RUSH: I have a question for you, folks. What motivates Dick Cheney? Dick Cheney was on Face the Nation yesterday. We have some audio sound bites here. Before playing the sound bites, I want to pose some thoughts to you. Dick Cheney has all the millions he needs. He doesn’t need money. He has no future political ambitions. He coulda run in 2000; he coulda run in 2008; he doesn’t want to run for elective office anymore. What motivates him? He’s not hot for interns. He’s not a torture freak. What motivates Dick Cheney? He also knows that he is toxic to the Drive-By Media. He knows that the Obama administration and the Drive-By Media despise him. He could sail away into retirement, go hunting and fishing out in Wyoming, wherever he wants, what motivates Dick Cheney to continue to speak out? What is it that you think motivates Dick Cheney? Let’s go to the audio sound bites, and we’ll start here with this question from Bob Schieffer: ‘You said, for example, the Obama administration has made this country less safe. That’s a very serious charge. Why have you taken that approach?’
CHENEY: I think the issues that are at stake here are so important, and in effect what we’ve seen happen with respect to the Obama administration that came to power, is they have moved to take down a lot of those policies we put in place that kept the nation safe for nearly eight years from a follow-on terrorist attack like 9/11.
RUSH: Now, Bob Schieffer was stunned. Bob Schieffer could not believe what he was hearing. Bob Schieffer is said to be — I’ve never met him — Bob Schieffer is said to be one of the nicest guys in the Drive-By Media in DC. But he was shocked that Dick Cheney suggested we are less safe because of the Obama presidency. How could Cheney say, let alone suggest, we are less safe? How could he prove we are less safe? See, the conflict here as far as Bob Schieffer and the Drive-By Media is concerned, is that the left has been saying for the last eight years that we are less safe because of the Bush presidency, because of all the torture. Somebody asked me — I had a bunch of friends in for the weekend — what do you think is going to happen if we do get hit again, another terrorist attack, what’s going to happen? Do you think Obama’s going to get blamed? No, Obama is not going to get blamed for anything ever. Why do you think they’re setting up all this torture stuff? Why do you think they’re closing Gitmo?
They have said for eight years that Bush created more terrorists. I’ll guaran-damn-tee you, folks, if we get hit again, what’s going to be blamed is torture, Abu Ghraib, Club Gitmo, that’s why Obama’s releasing the memos, that’s why Obama is releasing or wants to release the pictures. And here’s Dick Cheney, one voice from elected Republican politics, Dick Cheney is out warning everybody that what Obama is doing is endangering our country. What motivates Dick Cheney? He doesn’t need money. He doesn’t want to run for political office. He doesn’t want to run Club Gitmo. He’s not hot for interns. What motivates Dick Cheney? Next sound bite, Bob Schieffer: ‘Should we take that literally? You say the administration has made this country more vulnerable to attacks here in the homeland?’
CHENEY: That’s my belief, based upon the fact, Bob, that we put in place those policies after 9/11. What I find deeply disturbing, and I think that to the extent that those policies were responsible for saving lives, that the administration is now trying to cancel those policies or end them, terminate them, then I think it’s fair to argue, and I do argue, that that means in the future we’re not going to have to the same safeguards we’ve had for the last eight years.
RUSH: He’s exactly right about this. He is telling the world, he’s telling this country, one voice, one Republican has the guts to go on television and say this stuff. But what motivates Dick Cheney? And Bob Schieffer, he’s totally incredulous because, of course, the template for the last eight years the Drive-By Media has been we’re less safe, day after day, Sunday after Sunday, Sunday show after Sunday show for eight years, week after week, we’re less safe. Every time, by the way, a Democrat would appear with Bob Schieffer or Stephanopoulos, Russert, David Gregory, whoever, in the last eight years and claim that we are less safe because of George W. Bush. That charge was never challenged. Schieffer didn’t challenge it. If it was ever challenged, it was not really challenged, the question was asked in such a way to give the guest a chance to amplify the point of how greater in danger we are because of the Bush administration.
