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June 8, 2010 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:47
June 8, 2010, Tuesday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 Podcast.
A pleasant Tuesday to you, everybody.
It is the Tuesday Rush Limbaugh Show.
I'm Mark Davis with you today and tomorrow.
Thoroughly enjoyed Walter Williams yesterday.
You'll enjoy Mr. Belling on Thursday and Friday.
Rush will be back from the honeymoon, one week from today.
And so as we launch into the topics that Rush would be doing if he were here, and there's no small list there, and we thank you enormously for listening, even when Rush is not here.
Those of us who are on the substitute host bench are always honored and always pleased to have your company.
But uh let me just be the you know millionth person to weigh in and wish the very, very best uh to the new Mr. and Mrs. Limbaugh, to Rush and to Catherine, and to just wish them the greatest uh this week for a happy honeymoon and then for a happy life to follow.
Well, for uh today's talk show to follow and tomorrow's, it is you and me.
Let's see what let's put together, shall we?
1-800-282-2882.
I join you from Proud Limbaugh affiliate WBAP in Dallas Fort Worth, where I have my own show each day until they take that away from me.
And uh just finish doing that, by the way.
And that's why it's always great to fill in for Rush, because the the a many is the time that a talk show host will reach the end of his own show and whatever local enclave he's blessed to occupy.
And you got lines loaded with people and topics still bouncing around in your head, and you go, dang, I just wish I had more show.
Well, uh today was one of those days, and uh it's the overtime to beat all overtimes.
I get to finish my own program and then do three hours on the nearly 700 stations on the EIB network.
So wherever you are and wherever you're listening, uh thanks.
And in fact, let me uh reach out to some of you uh for special assistance today.
Love to hear from some of you in California, love to hear from some of you in Arkansas, love to hear from some of you in Nevada, love to hear from some of you in South Carolina just to pick a few states because today is a massively important primary election day.
What's gonna happen?
I mean, is Carly Fiorina gonna beat Barbara Boxer?
Is she the one who's gonna be anointed today?
Uh I at some point we got to talk about, you know, Jerry Brown, uh, who it appeared will be the uh the the Democrat nominee, you know.
Uh what is he, 90?
And I know he's 70, early 70s, I know.
He was he was quite the quite the young prodigy forty or so years ago when he was at the front of the California political scene.
As attorney general now, he was mayor of Oakland.
Boy, everything old is new again.
And uh and we have a ton of things going on in Arkansas with Blanche Lincoln and uh, you know, what's South Carolina without a sex scandal.
Uh on the Nikki Haley thing, I'll weigh in on that.
I really want to hear some good folks from Palmetto State do that, because I would say this if it were a Democrat candidate.
Uh and so many things you just gotta give yourself a consistency check.
If a candidate's cruising along, looking strong, and in the last days, you know, up pops some uh story of an affair, a story of some uh some sexual malfeasance, uh and it's just not corroborated and it's never been out before, and there's no prior pattern of of things like this.
I mean, some candidates are more susceptible to this than others, if you get my drift.
Um my inclination would be to to dismiss it.
Uh and I would, and again, and I would say that if if somebody had victimized uh a Democrat in this regard.
But listen, if there's uh if there's a thought you want to share about that, then go right ahead.
So big time primaries, because we're gonna find out um uh in many cases from a Republican perspective, we're gonna find out who we're who we're putting up.
We're gonna find out who are putting up against Harry Reed.
Maybe one of the more interesting Republican primaries in in Nevada, not just for uh for for senator, but for governor, where Harry Reed's son Rory, quite the uh quite the the uh the key player there.
So we've got all kinds of things going on.
And uh uh some of the th some of what I just finished talking about with my Texas audience was I'll believe Harry Reed loses when I see it.
I mean, it's easy.
I I mean uh Nancy Pelosi can have that seat of hers for as long as she wants it.
She could probably die and win that seat From the grave because it's that district in California, and that's how wacky left it is.
This is Nevada.
Nevada, excuse me, don't want those angry calls.
It's Nevada.
I was going to say it's not Massachusetts, but they just elected Scott Brown.
Whom shall we use?
Whom shall we use?
You know, it's not a hardcore blue state.
It's Nevada.
And you would think that that the slings and arrows of Harry Reed's reputation and policies and gaffes and uh that that it'd be sufficiently damaging that he would be a really endangered species.
And he may be.
I I don't know.
