Recapping the Week: What the Media & Democrats Have Told Us About Themselves with the Fox Flap

RUSH: So I took a little break here at the top of the hour, and I was walking around the broadcast complex here, and on the way back in to the broadcast studio, I asked the staff on the other side of the glass there, ‘Do you think I’ve hit the Michael J. Fox thing hard enough today?’ and they always get queasy when I ask them for their assessment of daily performance. They don’t want to disagree with the boss. They’re not suck-ups, but nobody said anything — and I knew what that meant. So I looked at Dawn and asked, ‘Do you think I have hit it hard enough today?’

‘No, I don’t. I mean, they continue to play that sickening video of you and distort it, and lie about it.’

I looked at Brian. ‘What do you think, Brian?’

‘I think you could do it one more time.’

I said, ‘Well, you told me on Wednesday you were bored with it.’

He said, ‘Well, they’ve kept playing that video. They continue to distort what you’re saying.’

Snerdley, of course, agrees with them. There are so many other things out there. I’ve devoted the first two hours of the program to other things today. I did respond to Michael J. Fox’s interview on Katie Couric’s news last night, because he said two incredible things I had to respond to. So that’s out there. Also I’ve posted it. It’s on the website at the very top of the website. Katie Couric sent me an e-mail yesterday before she sat down with Mr. Fox and said, ‘Could you just send me something that represents a statement of what you said?’ Gladly. So it’s five or six paragraphs. I sent it over there, and she used one line from it.

She was not obligated to use it all, don’t misunderstand. I just want you to see what I sent her, and what was not used, what obviously did not strike her as important to say or use in her questioning in the interview of Michael J. Fox. I have received numerous e-mails today from friends who are just outraged over the continuing use of the video that the Drive-By Media, particularly cable channels, use. But Katie used it, too, and she didn’t tell me she was going to do that, otherwise I would have explained that and put that in context. But she ought to know anyway. These people, we’ve been talking about this all week. They don’t want to know what’s actually said on this program. They want to be able to make it up and characterize it in their own way.

The thing that continues to be used is the video on Monday in which I, right after I had viewed the ad that Michael J. Fox did for Claire McCaskill, began to describe it, and in the process of describing it, I began to illustrate what I had seen. I almost find myself doing it here. It is a natural tendency. We’ve got a camera in here, and I try to illustrate for people when I have the ability, when people are watching this program as well on the Dittocam. That has been taken. Some networks have sped it up to try to enhance the spastic-like nature of it. They are all saying that I was ‘mocking, making fun of. How low will Limbaugh go now and next? This is unconscionable.’ It is absurd and ridiculous for them to make this charge that I would make fun of somebody in this circumstance.

So the story is that I’m just out of control here, and the fact of the matter is that it is the Drive-By Media is acting disgracefully. It is they who have reached a new low. It is they who are totally uninterested in anything of the truth. You know, I know how I was treated — I know what was said about me — when I lost my hearing. I know the applause that I was greeted with. I know how happy people were when they thought it was the end of my career. I remember all of this, and I’ve not mentioned it up until this week because it is what it is. I don’t whine or complain about these things because this is the league in which I play. This is politics. This is the arena of ideas. I don’t expect these people to like me. I don’t expect them to give me a ‘fair shake’ like they give the terrorists, like CNN I gives the terrorists. I don’t expect a fair shake from CNN. I don’t expect a fair shake from MSNBC. I don’t expect a fair shake from any other broadcast networks. So it’s all about expectations. When we don’t expect something and then it doesn’t happen, you’re not surprised, but I remember when I announced that I was addicted to prescription pain pills. There was happiness about that. There was glee, and television shows were convened to discuss if this meant the end of my career. They were hoping and praying that it did.

So yes, it’s true. The very people who are demanding total compassion, demanding silence, demanding utter respect for their chosen victims are the same people who are as mean and cruel as they think those of us on the right are — and they do it and they think they’re doing it in an heroic fashion. I appreciate all of the e-mails that I’ve gotten from you people in support. They are voluminous. They are mountainous if I were to print them out. The degree to which many of you were angered and outraged, I understand and I appreciate. But understand, I’m just not able to mount the same kind of anger and articulate it here to give you some sort of feedback.

