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March 3, 2015 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:38
March 3, 2015, Tuesday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 247 podcast.
Greetings, my friends, and welcome.
Rush Limbaugh, the EIB network coming to you today from the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies, the telephone number if you want to be on the programs 800 282-2882 and the email address L Rushbow at EIBNet.com.
Nothing focuses the mind and heart.
Like moral, ethical, and legal clarity.
And today in the House of Representatives Chamber at the United States Capitol, Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu gave an historically important speech, a speech that any previous American president could have and maybe would have made.
A speech to rally and save Western civilization.
We are talking about thwarting a plan that gives the world's leading terrorist state gives this state.
We're talking about thwarting a plan being brokered by our administration that gives Iran a certain path to produce nuclear weapons.
The world's leading exporter of terrorism, the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East, and Benjamin Netanyahu came to the United States today in a desperate plea for the world to focus to get serious and take notice of what is happening.
It was stunning.
I don't know how many of you in the audience here have a chance to see it.
We will have audio sound bites of it coming.
We're still putting those together now.
But I'm going to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, it was powerful.
And the drive-by media is underselling this.
As I watch the post speech commentary on the cable news networks, never has it been more clear that the world in which they live is not the world in which we live.
Today I'm just another hum ho speech.
Happened to be delivered by a foreign leader.
And they're all engaged in post-speech analysis as they would engage in the post-speech analysis of anybody who happened to give a speech about anything.
They're looking at it through the political prism of how does it help or hurt Obama?
How does it help or hurt the Democrat Party?
And what is Obama going to do?
Will this hurt the Democrats who boycotted the speech?
They are missing the full impact and importance of what this speech was.
So we will try during the program today to tell you what that was, to explain to you the importance of this speech.
The optics of this speech were just so overwhelmingly powerful.
And when I say what could have been, this was leadership.
This was leadership in full force.
Benjamin Netanyahu today was everything Barack Obama is not.
Everything.
This speech today even featured Netanyahu turning to a guest in the gallery, much like presidents who deliver State of the Union speeches.
Netanyahu's guest, Elie Vizel, the Holocaust survivor.
This speech, as I say, historically important, moral, ethical, and legal clarity.
Nothing like that combination to focus the mind.
And this speech was all about rallying and saving Western civilization, which is what assault.
Here's some excerpts from what Netanyahu said for those of you who haven't yet had a chance to see it.
The Iran regime is not merely an Israel problem, just like the Nazi regime was not just a Jewish problem.
The greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam and nuclear weapons.
Many hope that Iran will join the community of nations while Iran is busy gobbling up the nations.
And by the way, that highlights one of the stark differences between the Obama administration's approach to all of this and what the approach is in opposition to Obama.
The Obama administration believes that they have no right to tell any nation what they can or can't do, particularly and especially involving nuclear weapons.
And so what the Obama administration is relying on is go ahead and give them a time frame where they can get the bomb ten years, but in that time frame, we will persuade them never to use them.
And this highlights the hubris and arrogance of Obama.
That speeches and words can tame tyrants.
We've already seen after six years that that promise of Barack Obama back in 2008 has fallen flat.
People elected Obama in 2008 with the belief that speeches and words and intelligence could tame the world's tyrants and make them once again love the United States, which they had only recently begun to hate because of George W. Bush.
Well, after six years of Obama's speeches and persuasion and ego and arrogance, the world is on fire.
It is less safe than when Obama arrived on the scene.
Speeches, words, persuasion will never work.
Ask Nebel Chamberlain.
Ask anybody who has asked tyrant to stop being a tyrant.
But this highlights the difference.
That is the Obama approach.
Even though Obama only has two more years in office.
He still believes that the power of his personality and his community organizer skills or whatever that he can persuade Obama after Iran after they get the nuke not to use it.
The Israeli approach is prevention.
Do not let them get the bomb.
Don't take the risk.
Don't rely on a nation which has a 36-year track record of terrorism all of a sudden getting up one day becoming nice guys.
Netanyahu doesn't believe it, doesn't believe he wants to take the chance, doesn't think it's worth the chance.
He said many hope that Iran will join the community of nations.
While Iran's busy gobbling up the nations.
He said when it comes to ISIS and Iran, the enemy of your enemy is your enemy.
Don't be fooled.
A battle between Iran and ISIS does not turn Iran into a friend of America.
And then it got really powerful.
By the way, I should point out he started out with overwhelming praise of Obama.
He understands Obama to a T. He understands what you have to do.