And you don't know either, and that's none of us will know until we see a, who's running against him.
We find that out tonight.
And B, uh what kind of campaign does he run.
I was uh just last evening in the company of a guy you know well.
That would be Frank Luntz, polster, uh message guru extraordinaire, uh author of books like Words That Work and and not just on politics, but is in fact his most recent book is uh what Americans really want really, asking Americans about all kinds of things across uh uh the the issues spectrum.
Anyway, I think Frank is is a lot of the time uh an unmitigated genius on uh on crafting messages and what works and what doesn't.
And one of the great things about Frank is he'll tell a room full of Republicans, as he did last night.
He'll give them the good news and the bad news.
He'll tell you when a Democrat has a good ad, when a Republican has a crappy ad.
He'll do all of that.
Uh and he did last night.
It was at an event for uh for one of my favorite people walking the earth, and that is Third District Congressman Sam Johnson, uh Plano North Dallas, just uh I mean Vietnam uh veteran, uh seven years in the captivity of the uh of the North Vietnamese.
Just I I would walk through fire for this man.
And I've mceed so many things for him.
And anyway, so that was his event last night in Dallas, and the guest was was Frank Lunz.
And I took a bunch, I took fairly copious notes as Frank went through uh uh a number of things.
One of the things he did is uh he showed us a Harry Reed ad, and it frightened me.
As as well it should for anybody who's looking to get rid of Harry Reed, uh because it's just a really good ad.
And again, what's the definition of a good ad?
It's not one that you and I are going to agree with if you're conservative.
I mean, uh please, it's Harry Reed sitting at a kitchen table talking about some lady who's having a health care crisis and how he's gonna make her life better.
Now you and I can sit around and look at that and go, pfft, that's ridiculous.
It's it's gonna be rationing.
It's based on Obamacare, it's a fraud, all of which is true.
But, but again, in objectively evaluating an ad, there is only one question.
Will it make people nod in agreement?
Will it make people stroke their chins and go, huh, that sounds good to me.
If the answer to that is yes, it's a good ad, whether I agree with it or you agree with it or not.
Because again, it's Nevada.
And apparently the landscape of Nevada is that there are plenty of conservatives who you know have no intention of voting for Harry Reed.
And uh, but they're the same conservatives who've always been there, and and he wins anyway.
And what you also have are the Democrats who do not want to lose him and his clout.
So what's the swing in Nevada?
What is the uh what's what's the X factor in Nevada?
It is call it what you will, the the independent vote, the undecided vote, people who are not hostile to Harry Reed, you know, he doesn't make their teeth itch yet, uh, but nor are they enormous fans of his, and they are there to be swayed.
Uh toward Harry Reed by Harry Reed and away from him by whoever the Republican nominee is going to be.
And already Stan in Las Vegas, I'm looking at you.
Sit tight, next segment, I'm coming right to you because I'm ready to take some calls from these primary states.
And to uh to take a look at a number of other things, too, because obviously uh you can't uh get too far into a talk show these days without doing some oil spill talk.
And listen, I you know the newscast are there and and the morning shows are all there to show you the uh the the underwater video of that stuff just belching up from uh from beneath the uh the the uh gulf uh floor.
But uh let me leave you uh uh for this segment with one thing, and then we'll take our first break and start diving into calls and going wherever you and I jointly decide to go.
I want to tell you about a woman who is not far down the road from me in Texas.
Her name is Arlene Weiss, W-E-I-S-E.
She's from Victoria.
Actually, she is a long way down the road from me in Texas because it's Texas.
We have long roads.
There was an interesting subject that arose on my local show this morning of the invitations that the families of the eleven men killed in the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion.
These families have been invited to the White House next week.
So, you know, you could see this coming ten miles away.
I start to get calls of isn't this just a photo op?
Is this a good thing?
You know, is isn't this just so the White House can have a moment of goodwill while they're getting their teeth kicked in, and you know, all of that is distinctly possible.
But I I boiled it down for that caller, and I'll boil it down for you in the following way.
Take away the personalities.
You know, that make it any president, any tragedy that's front of mind for the country.
Is it a good idea for the White House to invite grieving families to to the to Washington to the White House as a gesture of uh uh uh of support and outreach a gesture on behalf of an appreciative nation?
And the answer is yes, that's a good idea.
Now, I don't want these families trundled out in some photo op in the East Room.
I would hope that these condolences are offered in private.
