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March 17, 2011 - Rush Limbaugh Program
33:19
March 17, 2011, Thursday, Hour #3
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Time Text
Now that made me forget what I was gonna say here.
Oh well, it'll come back to me.
Hi and welcome back, folks.
Rush Limbaugh, this the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, the Limbaugh Institute for an advanced conservative studies.
As usual, half my brain tied behind my back.
Just to make it fair.
The telephone number you want to be on the program is 800 282-2882, the email address L Rushbow at EIBNet.com.
Let me expand on this just a little bit.
Something I mentioned in the close of the previous hour.
This this situation in Libya.
Who are the rebels?
We naturally we see Qaddafi, we see bad guy.
See, rebels, we see good guys.
Anybody wants to get rid of Qaddafi's going to be a good guy.
Well, in the context here of U.S. foreign policy, the Mid East on fire, what is it going to become?
We do have a vested interest in this.
So in Libya.
Pardon the sniffles.
Oh, I know what I was going to say.
I I'm getting uh get something out of the way here.
People have been sending me emails.
What is the uh this occasionally people see me playing with my eSig.
My electronic cigarette, what kind do you use?
And I I uh two, uh probably the one I use the most is uh the website is I smoked this dot com.
And then there is uh the one Hawaii ah uh volcano.
Joe Volcano and the boys over in Hawaii.
Uh so if you just Google Volcano, you'll find their website are I Smoke This.
And if you go to the I Smoke This site, uh they've got two different kinds, the duo and the trio.
The duo, a little more expensive, but they're far easier and uh just less less of a hassle.
So that's it.
I can ask this question now and then this situation in Libya, excuse me, wrong button, is very interesting because the opposition, the rebels, is probably, this is not known for certain, largely influenced by Al Qaeda, you know, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
The automatic assumption was that this was a democracy movement, an uprising for freedom.
So had clapper from this administration saying, well, the Muslim Brotherhood, they're secular, they're really they're not a problem.
Good guys, essentially, which is a wrong.
B, it's dangerous to have somebody in our administration who thinks that, much less says it.
But it still isn't known, and we might have the most fervent hopes and desires that a democracy movement is rising.
But the odds of this in the Middle East, without our involvement, I don't know.
I don't trust it.
We had a democracy movement in Iraq.
We took it to Iraq.
We delivered it.
Libya sent fighters to help the insurgents in Iraq.
The people...
The Eastern the people that we were employing the surge against Libya was sending fighter jets to support.
So to assume that simply because we oversaw, one might say implemented, democracy movement in Iraq that's gonna automatically arise elsewhere is a wonderful hope, but you can't count on it, particularly without any kind of involvement.
But yet, so many people in this country uh Mubarik got to go.
Mubarak.
Everything was measured, was more of a an ally than he wasn't to us.
He didn't treat his people well.
But there again comes this balance.
Foreign policy and this region.
You don't want a caliphate over there.
And there are arguments, you know, some people think that uh a caliphate is in the process of being put together, and others say that's silly.
They're not gonna be a caliphate.
Can you take the chance?
You can't just sit back and take the chance that a caliphate will never happen.
Sharia caliphate, I'm talking about.
You just can't sit around and take the chance that that's not what's happening.
So the rebels in Libya.
They are largely influenced by Al Qaeda.
But up the road in Bahrain, they've got rebels there too.
They've got rebels in Saudi Arabia.
Now that's unique too.
Royal family in Saudi Arabia is the closest thing to a steel trap that there is in the world today outside the Chikoms and North Koreans.
For there to be uprisings there, quite telling.
The rebels in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are Shiites.
The Shi'ites obviously are largely influenced by Iran.
So look at the competing forces here.
Al Qaeda, probably in Libya.
Iran, everywhere, but particularly now in Libya.
These are tough calls.
Who do you support?
Conventional wisdom, public support.
Qaddafi.
Gotta go.
Pan Amning of the Pan Am jetliner, Libya and Qaddafi responsible for it.
Well, we did have him contained, but remember, he even he George W. Bush and the move into Iraq, Libya disarmed.