Of course I’m mad about it, and I wish it weren’t happening, but it is what it is. I really live and am grounded in the reality of circumstances. The one thing I have learned over the course of my career is that (as this episode illustrates) how many hours this week have I discussed this in every which way, how many charges have I dealt with and nuked out of the park, how many times have I discussed substantive analytical issues associated with what the Michael J. Fox ad is all about — and has it changed anything in the media? No, and I didn’t expect it to. Now, I have watched a little TV at night this week and I have been a little surprised that there’s so many people on our side of the aisle who are so misinformed about this themselves, that even when they attempt to explain my side of it they don’t get it because they’re not even up to speed on it.

Many people ask me, ‘How does this make you feel? Does it make you feel alone?’ No, no, no, no, no. I mean, I feel isolated, maybe, but not alone in the sense of being alone about it. I just continue to fall back on ‘it is what it is,’ and I really feel bad that you guys get so angry about it. I understand it, and I’m sure they are hearing from you. They are ignoring you just as they are ignoring what I say here. This is pedal-to-the-metal time. Democrats have been dreaming about this blue-wave landslide of theirs. Look at what’s happened here with this Michael J. Fox ad. The truth of what’s happened is that the whole issue has blown up in their face. What they are trying to pass off as stem cell research is actually a cloning measure! That’s what’s on the ballot in Missouri. Amendment 2 is about cloning, about federal dollars, your dollars.

Some couple out there has invested $28 million, and they want state funds and all this once this becomes part of the constitution. This is not about ‘legalizing’ cloning. It’s making it constitutional in Missouri! It’s being disguised even from the name of the amendment as a stem cell research issue, and they trot out Mr. Fox in all of his suffering. It’s designed to twist your heart and gut-wrench you and to get you focused — not on what the issue is, but on the emotions involved. Well, we blew all that up, and they are livid about this. Now, they won’t say that. This is one of their October Surprises.

They were going to sneak in, get in a little hit here in Missouri, a little hit in Maryland, and maybe run one of these ads against George Allen in Virginia — and it didn’t work because it’s been nationalized now. A lot of people are focusing on this in the proper way. It’s a cloning issue. It’s not a stem cell issue, and even when we discuss it on the stem cell side, we’ve had the opportunity now to point out the truth. When it comes to embryonic stem cells, there isn’t anything there. So the motives of these people have been called into question, and what was supposed to be a pretty much stealth campaign to sway some votes at the last minute in individual states has been blown out.

Why should they like me? Why should they want to be fair about this?

Now, they take it another step further, or many steps further, and start misrepresenting what I say on the program, and what I do on the program all for the purposes of destroying me — and make no mistake. Just as they laughed and celebrated when I lost my hearing and as they laughed and celebrated when I announced my prescription drug addiction, and when they thought that prosecutors in Florida were going to put me in jail, they were happy about that. They’ve been disappointed so many times. They thought they’ve had me so many times, and somehow I’m the Road Runner and they are Wile E. Coyote. So they see another chance here, and it fits their template. Their template is they bring forth victims, and you can’t criticize them.

I criticize the victim and the content of his commercial and I have committed a cardinal sin in the Religion of Liberalism! As such, I must be destroyed. So I’m going to go through this one more time because it’s the end of the week and this is probably going to be discussed on Sunday shows. In fact, I was invited on Fox News Sunday, and I can’t appear. I’m going to be away this weekend, and I know Stephanopoulos is discussing this whole thing as well. So I want to put this in context for you one more time before the weekend ends so if you happen to watch these programs, it will be fresh on your mind: my take. (interruption) Well, I know, Snerdley. Nobody watches ABC. Whatever. But they might get an audience this week. Put my name out there and people will watch it. All right, anyway. I gotta take a brief time-out. We’ll come back and go through this one more time, because this is a great dissertation on exactly what is happening here and who is behind it right after this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Somebody just reminded me about Robin Williams. Not long ago he was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and my name came up and he started making fun of me and my addiction to prescription pain medication and having visited rehabilitation and talked about what an SOB I was and so forth — and a week later, he announces he is going into rehab himself for his ‘concerns’ about he ‘started drinking again.’ He wants to ‘nip it in the bud,’ and then asked for privacy! The media (as they do with liberals) says, ‘Oh, we wish him the best. Oh, how courageous! Aw, it’s just too bad. We wish him the best,’ blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I mention this to you as I was reminded about it just to illustrate the things that are out there, and I know this. I know that there’s really no way of changing it.

