Vet from Moran town hall appears on Fox & Friends

Thursday night Virginia Democratic Rep. Jim Moran (8th Congressional District) was conducting  a town hall meeting when he was asked a question by a disabled military veteran. Moran's disrespect and rudeness in responding to the vet were captured on videotape and spread by Rush Limbaugh, Hot Air, Weekly Standard, and Fox News.


This morning the military vet was a guest on Fox & Friends as he talked with anchor Steve Doocy about the incident. Wayne Tunick, a 27-year U.S. Navy veteran, attended the town hall to ask why Congress was on the verge of a shutdown that would stop paychecks to military men and women including active troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also questioned why Moran was conducting a town hall instead of being in DC working on a resolution to the budget crisis.


When Moran commented that Tunick was making "caustic" remarks,  Tunick took exception and told the Congressman so. That resulted in Moran telling the veteran to be quiet and sit down.


Another town hall attendee taped the entire episode and it quickly went viral on Friday. I wrote about it at the Washington Examiner as well as others who called attention to the exchange.


Moran's office responded to the incident by saying there were people waiting in line waiting and they couldn't disrupt those wanting to ask questions. When asked by Doocy about that, Tunick said there were not a number of people in line behind him ... there was one person.


His motivation, he said, was the ultimate leadership lesson he learned from the military: number one is you always take care of your troops. The troops, he told Doocy, did not need to worry about a government shutdown cutting off their paychecks with their spouses wondering whether they would be able to pay the bills.

With a late-night deal struck with Congress at the eleventh hour Friday, there will be no government shutdown.

Karl Rove guest-hosting Rush Limbaugh radio show

Tune into to the Rush Limbaugh show to hear Karl Rove who is guest-hosting today from noon-3:00.

Rush is back ...

... from his honeymoon and back behind the EIB microphone telling all about his wedding including how Elton John ended up entertaining the newly married couple and guests.

Marrying a party planner means a well-planned wedding. Tune in ... he's sharing many details.

Rush Limbaugh marrying today

He's the king of conservative talk and when Rush Limbaugh announced Wednesday that he would be gone from the show for the next 12 days, eyebrows went up for those who had no idea a wedding was in the works for this weekend at Palm Beach.

Her name is Kathryn (as anyone who listens to Rush knows from hearing him talk about her) Rogers, she's a descendent of John Adams, and she's been dating Rush since 2007. We wish them both the best in their new lives together. (Do you think there will be babies in their future since she's much younger than Rush?)

The Rush Limbaugh victory

The New York Times takes a look at Rush Limbaugh and his conservative leadership at a time when Barack Obama and the Democrats singled him out to criticize (and, while doing so, raised his profile even more):

There are many theories for why very conservative Republicans seem to be doing so well lately, taking their party’s Senate nominations in Florida, Kentucky and Utah, and beating Democrats head-to-head in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia. Some attribute this to a generalized anti-incumbent mood. Others say it reflects the tendency of parties in power to falter in midterm elections. Recently it has been fashionable to ascribe right-wing success to the Tea Party movement.

But the most obvious explanation is the one that’s been conspicuously absent from the gusher of analysis. Republican success in 2010 can be boiled down to two words: Rush Limbaugh.

Mr. Limbaugh has played an important role in elections going back to 1994, when he commanded the air war in the Republican Congressional victory. This time, however, he is more than simply the mouthpiece of the party. He is the brains and the spirit behind its resurgence.

Interesting analysis. H/T to Fox Nation.

Rush caller nails Obama's inexperience

A caller to Rush Limbaugh's conservative talk radio show on Tuesday, talking about health care, nailed it when she said of Barack Obama:

"He's a schoolyard bully and he's got a posse in the Congress and the House and no one else is supposed to touch this golden boy that America seems to be so enamored with, and I am fed up with it."

She went on to add:

"His inexperience is so obvious -- and we're suffering for it! Because liberal America... I'll just say liberal and moderate white America, was so afraid to be called racist that they allow this nation to have the most inexperienced person ever take the highest office in the land at a time when we can least afford to have someone so incompetent at the head of our government."

As she and Rush talked back and forth, the caller reiterated the inexperience of this president:

"We're at the brink of losing what we know as America.
...
"We have been awakened. The tea party movement and the conservative movement have been awakened. This is not fun and games; this is not a reality show. This is real life, and we have got to take this country back to where it's supposed to be: Personal responsibility, limited government, letting a man work for and keep what he earns. That has to be the model that we put forward."