Qaddafi got scared to death.
We had Libya contained until this regime assumes power.
Now you can say whatever you want about Qaddafi, but we can quote him.
He thinks Obama's one of them.
I don't care whether it is or not, and I'm not saying it.
It doesn't matter what I think in this regard.
Qaddafi is saying he thinks Obama's one of them.
So he's acting like it too.
Thank me.
He's acting like it.
And so far, what is he to think?
Got a lot of huffing and puffing.
They send Mrs. Clinton over there.
Big whoop.
So this is, you know, what are we going to do?
Tough calls.
It's why you need people with real good judgment and a lot of experience.
The United States, foreign policy-wise, in the past, always looked to for many reasons.
Our power, obviously, our money, but we were also viewed as honest brokers.
On balance, people around the world thought they were going to get a fair shake.
Look at our foreign aid budget.
We give foreign aid to scoundrels.
I would change that as we've been through many, many times.
Bottom line is I don't think Obama thinks the U.S. has been honest brokers.
I think in every realm that the way we think of our country, uh having moral standing in the world, uh force for good against evil, solution to the world's problems.
I don't think that this regime, or certainly not Obama, I don't believe he believes it.
You got Reverend Wright.
I'm sure Reverend Wright and Farrakhan have probably told Qaddafi things that make Qaddafi think he's safe behaving this way.
Qaddafi's been given awards by Farrakhan.
You can say, Farrakhan's a nut, so's Qaddafi.
But their associates.
And Jeremiah Wright doesn't see a problem with Qaddafi.
Obama went to the guy's church for 20 years.
Never heard anything he said, so we don't have to worry about it.
Well, that's the story.
So if we have a president who doesn't think that we are honest brokers and that we never have been, we get the region on fire.
That's why a lot of people are concerned.
Equally about that, as well as what's going on in Japan.
So when the president dashes off to Rio and the president says, I gotta do my sweet 16 picks.
I'll tell you something else about that.
If you took a look at his picks, I don't do this, but I I have I have a lot of sports friends.
I got people who love the NCAAs.
They just love them.
And I got some emails from some of them.
This guy's the biggest wimp on the face.
He picked every number one seed in the final four.
He there's people serious about this don't do that.
That's gutless.
Anybody can pick the number one seeds.
So he's even among those who get into this.
He's not getting a whole lot of love and respect from those people with whom he's trying to build a bridge.
Well, let's go to the audio sound bites.
It is not just me.
Ladies and gentlemen.
No, why no?
Hillary, Hillary and Obama say Qaddafi has to go.
Well, once upon a time, the Clinton said Saddam has to go too, but he never went anywhere.
And the only effort we made to get rid of Saddam was bombing a building on Saturday night, which injured a janitor in Baghdad.
But once they took care of the Monica situation, then Saddam didn't matter anymore.
These people over there have long memories.
In Egypt, we've replaced one dictator with another.
Mabarik's gone in exchange now for the Egyptian military.
And that's if we're lucky, if they hold on.
But here, this is a uh this is a montage of media types from last night in this morning, and they're starting to use the F word about Obama.
What does this say about Barack Obama and his political leadership?
And will this become a metaphor for his failure to lead?
If you want to talk about problems on leadership, let's talk about his failure.
Is it looking like a failure of leadership?
Whoa, that's F. Chuck Todd at the end, Juan Williams at the beginning, and client number nine led off Elliot Spitzer.
All three guys, we're talking about failure.
Can we go back to January 16th, 2009?
This program.
I don't need 400 words.
I need four.
I hope he fails.
Well, what are you laughing at?
See, here's the point.
Everybody think it's outrageous to say.
Look at even my staff.
Oh, you can't do that.
Why not?
Why is it any different?
What's new?
What is unfair about my saying I hope liberalism fails?
Liberalism is our problem.
Liberalism is what's gotten us dangerously close to the precipice here.
Why do I want more of it?
I don't care what the drive-by story is.
I would be honored if the drive-by media headlined me all day long.
Limbaugh colon, I hope Obama fails.
Somebody's got to say it.
I said it now.
But this is not how I meant failure.