I’m not preoccupied with it, but I do want to continue on with this whole business of what’s happening in Missouri and in Maryland and give you the real story about it, as I did in the first hour of yesterday. Basically what is happening, ladies and gentlemen, is that Democrats are lying to sick people via the Michael J. Fox ad. They are lying to sick people. They are promising something that isn’t there, and they are suggesting that only Democrats can make the impossible happen, and therefore you have to vote against Republicans if you want to get cured of the disease that afflicts you. That’s cruel. That is mean. That is what’s happening.

Yet I am the SOB. I used to be the #3 SOB in the country. This week I’m the #1 SOB in the country. I’m bigger than Bush as an SOB! (He’ll get it back eventually.) But they are lying to the sick people of this country. They are defending false attack ads against Republican candidates. They are defending experiments on embryos. They are lying about candidates and science and are the campaign ad production team for the Democrats. Their ratings are down, folks. Their stock prices are down. The Chicago Tribune announces today they’re in trouble. They own the LA Times. The LA Times is in trouble. The New York Times stock price yesterday started plunging.

Readership is down, circulation is down, ratings is down, profits are down. Why? Because they have dropped all pretense of news reporting! They have openly joined the ranks of the Democrat Party. They are indistinguishable now, the Drive-By Media and the Democrat Party. They are so adept at lying that Amendment 2 in the state of Missouri, which is entitled something to do with stem cell research, is not about stem cell research at all, period. It is an amendment to legalize cloning, or to make it constitutional in the state of Missouri. Make no mistake. That’s what it does. That’s what the Michael J. Fox ad is actually about, cloning embryos. It’s a cloning amendment.

They’re hiding behind stem cell because they know that there’s an emotional attachment to stem cell research because there are a lot of people with horrible diseases that are afflicted, who have been led to believe (falsely by Democrats) that there’s a cure out there, ‘If we only get Republicans out of the way and start research!’ This is as mean and as cruel a thing as I have seen, and they are doing it willingly, while trying to make me out to be the incarnation of evil walking the planet. They’re not even defending Michael J. Fox.

By the way, I am told that the Michael J. Fox ad was pulled and not run during the World Series last night, that instead some college professor, dean or whatever spoke up for Claire McCaskill on the issue, but the Michael J. Fox ad didn’t run in the World Series last night. I don’t know if it was scheduled to. The implication that I have is it was, but I don’t know that for sure. But all I Know is if that ad were working, that ad would still be running. That ad is not working, and it’s not going to work in Maryland, and we have the audio of the Michael Steele ad. In fact, we’ve got the audio of the Michael Steele ad, because the Fox ad is running in Maryland now for Ben Cardin and Michael Steele, the Republican, answered it with this ad.

STEELE: I’m Michael Steele and I approve this message.

TURNER: I’m Dr. Monica Turner. Congressman Ben Cardin is attacking Michael Steele with deceptive, tasteless ads. He is using the victim of a terrible disease to frighten people, all for his own political gain. Mr. Cardin should be ashamed. There’s something you should know about Michael Steele. He does support stem cell research, and he cares deeply for those who suffer from disease. How do I know? I’m Michael Steele’s little sister. I have MS, and I know he cares about me.

