It is hour number two of the Monday Columbus Day Rush Limbaugh Show.
Rush is back tomorrow.
And I'm just thrilled to have this one day to fill in and say hi to everybody from down here deep in the heart.
It's kind of funny.
When I first started filling in, like March of 08, it was George W. Bush's Texas, because the former president, once he became the former president there in January of 2009, moved to Dallas, just about 15 miles east of where I sit right now.
And I guess the last couple of times I've referred to it as being Rick Perry's Texas, which it still is since he is still governor, has been for a whole long time.
But uh this hour I'll start to um share a thought or two about what the heck happened to Rick Perry.
I mean, it wasn't supposed to go like this, was it?
Um telephone numbers 1800-282-2882, 1-800-282-2882.
And maybe I'll share a little bit of that right now.
Let's begin with that and talk a little bit about what the expectations are for tomorrow night's uh Republican debate, and uh we can go from there.
We've had a lot of talk about the Occupy movement and what the heck those people are up to, and various other things from the weekend gone by.
So uh always go to Rush Limbaugh.com, even when the guest host guys are in, and uh check things out there at Rush Limbaugh.com.
But to the phones here in in just a moment.
The last time we were together, I want to say Governor Perry had just gotten in, and there was a big splash, and I told you all the things that I really liked about him, and that's a long list.
And I told you the couple of things that I was not fond of that had come out of his head, and it turns out they are exactly the things that have caused him a little bit of trouble on the campaign trail and on a debate stage.
There was the Gardasil Initiative, which uh was an idea that all the adolescent girls in the public schools would get this HPV vaccine, and the vaccine would be um something you could opt out of.
But I said at the time, and I told all of you uh that this is something that is is a parent's decision.
This is something that a parent should be able to go get for parents should get for their daughters if they wish.
It's not something that should be uh a public school mandate.
Public schools are government, so that was my thought, and I disagreed with the governor about that.
The opt-out, and it was a really easy opt-out.
You'd basically go to the school and say, guess what?
I don't want that for my kid, and boom, you're done.
Now that doesn't make it okay.
That doesn't make it a good idea, but it made it far from the most onerous and horrible jackbooted example of uh uh of of expansionist government uh to ever come down the pike.
The other thing is the uh the in-state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants.
Yeah, this one's a problem.
It encourages future illegal immigration.
We should be doing everything we can to dissuade that next generation of would-be illegal immigrants from coming along and bringing the kids with.
That's what we need to be about.
We need to have laws that dissuade that, not that encourage it, and some might even say reward it.
But about Gardasil and the in-state tuition issue, I've I've said for years on the local show that I do here in Dallas Fort Worth, and I'll tell you right here.
These are disagreements I have with Governor Perry, where I see his point.
I don't agree with it.
I in no way do I think the Gardasil initiative means that he has a whole laundry list of obtrusive government things that he's gonna do if he just gets the chance.
No, i uh it was he was wrong on that one thing.
Now, does that mean that uh that he needs to be looked at with particular precision, like, okay, what other little mandates might you have up your sleeve?
That's an okay question, and if there are any, he needs to tell us what they are.
And on the uh in-state tuition, which is preferential treatment, it is a subsidy for the children of illegals.
I disagreed with that, told him so.
Told everybody so.
I'll tell you so.
But I do not for a minute mean uh believe that this means that Governor Perry is a total softy on the border.
Now he is not a Tom Tancredo Duncan Hunter style border warrior, never has, never will be.
He will never embrace uh Jan Brewer's Arizona, you know, Senate uh Bill 1070 there.
He's just not he's he's more interested in securing borders uh for uh To protect us against uh you know in uh international gangs and people to get their heads sawed off in Juarez and stuff like that.
That's the kind of border warrior Rick Perry has been as governor, and that's and that and I think that's the kind of thing he's gonna be worried about as president, not so much uh the waves of illegal immigrants coming across and taking our jobs, the sort of mainstream Republican objection to illegal immigration.
So th this is my way of telling you that these are a couple of things where I wish he was more conservative.
All right.