I would expect some family members will be interviewed or going in or interviewed going out.
Hey, free country, nothing wrong with that.
That's not White House orchestrated.
But uh again, I so I would like for this to be private.
If there is a photo op, I'll be the first to say that's just not right.
But the invitation to these families is fine.
It's just fine.
Especially when you consider that Arlene Wise will be in that room.
She's from Victoria, Texas.
And she said she was phoned by an Obama aide and accepted the invitation for next week on behalf of her son Adam, who died in the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
She will go to the White House next week, accompanied by Adam's grandmother and Adam's girlfriend.
Arlene says she will tell the president that while she greatly supports efforts to save wildlife and to stop the spill, that no good is being done by halting deep water drilling and taking jobs from men like her son.
Quote, it is kicking the legs out from under the energy industry.
Look at all the oil field workers he's putting out of work.
Nobody mentions these guys.
Her son Adam, 24 years old from Yorktown, Texas, was on duty in the pump room when the rig exploded in April.
As Arlene Wise sees it, the accident was so rare that it doesn't provide a foundation for halting other drilling.
Another quote from Arlene.
I don't think it's doing anything beneficial for anyone, she said of the moratorium.
When's the last time they had an explosion like this?
Arlene Wise will be in the White House and says she will say this to the President of the United States.
God bless her.
So I'm fine with the president inviting these folks.
That's a that's a lovely gesture.
That's good.
Let's not have the big photo op.
Let's have it be private.
Let's have it be I think that thing that's just fine.
And I become du and I'm not looking for Arlene to, you know, ream the president or to give uh him the back of her hand.
No, no, no, but just um amid what is a moment of condolence, amid what is listen, if you got the opportunity, I would love for her to civilly and respectfully make those points.
Somebody ought to.
Because here's Arlene Wise, whose son died in the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion.
She's got every reason to be bitter, and yet she has a better long view and more clarity on the drilling issue than the president does.
So let's hope he learns a little something from her during this visit by those families next week.
All right, let's see what let's learn from each other on today's Rush Limbaugh Show.
I'm Mark Davis filling in from Texas.
Great to have you uh with us, and the numbers 1 800-282-2882.
1-800-282-2882.
We'll go to calls.
I got more stories, just a big old happy day.
Well, not everything's happy, but I'm happy to be with you.
Mark Davis filling in for Rush Limbaugh on the EIB Network.
It is the Tuesday Rush Limbaugh Show.
I'm Mark Davis filling in.
Ask what you will, and uh it shall be done here on the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Ask for some uh help, some thoughts from some states where key primaries are uh are underway, where voting is underway.
So let's just dive right in.
I got all kinds of other stories that I can mention, but if we've got somebody on the horn from Las Vegas talk a little Nevada, let's do it.
Stan, welcome to the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Mark Davis, how are you, sir?
I'm doing fine, Mark.
Great to have me on your show.
It's my great pleasure.
What is your thought as of uh as some folks are duking it out for the opportunity to try to take down Harry Reed?
Well, uh they're trying to imply that uh if uh they don't uh win the primary that uh everybody's gonna vote for Harry Reed instead, because they are the chosen person.
I was listening to a local talk show yesterday morning and Sue Loudon was on there, and she made the statement that her supporters were telling her that if she didn't win the primary, that they were going to go ahead and vote for Harry Reed because they already knew what kind of a person Harry Reed was.
The devil you know versus the devil you don't know.
Um I'm always skeptical about things like that because it involves someone just selling out everything that they should stand for.
I mean, if somebody is a Dyed in the Wool Liberal, please go vote for Harry Reed in November, because that's exactly what you ought to do.
But if somebody is is looking uh at Sue Louden, looking at at the you know the every Republican running there, and and that means they're looking to get rid of Harry Reed.
Uh and then all of a sudden, if their particular Republican, if their particular favored person doesn't win.
I mean, uh we got this in in 2008.
People called me and said, well, McCain's not conservative enough.
Maybe they were a Romney person or you know, or or whatever kind of person they were.
Duncan Hunter, whatever.
And they'd say, Well, you know, if if my guy doesn't win, I might as well just go vote for Obama.
That drove me insane.
John McCain on his worst day is is a a better prospect than Barack Obama.
And uh so I just wonder, I I wonder if that's just people blowing off steam.