RUSH: That’s the ad that just broke today in Maryland. Michael Steele, Republican candidate has pulled even with Ben Cardin in a 2-1 Democrat blue state. Ben Cardin, the beneficiary of the Michael J. Fox ad, Ben Cardin has voted against stem cell research. Now, the Democrats and the Drive-By Media are not defending Michael Fox. They are defending cloning. They’re defending abortion. They are defending embryonic stem cell research. They are not defending Michael J. Fox. If they really cared about Michael J. Fox they would be denouncing the manner in which he’s been used and exploited in this whole process; they’d be attacking the manner in which scientific research is now being politicized. They were thrilled when John Edwards lied through his teeth about cures from embryonic stem cell research to make Christopher Reeve walk.

People loved that, total lie. Such a sickening lie, but it scored for the Democrats, they think, so the Drive-By Media promoted it, and they thought it would work again. But this time they are being stood up to, by me. They are being challenged, by me. They are being questioned, by me, and they don’t like it. Look it, folks, they lied about Hurricane Katrina and practically every aspect of it. They continually lie about the war in Iraq. They lied about Karl Rove and the Valerie Plame matter. They lied about Bush’s National Guard records. Did worse than lie; they created forged documents. When it was proved they were forged, they circled the wagons around Dan Rather and gave him Pulitzer Prize or Peabody Award or whatever. They lie about the economy all the time. They lie about our judicial nominees, claiming that Bork… Pick one! They lied about Bolton. They lie about Donald Rumsfeld. They lie, and they carry the water for the Democrat Party.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: It’s Open Line Friday, and by popular demand, I am once again reviewing some of the Drive-By Media tactics in the entire stem cloning debate, Michael J. Fox ad, and so forth. Keep in mind, ladies and gentlemen, who it is that we are talking about, and remember your outrage when each of these events happened. They lied through their teeth about Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina — and they gave themselves awards! They continually lie about Iraq, in every which way possible. They lied about Karl Rove and the Valerie Plame matter. They lied about George Bush and his National Guard records for four years, and finally resorted to forged documents at CBS.

Who’s gone? Dan Rather is gone! George W. Bush is still in the White House.
They lie about the economy routinely. They lie about our judicial nominees. Every judicial nominee that is put forth by George W. Bush is going to ‘turn back the clock’ on women’s rights, human rights, civil rights, every nominee they attempt to ruin. They don’t just disagree. They attempt to ruin people, ladies and gentlemen. They tried to ruin Robert Bork. They tried to ruin every judicial nominee that a Republican president has put forth. That is their tactic. (It’s one of the Clintons’ favorite tactics, by the way: don’t just defeat, destroy and eliminate them forever.) They are trying to destroy me. The advantage I have is, I have you, and we have a bond of connection, and I have a three-hour radio program every day to refute these people.

Most people don’t. They have lied about John Bolton, who is a perfectly fine man. They tried to destroy John Bolton. They have tried to destroy Donald Rumsfeld, a perfectly fine man, a tremendous and great and devoted public servant. They have tried to ruin Donald Rumsfeld. They have lied about Halliburton; they have lied about oil profits; they lie about taxes; they lie about themselves. They carry the water for the Democrats, the liberal elites, for people who are anti-capitalism, for the appeasement crowd, the western socialists of Europe. When somebody stands up to them and questions them and their tactics, they don’t just try to intimidate them, they try to ruin them. This whole week there have been literally hundreds of stories about me.

About me! They’re not focused on the phony science involving embryos. They’re not telling us the truth, that Amendment 2 in Missouri is a cloning amendment. Do you know stem cell research is legal in Missouri? It’s happening at the university. It’s legal. Stem cell research is legal. Michael J. Fox says it’s not. Michael J. Fox says Jim Talent wants to criminalize it. They lie, folks. They’re not focused on the dirty trick of running these ads at the last minute in close races. The media’s not focused on the fact that they’re lying about the records of the Republicans being tarred in these ads. There’s nothing substantive about what you’ve seen all week on television about this issue. This story has been about me, for reasons that we have discussed.

They don’t quote Michael J. Fox from his book. They pretend that these campaign ads (that’s what they are: Democrat campaign ads) are untouchable news stories, that Michael Fox is a nonpartisan advocate, that these are basically public service announcements. We all know how these ads get put together. They don’t just happen. They aren’t ads by some nonprofit health related organization. These ads are produced by Democrats. They are paid for by Democrat campaigns. The ads are scripted by Democrat campaigns. Democrat campaigns hire the directors, the producers, the writers. Democrat campaigns determine who will be in the ad, the music in the ad, the scenery in the ad, how the ad is going to look.