But doesn't everybody have that?
Lord knows there's some stuff that I that I wish Mitt Romney were more conservative on, and Lord knows there's stuff I wish John McCain was more conservative on, and there was stuff I wish Huckabee was more conservative on when he was running.
There this I don't know if I'll ever find somebody who is exactly as conservative as I am and everything.
I'll tell you what, Herman Cain might be that guy.
He might well be.
Then you get into the is the current Herman Cain phenomenon for real.
I mean it's real right now.
He is one of the three guys who deserve to be called front runner.
And he out and he outdistances Perry in some of the polls already.
Now you keep that up in a variety of polls for a couple of months, and that's how you know you are for real with a capital R, and not just kind of a little trend, a little bit of a fad here in the early fall.
So that'll be up to him.
I'm sure he'll be great on the debate stage tomorrow night, and then we'll see if he can keep those poll numbers up.
But on my Governor Perry rant, uh I mean, I'm I'm like I'm he's like batting 900 with me.
I mean, if I really, really thought that he was a complete softy on the border, and listen, and I'll let me be frank with you about this.
He's actually right about the wall.
I want to be listening I am a keep them out, deport the ones we find kind of immigration, illegal immigration hardliner.
But you ever been to the you ever been to the border?
You ever been down there?
There's hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of of miles of wall where there may not even be scorpions.
I mean, they're bereft of living things.
And some of the border needs an actual tangible wall.
Other parts, I mean, we got drones, we get I think we still have jeeps.
I think we still have border patrol agents, and it is a compendium of all those things that can make for an effective border.
An actual, you know, uh two thousand mile border, uh a two thousand mile wall.
You don't have to do that.
You can, I guess.
I don't know if that's the most cost-effective way to do it.
And I don't know if that's the most effective way to do it necessarily.
You can climb over a wall easier than you can, you know, escape a drone and a jeep and a border patrol officer.
So anyway, this is my way of telling you that I don't believe that Gardasil or even the in-state tuition for the kids of illegals is what has spelled Governor Perry's bad few weeks.
Not by themselves.
Anybody writing the narrative that everyone's discovering uh that he's a phony conservative.
Everybody's discovering that he's just not as conservative.
Okay, that that's part, that's part of it.
That's part of it.
You know what the biggest part of it is?
Being terrible in the debates.
Just not getting it done on the debate stage.
I'm looking at him and I'm saying, who is this guy?
I've been around you for 15 years, Governor.
Where are you?
Are you are you tired?
Are they running you ragged?
Are they not prepping you well?
What is the story here?
Who has abducted Governor Perry and replaced him with this thoroughly unimpressive guy on the debate stage?
What is going on?
So I'm gonna tell you something.
I think he's gonna be a lot better tomorrow night.
God knows he couldn't be much worse.
I think he's generally surrounded by good and smart people.
Uh if anybody asks him about climate change, maybe we could Google the names of a few actual climate uh man-made climate change skeptics.
That would be good.
And I think that uh the reason for this, the reason why this has spelled some trouble for him in the polls, is you know what we're looking for?
We're looking for a lot here.
We're looking for a lot here.
We are looking for someone with a strong spine, a proud conservative heart, strong conservative mind.
You know what else we're looking for?
You know what else we're really looking for?
Someone whom we can imagine on a debate stage with Barack Obama taking it to him in a strong, civil, constructive, impressive way.
I can see Herman Kane doing that.
I can see Mitt Romney doing that.
I can see Newt doing that.
The Governor Perry of the last couple of debates.
Not so much.
So he's he's gotta he's gotta get out there.
I mean, it's funny.
Here's my debate advice for Governor Perry.
Get out there and be good.
Get out there and be good.
Be the kind of candidate where people who have never voted for a Republican in their lives can look at you and go, wow, you know what?
That guy makes sense.
And he seems to have a demeanor that says, I'm ready for this gig.
That's what you gotta do, sir.
That's what you gotta do.
Now get out there and do it, please.
Let me give you just a couple of things that I've I enjoyed playing earlier this morning on my local show.
