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Dec. 17, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
37:17
December 17, 2013, Tuesday, Hour #2
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And greetings, folks.
Great to have you, Rush Limbaugh back at it, doing everything I can to stay focused here, despite everybody coming at me from every different direction.
It's the way it always is.
And just today, I happen to be acknowledging it.
Television number if you want to be on the program 800-282-2882 and the email address, lrushbo at eibnet.com.
Okay, this Vanity Fair piece, somebody sent me a story about the Vanity Fair piece instead of the Vanity Fair piece, but that was not noted.
So I just logged on to Vanity Fair and read the piece.
And they are frosted.
They are livid.
There are quotes in there back in 2005.
For example, when it was learned that Bush used an iPod, what was Apple going to do to save the iPod now that Bush had tarnished it?
Because Bush was so hated and so reviled that using an Apple product would doom Apple.
And so the story was asking, what's Apple going to do to try to save the iPod now?
And there were other examples.
There was an example, Bono.
Bono knows full well that it is George W. Bush who was the impetus for more American aid to Africa, specifically for AIDS and other charities that Bono cares about than anybody else, including the estimable Bill Clinton.
And the Vanity Fair piece talks about how Bono knew that it would be very risky to pose for a picture with George Bush.
And he and his bandmate, The Edge, from U2, they discussed it at great length, whether or not to actually pose.
And they eventually, they decided to bite the bullet and do it because Bono figured that at the end of the day, it would increase contributions because Bush did have people who liked him.
Whereas other people thought nobody liked Bush.
So those are just two examples.
And in the process, the picture now of Bono with Bush and the Mandela funeral has caused young people to learn all that Bush did for charitable concerns and people with AIDS in Africa.
And they said, we never knew.
Of course they never knew because Bush is no different than Clarence Thomas or Sarah Palin or anybody else.
Decent, God-fearing, wonderful people, tarnished, feathered, and destroyed by the left for that very reason.
And then there are a couple of other things.
Bush apparently likes to paint.
And his paintings are pretty average.
But people like them.
Apparently, Bush likes cats, which it hadn't helped me, but apparently it's helped Bush quite a lot.
Why his paintings are getting, look, snared, what do you mean?
His paintings are getting raved reviews.
That just goes to show you I don't know paintings.
I saw a couple of them.
Again, the real art critics.
Well, okay, then that's all you need.
If the real art critics are praising Bush's paintings, that's all you need to know.
What I think of them doesn't matter.
I don't know.
I mean, Bush paints himself in the bathtub.
You know, sitting in the bathtub with his feet poking out of the water.
That's one painting.
And there's another one of him in the shower looking at himself in a mirror in the shower.
So, okay, cool, fine, whatever.
Makes a boat float.
Fine and dandy.
Anyway, all of this stuff is combining young people learning things about George W. Bush they didn't know, and it's in stark contrast to what they thought they knew.
And then the piece de résistance was the letter that he wrote, the quick personal note to the kicker for Alabama, who's also number 43.
And Bush has done a 180, and Vanity Fair has written a piece warning the left that Bush is coming back, and that can't be good.
It can't help our overall efforts.
And the comments, people who've read the online version of Vanity Fair story, the comments are very positive about Bush, which is also disconcerting to the left.
So the creeps, there's a blog site called Wonkette.
And Vanity Fair notes that the people at Wonkette have ridden to the rescue here.
And they're posting things like, no, you idiots, George W. Bush should not be your new hipster icon.
And they're insulting these people, which is not helpful at all.
Now, admittedly, this is somewhat interesting.
Because you know as well as I know that throughout the Bush presidency, during all of this character assassination, which is what it was, I mean, it was filled with lies and distortion and outright false insults.
I mean, it was really horrible stuff that was said and written.
I mean, there were books written about the assassination of Bush, which were praised as literary examples that people should study.
There was a movie in Canada actually made about the assassination of Bush in which Bush was assassinated.
That movie was not criticized at all.
