All Episodes
Previous Next
Dec. 1, 2008 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:34
December 1, 2008, Monday, Hour #1
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 247 podcast.
Thanks, one and all, and let me just go to bat for you here.
Whoa, whoa, you gotta be thinking, wait a minute, Rush didn't say he was off on Monday or Wednesday or last week or whatever, some best of over the we over the long holiday weekend.
I'm not primed for a fill-in host.
It's the first day of December.
I need limball.
What is up with the fill-in host guy?
Well, let me tell you, uh I haven't known it for much longer than you have, Rush is just sick as a dog today, man.
Just not up to it.
And I have to tell you, his bar is set pretty darn high.
The man does not miss shows.
So we've all uh so he's under the weather, hopefully just a 24 hour thing, and he is back with you tomorrow.
Because I don't know if you've caught this drift yet, uh, but as of election day, uh the Limbaugh show got three times more important than it was before.
I think that's uh statistically proven, and I may be lowballing that.
But anyway, uh so the email bleeped and uh uh Kit and the gang said, Hey, uh, can you do the show today?
And I said, sure.
Always glad to do it.
So let's see what we can tackle coming off a big Thanksgiving day weekend, filled with topicality and a first day of December.
Happy December to all, early Merry Christmas to all, happy holidays to those who practice other things.
And uh, and I hope that your Thanksgiving weekend was blessed and filled with safe travel and uh good times with the family and all of that, and plenty of football watching.
Although try not to talk about college football with people down here, unless they're from Oklahoma.
This Big 12 thing is out of control.
But hey, since it is the Limbaugh show, how about those Pittsburgh Steelers?
Very good.
And and sitting here in this chair in the Dallas Fort Worth area, as the Cowboys get ready to go to Pittsburgh, yikes.
I have no idea what to make of that.
But good news.
I have a good idea on what to make of some things in today's news and some news from over the weekends.
So let's dive in together.
1-800-282-2882.
1-800-282-2882.
I'm Mark Davis at WBAP in Dallas Fort Worth, a proud Limbaugh affiliate for a good decade and a half.
And so when you call, just say, hey, hi Mark, and the magic will flow from there.
And again, Rush, hopefully back tomorrow.
Get well, sir.
Get well.
Um amid all the politics, let me just lay a base code of something, because we're going to talk about the uh is this an oxymoron, the Obama national security team.
No, in all honesty, and listen, let's let's get together on this.
We could do worse than Hillary Clinton, a Secretary of State.
And as far as Secretary of Defense, I don't know how you do much better than keeping uh Secretary Gates.
Although I am getting emails that say, Mark, I am disappointed that Gates would accept.
What is someone who helped fashion the surge doing serving a president who spoke so ill of the war and those fighting it.
And you may say, wait a minute, I don't remember uh hearing uh President elect Obama or Senator Obama speaking ill of the troops.
Uh well, then you weren't listening closely enough.
Because if you disparage their mission, that is a horrible thing to do to the troops who are tasked with that mission.
So let's talk about the uh the security team.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, National Security Advisor Jim Jones, a retired Marine General, Secretary of Homeland Security, Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona, and Dr. Susan Rice as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Hmm.
But amid all of this, and we'll talk some economy, and we'll talk some transition and various other things of the Hillary Clinton Senate vacancy.
Don't get ahead of me.
Bill's gonna take the vacancy, isn't he?
No, no, a million times no.
Bill Clinton's interest in showing up for what's actually more demanding than a nine-to-five job, Bill Clinton's interest in becoming but one of 100 senators.
Bill Clinton's interest in the pay cut that that would entail.
Roughly commensurate with his interest in marital fidelity during his years in the White House, which is to say, none.
So no, you're not gonna see Bill Clinton get that seat.
Uh RFK Jr., maybe, Andrew Cuomo, attorney general for the state of New York.
Umita Lowy, long uh long serving um Congresswoman.
It's going to be a Democrat, because it's a gubernatorial appointment at this uh point, and uh David Patterson is a Democrat.
So you're going to get a Democrat.
Um so we can talk a little bit about that if you wish.
But in the midst of all of the political nuts and bolts, can we go right to pardon the phrase here, the meat of Thanksgiving, at least topically speaking?