Uh I said, you know Herman Kane's gonna be great.
And I really I do not know, I don't know how this is going to go for him.
This could be something that's really very, very nice for a little while, but then it's gonna be either Romney or Perry, and and the Herman Kane thing will run its course.
Or maybe not.
Maybe this is the birth of something truly remarkable.
Where a candidate who's very much unlike anything we've ever really seen before, who has a certain comfort in his own skin, a certain confidence, a non-politician's appeal.
And I'll from the Values Voters Summit.
Uh let me uh let me just share this with you.
Because this was tremendous.
Somebody asked him, hey Herman, why are you running for president?
One of the other questions that I often get as I close.
Why you run for president?
to be president What did I miss?
I'm not running to go to Disneyland.
America has problems.
I'm a problem solver.
That's why I'm running.
How do you not love that?
So what we've got to see here is is the love for Herman Kane, which is very, very real.
Will it translate as the months pass and it really becomes time not to just say who we like or oh, isn't that great, or wasn't he great in the debates?
No, no, no.
It's going to get much more serious.
And it's and and I mean soon.
Can you see what we'll ask this about you'll ask it about Romney if you're Romney person, about Perry if you're a Perry person.
Kane, Gingrich, Santorum, anybody still love Rick Santorum, he was great at the Values Voters Summit.
Can you see this guy?
Or gal, God bless Michelle Bachman, she is still technically in it.
Can you see him her as the leader of the free world?
And if that question winds up being yes, that's the kind of candidate that can win Iowa and New Hampshire and Nevada and Florida and the nomination.
So I know there's some inevitability stories being written about Mitt Romney, and you know what?
Then maybe that's the way it's gonna go.
It may well be.
If I'm in Vegas, Romney's probably the nominee.
If I'm standing there at the sports book and they've that's, you know, and I've got, hey, here's ten bucks, put it on somebody.
Sure, might as well.
But let's see how Perry does in the debate.
And let's see what happens with this Herman Cain phenomenon.
Let's see.
Remember, it is still October of 2011.
And it is the Monday Rush Limbaugh Show.
Mark Davis filling in, board your calls next on the EIB Network.
It is the Monday Rush Limbaugh Show, Columbus Day edition, and I believe this literally is the case.
I heard the Friday show and Rush said dog on it.
I'm tired of everyone having Columbus Day off.
I want it too.
And so uh his his uh his day off is is certainly my gain.
And I know that we all crave the days when he's actually here, but all of us on the uh on the Rush Limbaugh show uh bench strength are so appreciative of the kindness and uh consideration that you give us.
When we are here, whether it's uh Mark Stein, Mark Belling, Walter Williams, all the all the good folks, and we're just very, very, very honored.
All righty, uh 1-800-282-2882.
Let's um you know, do we want to 60 seconds about Columbus?
It's Columbus Day dog on it, sixty seconds about Columbus.
I know when he sailed the ocean blue in 1492, he did not exactly bring with him the sensitivity of Alan Alda.
I know, I know, I know.
I also know that he did not discover America.
You can't discover a place where people already are.
Okay, I mean, it's you know even if there is a we didn't discover the moon and there weren't any people there.
We knew it was there, we put human footprints there.
I know, I know, I know.
But what he did do, what he did in those voyages, is open this continent to the Western world, the European world.
Now, there are thriving cultures everywhere at the time, just as there are thriving cultures here.
European cultures, and I don't use that as a euphemism for white.
If I mean white people, I'll say white people.
I mean the continent of Europe.
Uh Indian cultures, Native American cultures were thriving and existed, African cultures thriving and existing, Asian cultures thriving and existing.
But for the voyages of Columbus, though, what would North America be?
Would the explorers have then followed?
Would there have been the colonization of America?
Would it have been turned into the United States of America?
The greatest society the world has ever known.
I dare say no.
So I know there are all kinds of unpretty pictures you can paint.
And the 15th century was uh you know, kind of a barbaric time in a whole lot of ways, in the 16th and the 17th and much of the eighteenth.
I mean, you know, enlightenment is a slow process.