He understands you have to kiss ass.
He understands you have to boot lick.
He understands this is what Obama requires is what Obama does.
It didn't work, but nevertheless, it makes Obama look small when he responds.
As the White House already is, you know what the White House response to the speech already is?
A bunch of useless empty rhetoric and no action.
A bunch of useless, imagine that assessment from this administration, a bunch of useless rhetoric and no action.
This was a call to action, a call to a specific type of action that's much different than the rhetoric we are getting from this administration, and rhetoric is all we get.
He said this deal does not block Iran's path to the bomb.
It paves Iran's path to the bomb.
Do you realize, ladies and gentlemen, the powerful accusation contained in just that sentence?
This deal does not block Iran's path to the bomb.
It paves Iran's path to the bomb.
This was a direct punch.
If Obama watched this, the first thing that would have ticked him off would have been the rousing presidential-like standing ovation that Netanyahu got as he entered the House chamber.
And it would have only gotten worse for Obama after that.
Netanyahu very cleverly committed, by virtue of the applause he got in the chamber, virtually committed the United States Congress to his conception of defending Israel.
But he said Israel now has the ability to defend herself.
And if necessary, Israel will go it alone, which was another slap.
Or shall I say, punch.
Netanyahu said this deal will not be a farewell to arms, it will be a farewell to arms control.
He pointed out everybody's praising the fact that there are inspectors.
UN inspectors will go in and inspect what Iran has done.
Inspectors can't and don't stop anything.
Inspectors at the end of the day are meaningless.
Look at the inspectors in Iraq.
If the inspectors in Iraq had actually had access, could have learned that Saddam was using artful BS about his weapons of mass destruction.
He pointed out that we've had inspectors go into North Korea, time and time again.
Inspectors have spotted X, Y, and Z. They leave.
North Korea has the bomb.
Netanyahu said, if Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, let it act like a normal country.
They need the deal a lot more than you do, he said.
It's a bad deal, a very bad deal.
We're better off without it.
The alternative to this bad deal is a much better deal.
And on CNN today, CNN's website, and I'm sure all over the CNN network.
Here's the headline of the story.
White House warns Netanyahu not to reveal Iran details.
The regime is bracing for Netanyahu to spill secret details of Iran's nuclear talks as both camps trade a last-minute political jabs ahead of Netanyahu's controversial speech at 11 a.m.
A Democrat, I forget his name, I didn't get it fully, who didn't attend today, 50 Democrats boycotted one of the Democrats who boycotted tweeted after the speech that the speech was an illustration of how the biggest problem facing peace in the Middle East is Benjamin Netanyahu.
I don't know how.
Oh, there was something interesting, too, Mr. Snurley.
I don't know if you saw this.
CNN in their post-speech analysis and coverage is going to talk to Senator Daify.
Senator Diane Feinstein, and they went and Dana Bash was the info babe going to do the interview, and they cut to her a little bit too soon.
Dify was telling Bash what to ask her and what she was going to say.
Dify was going through here, and this is this is it, this and this and this, and then they cut and banned him.
Oh God!
And here we are with Senator Diane Feinstein.
Feinstein, I'm, I mean, this is a guess on my part.
Feinstein looked like she was giving the reporter the parameters of her answer.
Which doesn't surprise me in the least.
I mean, their sisters in the cause.
But I'm telling you, folks, this was leadership.
This was fearlessness.
This speech today has a lot of people wishing we had this kind of forceful moral, ethical clarity, leading our own country.
And there will be a lot of Democrats, of course, who disagree with that profoundly.
Don't expect this to unify anything.
But what this is going to do and what it did was expose The abject weakness in the United States position on this whole concept of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have, because this is the EIB network.
We have the first official response from the Obama White House to the Netanyahu joint session of Congress speech this morning.
Greetings, my friends.
Welcome back, Rush Limbaugh here on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network.
And again, the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
So the White House response to this is evidence of the petulant nature of President Obama.
I mean, Israel is our lone ally in the Middle East.
You might want to throw Jordan in there.
You might want in certain limited fashion to include the Saudis in there, but I'm that's a stretch.
But Israel clearly is and has been a U.S. ally.
And today the Barack Obama administration is treating Benjamin Netanyahu as though he is just your average Republican who made a speech that the White House feels was an attempt to show them up.
The reaction from the White House was the Netanyahu's speech was all rhetoric and no action.
All rhetoric and no action.
Just a bunch of gum flapping.
Nothing serious here.
