RUSH: Before I get started, folks, I have to tell you: I’m bored silly. It started yesterday. The Democrats are boring me. The liberals and the media, the whole thing, they have become my parodies. I’m sort of lost. I mean, they don’t even make me mad anymore. It’s not even worth laughing at them anymore. They just flat out have become so predictably boring. That State of the Union address last night, if you only heard it on the radio, you didn’t really see what the message of the State of the Union was. We prepared some sound bites for you to hear. We haven’t done it this way before, little short bites of what the president said and on each of these bites the Democrats either remain seated and did not applaud, or stood but did not applaud. I don’t think they even stood. A couple times they stood without applauding, but for the most part they just sat on their hands, and it’s almost like somebody — there had to be signals. There had to be.
I was thinking of this. (By the way — Mr. Snerdley, you might know. Was Edward R. Murrow gay? Well, I don’t know. I’ve never heard it, don’t misunderstand. I just looked at the rest of the Oscar nominations and it made me wonder.) What was I saying? I’m so bored talking about the Democrats I forgot what I was I saying just before the Ed Murrow question. (interruption) No, that’s not what I was saying. You’ve even forgot what I was saying. See, it’s so boring (interruption). What? (interruption) Oh, the signals on how to react (interruption). Yeah, yeah, yeah. They acted so in unison. I’m wondering if somebody on the Democrat side was giving out hand signals or if they had the pre-speech copy of the text, and I wonder if they went through it: “We’ll sit down here; we’ll sit down here,” or if it was just instinctive. I know, silly question. It’s purely instinctive.
At any rate, let’s get started with this because we’ve got a lot of other things to do on the program today. “America stands and cheers and the Democrats sit down,” is the way to cast what happened last night at the State of the Union speech — and the media spin today on the Democrats sitting and the Republicans cheering is that it demonstrates the “partisan divide.” But that’s wrong. The Democrats didn’t sit for partisan reasons. They sat for ideas that any average American sitting in his living room would agree with. I’m sure there’s a partisanship here, but they’re trying to blame Bush for the fact the Democrats were rude. They’re blaming Bush for the fact that the Democrats wanted to make it plain as day to the American people that they have nothing in common with most of the people in this country, trying to blame Bush on it. I’m telling you, these media people are so out of touch.
They do live in bubble. They watch that speech and they see something totally different. They don’t see what other people watching that speech saw, and what we saw was a great speech. When Bush is walking in after he’s been introduced, “Mr. Speaker, the President,” and all that phony cheering erupts from the Democrats? Nancy Pelosi was stalking Bush! It was like she wanted a date, like she wanted to have an affair — and you know, all these Democrat women wear red at the State of the Union, ever wonder what that’s all about? That has to be color coordinated. It’s something about red on television. So nothing’s real at this thing last night. There was a German shepherd. There was a bomb-sniffing dog, a German shepherd up there in gallery where Mrs. Bush was sitting. The dog was more polite to President Bush than the Democrats in the chamber last night.
The dog was paying attention. (Panting) The dog even looked eager. The Democrats made it a point to look dour, disrespectful, and it is just getting boring. That’s all I can say. But we’re going to go through this. The media looks at this, and they just don’t see it the way average Americans watching this speech. They don’t see the same things. They see the Democrats sitting down, it’s Bush’s fault. Did you hear what happened to Bob Schieffer? In fact, let’s not start with sound bite one. Go to sound bite #9. Bob Schieffer, the anchor… Oh, by the way, have you heard that the cookie cutter John Roberts — the cookie cutter Ken doll, the weekend anchor at CBS News — is fleeing CBS to join CNN? It’s a new sitcom called “All in the Family.” It doesn’t matter what networks these people work at. Well, John Roberts is upset because he’s out of the running for the anchor job. The new prez over there at CBS, Sean McManus, says (paraphrased), “No, we’re not going to pick anybody from inside this unit. Who the hell would? We’re going to go outside. Everybody in this unit has been tainted.” Well, he didn’t say that, but that’s what he means. I mean, if you were running CBS News, would you pick anybody they currently have working there to make your anchor? I wouldn’t pick Katie Couric, either, but still they’re going to go outside. All right, now, where was I? The staff, everybody wants to get in on the act. Oh, yeah! John Roberts goes to CNN, and he’s going to report and he sent an e-mail to his CBS colleagues, “I will miss you all. I’ve developed a fine working relationship…” These pompous people and their e-mails to each other. Probably half the people at CBS saying, “Good,” but anyway, so he’s going to go over. (interruption) It is. It’s all in the family, doesn’t matter what network these people work on. Nobody’s leaving CNN that I know of. If somebody’s leaving CNN, they didn’t say so. He’s going to be a roving correspondent in various places. (interruption) Don’t mention Aaron Brown.