But when we look at Columbus, you know, through, you know, sort of the Phil Donohue glasses, he's not going to come off come off well.
But within the context of the time, and with his achievements of the time, they are remarkable.
And they deserve proper regard.
And the fact of the matter is that the real Columbus Day, which is what, day after tomorrow, October 12th, the actual anniversary of the sighting of land in this part of the globe.
That if that hadn't happened, well, first of all, if that hadn't happened, maybe somebody else would have tripped over America in 1507 or 1545.
Well, I mean, somebody probably at some point was going to get here from that part of the world.
But because Columbus did, we have America today.
So I'm grateful.
And I know that through the entire history of the country and manifest destiny and all of that, I mean, I know, I know, I know.
It is not a story of of 100% uh uh kindness and Christ-like behavior and uh and and nothing but big thumbs up and hugs all around, I I I know.
Find me a country whose history is not filled with all manner of some occasionally hard to um some things that are hard to look at, especially when viewed through the the sensitivities of the modern day.
But I guess what I'm looking at is I I don't mind.
I do not in any way mind if, for example, uh it's kind of funny, the kid a lot of kids are off of uh off school today.
I don't mind if kids are told that by today's standards, you know, Columbus was was not, you know, the the most uh the most sensitive of souls.
But I want to make sure that that those kids are also told that there's a difference between the ethos of today and of 1492, and also to have some appreciation for what the explorers plural did in opening up this part of the globe for the people who actually had the the gifts, the technology, the culture that resulted in the United States of America.
Is that asking too much?
Is that too nuanced?
Is that something a teacher can uh can manage to get through?
I hope so.
I hope so.
Maybe I'm asking too much.
All right.
Well, uh well there well, so much for the Columbus segment.
Well, there we go.
That there's another false promise of something I'm gonna get through quickly.
Here's a promise I gotta keep.
Here comes a quick pause and back with another promise I'll definitely keep more of your calls.
1800-282-2882, Mark Davis filling in for Rush on the EIB network.
Don't anybody move.
People, real people on the radio.
Next stick around.
And he's very grateful for that, by the way.
Indeed so.
All righty, 1-800-282-2882.
Mark Davis from WBAP, Dallas, Fort Worth.
Seeing what's going on around the country and sometimes maybe even outside the country.
Hey, thanks, Mr. Internet, the occasional international listener.
It is with great pleasure that we head to Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom.
And uh give a big shout out to Ray.
Hello, sir, Mark Davis in for Rush.
How are you?
Good evening, sir.
Trust your Monday goes well.
It is great to have you.
I understand from the uh from uh from Greg back at screening headquarters that you're actually an Ohioan.
Yes, sir.
I am an Ohioan and I am visiting over here and have been from August.
And what uh what's going on over there?
Which what's uh what's up?
Oh, not a whole lot.
It's cool, it's very rural part of England that I'm in.
Is it your first you've done a lot of UK visiting or is this your first?
Uh, this is actually my fourth trip to this part of the world.
Are you a fan?
Sceptered aisle, as they call it.
You like it?
Oh, yes.
Me too.
All right, what's going on?
What you got?
Well, I've been looking at this Occupy Atlanta video that's been released, and there's a couple of things that really jump out at me about it.
John Lewis had to be absolutely disgusted.
I mean, he walks he wants to speak to this crowd, and this crowd cheers when he is not allowed to speak.
And he walks away and he's like, Why am I involved with this crowd?
Why did I want to speak to this bunch?
Well, it had to be disillusioning.
Uh I'm sure he arrived with the full expectation, if not of adulation, then certainly acceptance, and instead runs into this recognition of his achievement.
Of course, and a certain ideological kinship because he hates the private sector as much as the average Occupy Atlanta attendee.
So why wasn't there why wasn't there love in the room?
And um I mean the answer to that is because the Occupy Atlanta folks, like the other Occupy movements, are an ideological mishmash that is probably more hung up on the procedure and the hippie vibe than they are in in anything that's actually coherent.
I'll tell you what scared me about it.
It felt like a twisted, distorted 1984-esque version of one of those old style call and response church services.
