Outrage Over Drive-By Smear

RUSH: Now to the phones, we go to Atlanta and we start with Ray. You’re up first, sir, nice to have you with us.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, I’ll get right to the point. I don’t think that this whole brouhaha, the phony soldier, has really anything to do with that particular soldier. I think it has to do with the fact that they’re trying to marginalize you; they’re trying to marginalize us as conservatives, because what’s coming up in ’08? It’s game time, baby.

RUSH: Exactly. This is the ’08 playbook. It’s a smear; it’s marginalization. The thing is, they’ve tried it how many times and have failed?

CALLER: Well, I think we’re going to see more and more of this of you. They’re going to pick out more and more, quote, ‘instances’ of things they have to take issues with, mark my words.

RUSH: No question about it.

CALLER: Let me tell you, Democrats, we’re out here and we’re going to win in ’08. And you’ve done nothing but fire us up.

RUSH: No question about it, but it’s going to blow up in their face eventually. It’s not going to blow up in their face with the media; it’s not going to blow up in their face with the Democrats; it’s going to blow up in their face with the American people. The American people are not dumb, they are not idiots, and they can readily recognize when they are being lied to. They can readily recognize political attempts and attacks like this, and they forget that I’ve got three hours every day here to deal with this kind of thing, if necessary, although I won’t devote nearly that much time to it because it isn’t necessary. But this kind of stuff is going to blow up in their face just like the MoveOn.org ad blew up in their face. Just be patient, folks, and be confident. There’s still some really core characteristics of human nature. Human nature and the American culture hav a bunch of core beliefs: good character, honesty, and they still thrive, and they survive in large numbers in most of the people in this country. You just don’t know about it because those people are anonymous, they’re not seeking fame, they’re not seeking notoriety. But the people who make this country work have great values, they have manners, they understand when they’re being lied to and set up, tactics like this are used. This will eventually backfire on these people if they keep it up.

Rich in south Jersey, you’re next on Open Line Friday. Hi.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, good to talk to you.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: Sometimes — like I just heard you say, it will backfire on them, but sometimes it doesn’t because people forget, because so much time goes by. But let me try to like go through this whole thing that I got in my head before I forget it, because this could be like a turning point on media distortion. Because, like I said, months from now, they’re going to remember you associated with something against the troops, something negative, they’re going to forget about the specifics. So it makes you waste time reacting to the negative. You’re just reacting to something that they put out negative. That’s what everybody’s doing. That’s what O’Reilly did. He wastes time, where they should — or you should illustrate the positive things that go on. Just to react to the negativity takes away from your time to illustrate the positive. That’s what you do. You illustrate the positives. In a nutshell, I think they do this just to divert you. They’re just making you waste time on reacting instead of just saying the good things.

RUSH: This is another great illustration, too. I’ve got e-mails from all kinds of people that echo what you say: ‘Stop reacting to it. Just stop. All you’re doing is giving them time. You’re giving them attention; you’re elevating them,’ and so forth and so on. I’ve shared with you over the course of the number of years of this program that dealing with this kind of thing has always been a quandary as to how to deal with it: When do you ignore it; when do you deal with it? The bottom line is, when you’ve got elected Democrats going to the floor of the House of Representatives and condemning you — my dad would not believe my life. (laughing) My dad would not believe this. When you’ve got elected officials, Jim Webb, others, John Kerry, Howard Dean issued a statement, when you’ve got people that are demanding I apologize for something that didn’t happen, and you said something at the outset here that’s very crucial: Years from now, months from now, all you think people will remember is that I was associated with something negative about the military.

You’re right, if I let this go and act like this is nothing. Other than that, this is one of those times where I have deemed it necessary to respond for a whole host of reasons. In fact, I thought this illustration of the Democrat playbook in ’08, this anatomy of a smear, was quite positive. I thought it was quite illustrative of positive outlooks. Who is it that’s supporting the troops? It’s all of us, folks. It’s not these people demanding an apology. Can you believe that John Kerry has the audacity to ask me to apologize for something I didn’t say after his record of bashing and criticizing and demoralizing the troops? This is laughable, and I’m throwing it right back in their face. This is one of those times that I deemed it necessary to respond to it and play their own words right back at them and for everybody else to keep all this in context.