Harry Reid has failed in his mission to lead the Democrats ,?

Question

Talk-show giant Rush Limbaugh sharply escalated his war of words with Democrats in the Senate today, calling for the resignation of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

He also characterized as "boneheaded" Reid's effort to enlist senators to pressure Limbaugh's syndicator, Clear Channel Communications, to censor him.

"And the thing that we ought to demand here," Limbaugh told his listeners, "is that Harry Reid step down and resign as the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, for his constant, uncontrollable contempt of our armed forces; his repeated use of our troops for political purposes. Harry Reid has failed in his mission to lead the Democrats in the Senate, to get what they want . . . He is the one who is dishonoring the troops; he is the one who is making a mockery of their service."

Reid has charged that Limbaugh called America's service personnel in Iraq "phony soldiers."

Limbaugh's remarks appeared to actually refer to a specific soldier, Jesse Macbeth, who appeared in a YouTube video stating that he and other American soldiers had killed Iraqi civilians. Macbeth was later sentenced to five months in prison for falsifying his service record.

Joining Reid's broadside against Limbaugh on the floor of the Senate was Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who suggested that perhaps Limbaugh was "high on his drugs again" when he made the "phony soldiers" statement. Limbaugh called Harkin's remarks "pathetic."

Limbaugh responded: "[It was] such a demeaning thing that [Harkin] did and so below the decorum and the stature one would associated with the United States Senate. But that's what these people have become."

Limbaugh called him "Tom 'Phony-War-Hero' Harkin."

"What do I mean by that? He lied about being in Vietnam in combat," Limbaugh said.

Limbaugh told his listeners that the attack on him was actually intended to distract the activist base from the inability of Democratic leaders to stop the war in Iraq, and the historically low ratings of the Democratic-controlled Congress.

"The left, ladies and gentlemen, is imploding," Limbaugh said. "They are fixated in taking down anyone and anything in the process — me, General Petraus, anyone they think stands in the way of their ascension to the White House, and their further consolidation of power. They are Stalinist-like.

"Anyone who says something they don't want to hear, that they don't like, must be officially condemned by the state, publicly. Even private citizens who get in their way, in the free market, must be condemned, must be smeared, must be lied about."

Limbaugh also said Reid and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and other Middle East leaders, are employing a common tactic: distracting supporters from their own failures.

"Ahmadinejad in Iran, no different," Limbaugh said. "He needs the Great Satan to hang onto control there. Harry Reid needs to do the same thing. Both men, Ahmadinejad and Harry Reid, have been disappointments, miserable failures to the people they claim to lead. Both of them are in trouble, and their publicity stunts prove it."

Limbaugh said Reid has a "long, sorry record of abandoning troops on the battlefield. What do you think 55 resolutions to bring the troops home since they took office in January of this year is about? It's about defeat, it was about destroying this presidency, it was about using the U.S. military to advance his own party's political fortunes."

Limbaugh repeated his invitation for Reid to appear on his show. "Come on the program, say those things to my face, and let's discuss this," Limbaugh urged.

"Harry Reid challenged my patriotism yesterday," he added. "He did so openly and blatantly on the floor of the United States Senate."

He added, "Everyone of us who loves this country should be outraged at the things these Democrats have said, the things that they have tried to do. And it's laughable to watch them now try to redeem themselves as supporters of the United States military, after months and months and months of proclaiming the surge a failure, after calling General Petraeus essentially a liar before he had said a word before them when he came to issue the report they required on the effects of the surge."

Answer 1

Here's the transcript, decide for yourself and stop listening to the pundits.

From the September 26 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: Mike in Chicago, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER 1: Hi Rush, how you doing today?

LIMBAUGH: I'm fine sir, thank you.

CALLER 1: Good. Why is it that you always just accuse the Democrats of being against the war and suggest that there are absolutely no Republicans that could possibly be against the war?

LIMBAUGH: Well, who are these Republicans? I can think of Chuck Hagel, and I can think of Gordon Smith, two Republican senators, but they don't want to lose the war like the Democrats do. I can't think of -- who are the Republicans in the anti-war movement?

CALLER 1: I'm just -- I'm not talking about the senators. I'm talking about the general public -- like you accuse the public of all the Democrats of being, you know, wanting to lose, but --

LIMBAUGH: Oh, come on! Here we go again. I uttered a truth, and you can't handle it, so you gotta call here and change the subject. How come I'm not also hitting Republicans? I don't know a single Republican or conservative, Mike, who wants to pull out of Iraq in defeat. The Democrats have made the last four years about that specifically.