Well I'm I'm a fan of those in some context, but I know what you mean.
There was an odd kind of animal farm um vibes.
Very animal farm F. Yeah, indeed, indeed.
Well, listen, well, Ray, it is a pleasure.
How long are you going to be over there uh doing the Oxfordshire thing?
I will be back on my side of the Atlantic in November.
Well, be sure to call the show then, and uh Rush will thank you, and so will I if I'm guest hosting.
Appreciate it, and best to you and uh a happy dinner hour over there in the in the United Kingdom.
Alrighty, next up we are in Hazlitt, New Jersey.
Carl, Mark Davis in for Rush.
How are you?
I'm good, Mark.
How are you?
Very well, thanks.
Uh, I just wanted to speak as a registered Republican about the Occupy Wall Street movement, and I am actually in favor of it.
And it's not to punish success, as many have claimed.
It is in fact the punish Wall Street failure.
They have failed miserably, and if they hadn't, they wouldn't have required taxpayer funded uh part money in order to stay in business.
I I will bet that at the nucleus of every Occupy movement crowd are people who uh uh for whom that is true.
Uh and uh but but but it but it but it has it has uh it has sort of attracted their there is an accretion process by which other people are drawn to it who absolutely are of the class warfare movement and so it kind of depends on where you go within a given crowd.
And also I just wanted to point out that uh there is a Republican presidential candidate who I am supporting who will be joining in the protest tomorrow.
He has announced this today.
Well I I'm waiting with bated breath who might that be that would be uh Buddy Romer, former governor of Louisiana is the only candidate who is both a uh congressman as well as a governor and uh he's got my full support.
He doesn't take any special interest money.
It's his campaign is completely funded by the public and his limit is a hundred dollars per person and that's the kind of candidate I think many of us could get behind.
Well good good luck with that.
Uh and I and I'm and I'm sorry I don't mean to be snide.
Uh in fact I'm gonna give you give me sixty seconds of why uh former Governor Roomer, who was a a really good guy he was governor of Louisiana there from uh sort of during the Bush 41 years, right?
Like eighty eight to ninety ten.
Um what is it about uh what earns your affection in that regard that that that you just don't have for anybody else in a still crowded field.
I think the main thing is the fact that he leads his campaign that the way uh by example by not taking any special interest is going to be looking out for the middle class the people who actually earn their paychecks.
And what does that mean?
In what way will he, because these are big platitudes, and I just want to...
Well, you look at who all the other candidates who were, who are they getting their campaign money from?
We've got GE, who has paid federal income tax, and these corporations who send U.S. jobs overseas and pay basically less than the average guy.
Are Herman Cain and Rick Santorum getting huge corporate contributions?
I'm not really familiar with where their contributions come from.
then then be ki then be careful before you say your guy is the only one who's not getting them.
Okay.
I mean I mean so now so but ideologically is there anything that uh the that Governor Romer brings to the table that um that excites you he is a uh conservative like myself he uh as is pretty well everybody out there on that debate stage tomorrow night for the most part yes yes uh did did you live in Louisiana at the time uh I I think the biggest the other point is he believes in fair trade not free trade.
Okay.
Raped by China.
I get you I get you and uh yeah he would put an end to that.
Alrighty well I l well listen I I know he uh and where and where would for those uh it's it's the Governor Romer segment now.
Where will he be is he is he up in New Jersey where you are uh doing something tomorrow?
Uh he will be at uh in Wall Street.
I'm not sure the exact location but he has announced that he will be joining in the protest.
He will not be speaking.
Yeah but then then can I ask you that let me boy okay then last observation last observation.
Yeah I I the first thing that occurs to me is if someone is running for the well I don't know you know maybe there's genius in this because uh if someone is running for the Republican nomination, an occupy Wall Street rally might not be the smartest place to show up it might not be the smartest thing but it's the most honest thing and he's uh he's been supporting it before it was even in the headlines.
And you know something?
As soon as I said that it's like there was another part of the sentence that was required.
