RUSH: Here is Paula in Durham, North Carolina. Welcome, Paula, nice to have you with us.
CALLER: Hi. Hey, Rush. Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: I want to start this call out first by saying I have been a fan of yours for many, many years and I would listen to you for five years every day if you were on for five hours.
RUSH: Thank you very much. That’s cool.
CALLER: But, the last couple weeks I’ve grown sort of tired of listening to your barrage of negativity towards Durham and Duke University. Now, I’m calling from Durham.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I am a graduate of Duke University.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And I have lived in Durham for 30 years.
RUSH: Yeah.
RUSH: (Groans.)
CALLER: — besides what’s going on here, and I will be the first to say that this lacrosse situation is definitely a tragedy all the way around.
RUSH: It’s worse than that. It’s an abomination.
CALLER: Yes, it is.
RUSH: It’s a miscarriage of justice; it’s an embarrassment and it’s a great illustration of what happens when liberals in politics and in law get control with unassailable power.
CALLER: Yes, but: You have left that part… I mean you — you say that, and I hear you say that continually every single day.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: But at the same time you said Durham, what tax base do they have there except for Duke University.
RUSH: Come on now, you have to admit it.
CALLER: Well, I admit, sir, that Duke University is a tremendous tax base, but there’s also the medical center.
RUSH: Well, it’s a majority of tax base.
CALLER: But how about, have you never been to Research Triangle Park? Now, what tax base…? That’s a huge tax base.
RUSH: Yes, I’ve driven by it when I’ve gotten off the airplane there.
CALLER: Okay, well, the reason why I’m angry — well, I’m trying to understand you have joined… There are two comments you made, and when you speak of Durham and Duke University right now, it is that that is all that we have going here, and the mass media nationally, every single day is just pounding Durham as a community — and, Rush, in our paper —
RUSH: Uh, excuse me, Paula?
CALLER: Yeah?
RUSH: I don’t hear that. I don’t hear the national media pounding anybody in Durham or at Duke. I hear some of the national media starting out finally questioning Nifong, but I don’t hear Durham being ripped by the national media.
CALLER: Excuse me. I overstated that. In the beginning when all this came out, it was on the media continuously about Durham and about our politics and about our racial tensions. But — but —
RUSH: Do you deny them?
CALLER: I don’t totally deny them, but there’s a whole lot more going on here, and we are not in the middle of civil unrest here — and when the Black Panthers actually marched from West Campus to the actually house that it occurred, you know those people had a right to march, but we did not have civil unrest down here.
RUSH: I didn’t say that you did.
CALLER: I’m not saying that you personally did, but the way that the media has portrayed it is that we are —
RUSH: Because they wanted it! You have to understand who they are, Paula. They were trying to foment riots with all this coverage. They were trying to create the very thing that you fear, that people think happened that didn’t. They were trying to! This was the point. The point that I’ve been trying to make is in my discussion with all of this, is that Durham may be a victim of all this simply because of geography, because Duke is there, but the fact is the first so-called facts of this case fit a liberal template that made the nature of the evidence irrelevant. They think that what happened there is what happens everywhere in this country, in the South particularly. They think that there is still slavery, mass rape, lynchings and all this stuff. When they can do a story that shows that this still happens, then they run to town with it without ANY facts whatsoever.
CALLER: Well, I —
RUSH: They are totally trusting a Democrat DA, who is member of their party, in this case Nifong. My attention yesterday particularly, you’re calling me and telling me how angry you are at what I’ve been saying about it?
CALLER: No, no, no. No, no.
RUSH: Yes, you did, but I can take it. I have Sherman Tank body armor. It’s not a problem.
CALLER: I am a huge fan of yours, but —
RUSH: You do not know how angry I am at Nifong and the media and that university and some of the faculty. The American judicial system is designed so that what happened there specifically does not happen, and what happened illustrates the corruption of our good system when power-mad politicos — primarily liberals — get in charge of it, either a university or a district attorney’s office somewhere in the criminal justice system. This is simply an outrage.
CALLER: Well, I agree with you 100 percent on that.
RUSH: Well!
CALLER: But the second part of your comment that you made yesterday was that if you were a parent of a white male [sic–did not say “white”], specifically an athlete, why in the world — the last place in the world that you would send your child to would be Duke University, right now, which is an implication then of that, implying that all of Duke is all of this negativity. I was just trying to get you… I hear you continually commenting on that liberalism has gotten hold of this and it’s blown it out of proportion. However, when you made that comment, the second part of your comment that you made yesterday at 1:45 was that why would a parent that had a white boy send their child to Duke University. My point being is that Duke and Durham have a whole lot more to offer than this situation.
