HARRY REID: It was very clear to me that when you have someone who goes in our uniform and fights in Iran — we just talked about Iran — fights in Iraq, comes home, and then suddenly says that they’re against the war or however they work into it. (big pause) Yeah. They… I… Don’t call them phony soldiers. I thought that was wrong, and I think that the American people think it’s wrong to call…
RUSH: Stop the tape. I want you to recue this, because I think I know what’s going on. I think he’s being coached. He’s on the phone here. He’s not in the studio with Alan Stock, and I think he’s talking to someone. Wherever he is, he has somebody telling him what to say. ‘No, no, don’t say that! Get back here.’ They’re sending him notes, cue cards, all kinds of things flashed in front of him. ‘No, no, no! Don’t! Say this.’ That’s why that long pause. That pause was au natural. Here it is from the top again.
HARRY REID: It was very clear to me that when you have someone who goes in our uniform and fights in Iran — we just talked about Iran — fights in Iraq, comes home, and then suddenly says that they’re against the war or however they work into it. (big pause)
RUSH: Pause.
HARRY REID: Yeah. They… I… Don’t call them phony soldiers. I thought that was wrong, and I think that the American people think it’s wrong to call [them] phony soldiers. He tried to doctor up the tape later and say he didn’t say it, but, of course, you could hear his voice saying that, and we — we quoted basically what — not ‘basically.’ We quoted what he said. But, you know, as with — not everything, but — some things, there is a silver lining. Rush Limbaugh, which has a large audience, ummm, was able to raise some money. Now, if he again calls one of our troops who fights in…Iraq or Afghanistan [that] has come home and is against the war a phony soldier, I will do it again. And I think that it is — we did the right thing. I have no regret whatsoever.
RUSH: That’s unbelievable! There’s a three-second pause, where he needs to be coached. Now he says we ‘doctored’ the tape! We doctored the tape! This is a new accusation, a new allegation. The broadcast engineer who has access to the so-called ‘tapes,’ has been accused of being forced to doctor them by me! We doctored nothing! It’s amazing. I hate to relive this, but the guy won’t let it go. He had a chance here, being asked about this, to punt it, you know, say, ‘Well, it was a great ending out there, Alan. We raised all this money.’ He could have at least tried to take credit for that, but he says, ‘No, no, no. I’ll do it again! You don’t get away with calling soldiers ‘phony.” Dingy Harry, there were nine of them as you know, and we were talking about one particular guy named Jesse MacBeth. But this is from a guy, ladies and gentlemen, who has spent the last six to nine months impugning the honor, the integrity, the talent, and the abilities of people who wear the uniform. He’s been the one waving the white flag of surrender. (summarized) ‘The surge is over. We can’t win. It’s lost. Bring the troops home.’ Yet he now levels a new allegation that I doctored the tape. (laughs) You know, I understand that Dingy Harry has made a lot of money in some land deals out in our great West. It’s not too late for Dingy Harry to donate some money from his land deals, some of which have been rumored to be shady, to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. Here’s the second bite. The host, Alan Stock, says, ‘The people he’s referring to at the time in fact turned out there were about half a dozen — nine, I think as a matter of fact — that were being investigated as having been in some cases phony soldiers. The fact that they were — some never served in Iraq, making claims how horrible the war was, that they were, when it turned out later the fact that they had never served over there. He was referring to those people as being ‘phony’ and the truth was those people were phony.’
REID: Hey, Alan, he’s own… It’s — he’s making something up after the fact. Anyone can listen to what he said on that radio. He went out afterwards and tried to dig up some of this. What he was talking about on the radio was very clear: People who went and fought in the war in Iraq, came home and opposed the war were, ‘phony soldiers.’ I disagree with that statement.
RUSH: Didn’t say that. This has been totally doctored. It was totally taken out of context, massaged by the Hillary Clinton front group: Media Matters for America. Now, the fact that he won’t let this go when asked about it… This was a resounding defeat for him. It was humiliating. You can’t be the letter. I have the song. I’m sure you can find it real fast because we probably have it ready. I think we could squeeze this in even before the break. Ten…nine… Have you found it? Let it go. This says it all. Paul Shanklin.
(playing of parody song The Letter)
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: If you were not with us at the beginning of the program, Dingy Harry was on Las Vegas radio station KXNT with Alan Stock. The name of the show is the Morning Source, and he did a wide-ranging interview with Dingy Harry about a number of things. Then he asked him this question: ‘You and the other 40 Democrat senators that signed that letter,’ the smear letter ‘that Rush Limbaugh auctioned off a few months ago, why didn’t you help contribute another $2.1 million as Rush did? Rush doubled the money. He matched the donation. That’s what he wanted to know: Why you didn’t match the funds that Rush put into that particular situation.’
HARRY REID: It was very clear to me that when you have someone who goes in our uniform and fights in Iran — we just talked about Iran — fights in Iraq, comes home, and then suddenly says that they’re against the war or however they work into it. (big pause)
RUSH: Pause. Get coaching in.
HARRY REID: Yeah. They… I… Don’t call them phony soldiers. I thought that was wrong, and I think that the American people think it’s wrong to call [them] phony soldiers. He tried to doctor up the tape later and say he didn’t say it —
RUSH: (laughing) Doctored the tape!
HARRY REID: — but, of course, you could hear his voice saying that, and we — we quoted basically what — not ‘basically.’ We quoted what he said. But, you know, as with all — not everything, but — some things, there is a silver lining. Rush Limbaugh, which has a large audience, ummm, was able to raise some money. Now, if he again calls one of our troops who fights in…Iraq or Afghanistan [that] has come home and is against the war a phony soldier, I will do it again. And I think that it is — we did the right thing. I have no regret whatsoever.