Well, I think Sue Loudoun is desperate now because she started out leading the polls, and now she is running third amongst the three top runners, and and she is uh I I just think she's absolutely desperate, but that was a desperate statement that she made yesterday.
So uh we have uh Danny Tarkanian and we have Sharon Angle.
Um this is all individual business on a secret ballot country, but it's not like we have your address.
Uh who'd who who whom would you support?
Whom would you like to see win?
Well, uh I made the mistake of telling the talk show host that yesterday, and so she turned my comment into uh I was trying to bash Sue because I was voting for somebody else.
Well, but that then l well I tell you what, I'll give you more benefit of the doubt.
And God bless the local host, I'm sure.
But uh I I think that you are entitled uh to have criticism of Sue that that is objectively held, whether that means that uh uh that you're an angle supporter or a Tarkanian supporter.
I mean, uh many is the time that I've had uh critical words for somebody I ultimately voted for, or uh grudging praise for somebody that I didn't.
That's just called being objective.
Then let me ask you just ultimately, uh what's your gut?
Who do you think wins?
I I'm positive that Sharon is gonna win this.
I mean, uh the Tea Party has uh stepped out and supported her when she first started running.
I didn't think she had the chance because she didn't have any name recognition, but she's being recognized now.
She is, and now comes the tricky question, all right?
Because obviously I'm a huge fan of Tea Party candidates.
However, I I will wonder if the the Tea Party candidate is necess I mean, Kentucky, great Tea Party uh territory.
Uh is Nevada sufficiently Tea Party friendly that she is the strongest candidate against Harry Reed.
Didn't we have one of the biggest Tea Party gatherings ever here at Search Flash?
Oh, i indeed so.
Aerial photographs prove it.
Absolutely true.
But you know what that's called?
That's called everybody wanting to go to a Tea Party event going to a Tea Party event.
The general election, and and I'm not saying that that's meaningless, not at all.
Are you kidding me?
I love that story.
But uh it the November is is everybody bringing their best.
Everybody bringing their A game.
And I'm this is not me saying that that Ms. Angle is not the best uh candidate.
I'm just sort of I tell you what, I'm gonna I'm just wondering out loud.
Let me thank you, Stan, and get some other Nevadans on on the horn there.
Because uh I I I don't know.
I don't know.
And you know me.
My my main philosophy is uh, and I you know, I'm not the first to say this.
Whom do I like?
I like the most conservative candidate that can win.
The most conservative candidate that can win.
Mark Davis in Farush be right back.
And I hope it's a good Tuesday for you.
We're plowing our way through some of the primary uh elections, and we're really gonna do that in in serious fashion.
Uh not that we're unserious now, but things get uh a lot more uh weighty and academic when Michael Barone is in the House, and he will be at the beginning of the next hour, this incredible chronicler of of matters political.
Now the examiner uh the examiner um uh staff, the staff, so he's sharpening pencils.
He's just the the key political analyst there for for the examiner, the place that uh gives us all kinds of quality stuff um all the time.
And uh so he'll be with us beginning of next hour.
Now, uh we got a lot of show today, and we definitely need to get to uh the Jew hating of Helen Thomas and how that wound up being her undoing and the curious notion that who didn't know that she was a Jew hater.
And it's it's wild that Helen Thomas ascends to this lofty peak of uh of journalism, supposedly, as as biased and unobjective.
I mean, she's the picture of everything that is wrong in journalism, and yet it is the swashbuckler blogosphere journalism of the moment that brought her down.
A rabbi with a flip video camera.
Uh there's so many layers to the undoing of Ms. Thomas that it's just too uh it's just too delicious, and we will uh certainly examine that.
All right, we've done some uh done some Nevada.
Uh let's go to Arkansas, where Blanche Lincoln may not be long for this world politically, challenged from the left.
We are in Fort Smith and Thomas, you're on the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Mark Davis filling in.
How are you?
I'm incredible, Mark.
How are you?
Well, we'll see about that, won't we?
It's nice, it's nice to have you.
Hello, what's uh what's your thought?
Oh, I was uh wanted to comment on uh Bill Halter this morning, uh the primaries are this morning, as you know, and uh all all morning long they've been playing ads.
A third party, not not authorized by Halter, of course, you know, but uh Blanche Lincoln's gonna take away your social security if you vote for her.
I just thought it was funny.
They're they're using that on each other now, not just Republicans.
Well, this is this is what happens when when Blanche Lincoln is challenged from the left, and and I I gotta tell you, just right now.
