Summary Wed 7/3/96

[John Switzer]

Unofficial Summary of the Rush Limbaugh Show

for Wednesday, July 3, 1996

by John Switzer

This unofficial summary is copyright (c) 1996 by John Switzer
(jswi...@limbaugh.com). All Rights Reserved. These summaries are
distributed on CompuServe and the Internet, and archived on
CompuServe (DL9 of the ISSUES forum). The summaries for the past
60 days can be found at ftp://ftp.aimnet.com/pub/users/jswitzer.
Distribution to other electronic forums and bulletin boards is
highly encouraged. Spelling and other corrections gratefully
received.

Please read the standard disclaimer which was included with the
first summary for this month. In particular, please note that
this summary is not approved or sanctioned by Rush Limbaugh or
the EIB network, nor do I have any connection with them other
than as a daily listener.

For links to major newspapers, see http://www.lainet.com/~drudge

***************************************************************

July 3, 1996

BRIEF SUMMARY OF TOPICS: Independence Day celebrates America's
freedom; Craig Livingstone coordinated the "Chicken George"
hecklers who showed up at George Bush's 1992 campaign
appearances; press and Democrats are trying to turn Bob Dole's
ties to the tobacco industry into a big issue, especially since
Dole said he didn't know if tobacco was addictive; in 1988 Algore
proudly proclaimed how he grew and processed tobacco with his own
hands; Bill Clinton announces a $10 million program to stop
truancy; caller says there's a lot of junk science in tobacco
studies, and some researchers believe chlorine in the water is
more carcinogenic than tobacco; caller thinks Republicans should
start doing some dirty tricks of their own; caller thinks Rush
and Dole are wrong about tobacco not being addictive; Algore says
you don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand the new
X-33 rocket; caller thinks the Clinton campaign and Democrats
will be hurt by attacking Dole over tobacco because it shows the
Democratic party is the party that wants to control people's
lives; press will never ask Clinton if he thinks it's fair that
Americans work half the year for the government; Clinton campaign
in New York is claiming Clinton gave America a tax cut and fought
back Republicans who wanted to raise taxes; only 9 out of 40 New
Yorkers could explain why the Fourth of July was a holiday; Rush
asks if character doesn't matter but the "issues" do, then why
believe anything Clinton says about the issues and what do they
think Clinton's agenda in a second term would be; Arkansas
teacher is furious at Clinton's pandering to the NEA, given how
he wrecked the Arkansas educational system; caller says he would
rather his daughter smoked a cigarette than see her aborted at
eight months in the womb; caller thinks it's time Republicans
started doing things themselves instead of waiting for Dole or
the RNC to do something; Bill Clinton pits generation against
generation in a speech to the 21st constitutional convention of
the National Council of Senior Citizens; Clinton doesn't care
about young people because he knows they don't vote as much as
seniors; caller thinks Republican Medicare reforms will result in
less services for seniors; caller thinks Rush spends too much
time ridiculing Clinton; caller thinks Bill Clinton is just a
normal politician and that he would like Clinton as President so
he can be a counterweight to a Republican Congress; NY Daily News
reports that NBC seems to be avoiding Gary Aldrich out of fears
that interviewing him might cause Clinton to cancel his
appearance on the inaugural day of the MSNBC cable network; woman
shots her boyfriend because he slapped her and wouldn't retaliate
against another driver; President Clinton warns the nation of the
hell that America would become with a Republican Congress and
Republican President; caller is angry at how the press and
Democrats are trying to turn cigarettes into the next "Cold War"
by portraying cigarette smoking as evil, while doing nothing to
make it illegal; caller asks Rush to stop having liberals on his
show in the final three months before the elections; caller says
not all seniors are falling for Clinton's pandering; caller says
he's a wavering Republican who's leaning to support Clinton;
caller thinks Republicans should call on Clinton to order the FDA
to declare tobacco a controlled substance so as to expose
Clinton's hypocrisy on this issue; caller cannot remember any
President who was so disliked and so divisive as Clinton; Bill
Clinton must now know how all the people whose FBI files were
held by the White House for two years, given that Gary Aldrich's
book is supposed to have the same sort of information in it;
caller says seniors should be given any entitlements before
younger people get theirs.

LIMBAUGH WATCH

July 3, 1996 - It's now 1323 days after Bill Clinton's election,
but Rush is still on the air with 650 radio affiliates (with more
than 20 million listeners weekly world-wide), 210 TV affiliates
(with a national rating of 3.7), and a newsletter with more than
500,000 subscribers.

His first book was on the NY Times hardback non-fiction
best-seller list for 54 consecutive weeks, with 2.6 million
copies sold, but fell off the list after Simon and Schuster
stopped printing it. The paperback version of "The Way Things
Ought To Be" was on the NY Times paperback non-fiction
best-seller list for 28 weeks. Rush's second book, "See, I Told
You So," was on the NY Times hardback best-seller list for 16
weeks and has sold over 2.45 million copies; the paperback
version was on the best-seller list for 11 weeks.