What motivates Dick Cheney? He knows the media hate his guts. He knows the media hate George W. Bush. He has all the money he needs. He has no political ambitions. He’s not hot for interns. He’s not a torture freak. What motivates Dick Cheney? Next question from Schieffer: ‘Do you have any regrets whatsoever about any of the methods that were taken, any of the things that were used back in those days? Because there’s no question it was a different time. The country’s mood was different. We had just been through something here that had never happened before. In retrospect do you think we should have done some things differently back then or do you have any regrets about any of it?’
CHENEY: No regrets. I think it was absolutely the right thing to do. I’m convinced, absolutely convinced that we saved thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives.
RUSH: And the Drive-Bys are still stuck on Bush placed us more at risk, Bush and Cheney made us more dangerous, made this country less safe. And now here’s Dick Cheney, a lone voice who could avoid all of the grief that he gets. He doesn’t need it. He could go hunting; he could go fishing; he could learn to play golf; he could write memoirs. He doesn’t need the money. He has no political ambitions. He’s not hot for interns. He’s not a torture freak. He knows he’s toxic to the Drive-By Media. What motivates Dick Cheney? Question from Bob Schieffer: ‘Rush Limbaugh said the other day that the party would probably be better off if Colin Powell left and just became a Democrat. Colin Powell said Republicans would be better off if they didn’t have Rush Limbaugh out speaking for them. Where do you come down on this?’
CHENEY: If I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I’d go with Rush Limbaugh, I think. I think my take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn’t know he was still a Republican.
SCHIEFFER: So you think that he’s not a Republican?
CHENEY: I just noted he endorsed the Democratic candidate for president this time, Barack Obama. I assume that that’s some indication of his loyalty and his interests.
SCHIEFFER: And you said you’d take Rush Limbaugh over Colin Powell?
CHENEY: I would.
SCHIEFFER: All right.
RUSH: Bob Schieffer just incredulous during the entire interview. Of course, Colin Powell endorsing Barack Obama and then out saying that the Republican Party is going to have to realize Americans want bigger government and higher taxes. And Cheney said, I didn’t know Colin Powell was still a Republican, Bob. What motivates Dick Cheney? He doesn’t need the money. He has no further political ambitions. He is not hot for interns. He is not a torture freak. He knows that he is toxic and despised by the Drive-By Media and the Democrat Party and the left in this country. What motivation does Dick Cheney to have to go out and say these things? Is it possible that Dick Cheney is motivated by national interest? Is it possible that Dick Cheney is motivated by love of and for his country? Is it possible that Dick Cheney is speaking from his heart and is not speaking politically?
Dick Cheney is not concerned about legacies. He’s smart enough to know that the legacy that that’s written about the Bush administration is going to be BS until this generation of writers has assumed room temperature and moved on, so he knows he can’t correct the historical record. He’s going on these shows to talk to the American people. He’s one Republican voice. He’s also saying we shouldn’t moderate as a party. We only win when we are conservatives and have a conservative candidate to offer, and principles. We shouldn’t moderate. Dick Cheney knows that people in the middle of the road get run over. Dick Cheney knows that there really is no such thing as a centrist. Dick Cheney knows that there’s really no such thing as a moderate. Dick Cheney is one lone voice in the Republican Party. What motivates Dick Cheney? He’s not hot for interns. He has all the money he needs. He’s not a torture freak. He doesn’t want to run for political office. Dick Cheney is motivated by love for his country.
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RUSH: To Ogdensburg, New York. Susan, thank you for waiting. I appreciate your patience, and hello.
CALLER: Hello there, Rush. I’m so glad to talk to you!
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I want to go back to Dick Cheney being out there in the public.
RUSH: Sure. Go right ahead.
CALLER: Just his love of country. I love my country, too, but I love my family. I have children in large cities. I expect this country to keep us secure. And I do not understand. Don’t the media have family members? Doesn’t Congress have family members? Aren’t the…? Sometimes that’s how I approach it, when I call their offices.