It may not be the smartest place to show up dot dot dot unless you want to port unless you want to portray yourself as being pretty different than the existing field.
And if that's what governor wants to do I I think you'll succeed and I appreciate your call.
I know he appreciates the support and thanks for being on the Rush Limbaugh show.
Mark Davis filling in 1800 28282.
We've talked a lot about Atlanta might as well go there why don't we Steve Mark Davis in for rush how are you?
Hey how you doing today, buddy I am good.
Um doing a great job on the show today, by the way.
Thank you.
Um after reading the list of demands and uh you know some of these uh occupy groups and the you know, there's a lot of it that's we want this, we want that, we want guaranteed this, we don't want to have to work for it.
Um I've come to the conclusion that uh these people are basically bipedal parasites.
Um they're not occupying anything, they are infesting places.
No, and uh from this day forward, I think they should all be referred to as what they are.
They are the flea party.
Oh, goodness me.
Or flea baggers, if you will.
Flea baggers.
I could very good.
Listener comedy taken care of.
Not bad, not bad.
Thank you, Steve.
Yeah, all righty, 100-282-2882.
All right, let's uh let me uh let me offer you the following as we uh head into our next segment.
So I'm doing um you don't have to have a talk show to spend a whole lot of time watching the Sunday shows, Fox News Sunday and State of the Union on CNN and Meet the Press and um and uh face the nation and all of that.
Uh boy, you know what?
This actually resonates with um wow.
I'm sorry, I've started three sentences at the same time.
I'll do that from time to time.
Remember either one or two times back when I was guest hosting, and everybody was climbing up one side of Chris Wallace and down the other on Fox News Sunday because he had asked Michelle Bachman the are you a flake question, right?
And I joined you, most of you, in saying that, you know, don't adopt the narrative of the left and asking a candidate whether she is or is not what she is portrayed as by people who hate her.
You know, and and Chris Wallace uh, you know, went into his cubby and filmed a uh an internet apology, but then called her personally, which which which was graceful, uh gracious and gallant, and so that was fine, and that all pretty well went away.
Uh but that that was uh a toe stub uh in in Chris Wallace's Fox News Sunday history.
So I'm gonna offer you the following and tease the following uh upcoming bit of audio.
I tend to be I I love the show, obviously, and I I there's some people you just kind of get a feeling.
I've been around Chris Wallace exactly once in my entire life.
He was just uh thoroughly decent, and I I just I there's a good guy vibe that comes off of him.
Many every time I bring him up, though, th I'll get emails or calls or something where there will be something that Chris Wallace did at some point a month ago, a year ago, three years ago.
Maybe he asked a challenging question to a candidate you like.
I like when he asks challenging questions.
You mean the uh a Republican candidate had better be able to withstand an interview with Chris Wallace if he if he plans on standing on a debate stage with Barack Obama.
You better be able to handle uh, you know, a tough question uh on on a conservative news channel if you expect to go uh you know toe-to-to-ew with Ahmadinajad, okay?
So I'm really tired of hearing being Chris Wallace asked a tough question.
I want him to ask tough questions, okay.
That having been said, and I and and I, you know, I don't pretend Chris well, actually Chris Wallace probably does drive around listening to the Rush Limbaugh show.
But uh maybe when the fill-in guys are on, he finds other stuff to do.
So Chris and everybody at Fox News, if you're listening, let me just offer you the underpinning, the default setting is I love that show and I love Chris Wallace.
But what he did to Rick Santorum yesterday made me want to throw a brick through the screen.
And you'll hear it next.
Mark Davison for Rush on EIB Network.
It is the Rush Limbaugh Show for a Monday.
Mark Davis filling in from WBAP Dallas Fort Worth.
Now, when Rush is not in the EIB chair at the actual golden microphone, they're at the Southern Command.
Uh the Ditto Cam uh is not on.
So I wanted to do the absolute next best thing.
For those of you who have actually uh chosen to cast your fate with me and follow me on Twitter at Mark Davis, all one word, M A R K D A V I S. You will now find a still photograph of me sitting in this room, guest hosting the Limbaugh show in full Texas Rangers regalia.
