RUSH: I’m going to introduce a new phrase on the program today, and I want it to be picked up by as many people as possible in this audience regarding the Democrats, the war on terror, the war in Iraq. I keep saying they are invested in defeat. The new phrase that I think is really good: They own defeat. They will have ownership of defeat.
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RUSH: Dick Cheney is my hero, ladies and gentlemen. It is about time somebody in the administration responded to the Democrat Party, who own defeat. Dick Cheney, I played this sound bite for you yesterday, I want to play it again today. This is aboard the USS Kitty Hawk. He’s being interviewed by Jonathan Karl with ABC, and Karl says, ?Because Congressman Murtha and Pelosi have made it clear that what they would like to do is they would like to stop the surge, can they do it? Do they have the power to stop the surge??
CHENEY: I think he’s dead wrong. I think in fact if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we’ll do is validate the Al-Qaeda strategy. The Al-Qaeda strategy is to break the will of the American people. In fact, knowing they can’t win in a stand-up fight, try to persuade us to throw in the towel and come home, and then they win because we quit.
RUSH: That’s the Al-Qaeda strategy, and Vice President Cheney, my hero, accusing the Democrats of basically endorsing it. This infuriated the speaker of the House yesterday, Nancy Pelosi, who, in a childish and petulant, embarrassing moment, called the White House, tried to reach George Bush. She failed to get hold of Bush. She got hold of Josh Bolten, the chief of staff. She demanded that Bush repudiate and distance himself from the vice president’s remarks. She said, ?You cannot say as the president of the United States I welcome disagreement in a time of war and then have the vice president go out of the country and mischaracterize a position of the speaker of the House and in a manner that says that person in that position of authority is acting against the national security of our country.? Yes, he can, but he didn’t say. You haven’t been charged with anything, Ms. Pelosi, but you are certainly acting as though you have. You’re defending yourself against a charge that hasn’t been made by the vice president.
He just said that your policy endorses the Al-Qaeda strategy, or validates it. They’ve been called on it, folks, and I’m so happy that somebody from the top, the administration, has finally responded to this. I’m going to tell you, folks, the Democrat Party is now laying the foundation for their eventual landslide defeat. May not happen in ’08, but it will happen soon thereafter. The American people do not like to lose wars. They do not like to quit in the middle of wars, contrary to popular media belief. There are two recent polls illustrating this very point. Both have been cited on this program, one from Investor’s Business Daily, and the other from Opinion Research that we cited for you a couple of days ago. The American people do not like terrorists. The American people love their military as much as the left and the Democrats hate the military. The consequences of a withdrawal from Iraq or anywhere else in the war on terror will be a disaster.
Remember Senator Schumer gleefully talking about how the Democrats are going to recreate Vietnam? They’re going to flood the administration with resolution after resolution after resolution. What was Vietnam? It was a loss for America. Schumer gleeful, Democrats happy, they want to recreate Vietnam where we lost and millions of innocent people died. You want to know what will happen in Iraq if we pull out of there as we did in Vietnam? Check Cambodia, check South Vietnam. The Democrats, in addition, were shellacked in elections for years, despite Watergate. Jimmy Carter was it for them after Vietnam until Bill Clinton came along in 1993, when he was inaugurated. Yet they look at this as a moment of greatness in their past. How convoluted can this be? The only thing I can think is that their desire to recreate a Vietnam out of Iraq is that they think that Vietnam and the way they prosecuted that forced Nixon eventually out of office, which they would love to do to George W. Bush. 
But here’s the thing. As much as the left and the Democrat Party will try to pin this on Bush or the Republicans, it won’t work. Schumer and these Democrat candidates have staked out positions that they will rue. Mark my word and take comfort in what I’m telling you. Their words today, just as their words back in Vietnam, will be their undoing tomorrow. The American people do not like genocide. The American people don’t like the nut job who runs Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The American people don’t like Hezbollah. The American people don’t like Palestinian terrorists. They resent Americans who do end up supporting these terrorist groups. These groups, groups like Hezbollah and the Palestinian terrorists will be empowered if we leave Iraq. And, of course, the enemy will have gained territory, the enemy will have gained resources and momentum, the likes of which they could never have dreamed, and it will all have been handed to them by the Democrats, if the Democrats succeed in getting us to defeat ourselves in Iraq.
