Ever since Moveon.org made its clumsy and irresponsible attack on General David Petraeus, describing him in ads as "General Betray Us," the cultural left has been looking to paint the right as equally irresponsible. Media Matters, which monitors right-wing talk radio, believes it has found the evidence right out of the horse's mouth. The horse, in this case, is Rush Limbaugh. Apparently some in Congress are even considering a resolution to condemn Limbaugh.
I've carefully reviewed the transcript of Limbaugh's September 26 program, as provided by Media Matters. I invite you to read it for yourself. What it shows is that Limbaugh is indeed guilty of simplistic argument and dismissive bravado. But he's not guilty of smearing troops who happen to oppose the Iraq war as unpatriotic. This is the heart of the Media Matters accusation, and it implodes upon scrutiny.
I'd like to say, in the manner of sports broadcasters, "Let's go to the videotape." Here let's examine the transcript. First a caller named "Mike in Chicago" says, "Well, I'm 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--well, sometimes you've got to cut the losses." To which Rush should have said, "But you're not in Iraq, Mike, so how do you know it's not winnable? Can you possibly make that decision from your front porch in Chicago?" Instead Rush said, "Mike, you can't possibly be a Republican," and then followed that up with, "Cause you sound just like a Democrat." The caller persists, "I used to be military, okay? And I'm a Republican." Still, Rush refuses to believe the guy. Here Rush's skepticism is entirely pigheaded. Clearly there are Republicans who don't agree with Bush's Iraq policy, just s there are Democrats who do.
The next caller, another Mike but this time from Olympia, Washington, informs Rush that as a 14 year active duty army officer he supports Bush. Then he says of the left, "What's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers out that come up out of the blue and talk to the media." Rush responds, "The phony soldiers." The caller adds, "If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve." Now clearly the caller thinks that all real soldiers support the war, and this is clearly untrue. Surveys show high degrees of military support for Bush, especially among those who have served in Iraq, but even if 75 percent of the troops supports Bush, that still means 25 percent do not.
Who was Rush referring to when he made the reference to "phony soldiers"? Did he mean all soldiers who oppose the Iraq war? The context leaves this ambiguous. But later in the show Rush clarified. He gave an example of a phony soldier who reported atrocities in Iraq until it emerged that the fellow was never in Iraq. There have been several other cases of phony information attributed to military sources. The New Republic printed horror stories from Iraq penned by a pseudonymous writer identified as "Scott Thomas." Turns out his full name is "Scott Thomas Beauchamp" and that much of what he said is either exaggerated or fabricated. When Beauchamp's fellow soldiers protested that the events he described simply could not have happened, the New Republic launched its own investigation, still ongoing.
Media Matters writes that "Limbaugh boldly stated that any troops who call for a withdrawal of troops in Iraq are 'phony soldiers.'" Actually, this is flatly untrue. Rush did not say this, boldly or otherwise. It is Media Matters that is stretching the facts with the obvious goal of smearing Limbaugh and covering up for Moveon.org. I'm not sure why Congressmen get involved in this kind of thing, but if Congress passes a resolution condemning anyone, it should be Media Matters and not Rush Limbaugh.
Reader Comments ( Page 3 of 13)
31. #21 Manny, I have lived through the Vietnam War when they were busy drafting seniors out of High School. Thank heavens they are not doing that today. So with that knowledge be thankful that we have an all volunteer Army, Marines, and Special Troops,(yes even Black Water over there). This younger generation has not no idea what can and will happen if they bring our troops home too soon. One the day 9/11 happen our president stood up in front of us on TV and announced that we were going to go after the terrorists that had taken so many of our loved ones lives that day, he also, said that many of us would have very short memories, and guess he was right. I remember those people jumping out of the buildings to their deaths, all of the mom's and dad's that did not make it home that night, not to mention someone child who they couldn't even find to bury a body. Again, I say get behind our President and our troops so we can get this battle won and bring our troops home with a job well done.
Rita
rita at 3:30PM on Oct 3rd 2007
32. @ rita ... comment 29
I don't hate Rush, rita.. I don't hate moveon.org...
'You'(not you personally, rita) can call'em Nazimedia or Commimeda... whatever...
I don't listen to Rush.. and I never heard of moveon.org 'til this 'betray us' thingy...
... maybe if everyone, including DD let these silly things die a natural death...
... oh well.. maybe this IS the natural fate of these things...
Whatever you think that Rush said.. you're gonna continue to think that no matter what DD says...
pboyfloyd at 4:03PM on Oct 3rd 2007
33. ...no?
pboyfloyd at 4:04PM on Oct 3rd 2007
34. Look, liberals do themselves no favors at all listening to Limbaugh on anything. We know he is a self-absorbed blowhard.