CALLER 1: Well, I am a Republican, and I've listened to you for a long time, and you're right on a lot of things, but I do believe that we should pull out of Iraq. I don't think it's winnable. And I'm not a Democrat, but I just -- sometimes you've got to cut the losses.

LIMBAUGH: Well, you -- you --

CALLER 1: I mean, sometimes you really gotta know when you're wrong.

LIMBAUGH: Well, yeah, you do. I'm not wrong on this. The worst thing that can happen is losing this, flying out of there, waving the white flag. Do you have --

CALLER 1: Oh, I'm not saying that. I'm not saying anything like that, but, you know --

LIMBAUGH: Well, of course you are.

CALLER 1: No, I'm not.

LIMBAUGH: Bill, the truth is -- the truth is the truth, Mike.

CALLER 1: We did what we were supposed to do, OK. We got rid of Saddam Hussein. We got rid of a lot of the terrorists. Let them run their country --

LIMBAUGH: Oh, good lord! Good lord.

[...]

CALLER 1: How long is it gonna -- how long do you think we're going to have to be there for them to take care of that?

LIMBAUGH: Mike --

CALLER 1: How long -- you know -- what is it?

LIMBAUGH: Mike --

CALLER 1: What is it?

LIMBAUGH: Mike, you can't possibly be a Republican.

CALLER 1: I am.

LIMBAUGH: You are -- you are --

CALLER 1: I am definitely a Republican.

LIMBAUGH: You can't be a Republican. You are --

CALLER 1: Oh, I am definitely a Republican.

LIMBAUGH: You are tarnishing the reputation, 'cause you sound just like a Democrat.

CALLER 1: No, but --

LIMBAUGH: The answer to your question --

CALLER 1: -- seriously, how long do we have to stay there --

LIMBAUGH: As long as it takes!

CALLER 1: -- to win it? How long?

LIMBAUGH: As long as it takes! It is very serious.

CALLER 1: And that is what?

LIMBAUGH: This is the United States of America at war with Islamofascists. We stay as long -- just like your job. You do everything you have to do, whatever it takes to get it done, if you take it seriously.

CALLER 1: So then you say we need to stay there forever --

LIMBAUGH: I -- it won't --

CALLER 1: -- because that's what it'll take.

LIMBAUGH: No, Bill, or Mike -- I'm sorry. I'm confusing you with the guy from Texas.

CALLER 1: See, I -- I've used to be military, OK? And I am a Republican.

LIMBAUGH: Yeah. Yeah.

CALLER 1: And I do live [inaudible] but --

LIMBAUGH: Right. Right. Right, I know.

CALLER 1: -- you know, really -- I want you to be saying how long it's gonna take.

LIMBAUGH: And I, by the way, used to walk on the moon!

CALLER 1: How long do we have to stay there?

LIMBAUGH: You're not listening to what I say. You can't possibly be a Republican. I'm answering every question. That's not what you want to hear, so it's not even penetrating your little wall of armor you've got built up.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Another Mike, this one in Olympia, Washington. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER 2: Hi Rush, thanks for taking my call.

LIMBAUGH: You bet.

CALLER 2: I have a retort to Mike in Chicago, because I am a serving American military, in the Army. I've been serving for 14 years, very proudly.

LIMBAUGH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER 2: And, you know, I'm one of the few that joined the Army to serve my country, I'm proud to say, not for the money or anything like that. What I would like to retort to is that, if we pull -- what these people don't understand is if we pull out of Iraq right now, which is about impossible because of all the stuff that's over there, it'd take us at least a year to pull everything back out of Iraq, then Iraq itself would collapse, and we'd have to go right back over there within a year or so. And --

LIMBAUGH: There's a lot more than that that they don't understand. They can't even -- if -- the next guy that calls here, I'm gonna ask him: Why should we pull -- what is the imperative for pulling out? What's in it for the United States to pull out? They can't -- I don't think they have an answer for that other than, "Well, we just gotta bring the troops home."

CALLER 2: Yeah, and, you know what --

LIMBAUGH: "Save the -- keep the troops safe" or whatever. I -- it's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.

CALLER 2: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.

LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER 2: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country.

LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined --

CALLER 2: A lot of them -- the new kids, yeah.

LIMBAUGH: Well, you know where you're going these days, the last four years, if you signed up. The odds are you're going there or Afghanistan or somewhere.

CALLER 2: Exactly, sir. And, and my other comment was -- and the reason I was calling for -- was to report to Jill about the fact that we didn't, didn't find any weapons of mass destruction. Actually, we have found weapons of mass destruction in chemical agents that [inaudible] been using against us for awhile now.