Because this is an area that involves a lot of things that are compelling.
It involves the economy.
It involves human behavior.
It involves um wow, good healthy violence in America loves that.
That would be Black Friday.
Now, first we have to deal with this term.
Who thought this up?
I mean, I get it, right?
Black Friday is so profitable the day after Thanksgiving that a number of businesses running in the red are suddenly running in the black, hence Black Friday.
Except that this runs afoul of what everyone understands that metaphoric usage to be.
To the chagrin of some in the African American community who really need to get a grip on this.
We literally, here in Dallas and I'm sure elsewhere, all over the country.
Do you have public officials standing up and suggesting that the use of black as a negative, like or dark or black, boy, those are dark days.
You remember Black Sunday, the terrorist blimp hitting the Super Bowl?
Oh, you know, that's somehow a slap against African Americans because black is somehow bad.
If this really is a gripe that you have, truly all of America's problems have been solved.
Because that is just the dumbest thing anyone can say.
Black, as in dark, as in, you know, black Sunday, black Tuesday, black this, black that, those are dark days, dark prospects, have nothing to do with skin pigment, all right?
It's it is a usage having nothing to do with black people that has through oh centuries of English language usage come to mean something daunting or frightening or bad.
All right.
Uh so you mentioned Black Friday and the imagery instantly is of something terrible.
But it's meant to be a good thing.
Black as in profitable, like, hey, now we're in the black.
Unless you actually showed up at a store at five o'clock in the morning and experienced the slings and arrows, perhaps literal slings and arrows, of other shoppers who want the same Nintendo we that you want.
You might have heard uh by midday Friday if you were keeping track of anything in the news out on Long Island, about twenty miles east of the city, out in New York, Walmart um employee crushed to death by a uh stampede of shoppers.
Shades of Riverfront Coliseum, 1979, Cincinnati General Admission Show.
The Who is in town?
Great, open the doors, general admission, no tickets, I mean, no seats, no assigned seats.
What was the death toll there?
There shouldn't be a death toll at a store for a sale.
I believe we only had one fatality, but we had bumps.
We had bruises, we had lacerations.
We had combative shoppers and in some cases petrified employees.
Now, so just as a sociological undertaking, let me ask you, what the heck is going on here?
I understand the appeal of a good deal.
You will not be finding me at at Walmart at four o'clock in the morning for anything.
And I love Walmart.
I will hear no criticism of Walmart.
They uh it's so funny, everybody talks about, well, Walmart's a scourge on society.
Oh, yeah, what a terrible thing they do, helping millions of people save billions of dollars.
Oh, what a terrible thing Walmart is.
Thank God for Walmart.
We might have needed a full um circle of tanks around some of the ones um in some locations, though.
In cases where the store opened and you had a line, well, there's your stampede scenario.
A lot of Walmarts, your Super Walmarts and uh things of that ilk, are open twenty-four hours.
So what do you do then?
Could you sneak in and get savings at 2 a.m.?
Nope.
Which is funny, because some malls here in the Metroplex um couple of malls open at midnight.
Midnight, 1201 a.m.
Or as it was sometimes called 12 a.m., which also drives me nuts.
There is no 12 a.m., there's no 12 p.m.
There's 12 midnight and 12 noon.
Get it?
A.m. anti Meridiani or whatever the Latin is for that, meaning before and and post for PM.
So no, the 12 to 12.
Stop saying 12 a.m. and 12 p.m.
It confuses everybody.
Or maybe just me, then do it for me.
Nonetheless, I digress.
So some places open at midnight.
If you have a Walmart that was open 24 hours, uh the computers flip their switches at five.
So if you're sitting there clutching in Nintendo DS uh, you know, with all your heart, and you're standing in line at 455, they they they scan it, it's regular price.
501, savings, Daddy.
Savings.
So we had this rising tension.
It was like you could feel the blood pressure.
You know, you could just feel it coursing through the g uh through through the veins of shoppers as 445 became 450, 455, 459, and then ring ming ming ming.
And then the bell tolls and the savings are on.