WHITEWATER WATCH

o Pending and Possible Indictments: White House lawyer and
Presidential adviser Bruce Lindsey (became an unindicted
co-conspirator in May, 1996).

o Indictments: Governor Jim Guy Tucker (D-AR) (taking out a loan
under false pretenses and defrauding the IRS); Herby Branscum,
Jr. and Robert Hill (conspiracy, misapplication of bank funds,
and failing to file correct statements with federal regulators
and examiners); Susan McDougal (for allegedly embezzling $150,000
from conductor Zubin Mehta and his wife).

o Convictions: James McDougal (fraud and conspiracy concerning
Madison Guaranty S&L and Capital Management Services-May, 1996);
Susan McDougal (fraud and conspiracy concerning Madison Guaranty
S&L-May, 1996); Governor Jim Guy Tucker (D-AR) (felony fraud and
conspiracy-May, 1996); David Hale (felony fraud-March, 1994);
Robert Palmer (convicted of falsifying appraisal documents
related to Madison Guaranty S&L-December, 1994); Webster Hubbell
(convicted of mail fraud, tax evasion, and overbilling clients of
at least $394,000-December, 1994); Charles Matthews and Eugene
Fitzhugh (bribery-January 1995, defrauding the SBA-April 1995);
real estate broker Christopher V. Wade (pleaded guilty to lying
to a bankruptcy court and filing false loan applications to buy
Whitewater property-March, 1995); Little Rock banker Neil Ainley
(pleaded guilty to reduced charges of willfully delivering false
documents to the government-May 1995); Arkansas college professor
Stephen Smith (pleaded guilty to misusing federal funds to help
pay off a loan he took out along with James McDougal and Governor
Jim Guy Tucker); Larry Kuca (pleaded guilty to defrauding the SBA
of a $150,000 loan together with David Hale-July 1995).

LEST WE FORGET

The following are from the Rush Limbaugh show on Wednesday, July
6, 1994:

o The Clinton administration changed its refugee policy towards
Haiti four times in 18 months, resulting in a large increase in
the number of Haitians seeking refuge and asylum in the U.S. A
spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Port Au Prince, Haiti said "we
have been caught off guard - we always anticipated an overflow,
but I don't think anyone anticipated these numbers."

o A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll reported that 80% of Americans
thought Clintons' legal defense fund was inappropriate. Over 92%
pledged that they would not contribute, and 52% thought that
donations from lobbyists should be banned. Rush noted that his TV
show sent Nick "Crapshoot" Africano with a sandwich board asking
New Yorkers to contribute to the Clintons' legal defense fund.
After talking to 500 New Yorkers, Nick came back with $10.19, 25
cents of which came from Rush.

o Vice President Algore was a moderator at a day-long conference
at the third annual Family Reunion Conference held in Nashville,
TN. Algore said the conference "would help us to discover ways to
reconnect fathers and other men with young people, and in the
process strengthen and support families." Rush wondered if Algore
would next suggest midnight father and son basketball games,
midnight trips to the movies, and midnight golf dates.

Algore also said, "Over the years, as more and different
pressures are placed on families, some ineffective patterns of
fatherhood have developed." Rush asked if Algore was referring to
fathers who cheated on their kids' mother.

o The Republican National Committee accepted $1 million from Ross
Perot to put on a couple of half-hour commercial-free specials on
health care. Reportedly, Perot went to the Republican party
because the networks wouldn't sell him any more time directly.

o The Washington Post reported that California paid for the
funerals of 117 victims of the January 17, 1994 earthquake,
although the quake itself was blamed for only 61 deaths. The
state, in fact, received 374 requests for such aid, and paid out
$431,129 in grants for the 117 approved ones.

One grant went to a man who hanged himself because he lost his
job, while another grant paid for the funeral of an 83-year-old
woman who died in Arizona in March due to cancer. Officials
justified the grants, though, because some deaths could have been
related to stress from the quake.

"Abuse of the system or compassion?" Rush asked.

o The NEA decided to address the problem of sexual harassment in
the classroom at their annual convention in New Orleans by
adopting new guidelines that suggested teachers "teach, but don't
touch." For example, high school teacher Malcolm Bailey could no
longer touch a student's hand to guide it during classroom art
projects.

Keith Geiger, president of the NEA, admitted that this new advice
was sad news, saying that "it hurts to say that because often
what a kid most needs is a hug from a teacher because they surely
don't get it from anybody else." Rush thought this was a telling
quote since it indicated that the NEA didn't want parents
anywhere near their own children or their schools, because
parents did nothing but "interfere" with what the schools want to
do.

