The problem with Senator Harry Reid’s personal and embarrassingly unprofessional attack of Rush Limbaugh, on the Senate floor, accusing him of saying something he didn’t, is that it smacks of fresh hypocrisy. That New York Times fire sale ad, that Moveon.org bought, still lines America’s bird cage, and with a tilt of the head, the whole country can see those great big, obnoxious, military-hating words . . . GENERAL PETRAEUS or GENERAL BETRAY US. Oh how clever, and what exactly was the betrayal that would cause this outrageous character assassination? Why didn’t Harry condemn this? And who can forget the wannabe Commander in Chief, Hillary Clinton, basically calling this brave man a liar during a four-hour interrogation? Where Was Harry on that one?
Here is the transcript of what Rush really said. You decide if he was dishonoring the troops or singling out the actions of one man who lied about his military service in order to trash the service.
*“The morning update on Wednesday dealt with a soldier, a fake, phony soldier by the name of Jesse MacBeth who never served in Iraq; he was never an Army Ranger. He was drummed out of the military in 44 days. He had his day in court; he never got the Purple Heart as he claimed, and he described all these war atrocities. He became a hero to the anti-war left. They love phony soldiers, and they prop ’em up. When it is demonstrated that they have been lying about things, then they just forget about it. There’s no retraction; there’s no apology; there’s no, “Uh-oh, sorry.” After doing that morning update on Wednesday, I got a phone call yesterday from somebody, we were talking about the troops, and this gentleman said something which you’ll hear here in just a second, prompting me to reply ‘yeah, the phony soldiers.’”
“Howard Dean has released a statement demanding I apologize; Jim Webb; John Kerry issued a statement, three Congress people went out on the floor of the House last night and said some things, and it’s starting to blossom now in the Drive-By Media. So this is the anatomy of a smear, and this is how it starts.”
Harry continued his rant by saying, “Rush Limbaugh took it upon himself to attack those who are fighting and dying for him. He never served in a uniform, etc. Never served in combat. And worse, his show is being broadcast on Armed Services Radio. He owes them an apologize.”
Gee, Harry is going to have a hard time holding all those anti-military, General-grilling, Commander-in-Chief-bashing fellow senators accountable, the way he is “pretending” to with Rush. He needs to stand Hillary up in front of the class and tell her, and the country that she is not worthy to be President because she never wore the uniform and any vote to defund them can be interpreted as being anti-military. I mean, by the Rush standard that is.
Come to think of it, Barak and Edwards have not served in the military either. Does he make the same assessment about their ability to lead? They want to be president, not a radio talk show host. There is no accountability in a free country for talk show hosts to abide by political talking points or monitor their works to comply with a self-described thought police.
Does anyone, besides Dan Rather, remember that George Bush served in the National Guard and was trashed at every point because we did not have access to every single page of his entire record so Dan, et al, filled in the blanks and concluded that he was AWOL. Wow, now that’s real respect for someone who is willing to put their life on the line. Where is his apology? Oh, and where are John Kerry’s service records that never seemed to appear during the flap over a couple of missing Bush pages? And isn’t Kerry the one who threw his medals over a fence, only to magically have them reappear when he wanted to use his “military experience” to get votes? He is considered a patriot beyond reproach, while Reagan, Bush, Dole, McCain, Bush . . . were all fair game when dissecting their military records.
Remember when Bush flew in on that aircraft carrier, proving once again that he attended enough classes to be able to land a jet on a postage stamp? But what was the reaction? It is hard to describe the sound of the gnashing of teeth and grinding of bones, but the left was not happy at that amazing site where young boys all over the country sat in awe, watching a president who didn’t loath the military like their mom’s president had.
Speaking of loathing the military. Wow . . . what an amazing statement for a commander in Chief not to be held accountable for. It is too bad that Harry Reid was not in the Senate when Clinton was president, otherwise his unwavering outpouring of love and devotion for the military would certainly have been exhibited in the same type of excoriation on the floor of the senate he just treated Rush to. Oh wait . . . he was in the Senate during Clinton’s term and that never came up. Imagine that . . . a private citizen can point out that an imposter is going around, posing as a soldier, trashing the war and the troops, cheating the government out of $10,000, and he is trashed on the floor of the Senate, while a draft dodging Commander in Chief who loathes the military is heralded as a hero. Very odd.
So, Harry Reid insisted that Rush issue an apology . . . for something he didn’t do, and graciously he consented. It’s sort of like seeing a baby crying, smelling a change is needed, seeing the mom is busy, and you just go ahead and clean up a mess that you didn’t make.
Rush begins his apology to the troops by saying, “So they’re going to try to deflect the criticism away from their pet organization, MoveOn.org, whose “Betray Us” ad backfired totally on them. It was a Wellstone moment for them, as this will be. But since you will never get an apology from Jack Murtha for mischaracterizing you as murderers, since you’ll never get an apology from John Kerry, since you won’t get an apology from Media Matters for America or anybody that works there, to all of you in the US Military, I want to apologize to you for them for the, again, firestorm over something that did not happen regarding your valor and your commitment to freedom and democracy last week on this program. I really regret that it happened, and I apologize to you on their behalf since they won’t.”
Yes, class trumps cowardice and blatant hypocrisy, every time.
It is amazing that these same elected officials, who are paid to serve, not be petty dictators, fall all over themselves to make sure a fellow petty dictator, Iran’s Ahmadinejad is allowed a free and open forum even though his named goal is to destroy them, Rush, you, me . . . and gee . . . every single person in our military, phony or not.
This charade of selective outrage is a precursor to their strategy to dismantle talk radio and impose restrictions on speech by reintroducing the “(un)Fairness Doctrine.” Ironically, Rush invited all of the senatorial detractors to come on his show . . . offering them a public forum to share with the rest of us, the disgust they feel about a fabricated lie. We would all love to hear from them, and try and get an understanding of why they are so outraged by this but not the statements made by Democrats who REALLY do insult the troops.