So but here's where I ultimately go, and here's my last word on this, and then I'll hand it over to you and give you a few other stories that are big in the news on this first day of the work week and this first day of December, the last month of 2008.
For every story you hear of Black Friday Carnage, for every story you hear of somebody who took an elbow to the throat or sort of that death in Long Island or just all kinds of terrible things.
For every one story like that, you know what there are about a thousand stories of?
Maybe somebody made a friend standing in line.
Maybe it's like standing in line for Springsteed tickets or something.
You know, you clearly have similar interests.
You'll want to save $300 on a flat screen TV.
Uh but there was probably more bonding than violence, probably more friendships started than uh than fights, and certainly zillions of dollars saved.
So, all in all, a thoroughly good thing.
But does the tension aspect of Black Friday and the actual casualty count make you think that we need to either rethink this or reorganize it or just kind of handle it differently?
So let me establish that as one of the things we can do topically speaking.
Um looking at the the Obama transition and the national security team and his economic plan, there is a Fred Barnes column.
I may um I'll share some of it.
The Weekly Standard, Fred Barnes, and oh how I love Fred Barnes.
He wrote Rebel in Chief, one of the best books written about President Bush.
But you know, here's this.
Is Barack a secret centrist?
The answer to that is no, Fred.
What Barack Obama is is a pragmatist who wants to be free of nightmarish conflict like the last Democrat president faced in his early months.
He's not going to come at us with draconian tax increases.
He's not going to come at us with uh uh forced mandates of driving cars that weigh less than 2500 pounds, at least not yet.
No, we're not gonna you remember Bill Clinton, 1993, gays in the military.
Rodeo's on, man.
Rodeo is on.
No, we're not we're not gonna be getting that.
He will be measured, he will be gradual, he will probably try not to screw up the war.
He will embrace bailouts, but President Bush did that, led me to suggest today that the first year of Barack Obama may be largely indistinguishable from President Bush if he were given a ninth year.
Only until he starts to really rape the successful in this country, which he will get around to doing.
And uh and letting his minions, you will not hear the words fairness doctrine come out of Barack Obama's mouth, but he'll let Henry Waxman talk about it, and Henry Waxman will, because he just beat out John Dingle for the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that might be bringing that scourge to a town near you, silencing listen, it's not about silencing the limbaugh voice.
It's not about silencing the Mark Davis voice on limbaug affiliates like WBAP.
I mean, yes, that is what it's about.
That's what'll happen.
But what the reason you should care, it's about silencing your views.
It's about silencing your views and thoughts.
Conservative thoughts coming out of the radio will be far harder to come by should this devil's work succeed.
I am optimistic.
It will not succeed.
And in fact, there's a part of me that's a little playful about this.
Let them try.
Let them try and watch the fire storm.
Let's watch a quick break go by and let's come back and listen to your calls.
All over the place on the Rush Limbaugh Show.
I'm Mark Davis filling in.
Much appreciated.
1-800-282-2882 back in a moment on the EIB network.
It is the Rush Limbaugh Show for this Monday, December 1st, 2008.
I'm Mark Davis filling in.
Hopefully just today, because hopefully Russia will be feeling better and back with you tomorrow.
1-800-282-2882.
It's a multi-topic day.
I like living life that way, so let's see what happens.
As we head first to York, Pennsylvania, and Charlie, welcome to the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Mark Davis, how are you?
What do you say, Mark?
Plenty.
Yeah, I did have a concern with what you were saying about Barack Obama disparaging the troops by um criticizing the mission.
Correct.
That is false.
That is wrong.
That is the wrong way to conduct national policy.
He would be doing the troops a great disservice if, as a statesman, he was allowing anything goes executive authority.
What?
I don't know, irrespective of executive authority, it is hurtful to a fighting force to have someone seeking to be commander-in-chief disparaging their mission.
That's just self-evident.
Really?
Yes.
What mission is this?
The mission of winning the war on terror as it's being fought since we began this war in 2003.
I'll be no, I'll I think the listeners mostly get it.
I'll do it for you.
The idea is to create in Iraq a secure and stable nation that can be less of a terrorist hotbed and then move from there, hopefully doing the same in Afghanistan, creating a bit of a domino effect so that other Middle Eastern nations will say, Wow, this freedom, this liberty, this self-determination, I want some of that too.