It was again heralded as cinematic art that should be studied with no comment on the propriety of it.
Now, you let somebody do a book or movie on how to assassinate a Democrat president, and you've got an absolute earthquake, and whoever wrote the book is going to be destroyed.
So those are just examples of what was going on.
And through it all, Bush never once responded to any of it.
To the frustration of everybody around him.
He never replied to any of it.
And I did ask him about it once, because, folks, this is true, what I'm going to tell you.
Everybody who knew George Bush a little to a lot to very well saw a completely different guy in private than what everybody saw on camera.
For you young millennials, let me tell you a story about George W. Bush.
My friend George Brett retired from Major League Baseball in 1990, I think it was 1995.
The last series that George Brett played with the Royals, final three games, were in Texas, in Dallas, actually Arlington, against the Texas Rangers.
At the time, they were owned, in part, by George W. Bush.
And George W. Bush knew of my friendship with Brett and invited me to be his guest in Texas for the three days, last three days of the season, and Brett's last three games.
And I accepted the invitation.
And on the Saturday of this weekend in the stadium club, there was a luncheon that Bush hosted for potential donors for a potential gubernatorial run that he was contemplating against the incumbent governor, Ma Richards.
Yes, Anne Richards, but we affectionately called her Ma Richards here.
Because there was a Ma Richards way back in Texas who was like a Bonnie of Bonnie and Clyde, fame, a real bad character.
And during this lunch with these potential donors, some of whom I knew, you would not recognize the cocky, confident bravado of George W. Bush.
He is walking, he's giving speeches, and he's walking around talking to people individually, and he's telling them how he's going to kick her ass.
I'm going to kick her ass all across this state.
I'm going to get rid of her.
I'm going to kick her ass.
You watch.
And everybody loved it.
There was the reputation that George W. Bush had when his father was president.
He was a concigliary.
You had to get past W to get to 41.
I mean, it was fascinating.
And then all during his gubernatorial campaign as governor of Texas presidential campaigns, Bush is the same guy.
But that guy was never seen on television.
The Bush on television that people saw after he was elected and inaugurated, it was a studied difference.
It was a calculated, studied difference.
Bush appeared to be deer in the headlight eyes.
I'm sure you recall he appeared to stutter sometimes with his speech.
And people annoyed, said, What is this?
We can't explain this.
I once asked him about it.
And he said, look, because I would, you know, if you would, would you come on my show for a half hour and be this way?
Just a half hour.
You can kill all this.
He said, I am not going to sully this great office by getting down into the gutter where these people are.
He, honest to God, folks, he had this, it still does, this really lofty, high-esteemed view and impression of the office of the presidency.
And he wasn't going to do anything to sully, particularly following Clinton.
He wasn't going to do anything to bring any kind of, I don't want to say disfavor.
He just sully is the word.
He was not going to do anything that would cause people to lose respect for the office, the constitutional office and what it meant.
It was that special.
And as such, he never defended himself against any of this stuff.
And so it just laid there.
And when he didn't defend himself, he didn't respond to it.
Well, then the people that supported him and voted for him were also not defended.
And it led to a lot of frustration.
And Carl Rovas even said that one of the mistakes they made during the time they were in the White House was not responding to some of the stuff.
Some of the stuff they, in hindsight, they think they should have.
But they didn't.
And it led to the media having free reign to create an image, whatever they wanted Bush to be.
Dumb, stupid, idiot, hick, cowboy, unserious, Bush, the National Guard story, Dan Revick.
They're free to do anything they want.
It took them five years to get his approval number down to 37%.
I'll tell you another little short story.
I guess this is February of 2001.
He just a month into the office, and he big baseball fan.
I mean, he loved it, a Texas Rangers owner and so forth.
And he hosted a dinner for 16, 20 people and spouses at the White House.
And most of it, most of the people there were Hall of Fame baseball people, Joe Torrey, Cal Ripken, Tom Glavin of the Braves.
I don't want to leave people out.
I mean, Don Baylor.
I said, what am I doing here?
