RUSH: All right, the New Tone. Do you remember when it came time to appoint an attorney general to replace Alberto Gonzales, the White House really wanted Ted Olson. Somehow that leaked out. The Democrats jumped in there and they say, ‘You make it Ted Olson, he’s never going to get a hearing. We’re not going to have some partisan hack,’ you know, the way Democrats react to people. So the White House, okay, so they nominated a guy by the name of Mukasey, Michael Mukasey, a federal judge. On balance, pretty good, especially on dealing with terror suspects. Friend of Chuck Schumer. Hello, New Tone. Okay, you won’t give us Ted Olson, going to fight that. Here, let me give you a guy that you like, let me give you one of your boys, Mr. Schumer. Well, it didn’t work. Pat Leahy has announced that he is going to oppose the nominee. Dick Durbin has announced that he’s going to oppose the nominee to attorney general. And now Schumer is in a real mess because he’s the swing vote. If he votes to confirm his buddy, then the buddy gets confirmed.
Well, all the Democrats are out there ripping Mukasey a new one, and Schumer has joined in on it, too. Now, the funny thing about Schumer is back in 2004, he made a statement about torture where, yeah, sometimes it’s going to be necessary. But now, all of a sudden, when it comes time to confirm an attorney general, it’s all about waterboarding. I found out, I read that apparently we have used waterboarding three times in the war on terror. One of those times was sheik whatever his name, the mastermind of 9/11. Yeah, Khalid Camel, whatever his name was, Khalid Amizad, I don’t know — and it worked, and this guy unloaded everything. One of these criticisms of torture, the anti-torture crowd, they say it never works, torture never works, people will lie, they will lie just to get you to stop the torture, as though our interrogators are a bunch of idiots, will accept or believe any lie that’s told. We know who these people are, we know what they’re planning, we have a general idea. We’re not that easily fooled. Most people do not lie. Maybe nine out of ten don’t, it has been established. There’s so many conceptions that people deal with here. Well, torture doesn’t work, people lie to get out of it, it’s not the American way, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This judge, Mukasey, has been very strong on this. But this is the Democrats being the Democrats, just deny Bush what he wants, don’t give him his attorney general. We have some sound bites. Here is Dick Durbin, a portion of his remarks Wednesday afternoon on Capitol Hill.
DURBIN: I can’t support his nomination based on the letter that he sent yesterday. I can’t understand how a man of his intelligence with his background can’t see clearly that torture — that waterboarding is torture, and clearly illegal by any standard in the United States.
RUSH: The guy was asked to clarify his thoughts on waterboarding as torture, and they got the letter back, and so Durbin just went off the deep end. Here’s Senator Kennedy yesterday on the Senate floor.
KENNEDY: Mr. President, I intend to oppose the nomination of Michael Mukasey to be the next attorney general of the United States. This is a nomination I had hoped to support.
RUSH: Right.
KENNEDY: We cannot afford to take our chances on the judgment of someone who either does not know torture when he sees it or is willing to pretend so to suit the president, and I cannot in good conscience support his nomination.
RUSH: It’s certainly interesting to hear Senator Kennedy come out against water torture. I don’t know, folks. The Democrats are just being who they are. But the point of this is Bush gave ’em a friend of Chuck Schumer! I don’t know what the status of this is. But I know Schumer’s in an uncomfortable position now because he’s the swing vote. You know, he was supportive of the guy when he was first nominated. Then this torture stuff, the Democrats did their usual thing. Usually you can find Schumer wherever there’s a camera, but you can’t find him. He’s nowhere around. He doesn’t want to address this. He doesn’t want to be part of it in any way.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, President Bush said if the Senate rejects his attorney general nominee, Michael Mukasey, then there won’t be an attorney general for the rest of the term. Bush will just do it himself! (laughter) He’ll just do it himself. By the way, Bush really, really took it to the Dems yesterday. He went to the Heritage Foundation, and here’s a portion of his remarks there.
THE PRESIDENT: We cannot win this war by wishing it away or pretending it does not exist. Unfortunately, on too many issues, some in Congress are behaving as if America is not at war.
RUSH: Wow. What sound bite was that? What number did you just play? That was three. Give me number 12, because this is where he really takes it to these kooks, the fringe left.
THE PRESIDENT: Some in Washington should spend more time responding to the warnings of terrorists like Osama Bin Laden and the requests of our commanders on the ground, and less time responding to the demands of MoveOn.org bloggers and Code Pink protesters.
RUSH: It’s about time this came from the top down! All right, right on, right on, right on! And then Pelosi yesterday had a news conference — a portion of her remarks:
PELOSI: A war without end that is a total failure. So he has to talk about something, and he stoops to a level, in my view, that is beneath the dignity of the office that he holds.
RUSH: I’m convinced this woman just isn’t all there, you know? An order of fries short of a Happy Meal. Seriously, folks: not all there. I know that she’s gotta oppose the president. I know this. But, for crying out loud, to talk about beneath the dignity of the office? What the Democrats in both the speakership and the House, the Senate majority leader have done, Harry Reid… Talk about beneath the dignity of the office! The Petraeus hearings, the Petraeus MoveOn.org ad. Where is the dignity in the office of portraying your own country as the enemy and your own president as the enemy who must be defeated and overcome? I think her striking back, striking out, is a direct proportionate result to Bush hitting a home run in just a pretty sure few words.