I mean, you tell me if you notice anything different, but from the national perch of a lot of people looking into your state of Arkansas, looks like Bill Halter is gonna win.
He's gonna beat her, isn't he?
Well, I can tell you on the ground here, it sure seems that way.
Uh, I don't know any conservative that's not, you know, they they just hate her.
And the the Democrats don't like her.
They think she's too conservative for them.
You know, some of them like her enough that have kept her in, but I don't think she's gonna she's gonna make it this time.
Well, then let's let's go to the guy whose name, you know, rarely comes up in or hasn't come up nearly enough nationally speaking, is is is let's say that the Mr. Halter sends Blanche back to private life.
Does does John Boosman, uh Arkansas's third district congressman, who's, you know, there is a Republican running after all, uh can uh can this guy win?
Bozeman.
Yeah, I think he's actually pronounced Bozeman, yes.
Boseman, I'm sorry.
Pardon me for being looking fanatically at it.
That's all right.
Uh he's uh I think he can win.
You know, he's not the most enthusiastic guy in the world, but he's got some pretty decent uh some pretty decent conservative standpoints.
And uh you know, he's pretty well respected here in in my part of the state.
And uh, you know, if it was against him in Halter where I live, you know, uh, I think he could easily win, but you know, the rest of the state, I don't know how people feel just where I am.
I think he could win.
Yeah, I mean, this uh I mean, this was Asa Hutchinson's seat that he now occupies, and he was a big deal.
And I mean, it is Arkansas.
Hello, it's Arkansas, and I know that's what gave us Bill Clinton, but you know, I'd like to think a Republican has a chance in in what is, you know, basically a Southern state.
Well, the the Congress here, State Congress is dominated by Democrats, but they're gun-loving, Bible thumping Democrats.
So you get you get too far out there and you're gonna lose them.
Good point.
All righty, well, listen, thank you for the input uh from Arkansas.
What's the over-under on when the when the national guy makes a local pronunciation gaff?
You know something, in all honesty.
If your name is, if you're in politics and your name is spelled B-O-O-Z-M-A-N, you probably ought to pronounce it Bozeman, too.
It's probably just a good idea.
Well, let's go to uh another state and a more easily pronounceable name, that's Nikki Haley.
Facet is in this while how how about this?
How about two Southern governors of Indian descent?
Bobby Gendal and Nikki Haley.
First thing she has to do is win uh today's primary, and let's see how that's working out, because there's a la being, and I'm pardoned being South Carolina, there's a sex scandal is what everybody's saying.
That's horribly unfair.
But I know you got a narrative going there.
Yeah, that weird, creepy Mark Sanford story.
But uh the good people of South Carolina are just looking for good government.
Let's go to Aiken, South Carolina, and welcome John to the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Hey, John, Mark Davis filling in.
How are you?
I'm fine.
How are you doing?
Very well.
Thanks.
Well, uh, reason I'm calling in, I'm I'm heading to the poll today, and I'm gonna be voting for Nikki Haley.
Uh, and what has everybody been saying about the the just the last couple of days for all of a sudden there's word of, you know, extramarital this and that and such.
I don't remember one guy saying if she says she didn't uh, you know, have an affair with me, she's not telling the truth.
Is that going over at all?
Well, I think of all the accusations to make, that would be the best one because that's on everybody's mind on here with our current governor.
Um, but I don't think it's sticking because, as you said earlier, it's a last minute ditch effort.
And uh in my opinion, it's not sticking.
Um I know that, and I know she still has a lead as of this weekend, is small, but it's still a lead.
A lot of people are saying, uh I've been reading a lot of columns about this, and uh one bit of spin here, and listen, so some spin is actually worthy, if it's uh based on something.
Uh is this the good old boy network scared to death of her?
That's what I think it is.
Uh I think she has sound uh campaign and was speaking to the issues, and I think and I don't know where the accusations are necessarily coming from, if they're a Republican or Democrat, but it definitely smells like sh she was the leader, and we got to do something to bring her down.
Yep.
Uh and and listen, with nothing to corroborate and no established pattern of this kind of nonsense, it's it's the kind of stuff that just doesn't stick.
Uh John, thank you.
And and let me let me share the the piece that I found actually this morning that that got me thinking about this.
Uh uh Mary Curtis in uh a politics daily dot com blog.
Headline is Nikki Haley, Sex and Race, the last gasp of the good old boys.