This is not the kind of failure I had in mind.
So it goes on.
David Rodham Gurgen.
Probably also really admired the crease in Obama's pants at one point.
Last night CNN the Arena, that's the new name of client number nine's show since he got rid of the skirt.
Uh Kathleen Parker.
So now he owns the show with his own cadre of rotating guests.
So he said, Spitzer says to Gergen, we've heard President Obama say repeatedly, Qaddafi has to go.
Qaddafi has no legitimacy, yet Qaddafi's still there.
And we're doing nothing to help the opposition.
Can you explain this?
Difficult.
You almost invite the rebels to keep fighting.
Because they think you're going to be there at their side.
And here, then when you let them be crushed, and they're about to be crushed.
Like it's too late for a no-fly zone.
Then it's a humiliation for the president, and it's an embarrassment in many ways.
See, this is the thing.
Why is it an embarrassment for the U.S. president when something in Libya happens?
Fact is it is, it is.
It's just because of our power.
Um, again, the rebels in this case are Al-Qaeda.
So David Rodum Gurgen hears, yeah, we uh, you know, we're gonna let Al Qaeda get cashed.
Uh uh uh crushed.
So this is a toughie.
You help Obama you you help Qaddafi, you support it it's not guaranteed, but uh the best guesses are that these rebels are backed by Al Qaeda.
So Elliot Spitzer said, well, look.
Um, what's the hesitancy?
What's creating this?
Lack of decision.
The Arab League said, do it, no fly zone.
I mean, Obama's been asked by the Arabs do it.
He's been invited in by the Air Why doesn't he do anything?
There's been no American leadership on this.
To have the headline in the Washington Post on Libya, Obama wants others to lead.
To you and me.
As traditionalists, that's for what?
It's hard to understand.
The Wall Street Journal and his editorial made a really important point the other day.
This is what the world is going to start looking like without American leadership.
Bingo.
Bingo.
And don't think Obama doesn't know it.
Don't think he's not aware of it.
Let's take a break.
Only because we must, not because I want to.
We'll be back right after this.
Don't go away.
This is unbelievable.
This is unbelievable.
Barack Obama made an unannounced visit to the embassy of Japan, the Japanese embassy in Washington, and signed the condolence book for lives lost in the earthquake in the tsunami.
He took up an entire page of a consul the condolence book.
That's that's what he thinks is leadership.
And right off they got they got video of it.
Fox is showing video's Obama writing a whole page in a condolence book.
See?
He cares.
What a great guy.
Man, are we lucky to have such leadership?
He went over and wrote in the condolence book at the Japanese embassy.
Take credit for what?
Oh, come on.
He's just not doing this because of me.
No way is he doing this because of me.
He's not he's not doing this because of any criticism.
This is what he well, if he is, it's even worse.
But this is this is just what he thinks of his leadership.
By the way, I uh we'll get to it here.
I've got to get a phone call.
First accurate story from the New York Times about the Japanese nuclear situation that I've seen.
First accurate story.
Stand by for it.
Here is Peter in Paradise, California.
Welcome to the EIB network.
Hello, sir.
Hello, Roger.
Hi.
I kind of wonder why you call Jimmy Carter a wimp.
Um I I may have in the past, today I didn't.
I'm I'm quoting from a column written by Michael Ledeen, which is uh headlined, What would a desperate wimp do?
And the point of his column is that uh Jimmy Carter, in the last two years of his term with the hostage crisis and became a total wimp, trying to become courageous to save his presidency, and it was a dangerous thing when a wimp tries to become courageous.
He's worried, what will Obama do?
But it was Michael Adine using the word.
Well, I thought it was you, sir.
Well, I did repeat it.
Yeah, yeah.
You called Jimmy Carter a wimp.
Well Yeah, you did.
All right.
That I did not, but if if it you did.
Why don't you just admit it?
Because I'm not sure that I did.
I may well have, but I don't remember.
I'm not sure.
I I know that I was quoting and reading from Ladine's piece when I talked about it when the word came up.
Mr. Limbo, you did.
Why don't you just admit it?
What is the point?
