Can you smell the fear? (part 2)

This was a call in Limbaugh's 3^rd hour: (there were several times when crosstalk made it difficult to hear what was said)

LIMBAUGH: Before moving on let me get this call from Amityville, New York. It's Frank. Welcome Frank, I'm glad you held on through the break.

FRANK: Yeah Rush, I want to say something. I object to the fact that you're treating the act of outing the cover of a CIA spy as a nothing. I think it was a dastardly act. The person who did it put the woman and her informants in danger. It was obviously used to threaten anyone who might disagree with the administration. You say the investigation would take a year or more. Why?

LIMBAUGH: Wait, wait, wait. Hold it. Wait a minute. Just a second. I did not say - I am the one starting yesterday Frank -

FRANK: You said it would take the prosecutor a year. I just heard you.

LIMBAUGH: Will you let me finish. I'm the one who knows where my sentences are going. I said yesterday and today that it is serious and that Bush had better treat it as such or else conservatives will be upset with him for the law has been broken here. I am not treating this as something unserious and trying to sweep it under the rug. What I am saying is that the guy who got all this started, Robert Novak, has now come out and said he didn't get the leak from the White House. It didn't come from the Bush administration. Where ever it came from, it's not there. The Democrats are paying no attention to that and they are focusing on the White House and on Bush and now they want an independent prosecutor, council, to find out. There is really no story beyond that.

FRANK: Well, somebody's got to be caught doing this. It was a terrible thing that was done. And it must have been done by somebody very highly -

LIMBAUGH: I just had a story. It happens fifty times a year.

FRANK: (unintelligible)

LIMBAUGH: Yes, the Justice Department is asked by the CIA fifty times a year to investigate such leaks.

FRANK: But this was obviously to threaten Wilson and anyone else who would do it.

LIMBAUGH: His own biography mentions his wife's name. It wasn't Novak that divulged anything that wasn't already known. By the way, you said this was a dastardly deed. A dastardly act. And listen to this quote from New York senator Chuck Shumer. "There is a clear conflict of interest for the Justice Department. What's gone on in this case is one of the most dastardly, despicable things I've seen in my more than twenty years in Washington, and speaks to the lengths that some will go to stifle dissent." Holy smoley! So this is the worst that he's seen? One of the most dastardly, despicable things? Frank, is that where you got the word "dastardly" because you heard Chuck Shumer use it?

FRANK: No, I came up with it myself. I didn't hear Chuck Shumer say that.

LIMBAUGH: I don't believe you.

FRANK: You may not but (unintelligible)

LIMBAUGH: Well who would come up with this word? This is not a word that the normal, average person would (unintelligible)

FRANK: (unintelligible)

LIMBAUGH: No, you heard Shumer say this. I can tell.

FRANK: No, I can see why he used it. That's exactly what it came to me. How dastardly could it be?

LIMBAUGH: It's not dastardly, that's why.

FRANK: Risking a person's life?

LIMBAUGH: This doesn't approach Watergate. This doesn't go beyond Watergate. This happens fifty times a year. This doesn't approach the level of seriousness you think it is.

FRANK: No, it's not Watergate, it's (unintelligible) all his buddies.

LIMBAUGH: This does not rise to the level of dastardly.

FRANK: (laughs)

LIMBAUGH: It simply doesn't. You know, you guys, you're just dying out there. You're just hoping it becomes this, but it's not.

FRANK: Why was it done? Answer me that Rush.

LIMBAUGH: I don't know yet why it was done. You think it was done to put her life in danger?

FRANK: Rushie, you can tell us (unintelligible)

LIMBAUGH: If you want me to guess? I'll be happy to guess. But you tell me, why do you think it was done? You think it was done to put this woman's life in danger?

FRANK: I think it was done to show that if you mess with this administration and disagree with it, you're going to pay the price.

LIMBAUGH: The administration didn't leak it.

FRANK: I didn't say the White House did. Someone who is very well connected had to. It wasn't something that came (unintelligible)

[crosstalk]

LIMBAUGH: It could have come from the CIA, Frank.

FRANK: Then why did they ask them to investigate it?

LIMBAUGH: I'm just saying it could have come from the CIA. In fact, it might have. It may well have come from the CIA.

FRANK: Well then the FBI better get on it and find out.

LIMBAUGH: The FBI, Interpol, and Independent Council Inspector Clouseau, let's get everybody on this.

FRANK: Well, it's quite easy if six reporters were contacted, you just go ask them. I mean it's not -

LIMBAUGH: Why won't Wilson tell us who those reporters are?