Geiger, though, said these new guidelines were necessary because
sexual harassment had become a serious issue for schools, and
that there were dozens of untrue allegations made for every true
instance of sexual harassment.

o Dick E. Mallory was a bird enthusiast who was so passionate
about his passion that he published a monthly newspaper called
"The Dick E. Bird News" that focused on birds, nature, poetry,
and cute animal pictures. Mallory had been making his paper
available for free at information sites along Michigan's
highways.

However, this changed when the Michigan Department of
Transportation banned the paper for being offensive. This
decision was reached after an eight-year-old boy suggested to his
mother that the name "Dick E. Bird" could be slang for "penis,"
at which point the mother - who was named Robin Peacock and a
Department of Transportation employee - went batty.

Mrs. Peacock instead began an investigation into the paper,
discovering all sorts of "horrifying" things. For example, the
newspaper once ran a cartoon of a bird swallowing a frog, which
Peacock said could offend animal activists. Also, the newspaper
ran a sketch of a bird's face next to Mount Rushmore, which also
offended her.

Dick E. "Bird" Mallory reacted to all this by wondering about the
sanity of state government. A spokesman for Governor John Engler
said that state employees could probably find better things to do
than going after this newspaper.

o Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) ran a cheap, tiny,
puny, gutless, unbelievably cheap quarter-page ad in NY Times
that attacked Rush. The ad, which was on the Op-Ed page,
proclaimed "it's time to take Rush Limbaugh seriously." Rush
agreed and didn't mind the ad, but he wondered why FAIR didn't
have the guts to run a full-page ad. He thanked FAIR for the plug
but he told them "next time, be men about it, go for a full
page!"

o Rush had great news about the fund that was started for the two
kids whose mother, Barbara Schoener, was killed by a mountain
lion on April 23, 1994. Schoener was killed while she jogged
along a horse trail in the Sierra Nevada. The mountain lion was
hunted down and killed, at which point it was discovered it was a
mother that had one cub.

About a month later, Rush received a copy of a newspaper story
that revealed that a trust fund for the cub had collected more
than twice as much money as the trust fund established for
Barbara Schoener's two kids, Andrew and Anna. At the time, the
mountain lion fund had about $21,000 in it, compared to about
$9,000 received by the Schoener children's trust fund.

Rush was horrified by this because it was yet more evidence that
human life was being devalued, with animal life was being
elevated to a status greater than the status accorded human
beings. Rush talked about this on his radio and TV shows on May
23rd and he gave out the address for the Schoener children's
trust fund, asking listeners and viewers to contribute whatever
they could, assuming they were so inclined to do so.

Pete Schoener, husband of the late Barbara Schoener, sent Rush a
note saying that before a week had passed, the trustee for the
Schoener trust fund, U.S. Bank, had received 20,000 letters of
support. There were so many letters that the U.S. Post Office
asked the bank to send over a truck, and it took the bank two
weeks to open all the letters.

The amount of money that was collected went well into six
figures, and Pete Schoener told Rush that his wife was an avid
listener of Rush's program, and was reading Rush's first book at
the time that she died. Pete also asked that the following letter
be read to his audience:

"Dear Rush, words cannot express our thanks for what you and your
listeners have done for us. The financial support will make a
great difference in our daily lives from now on, but more
importantly the outpouring of love and support from across the
country will never be forgotten. Thanks again to each and every
one of you. Sincerely, Pete, Andrew, and Anna Schoener."

********

MORNING UPDATE

Tomorrow is Independence Day, the most sacred of America's
holidays. This is because it's America's freedom that Americans
celebrate and it's this freedom, which still endures today, that
separates America from every other nation on Earth.

It's hard, though, to imagine the sacrifices America's founders
endured - they put everything on the line, including families,
wealth, status, and their very lives, for an ideal. This ideal
was for individual freedoms, which put a premium on the
individual and that individual's ability to dream and work to
achieve those dreams.

This is why in America you can find a Bill Gates, Jimmy Johnson,
Colin Powell, Oprah Winfrey, and more, all rising from modest
backgrounds to achieve success in their fields. This is also why
there can be millions of Americans who live their lives quietly,
working hard, raising their children as they see fit, and
practicing their faith as they choose, without the fears that
were commonplace before America came to be.

Rush doesn't take this freedom for granted because he knows it's
this freedom that made America great. This is why Rush on all
days but especially on Independence Day proudly states God bless
America.

FIRST HOUR

Rush starts off the show talking with his staff about "Chicken
George" and "Butt-Man," and notes that this sort of heckling
works. He suspects that if these guys were working for the
Republicans and heckling Bill Clinton, his staff would be
cheering and laughing instead of being outraged.