And I think that the fact that that statement was released, unnamed administration official, no doubt, with the concurrence of Obama.
All the evidence you need of how small and petulant and egocentric the president is.
I mentioned earlier that Benjamin Netanyahu is everything Obama is not.
I should have added Obama knows it.
In those rare moments where he is able to admit such things.
Many egomaniacs and narcissists seldom even have that opening occur where they acknowledge that anybody is better, more equipped, or what have you.
But in Benjamin Netanyahu, you know what we saw today?
I mean, let me put in perspective what just happened here today.
Benjamin Netanyahu gave a worldwide speech in which he pointedly refused to be intimidated by Barack Obama.
There isn't a single Republican in the leadership in the House or Senate that would do that.
Got to give kudos to Boehner for hanging tough of the invite, however, let's be.
And by the way, kudos to Bain.
You know what Boehner's gift to Netanyahu was?
A bust of William or Winston Churchill.
You realize what a double whammy that is.
Comparing a foreign prime minister to Winston Churchill after giving a speech that was more powerful and pro-America than our own president could give.
But let's not forget the other part of the double whammy.
You got to give Boehner credit for this.
Remember one of the first things Obama did after being inaugurated?
There was a bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office.
It had been given to George W. Bush by the British.
Obama returned it.
He wanted no part of it.
Today Boehner gives a Churchill bust to Benjamin Netanyahu.
We got speech excerpts coming up.
Don't go away.
Hi, how are you?
Welcome back, my friends.
Rush Limbaugh having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
We are here at 800 282-2882 in the email address L Rushbow at EIB net.com.
So the White House reaction is that Netanyahu is all rhetoric and no action.
You're kidding me, right?
What's the White House doing?
The White House is trying to stop Israel from acting.
Israel is promising to act if this deal doesn't do the deal.
And that's what Obama doesn't want.
Can I predict to you what Obama's reaction to this is going to be?
What do you think?
Let me just take a little straw poll here among the staffaroo.
What do you think Obama's gonna do in reaction to this?
It's very simple.
It's very simple.
I just want to check and see how many of my brilliant staff are on the same wavelength as am I. Let's just...
Okay.
Okay, so Sterling's run a campaign of hate against Netanyahu, discredit him at every turn.
Yeah, that'll happen, but that's that's not what I think.
Uh but he's not gonna continue to damn it.
He's gonna fast track the deal now.
What'll happen is Obama's gonna fast what this is when Obama thinks he's been embarrassed, when Obama thinks he's been shown up, doubles down on revenge.
Oh, you don't like this deal?
Oh, you think I don't know what I'm doing?
Oh, you think that you can come to my country and tell me how it's gonna be, but watch this and bamboo, fast track the deal and make it even worse than it is.
Any bets, ladies and gentlemen, that that is not what will happen.
Because I, El Rushbo, think that's exactly what's gonna happen.
And then after that, the first press conference Obama calls will be to pick his his brackets in the March magnus in order to illustrate how little he thinks of what happened today.
Obama's next public appearance will have to do with uh the NCAA tournament or some some such thing as that.
Or maybe Obama will just ratify the deal via executive order.
Have you heard that Obama is is now toying with the idea of raising taxes via executive action?
What do you mean?
It's not unbelievable at all.
What do you mean unbelievable?
He's gonna raise taxes and the White House and their Democrats out there say, you know what?
That makes perfect sense.
Why didn't we think of that earlier?
Raise taxes.
We've got to solve this income inequality divide.
Well, just raise taxes by virtue of executive action.
I mean, what's anybody gonna do?
The Republicans have if telegraph aren't gonna stop me.
Why not do it?
Anyway, that's what I think Obama will do.
He'll double down on it and he'll speed it up, and he will um he'll he'll agree to things that make Netanyahu even angrier.
And everybody else.
Because you don't show up.
You do not embarrass Barack Obama.
You do not do this and get away with it.
You do not get to come over here in my Congress at my podium with my microphone, and make my speech and show me up.
You don't get to try to come over here and humiliate me.
That's how Obama is going to view this.
And I'll tell you, watching it, it was it was uh it was powerful.
And it was everything Obama is not, and I actually think that this speech exposed the weaknesses and the ideology of the Obama administration and its approach to all of this.
And Pete Weiner had a piece at uh Commentary Magazine recently, might have been uh I think it was today, in fact, he has this morning.
He says, I've spoken to members of Congress who've dealt with Mr. Obama and remarked to me that he gets most petulant and prickly when he's challenged and bested in debate.