The point is you called them a wimp.
So?
Okay, you admit it.
Even if I were to admit it, you what?
So what?
I don't I don't understand.
So what I'm not conceding that I did.
You're not having a lot of people.
I'd have to go check the tape.
But it's not answering my question.
That's because I don't know for certain, and I'm not gonna sit here and lie to you.
You know for certain?
No, because I was reading from Michael Ladine's piece.
What did you hear me say?
What's the quote?
What did I say?
You call Jimmy Carter?
A whim.
This is certainly this is one of the worst actors that you have found.
I'm not an actor.
Oh, yeah.
You think I'm an actor?
Well, I know that my company's out hiring actors to call radio shows.
They deny they're having them go here, but you're making me wonder.
Mr. Limbo, you called Jimmy Carter a wimp.
Why don't you just admit it?
Okay, you know what?
For the sake of this, to see where this goes.
Yeah.
Okay, deal.
Call him a wimp.
So what?
Okay, you just did.
Okay, you just did.
What?
You know, Jimmy Carter served honorably Yeah.
He was the governor of Georgia.
Right.
And he was the president.
Yes, sir.
Okay.
Did you serve in the military?
Yeah.
When?
What did you say?
Have I been in the military?
No, you haven't.
No, I haven't.
That's what you asked me.
Yeah.
No, I've not been in the military.
No, you haven't.
No.
Yeah, you ran from it.
No, I did not run from it.
Yes, you did.
What is the point?
Okay, I'll admit.
Okay, the point is.
What is you wouldn't even do?
What's what so offends you about Jimmy Carter being a wimp?
He's not a wimp.
Oh, that's what offended you.
He's not a wimp.
Well, you're the one who called him one.
Well, I've got the transcript in front of me now, and I didn't.
Oh, I was reading from Ladine's piece, and you may not have.
See, this is irrelevant to me, but you are claiming I said something I didn't say.
I was reading from Michael Ladine's piece when he's calling him a wimp.
You're evading the whole thing.
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
I'm not evading anything.
Yes, you do.
I'm trying to be accurate I'm telling you, if I call him a wimp, I'll stand by it.
I just don't know.
You one thing I do know is called him a wimp three times during this conversation.
What are you talking about?
Oh man.
You know what?
You know, you're a you are a shining example of liberal reasoning and debate, i.e., the absence of both.
A man, a legend, a way of life, that last guy.
That's a that's a great illustration of kind of liberal firepower we saw on display in Wisconsin.
And by his definitions, he called Carter a wimp.
Far more than I ever did.
Anyway, uh great to have you back.
Here's this New York Times story that is the only accurate story I have seen in that publication of what's going on.
The problem, I'm just gonna summarize the story for you.
The problem is not the active nuclear reactors.
There is not an active nuclear reactor meltdown going on.
The problem is the unused spent fuel rods at the Japanese had on site in storage ponds.
It's those ponds that are evaporating that have caught fire, if you will.
The water may have dried up in these storage ponds.
The point is that these are not the active rods of the reactor.
Most sites don't have any spent rods sitting around.
The Japanese still did.
They hadn't moved them out.
This is the active reactors are not the problem.
And I can't believe this is day four of this, and this is the first accurate story I have seen to explain what's going on in Japan in the New York Times.
See, it's not the active reactors.
It's the unused spent fuel rods sitting around in the storage ponds.
The Japanese had them on site, did not have them moved out.
Audio sound bites number 10 and 11.
Juan Williams last night on Hannity.
They were talking about Obama playing golf and filling out the basketball brackets during all these crises.
Hannity said 61 rounds of golf.
Libya can't decide whether they're gonna make a no-fly zone.
Plenty of time to pick his brackets.
Very knowledgeable about basketball.
Come on, Juan.
This is beyond the pale.
We've got, I think it's eight naval ships out there, the Marines out there.
He's coordinating uh humanitarian aid.
You don't want him out there on the dock consigning this box to go here, that box to go there.
What do you want to do?
Put on a cape and go push back the tsunami?
Well, well, put on a cape and go push back the tsunami.
Well, this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and the jobs to the jobless.