Speaking of Livingstone, who was responsible for the guys in
chicken suits who heckled George Bush in 1992 and who probably
had something to do with the guys dressed up as a cigarette who
are now heckling Dole, it's also been learned that he applied to
be head of the White House's military office, whose duties
include supervising the nuclear "football" that is always near
the President and that contains the nuclear missile launch codes.
Livingstone gave his application to George Stephanopoulos, but
Stephanopoulos is insisting it was only a joke and never taken
seriously.

Livingstone, though, put on his resume that he was responsible
for the "Chicken George" harassers who showed up at Bush
appearances during the 1992 campaign. This is pure dirty tricks,
and it can't be denied that they are effective, but Bill Clinton
had promised that his administration would be the most ethical in
American history. So why did he resort to such tactics in the
1992 campaign and why is he using them now?

Since it's also been learned that Livingstone was very involved
in campaign strategy, it's impossible that Bill Clinton didn't
know anything about him. And "Chicken George" worked, and if
something was working for Clinton, he had to know who was doing
it.

Yet everyone seems more concerned about Bob Dole's ties to the
tobacco industry. Rush saw video of Dole's appearance yesterday
on the Today show with Katie Couric, and although everyone is
claiming "Dole's dark side came out" in that interview, Rush
didn't see Dole do anything but accuse the media of promulgating
the Democratic party line.

Dole wasn't combative at all, and it was Couric who came up with
words such as "brainwash" and "liberal media." She was the one
who asked Dole if he thought that C. Everett Koop had been
brainwashed by the liberal media, but the press is jumping on
Dole as if he came up with that line itself.

The simple matter is that Dole has said that people should not
smoke and if they're smoking they should stop, and if they
aren't, they shouldn't. He was quite clear about this several
times, even to the point of talking how he quit and how his
brother had died of lung cancer.

However, everyone is jumping on Dole's comment that he's not a
scientist so he's not sure if smoking is addictive. This would be
like Dole saying he drinks tap water and having everyone jump all
over him for suggesting that the nation's children drink polluted
water.

Tobacco, after all, is still a legal substance, one, by the way,
that Algore has planted, grown, and sold. In fact, the February
26, 1988 issue of Newsday reported that Algore said the
following:

"I want you to know that with my own hands, all of my life I put
it in the plant beds and transferred it. I've hoed it. I've dug
in it. I've sprayed it. I've dug it. I've chopped it. I've
shredded it, spiked it, and put it in the barn and stripped it
and sold it."

Thus, if anyone has close ties to tobacco, it's Algore, someone
who actually grew this stuff himself in the past, not to mention
that Algore has also accepted campaign contributions from tobacco
companies. But the press is harping on Dole as if he had
committed a mortal sin and sentenced American kids to death.

The justification for this is that American parents are worried
about their kids smoking and Dole is sounding like he doesn't
care. This is absurd because Dole obviously does care - this is
why he told everyone to quit smoking if they are and not to start
if they don't. Nobody is mentioning this, though, nor the fact
that marijuana smoking has doubled under the Clinton
administration.

Dole has come out strongly against the use of tobacco, but
because he said he's not sure if it's addictive, he's being
excoriated and whipped. He's being accused of not being able to
relate to the average American, and it strikes Rush that the
press is eager to find something to attack Dole with so as to get
the Clinton scandals and Aldrich's book off the front pages.

This is political correctness run amuck - if an adult wants to
smoke a cigarette, it's that adult's business, not Bill
Clinton's, Algore's, or anyone else in government. Until smoking
is banned and made illegal, it should not be treated as if it
were a sin or illegal.

Meanwhile Bill Clinton has announced a new multi-million dollar
to stop truancy, calling for a "zero tolerance" policy. He plans
to unveil a manual to combat truancy while speaking to the NEA
this morning, along with $10 million in grants.

But how far will $10 million go with all the nation's schools?
And how does the federal government fight truancy? By sending a
federal agent to accompany every student to school? The
government therefore is now not only going to feed everyone's
kids lunch but make sure that they get to school.

But all this is ignored so that Dole can be attacked for saying
he is not sure that nicotine is addictive. Dole is saying this
because there are people, such as Rush, who have been able to
quit smoking just like that.

Rush quit smoking in only one week, after 16 years of smoking,
and he didn't need any nicotine patches or gum. He doesn't know
how common this is, but it's obviously possible to do.

Also, not everyone who smokes cigarettes gets lung cancer, so you
can't say decisively that cigarettes cause lung cancer. But the
mainstream press is more concerned with Dole's statement on this
than they are about 900 FBI files in the White House and a White
House computer database that has 200,000 names in it.

Another outrageous thing is that Leslie Abramson yesterday
lamented how her clients the Menendez brothers got sentenced to
life. However, there is a bright spot according to Abramson: the
Menendez brothers will be an "asset" to their prison.

These guys are cold-blooded killers, but they are now being
praised as an "asset," not to mention yesterday's reference to
how they were a "true American tragedy." Something major is
seriously wrong with all this.