RUSH: You are going about this the wrong way.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: You are asking rational questions about irrational people.
CALLER: (sigh-laugh)
RUSH: It’s hard for somebody rational like you to understand the quest and desire for power at all costs — all costs, whatever it takes to quarry it and hold it. Also, the liberal mind is an irrational mind.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: The liberal mind, they don’t think that we are being placed at greater risk by releasing terrorists into the general population. They think the rest of the world hates us as they hate us —
CALLER: Oh.
RUSH — and that we must apologize that there’s nothing special about America. There’s nothing exceptional about America. We’re no different than any other country but we act as the big guy on the planet with our big military and our big police force and we run around and we conquer countries, they think, and we make people mad. They think terrorists hate us because of our support for Israel, because we have raped the world of natural resources. They think everybody is like them. And when they have disagreements with their own country and then other people do, they’re kindred spirits. So they think that by showing the world that there’s a new America, with an America that doesn’t threaten them, an America that has no intention of harming them, that all these people are going to love us. They really believe that. Now, that’s irrational. It’s irrational when you’re dealing with criminals in your neighborhood. It’s irrational. But they have been able to insulate themselves from some of this harm, and so you’re asking the same question when you say, ‘Do they like paying higher taxes?’ Well…
CALLER: Yes! Right!
RUSH: Well, they don’t pay taxes. We’ve learned that now.
CALLER: (giggling) Well, I have to say about Dick Cheney and George Bush: they treated Americans as individuals, and I saw that when they would meet the veterans and meet the families, individual families that came back and had funeral services for their loved ones. It was so touching to see them reach out individually with compassion. That, to me, is a mark of a great administration.
RUSH: Well, they’re decent people. You know, they might have done some things policy-wise that befuddled people and did some damage to the identity of the Republican Party with excessive spending and so forth, but they’re decent people, and they’re rational people. I mean, look at me. In 12 weeks… On Tuesday before Obama is inaugurated, I’m invited to the White House for a birthday lunch by the president, and I’m toasted. Twelve weeks later, I am Public Enemy #1! That’s in 12 weeks, in the same country. So you have to understand, you know, where these people are coming from. And they think the biggest threat to them exists in this country, not outside this country — and if you don’t understand that about them, nothing else that they do will make sense to you. By the way, here’s Cheney, one more sound bite from Bob Schieffer yesterday. Bob Schieffer said, ‘President Obama said that Guantanamo is going to be closed within a year. It proved to be a little more complicated than perhaps some in the administration thought it was going to be. Now you’ve got Congress in a real uproar about if these people are brought to prisons in this country. We’ve had resolutions introduced up there on the Hill that unless the state legislature gives the-go-ahead, you can’t put ’em into prison anyplace in a particular state. But can we ask other countries to take these people back, Mr. Vice President, if we’re not willing to release them in our own country?’
CHENEY: These are the worst of the worst. This is the hardcore. You’d have a recidivism rate out of this group of maybe 50 or 60%. They want to get out because they want to kill more Americans, and you’re just going to find it very difficult to send them anyplace. There’s been some talk on the part of the administration about putting them in the United States. I think that’s going to be a tough sell. I don’t know a single congressional district in this country that’s going to want to say, ‘Gee, great! They’re sending us 20 Al-Qaeda terrorists.’ It’s a graphic demonstration of why Guantanamo is important. We had to have a place, a facility where we could capture these people and hold them until they were no longer a danger to the United States. If you bring ’em to the United States, they aquire all kinds of legal rights and as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said when we captured him, he said, ‘I’ll talk to you guys after I get to New York and see my lawyer.’ That’s the kind of problem you’re going to have with these terrorists.