They determine how many takes in order to get exactly what they want. Republicans do, too, but we’re being led to believe that we’re just watching public service announcements, just a last minute desire to help, to go into a studio, roll tape, got commercial, and put it on air. It doesn’t happen that way. They want us to believe these are public service ads, nonpolitical, nonpartisan, objective ads. They want you to believe that none of this is contrived. They don’t want you to know how this process works. They don’t want you to know who’s behind it and what kind of thinking goes into all this. So the media, demanding that we all roll over, beg forgiveness, continually apologize, resign, go away, skulk away, tail between the legs, never to be seen again, asking, ‘How can you dare show yourself in public?’

They want us to take our losses in these close campaigns. They want us to give up. They want us to be intimidated. They want us to be embarrassed, they want us to quit. That’s what they demand. Well, you know me. Hell no! It isn’t happening — and you are saying the same thing. How many times have things like this happened and you have just hoped that the people you’ve elected would stand up and fight back against this crap? Well, I’m with you. I’m in the position where I can, because I don’t have to get votes. I’m not limited by that. Plus I’m not limited by what people are going to think of me. I don’t care what people think of me, because I can’t control it, and I know that some are not going to like me just on principle because they don’t even know who I am, so it’s not something I worry about.

But others in politics have to get worried about what people think of them. They have PR campaigns and image campaigns to go out and make them something, and their whole lives are built on establishing a media image that has to be cultivated, massaged the rest of their lives. Screw it. It’s easier to be who you are. Now, they can attack me all they want. They can play you for fools all they want. They can try to promote the Democrats’ embryonic stem cell research-cloning ruse all they want. They can try to promote their entire left-wing agenda all they want, but now they do so at a price. There’s no monopoly any longer. They don’t get to decide elections without a fight. They don’t get to mock Republican presidents and Republican candidates without a fight.
Talk about mocking! Look at what they have said about George W. Bush. Look at the caricatures that they have written and published about Condoleezza Rice — and they dare, they dare accuse me in a false manner of doing that. They make it up. They take things out of context. They accuse me of doing what they are the champions of doing. Mocking, making fun of. The last five years we’ve grown sick and tired of it. They have no respect for anybody, no respect for their opponents, no respect. They don’t dare debate ideas. They only can impugn, attack, smear, and destroy. They don’t get to decide elections without a fight.
They don’t get to mock Republicans without a fight. They don’t get to push a left-wing agenda without a fight now. They don’t get to undermine the war effort without a fight. They got to do that in the Vietnam War era, but they’re not getting a free fight on that now. Those days are over, and they’re having a hissy fit that they don’t control the agenda any longer. They tell us that this election is over months before a single vote is cast. They’ve told us the election is over since March. They told us in June it was over. They told us in July it was over. They told us when the Mark Foley scandal hit (which they were behind) it’s over.
Sorry, we haven’t voted yet, Drive-By Media. This election hasn’t been begun. They tell us we’ve lost in Iraq, while 140,000 brave soldiers are over there fighting the enemy! They’re wrong. They tell us that Mark Foley is us; it represents us. They are wrong. They tell us — they try to tell us — what we are supposed to think and believe. They demand that we adhere to their agenda and views or they will mock us, and they will smear us, and they will try to ruin us. Ask George Allen. Ask Michael Steele. Ask Rick Santorum. Ask Denny Hastert. Ask all of these people: Tom DeLay, Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Ed Meese, George Bush, Karl Rove, ask any of them. What has been attempted is the utter ruination of each of these people.

Meanwhile, here’s old Jim Webb and his perverted novels, passages of which we read in the first part of the program today, in the first hour. The Washington Post has been the veritable campaign headquarters for Jim Webb. For weeks we got stories about Macaca and his devotion to the Confederate flag and how rotten he looks in cowboy boots and a cowboy hat and how he can’t pull it off. Denny Hastert was supposed to resign over what Mark Foley did. Democrats actually had a member of Congress have sex with a page. He died recently. He’s a hero! Denny Hastert has to resign. Did Denny Hastert ever write a book like Jim Webb has written many?