FRANK: Well, go to the Washington Post, they weem to know it.

LIMBAUGH: So why won't anybody tell us who they are? What's the need to keep them secret?

FRANK: Well, if this act has been done, and it's breaking the law, the FBI should investigate it. Maybe it is the CIA. That makes the CIA in charge of a cover-up (unintelligible)

LIMBAUGH: Yeah, people would love that if the CIA (unintelligible)

FRANK: I think it's a dastardly act, that's all.

LIMBAUGH: It's a dastardly act. It's devilishly dastardly. It's horrible. It's rotten. It's the worst thing that's ever happened in Washington. We've got to get to the bottom of it, otherwise our democracy might not survive.

And Frank's gone. Hello? Hello? Testing, Frank. Hello?

He hung up.

He said dastardly on the way out.

Some real dastardly dastards. They're on the prowl out there.

You want to talk about dastardly? How about advising and consenting on judges? How about dastardly being filibustering judicial nominees, Frankie? How about dastardly being the shredding of the Constitution. Everybody knows that it is a simple majority vote that confirms judicial nominees to courts. In the appellate court, the district court, the Supreme Court. And yet the Democrats filibustered. Miguel Estrada was confirmed to the D.C. court of appeals by - By less than four times he got well over fifty-one, but he's not on the court because they filibustered and he needed sixty. Not in the Constitution. Rather dastardly.

Accusing the president of fraud. That's sort of dastardly, don't you think? Let's have an independent council investigation into Chappaquiddick. Let's have an investigation here of Ted Kennedy who'se accusing this president of making it all up in Texas. The whole war with Iraq was a fraud. Nothing more than a political tool. So says Ted Kennedy. That's pretty dastardly if you ask me. Calling the president a miserable failure in the midst of a war where American soldiers are dying. I'd say that's pretty dastardly, Frank.

Saying "Don't question my patriotism". When you bash the president on the war. You spent three years bashing the president for everything else. You're trying to redefine patriotism so that it is not what it genuinely is. You want patriotism to be redefined as nothing more than the attacking of the president during war. That's pretty dastardly to me, Frank.

And Hillary holding up the cover of the New York Post on the floor of the Senate - that cover said "Bush knew" that 9/11 was going to happen in advance. And Hillary Clinton saying "What did he know and when did he know it?" That's pretty dastardly, Frank. The Democrats in this country accusing George Bush of knowing the 9/11 attack was going to happen beforehand and letting it happen. That's pretty dastardly, folks.

I can give you ongoing lists of true dastardly things by a bunch of genuine dastards. And not one of them would include a leak of the name of a woman whose name was already in the public domain.

Why was it in the public domain? Because her name was on her husband's biography.

It's not dastardly. You people are grasping at straws. You're reaching.

And I know this is just the first phase of this. There's going to be more to come.

And how about refusing three times when the Sudanese offered Osama bin Laden to the Clinton administration? The Clinton administration turned down that invitation, that offer, three times. Osama bin Laden could have been in one of our jails, but no, he was free to roam the plains, the hills, the caves, of wherever, to plot what happened on 9/11. Pretty dastardly, Frank.

And let's see, who was it that was actually sanctioned and kicked off the Senate Intelligence Committee for leaking information about our administration and country to Lybia. Or to somebody ti the press about Lybia. None other than Patrick Leahy. Pretty dastardly, Frank. And as we've documented already today, the Torch - Bob Toricelli, leaking information that was classified. Pretty dastardly. What do the Democrats do in those cases? Just ignore it. Try to say it was no big deal. And by the way, folks, can I remind you of this. When the Kenneth Starr Independent Councsel, Lewinsky, Whitewater and all that, was all wrapped up, remember the Democrats and the Republicans - but the Democrats talking how they aren't going to renew the Independent Counsel law. They're not going to do it. And both parties agreed, no more Independent Counsel. Things got out of hand.

Guess they changed their mind overnight. Guess they changed their minds over the weekend 'cause they're out there demanding an Independent Counsel, after just two or three years ago, essentially saying they wanted no part anymore of Independent Counsels.

Why, there's a lot of pretty dastardly stuff going on out there, Frank.

But it ain't this leak.

Dastardly? Bit of a stretch.

NOTE: To reassure readers that the transcript above is accurate, we make the audio available for a limited time (about one week) here. It is a 5.8 meg .wav file (8bit, 8KHz sample rate, mono).

UPDATE: This exchange is featured on Rush Limbaugh's website, on a page entitled Want Some Examples Of Dastardly, Frankie?

posted by Quiddity at 9/30/2003 06:39:00 PM