In his "phony soldiers" comment, Limbaugh clarified that for the Republican party, you either adopt their stand on the Iraq occupation, or you can't be part of the military. So follows logically goes without saying that ANY soldier in Iraq who disagrees with the Bush and his Republicans about the value of staying in Iraq should be immediately flown back to the U.S. to be with their families. (We don't want any phony soldiers mucking up the work, do we?)
But Limbaugh went even farther last week. It's not just that those who disagree with Bush and his Republicans aren't welcome in the military. They're not even welcome in the Republican party.
How do we know that? Well, thanks to Keith Olbermann yesterday evening on COUNTDOWN. Daily Kos denizen AHiddenSaint relayed last night that Olbemann brought up the other caller Limbaugh took on the "phoney soldier" day.
Transcript follows:
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 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.
It's a long exchange, chock full of infuriating nonsense from Limbaugh. But two points jumped out for me:
Point the First: This exchange confirms what Limbaugh has spent the last weak denying. During the callhe says, indisputably, that anyone who is (or was) in the military who also thinks that the Iraq occupation is a bad idea -- well, that person is a phony soldier. There's no other way to read this parallel construction:
CALLER 1: See, I -- I 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!
In his dumb, ham-handed way, Limbaugh is obviously saying: yeah right, pal. There's no way you were in the military if you disagree with George Bush, the Repubs, and myself about staying in Iraq indefinitely.
That's Limbagh's proof that the caller is faking his military background: that the guy disagrees with Bush, Mitch McConnell, and Limbaugh about Iraq. That alone makes the caller's military service as suspect and absurd as the idea of Limbaugh walking on the moon. (In fairness, Limbaugh have felt like he was walking on the moon when getting high on all that oxycontin, but... facts are facts.)
So we now have Limbaugh's sniveling excuse for his "phoney soldiers" spew debunked in yet another way. He certainly DOES believe that any soldier who doesn't support the Bush-Limbaugh doctrine of staying in Iraq forever is a fake, and -- as he made quite clear in his response to VoteVets -- a mindless idiot as well. Even a terrorist.
Ah, but there's more! And here is the message we REALLY need to get out to the American elecorate in 2008. It goes way beyond the relatively trivial matter of one bloated drug addict's lack of honesty and decency....
Point the Second: Go back up and look at the amount of times that Limbaugh accuses the man of NOT being a Republican. The caller insists that he is, multiple times... and it certainly doesn't seem from the transcript that this is some guy trying to punk Limbaugh. But no, Limbaugh rejects the assertion, based on the following logic: no REAL Republican would disagree with Limbaugh, Bush, McConnell, Ann Coulter, Dick Cheney, and the rest of the Republicans about Iraq.
And what does the Bush-Limbaugh-Cheney-etc. axis believe about Iraq?
- That American soldiers should stay and be killed there forever, with no end in sight. Period.
- That American taxpayers should be happy to keep paying hundred of billions -- trillions! -- of dollars to keep American soldiers in Iraq, getting killed. Period.
- That any oversight or questioning of #'s 1 and 2 makes one unfit to be in the Republican party, or the in military. Period.
My fellow Americans, if you don't believe that American soldiers should be dying in Iraq for decades to come, and you're not willing to shell out trillions more dollars of your taxpayer money to make that happen -- the Republican party doesn't want you. You're not welcome in their ranks, they think you're a traitor, and -- above all --they DON'T want your vote.
Please remember that. One of the Republican party's main mouthpieces, Rush Limbaugh -- defended fiercely by his fellow Republicans, and supported by those in Congress -- the man Bush and Cheney go to for softball interviews -- has said you're not American enough to share his political party.
YOU, the 70% of American that disagree with him. The Republicans don't want you.
Rush Limbaugh was right. If you don't agree with he and George W. Bush, you're not welcome in the military OR Republican party.
....And the Republicans certainly don't want your vote. None of them do. You're not worthy to vote for them. You're un-American, they say.
Got it, America?
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