I missed much of Rush's show on Tuesday but a friend called this morning to alert me of this caller. Checking my Rush 24/7, I found it along with another excerpt that another firend alerted me to last night.

Check it out. Americans are not taking this lying down nor are they feeling defeated. The Community Organizer in the White House has once again rallied conservatives.

Stand strong for freedom!

Miss America Contest ... and Rush Limbaugh

For the first time in years we're watching the Miss America Contest. Why?

Rush Limbaugh.

He's a judge ... imagine that! He was approached by the Miss America Contest to be a judge, something he talked about on his show while trying to decide whether to accept the invitation. This week he has been in Las Vegas ... Monday and Tuesday Mark Steyn filled in on the radio show because Rush and the other judges were extremely busy.

But Rush was back on the air for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday's shows ... and he talked about what a wonderful experience he was having with the Miss America crew and how much fun it had been. Tonight he's in a tux on the front row of the judges' tables and I'm loving it.

And ... Miss Virginia made the final 10. We'll see where it goes from here....

Update: Miss Virginia, a VCU student from Fredericksburg, is the new Miss America!

Politico: Limbaugh Lets Loose
More Photos: Rush at the Judge's Press Conference
Miss America: Website
Miss America Photos by Tom Donoghue

Rush Limbaugh's open letter to Barack Obama

Rush offers some advice to a president who appears to not listen to many:

This is a representative republic, not a banana republic, and let me remind you: Karl Marx and Saul Alinsky are not our Founding Fathers. This is a nation built on individuality, built on liberty, free markets, and faith. Yet you, Barack, demand fidelity to a different belief system: A system that crushes individual initiative and free will. The president does not berate Supreme Court justices who are guests of the Congress and who have no ability to respond to your attacks.

Read the entire letter here.

Obama's "Lies of the Union" address

Unbelievable, pull-your-hair-out words came out of the mouth of Barack Obama during his "Lies of the Union" address before the American people Wednesday night.

Erick Erickson at RedState nailed him:

Tonight, Barack Obama said, "To close that credibility gap we must take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; and to give our people the government they deserve.

"That's what I came to Washington to do. That's why - for the first time in history - my Administration posts our White House visitors online. And that's why we've excluded lobbyists from policy-making jobs or seats on federal boards and commissions."

Maybe this explains why his national security policies are so weak. He put William Lynn in the Pentagon as Deputy Defense Secretary. Mr. Lynn was a lobbyist for Defense Contractor Ratheon. I guess the Deputy Defense Secretary is not a policy-making job.

Eric Holder, attorney general nominee, was registered to lobby until 2004 on behalf of clients including Global Crossing, a bankrupt telecommunications firm [now confirmed].

Tom Vilsack, secretary of agriculture nominee, was registered to lobby as recently as last year on behalf of the National Education Association.

William Lynn, deputy defense secretary nominee, was registered to lobby as recently as last year for defense contractor Raytheon, where he was a top executive.

William Corr, deputy health and human services secretary nominee, was registered to lobby until last year for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a non-profit that pushes to limit tobacco use.

David Hayes, deputy interior secretary nominee, was registered to lobby until 2006 for clients, including the regional utility San Diego Gas & Electric.

Mark Patterson, chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, was registered to lobby as recently as last year for financial giant Goldman Sachs.

Ron Klain, chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, was registered to lobby until 2005 for clients, including the Coalition for Asbestos Resolution, U.S. Airways, Airborne Express and drug-maker ImClone.

Mona Sutphen, deputy White House chief of staff, was registered to lobby for clients, including Angliss International in 2003.

Melody Barnes, domestic policy council director, lobbied in 2003 and 2004 for liberal advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the American Constitution Society and the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Cecilia Munoz, White House director of intergovernmental affairs, was a lobbyist as recently as last year for the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group.
Patrick Gaspard, White House political affairs director, was a lobbyist for the Service Employees International Union.

Michael Strautmanis, chief of staff to the president's assistant for intergovernmental relations, lobbied for the American Association of Justice from 2001 until 2005.

The mainstream media are criminally negligent, in my opinion, in not doing their jobs. No wonder there is a continuing rise in the conservative blogosphere ... but I keep holding out for a few journalists who will actually be concerned for their country and do the right thing by beginning to bring the discrepancies to light.