There you go.
For whatever that's worth, for whatever that's worth, there's the picture right there on the Twitter page at Mark Davis, and just so just wave it in and I'll smile back, and there we are.
Now, for crying out loud, get to something substantive.
Here we are.
So I'm watching Fox News yesterday, which I always do, watching Chris Wallace, whom I love, watching Rick Santorum, whom I really love as well, right?
Because just a great guy, been around him a lot.
Wish to God he could get some traction.
Let's see if that happens, and that's fine.
So they're talking about don't ask, don't tell, right?
And Senator Santorum has made no apologies of the fact that he considers homosexuality to be incompatible with military service.
All right.
Now there are a lot of places you can go and ask some challenging questions about that.
That's fine.
This is not.
I want to put up a quote for you.
The army is not a sociological laboratory.
Experimenting with army policy, especially in a time of war, would pose a danger to efficiency, discipline, and morale, and would result in ultimate defeat.
Does that sound about right, sir?
Uh roughly, yes.
That's a quote from Colonel Eugene Householder, who was in the Army uh adjutant general's office in 1941, arguing against racial integration of the military.
Really?
Really?
You ever watch either a debate or an appearance by a candidate and just want to to somehow Star Trek transporter bean yourself into them.
So the and listen, Santorum doesn't need that for me, because he's great.
He's great all by himself.
Lord knows it's happened watching Governor Perry in a couple of debates with me, and uh, hope that stops soon.
But the first thing I would have told, or well, it's not like you can coach in advance for ridiculous traps like that.
But the first thing I would have done if I were Rick Santorum is as soon as Chris Wallace is reading me those quotes, the army is not a sociological laboratory.
It's a danger to efficiency, discipline, and morale, and would result in ultimate defeat.
In fact, let's go back to the exact way that that he uh that he couched this.
I want to put up a quote for you.
Stop right there.
So he's sharing a quote with me and then asks me to embrace that quote.
Guess what?
No.
I would have said, Chris, I I don't know what you're up to here, but my views on don't ask, don't tell are ones that I will put in my words.
So I'll use my own words, thank you, to describe my position on anything rather than having you ask me uh to embrace or somehow show approval for some quote from somebody else that might not even be about what I was talking about.
And oh, by the way, that's exactly what this was.
I listen, coming from Bill Maher or something, I could understand this.
But Chris Wallace.
Now, someone can feel any way they wish about don't ask, don't tell.
They can think that homosexuality is compatible with military service, or that it's not.
But the suggestion that blackness and gayness are so identical that to oppose one is as intellectually vacant as to oppose the other, that's that's just stupid.
That's just stone cold stupid.
Now, Rick Santorum, to his credit, you know, moved on from there and said, Look, they're two totally different things.
That if it's 1941 when um Colonel Householder was, you know, scared to death of integrating the troops, there is nothing whatsoever about blackness that was a proper cause for alarm or or hesitation, or there's there's just no reason to be against it except you were freaked out by black people, all right.
Now, there are a lot of people who are freaked out by gay people.
I recognize and understand that too.
But there is something behavioral that makes homosexuality uh a bit of a sticky wicket when you're sleeping and showering with people.
We don't let men and women sleep and shower together.
Why?
Because the notion of sexual attraction in the showers or in the same barracks is problematic.
Well, if it's problematic man-woman, it sure is shooting problematic man-man.
That's what the problem is.
So listen, I I'll you know, continue to love Chris Wallace, and I offer this with all love.
Cut that out.
What the heck were you thinking with this throwing up the householder uh quote and and and and and and luring Santorum to embrace that and make it Look as if uh objecting to gaze in the military in 2011 is just like uh objecting to the integration of the military in 1941.
That is just absolutely intellectually vacant and beneath Fox News Sunday and beneath Chris Wallace.
And I say that with all love.
Love the show, love him.
If I didn't care, I wouldn't say this.
Okay?
Okay.
Yeah, I've only done talk shows for about 30 years.
Only guest hosted for us about, I don't know, 20, 25 times over three years.