What will happen after that is that attacks against Israel will be launched. Europe will have attacks against it launched — especially Britain — and they will do so here, of course, if they can, the terrorists I’m talking about. They will be emboldened, as the Democrats who own defeat secure our pullout from Iraq, if they are able to do this. All of this will be laid at their feet, the Democratic Party’s feet, despite the best efforts of the Democrats and their media mouthpieces to pin it on somebody else. Here’s the thing, folks. The Democrat Party and the left in this country have deluded themselves into believing that the November election, which they won by a thin margin, frankly, was a mandate for defeat. They are interpreting the election results last November as a mandate for defeat, a mandate for humiliation of the United States, and a mandate for genocide. But that’s not what they ran on, if you’ll recall.
They ran as moderates. They ran against corruption. They ran against Mark Foley. They did not advocate surrender. They did not advocate defeat and its consequences. Jack Murtha was told to keep quiet until after the election. Nancy Pelosi pretended to be something that she wasn’t. But now they’re out there in full liberal mode for all of us to see. They are racing further and further to the left. I’m here to tell you today that the country will suffer while Democrats control Congress and if they win the presidency in ’08. But make no mistake: they are sowing the seeds of their own political undoing down the road. If the Middle East explodes, and if even more nut cases like Ahmadinejad are unleashed, the Democrats are the ones who will be directly responsible, period. No one else. They own defeat. They are the only people talking in the manner in which they are talking. Besides that, I will not let them forget their responsibility and their role.
I’m going to make another prediction to you, folks. I’m going to predict to you that the people of Nevada will remove Harry Reid from the Senate, just as the people of South Dakota removed Tom Daschle from the Senate. Dingy Harry is now the leader of the far left in the Senate, and he’s decided to represent Massachusetts rather than his own state. Ditto, identical thing that happened to Tom Daschle. Dingy Harry will pay a price for it. It will happen. All of this will happen down the road, maybe not in ’08, but it will happen.
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RUSH: You heard me correctly, ladies and gentlemen. The Democrat Party now laying the foundation for its eventual landslide defeat ? la Vietnam. They want another Vietnam in Iraq. If they succeed, they’re going to get it in every way, including an eventual landslide defeat, maybe not in ’08. Soon thereafter it will happen. Because it’s very simple. We, the American people, do not like to lose wars, contrary to the popular media belief, contrary to the media spin that’s out there every day that the American people are sick and tired and want to get out — we don’t want to lose. I’ll tell you this, folks. If we launched attacks on Iran and Syria today and went heavy pedal to the metal, this country would be cheering. The Democrats and the media would be in a panic, but the people in this country would be cheering, because they’re fed up with having to deal with all of this each and every day. They want the enemies of this country wiped out.
I also firmly predict to you, and I repeat this, the people of Nevada will remove Harry Reid, much as the people from South Dakota removed Tom Daschle. Harry Reid has become Daschle. He’s the leader of the far left in the Senate. He has decided to represent Massachusetts and the left-wing blogs rather than the people in his own state, and he will pay a price for it. This will eventually cause, down the road, moderate Democrats to turn away from the left just like liberal Republicans jump the conservative ship. It will happen. People like Mark Pryor, Mary Landrieu, and other phony moderate Democrats will be vulnerable as they, too, have thrown in with the left. Ken Salazar, Colorado, great example, ran for election as a moderate. He has demonstrated he’s a leftist, too. 
These Democrats and many more are also sowing seeds of their own electoral defeat. This is practically something happening party-wide, and they haven’t the slightest clue. They think they’re on top of the world. They have ascended the highest peak. They are so happy and ecstatic they’re on the verge of securing a US defeat. They think they own it, folks, if it happens. They think the American people want to lose wars; they think the American people want US soldiers dying in sufficient numbers to cause us to lose wars. The Democrats have been so adamant, so purposeful in our country’s defeat, there’s not going to be a way for them to spin themselves out of this. The American people do not want their soldiers on the battlefield without reinforcements if they need them, Congressman Murtha!
The American people want soldiers to have the equipment they need, which Murtha and Pelosi and Reid and Durbin seek to deny them because they are the owners of defeat. The Democrats have misread the public’s dissatisfaction with the way the war is being waged, with the public’s demand for surrender. The public is not demanding surrender. The public does not want to get out of Iraq in the midst of defeat. The fact is if the president unleashed our military might against enemy strongholds, border areas in Iran and Syria, his poll numbers would go through the roof. Why am I saying this to you today? Because I’ve gotten fed up with the way the country is being misled, just like you’ve been misled about the fact you have to exercise to lose weight. You don’t, just like you’re being misled about global warming and a number of other leftist issues, you are being misled about the opinion of your fellow citizens where it comes to the war in Iraq, the war on terror, and the United States military. You are sadly misled.