Someone yesterday asked why Rush was stomping around yesterday in
anger over the Menendez brothers; they wondered what these
brothers had done. Rush told this person what they had done: they
killed their parents.

This person then tried to say it was important to know their
motives, but Rush disagree. In any case, the motive was money,
about $14 million in inheritance. These greedy, worthless
derelict kids killed their parents not because they were being
abused but to get the money, and now these murderers are supposed
to be an "asset" to whatever prison they end up in.

This phony public compassion. out of place priorities, and
misplaced sense of proportion is out of control in America.
Another example is the paranoia and outrage over how Dole is not
sure that nicotine is addictive; this supposedly will place
America's kids at risk.

But the American people still sit around and let 1.5 million
babies be killed each year. Where is the sense of outrage about
this? Why is it okay to deprive kids of their right to life a
couple of weeks or months before birth, but anything that might
inspire kids to start smoking is intolerable?

Americans end up being worked up about things that are harmless
while their freedoms are being stolen. This is making Rush mad so
he goes to a break.

*BREAK*

Phone John from Goshen, IN

John says there is a lot of junk science in the tobacco studies.
For example, 70% of adult Americans smoked in the 40s compared to
less than 30% today, but the incidence of lung cancer has gone up
dramatically.

Rush says this won't matter to the smoking gestapo - they will
undoubtedly blame pollution along with smoking. John, though,
says America has become more urbanized over the past 50 years,
and that means chlorinated water; as an issue of National Review
noted recently, many people are beginning to believe that lung
caner is linked more with the chlorine than with tobacco.

Rush says this proves his comment about Dole drinking tap water
was right on the money. John says this could be the case;
smoking, of course, is an irritant, but whether it is a
carcinogen is another matter.

Rush says this is a good point, but he doesn't want to get
sidetracked from his main point of why the press is attacking
Dole over this. He tells Bo he especially doesn't want to hear
any fluoride calls or how the Soviets are stealing our precious
bodily fluids; it makes no sense to fight junk science by coming
up with other examples of junk science.

Rush doesn't dispute the fact that cigarettes are bad for you,
but the main point is whether you can be honest with the public
anymore. It's ridiculous for someone to be raked over the coals
simply for saying he's not sure that nicotine is addictive.

An addiction means being addicted to a substance, but there are
people who can quit easily. Dole is not advocating that people
smoking but just stating the truth and Rush wonders why it's not
possible for people to be real anymore.

*BREAK*

Phone Robert from Dalton, GA

Robert says it's about time Republicans start doing some dirty
tricks of their own. Rush says he's not going to advocate dirty
tricks but it is time for the GOP to get into gear and have their
people start defining themselves. If they don't, they'll run out
of chances to do it and end up being redefined by the opposition
and press, as is happening with the stories about Dole's comments
on tobacco.

The press is salivating at the chance to do stories about "Dole's
dark side," but Rush saw nothing of a dark side in the clips he
watched. Dole didn't get testy but was a real gentleman with the
really rude Couric.

Had Rush been there, he would have been far more confrontational,
asking Couric just how much she really knows about tobacco, how
much she has studied herself, and how much of it is just the
"conventional wisdom." Dole also was very consistent yesterday,
but that's being called his "dark side" by a press that is eager
to see Dole screw up so that they can get the embarrassing stuff
about Clinton off the news.

Dole has to start defining himself so that the press and
Democrats don't have a chance to do this. So while Rush doesn't
know anything about dirty tricks and doesn't care about them, he
does think Dole has to start speaking out.

Robert says he didn't see any "dark side" to Dole either - all he
did was defend himself. Rush says a similar situation is going on
with Gary Aldrich - the press is talking about how the "same
people who brought us Willie Horton are bringing us Aldrich," but
it was a Cuomo aide who first found Willie Horton and gave that
info to Algore, who then became the first to talk about it in the
1988 primaries.

This has nothing to do with Gary Aldrich, but the press is making
this stretch to defend Clinton. If the press wants to be honest,
they should remind everyone that it was Algore and Cuomo who
first came up with Horton and thus were the real dirty tricksters
in 1988.

And Livingstone, who's been portrayed as a harmless buffoon, came
up with "Chicken George" during the 1992 campaign. Of course, the
Clinton administration isn't condemned for hiring this guy but is
praised for getting rid of Livingstone, while Dole is accused of
making one mistake after another.

Nevertheless, Dole needs to define himself to beat back this
stuff, and Rush thanks Robert for calling.

Phone Ralph from West Longbranch, NJ

Ralph has been listening to Rush and enjoying him since his first
days on the national radio in 1988, but he has to admit he misses
all the updates Rush used to do. As to Bob Dole, Ralph recalls
that Dole was the one who said that cigarettes are not addictive.

