Cross-posted from Blue Texas
Rush Limbaugh is trying to reinvent what he said the other day when he referred to folks with military backgrounds who oppose George W. Bush's immoral war of choice in Iraq as "phony soldiers."
I heard the original Limbaugh tirade, and there's no mistaking who Rush was referring to when he was making those remarks.
Faced with an avalanche of condemnation for his remarks, Limbaugh (whose radio show is heard in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on WBAP-AM has tried to reinvent what he said. Here's what Media Matters for America reported:
During the September 28 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, in response to Media Matters for America's documentation of his recent description of service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq as "phony soldiers," Rush Limbaugh claimed that he had not been talking "about the anti-war movement generally," but rather "about one soldier ... Jesse MacBeth." Limbaugh further asserted that "Media Matters had the transcript, but they selectively choose what they want to make their point." To support this claim, Limbaugh purported to air the "entire" segment in question from the September 26 broadcast of his show. In fact, the clip he then aired had been edited. Excised from the clip was a full 1 minute and 35 seconds of the 1 minute and 50 second discussion that occurred between Limbaugh's original "phony soldiers" comment and his reference to MacBeth, the full audio of which can be heard here .
Prior to airing the edited clip, Limbaugh said: "Here is, it runs about 3 minutes and 13 seconds, the entire transcript, in context, that led to this so-called controversy." After the clip ended, Limbaugh stated: "That was the transcript from yesterday's program, talking about one phony soldier. The truth for the left is fiction that serves their purpose, which is exactly the way the website Media Matters generated this story."
From the September 28 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show, including (in bold) the portion of the original segment cut from Limbaugh's "entire" audio clip:LIMBAUGH: I was not talking, as Contessa Brewer said here, about the anti-war movement generally. I was talking about one soldier with that "phony soldier" comment, Jesse MacBeth. They had exactly what I'm going to play for you. This is Michael J. Fox all over again. Media Matters had the transcript, but they selectively choose what they want to make their point. Here is -- it runs about 3 minutes and 13 seconds -- the entire transcript, in context, that led to this so-called controversy.
[begin audio clip]
LIMBAUGH: I -- it's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.
CALLER 2: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.
LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.
CALLER 2: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country.
LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined --
CALLER 2: A lot of them -- the new kids, yeah.
LIMBAUGH: Well, you --
[begin Limbaugh edit]
LIMBAUGH: -- know where you're going these days, the last four years, if you signed up. The odds are you're going there or Afghanistan or somewhere.
CALLER 2: Exactly, sir. And, and my other comment was -- and the reason I was calling for -- was to report to Jill about the fact that we didn't, didn't find any weapons of mass destruction. Actually, we have found weapons of mass destruction in chemical agents that [inaudible] been using against us for awhile now.
I've done two tours in Iraq. I just got back in June and there were many instances of -- since [inaudible] not know what they're using in their IEDs [improvised explosive devices]. They're using mustard artillery rounds. The VX artillery rounds in their IEDs.
Because they didn't know what they were using, they didn't do it right, and so it just kind of -- it, it didn't really hurt anybody but there are -- those munitions are over there, it's just -- it's a huge desert. If they've buried it somewhere, we're never gonna find it.
LIMBAUGH: Well, you know, that's a moot point for me right now --
MIKE: Rush --
LIMBAUGH: -- the weapons of mass destruction. We gotta get beyond that. We're, we're there. What -- who cares if, if -- we all know they were there and, and Mahmoud [Ahmadinejad, Iranian president] even admitted it in one of his speeches here about -- talkin' about Saddam using the poison mustard gas or whatever it is on his own people -- but that, that's moot, right? What, what's more important is all this is taking place now in the midst of the surge working.
And all of these anti-war Democrats are getting even more hell-bent on pulling out of there, which means that success on the part of you and, and your colleagues over there is, is a great threat to them.
[end Limbaugh edit]
LIMBAUGH: It's just, it's frustrating and maddening, and it is why they must be kept in the minority.
Look, I want to thank you, Mike, for calling. I appreciate it very much. I gotta -- let me see -- got something -- here is a "Morning Update" that we did recently talking about fake soldiers. This is a story of who the left props up as heroes. And they have their celebrities.