You are misled by media propaganda that seeks to convince you that the country agrees with the defeatists. You are misled by the Democrat Party leadership that seeks to convince you that the public wants a repeat of the equivalent of the Vietnamese boat people. How many of you want another Vietnam in this nation’s history, while Chuck Schumer gleefully says that’s what the Democrats want to present you. What have they been smoking? Do they actually believe it? Maybe they do. Maybe they believe the polling that their buds in the Drive-By Media secure for them, but I know this country. I know the people of this country don’t want to lose, and I know the people of this country do not want another Vietnam. They don’t want a repeat of the equivalent of the Vietnamese boat people. The American people do not like defeatists in their midst.
We are an optimistic, upbeat, cheerful people, and we certainly want to be, and people in this country who find themselves mired in depression or whatever, if you are one of those, I want to tell you the reason why is because you’re naturally optimistic, and you’re being pummeled with pessimism day in and day out. It’s hard not to believe it when you’ve been subjected to it for four or more years. You need to have faith in the American people, as I have and always have had. Now, we conservatives can’t win every election, of course. But the idea that this past election was about and for America’s defeat is a delusion. It’s a dangerous delusion. Yet that’s what the Drive-By Media want you to believe. In fact, they want you to believe that’s what you’re saying to them in their polls.
That’s what the Democrats want you to believe. That’s why they say they’re acting on it. They say they’re doing this because you want defeat; you want the troops out; you want us pulled back; you want the troops not to get reinforcement; you want the troops not to get new equipment like Congressman Murtha is saying. They’re saying this is what you want. They’re saying that’s what last November’s election was about. You need to have confidence the American people will fix this as they did after four years of Jimmy Carter.
We may pay a price in the meantime, folks. As I told you the day after the election, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. But part of it getting worse is having the country find out who Democrats today are and find out who liberals today are. But once the public reacts and once the public once again finds out who the Democrats of today are and who the American left of today is, they will suffer grievous political losses, and we will be here to triumph over those losses. Here’s how I see it, folks. Every future attack on this country would have been less likely had the Democrats not weakened the Patriot Act, the NSA intercept program, or the interrogation of the enemy. But they’ve done all of that. They celebrated and applauded, with Dingy Harry leading the cheers when they killed, they thought, the Patriot Act. They have sought to undermine the ability to intercept phone calls from terrorists overseas, talking to compatriots in this country who might be planning attacks.
They’ve done everything they can to restrict interrogation of the enemy at Club Gitmo and Abu Ghraib. Worse than that, in the process they have blamed their own country, the left has and the Democrats have, for these abuses that are committed by the enemy. It’s our fault. And, frankly, I’m sick of hearing it. I’m sick of the Drive-By Media gloating about it every night. I’m sick and tired of the Drive-By Media echoing what these dangerous Democrats — Murtha and Pelosi, who are nothing more than spoiled brat children when you get right down to it, who have power now — are saying all the time. Every future attack on this country would have been less likely had the Democrats not demoralized and distracted our armed forces, our intelligence agencies and law enforcement with witch hunts, show trials camouflaged as hearings. Everything they are doing is designed to secure defeat. They own defeat.
They are doing everything to demoralize the armed forces, demoralize intelligence agencies, demoralize law enforcement. They are doing everything they can to point fingers of blame at as many people and agencies and institutions in this country for the problems that we face. As I see it, every future attack would have been less likely had the ACLU and the activist judges not undermined our detention and interrogation methods. Here’s the point, folks. If we are attacked again, the Democrats and their allies will have succeeded and weakened our country to the point of making it vulnerable. We have not been attacked since 9/11. If we are attacked again, as I see it, it will be because Democrats and their allies will have succeeded in weakening our country to the point of making it vulnerable. This could well happen if they win the White House in ’08. It’s why I say they are sowing the seeds of their eventual landslide defeat and an eventual return to virtual minority status. How? They will have pulled the military off the battlefield if they succeed in doing that. That?s where the enemy is bogged down and engaged overseas.
The enemy is bogged down and engaged there, and the Democrats want to do what? Take the military off the battlefield. They will have disarmed our intelligence and law enforcement agencies at home — by weakening traditional presidential powers — who won’t be able to track terrorist movement. If these people get in charge, I’m telling you this is all going to happen. It’s what they’re seeking now. They’ve tried to bring this all about as members of the minority before the November elections. Now they’re in the majority and they’re trying to do it through the force of hassle, resolution, and political isolation of the president. The logical outcome and consequence of the Democrat agenda, folks, is to weaken the United States in the face of an enemy who tells us time and again their intentions, which are to attack us and destroy us. The Democrats for some reason don’t believe this. Or if they do believe it they think they can deal with it in their own way, which, as history shows us, they cannot do successfully.