Aaron Brown was down in Palm Beach a couple days ago or last week and made a speech about how the network news has gone to hell and it’s not serious. It’s just a TV ratings game, and proof is that they got rid of him. You know, here’s a guy who can’t find a job, can’t hold a job, out there complaining that the business firing him has gone south. I’m telling you, people just bore me, folks. I don’t know what else to tell you. Here’s what Bob Schieffer said. They were doing flash polls. They had a flash poll on people watching the speech and what their opinion of it was, and Bob Schieffer about chokes on the CBS flash poll results and makes sure to tell everybody, “Well, you really can’t believe these numbers.” Seventy-seven percent of the people watching the speech approved it! (Laughing.) Here’s the bite.
SCHIEFFER: Now, remember, this does not necessarily reflect the feelings of the country because traditionally we found out in recent years more Republicans watch when a Republican makes the speech; more Democrats watch when a Democrat makes the speech. But did our viewers tonight approve of President Bush’s proposals? Seventy-seven percent approved; 23% did not.
RUSH: It’s gotta be tough being in the mainstream media today, because daily you are confronted with your ongoing failure and your ongoing irrelevance. Despite all these five years of trying to gin up genuine hatred for George W. Bush, their own audience, which they have to go out and insult in reporting their own poll, shows that 77% approve. “Well, keep in mind this is all Republicans, and you can’t trust them. Republicans, they’re just partisan.” Why do it, Bob? If it’s so unscientific, if it’s so worthless, why do it? And then why report it, Bob, you idiot?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Want to hear one more media take on this? This is Terry Moran. I was watching Terry Moran and I saw this guy Jay Carney from TIME Magazine. I look at these guys. Are they out of high school yet? I wonder if they shave, these young, little MTV types. It’s just an observation — and you know the speech was a homerun when the media starts asking, “Is all this even necessary anymore?” We have a montage here of Moran where basically that was his point.
MORAN: A lot of tonight’s words and deeds here in Washington were pretty predictable. People are beginning to ask a question about these speeches. What’s the point? Is it really necessary? In the end, how you view these speeches may depend on how you feel about the president giving them with all the tricks, symbolism, and substance.
RUSH: That means it was a homerun, folks. These guys can’t handle it. You’d never hear them complaining if Bill Clinton had hit a big home run like this. Well, the tricks he’s talking about, of putting the dog up there, the Iraqis up there with Mrs. Bush, the family of Sergeant Clay up there whose letter home was totally erroneously botched on purpose by those kooks at the New York Times. Who else was up there? Mrs. Alito was up there, although she wasn’t called on. I think I saw her. But that’s what they mean by the tricks. Of course, Reagan started those and they’ve become a copycat item. Symbolism. All this is, when I hear “people are beginning to ask…” Who “people”? What people, Mr. Moran? Give us a list of names of people starting to ask if this is necessary. I’ll bet every damn one of them is a socialist liberal Democrat, either elected to office, on a staff elected to office, or a member of the media. That’s who’s asking, “Do we actually have to sit here and allow this guy to look good? Do we have to broadcast this? It’s our cameras making this guy look good!” They’re panicked out there. All right, now to the actual speech: “America stands and cheers; the Democrats sit down.” Issue #1: Bush says we are winning. The Democrats can’t stand to hear him say this because they position themselves to benefit only from American defeat.
THE PRESIDENT: I am confident in our plan for victory. I am confident in the will of the Iraqi people. I am confident in the skill and spirit of our military. Fellow citizens, we are in this fight to win, and we are winning. (Applause.)