Rush says Dole said only that he wasn't sure about this and
didn't know if cigarettes are addictive. Ralph says he's a cigar
smoking himself but he thinks cigarettes are addictive.

Rush says there's a lot unknown about cigarettes and the reality
is that not everyone gets addicted to cigarettes and not everyone
who smokes get lung cancer. But even if Rush and Dole are wrong
about this, so what? Why should Dole be excoriated for his
comments?

Democrats and the press are attacking Dole for "going soft" on
tobacco because he's afraid to anger his "big money
contributors," but this could also be said about Democrats, too,
and not just about tobacco. Why not go after every politician who
sucks up to a contributor - why not go after Bill Clinton for
kowtowing to seniors and trying to scare them to death about
Republican plans?

Ralph asks what Rush would have advised Dole on this question,
and Rush says he thought about this last night while listening to
Tim Russert and Jonathan Alter claim this was a "mainstream
issue" on which the elections could hinge. But if this is the
case, Rush thinks politics is in big trouble because it means a
politician could not tell the public the truth about cigarettes
or anything that is not politically correct.

If Rush were in politics he'd be up front and he doubts people
could deal with it, and as a result they'd label him insensitive
and out of touch. The fact remains that Dole didn't say anything
good about cigarettes in this interview; he made it clear that he
thought people should quit and never start smoking, especially
when he mentioned his brother who died from emphysema after
smoking all his life.

Ralph says Rush gave up smoking, and Rush says he did only
because he had a bad case of bronchitis and couldn't smoke if he
wanted to. He liked smoking but because he knew he should stop,
he figured that as long as he couldn't smoke anyway, why not
quit? It was the easiest thing he ever did - after one week he
never wanted another cigarette again.

Rush doesn't know why this was the case but it's clear people are
different. Everyone has their own crosses to bear and will
eventually die of something, after all. Even Joycelyn Elders once
remarked "we're all probably going to do someday of something."

Rush is just suspicious that smoking has become such a huge issue
with the press, and he doubts whether it's that big an issue with
average people. Ralph says it's not that big an issue to him, nor
is Whitewater.

Ralph voted for Clinton in 1992 and will do so again, although he
does also love Rush's show. Everyone has some baggage but Ralph
likes Clinton, especially since he hasn't hurt Ralph yet, nor has
he done anything out of the ordinary that other politicians
haven't done.

Rush thinks this speaks for itself and thanks Ralph for calling.

*BREAK*

NASA introduced the new X-33 rocket that is intended to replace
the Space Shuttle yesterday, and Algore was there for the
ceremonies. As the rocket was being unveiled, Algore quipped,
"You certainly don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand
the importance of this!"

Rush would say that you certainly do need to be a rocket
scientist to learn how this new rocket works. Rocket scientists
are the guys who created this, after all, and you're going to
need to know some of what they know to understand this rocket.

As to Algore, Rush thinks he's the guy to watch - after all he's
the one who planted tobacco with his own hands and who came up
with Willie Horton.

Phone Cathy from Richland, WA

Cathy says the Clinton campaign will be hurt by its and the
press' attacks against Dole for his comments on smoking. The Dole
campaign doesn't have to say much about this since this issue
shows how it's the Democrats who want to tell people what they
should be doing, while Republicans just want people to be able to
live their lives.

Neither Cathy nor her husband smoke, but they are both annoyed at
how the press and Democrats attack what is a relatively harmless
habit and behavior. As someone who is 50 pounds overweight, she
wonders if fat people are next.

Rush says liberals want to take as many freedoms away from adults
as they can, especially if they enjoy what they're doing. Thus,
they'll probably target overweight people as the next "public
health hazard."

Cathy says this attitude is only going to hurt the Democrats as
it did in the last elections, but Rush says the Democrats think
they've already won the elections. Dick Gephardt already thinks
he's Speaker of the House, Tom Daschle thinks he's Senate
Majority Leader, and Clinton has won his second term.

As far as the Democrats think, the Republicans will lose control
of both houses of Congress, and Gingrich will not only not be
Speaker but he won't even be re-elected. These Democrats in their
arrogance are acting like they already have the elections sewn
up.

Should this happen, though, the real battles will begin, given
the infighting that will start, especially for the primary
elections in the year 2000.

*BREAK*

Rush notes that one question that will never be asked of
President Clinton in a press conference is "do you think it's
fair that the American people work half the year for the
government?"

Phone John from Columbia University, NY

John says Clinton and his people have been running a campaign ad
in New York that says Clinton cut taxes for working families and
fought off attempts by Republicans to raise taxes. Rush says this
refers to the Earned Income Tax Credit, which Clinton expanded
and increased, and this is what he calls a "tax cut."

Republicans wanted to change the way the EITC works, so that it
doesn't give a tax refund to people who don't work and don't pay
taxes, and Clinton is calling this a tax increase. This is more
outright lying from the administration.