It infuriates him, which is what you would expect from a president who is notorious for his facile arguments and intellectual dishonesty.
At any rate, and yeah, folks, don't you we've we've got the Hillary email story out there.
Don't we're gonna get to all of that.
Also, you may not know this, but I was blamed on CBS today, was it?
I was blamed on CBS for the shortage in AR 15 ammunition.
I have been blamed.
No, I didn't ban it.
I publicized the ban.
I publicized the regime's plans.
That caused people to run out start by.
I have been blamed for causing the run on AR-15 bullets.
Okay, let's go to some of the uh Netanyahu's speech highlights as the Democrats, and we're rolling on it.
The Democrats are now strolling to their microphones to react to this.
House Democrats, the ones who intended this.
Well, I don't know if it'll be limited to those who did attend.
Excuse me.
We limited the applause to two seconds here because it would have uh taken a lot of time to leave all the applause in.
So just understand, we've edited most of the applause, but it was thunderous and it was loud and it was constant for Netanyahu.
Now, I mentioned Netanyahu's smart.
He knows who Obama is.
He knows how you have to behave.
You have to polish the apple.
You have to bootlick.
You have to kiss butt.
And so Netanyahu obliged at the opening.
We appreciate all that President Obama has done for Israel.
Now, some of that is widely known.
In each of those moments, I called the president, and he was there.
And some of what the president has done for Israel might never be known because it touches on some of the most sensitive and strategic issues that arise between an American president and an Israeli prime minister.
But I know it, and I will always be grateful to President Obama for that support.
I got a bunch of notes.
I had a bunch of flash texts and messages and emails from people when that happened.
And they uh they got very fatalistic.
Ah, come on, does everybody have to come up here and kiss this guy's butt?
Can't somebody just stand up there and not have to cave this guy.
I said, You gotta understand.
He's got to do this because of what's going to come later in the speech.
This is part, this is required, this this respect, this according of respect to Barack, is it Obama's country's got to do this in order to put in context ever and give more power to what comes later in the speech.
And it turned out as usual that I was right.
Here's the next bite.
This is Netanyahu painting a portrait of the real Iran.
Just last week, near Hormuz, Iran carried out a military exercise, blowing up a mock U.S. aircraft carrier.
That's just last week.
In the Middle East, Iran now dominates four Arab capitals Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut, and Sunnah.
And if Iran's aggression is left unchecked, more will surely follow.
So at a time when uh many hope that Iran will join the community of nations, Iran is busy gobbling up the nation.
By the way, the whole House was applauding here.
I didn't detect too many times that the Democrats sat on their hands.
There were some instances where they did, but uh not many.
It was it was look, there was nothing in this speech to not applaud that.
That was the thing, folks.
You know, when Obama gives a speech, there's plenty to not applaud.
When Obama gives a speech statement, there's plenty to sit on your hands for.
There was nothing in this speech not worthy of applause and support.
The way it used to be here, in talking and listening to leaders of the United States of America, to whom it was and is number one.
Here is the section of his speech containing the great line on ISIS and Iran.
Don't be fooled.
The battle between Iran and ISIS doesn't turn Iran into a friend of America.
Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam.
One calls itself the Islamic Republic, the other calls itself the Islamic State.
Both want to impose a militant Islamic empire, first on the region and then On the entire world.
They just disagree among themselves who will be the ruler of that empire.
In this deadly game of thrones, there's no place for America or for Israel.
No peace for Christians, Jews, or Muslims who don't share the Islamist medieval creed.
No rights for women, no freedom for anyone.
So when it comes to Iran and ISIS, the enemy of your enemy is your enemy.
None of that's deniable.
I mean, I mean, that is just every bit of that is right on the money, but you would not hear those words uttered by anybody in this administration.
These words are considered disrespectful to Iran.
These words are considered to be inflammatory.
Dangerous, irresponsible rhetoric, if it's said to be.
And yet everything in it is true.
One calls itself the Islamic State, one calls itself the Islamic Republic.
Both want to impose a militant Islamic empire.
First in the region, then on the entire world.
Undeniable.
They've said so.
It's not a matter of opinion.
The next bite, Netanyahu compares Iran to ISIS with nukes.
The difference is that ISIS is armed with butcher knives, captured weapons, and YouTube.
Whereas Iran could soon be armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs.
We must always remember, I'll say it one more time.
The greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons.
To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle but lose the war.
We can't let that happen.
