now, you know, I have listeners in this audience from Rio Linda, California.
And sometimes I have to explain things to them, and you've said something in your call that I cannot explain to them that I know they're wondering about.
I just, I know Rio Linda like the back of my hand.
There's no ocean in Iraq.
Why is the Navy over there?
Well, because with the Navy explosive ordnance disposal teams, they take care of the IEDs and the bombs they do on land, sea, air.
He dumps out planes, he dives, he does it all.
I was just kidding.
But your husband's doing great work, and I know you're proud of him.
Yes, I am.
How long have you been married?
We've been married four years.
Oh, wow.
And we were really good friends with one of the guys out of Washington that got killed in April.
I know.
I don't know, but that's why you people are to be held on a pedestal, I think, in this country, and for the most part are.
I'm honored that you are in the audience and glad that you called.
Thank you so much, Brush.
Have a great day, Amy.
We'll take a brief time out here, folks, and come back after this.
It's a little confusion out there, ladies and gentlemen.
And once again, we find CNN in the midst of the confusion.
You know, CNN usually works hand in hand with the Democrat Party to advance the action line and the template of the day.
And we just heard Barbara Boxer on CNN American Morning this morning say that, well, I didn't go home at all, John Roberts.
Yeah, true, Harry was going to have a vote every three hours.
And some senators appointed me, of course, to go speak with Harry and beg to have four and a half or five hours' sleep.
But I slept in my office right now.
We didn't go home.
She said it.
We didn't go home.
But on the same network, CNN.
CNN's newsroom this morning, Tony Harris talking to White House correspondent or congressional correspondent Dana Bash.
And he said, Tana, what happened while most Americans were getting their sleep last night?
And Bash is showing video of the cots that were brought in for the senators and then says this.
You see, a little bit of evidence that perhaps somebody was there.
We understand that freshman Senator Bob Casey was there.
But look at the rest, not slept in.
And there's probably part of the reason for that is that most senators, Tony, actually went home.
The Senate Majority Leader had threatened that he was going to hold roll call votes to keep attendance.
Roll call votes at 2, 3, 4 in the morning.
But he didn't do that in part because he was asked not to by Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, who said, please just give us a few hours of sleep.
And instead, so what happened is there was a vote at about midnight and then not another one until 5 in the morning as the sun was coming up.
That's when we saw senators start to shuffle their way back into the Senate.
Well, CNN once again in the midst of a disagreement.
So they did go home.
This is a CI told you so.
I told you yesterday this, it's not just the women that wanted to get some sleep.
There's some old buzzards in this place.
This is Jurassic Park.
You know, if they're going to stay in there all night, they're going to need, you know, Pat Leahy's going to need to share his depends with some of the other senators.
Cots aren't going to get it done.
You need bed pans.
You're going to need port-a-potties.
Didn't see any of that.
The cots, all that stuff was just for show.
Pizza box.
Tracy in Pittsburgh.
You're next on the Rush Limbaugh program.
Hello.
Hi.
Hi, Rush.
How are you doing?
I'm fine.
Never better.
Hey, the reason I called is on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, their headline, major headline on the top of the fold is U.S. Fails Against Al-Qaeda.
I was furious when I saw that.
I even called the Post Gazette, of course, got voicemail.
But, you know, there's nothing like endorsing the enemy.
And that's exactly what they're doing.
There's nothing that says that we've lost against Al-Qaeda.
If anything like this had happened in World War II with some of the battles that we had setbacks on, that's an interesting thing.
It didn't happen during the battles in the aftermath of the World War II when we were trying to put Germany back together.
Some of the magazines back then, was it Saturday Evening Post or Life Magazine or Time New York Times was writing about our efforts in Germany?
People there hated our troops.
We were committing atrocities.
We were stealing food from Germans.
Look, the media is who they are.
And the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is what it is.
And I'm sure that story was their take on the national intelligence estimate, which I told you yesterday what the action line of that's going to be.
It's boilerplate.
The fact that Al-Qaeda is still there means they can have a straight B-line at Bush and his incompetence.
And so they can headline it however they want.
There's some little liberal headline writer in there, and he says, aha, aha, al-Qaeda's still there.
Bush fails.
Al-Qaeda won.
By the way, somebody needs to tell the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that they're not the first to declare Al-Qaeda the victory, the victor.
Harry Reed did that on the floor of the Senate some weeks ago.
Hi, welcome back.
Great to have you with us today, folks.
I mentioned that the top al-Qaeda leader in Iraq has been captured by the good guys.
Here's his name: Khaled Abdul Fatah Dawood Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani.
That, again, is Khaled Abdul Fatah Dawood Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, also known as Abu Shahid.
He was captured in Mosul on July 4th.
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