John agrees, but even worse is that the Dole campaign hasn't
called a press conference to expose the lies and deceits in this
sort of commercial. Rush says every day at his TV show someone
asks when the Republicans are going to start taking action, and
they act as if Rush had some say in this.

Rush, though, feels as frustrated as John and others do about
these lies being told by the administration, especially since the
Democrats will claim there is nothing wrong with Clinton lying.

*BREAK*

SECOND HOUR

Items

o Tomorrow is the Fourth of July, and the NY Daily News sent some
people to do what Rush did for his Fourth of July show, which is
to ask New Yorkers on the street if they know what the holiday is
about. Forty people were asked to name the historical event that
occurred on July 4, 1776, and only nine gave the correct answer:
the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Thus it's not surprising that Keith Geiger of the NEA is proud,
not of how good an education his teachers are giving America's
children, but how he transformed the union into a mighty
political force that "talks" about reform. The official
explanation, by the way, from teachers for why so few people know
what happened 220 years ago is that teachers are spending too
much time on math and science and not enough on history, but this
is total BS.

Fortunately, EIB's survey got a better average than this, but
they still ran into a bunch of ignoramuses. Bo Snerdley asks how
many of those who got the question right were immigrants, and
Rush bets that all of those who got the question right were
immigrants, given that they don't take their freedom for granted.
If more Americans felt as they did, Clinton wouldn't be able to
get away with most of what he proposes because Americans wouldn't
be willing to surrender their freedoms so lightly.

o Rush knows most people have run into friends who think it's
time to stop talking about the "character stuff" and start
talking about the "issues." America still doesn't seem to care
about character but about "issues."

When Rush gets his "seminar callers" from the DNC, they never
want to talk about character but about the "issues." Rush has
tried to explain the fallacy of this approach by asking how
anyone can believe what Clinton says about the issues if his
character is lacking.

Liberals, though, know Clinton doesn't have a good character and
lies all the time, so they want to avoid this subject altogether.
But the question remains - why listen to what someone says about
the issues if he lies? Are liberals going to claim that Clinton
lies about everything but the issues?

Even the press is conceding that Clinton has character flaws, but
they, like the left, are claiming that this sort of thing doesn't
matter. Thus, Americans supposedly know Clinton lies and they
don't care about it.

Rush thus suggests that the next time his listeners run into
someone who doesn't care about character because he thinks only
the "issues" are important, they ask why these people believe
Clinton if they know he lies. Then they should ask the Clinton
supporters, who claim Clinton is talking about the issues, what
his second-term agenda is.

Clinton's supporters claim Clinton is talking about the issues,
so what then does Clinton want to do if he gets re-elected?
Nobody has any idea what Clinton will do in a second point, which
is the point.

Many people fear Clinton's second term would be far to the left,
given that he wouldn't have to worry about re-election, but what
specifically would Clinton do? Can even liberals answer this
question?

Rush would also like any Clinton supporters who feel so inclined
to call in and answer these two questions: how can you believe
what Clinton says on the issues if his character is flawed, and
what is Clinton's agenda for his second term? Rush is interested
in hearing only specifics, not in boilerplate crap like "saving
the environment, Medicare, school lunches," and everything else
that is handed out in the DNC seminars.

And as to the environment, Rush thinks people can do whatever
they want to "save" it but they shouldn't demand that everyone
else pay for their good intentions. Rush bets most callers will
say Clinton only wants to "help" people - these supporters
undoubtedly liked hearing Barbara Walters ask Jimmy Carter what
kind of tree he would like to be.

BREAK*

Phone Brenda from Jonesboro, AR

Brenda is a teacher who is furious about Clinton's speech to the
NEA - Clinton has claimed to be an "education President," but
Arkansas' test scores have dropped across the board by 25% since
1988. Rush says Arkansas does rank at the bottom of the states,
and Brenda agrees.

She fears that Clinton is trying to do for the nation what he did
for Arkansas, by proposing on the nation at large the same
programs he inflicted on Arkansas. Thus, the caller who claimed
Clinton hadn't hurt him yet should just wait and he'll see how
Clinton can hurt him and his kids by the devastation he'll wreak
with the Department of Education.

Rush says this brings up the fact that it's pretty selfish to
vote for a President on the basis of whether you personally have
been harmed or hurt by him. What kind of basis is this to elect a
President, especially since Americans now work half a year to pay
their taxes? Doesn't this matter any more?

Rush thanks Brenda for calling and notes he has no problems with
Clinton going to the NEA, which is his number one lobbying and
union thug group. He's right at home with his pals, especially
since the current president, Keith Geiger, is resigning to join
the Clinton campaign.

Thus, Rush doesn't mind Clinton demonstrating who his close pals
are, especially since Geiger thinks the greatest accomplishments
of his seven-year tenure as head of the NEA are "talking about
reform" and transforming the group into a politically activist
group.