But we are on the way to permitting it to happen.
Undeniable that statement is, too.
We're on the way to permitting it to happen.
Have to take a break.
There's more of this for those of you who didn't get a chance to see it.
We'll be back in here just a second.
Don't go away.
Why is there a Democrat reaction to the Netanyahu speech?
Why is there a specific Democrat reaction to the speech?
I mean, it's a rhetorical question.
You know the answer.
I'm just trying to make a point by pointing it out.
There is a specific Democrat Party reaction to the Netanyahu speech.
And that is because they are threatened by it.
That is because they consider Netanyahu to be in the opposition.
He's no different than your average Republican in that he seeks to undermine President Obama, in their view.
And so now the media is dutifully sending their cameras to wherever the Democrats happen to go so that the Democrats in Congress can react.
And it just highlights one of the primary succinct, brilliant points I made yesterday.
We had a caller who said, How come Russia, no matter what we do, they always have an answer for it?
No matter what we do, they've always got a way to nuke it and blow it up.
And I said that's because their whole life is ideological commitment to liberalism.
And the Republican Party has no ideology today.
Conservatism is absent, the Republican Party.
So there is no ideological opposition.
The left has total ownership of the ideology in politics today, and that ideology is liberalism.
The Republicans don't present a ideology that is an opposition.
They just try to stop as best they can, which is not very well, the Democrats now and then.
But the idea that we've got a Democrat response to Netanyahu.
If anybody knows how to watch this stuff, that in itself is quite telling.
You remember this September 15th of 2014 from the Associated Press?
John Kerry said the U.S. is open to talks with Iran on the Islamic State.
You might have wondered, what is a Netanyahu talking about here?
What when is the U.S. ever joined forces with Iran against ISIS?
Well, I'm reminding You September 15th, 2014.
Six months ago, seven months ago.
John Kerry said America is open to discussions with Iran on the Islamic State.
And then from two days later, by the way, the headline from Reuters, Iran leader Spurns U.S. overture to fight ISIS.
So what happened was last September, John Kerry, who, by the way, served in Vietnam, approached Iran and said, hey, how about a little joint discussion here?
How about we join forces on defeating ISIS?
We're willing to talk to you about that.
Kerry making the harebrained assumption that Iran could become our ally in the fight against ISIS.
And Iran said, are you kidding?
And they spurned Kerry's offer.
And then they state run press TV, Iranian press TV said, anti-ISIL coalition mere joke, says Iranian president Ali Hamidi.
So Kerry got slapped last September.
He treats Iran like, hey, hey, you want to be our buddy here trying to stop ISIS?
And Iran said, no, no, we're not your friend.
We're not your buddy, and your coalition is not ISIS as a joke.
That's why Netanyahu made the comment about.
Just because Iran might be an enemy of ISIL doesn't make Iran our friend.
Iran and ISIS want the same thing.
They're just in dispute over who will run the caliphate once they make it happen.
Another great point by Netanyahu here about the deal, the Obama deal, the American deal, that it's so bad.
Because Iran can get the nuclear bomb.
Iran can get the bomb by either breaking this deal or following it.
What kind of deal is that?
Iran could get to the bomb by violating the deal.
But the second major concession creates an even greater danger that Iran could get to the bomb by keeping the deal.
Because virtually all the restrictions on Iran's nuclear program will automatically expire in about a decade.
Now, a decade may seem like a long time in political life, but it's the blink of an eye in the life of a nation.
It's a blink of an eye in the life of our children.
This deal has two major concessions.
One, leaving Iran with a vast nuclear program.
And two, lifting the restrictions on that program in about a decade.
That's why this deal is so bad.
It doesn't block Iran's path to the bomb.
It paves Iran's path to the bomb.
This is a huge statement in the speech.
This was, I mean, this was this speech's nuclear bomb in a sense.
This was a direct attack on the people who have put this deal together.
It was the power here is profound, especially when you realize that the regime had been warning Netanyahu not to do this.
In the days leading up to it, don't you dare discuss the inner workings and the details of the deal.
Netanyahu, fearless.
He did it anyway.
And there's more, folks, but we have to break now for obscene profit.
Back in just a second.
You know, these Democrats, it's amazing.
What Netanyahu did today, among many other things, he treated Congress as a coequal branch.
Something Obama doesn't do.
He treated Congress a coequal branch.
And what are the Democrats and Democrats run to the microphones to rip into Obama?
Uh Netanyahu.
I think they did.
I haven't heard it yet.
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