Meanwhile, we haven’t had any attacks domestically in this country — well, organized, big attacks. We have some militant Islamists running around malls and cab drivers going nuts and this sort of thing. Even that is not dealt with honestly. They won’t be able to say they didn’t know. The Democrats will not be able to say they were misled. They won’t be able to say, if they gain power and all of this happens that I’m predicting, they will not be able to say somebody lied, and they will not investigate themselves. But it will be at their feet. The Democrats have taken ownership of defeat. They own it. They’re not just invested in it. They are not just merely securing it. They own it.
If there is defeat in the United States future, it is solely owned by the Democrat Party and the American left. Look, when they were in the minority and shooting spitballs at those who are trying to defend and protect us, it was bad enough. Now they’re in the majority. As the majority, their behavior has consequences. So I want these Democrats — you know who you are — America’s leftists to know, we hear you. We are taking down everything you are saying. We are keeping an audio archive of every comment you are making. We are highlighting your actions. And we intend to hold each and every one of them to account, should that day of reckoning occur.
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RUSH: All right, did you see this? ?Insurgents exploded a truck carrying chlorine gas canisters Wednesday. The second such dirty chemical attack in two days, while a US official said that ground fire apparently forced the downing of a Black Hawk helicopter. All nine aboard the aircraft were rescued.? Chemical weapons, dirty chemical attack, chlorine gas canisters? How long before this technique hits our shores, ladies and gentlemen? Well, the sooner the Democrats secure the defeat that they own, the sooner it will begin happening here in the United States. I had to laugh. I was reading — and I don’t normally do this. I don’t know, some things just happen, sometimes I think God is pointing me to things. As you people know, the last place I go is the New York Times. People send me stuff in the New York Times, ?Rush, you gotta see this,? but I’ve got better things to do.
For some reason last night I zeroed in on the op-ed page of the New York Times, and there’s a piece by Bob Herbert. Bob Herbert used to write for the New York Daily News. Get this. He’s a member of the Drive-By Media and he’s all upset over the media coverage of this Anna Nicole Smith circus and the K-Fed stuff and the Britney stuff and Paris Hilton; because nobody is paying attention to the serious news out there like Iraq; because nobody is paying attention to serious news out there like Bush. Let me just read the last two paragraphs to you. ?More than 20 years later, the masses have nearly succeeded in drawing the curtains on anything that’s not entertaining. No one can figure out what to do about Iraq or Al-Qaeda.? What do you mean nobody can figure it out, Bob? Your party, your buds want us to lose to them! What do you mean nobody can figure it out?
I return to his column. ?A great American cultural center like New Orleans was all but washed away, and no one knows how to put it back together. The ice caps are melting, and Al Gore is traveling the land like the town crier raising the alarm about global warming, but none of that has really gotten the public’s attention. None of it is amusing enough. As a nation of spectators, we seem content to sit with a pizza and a brewski in front of the high def flat TV, obsessing over Anna Nicole, et al, and giving no thought to the possibility that the calamitous events unfolding in the world may someday reach our doorsteps.? Good God! This is one of the many in the Drive-By Media telling us we face no threat other than Bush and global warming, and all of a sudden nobody is concerned enough about Al-Qaeda, nobody is concerned enough about Algore and global warming? He has a Nobel Peace Prize nomination, Bob, you doofus! He’s being treated like a rock star in Canada, and he has an Oscar nomination. Everybody is paying attention to Algore, and that’s part of the problem. He’s no different than Anna Nicole Smith.
Algore is no different than K-Fed and Britney. It’s the same kind of pop culture tripe and BS. You called us a nation of spectators, Mr. Herbert. We conservatives know exactly what’s going on with our culture, with our religion, with the rule of law, and the enemy. Mr. Herbert believes if we don’t adopt his socialist appeasement agenda, that we’re not serious about things. That’s why we’re just spectating. We’re just not adopting his socialism with a big government rescue for every problem out there. Bob, it’s your buddies in the Drive-By Media televising all this. It’s your buddies in the Drive-By Media trying to tell the people of this country that George W. Bush is the enemy. It’s your buddies and your newspaper which has done everything it can to undermine victory. It’s your newspaper, Mr. Herbert, that’s done everything it can to secure defeat because, Mr. Herbert, you and your people own it.