And she writes today, it was supposed to be politics and usual, uh politics as usual, with the usual results.
Paint a female on the rise with the scarlet letter, and for good measure remind people that her parents came from someplace else where the people are dark and might wear a turban, and then sit back, preferably with a cigar in one hand and a bourbon in the other, and watch said candidates slink away as voters run back to a daddy figure who knows best.
Wow.
Then Mary herself writes in parentheses, excuse the stereotyping, but when a guy plays the raghead card, he deserves what he gets.
In this case, though, if the polls are any indication, the reliable tactics stalled.
Rather than hide, South Carolina gubernatorial hopeful Nikki Haley has traveled across the state in the days before the primary, dismissing recent accusations as a distraction and touting her Tea Party and small government message.
According to a public policy polling survey conducted June 5 and 6, Haley leads the Republican field of four at 43% with her closest competitor 20 points behind.
She's actually gained four points since the last survey taken before the infidelity accusations and an ethnic slur took the race to a new low.
Whether you agree with the policies of the woman who wants to be the first woman governor of South Carolina, you might take some comfort that the mud that is slung no longer sticks.
But boy, when Haley first moved to the front of the pack, it got tossed by the bucketful.
We'll know more after Tuesday's results.
State rep Ralph W. Norman, a Haley supporter, told me he thinks the controversy is actually a plus for his candidate.
The conservative Haley might commiserate with another woman in recent headlines, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan scrutinized for the way she sits and holds a baseball bat.
One is criticized for not enough socializing, another for too much.
Will Folkes, a conservative blogger and lobbyist Larry Marchant, a former campaign worker for rival Andre Bauer, who sits at the bottom of the poll, uh said they've shared pillow talk with Haley.
Then State Senator Jake Knott used raghead to describe Haley and the president of the United States, two elected officials who may be politically opposed but are similar in the way that matters most to Mr. Knott's.
Haley is a Methodist, by the way, born and raised in South Carolina, attended Clemson University there.
Her parents, immigrants from India, are Sikhs, which must make Haley some sort of stealth candidate, according to Mr. Knott.
Anyway, that that's uh there are ten talk shows just streaming out of that South Carolina race, and that's one of the ones we'll be paying a lot of attention to.
Uh listen, in in our next segment, let's go uh let's go to the the the the meltdown the career suicide of Helen Thomas.
Uh how did it happen, why did it happen, and the audio that made it happen, and uh your thoughts about that.
Uh we can walk and chew gum at the same time.
Everything you're on the line for now, various other states, join us.
It's uh it's a happy uh primary day, where no matter what happens, we cherish the ability to walk into polling places and plot our own future in a free country.
That is what we seek for the entire world.
We are at war today so that people in Iraq and Afghanistan and across the Middle East can have the same kind of thrill that we feel today in these primary elections.
We have our sons and daughters dodging whizzing bullets and and and uh tiptoeing across IED laden fields so that others around the world can have what so many of us take for granted.
So let's not take it for granted.
Mark Davis in for Rush Limbaugh, 1-800-282-288-2, back in a moment.
It is the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Mark Davis filling in 1-800-282-2882.
All right, we're gonna continue to take your calls throughout the show, of course, and Michael Barone joining us to talk about the primary elections and uh just the entire outlook going forward from today all the way to a very important November.
But the um a couple of the big stories of the week involve some audio, so let's uh let's share.
Here's uh here's Helen Thomas uh destroying her own career.
Rabbi with a flip phone video.
True.
And uh and and the rest, as they say, is history.
Comments on Israel.
We're arresting everybody today.
They come on the city.
Oh.
Any better comments.
Helen is fine.
Remember, these people are occupied.
And it's their land.
That German poor.
So where should they go?
What should they do?
Go home.
Where's the home?
Poland.
So the Jews.
Germany.
And America and everywhere else.
Yeah, that uh that Jewish experience in Poland, how'd that work out for everybody?
Some decades back.
Listen, you get to be an idiot in Washington.
Some suggest it's a prerequisite at some levels.
But wow.
But the thing in in a couple of days of this story, the thing that struck me as interesting is everybody knew that Helen Thomas uh held uh i it you can hold anti-Israel views without being an anti-Semite, okay?
Uh please, of course you can.
Uh, there are reasons to be for or against anything on the world stage.
Uh, you become an anti-Semite when your anti-Israel position is because you just don't like Jews.