It's a long undertaking, but that's what it's about.
And I think you knew that.
Great strategy, Mark.
Tell me about the tactics.
You tell me what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Well, in Iraq, we have essentially won.
We have a country that is very close to being able to be turned over to the Iraqis, and it will be turned over to them by 2011.
In Afghanistan, we have a Taliban that is fighting harder than they were a couple of years ago, and we probably needed increased troop presence there.
President Bush would have done it.
President Obama will too, and I salute him for that.
Do you read a paper?
So so what are you so what are your concerns here if you're saying that Obama will continue to uh to uh forward these policies?
I I'm giving him credit for it.
I'm giving him credit for us for for inheriting the not inheriting for winning the presidency and taking a look at a war that will now bear his name and saying, wow, maybe all that stuff I was talking about being out in sixteen months, maybe that was stupid.
Maybe that would hand Iraq over to Al Qaeda, and maybe I don't need to do that.
He's had a bit of an epiphany.
Good.
When when was he saying you wanted to be out of Iraq in sixteen months?
Uh that would be dozens of times during the campaign.
Did you fire up a television during 2008?
Yes, I did.
Okay.
I'm pulling out all combat troops very shortly.
That was Bruce's policy, that's his.
You're gonna leave a scale.
No, well, no, no, no.
That's just that's just that's just factually incorrect.
No one, no one in the Bush administration had a plan for quote pulling troops out very shortly.
It was always based on events on the ground.
What is it?
What is it you think they're pulling troops out?
That was the plan.
Yeah, after we win, after we are sufficiently successful that we can bring the troop levels down without handing Iraq over to Al Qaeda, that's when you bring troops out.
Right.
That's because our success.
Right.
Our success is support troops there now.
Right.
It's wonderful policy.
Absolutely.
it is it is Bush policy and it is now Obama policy.
And that's nothing but a good thing.
But while we were in the midst, while we're in the midst of the very important part of the war that involved staying and not pulling out and not cutting and running, while we are in that part, 05, 06, early 07, anyone stepping forward to disparage the troops mission did those troops and his nation a disservice.
What is it what it the troops are political?
You're not doing them a disservice.
They're going to do what they're told regardless.
Well, I know that.
And listen, let me maybe this will solve everything.
There's maybe three, four, seven, five percent, whatever of the troops that aren't on board for the mission, and maybe you are uh achieve a certain brotherhood with them.
Most of them want to win and don't want to hear talk like defeat.
Thanks, Johnny.
Rush back tomorrow.
Uh if all is uh if he loads up on the day quill or whatever has got him down, just a little uh little illness going on there, and I hope it's just a one-day thing.
Because I I love this.
I love when the fill-in uh email comes, but all other things being equal, I join you in wishing for a prompt limb return.
For now, though, you and I are together, Mark Davis out of WBAP in Dallas Fort Worth.
As we go back to some more of your calls, if there's anything that I like to do every once in a while, especially when the clock, the the cruel mistress that is the clock of talk radio, uh, brings us to a perhaps a premature close.
The last gentleman, uh I I want you to understand that I get you, and there's a point that he made that deserves uh sixty seconds of analysis.
The point was made uh it started when I said that to disparage the mission is to ill serve the troops.
Uh I have a lot of company in this regard, but I have said for years and years and years, you cannot support the troops, can not support the troops while not supporting their mission.
They are one and the same.
The gentleman's point, and he's right, is that there are some troops not on board for the mission.
I know there's the occasional disgruntled uh guy or gal out there in the the moonscape of Iraq and Afghanistan.
I I absolutely know that.
But where's the logic going there?
Does that mean that a president, if let's say only ninety-two percent of the troops are actually on board for the mission, does that mean that a president should spend eight percent of his time uh disparaging the war in order to curry favor with or give voice uh to those disgruntled people in uniform?
Come on, don't be stupid.
Even the troops who are not on board for the mission are duty bound to carry it out.
Most of them, God love them, know that.
And they suffer in silence or or whatever.
I wish they would suffer in silence.
Uh the majority actually, I mean, huge doot-do-do, bulletin bulletin.