One of them was Jesse MacBeth. Now, he was a "corporal," I say in quotes -- 23 years old.
[reading from "Morning Update" (subscription required)]
What made Jesse MacBeth a hero to the anti-war crowd wasn't his Purple Heart. It wasn't his being affiliated with post traumatic stress disorder from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, though. What made Jesse MacBeth, Army Ranger, a hero to the left was his courage in their view off the battlefield.
Without regard to consequences, he told the world the abuses he had witnessed in Iraq: American soldiers killing unarmed civilians, hundreds of men, women, even children. In one gruesome account translated into Arabic and spread widely across the internet, Army Ranger Jesse MacBeth describes the horrors this way:
'We would burn their bodies. We would hang their bodies from the rafters in the mosque.'
Now, recently, Jesse MacBeth, a poster boy for the anti-war left, had his day in court, and you know what? He was sentenced to five months in jail and three years probation for falsifying a Department of Veterans Affairs' claim and his Army discharge record.
He was in the Army. Jesse MacBeth was in the Army, folks, briefly -- 44-days before he washed out of boot camp. Jesse MacBeth isn't an Army Ranger. Never was. He isn't a corporal. Never was. He never won the Purple Heart and he was never in combat to witness the horrors he claimed to have seen."
You probably haven't even heard about this, and if you have, you haven't heard much about it. This doesn't fit the narrative and the template of the drive-by media and the Democrat [sic] Party as to who a genuine war hero is.
Don't look for any retractions, by the way, not from the anti-war left, the anti-military drive-by media or the Arabic websites that spread Jesse MacBeth's lies about our troops, because the truth of the left is fiction, is what serves their purpose. They have to lie about such atrocities 'cause they can't find any that fit the template of the way they see the U.S. military.
In other words, for the American anti-war left, the greatest inconvenience they face is the truth. [end audio clip]
LIMBAUGH: That was the transcript from yesterday's program, talking about one phony soldier. The truth for the left is fiction that serves their purpose, which is exactly the way the website Media Matters generated this story. Fiction, out of context, did so knowingly.
What is amazing, is that after all of the examples of how this organization is simply a Democrat Party-Hillary Clinton front group, how they constantly do this, how they take things out of context and embarrass themselves, and get things wrong, they still have credible, so-called journalists and others, members of Congress, Democrat Party, who treat what they say as gospel.
Not one member of the media, not one member of Congress has called our office to ask, "Did you really say this, and what did you mean by it?" The reason this doesn't work, ladies and gentlemen, is that I have a 19-and-a-half-year record on this program of being one of the most devoted supporters of U.S. military personnel in uniform that there is.
And the effort here is simply to discredit people that they consider effective and powerful on the right, ginning up, leading up into the '08 elections. They cannot beat us in the arena of ideas. They cannot challenge what we say and refute it and come out on top, so this is the anatomy of a smear, and I'll show you how it works when we come after the break. We have a bunch of sound bites here from Jim Webb, Jan Schakowsky, Frank Pallone, Democrats and senators, plus the Kerry statement that I read to you. All that coming up right after this.
Now, confronted with the possibility of Congressional censure over his remarks (which were far more matching the description of "personal attacks" than the Moveon.org critique of the testimony of Gen. David Petraeus that drew the ire of Congressional Republicans and vichy Democrats), Rush is now acting as though he was just a "little ol' me" being attacked by the big, bad Democrats.
There are two big problems with Rush's self-portrayal. First, Media Matters provided the actual tape of the original tirade, and it supports the contention that Rush didn't have just one soldier in mind as he said later, but a long list of those with military backgrounds who have come out against Bush's war.
The second is the fact that Limbaugh is not just a "plain little ol' me" private citizen as he implies. He is a widely listened-to talk show host whose program is heard throughout the country and around the world via the Armed Forces Network. He also has done more than his share of promotion of Republican candidates and causes, and has had a number of major Bush and Republican officials as guests on his program.