And it's not always possible to climb inside someone's head and someone's heart and say, well, I magically know that you are uh driven by bigotry.
But doggone it.
Uh if uh repla and I've the the big drill for the last couple of days has been, you know, replace uh Jews with blacks and suggest uh to have someone on camera suggesting that they all you know go home to Africa and how long would we spend uh uh you know twiddling our thumbs wondering if that was racist.
Uh different people certainly get a different uh different size scoop of benefit of the doubt.
Uh the ultimate history of the Helen Thomas undoing is that she chose to share some things.
She had she had said at one point, you know, thank God for a Hezbollah.
You know, there were there was uh I mean it's not like this is the first thing that uh that this woman had ever said.
It wasn't like this was the first warning sign that anyone might have had that uh that that that something was um uh uh amiss or that that something uh that there was there was something that she lacked on the the objectivity trail.
Howard Kurtz, who chronicles media uh issues for the Washington Post.
Let me share a little bit of what he he's rolled out today.
Helen Thomas ended a storied career at the White House dating from the Kennedy era on Monday, days after making inflammatory remarks on Israel to a rabbi with a video camera.
The rabbi was David Nessanoff, and he said, quote, frankly, I was shocked.
Uh they were at the White House for a Jewish heritage celebration on May 27th.
Helen Thomas, Queen of Timing, and simply ask the Hearst Newspapers columnist.
It's kind of funny because I I I'd love to if I ever get the chance to talk to the rabbi, I w I just want to shake his hand.
Walking up to Helen Thomas and saying, Hey, any comments on Israel?
Jean, yes.
Anyway, her response that Israeli Jews should get the hell out of Palestine, as if there were a country called Palestine.
There once was, there may yet again be, but right now there's not.
And go home to Germany, Poland, and America.
Anyway, Nessanov said later on this was vile.
It was a paradigm of hate talk.
She felt comfortable saying this in front of two boys wearing yarmulkes.
Her hostility toward Israel, Howard Kurtz writes, has been no secret within the beltway.
She asked questions no hard news reporter would ask, said CBS correspondent Mark Knowler.
Questions that carried an agenda and reflected her point of view, and there were some reporters who felt that was inappropriate.
As a columnist, she felt totally unbound from any of the normal policies of objectivity that every other reporter in the room felt compelled to abide by, and sometimes her questions were embarrassing to other reporters.
Mark Rabin, a former freelance cameraman for CNN, said that in a 2002 conversation at the White House, Helen said, thank God for Hezbollah for driving Israel out of Lebanon, adding that, quote, Israel is the cause for 99% of all of this terrorism.
So anyone surprised to discover a little bit of Jew hating on the part of Helen Thomas, anyone shocked, shocked at this, has not been paying attention to Helen.
All right.
For next segment, let's uh hop back to some calls, shall we?
1-800-282-2882, Mark Davis in for Rush and back in a moment.
It's the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Couple of minutes left in this first hour.
Mark Davis filling in from WBAP, Dallas Fort Worth.
We've done a lot of Nevada, some South Carolina, some Arkansas.
Let's close things out this hour, but much more to come on this, especially with Michael Barone at the beginning of the next hour.
Let's go to Fresno Talks in California, where it's a huge day at a number of levels.
Ben, welcome to the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Mark Davis filling in.
How are you?
Hey, thanks, Mark.
I'm doing well.
Thanks for having me on.
What's your best shot?
What are you thinking about in California today?
Hey, I'm out here uh helping out with uh a guy named Jim Patterson.
He's the uh Tea Party conservative out here running in the nineteenth congressional district, running against the Liberal Republican uh Jeff Denham.
And uh Jim's been outspent ten to one and he's still uh up there leading in the polls right now.
And I'm just asking anybody who uh who's listening to you, Mark, and listens to Rush, who hasn't voted yet to vote for Jim Patterson, the only true conservative running in this.
Can anybody beat Barbara Boxer?
Yeah, I think uh I think any one of the candidates could.
I love Chuck DeVore.
Um, you know, Carly Fiorina's uh she's great, she's good too.
I'm not a huge Campbell supporter, but I understand.
Well, I tell you what, I'm gonna ask Michael Barone about all of those, and thank you for giving us some California flavor.
Much appreciated.
And Michael Barone, who is uh who's there's no bigger brain on stuff like this, and he's coming up next.
Mark Davis in for rush.
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