Well, you were in charge of national anthems at the Kansas City Royals, first pitches.
You're every right to be here.
So at the end of dinner, Bush gave everybody a tour of the White House.
And it was amazing.
When we went to the Oval Office, it's just, you wouldn't believe a number of people who privately, they didn't ask Bush, but they, where did Clinton and Lewinsky, where was that in here?
And it happened to be in a little study bathroom off the Oval Office.
And I remember thinking, gosh, look at where we are and what people are interested in.
I mean, that just, here we are in the Oval Office of the United States.
And one of the, it's natural.
People say, well, where did Clinton and Lewinsky do it?
That's what Bush, I remember at this dinner, at this dinner, I asked permission to make a toast, and I was granted permission.
And I forget exactly what I said, but I thanked the president for winning and for bringing back a sense of decency, decorum, and morality to the Oval Office.
And everybody was thrilled by that.
And table applauded.
I mean, it was important.
People, you may forget, this is 2001.
We just come from Clinton-Lewinsky impeachment.
That was, for a lot of people, it was a decadent period where there was real damage done to the respective and the awe of the office.
And that's one of the reasons why Bush was just insistent he was not going to do anything other than build it back up.
After we tour the Oval Office, we didn't go to the cabinet room.
And then we went into a room that's not all that big, but it's a fairly large room.
And one of the wives said, Mr. President, is this where the state dinners are?
And Bush said, no, they have the state dinners in the state dining room.
And he took us there.
And that always made an impression on me because here he is, the president, and yet they have the state dinners.
Not, no, I'm going to be hosting the state dinners in the state.
Not, no, I will.
No, not we.
No, they do the state dinners.
It was still new enough to him.
He was just a real guy, folks.
He can disagree with him on politics, and I do.
The campaign finance reform, Medicaid, all that stuff.
But in terms of a human being, you'll not find a more decent human being anywhere.
And none of that viciousness changed him.
And he's a recovering alcoholic, and he's done all the things necessary to do that.
And God is a paramount part of his life.
And that's where he puts his trust and faith.
And that's where he says he cares who judges him.
And all the rest of this was just noise that, to him, was not worthy of response because it was just going to sully the office.
And now here we are.
This is 2013.
He's been out of office for five years.
And already, without any, without a PR campaign, without a crisis PR management firm, without a studied media effort, just George W. Bush, being who he is,
is experiencing a resurgence in likability, appreciation, love, whatever you want to call it, among young people who were not really old enough to fully appreciate how badly Bush was lied about.
So it's not that big a leap for them to go from Bush being the absolute reprobate that the media portrayed him to being to being a cool hipster.
He just is seen as a nice, cool hipster now.
And it does conflict somewhat with what they've been told.
So I just find it fascinating because here's a guy who's just stayed truly, totally dedicated to what he believes, unmoved and unwave by all the external criticism, and it was vicious.
And most people would have wilted under it after six months.
Ha, how are you?
Welcome back.
Merry Christmas, all of us, to all of you from the EIB network.
By the way, ladies and gentlemen, we had a call yesterday from a woman named Denise in Colorado who was calling to express her thanks.
She had her one of her kids had read Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrim sent Liberty, the talking time-traveling horse, a fan email.
And Liberty is kind of out of control.
When he gets female, email, he just goes nuts.
He sent this kid an audio version of the book and one of the bears from our little shop, Ted T. Bear.
And Denise was calling because this is, I mean, when I bought a book, we send a note and you send us back the audio version and a bear.
So she was calling to say thanks.
And she said, look, I've got some pictures of my girls with the book and with the bear, and I can't find it.
I'd like you to see them.
And I said, well, there's a way.
If you look, you can find a way at the 2fbit.com website to submit them there.
But I relented, and I told Snerdley to give her our super secret server address.
And she sent the pictures.
And we just posted them at rushlimbaugh.com with the story from the call yesterday and the transcription.
And I told Coco, move it to the top so it's at the top at rushlimbaugh.com.