Here's the transcription of Rush's latest tirade, this one aimed at Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, who dared to send a letter to Rush's syndicator attacking the comments:
RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, in the last half hour, Harry Reid took to the floor of the Senate and proceeded to spend five-to-seven minutes denouncing me, spreading the smear that started last week on this phony soldiers business. He has prepared a letter to be sent to the CEO of the company that syndicates this program, and that letter he asked as many senators as possible to sign, offering them the opportunity to demand of my syndicator that I be condemned for something that I did not say, which Harry Reid knows I did not say. The House of Representatives, I have just learned, is going to introduce a resolution this afternoon along the lines of the MoveOn.org resolution that was introduced last week, tit-for-tat, they want a vote in the House to condemn me, a private citizen, for something I did not say. These people have had three, four days now to learn the truth about this, and they no doubt know the truth, which doesn't matter. What they are trying to do is flood a false story into the Drive-By Media and have that survive and suffice as the evidence and as the story of what I said when it wasn't. This is not just the anatomy of a smear. There's much more going on with this than just smearing me. There is an attempt, I think, as they have done throughout my career, to discredit me. No matter how many signatures they get on their letter in the Senate, no matter how many votes they get on their resolution in the House, the idea was offered, and so far no Republicans have spoken up, but it's early. After Harry Reid finished reading his letter and then castigating and excoriating me for something I didn't say and didn't do, he then went to normal business and Chuck Grassley is up there talking about some piece of Ted Kennedy legislation. There has been no response by Republicans to this yet, and I don't know that there will be. I have no clue. We have some sound bites here of Dingy Harry on the floor of the Senate this afternoon. There are four of them, and here is the first of the four.
REID: Last week, Rush Limbaugh went way over the line, way over the line. While I respect his right to say anything he likes, his unpatriotic comments I cannot ignore. During his show last Wednesday, Limbaugh was engaged in one of his typical rants. This one was unremarkable, indistinguishable from his usual drivel, which has been steadily losing listeners for years, [sic] until he crossed that line by calling our men and women in uniform who oppose the war in Iraq, and I quote, "phony soldiers." [sic] This comment was so beyond the pale of decency, and we can't leave it alone. And yet he followed it up with denials and an attack on Congressman Jack Murtha, who was a 37-year active member of the Marine Corps, combat veteran.
RUSH: (laughing) I don't quite know how to deal with this. I mean, it's not a laughing matter, although it is a laughing matter because this is such -- you talk about Kafkaesque. I have just finished an interview with Clarence Thomas talking about the lies and stuff spread about him during his confirmation hearings, and now I, little old private citizen, Rush Limbaugh, the subject of Senate action, the subject today of House of Representatives action, all based on a purposely told lie, which they know is a lie, and yet they are persisting in this. Followed it up with denials? I followed it up with setting the record straight. By the way, on my website, folks, all of this is there. It's been up there all weekend, and we added something last night that you have to see. A week ago today, ABC News, Charlie Gibson, World News Tonight, did a feature with Brian Ross, their investigative reporter, on phony soldiers! Last Monday, one week ago today. I don't see ABC being denounced. Their story was on Jesse MacBeth, the same soldier I was talking about one week ago. That video is up at RushLimbaugh.com, as well as an exposé by Brent Bozell's group, the Media Research Center, on just who Media Matters for America is. As to Jack Murtha, I just did a story today saying that he has been sued by a soldier for calling him a murderer. I just reported the news today, and yet this is reported as an attack on Congressman Jack Murtha. This is Kafkaesque, it's McCarthy-like, and I think I told you this on many occasions. My father would not believe any of this, not because of the Senate, he just wouldn't believe that his son has become the focal point of Democrats in the House of Representatives in the Senate, someone targeted for destruction and smear, as a private citizen. Here is number two of Senator Reid.
REID: Rush Limbaugh took it upon himself to attack the courage and character of those fighting and dying for him and for all of us. Rush Limbaugh got himself a deferment from serving when he was a young man. He never served in uniform. He never saw in person the extreme difficulty of maintaining peace in a foreign country engaged in a civil war. He never saw a person in combat. Yet he thinks that his opinion on the war is worth more than those who have been on the front lines. And what's worse, Limbaugh's show is broadcast on Armed Forces Radio, which means that thousands of troops, overseas, and veterans here at home, were forced to hear this attack on their patriotism. Rush Limbaugh owes the men and women of our armed forces an apology.