Paying attention to this guy is just as bad as the self-absorbed Republicans in Congress who took up the Moveon.org ad issue up for a vote.
Let's not stoop to their level.
David S. at 4:24PM on Oct 3rd 2007
35. Phoney assaults are standard operating proceedure for our liberal brothers. Can anyone recall a single alleagation made against Bush that was anything but phoney? Remember repeating allegations unitl you believe them ... dosen't count.
We were told Bush was trashing our constitution with his wiretaps and the Patriot Act. These were obviously phoney alleagations, as Congress made both perfectly legal.
We were told Bush manipulated intelligence and lied us into war ... when he never made a single claim not already claimed by every liberal you ever heard of ... and when Bush was the govenor of Texas no less!
Clue: Liberals are the biggest phoneys on the planet, and you use what you have.
Thomas J Gassett at 4:46PM on Oct 3rd 2007
36. Is this sh#t still going on with these guys? How about something important to talk about like North Korea "agreeing" to close down their nuclear plants so they will have to buy oil from us for their energy use. There we go, Go Brown!
Any way people can say what they want. I choose to listen to those who have respect and grace. There are none here so I just don't give a crap.
David McCool at 5:05PM on Oct 3rd 2007
37. And phonies come in all sizes and shapes and include every label in the book.
David McCool at 5:07PM on Oct 3rd 2007
38. I couldn't be happier to see the dems (41 in the Senate anyway) continue show their true colors by connecting themselves to sleazy hate groups like moveon and media matters. They rally their core 25% of venomous special interest loyalists, while alienating the middle 50%. Keep it up!
BirdmanJones at 5:13PM on Oct 3rd 2007
39. Smearing anybody who disagrees with them as traitors has been the standard operating procedure of the draft-dodging Republican chickenhawks in the Bush administration and their well-paid mouthpieces such as draft-dodger Pimple-on-the- Ass Limbaugh since 9/11. Remember how they smeared triple-amputee Vietnam vet Max Cleland? And thrice-decorated war hero John Kerry?
Maybe limbaugh decided to attack the troops who refuse to accept the drivel of the Bush-worshippers because he didn't have any cripples to mock on that particular day.
emelpe at 5:15PM on Oct 3rd 2007
40. Actually, what Rush said or did not say, what was implied or not, do you people think we have a bit more to worry about right now?
Besides, Iraq, Afghanistan and, now, Iran, what happened yesterday and the earlier part of the week?
MYANMAR! Thousands murdered, many monks were brutally tortured and murdered within the confines of their monastarys! NOT A WORD....
I could care less about what their religion is, Buddhist, of course.
I am just saying as one person, one who is attacked with regularity on these aol blogs, so I stay away, that concern for what is realllllly happening in our world had better start taking a place on the front burner. You talk about terrorists at our door, start being concerned about those that have no one to stand up for them.
And to whomever made the wise guy Indian crack, I thought this was America, that garbage is unessecary.
Get your spell checks out, 'cos I know I made a million of 'em.
rhodalee at 5:42PM on Oct 3rd 2007
41. You gotta love the libs post here....HA! You guys will hang your neck out on ANYTHING to make someone other than yourselves look bad.... Rush didn't say what Reid and fellow posting blowhards are saying. Why are Libs so Angry? And Dilusional? Phony soldiers are the fakes..... Any soldier can be against the war, no problem there from anyone. But if they're for the war, libs will attack-attack-attack.....
Mark at 6:50PM on Oct 3rd 2007
42. I agree that Rush sometimes is simplistic in his statements. But what are we comparing here?
A LARGE amount of $$$ paid by an organization (Moveon - wasn't Hillary behind setting it up???) for a LARGE ad in a paper saying clearly and concisely that a certain General (specifically named) "betrayed us"
And Limbaugh reacts ONLY to some soldiers - a minority of his callers or others in the limelight(notably the man with abou 40 days in the military) who disagree with staying in Iraq as "phony soldiers".
You have a POLITICAL ORGANIZATION with ties to at least 1 Democrat I hear...spending a LOT of $$$ (tho well discounted by the NY TIMES) SHOUTING ***BETRAYAL
and you have ONE MAN - a popular radio commentator, but nonetheless just one man referring generically to only a small minority of soldiers he's ever interacted with as "phony soldiers"
A specific GENERAL named in a LARGE AD as a "betrayer".
Limbaugh's almost totally POSITIVE admiration for the military can be easily proved...