And there's one other thing that we got yesterday in the email from a member of the audience that I want to share with you.
When we get back, your guiding light through times of trouble, confusion, murkiness, tumult, chaos, lies, deceit, fraud, plummeting health care, rising premiums, tripling deductibles.
The Pope being embraced by the left.
By the way, if the Pope can be embraced by the left, why not George W. Bush?
Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network.
Okay.
This took a little bit of doing, ladies and gentlemen.
I had to share this with you.
This is the kind of stuff that I never thought.
And when you plan or envision a career, certain things, obviously, a lot of them don't expect.
This is one.
In fact, the book, Rush Revere, the Brave Pilgrims, and the attachment that kids are now having is mind-boggling.
And yesterday we received an email.
Dear Rush, at the Thanksgiving table, my seven-year-old grandson, Nicholas, who had just finished your wonderful book, was so inspired that he said he would like to give the prayer.
Everyone folded their hands and listened in anticipation.
With heads bowed, Nicholas started out by saying, you can do this, Nick.
Seven years old.
At that point, we all knew we were in for a surprise.
He then went on with the prayer, thanking God for the pilgrims, and described our first Thanksgiving.
I've attached the prayer video.
I've reduced it in size, so hopefully it'll come through.
Now, when Nicholas went back to scroll after Thanksgiving break, the teacher asked her students what they enjoyed most about the holiday.
And Nicholas said that he was so proud to give the prayer and that he learned about Thanksgiving from Rush Revere and Liberty.
And he still beams with pride for being able to have that moment to thank God, tell his family about the first Thanksgiving.
Thank you, Rush, da-da-da-da-da, for making history come alive through your book.
We can't wait for your next adventure to come out in print.
And this is sent from Nick's grandmother, Susu, S-U-S-U.
P-S, my mom said to tell you that she is in love with you.
She's 88 years old this month, and we both listen to you every day.
So we got the video and listened to it, and it was taken.
Nicholas is at the far end of the table, and the camera's at the other end of the long table.
And he sounds very far away, and there was ambient room noise.
And when I listened to it, I couldn't understand it.
So I sent it up to the broadcast engineer and the staff up there.
I said, can you guys understand?
I'd like to play this.
It's just 43 seconds.
I'd like to play this.
But if people can't understand it, it wouldn't make any sense.
So they listened to it, and they said, it's not going to work, Rush.
There's just too much ambient noise, and there's other people making noise and laughter, and you can't really understand the kid.
I said, is there nothing we can disgronificator EQ?
Is there nothing you can do to boost some of the mid-range of the kid?
Anyway, Mike Mamon spent time EQing and toying around with this audio so that it would be usable.
And he's got it.
So we have it here.
And I just want to share because a seven-year-old kid, this is the kind of thing my mom and dad wouldn't believe.
Seven-year-old kid who read the book and wanted to say grace at his family's Thanksgiving to tell them about the first Thanksgiving.
Thank God for it.
So here it is.
And now, listen carefully.
He's far away from the microphone here.
You might want to turn up your potentiometer.
Turn the volume up.
All of us would not be here today if the voyages of the Mayflower did not land on Plymouth Rock and they would not be off and they would not have survived if they didn't learn how to hunt, fish, or net crops.
So we thank the Pilgrims and their award for helping us to live and to teach their children and their children to live in a free country.
Amen.
Thank you very much.
And they all applauded Nicholas and they were very proud of him and so forth.
And that's how that family did Thanksgiving.
So I'm told everybody can hear it very clearly.
So a sincere thanks to the broadcast engineer, Mike Mott, with, of course, the associative help of Kit Carson, who was providing advice and consent on whether or not it was moral support and everything else.
So we're going to send the video of that over to Coco at rushlimbaugh.com.
We'll post the video so you can see it the next time you visit rushlimbaugh.com.
It'll end up at 2fbit.com, so it'll probably put on our Facebook site.
Now to the phones.
What?
Snirdly is asking me, doesn't that make everything worth it?