RUSH: (Laughing.) He's gotta be a nut. I cannot believe that they are actually going this far with this. I did apologize today to the troops, Senator Reid, for you, and for Media Matters for America. If anybody in this country has been trying to demoralize the troops, it is you, sir, and your members of the Democrat Party. You have waved the white flag of defeat. You have claimed that they cannot win. You are trying to shift the focus from your perception, the perception, accurately, that people have of you and your party, to me, who everyone who has listened to me any length of time whatsoever knows that these allegations are just totally untrue. As to why I'm on the Armed Forces Radio network, it was Senator Clinton's defense secretary, Les Aspin, who secured an hour of this program on the Armed Forces Radio network, and because I was requested. They did a poll of the troops back then, and the troops requested that this program be on Armed Forces Radio. Did you notice in this bite, since I've never been to combat, I'm not qualified - which is another liberal assault on free speech. If you haven't done something, you're not allowed to talk about it, Senator Reid says. I have made troop visits to Afghanistan, senator, and I have been to Walter Reed Army hospital, and I have been to several military bases after Gulf War one, participating in welcome-home festivities for the troops coming back from that conflict. Perhaps I should remind you of the story, Senator Reid, back in the summer of 2003, I went home one day and there was a Federal Express package for me. I didn't recognize the sender, but I opened it anyway. Inside, in a Ziploc bag, was an American flag. There was a letter written by hand on a piece of yellow legal paper, and there were five certificates showing different aircraft. I read the letter and found out that that flag had been flown in all five of those aircraft during the original invasion of Iraq in 2003, in my honor, by each of the five pilots that piloted those planes. One was a tanker. The others were bombers and attack aircraft. I looked at this, and I started crying. Doing this in my honor? I doubt, Senator Reid, if this happened and it's happened a couple times since, that if I were really held in such low regard by the members of the US facility, this probably wouldn't be the case.
RUSH: We have two more Harry Reid sound bites. By the way, in the second sound bite, he refers to my dwindling audience or whatever. In his dreams, ladies and gentlemen, is this audience getting smaller. (Laughing.) There's nothing in any of this that's truthful. There's nothing in any of it to believe. And I would caution you: you know the truth of this, so listen to it for what this. Now, I mentioned earlier he's prepared a letter that he wants to send to the CEO of Clear Channel Communications, which syndicates this program, and he wants as many senators as possible to sign it. Here's the bite explaining the letter.
REID: Here is what we wrote: "Dear Mr. Mays." Here's the letter, Mr. President. "At the time we signed this letter, 3,801 hundred American soldiers had been killed in Iraq. Another 27,936 have been wounded. One hundred and sixty others awoke this morning on foreign sand far from home to face the danger and uncertainty of another day at war. Although Americans of goodwill debate the merits of this war, we can all agree that those who serve with such great courage deserve our deepest respect and gratitude.
RUSH: When have they ever have it from you?
REID: That's why Rush Limbaugh's recent characterization of troops who oppose the war as "phony soldiers" is an outrage. Our troops are fighting and dying to bring to others the freedoms that many take for granted. It is unconscionable that Mr. Limbaugh would criticize them for exercising the fundamental American right to free speech. We call on you to publicly repudiate these comments that call into question their service and sacrifice and ask Mr. Limbaugh to apologize for his comments.
RUSH: This is unreal. All of that bite is unreal. This is like a man who has proclaimed the US military incompetent. They cannot win. The war is over. It shouldn't be fought. He's done everything possible to demoralize these troops, and now he's trying to turn that around. They're trying to get that back. I told you they'd gone over the cliff. They're trying to get back on the page that they love and support the troops, and they're doing it by trying to suggest I'm the one who is saying things like they are. Don't forget his second lieutenant, Durbin, and what he said about the troops and the people that work for us at Club Gitmo and Abu Ghraib and a number of other of these prisons where we were housing prisoners of war and terrorists. Here's the final of the four bites that we have.