The majority of the troops actually want to win.
This may be shocking to you, but they actually want to win.
And that is where you begin to get this clap trap of, hey, uh, Mark, they'll uh they'll they just do what they're told.
They're that's wars are political.
The troops are gonna do what they're told.
Well, you know what?
God love them, yes, they will.
Yes, they will.
And from time to time, oh, I don't know, Haiti, Bosnia, there have been things they've been told to do where a whole lot of them might have gone, what in the what are we being asked to do here?
And they shut up and they fill their they fulfill their mission anyway.
I know that there are a few, it is a few, who feel that way about Iraq and Afghanistan.
Understand that completely.
But they are duty bound to fulfill that mission, and elected officials and those seeking to become elected officials are duty bound not to disparage a war in progress while the troops who want to win are trying to win it.
It really is quite simple.
It really is.
So to our last gentleman, I I do understand your point that there are indeed, I I I would I will never suggest and have never suggested that the troops are unanimous in their complete support of the war or its tactics or even its undertaking.
I know full well that there are troops who have not been on board for this, they signed up for college money or they are in the guard and Oh, whoa, here's a Sunday surprise.
I'm going to war.
Whoa.
I know, I know.
I understand.
Totally understand.
But none of that changes the immutable fact that it is and I listen, I don't throw this word around.
An un American thing to do.
To disparage a war in progress.
If you say or do anything to make the footfalls of our troops one pound heavier, with your self-serving political rhetoric, you've done a bad thing for those troops and a bad thing for your country.
And that behavior was sadly spread like a disease across the Democratic Party of the last five years.
Notice I said was.
Oh, you'll the you you'll still find a war basher somewhere.
But now that Obama's president, suddenly everything's okay.
What?
He's running the war now.
Oh, yeah, war.
Love it.
Let's go.
Let's win.
Intriguing, isn't it?
Because as I said in the opening half hour there somewhere, what is Barack Obama going to do?
His policy is the Bush policy.
Beef up Afghanistan, draw down troops in Iraq as the situation warrants, and hand a secure and stable Iraq over to the actual Iraqis in 2011.
That is the Obama policy.
You might recognize it as the Bush policy.
So I don't know if history will record this as the ultimate compliment to the visionary quest by President Bush to aim no lower than the actual wholesale reform of the vast and murderous portion of the Islamic world that's trying to kill us.
But I'll make that um I'll make that note right now, and you can tell me what you think about it.
All righty, uh 1-800-282-2882, 1-800-282-2882.
Let's go to Colby, Kansas.
And Shane.
Hi, Mark Davis in for Rush.
Welcome.
How are you?
I'm doing good.
Megadetto is good to talk to you.
If you can't talk to Rush, might as well talk to Mark, right?
Yeah, you know something?
It's the next best thing to being there, as some commercial once said.
My question is, do you think that the reason Obama's putting Hillary as secretary of state so that maybe she wouldn't try to run against him in 2012, just in case Obama botches things up bad enough that there's Democrats that could maybe run against him?
Not at all.
Eve even if if the Obama presidency is in tatters with approval ratings even lower than President Bush's, if that's mathematically possible.
No serious Democrat will run against him.
It is the height of political suicide to challenge the president of your party in the primaries.
I mean, uh short of the most extraordinary circumstance, an impeachment, uh, you know, the knife of a teenager on a city street.
Uh I mean, I'm serious about this.
If it's just a presidency that just ain't going real well, uh, that that never works out.
And this is true of Democrats, true of Republicans.
Can you imagine?
I mean, President Bush was in the midst of an unpopular war in 2004.
Can you imagine?
And I and listen, every every once in a while you'll get a pat you can, and you'll get a you know, Bob Bar before he's a libertarian or something like that, uh, who will rise up and and mount a challenge that ultimately doesn't mean anything.
No serious uh heavy hitter from a party will ever challenge an incumbent president of his party.
So in no way was this needed to take Hillary out of 2012.
She was out of it the minute he won the nomination.
Okay.
Now, 2016 will be interesting.
I mean, you know, we're all getting older, and she'll be almost 70 in 2016.
But is it possible that she's thinking, okay, I've been a senator.