I've done two tours in Iraq. I just got back in June and there were many instances of -- since [inaudible] not know what they're using in their IEDs [improvised explosive devices]. They're using mustard artillery rounds. The VX artillery rounds in their IEDs.

Because they didn't know what they were using, they didn't do it right, and so it just kind of -- it, it didn't really hurt anybody but there are -- those munitions are over there, it's just -- it's a huge desert. If they've buried it somewhere, we're never gonna find it.

LIMBAUGH: Well, you know, that's a moot point for me right now --

MIKE: Rush --

LIMBAUGH: -- the weapons of mass destruction. We gotta get beyond that. We're, we're there. What -- who cares if, if -- we all know they were there and, and Mahmoud [Ahmadinejad, Iranian president] even admitted it in one of his speeches here about -- talkin' about Saddam using the poison mustard gas or whatever it is on his own people -- but that, that's moot, right? What, what's more important is all this is taking place now in the midst of the surge working.

And all of these anti-war Democrats are getting even more hell-bent on pulling out of there, which means that success on the part of you and, and your colleagues over there is, is a great threat to them.

LIMBAUGH: It's just, it's frustrating and maddening, and it is why they must be kept in the minority.

Look, I want to thank you, Mike, for calling. I appreciate it very much. I gotta -- let me see -- got something -- here is a "Morning Update" that we did recently talking about fake soldiers. This is a story of who the left props up as heroes. And they have their celebrities.

One of them was Jesse MacBeth. Now, he was a "corporal," I say in quotes -- 23 years old.

What made Jesse MacBeth a hero to the anti-war crowd wasn't his Purple Heart. It wasn't his being affiliated with post traumatic stress disorder from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, though. What made Jesse MacBeth, Army Ranger, a hero to the left was his courage in their view off the battlefield.

Without regard to consequences, he told the world the abuses he had witnessed in Iraq: American soldiers killing unarmed civilians, hundreds of men, women, even children. In one gruesome account translated into Arabic and spread widely across the internet, Army Ranger Jesse MacBeth describes the horrors this way:

'We would burn their bodies. We would hang their bodies from the rafters in the mosque.'

Now, recently, Jesse MacBeth, a poster boy for the anti-war left, had his day in court, and you know what? He was sentenced to five months in jail and three years probation for falsifying a Department of Veterans Affairs' claim and his Army discharge record.

He was in the Army. Jesse MacBeth was in the Army, folks, briefly -- 44-days before he washed out of boot camp. Jesse MacBeth isn't an Army Ranger. Never was. He isn't a corporal. Never was. He never won the Purple Heart and he was never in combat to witness the horrors he claimed to have seen."

You probably haven't even heard about this, and if you have, you haven't heard much about it. This doesn't fit the narrative and the template of the drive-by media and the Democrat [sic] Party as to who a genuine war hero is.

Don't look for any retractions, by the way, not from the anti-war left, the anti-military drive-by media or the Arabic websites that spread Jesse MacBeth's lies about our troops, because the truth of the left is fiction, is what serves their purpose. They have to lie about such atrocities 'cause they can't find any that fit the template of the way they see the U.S. military.

In other words, for the American anti-war left, the greatest inconvenience they face is the truth.

Answer 2

Actually, interestingly enough, the GOP did not exist back then. What existed back then was the Republican party, and yes there's a difference. Want to know why? It's because the Republican party morphed pretty heavily over time into the GOP, as did the Democratic party. The Democratic party of those times was extremely different from today's. If you want to red history asunder, go ahead, but don't act like it's fact. You obviously have no idea what a century an a half do to the political makeup of this country.

Answer 3

Harry Reid should be put out of office for his remarks about General Petraeus and his constant failure to support our troops. He is what is bad about politics today.

Answer 4

Considering the 2006 election was a mandate for the immediate withdrawal from Iraq according to Democrats. This has not happened. So, this must be considered a failure and I would say yes to your question.

Answer 5

Harry Reid Has put a whole new meaning to the word WIMP.

Answer 6

sounds like the rantings of a person addicted to oxycotin

who will no doubt sober up come November when anyone that agrees with his retoric is voted out of office

Answer 7

Reid and Harkin are both pathetic arent they.

Answer 8

Yes, he (reid) is a miserable loser and should surrender his seat.

So-- don c---- we need to vote the kennedy's out, they have the same kind of drug problems.

Answer 9

Nope.
Try again.