RUSH: He would do it again. What did he really do? He lied! He perpetuated a lie, but what he really did — and the reason why his smear letter generated $2.1 million in a record-setting eBay auction — was because it was an abuse of power. Here was the Senate majority leader — who, by the way, is the most ineffective and incompetent Senate leader of either party, I have seen in my adult lifetime. Nobody is worse. He can’t do anything right. He can’t say anything right. Neither can Ms. Pelosi in the House. They just got their clocks cleaned on this omnibus budget bill. Nothing that they wanted in it, of any consequence, is in it. It’s just every one of their Iraq resolutions, down the tubes. He should be so embarrassed to even show his face. In the same political environment, this man would still be at home, afraid to come out because of the humiliation he has brought on himself. But that letter was an abuse of power. This is a Senate majority leader singling out a private citizen and trying to censor what that private citizen said, by lying about what the private citizen said — in this case I, being the private citizen. Now, he’s compounding it by saying that I and my broadcast engineer doctored the tape!
We didn’t ‘doctor’ any tape. I even forget what it was that was there. It was a caller that I was responding to, and the caller, after he made the point, went on and on and on about something else, and I’m racking my brain all day trying to figure out what the caller was talking about, but it was not germane. It wasn’t about phony soldiers. It was an old issue. So in the interests of time, brevity being the soul of wit, we just eliminated that from the sound bite and the audio track that we put on the website. We didn’t ‘doctor’ the tape. ‘Doctor the tape’ means you change the order in which things were said. We didn’t have to do that! We weren’t hiding anything. We later went back and put the whole thing up so people could see that that accusation was bogus, but it didn’t stop because the accusation was the point. But it was absurd, because there’s no greater supporter of the US military than I, El Rushbo, and anybody that’s listened for a day to this program knows that. Yet, here’s Dingy Harry saying he’d do it all over again. So this man is so incompetent, he is so ineffective that we need him in the Senate as a Democrat — and I am really thinking of donating to his reelection efforts. He’s up in 2010, and I’m thinking of sending him the maximum allowed, just to make sure that he stays there.
‘Rush, you are crazy. Wouldn’t you rather have the seat go to a Republican?’
Yes, I would, but, you know, Dingy Harry’s pretty well deeply rooted out there. He’s been in Nevada for a long time. He has had some shady land deals out there. I understand he’s very wealthy from these shady land deals. He hasn’t donated a cent to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. He smeared me. Now he’s up there accusing me of doctoring the tape and saying he’d smear me again! We gotta give him a reason. Something will happen, and we’re going to give him a reason to do it all over again. Here’s the second bite, because Alan Stock said, ‘The people he was referring to at the time — turned out there were six or nine of them — they were phony soldiers. He was like referring to those people as being ‘phony,’ and the truth was, they were phony.’
HARRY REID: Hey, Alan, he’s own… It’s — he’s making something up after the fact. Anyone can listen to what he said on that radio. He went out afterwards and tried to dig up some of this. What he was talking about on the radio was very clear: People who went and fought in the war in Iraq, came home and opposed the war were, ‘phony soldiers.’ I disagree with that statement.
RUSH: Yeah, you’re the guy that impugned. You’re the guy that secured defeat. You’re the guy trying to demoralize them. You’re the guy waving a white flag back in May: ‘Surge can’t work, won’t work; the war is already lost.’ You’re the guy leading the effort trying to take the money out! You’re the guy trying to pull ’em out so they have defeat wrapped around their necks. This is just too hilarious.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: To Sacramento, my adopted hometown. This is Steve. Great to have you with us, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. Rush, regarding Harry Reid: as always, you’re being far too nice. Harry Reid is way beyond incompetence. He is flatly a bold-faced liar. Here we have a US senator that’s supposed to stand up for truth, justice, and the American way.
RUSH: Who says?
CALLER: He had months to get this story right, to get the truth right and he’s chosen not to. The American people ought to hold their leaders accountable, and get this guy on your show so that he can humble himself and bow at the altar of truth! It’s still possible for Senator Harry Reid to become redeemed, but I think he’s going to need a lot more nudging and help from the American people.
RUSH: I think he’s too deep. It’s just like he will not come around on the fact that we are winning in Iraq, that the surge is working. He’s still maintaining it’s not a big deal; it ain’t going to change anything. These people… He’s, right now, more frightened of MoveOn.org and the anti-war left than he is of the American people.
CALLER: He’s frightened from truth. That’s what he’s frightened about, and the American people ought to not stand for it.
RUSH: Well, that’s true. He’s threatened by truth. The biggest inconvenience that Democrats, many of them in Washington have these days is the truth. They are having a tough time dealing with it. I appreciate it.
CALLER: Keep standing for truth, Rush. Merry Christmas.
RUSH: Thank you, Steve. It’s sort of habit with me. I have to try not to want the truth. I think most people have to. I don’t mean people with psychological disorders, but when you want to know what’s going on, you want to know what’s going on. You want the truth. Some people will be happy with… They don’t want to hear bad news, but in most cases… Well, I’ll just speak for myself. It requires a conscious effort on this program to say something that isn’t true, because I don’t do it. It would require a conscious effort to do it. Of course, there are exceptions: parody and satire, but the truth is always there. It’s meant to be figured out by the clever and ingenious presentation of the parody and satire. All humor requires an element of truth anyway, to be funny.