How about four, if not eight years?
Well, it'd have to be eight.
Years as uh well, it could be four if he loses, then she could turn around and run again in twenty sixteen.
Having Secretary of State on your resume is not bad if you eventually fancy the White House.
I thank you, man.
Appreciate it.
Nice Jayhawks win there in uh in Kansas.
All right, we are next.
Where shall we go?
1800-282-2882, 1-800-282-288-2.
Uh, let us go to Jupiter, Florida.
Mark, Mark Davis, in for rush.
Happy Monday.
How are you?
Good afternoon.
It is a pleasure and an honor to be able to speak with you this afternoon.
Thanks.
I just want to put forth the Proposition that one of the problems that Obama has and any new administration would have today is that we are not coming up in our country with a lot of statesmen, stateswomen, whatever, uh, and a lot of leaders uh who are really prepared for some of these jobs uh to which he has to appoint people to the cabinet.
Uh what he's doing is reaching out to politicians that he happens to know, and some of them he doesn't know very well, obviously.
We all think we know uh Clinton.
I think we pretty well all could take a test on her background and and we'd know what she's all about.
Uh but I think uh like any change of administration, uh he will appoint these people.
Some of them will last for different lengths of time.
Most of them will not last the eight years, and we can say that as you just mentioned about something else on the historical level about challenging a sitting president.
Most cabinet members don't last the eight years for a multitude of reasons.
Uh button.
Let's let's back up.
Let's pause for a moment and let's analyze some of what you said.
Keeping in mind that most people's definition of a statesman is someone who does something that you agree with, keeping in mind that uh that you may be working from that platform.
Where where and and I I said I I'll I'm guilty of that too sometimes.
Um where do you see a glaring lack of it?
I mean, is if i isn't if you have a problem with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is it that she lacks uh uh a statement statesman's mantle, or that you just don't think you agree with her on foreign policy?
Uh no, I don't think she really lacks anything to me for for Obama.
I think she's probably a good fit for Secretary of State.
Then are we talking about Dr. Susan Rice at at the UN?
I mean, she was na uh uh served on the National Security Council.
She was assistant Secretary of State for African affairs during the second Clinton administration.
What what does she love?
What is her problem, other than, again, disagreeing with you on issues?
Well, not qualified because I don't know her well enough, except for some minor stuff that I'd look at.
Interesting definition of qualifications.
Yeah, what what I look at is the the attorney general, for example.
Uh this young fellow, I really uh I have a problem with him because I think he's not a very heavy hitter.
To me, he's almost like an Alberto Gonzalez, who I think is.
Well, did you but well Alberto Gonzalez had been on the on the and some people said this about uh attorney general Gonzalez, he had been a Supreme Court justice in Texas.
And some people said, well, you know, how's that gonna work out?
Um well, obviously it didn't work out so well, but for reasons that had nothing to do with the experience he brought.
Uh as for Eric Holder, he actually was deputy attorney general.
I mean, what do you want here?
Well, I I think I would want somebody who has more depth just because he was carrying out some orders with Janet Reno, and I know her personally from Miami for years and years.
But I I just think you need more than that.
I would want to see somebody who's got more years of maybe professorial leadership, uh, really a constitutional law and you know what I gotta ask you.
These these are not invalid points.
These are absolutely thoroughly worthy points.
But you know what I got to ask you.
Were you okay with Sarah Palin?
Uh no.
Sarah Palin, I I I frankly I think she's a very nice lady and probably a great governor for Alaska.
How do you think that's the one?
You ever survived?
You have survived my trap question, intended to reveal you as someone requiring experience from people you disagree with, but not so much for for agreeing.
You have passed, you have passed the consistency test.
Dog on it, whether it's vice president on the Republican ticket or member of the Obama administration, you just like to see uh a longer, more storied resume.
Period.
And I think what what Obama's trying to put together uh is that ideal cabinet where he can strike it right down the middle and so forth, and that's going to be the case probably with every new president.
I've seen that before with new presidents, we all have.
But then once he gets his feet wet, once he gets into it, uh they're going to have to come over to his way of thinking if they don't think that way already.