This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow And our planet began to heal.
This was the moment when we ended the war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last best hope on earth.
This was the moment.
This was the time when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals.
That's Barack Obama in 2008, June the third, he was in Minnesota after the uh last Democrat primary was over.
This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.
But Gaia must not have heard the speech.
And if you talk to people in Japan, the sea level sure is hell didn't lower.
So yeah, Juan, where is that cape?
He was wearing it in Minnesota.
Somebody played us for Juan Williams.
He was in Minnesota.
And he put on the Cape One.
And he promised he was gonna if uh effectively ends and all that sort of stuff.
Here's uh Carrie in Northwind West Winds, West Windsor, New Jersey.
Great to have you on the program.
Welcome.
Hey Rosh, how are you?
Very good.
Thank you.
Uh thank you very much, first of all, for being my lunch buddy for over twenty-five years.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you.
Um I wanted to comment on on the uh poll they took, and it's it's uh just my personal theory that um sure people picked Charlie Sheen over um Sarah Palin.
Uh my feeling has been that uh I've watched men over the years, and then certainly not my age bracket, but younger.
And I honestly feel that they look at Sarah Palin as somebody who's gonna demand more of them.
I mean, she's not standing up there and giving anything away.
That's what I'm saying.
Wait, wait a second.
I gotta go back.
So you said that you have uh watched men over the years.
Yes.
You and and you think that that Palin scares men because she's gonna demand more of them?
Show well, listen, she's strong, right?
She's independent, she married a strong guy.
Um, she has a family with them, they work together.
She's going out there and giving conservative values that are you have to do it yourself.
She's not handing anybody So you think that intimidates men?
Oh, absolutely.
And that's why Charlie Sheen would be preferable to without a doubt.
Look at that.
Now, if you're just joining us, public policy polling, a liberal polling firm in North Carolina actually asked independents who they would prefer per president, and it was Charlie Sheen over Sarah Palin by a significant margin.
And that's that's that's what Carrie here's calling and talk about.
So you think the end it the independents, the male independents out there are frightened by Palin because she's going to demand that they uh be men, essentially that they work and uh Absolut.
Absolutely.
And let me tell you something.
I also think there's a ton of women out there.
Because look at Charlie Sheen once again, his third wife.
A ton of women out there who support these kind of guys.
Who thinks this is okay.
And I'm not talking about sexist roles or anything.
I'm talking about when you're in a relationship and you're working as a family union or or you know, y you're working toward a common goal, you know that there's you're not really thinking man woman.
And I don't think Sarah Palin is thinking man woman, but I think when she's viewed, she's viewed as that, you know, mom who's always telling you.
And I gotta tell you something.
I I love her.
I've been married twenty-five years, my husband loves her.
I raised two boys, my boys love her.
I think she's awesome.
I think she speaks to who Americans are.
Okay.
Uh she does to some of them, but I'm struck by what you said about Charlie Sheen.
You you think did you did I could not have heard this right?
You said that women look at Charlie Sheen and and I they they they want to they they want to support Charlie Sheen.
They see him in a good relationship or something.
Oh, absolutely.
I think there's uh uh uh a great percentage of women who look at that as I mean, look, he's he's right at the moment he's living with two young girls, he's on his third wife.
Apparently, I don't know if I have the story.
You think women want to be part of that?
Uh, I think there there is a per uh sadly enough, I think there's a percentage of women who like to be part of that, yes.
Well, I know that there are women who propose to Manson and that kind of stuff, and they they send uh letters proposal to uh guys on death row, but uh.
That's like I hate to bring up a bad point, but look at look at um uh O. J. Simpson.
He was able to get girlfriends after all that.
Yeah.
I mean, it it's astounding.
Charlie Sheen doesn't it, but he has to go to porn stars, Carrie, in order to does it matter.
It's it does it matter.
I mean, if you're Well, a porn star is still a woman, is that your point?
Yeah, and and she's n she literally what intellectual threat.
You know, I'm not saying porn stars are stupid.
I'm sure there's probably some very, very smart women out there who are porn stars.