REID: Mr. President, just as patriotism is exclusive realm of neither party, taking a stand against those who hate and impugn the integrity of our troops is a job that belongs to both parties, all of us. I'm confident we will see Republicans joining with us in overwhelming numbers. "Confident" is the wrong word, Mr. President. "Hopeful" is the right word. I so I asked my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans alike, to join together against this irresponsible, hateful, and unpatriot[ic] attack by calling on Rush Limbaugh to give our troops the apology they deserve -- and I hope that all would sign this letter.
RUSH: All right. Well, somebody needs to tell him I did apologize to the troops earlier today, FOR him and FOR the Democrats and FOR the group that has fed this smear campaign, this bunch of lies that he knows is false, but he just wants to get this in the Congressional Record now. This is in the Congressional Record, and he wants it there permanently. This is a way to discredit me and rehabilitate the Democrats -- and notice who they use to try to rehabilitate themselves: a private citizen. I would say this. What I want to do now is demand that Harry Reid come on this program and confront me like a man. Live, unedited, come on this show and let's go at it. I'm not going to allow hack politicians to lie about what I said, to cover up what they have said and done. These are partisan character assassins. They've attacked me just as in the past they've attacked Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, and scores of other conservatives. Senator Reid, it is time for you to stop hiding behind the speech-and-debate clause and your Senate immunity. You want to come on this program and call me unpatriotic, come on this program and call me unpatriotic. You want to call me a liar, you want to tell me that I did not say what I said, you come on this program and you tell me to my face that I said what I did not say. Stop hiding behind your special protections as a senator and spewing the talking points of an embarrassing, partisan hack media group called Media Matters for America. Hillary Clinton didn't serve in the military, by the way, Senator Reid. She just voted against General Petraeus. Barack Obama did not serve in the military, Senator Reid, and he didn't even show up to vote in support of Petraeus. John Edwards didn't serve, and after voting to send our troops to war, he has undermined them ever since. It is unconscionable for an esteemed United States senator to launch an all-out assault on a private citizen, which is a lie from front to back, in order to cover your own actions and words, which have been the true demoralization of the US military -- and if anybody owes the military of this country an apology, Senator Reid, it is you. It is Jack Murtha. It is Dick Durbin. It is any and all who have joined your effort to secure defeat of the United States and the United States military in not only Iraq, but the war on terror. Sir, have you no decency left? Have you no shame whatsoever?
RUSH: Well, now it's a full-fledged assault. Senator Tom "Dung Heap" Harkin is on the floor of the Senate denouncing me. Once again, Senator Harkin, Senator Reid: Face me like a man and stop hiding behind the microphones in the Senate where you can say whatever you want to say. Come on my program and say all of these things to my face and let's go at it. You know, Harry Reid and had liberals here, folks, what they're trying to do -- one other thing -- is put words in the military's mouth. They lie about the premise, then they speak on behalf of the military which they claim to be upset about, which is what they've been lying about in the first place! They are the ones who have been condemning the military. They are the ones who have been demoralizing the military. They are the ones who have -- I can't say this more powerfully enough -- trying to secure defeat for the US military. They know it and everyone else does, and now they try to turn the tables and make it sound like one of the most ardent supporters of the US military is being "unpatriotic," this to cover their own lack of patriotism.
Now he's impugning the patriotism of not only those with military backgrounds who oppose Bush's war, but everyone who has dared to speak out and take action against it.
How many more American servicemen have to die in the Bush-GOP War of Choice in Iraq that Limbaugh has so enthusiastically supported. And how many more Congressionally-authorized dollars have to be spent before Congress finally gins up the courage to tell Bush and his entourage-- no more funds.
The least Congress can do after its despicable Republican-driven vote to condemn the truthful ad of Moveon.org is not only to condemn Limbaugh in a resolution, but to order the Armed Forces Radio to stop airing Limbaugh's program on its stations.
It's time Congress stop acting like a bunch of Neville Chamberlains in trying to appease the idiots on the right who back Bush, but take real action that will end the Iraq war and see to it that Limbaugh's personal attacks on war critics with past military backgrounds don't go uncondemned and unaddressed.
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