Who in the Democratic Party knew about Jim Webb’s proclivity to write such things in novels? Why didn’t somebody say anything? Why is it only coming out now? Should Pelosi resign? What did she know? Should Dingy Harry resign as the minority leader in the Senate? Well, that’s what they say about Denny Hastert. Anyone who dares to stand up to them, anybody who challenges them, actually practiced criticism and defend liberty and faith and the Constitution and capitalism becomes the target of their wrath. But it is a new day, folks, because people are not intimidated any longer. People are not cowering any longer, and we’re not going to abide by it.

They are lying to the sick in America. They are creating cruel, false hopes. Mr. Fox on Katie Couric’s show last night said some incredible things. He said disease is a ‘nonpartisan problem that requires a bipartisan solution.’ The only person I’m aware of who said that all week is me. He’s not acting in a bipartisan fashion. He’s running commercials exclusively for Democrats. He hasn’t said this is ‘bipartisan’ except until last night. I’m the one who has said there’s a tradition of bipartisan approach to the curing and research of deadly afflictions and diseases, and that this is politicizing it. Now only Democrats care about Parkinson’s!

Now only Democrats care about spinal disease. Now only Democrats care about Alzheimer’s. That’s the message of the Democratic Party in this campaign. Mr. Fox last night, though, says he thinks it should be ‘bipartisan.’ He said, ‘You know what? I don’t really care about politics.’ Really? What are you doing running ads for Democrats in Missouri and Maryland, maybe Virginia and Wisconsin? I don’t really care about politics? ‘We want to appeal to voters to elect the people that are going to give us a margin so we can’t be vetoed again.’ Don’t care about politics? I want to be bipartisan, but I want a veto-proof majority? It’s what he said in his interview with Katie Couric last night. There is no critical analysis of this. In fact, this is being portrayed as big. He’s bipartisan! He doesn’t care about politics — and he wants a veto-proof majority.

They’re hailing these comments as Clintonesque and Obama-esque, when they’re as contradictory and untrue, as much of the rest that was in his ad. Here’s a quick e-mail that I got. A friend got this e-mail from a friend in St. Louis, and it was passed on to me. ‘What Rush did to the left with the M.J. Fox ads here in Missouri is nothing short of amazing. There are actual Democrats in the second most corrupt county in America, Pike County, Missouri, who are ashamed now that their disgusting, shameless lies about stem cell research –because it’s nothing more than an amendment to legalize human cloning — have been exposed. Claire McCaskill is losing ground fast. Missouri Republicans are breaking glass now to show these pathetic Democrats who the real men are when it comes to elections on November 7th.’ I only read this to you because the news is that Amendment 2 is soaring big, that this has totally destroyed Jim Talent’s campaign. The exact opposite is true.

They’re not running the Michael J. Fox commercial anymore, are they?

The Media Won’t Report It Right, So Here’s the Real Story…
What Rush Said About Michael J. Fox and the Democrat Ads Aimed at Misleading
Voters About Stem Cell Research and the Record of Republican Candidates On It

Read the Background Material…
(MDN: One couple dominates stem cell donations)
(NB: Williams Enters Rehab Twelve Days After Ridiculing Limbaugh’s Drug Use)
(WS: Michael J. Fox isn’t telling the whole truth about stem cells in those ads)
(AT: The Unconscionable Claims of Michael J. Fox – Mary L. Davenport, MD)
(Michael J. Fox Book Excerpt in Which He Admits Going Off His Medications so that people can see the ravages of the disease)
(RedState: Michael J. Fox is wrong: Jim Talent supports stem cell research)
(Cardin Voted Against Stem Cell Research for Pure Political Gain)
(DrudgeReport: Allen’s Revenge: Exposes Underage Sex Scenes in Opponent’s Novels)
(PowerLine: Ouch!)

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