RUSH: We’ve cut the applause on all these to three seconds in the interests of time, but on each one of those the Democrats sat down and didn’t say a word. They glared. They looked bored. Occasionally would turn and chat amongst themselves, and this was on full display for everybody watching. When you’re talking about American victory, when the president is talking about persevering, “We will win,” talking about all of these things and the American people see half the House sitting down, and then Bob Schieffer warns us that 77% of the people liking the speech really can’t be believed because it’s mostly Republicans watching? As I say: “Why even do the poll, Bob, if you’re going to then throw it out as not credible? Why even do the poll?” On the off chance that the people would hate Bush! You know, there was a lot of hope in the media and the Democrats last night, and it didn’t… By the way, speaking of tricks, speaking of tricks, how about that stunt that Lynn Woolsey tried to pull with Cindy Sheehan?
Now, Lynn Woolsey is a ranking member of Code Pink. Code Pink is this utter left-wing — and they are pink; they’re so close to red they’re pink. Sort of like environmentalists. They’re watermelons: they’re green on the outside, red on the inside — and she’s a member of Code Pink, and they did disrupt last year’s State of the Union speech. They got 16 tickets last year. They got in there, and if you remember, there was some cheering and booing, and people had to be hustled out. So here’s Cindy Sheehan. Now, question for you. If you are the Capitol Hill police, and it’s your job to keep that place secure, and a woman who has said that the president is ten times the murderer that Saddam Hussein is, that he’s Hitler, if that woman is gotten a ticket to come in, aren’t you going to be on your toes? Now, CNN reported that she unfurled a banner. Other people say she just wore a T-shirt. Regardless, none of that is allowed during a State of the Union, or at any time in the Senate gallery. It’s not a place where you go. You gotta shut up.
I was in the Senate gallery once as a kid. I’ll tell you a little story. My parents took my brother and I to Washington. I couldn’t have been more than ten, maybe 12, and we went to Washington and went to the Senate gallery. Barry Goldwater was making a speech on the floor about the farm bill, I think. That’s what my dad told me, anyway, and I’ve got some catalog or some program or pamphlet that I have been given when I walked in, and I’m sitting there turning the pages, and a page came and took the book away from me because I was creating too much noise. They made another person spit out their gum. So this is not new, what happened last night with Cindy Sheehan. They’re trying to talk about Bush “Gestapo tactics.” The real question is what kind of stunt and what kind of trick was Lynn Woolsey trying to pull off last night? That’s the real question (interruption). Yeah, they’ve thrown out a Republican congressman’s wife. This is not a new stunt last night, a new thing to happen. All right, here is sound bite #2: “America stands and cheers; Democrats sit down.” This is the subject of victory.
THE PRESIDENT: The road of victory is the road that will take our troops home. As we make progress on the ground and Iraqi forces increasingly take the lead, we should be able to further decrease our troop levels — but those decisions will be made by our military commanders, not by politicians in Washington, D.C. (Applause.)
RUSH: Once again, once again, the Democrats sat on their behinds. The whole rest of the chamber stood up in applause. And that is a good line, because you could have finished it this way: But those decisions will be made by our military commanders, not by politicians in Washington, DC, Congressman Murtha, or throw in any other name. America stands and cheers; Democrats sit down. The subject, the Patriot Act. The Democrats can’t stand the Patriot Act because it violates their terrorist bill of rights.
THE PRESIDENT: [T]his nation has superb professionals in law enforcement, intelligence, the military, and homeland security. These men and women are dedicating their lives, protecting us all, and they deserve our support and our thanks. (Applause.) They also deserve the same tools they already use to fight drug trafficking and organized crime — so I ask you to reauthorize the Patriot Act. (Applause.)
RUSH: Yay! Right on. Right on. Right on. Can’t do that, though! Democrats can’t stand up and cheer that, because how do you reauthorize the Patriot Act if you’re going to give terrorists the Bill of Rights in our attempt to engage the war on terror? So there they sat, fat, dumb and happy, looking like they owned the world last night, not having the slightest idea how they appear to the people of this country. America stands and cheers; the Democrats sit down. Issue #4: terrorist surveillance.
THE PRESIDENT: The terrorist surveillance program has helped prevent terrorist attacks. It remains essential to the security of America. If there are people inside our country who are talking with al Qaeda, we want to know about it, because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again. (Applause.)