RUSH: Right. So, try to understand the liberal mind-set on this. This is pure irrationality to release terrorist prisoners at Guantanamo Bay into the United States. And Eric Holder went to Germany last week, or two weeks ago, the week before last, trying to convince other countries to take some of the properties. And they said, ‘No way, Jose!’ All these countries are out there condemning us for having
Club Gitmo and condemning us for whatever is going on there, but when we say, ‘Okay, fine. Help us out. We’re going to close it down. We’re going to do what you want. We’re going to get rid of this bad vibe the US is putting out by having this prison open,’ they don’t want anybody! And, meanwhile, members of this administration are saying, ‘Well, we might have to release them just in the general population,’ ’cause this administration thinks that most of them are innocent, that they have had their human rights violated by the United States of America.
We owe these prisoners a debt. We have unfairly incarcerated them. This is pure irrationality. Now, vice president said, ‘Ah, it’s going to be a tough sell,’ I don’t think there’s a congressional district in the country that’s going to be happy to hear they’re getting 20 Al-Qaeda terrorists to move in. I have to disagree with the vice president here. I don’t know that, if a congressional district doesn’t want them, that they can stop it. This president is willing to intimidate anybody to get what he wants, and if he wants to close Guantanamo Bay, if he’s insistent on doing this, for whatever reason, and he has to release these prisoners into the United States, then that’s going to happen, whether some congressman doesn’t want them in his districts or some senator doesn’t want them in his state. I don’t see anybody standing up and stopping Obama anything, do you?
Here’s Scott in Cincinnati. You’re next, sir. It’s nice to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: Yes, sir.
CALLER: Rush, I see no progress in the economy right now. I see no progress in our foreign policy. I see no progress in unifying the country. Yet all this president has to do is get up and dispense a little bit of rhetoric and he’s off the hook. When will he be judged on his results instead of his rhetoric? And also regarding Nancy Pelosi, I feel that her carbon footprint is so big that she should be known as ‘Bigfoot’ instead of Madam Speaker.
RUSH: (laughing) Look, this is the question everybody’s asking: ‘At what point, will Obama own all this?’ Well, try never. Right now, we just got the budget news today: $1.8 trillion budget deficit, four times the record high. And who are they blaming? Blaming Bush. Bush made ’em do it. Bush so wrecked this economy, so wrecked this country that these drastic steps are necessary. Obama, he has to do this. I think the effort is going to be made by this administration, that whatever negative economic circumstances there are will always be passed on to Bush. Whatever is good, they’ll claim credit for. If unemployment starts to come back, if the GDP starts going up, they’ll claim the credit for it. As long as you have a compliant, sycophantic, slavish Drive-By Media, willing to sing the public song and lyrics written by the White House, then you’re going to have a majority of the American people buying whatever they’re being told. So… Yeah, the effort should be made by Republicans to attach all this to Obama. He owns it, and the Republicans’ only way they can do that is to contrast conservatism with what’s going on now.
The biggest mistake Republicans could make is to follow Colin Powell’s advice. The biggest mistake they could make is to move to the ‘center,’ because there is no ‘center.’ Centrists move and float. Moderates do the same thing. ‘Centrism’ is a left-wing code word, like ‘bipartisanship’ is a left-wing code word. ‘Centrism’ just means agreeing with Democrats, just moving in their direction. That’s all it is. If the Republicans do not contrast themselves… That’s why I was praising Dick Cheney in the first hour of the program. ‘What motivates Dick Cheney?’ Love of country, national interest. He doesn’t need this abuse. He’s the lone voice. But if we’re going to moderate and try to make ourselves look like we’re on the same page as Obama; well, he’s going to get all the credit for all the good, we’re going to get all the blame for all the bad, and there’s going to be no reason to ever vote for Republicans. I don’t care what the wizards of smart say about rebranding or repositioning the Republican Party, but if you try to make it look like Democrat Party Light, then you’re never going to be able to peg Obama and tie Obama to the disaster that his economic policy is going to be.