Meanwhile, Fox News continues to lead in truthful reporting as millions flock to them for fair and balanced news coverage.

Thank goodness for top-rated Glenn Beck, #1 talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, #2 radio host Sean Hannity, Red State and all the other conservative internet outlets ... and of course the top-rated Fox News Channel.

Our work has just begun.

Happy Birthday, Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh is celebrating his birthday today, and it is especially sweet this year after his health scare while vacationing in Hawaii over the Christmas-New Year holidays. Last year he celebrated at the White House with President George W. Bush singing "Happy Birthday" to him over a chocolate cake....

Liberals kicked Rush Limbaugh while he was down

Brent Bozell has a great piece today summing up the disgusting response from the lefty liberals when Rush Limbaugh was admitted to a Hawaii hospital last week with chest pains.

This group of "tolerant" people pretend to be holier-than-thou ... but in reality they should be saying, "Listen to my words ... don't look at my actions."

Reasonable liberals asked their fellow libs to behave and not make hateful comments about Mr. Limbaugh. As Mr. Bozell writes:

But too many liberals didn't because too many liberals just can't, and I don't ever want to hear another sermon from them about "civility" or "the politics of personal destruction." They are no longer allowed to talk about "hate" or pass judgment on what is "mean-spirited." I don't want to hear the words "character assassination" or even "cheap shot" leave their lips.

Unless, of course, it's preceded by "I am guilty of..."

Democrat hypocrisy once again raises its ugly head.

Rush Limbaugh, whose last day on his conservative radio talk show was December 23 before leaving for the Christmas holiday, returned to the EIB Network today. He openly and willingly discussed the health scare that landed him in a Hawaii hospital with chest pains during the New Year's holiday.

When news of Rush's hospitalization from chest pains came out, millions of prayers went up for his recovery. Follow-up tests showed no heart disease and he was able to return stateside. It is nice to have his familiar voice on the airwaves again.

Best wishes go out for Rush's continued good health.

Rush to be back on the air today

Rush Limbaugh, whose last day on his conservative radio talk show was December 23, will return to the EIB Network today after spending the Christmas holiday in Hawaii and after a health scare over the New Year's holiday.

When news of Rush's hospitalization from chest pains came out, millions of prayers went up for his recovery. Follow-up tests showed no heart disease and he was able to return stateside. It will be nice to have his familiar voice on the airwaves again.

Rush returns Wednesday

Rush Limbaugh is set to return to the EIB Network on Wednesday, as announced today by fill-in host Mark Steyn. It will be nice to have his familiar voice on the airwaves again.

Breaking ... Rush Limbaugh released from hospital

By way of Drudge we learn that Rush Limbaugh has been released from the Hawaii hospital where he was hospitalized earlier in the week with chest pains, and will likely be back on the air of his conservative radio talk show by the end of next week.

A message from Rush is up at the website:

January 1, 2010

To my listeners,

Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts over the past several days. Today, I am leaving Queens Hospital in Honolulu, feeling strong and rested. I offer my deepest thanks to the staff and administration there, who provided excellent care and supervision.

I'm going to take several days of rest over this weekend and the early part of next week, and will be back on the radio with you sometime next week, taking the advice of so many of you to rest and fully recover.

I wish each and every one of you a Happy New Year in 2010!

With great thanks for your support and love,

Rush Limbaugh

The story is developing ... check Drudge Report or RushLimbaugh.com for updates.

Rush Limbaugh addresses media

Rush Limbaugh addressed the media Friday afternoon in Hawaii where he was vacationing during the holidays to say he was feeling better. He stated he did not have heart disease, had never had heart disease, and that he entered the hospital after experiencing crushing pain in the left side of his chest.

It was good to hear that familiar voice and, God willing, he will recuperate completely and return to the mainland to continue as the conservative leader of America. Thankful prayers go up for his recovery.

More posts:
- Prayers for Rush Limbaugh
- Rush Limbaugh hospitalized ... update
- Rush Limbaugh ... 2009 Radio Personality of the Year

Rush Limbaugh hospitalized ... update

Update 12/31/09: From RushLimbaugh.com ... ALERT: Rush was admitted to a Honolulu hospital today and is resting comfortably after suffering chest pains. Rush appreciates your prayers and well wishes. He will keep you updated via RushLimbaugh.com and on Thursday's radio program.