But you know, the whole image is that they're they're not intellectuals, non they're not gonna threaten you.
It's sort of like a sex kitten type of deal.
I mean, isn't that a lot more appealing?
You don't have to do anything.
Carrie, he's paying 'em.
Yeah.
So what?
I mean, women, you know, it's it's interesting.
Women get paid on all kinds of levels, right?
I mean, in a lot of different situations.
So you're saying men pay for it one way or another anyways.
Well, well, no, no, no.
I I I'm sounded like to me.
Well, some do, some don't.
You know, you you you're you look at uh the vast majority of men out there are are probably very good, working hard, and are quiet, don't hear from them because they're out there doing their thing.
As as are women.
Those are the guys you have to worry about.
Well, no, I those are the guys that are doing stuff that you wouldn't believe.
It's the guys bragging about it and getting all the news that probably are living the dream.
But the guys that are not talking about it and the guys that you're not hearing about, those are the guys to keep sharp eye on.
Well, it's a it's kind of a sad commentary that uh, you know, I don't know how truthful it is.
I I hope and pray that it's not and that you know her message is getting across, hopefully.
Um, whether or not she's material whatever I don't know, whatever the reasons are that people don't like her or do like her.
Uh it all fascinates me.
The because it's a there's not one common reason pro or con.
It they're all over the board.
It's um I don't think I've really ever seen anything like it with any other political figure.
I d I just I haven't.
And it it it doesn't know any any noticeable boundaries.
So it remains a fascinating uh topic.
Carrie, thanks for the call.
I appreciate it.
We gotta go here, folks, real quick.
Back before you know it.
Don't go away.
Hey Snerdley, I just got I just got an email asking me if today is open lines stupid.
One guy, a subscriber to Rush 24-7, our website, uh sent me an email through his iPhone app, wanted to cancel his subscription because of the uh Jimmy Carter wimp call.
I'm not paying good money to sit here and waste two minutes listening to idiocy like that.
Momar Gaddafi, ladies and gentlemen, Qaddafi's speaking right now on Libyan TV.
One of the things he just said, prepare yourself from tonight.
We will not spare any traitor or any liar.
Run away.
Go to Egypt.
That's Gaddafi.
It's also been announced, you know, Obama's got a 330 presser today on Japan.
And they just after the program is over, obviously.
And they just announced that Obama will not be taking any questions after his 330 remarks on Japan.
Because what questions could anybody possibly have, especially since he just signed the condolence book.
What is there left to say?
That's what he said.
Well, there yeah, could ask some final four questions.
Ben to Oregon, this is Mark.
Great to have you on the program, sir.
Hello.
Hi, quite an honor, Rush.
Thank you.
I can't tell you how long I waited to call and uh feel very lucky to get through.
Um reason I called is I wanted to say uh to the nation that I think uh Jimmy Carter's a wimp.
Uh I thought that he was a wimp when I was twelve, and I still think he is.
And so uh when that guy called in, I just wanted to call and tell you I had your back on that one.
Well, I appreciate that.
You know, some of you got very upset over that call.
I read the email, so there's really lots of email people upset over that.
I was I was not letting the guy goad me, but when somebody says I said something, and I'm not sure, you know, I'm uh if I said it when I can I'd be glad to discuss it with him.
But I look at a call like that.
See, what we whereas some of you, this is empathy, and I failed.
Where some of you just get livid over that.
I was enjoying it.
That was one of the most enjoyable calls of the day until Kerry called in to tell us the secrets of Charlie Sheen and women.
This has been a very eye-opening day.
This is why one guy in his uh open line stupid uh today or not.
But to me, those are all fun.
Or we uh wouldn't take the call.
But but but Mark, you want to call I'll call him a wimp.
I'm not he is a wimp.
There's no question about a habitat for humanity.
Give me a break.
Well, folks, that's it.
Uh we just simply have no more busy broadcast moments uh left today.
But there's always tomorrow, as there always will be.
Hey, tomorrow.
And tomorrow being Friday, open line Friday.
Will it be another open line stupid?
Will it be open line bomb?
Who knows?
Don't miss it.
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