I have to, look, I guess, as you know, embarrassed talking about myself.
Yeah, it does make everything worth it.
And then some.
This is exactly the purpose.
I mean, here's a seven-year-old who may not have learned the truth about the Pilgrims.
I don't know about his school system.
But he may not, he may, he may have learned the multicultural version that America is guilty.
So, yeah, I mean, it makes it all worth it.
That's the exact purpose of the book, is to reach people, young people like him, in an entertaining way.
So they actually learn the truth and be proud of their country, like we all are.
That really isn't taught enough anymore.
Speaking about hip, and it's hip to think that America is guilty of things.
It's hip to think that America is imperfect and that it's flawed and that there's somehow there's virtue in recognizing the fraud that is America.
And of course, in my view and yours, this is the greatest place ever.
And despite its flaws.
And like I said, you know, I'm very proud the way I was raised.
And I'm proud and I love this country and I want everybody to.
So, yeah, it's hugely worth it.
But you know me, I don't like talking about myself here.
And young Nicholas audio there speaks for itself.
But now I want to go to the phones.
Have been patiently waiting, and I want to start in Minnetonka, Minnesota with Andrew.
Hi, Andrew.
I really appreciate patience.
Thank you very much for waiting.
Hello.
Thank you, sir.
I don't think the Republicans are suffering at all from PTSD.
I think it's a classic case of the Stockholm syndrome.
They've been held captive for such a long time by the media, scared to death of them.
And along comes the rescuers in the form of the Tea Party.
And instead of bracing their, sorry, instead of embracing their freedom, they turn on them in the hopes of currying favor with their captors.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Well, even if I acknowledge, and that's some good thinking out there, Andrew, I got to tell you, but there's still some PTSD involved there.
There's still some fear involved there.
But you've got an interesting take on this.
The Tea Party as the rescuers are rejected.
Look, it is all over the place.
There's a there's a story I have in the stack here today, and I don't think I printed it.
Some hack who used to work for McCain, it's a video of this guy talking to some Republicans, and he's ripping in Rick Smith.
Is that his name?
I'll have to find it.
This guy is just ripping into the Tea Party, and he's warning all these Republicans to stay away from them.
They're nothing but anti-government, anti-this, a bunch of Ross Perot types.
Now, that was interesting because this guy probably represents the thinking of a lot of mainstream establishment Republicans.
And to them, the Tea Party is no different.
They're called hordes by this guy.
The Tea Party is no different than the people who supported Perot.
The anti-debt, anti-spending, small government, dedicated constitutionalists.
They're looked at, the Perot people were looked at as a bunch of hayseeds.
They were looked at as single-issue, tunnel-visioned hicks to one degree or another.
The Perot types are not necessarily the Christian writer pro-lifers.
They were just, you know, Perot back in 1992 was on an anti-government, anti-big government, government involvement, government getting to a big campaign.
And he did attract millions of people, and the Republican Party establishment absolutely hated it, despised it.
And they equate the Tea Party today with at least this guy.
I'll have to find that.
It's somewhere in the email that I didn't print out.
But there's an all-out assault in the Tea Party at the Republican establishment level.
Boehner has engaged in it.
And it's a fascinating take that the Tea Party are riding to the rescue of these guys that have been kidnapped by the left.
And the rescuers are sent away.
Stockholm syndrome.
I like it.
Quick timeout.
Back with more after this.
Here it is.
Here it is, folks.
Somebody sent me a video of Rick Davis is his name.
And the note is, if you want to get your blood boiling some, watch the first five minutes of this with Rick Davis, the McCain campaign, describing a Tea Party movement as burned the government down Republicans, warmed over Ross Perot wing, closed the market protectionists.
So not Rick Smith, Rick Davis of the McCain campaign.
And that's an accurate depiction of what they think.
It's the Republican Party base.
These are people that have always been out there.
I am stunned.
I literally am stunned on one hand.
On the other hand, I'm not.
I understand it all.