More at Wednesday night's post.

Prayers for Rush – Michelle Malkin
Prayers For Rush – Redstate
Rush Limbaugh Rushed to Hospital in Serious Condition – Gateway Pundit

Rush Limbaugh: "Radio Personality of the Decade"

Rush Limbaugh, conservative radio talk show host extraordinaire, has been named "Radio Personality of the Decade" by Adweek, a leading industry magazine and website:

Love him (as his "dittohead" fans do) or hate him (as every liberal does), no radio host or personality comes close to Rush Limbaugh in size of audience or volume of political discourse.

The man manages to stay in the headlines no matter who's in the White House or who's gunning for him. For example, when Sen. Harry Reid sent a letter to Limbaugh's syndicator criticizing a comment Rush made, the talk host auctioned the letter on eBay, donating the proceeds to charity.

As Rush would say, it's his opposition that is elevating him. "All it takes is the mention of my name, and the predictable left-wing groups have a cow," he proudly declared in 2003. Even Rush can't destroy Rush. He beat an oxycontin addiction and overcame a loss of hearing.

Through it all, Limbaugh remains cleared on 600 radio stations, his audience falls somewhere between 14 million and 20 million weekly listeners, and syndicator Premiere Radio Networks pulls in an estimated $50 million in annual ad revenue. A recent CBS/Vanity Fair poll found that he's the most popular conservative voice—no politician comes close. Yet Rush insists it's not about politics but about ideas. But it's also about keeping his loyal AM listeners tuning in for 21 years.

Congratulations, Rush Limbaugh ... count SWAC Girl as one of those millions who listens and subscribes to 24/7.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery ... we need your conservative leadership.

Prayers for Rush Limbaugh

[Update 12/31/09: From RushLimbaugh.com: ALERT: Rush was admitted to a Honolulu hospital today and is resting comfortably after suffering chest pains. Rush appreciates your prayers and well wishes. He will keep you updated via RushLimbaugh.com and on Thursday's radio program.]

On December 23, the last day before leaving on vacation, Rush Limbaugh signed off his Christmas radio talk show as he has for years by playing the Mannheim Steamroller version of Stille Nacht (Silent Night), one of the most beautiful instrumentals of this beloved Christmas carol. Rush said that particular song was special to him and had been especially meaningful when his father passed away.

Here's the transcript of Rush's comments from Rush 24/7:

I first discovered Mannheim Steamroller in 1985 while in Sacramento, interesting enough, watching NFL playoff games. They played it as bump music. I fell in love with it very quickly, and it had a lot of emotional connections to me when my father died, the time of year and a number of other things.

This song particularly. It's on their first Christmas album. The first time I heard it to the end, the crescendo of strings -- or not strings, but the replication of strings -- it actually brought tears to my eyes.

We always close out our Christmas show with this version with as little chatter from me as possible so you can listen to it. I just want to thank you again. It's been another great year for all of us here at EIB. It wouldn't have been possible without you. We love you more than we can ever express. We can never repay the thanks that we all owe you. You've meant more to me than you'll ever know. Happy New Year, Merry Christmas, and see you back next year -- with a bright, shiny face full of optimism. See you then.

(Silent Night plays out the show)

Tonight Breitbart is reporting that Rush, in Hawaii during the holidays, was rushed to a hospital and was in serious condition with chest pains. Our prayers go out for him to be in God's protective hands ... and I couldn't help but think about Stille Nacht, the song that means so much to him.

TeamSarah members are posting prayers for Rush.

Rush Limbaugh: Fix the GOP ... no third Party

Yes We Can Reestablish Conservatism

Rush Limbaugh, who has had plenty of criticism of the Republican Party over the years, has not wavered on his opinion that there be no third Party. He reiterated on Tuesday's radio program that conservatives need to reestablish themselves in the Republican Party and not break away to a third Party:

I'm detecting a trend here and it's time to let you in on what's going on. First, "The two parties, they're no different." That means we need to go third party. "There's no difference between the parties." Look, for one thing: The Republican Party, for all its faults, has always wanted to win when we deployed the military. Come on, folks! You gotta get real about this. The Republican Party, as bad as it is, is not the Democrat Party. We do have statists in our party. We do not have socialists and Marxists in our party that have any kind of power whatsoever. And none would ever get elected in our party. Now, snap out of this. Get real. Snap out of it! It's time to face this and fix it, not abandon it -- and a third party is giving up on things. With a third party, you're just creating another room to go in and shout. You're just creating a room to go vent, but you're not gonna get anything done with a third party.