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RUSH: Hey, Dick Morris even gets it right here. He’s got a piece in the New York Post today — well, actually a couple days ago. This is on Saturday: ‘Despite Gen. Colin Powell’s advice that the Republican Party must move to the center, now is not the time for triangulation by the GOP. It is, rather, the time for the Party to stand firm and fast upon its principles and let this nation come around to its way of thinking, driven by horror at the consequences of Obama’s program. The leftist challenge brought by Obama is no longer a theoretical one to be parried by adroit positioning. He means to pass the ultimate left agenda and has the votes to do so. When he is finished — well before the 2010 elections — our nation will be unrecognizable. Business will march to a beat drummed in Washington. Those who produce the most will be hounded by confiscatory taxation. A majority will pay nothing and receive government welfare. Our health care system will be destroyed. Illegal immigrants will be well on their way to citizenship.’
Obama’s Brave New World will be the subject of the 2010 elections. Dick Morris says that he and his group, his wife, believe that ‘Congress will be swept from power as a result,’ that the Republicans can make significant gains in Congress in 2010, if they do the right things, and moderating and moving toward the center will not result in winning back significant seats in Congress. You’re going to have to add inflation to all of this, the recession, all of this debt is going to lead, the printing of money will lead to inflation, high unemployment will continue. ‘Voters will recognize the damage to their health care as bureaucrats weigh in to prevent them from getting the care they need,’ and that’s on the agenda today, downsizing health care, reducing costs, how is he going to do that, unless he shrinks the system. Morris writes this: ‘All America will be watching the Obama fallout. Republicans must be seen as a clear alternative.’
Now, I’m talking about this because Morris is echoing sentiments that I have been promoting all the past two or three weeks. It’s a golden opportunity for the Republican Party to contrast itself with this mad, insane liberalism. Republicans must be seen as a clear alternative, a strong voice for reversal of the harm the president will have inflicted if they are to benefit from this catastrophe. ‘If the GOP is seen as a moderate force, splitting the difference, voters will cynically conclude that there is no distinction between the parties. … There is a season for triangulation and a season for confrontation. When America faces a new challenge — as the financial crisis and deep recession now pose — we look to the left and to the right for alternatives, for new answers. We want the debate to rage. Those who seek to paper over or split the difference are ignored. Such was the fate of Bush Sr. in 1992 or of McCain in 2008.’ They tried to paper over the differences. They didn’t want to full-fledged take on the liberalism that was being proposed. ‘But once the debate has raged and the alternatives have been fleshed out, voters want a consensus, a Hegelian synthesis, to move in a new direction. They want to extract the best from each alternative and combine them.’ That’s what Morris defines as triangulation.
But that comes later, that’s what he advised Clinton to do in his second term. That is not what’s happening now and shouldn’t happen. ‘This process of polarization, debate, synthesis and action is how America has always moved ahead. Because we are not Japan, we use the debate to see the options. And because we are not Italy or France, we come to conclusions and act upon them, leaving the debate far behind. Now a great debate has been born,’ thanks to Obama. ‘The thesis is Democratic Socialism. The antithesis is free-market capitalism.’ What are we going to have? If there’s nobody out there explaining free market capitalism, promoting it and suggesting it, campaigning on it, then there’s no alternative and there’s no reason for people to vote Republican. Now, I’m sorry, wizards of smart in the circle of brains that’s inside the conservative movement have said, well, the American people want the Colin Powell way, bigger government.’ No! Even if they do, it’s not what we stand for! Your kids want more ice cream. Do you let ’em have it whenever they want it? Yeah, I’m sure some of you do. Your kid wants a brand-new car when he’s 16. Do you give it to him? The American people want a bigger government. Is it good for them? No! Stand for an alternative. If you don’t, there’s no reason to vote for Republicans. They have to be an alternative. They can’t be the same as Democrats.
By the way, I will point out once again, say what you want about what the Democrat Party has become and how insane and irrational it is, when they got shellacked in 2000 and when they got shellacked in 2008, when they got shellacked in 1994 in the House races, they didn’t say to themselves, ‘Whoa, we gotta become more like Republicans.’ They went through the motions of trying to say they had to attract values voters. What did they actually do? They moved Pravda left. They moved so far left, and then as they moved left, they used their buddies in the media to help destroy the reputations and credibility of those who had won the elections. They didn’t try to become like us. They did just the exact opposite. So our wizards of smart said, well, we must become more like them because that’s what the American people want. It’s easy to do but you’ll never win anything, and it’s certainly not leadership.