RUSH: And they sat down! They remained seated! They remained seated when the president said, “We will not be hit again!” I’m telling you, folks, they remained seated. They didn’t stand up. The whole concept of being hit again, they had to sit down because their base expects them not to be supportive of the surveillance program, you know, domestic spying. And so Bush — he cleaned their clocks last night — folks, there are a lot of Republican bloggers out there talking about what a boring speech this was. Bush took it to these people. He handed the Democrats their heads on a platter last night. This is a classic example. He gives an applause line they can’t possibly stand up to because he sets it up in the context of surveillance. So he’s making them look like unsupportive Americans in the concept of the war on terror. And they didn’t have the time to figure it out, “Do we stand up here? Surveillance, can’t stand up for that no, no, no, that’s domestic spying, that will destroy an issue.”
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: America stands and cheers; Democrats sit down. Issue #5: tax cuts.
THE PRESIDENT: [T]ax relief is set to expire in the next few years. If we do nothing, American families will face a massive tax increase they do not expect and will not welcome. Because America needs more than a temporary expansion, we need more than temporary tax relief. I urge the Congress to act responsibly, and make the tax cuts permanent. (Applause.)
RUSH: Permit me a brief aside here. I know a lot of you people watching the program or listening to the program saw this State of the Union address last night, so you’ve seen the Democrats sit down. You must understand that this is a purposeful thing. They want to be seen showing this kind of opposition, disrespect, or what have you. I think what they’re missing is this is largely an American ceremonial event. The State of the Union is a ceremonial event and it is the height of hypocrisy that the casual observer even can notice. The president comes n the whole chamber goes nuts, “Yaaaaay!” and start cheering. I’ve always thought that’s phony, too, because… You know, I was sending some instant messages with people watching the speech last night, and at first every time I see this, the president walks in and the Democrats in this case stood up and cheered. Here’s Pelosi stalking the president, and all these Democrats trying to get close to him and be in the light that he gives off and in the camera shot where he is.
Phony baloney, plastic banana, good-time rock ‘n’ rollers! They hate his guts. They have been trying to destroy him for five years; now they want to cozy up to him, and he is gracious. He puts it all aside. He is as gracious to them as he is to his friends, maybe even more so at times. The first half of this speech I thought was the best. Frankly, another thing: I could do away with this laundry list of stuff that nobody is going to remember. Nobody remembers it today, much less two or three days from now. I don’t know where this all got started, but this idea that a president stands up there and says, “I think we need to do this. We need…” What did he say, cars that run on grass something, grass wood chips and so forth. I don’t know if he’s trying to rope Al Gore in with this speech or Laurie David, the Hollywood left. But I could do without that, because if he would have stopped after the basic… Let me put it this way. He established, I thought, one of the greatest statements of what this country is, who we are, what we stand for, and where we are going.
He got specific with his laundry list of stuff, started throwing all that gobbledygook out that nobody’s going to remember, but it’s like 24 has to put love scenes in a show about terrorism. The president has to put in stuff about giving away things because there is an entitlement mentality in this country. So he’s gotta put it in there. The writer said, “Nah, we’ve got to put it in. Nobody will remember it, but the fact that you said it will get credit to the people you…” Switch grass? That’s right! Switch grass to power automobiles! I can’t wait for that. Hell if I know. I never heard of switch grass before; we’re not going to hear of it again. That’s my point, but it was a great, great speech, and the media out there, replete with some Republicans, it was just boring. I’ll tell you why I thought it was a great speech. In addition to all the other things I’ve said, remember I told you I was at a reception with President Bush three weeks ago now, and this has happened to me seven or eight times. He’s a totally different guy than when you see him at a press conference or wherever, although last press conference was boffo. Last night was boffo. Last night was as close to the way I know the guy when he’s speaking to friends and so forth. He was relaxed, he was comfortable, he was confident. It was superb, and so you get the media asking, “Are these speeches really even necessary? It’s so predictable. Everybody knows what’s going to happen, the tricks…” but you know it was a home run. If that speech was just 30 minutes shorter, 20 minutes shorter, bam! It would have just been dynamite. All right, now back to the sound bites. America stands and cheers; Democrats sit down. The issue, Supreme Court.
THE PRESIDENT: The Supreme Court now has two superb new members on its bench, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Sam Alito. (Applause.)