But here's people who have been voting Republican all their lives, just simply outraged at what Obama is doing, cannot believe it.
They're watching the Constitution be obliterated.
They're watching debt pile up.
They're watching their kids and grandkids' future evaporate.
They think that their party sees the same thing and is as appalled as they are.
They get involved in things in politics besides voting for the first time in their lives.
They're going to town hall meetings.
And in 2010, they deliver in a midterm election the biggest landslide defeat nationwide down the ballot the Democrat Party has had in our lifetimes.
Outside of maybe 1990, what would it have been for when they lost the House?
But this was akin to it.
They lost 56 seats and the Republicans gained the House.
And after that, the Republicans made no effort to connect to that group of people.
And in fact, what a distance from them.
And it's been a frustrating and confusing thing ever since.
The Republican Party has had, I don't know how many chances to connect at a gut level with majorities of Americans.
Just take a look at Obamacare.
There has never been a majority in support of it.
There has always been a majority opposition to Obamacare.
The Democrats have been sweating this out, scared of it ever since 2010, and the Republicans have made not one effort to connect to that majority.
And it's not all just Tea Party types opposed to Obamacare.
There's a lot of moderates, independents, Democrats opposed to it, waiting to be led, waiting to be connected to by a political party with leadership, helping to stamp it out, roll it back, get rid of it, preserve the future, and nothing.
Literally nothing.
And it's gotten worse now.
Now, this Rick Davis is simply speaking for the entire GOP consultant class, folks, with your Tea Party P. You didn't want to burn the government down.
You don't want to burn the government.
You're protectionists.
That means you are for anti-amnesty and you don't like spending.
You're the kooks and on balls.
And you represent a bigger threat to the Republican Party, they think, than the Democrats do.
It's that convoluted.
Anyway, Kevin in Amanda, Ohio.
It's great to have you, sir.
You're next.
Great to have you in the EIB network.
Hi.
Hey, thanks, Rush.
Hey, Judge Richard Leon's decision should be appraised, or should be praised and applauded for having the courage to make a constitutional decision.
I believe that his decision will follow him for the rest of his career.
The IRS has already shown what the government will do when they target people.
And you would be amazed that the box you can be put into if the government knows every single person you call Rush.
Do you think the leftists, socialists, communists wouldn't like to know every single phone call you make from your cell phone?
It's a very dangerous thing.
Our forefathers had the wisdom to see the dangers of an out-of-control government, and that's why they gave us our Fourth Amendment.
And that's very important.
It's a treasure, and we ought to protect it with everything we can.
Now, I'm all for going after the metadata of A person where probable cause has been developed to demonstrate that they're up to terrorism or what have you.
Now, there ain't no probable cause involved here.
Right.
This is a massive fishnet.
Well, let me have a play for you.
Kevin, I've got limited time, and I want to play for you, General McCasey, former Attorney General Michael McCasey on Fox this morning.
Bill Hemmer said a federal judge saying a program to collect your metadata is likely unconstitutional.
First judge, what is metadata?
The number that does the calling, the number that is called, the date of the call, and the length of the call.
That's it.
It's nothing about the content of the call.
It's nothing even about the identity of the person making the call.
It's not my address.
It's not your address.
It's not the context of the conversation.
It's not any of the content.
No keywords that are searched for in here?
No words at all, key or otherwise.
I got to tell you that Richard Leon is a fine judge and a terrific person.
But you know what?
Even great judges and terrific people occasionally make mistakes.
And I think this one was a mistake.
Now, that's former Attorney General McCasey, and he is universally respected and so forth.
I'd be interested to delve deeper into what McCasey thinks, because I'm sure he'll write about this, and some of his supporters will as well.
But, Kevin, I appreciate the call.
I'm glad there's attention being paid to all this finally in a productive and learnable way.
Sit tight, my friends.
We've got to go, sadly.
It's the constraints of the clock back after this.
And we have a top-of-the-hour obscene profit timeout.
One big exciting broadcast hour remains, and we'll make the most of it.
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