RUSH: Look it. (sigh) There are several ways for a talented host like me to make a point.
CALLER: Mmm-mmn.
RUSH: And I was employing one of those techniques yesterday. It costs $40,000 a year to go to that university.
CALLER: Mmm-mmn.
RUSH: If you get a scholarship for one of the athletic teams, of course it doesn’t, but take a look at what happened here, Paula. You had three, in terms of the nature of the evidence this case, totally innocent young men from what were said to be wealthy, white, Northeastern families. You have a black stripper comes and levels all kinds of allegations that turn out not to be true. The university, through those students paying all this money or getting scholarships, whatever, they’re customers, threw ’em overboard without so much as a question! They fired the lacrosse team coach without so much as a question. The faculty started flunking a couple of players because they were on the team. Now, if you’re a parent and you’re going to send a student there, do you understand — my point was — that the facts don’t matter. If the right person accuses your kid of doing something outrageous —
CALLER: But, sir, that is happening anywhere.
RUSH: — this university is going to throw your kid overboard and participate in ruining his life.
CALLER: Sir, I agree with all the victims here; there are lots of victims in this whole situation. However, I don’t think you can just — when you made that point yesterday, you were saying that would be the last place that you would send your child in America. I think that’s something how you said it, and you being somebody who was sought after by the mass media and by law enforcement, I would think that you would be understanding that you cannot group everything exactly like that. Are you trying to say…? When I heard that, what I thought was that you should never move to Florida if you were a middle-aged white male who might be in radio talk show, who might, you know…? You see my point?
RUSH: In hindsight, you have a point.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: In hindsight.
CALLER: (Crosstalk.)
RUSH: No. You know, I’ve been questioning that ever since all this garbage happened. In hindsight, absolutely. I do tell friends of mine that are conservatives, “Don’t move to Palm Beach County. Go to Martin County, but don’t move here. Don’t relocate here.” I do. I’m consistent here. At any rate, look, I know what’s upsetting you. I upset you because I’ve insulted Durham where you live, and because I understand that your feelings were hurt, let me apologize. I’m sorry. It was wrong; it was a mistake. I strayed a bit too far from my intended point, which was specifically about this case and the way Duke responded to this case specifically. I’m sorry. Thank you so much for the call. I’m a little long here. I wish I had more time to spend with you, but I don’t.
“But the disclosure that Mr. Armitage was the source demolishes it as thoroughly as the DNA evidence has discredited Mr. Nifong. Those who wonder why Mr. Nifong went forward with the Duke prosecution after receiving the DNA results should wonder also why Mr. Fitzgerald has persisted despite learning that no crime was committed when Ms. Plame’s name was leaked, and that Mr. Armitage (who has not been indicted) was the leaker. Is to ‘fitzgerald’ a synonym for to ‘nifong?'” This is dangerous stuff. You better hope you never get caught up in it, folks. You look at all this stuff from the sidelines and say, “Weeeell, we’re going to have mistakes.” I know, I know, but you just better hope that it never happens to you. Put yourself in the shoes of these parents and these three guys at Duke, if you can.
RUSH: This is Rusty in Fenwick Island, Delaware. You’re next, welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush, for taking my call —
RUSH: Yeah, anytime. You bet.
CALLER: — because I tried to get through before and this is the time. Listen, I wanted just to thank you for admitting that you were wrong. I had this overwhelming feeling of, you know, elation, that, you know, “He’s just like me! I have to apologize for all kinds of stuff that I’ve done that offends people,” and I’m just happy to hear that you can do it, too.
RUSH: Well, yeah. You think I need to apologize more often?
CALLER: Yeah, think how much more popular you might be, you know,? You’d have all these people off your back, and, you know, if you were more humble like the rest of us have to be.
RUSH: Yeah. Well, you think apologizing makes me humble?
CALLER: Heh. Well, it doesn’t necessarily make you so, but you sound humble.
RUSH: Well, I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings ever.
CALLER: Yeah, I can buy that.
RUSH: Well, I don’t. Who wants to go through life hurting people? I wish people wouldn’t give me the power to hurt their feelings. I don’t give others the power to hurt my feelings except when something, I have a relationship or whatever. At the same time, I realize —
CALLER: Yeah. I hope you understand I’m pulling your leg. I’m not being serious about this.
RUSH: No, I didn’t know you’re pulling my leg! You sounded genuine. Do you know the most popular word, the most useful word in America today is “I’m sorry”? I had five stories on this, I didn’t have a chance to get to. I had five stories on this before Christmas, or maybe it was before New Year’s. No, it was before Christmas. I’ll see if I can find a couple of them here. I gotta take a break right now. I appreciate that, Rusty.