Rush later added to his third Party thoughts:

As for our side, the focus must be to take back the Republican Party. That's the way you win. You can draw attention to yourself by denouncing both parties at the same time, and you can think that you're relating to a whole lot of people or being disabused and forgotten about, but you do a grave disservice in doing so because you're never going to win anything. You're going to guarantee Democrat victory in perpetuity. We need a strong conservative movement that takes back the Republican Party and then we have a strong Republican Party. It's hard work but it is happening.

There is a conservative ascendancy here. Why in the world waste what is happening here with this new conservative ascendance and weaken it and split it up by forming a third party? So far, not a single Republican is going to vote for government-run health care. If the parties were the same the vote would be unanimous, would it not? If the parties were the same, all the Republicans would be on board for this, in the House and the Senate, and they're not. I think one Republican in the House voted for government-run health care.

When cap and trade came up, eight Republicans voted for it. The rest voted against it. In the Senate, all but a couple of Republicans voted against the stimulus bill. If the parties were the same, sweeping majorities, health care would already be the law of the land if the Republican Party was the same as the Democrat Party. There wouldn't have been any tea parties. We wouldn't be having to mess around with all these various bills and CBO scores. ... The parties are not the same. We need more of this, and you don't get more of this by insisting that there's no difference between the parties.

Now, I'm the first to tell you, and I'm the first to agree that the Republican Party has screwed up and it needs to continue to find its legs, and with our help, it will have no choice but to become a traditional conservative party. We don't have Marxists in our party. We don't have Maoists leading the charge in our party. Those people have found a home in Obama's party and government but not in the Republican Party.

The problem is that there are people trying to confuse the issue. They're saying, "Well, the Republicans spent too much and they did this and they gave us new entitlements, they spend just like the Democrats, they all spend, they all spend the same." I get that. I fought them on those things. I was deeply upset and opposed to a lot of this spending. I had emissaries from the White House sent down here to try to get my mind right on these things. But they are not, as a matter of ideology, the Republicans are not seeking the destruction of capitalism and the private sector. They are not trying to hollow out the military. They are not undermining our intelligence services and so forth.
...
There's no difference between the two parties. The Republican Party right now has lost its way. This conservative ascendancy can help it find its way. The Democrat Party has found its way, and it's the radical left way, and that's who they are now, and they have to be stopped. And they will not be stopped if a third party ends up being the result of this little internecine war in the Republican Party. They will be in power, the Democrats will be in perpetuity if a third party emerges out of our party.
...
Look, the truth is, folks, that most of us know that the two parties are not the same. We're hearing a lot from the same people, or thinking that surrounded the Ross Perot effort or the Reform Party effort, more generally. It seems that some people are trying to tap into this group and then claim it represents most conservatives, Libertarians, Republicans, when in fact it doesn't. Now, we always had populist movements in this country on the left and the right. But we are not populists, we're constitutionalists, we are conservatives. And when a majority of us are in control of the Republican Party, the Republican Party wins. But it's not gonna win if there's a third party.

Hear, hear, Rush!

In 1992 conservatives broke away when Ross Perot ran as a third party candidate resulting in a split of the vote between Republican George H.W. Bush, Independent Perot, and Democrat Bill Clinton ... and Clinton won with less than 50% of the vote. I don't think conservatives want to see that scenario repeated in 2012.

The vilification of Rush Limbaugh

Kenneth Hutcherson is a former NFL linebacker, pastor at Antioch Bible Church in Washington state, and a friend of Rush Limbaugh. He defends him in an article in today's American Thinker, and concludes:

This is extremely personal to me. It's about a friend. When I look at Rush, I don't see a white man; I see a friend. I don't see a talk show host (a very famous talk show host); I see a friend, and friendship overrides color and political stances. I don't see a controversial figure, but a man whose heart and thoughts I know, and a man who is not a racist.

I believe with all my heart that minorities, especially African-Americans, will never be free until they stop allowing people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to insist they adopt the mentality of victims. Likewise, they will not be free until they take the next bold step: start thanking God for America, and stop condemning the white male.

It is time for America to reject the Minority Thought Pattern and the hateful campaign against Rush Limbaugh.

H/T to Peggy