Let the average military person vote on whether or not to keep his show
And let Move On.Org put up a similar type of show to Limbaugh's as an equal choice "opposite". HAVE THE MILITARY RANK & FILE CHOOSE BETWEEN THE 2
Betcha Limbaugh wins. Hands down.
vikingmother at 6:52PM on Oct 3rd 2007
43. ...reading your blog is always interesting and insightful. Reading some responders contributes even more. Reading many others is to gain insight into the astonishing amount of antagonized hostile folks using their valuable energy in search of
openings for meaningless vengence.
Dwain at 7:03PM on Oct 3rd 2007
44. Media Matters, Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid and the other blowhards who are currently bawling and braying about Limbaugh in the halls of congress are just old-line Stalinists plain and simple.
They want the Right silenced, period.
Ken Berg at 7:17PM on Oct 3rd 2007
45. The Lost Resolution
In a sane world, the resolution that would be inspired by Rush’s comments.
By Jackson Bauer
MEMORANDUM
To: Clerk of the Senate
From: Mortimer J. Snerd, Office of the Majority Leader
Re: Resolution Condemning Unpatriotic Statements Regarding Our Troops
Please be advised that the following resolution submitted to you last night should not be placed in the Congressional Record. Senator Reid had directed staff to draft a resolution condemning unpatriotic comments made about the troops for senators to mull. Unfortunately, in the rush to prepare a letter to Clear Channel Communications, Inc. regarding the comments made last week by radio commentator Rush Limbaugh concerning phony soldiers, staff mistakenly understood Senator Reid to mean we should prepare a resolution condemning unpatriotic comments about the troops that senators had made.
Accordingly, please disregard the following resolution in its entirety. By the way, today is my last day here at the Senate. If I don’t see you before I leave, it’s been a pleasure working with you.
RESOLUTION
Condemning Unpatriotic Remarks Made By Senators Concerning Our Troops
WHEREAS on May 5, 2004, Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts accused our troops of torturing prisoners in the same manner as Saddam Hussein, stating “Shamefully, we now learn that Saddam’s torture chambers reopened under new management,” and
WHEREAS on June 14, 2005, Senator Durbin of Illinois compared our troops to Nazis and genocidal maniacs, stating “If I didn’t tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their Gulags, or some mad regime, Pol Pot, or others that had no concern for human beings. Sadly that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in their treatment of their prisoners,” and
WHEREAS on December 4, 2005, Senator Kerry of Massachusetts alleged that our troops were terrorizing Iraqi civilians, stating “There is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night terrorizing kids and children, women…,” and
WHEREAS In October, 2006, Senator Kerry of Massachusetts suggested that our troops were lazy and stupid, stating “You know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t you get stuck in Iraq,” and
WHEREAS on August 13, 2007, Senator Obama of Illinois accused our troops of reckless disregard for civilian life, stating “We’ve got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we’re not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there,” and
WHEREAS on September 5, 2007, Senator Schumer of New York denigrated our troops as being inept and useless, stating “And let me be clear, the violence in Anbar has gone down despite the surge, not because of the surge. The inability of American soldiers to protect those tribes from Al Qaeda said to those tribes we have to fight Al Qaeda ourselves,” and
WHEREAS on several occasions Senator Reid of Nevada has suggested that our troops are utter failures, stating, notwithstanding extant evidence to the contrary that “The war is lost,”
NOW THEREFORE, be it resolved by the Senate of the United States and its individual members that they
(1) Shall refrain from suggesting, without warrant, that our troops are murderers, liars, torturers, idiots, losers, and traitors
(2) Shall refrain, whenever possible, from making public statements about the troops, their mission or our country that are indistinguishable form statements made by Osama Bin Laden, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or others who have vowed to destroy the United States of America
(3) Shall refrain from introducing legislation that would impede or impair the ability of our troops to defeat our enemies or that exceeds the powers granted to Congress under Article I Section 8 of the Constitution
(4) Shall assist the Department of Veterans Affairs in expediting an investigation into the scores of reported incidents involving “phony soldiers,” including, but not limited to, those cases where individuals have made false claims about their military service in order to obtain benefits to which they are not entitled; as well as cases in which individuals have lied about the nature of their military service for the purpose of portraying our troops in a false and unflattering light, thereby undermining their mission and the public’s support therefor.
(5) Shall conduct business only in a manner calculated to best improve the probabilities of victory so that our troops may return home quickly to the honors they deserve from a nation made secure by their service.
— Jackson Bauer is the nom de cyber of a writer living in northern Virginia.
Ken Berg at 7:29PM on Oct 3rd 2007