RUSH: Now, I don’t expect the Democrats to stand up on that one. I just expect them to eat the excrement sandwich the president threw at them. So that was one time I enjoyed seeing them sit down, because the president said here (paraphrased): “Eat this. We’ve got Roberts and Alito on the court, and you couldn’t stop me.” I mean, he threw down the gauntlet to these people last night. Two of the justices (interruption). Well, yeah, not when you applaud. They will applaud themselves. The judges could applaud themselves, they just can’t applaud anybody else or any issues, but they can applaud the two new judges coming on board. Sure. Absolutely. Let’s see. Moving on: America stands and cheers; Democrats sit down. This is another line that just nailed ’em, folks. Democrats can’t bring themselves to applaud the fact that there are even fewer abortions taking place and that teen pregnancy is down. I mean, if there was an objective media anywhere, even a media concerned about the plight of the Democrats, rather than focused on what they hope to convince people is wrong with Bush, when the president of the United States — because even the, you know, certain members of the pro-abortion crowd love to say, “Well, we’re not really pro-abortion. We’re just for freedom, civil liberties, the rights of a mother,” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Even Hillary said, “Abortion? We don’t want it to happen, but we can’t stand in the way.” So here’s a chance. Okay, abortions are going down in America. That’s something to cheer. No, not to the Democrats.
THE PRESIDENT: America has become a more hopeful nation. Violent crime rates have fallen to their lowest levels since the 1970s. Welfare cases have dropped by more than half over the past decade. Drug use among youth is down 19% since 2001. There are fewer abortions in America than at any point in the last three decades, and the number of children born to teenage mothers has been falling for a dozen years in a row. (Applause.)
RUSH: The Democrats sat on their rear ends! I mean, folks, occasionally Ben Nelson would stand up now and then from Nebraska. There would be a couple of them like a jack-in-the-box, real quick and then sit right back down. But they couldn’t even applaud, because abortion is the sacrament to the religion of feminism, and the feminists are not going to put up with the Democrats standing up and cheering that number. Bush nailed them. He made them look exactly like who they are last night. That’s why this thing was such a big home run. Now, there was a time when the Democrats, there was an instance when they stood up. They just cheered as loud as they did all night.
THE PRESIDENT: Congress did not act last year on my proposal to save Social Security. (Applause.)
RUSH: Yay! They stood up and cheered, and then Bush had a couple lines after that that just nailed them. We haven’t done anything to fix this that’s coming down the pike, this big problem coming down the pike, and he went on to — they stood up too soon, here they are standing up applauding the lack of progress. So that’s how I saw it. I wanted to put it together this way because that’s what I saw last night in addition to what I heard. Quick phone call or two. Cliff in Portland, Oregon, I’m glad you called, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Mega out-of-control dittos from Portland, Oregon, where literally three-quarters of the city citizens still have Kerry-Edwards bumper stickers on their cars. It’s amazing.
RUSH: Well, you gotta feel sorry for them.
CALLER: I do. It’s just so funny. But the reason I called is regarding, I think you called it issue #4, that was the surveillance wiretapping part? I was watching the whole thing on Fox and right as — I’m pretty sure it was on that one, they showed the gum chewer, and she was rolling her eyes and had a mocking laughter smile on her face when he was saying all this. It was amazing.
RUSH: Yeah. Well let me explain what Hillary was reacting to there, because the little known fact is that Bush made reference to previous presidents having done exactly what he’s done, and Mrs. Clinton heard, without his name being mentioned, his name. And the Democrats are trying to set Bush up as a criminal, that he has broken the law, and so by invoking all these past presidents, not by name, but saying, “Hey, we’ve all done it before with previous presidents,” he brought Bill Clinton into it — and Hillary doesn’t like it when her husband’s name gets mentioned. There was another instance. Bush told a joke about… What was the line? He had a joke about Clinton being (interruption). Yeah, (paraphrased), “My brother and I both turned 60 this year,” Bill Clinton, and they cut to Hillary, and she was not laughing. She was glaring, because I’m telling you, folks, she is sick and tired of her husband being the butt of all these jokes. Not sick and tired because it’s unfair; sick and tired because it’s warranted, and it’s just embarrassing to her. So Bush got her twice last night, too. Ah, this was great. I mean, you want Hillary looking that way, Cliff! That’s the way she really is: chewing gum during the State of the Union address and glaring at the president of the United States. It was a homerun.
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History of State of the Unions and Their Responses By Year…
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