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Dems Flip on FISA for Election

by Rush Limbaugh - Jul 10,2008

RUSH: Great illustration from the media monopoly known as the Associated Press here on the kid-glove coverage for the Lord Messiah Barack Obama by David Espo. This is a story about the Lord Messiah Obama’s shift in voting for telecom immunity in the FISA bill. Reading this story is the Twilight Zone, begins this way: ‘Sen. Barack Obama’s vote in favor of anti-terrorist surveillance legislation on Wednesday marked an about-face on the issue that left him comfortably in the bipartisan middle, no matter the criticism from John McCain nor the discomfort among liberal Democrats.’ Now, David Espo, it says here is a special correspondent. This piece is not labeled commentary. Why should anything at the AP be labeled commentary? It all is commentary. Right out of the bat we get an opinion and instructions from David Espo to the reader on how they are to interpret this, and it’s absurd. ‘Senator Barack Obama’s vote in favor of anti-terrorist surveillance legislation on Wednesday marked an about-face on the issue that left him comfortably in the bipartisan middle’?

‘Given the choice between voting for an improved yet imperfect bill, and losing important surveillance tools, Senator Obama chose to support’ the legislation, his office said, even though it contained a provision the Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting had flatly opposed. Translation: With the general election looming, preventing another terrorist attack trumped fears that privacy rights may be violated.’ Now, hell’s bells, folks. You talk about giving somebody a pass, here is a man, a member of a party which has for the last year or longer done everything it can to weaken America’s defenses and ability to be forewarned via surveillance of the next terrorist attack. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, the Democrat Party, have tried to undermine the FISA court, they’ve tried to undermine the FISA bill, they have stood in the way every time it’s come up for a vote, though, after all the huff and puff that they do, they eventually pass it. This passed two to one.

Now, if it’s important for Obama to size up the need to prevent another terrorist attack with an election coming, why was it irrelevant to protect the country from a terrorist attack a year ago when the election was not right around the corner? And yet Mr. Espo, the special correspondent of the Associated Press, finds absolutely nothing contradictory, finds absolutely nothing troubling about this whatsoever. So a year ago Obama can rail against FISA, rail and get his all his left-wing troops all railed up about the fact that Bush is spying on them, intercepting their phone calls, reading their computer e-mails, violating everybody’s civil rights, now all of a sudden when there’s an election out there, it’s okay because we gotta stop terrorism? A year ago, two years ago, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Democrat Party tried to ensure defeat against terrorists in Iraq. Now with an election coming up, according to the AP, why, fabulously fine that Obama do a 180, ’cause we gotta stop terrorist attacks.

I don’t mean to be harsh here, ladies and gentlemen, but this is somewhat new, the Democrats placing defense against terrorism attacks at the top of their priority list. I’m not going to say they don’t care about it, but clearly it has not been one of their priorities, undermining it has been. But all of a sudden the election’s coming up and the presidency is at stake and the Democrat Party thinks, you know what, we better do a flip-flop here, we better get our guy out there saying we care about terrorist attacks, we want them to be shut down before they happen. And right here, slavish, sycophant, this Espo guy is going to die of anal poisoning before it’s all over he’s following Democrats around so close to their rear ends. And I mean that’s just one of many examples in this story. The dirty little secret is, Obama may have voted for this, and he may be doing all these so-called tacks to the center, t-a-c-k-s, but none of it means anything. What we have here, we don’t have a flip-flopper. We have a politician of convenience who I swear I don’t think you can pin down what he really thinks. Well, I can, but I mean the average voter, the average person listening to this paying scant attention has no idea who Obama is. And that’s one of the points, is to try to obscure the fact that he is a radical leftist who wants to expand the federal government at whatever the cost, including individual liberty and freedom, but knows he can’t get elected saying that.

But this is just a great example of the incompetence, the inexperience that this man brings to the table, contrary to the image of a transcendent candidate, a transformational candidate. Somebody out there in the Democrat Party, some of you leftists who buy into this whole messiah thing, would you tell me what is different about anything Obama is doing? As a former Clinton advisor said in the LA Times today, ‘Reagan didn’t tack to the center, Reagan moved the electorate to the right.’ That’s why they hated Reagan; that’s why they fear Reagan; that’s why they fear conservatism. Everybody else is in this for show. Obama moving to the center is for show. McCain joining the left and so forth, that’s to create, craft, and maintain an image. Yet nobody’s got the guts to actually do what moves the electorate when done properly with an articulate, charismatic leader.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Bob in Tulare, California, welcome to the program, sir.