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RUSH: Cameron in Hartford, Connecticut. You’re next. I’m glad you waited. Hello, sir.
CALLER: There are no words to adequately describe our appreciation for your program and your individual accomplishments as a patriot.
RUSH: Well, thank you, sir, very much. I appreciate that.
CALLER: And we appreciate you. But on the Cheney matter, I was sitting here in the back of the classroom waving my hand — you couldn’t see me — when you first posed the question today as to what motivates Dick Cheney to do this. And I got the answer and I’ve got a word in my answer that I don’t hear that often from you and that’s the four-letter word, the L-word. And I said, ‘I think that from what I know of Cheney, it is love of country and concern for country,’ and then of course shortly thereafter you came out and gave the right answer, but he is a true statesman.
RUSH: I must have been communicating with you telepathically out there, Cameron.
CALLER: It must be ESP.
RUSH: You must have sent me the vibe and I got the vibe.
CALLER: He is a true statesman at a time and place where there aren’t any, virtually, except for very few rare individuals. And for the same reason that Bush 41 picked him to buttress up Bush 43’s presidency as his VP, to make up for the old gravitas factor. It’s obvious that… Dick Cheney is a remarkable individual. No, he’s not hot for the interns; and no, he doesn’t need the graft — and sure, we hear stories about the Carlyle Group and Control Demolition, Inc. (sic) of, uh, Baltimore, Maryland, owned by the Loizeaux family, but —
RUSH: Don’t forget Blackwater.
CALLER: Well, there’s all kinds of stuff.
RUSH: If you’re going to start down this road, put ’em all in there. Halliburton.
CALLER: Yeah, but Cheney is a remarkable individual. Again, I’m looking for others besides him, but I see few.
RUSH: He is the only one. That’s why I opened the program today with the question: ‘What motivates Dick Cheney?’ He goes on Face the Nation, he’s doing interviews, and he is telling the people of this country the dangers posed by this president and this administration. He is warning that our security is being endangered. He’s the only Republican, and he doesn’t seek it. I said, ‘What’s his motivation? He doesn’t need the money; he doesn’t have any more political aspirations. He’s not hot for interns. What is it?’ I asked this repeatedly during the first half hour of today’s program. What motivates Dick Cheney? Love of country, national interest. He knows that they’re going to try to destroy him as often as he speaks up. He knows it. That’s the MO, the modus operandi of the Obama Democrats, is to destroy anybody who speaks up.
That’s why they’re… Look, folks. Outside of this one story on the Associated Press wire that I just shared with you about the debacle and disaster that will be become the US economy with Obama in the way and doing what he’s doing; who, besides a few people on the radio, are talking about that? Who, besides a few people, are warning you, just like you were warned of what the debacle of global warming was? And I’m going to tell you something. I normally don’t pat myself on the back. But today, global warming is an issue that has the concern of 30% of the American people. Years ago, it was over 50%. Years ago, it was just a matter of time before we got economic policies based on global warming.
Cap and trade is now what they’re down to. They’re still trying to advance the whole agenda, but the American people aren’t buying it. It’s going to be tougher. And that’s because somebody spoke up day in and day out and said, ‘This is a hoax! This is BS.’ That somebody…was me. And there’s me and there are others standing up saying this Obama economic ‘fix’ — the stimulus package, Porkulus package, TARP, bailouts — ain’t going to do what he says it’s going to do. It is not going to get you a job. It isn’t going to make you richer. It’s not going to make us more prosperous. It is going to remake and reorder this country, and everybody is going to be poorer! They don’t like that. They don’t like opposition. They don’t. So they have no choice but to try to discredit and impugn everybody who speaks out against them. And Dick Cheney is refusing to be intimidated.