One thing that gives me pause is this uh governor who's going to be in charge of homeland security, because I don't know that she has any security background, that she could even be hired by a Wacken Hut or any major security company.
Tell you what, let's do like I need to hit the break.
Let's talk about Governor Napolitano, who is the uh governor of a border state, but uh that doesn't mean anything.
It's how do you feel about the borders uh that makes a difference?
And so let's check into that next.
A wonderful point of departure and a wonderful call, Mark.
Thank you very, very much.
Mark Davis in for Rush Limbaugh, and we shall return in a moment on the EIB network.
It's the Rush Limbaugh Show for Monday, December 1st, 2008.
I'm Mark Davis, down Texas Way, filling in, hopefully just for today.
Not that I don't dig doing the show, but if Rush is under the weather, we need to get him back healthy and happy and in the chair tomorrow.
So hopefully that will happen.
Best wishes to Rush for a speedy recovery from whatever has him down for a day.
All right, let's play that little game called Let's Meet the Secretary of Homeland Security.
That is Janet Napolitano.
She is Italian, but not Catholic.
She's a Methodist.
She was raised in Pittsburgh in Albuquerque.
She graduated from about exactly as old as I am, graduated from high school in Albuquerque, 1975, and voted most likely to succeed.
Well that yearbook's going for a hundred bucks on eBay.
She graduated from Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California.
She won a Truman Scholarship, received her jurisdictor law degree from the UVA, University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville.
And her political career started after she moved uh what she essentially did is after law school, she was a clerk for a judge in the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and then joined that judge's uh former law firm, Lewis and Roca in Phoenix.
Then comes 1991.
She's a partner with that firm, and that was where you probably first heard her name in the news.
She was the attorney for Anita Hill.
You remember that testimony in the U.S. Senate that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her ten years earlier when she was his subordinate at the EEOC.
And history does record, doesn't it?
That of every last human being who knew them both, of everyone who knew both Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas, all of them believed him.
That's fairly important.
Of all the people who knew them both, they all believed him.
So anyway, uh 1993, I'm sure from doing her yeoman's work and attempting to derail uh one of the best justices the Supreme Court has ever had, and yes, I do mean that.
Uh 1993, uh Janet Napolitano was appointed by President Bill Clinton as U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona.
And it was there that she was involved in the investigation of Michael Fort here of Kingman, Arizona in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing.
Then she ran for state attorney general in 1998.
Uh law and order, consumer protection, things like that, while still serving as attorney general.
Then let's put politics aside for a second.
She spoke at the 2000 Democratic National Convention.
I remember this.
It was in Los Angeles.
It was the Al Gore Convention, the Staples Center.
And she spoke just three weeks after having a mastectomy.
And she remembers the pain being so bad she could hardly stand up.
And uh there's great heroism in that.
So go to O2.
She wins the gubernatorial election in Arizona and uh wins it again in 2006.
She is term-limited out, so hey, why not go be national security advisor?
Now, um, excuse me, excuse me.
Uh Secretary of Homeland Security.
National Security Advisor is going to be retired Marine General Jim Jones.
So why not go be Secretary of Homeland Security?
Well, there's really only one problem with that, and that is as a Democrat and a member of the Obama administration.
How uh how willing will she be to do the two things that are the definition of Homeland Security?
Uh recognizing the threat of uh of the murderous portion of the Islamic faith and recognizing the threat of waves of illegal immigrants from the South.
Is she going to be on board with either of those?
I'm guessing not.
Back to your calls in a moment.
Mark Davison for Rush Limbaugh on the EIB Network.
I have a choice.
It is a difficult one, But I believe I've reached the proper conclusion.
I can give a caller who's been on hold for a few minutes about 30 seconds to make a point, or I can simply tell you what lies ahead and get out in time for the news.
I choose B. So coming up, uh, we're going to Amy, stay with me now, because I'm going to plug you.
Amy and Augusta wants to talk about Sarah Palin coming to her state to go to bat for Saxby Shamblis.
And how's that runoff going to go tomorrow?
I have a thought about that, so Amy, I'll need you for a few minutes over the newscast, and then we'll talk as soon as it's over.
And a bunch more of you as well.
▲
Export Selection