CALLER: Rush, it’s Tulare, Bob from Tulare.

RUSH: Don’t start doing Obama on me here.

CALLER: I’m sorry, look, look, we gotta resurrect a mantra from the Reagan era, and that is, we’ve gotta say no. We gotta say no to B.O. because he’s only got 143 days of experience. That smells. You know, he’s telling us we gotta speak Spanish, we gotta learn Spanish, and that smells. And then I’m pumping gas every three days in my truck to work trying to make a living and that smells because it’s doubled in price. So you know what, we gotta just —

RUSH: Right, he’s got 143 takes of experience. He cannot speak Spanish. He’s just embarrassed that Europeans think of the bitter clingers the way they do. And, of course, the only thing he’s ever said about your rising gas prices is that he’s upset how fast they went up.

RUSH: Jack, Southborough, Massachusetts, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Rush.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: Wonderful to speak to you, and I hate to criticize you ’cause I love you, but I think you made a mistake on the reason Barack voted for the FISA bill.

RUSH: That’s doubtful, but give it a shot.

CALLER: Well, I believe Mayor Daley’s brother runs one of the large telecoms, so Barack being a loyal Chicago hack was told to vote for it, and he did.

RUSH: Could be. I don’t doubt that. That’s fine and you could be very right, and if you are right, I would applaud you, and it’s not surprising to me. In fact, if that is the reason, that’s even worse.

CALLER: Well, of course he’s going to follow. Mayor Daley will direct him what to do.

RUSH: It’s worse for this reason. Remember, my focus on this story was the special correspondent from the monopolistic Associated Press, David Espo, who said that he was comfortably moving to the center now and that he switched his mind on this because, with an election coming up, it’s very important to prevent another terrorist attack. Well, why wasn’t that important a year ago? Why wasn’t that important a year and a half ago? Now, I know maybe they want to position Obama — see, I don’t think it helps him however they try to justify this change in opinion on this, whether it’s Mayor Daley pulling the strings or his brother pulling the strings or whether or not Obama thinks, ‘The American people really do care about another attack, I better get out in front of it.’ Either way, what it means is that the last year and a half, two years of Obama have been a lie, have been a fraudulent presentation of who he is, or else this is, one of the two is.

CALLER: He is a very deceitful candidate —

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: — and I will tell you one thing — of course I’m not voting for him, but he tends to wear thin on you. I’m getting it now which means in three months the general public will agree with me. He isn’t somebody you enjoy constantly seeing, learning from —

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: — hoping that he will change things.

RUSH: I have to agree with you on that, too, especially when out there trying to emulate the Kennedys.

CALLER: I’m hoping only in time that Senator McCain brings more passion to his campaign. And one other thing that I’d like you to push that I’m pushing, and I’ve written the McCain campaign, I would like to see the United States drill for oil and use that money to pay my Social Security and my Medicare when I become 65 years old.

RUSH: Why would I push that? That’s an Obama idea.

CALLER: No, not at all.

RUSH: In fact, that sounds like the way Obama might shift on drilling. ‘I’m gonna use the money to pay for your retirement.’

CALLER: Well, let us be the first to use it. The Social Security is broke, Medicare is broke, we have lots of oil, let’s get it now, and let’s secure our retirement with it.

RUSH: That’s not — no, no, no, no. Now, that’s straight out of the playbook of liberalism.

CALLER: Well, not really.

RUSH: That’s just —

CALLER: Rush, they owe us the Social Security. They signed a contract with us; they were going to pay us.

RUSH: They are going to pay you.

CALLER: Yeah, with what money?

RUSH: Kids and grandkids who aren’t born yet.

CALLER: I say use the oil money to pay us.

RUSH: No, you gotta use the oil money to get the gas — the oil — jeez. You are becoming a selfish citizen. This is unbecoming of you to say this on this program.

CALLER: No, I want that oil and I want it to help pay my Social Security.

RUSH: Your Social Security is going to be paid.

CALLER: Not the way things look now, Mr. Rush.

RUSH: Jack, have you reached retirement age yet?

CALLER: No. I can’t afford to retire.

RUSH: Because Social Security is not enough for you?

CALLER: Oh, God, I couldn’t manage on that. No, I want to live in Manalapan near you and get myself a new GV. (laughing)

RUSH: Well, let me tell you something about oil money when we come back. (laughing) Thanks for the call.