Phone Gary from Lacrosse, WI

Gary says he was going to talk about the doubling of marijuana
use during the Clinton administration, but since Rush already
mentioned this, he'd like to say he would rather have his
daughter sneak a cigarette at age 16 then have her pulled most of
the way out of the womb near birth and have her brains sucked
out. Rush notes he made that point, too, and thanks Gary for
calling.

Phone Tony from Boulder City, NV

Tony says he's sick and tired of hearing whiney Republicans ask
when Dole, the RNC, Rush, or someone else will start doing
something because the bottom line is that Republicans have to do
this themselves. For example, he and his wife dig up information
about what's going on and they bring this information up while
shopping and elsewhere.

Tony is on Medicare so he's been trying to tell people the truth
about the Republican Medicare reforms and expose the lies being
told in the commercials that the Democrats are running. People
can do this and they can also call up TV stations and their
advertisers, telling them they won't watch or buy their products
anymore because of the station's political bias.

Rush says these are good things but the bottom line is that Bob
Dole is who has to take the lead in this campaign. He's spent all
the money he can until the convention, so that means the RNC does
have to step up to the plate and so some things until the
convention when Dole's spending limits will be reset.

It's getting down to brass tacks and this means Dole has to
define himself. Whatever other Republicans do, the fact remains
that Dole is the candidate and is the one who has to get the
votes.

It's Dole's name that will be on the ballot, not Haley Barbour's
or Rush's. Rush agrees with Tony about the whining Republicans,
but he's not the person to ask about this because he doesn't know
why Dole and the RNC are not doing these things.

Rush does appreciate Tony's approach, though, since action at the
personal level can have a great impact. Tony agrees and says he's
stunned by how many people don't know the truth about Medicare
simply because they get their information only from the TV.

Rush notes that Gingrich has been on TV saying the truth about
Medicare, but Tony says that his friends also see the polls that
say Gingrich is a horrible, lying person. Thus, they don't
believe what Gingrich says about all this.

Also, these people do think that Medicare is just like Social
Security, and they are shocked to learn that they really haven't
paid a dime into the program but that it's totally funded by
current workers. Tony visits the doctor once a month, and he
talks with the people there about these things. One thing he's
learned is that the Generation X'ers are fed up with the
Democrats and with the whiny Medicare recipients.

Rush says that after the break, he will read some remarks Clinton
made to seniors yesterday so that Generation X'ers and young
babyboomers can realize just how Clinton is pandering to these
seniors. It's clear what Clinton is doing and why, and Rush wants
America's young people - who already think nothing will be left
from them when they retire - to realize that the Republican party
tried to fix these problems.

However, Clinton vetoed the GOP proposals, which is bad enough,
but the future for America's young people is even more
precariously balanced than this, assuming Clinton gets to do what
he's promising seniors.

*BREAK*

President Clinton spoke yesterday to the 21st constitutional
convention of the National Council of Senior Citizens in Chicago,
and Rush wants the Generation X'ers to listen to the following
transcript of Clinton's speech, which includes the audience's
enthusiastic response:

"And, finally, let me say that this sort of partisan division has
only made the Medicare trust fund problem worse. <<Of course,
Rush notes, the reason the trust fund is worse is because Clinton
has refused to support Republican efforts to fix it>>

"Let's face it, we have enough savings identified in both the
Republican plan and my plan to take the Medicare trust fund out
to a decade right now. And we don't know yet whether we won't be
able to find more in the development of managed care, voluntary
options for seniors and other things that are happening in the
marketplace right now.

"Now, why don't we go ahead and do this? Why are we holding out?
Why is the Congress holding out for an agreement that would
essentially develop a two-class Medicare system, where the older
and the poorer and the sicker you are, the more likely you are to
be in yesterday's Medicare that's under-funded; and the younger
and healthier and more well off you are, the more options you're
given to walk away. That's not what made Medicare work.

"What made Medicare work is you say, we have obligations to each
other, and we're going to fulfill them. We're going to do this
and solve this together. I think that is the right thing to do.
(Applause.) <<thus, Rush notes, Clinton has put class envy even
into the Medicare debate, pitting the "rich old people" against
the other old people>>

"So I would say again, this is a great philosophical divide -
should we abandon Medicaid's guarantee to poor women and little
children (audience shouts "no, no!") to families with
disabilities, to the seniors in the nursing homes? (audience
shouts "no, no!")

"No. Should we create in Medicare - we're not talking about
saving money here; we're not talking about securing the trust
fund for a decade. We're talking about whether we should create a
two-class system of care. (audience shouts "no!")

"You know, if I stay healthy - I don't know if I can the way
things are in Washington - (laughter) - but if I stay healthy, I
retire as President, and I have a nice pension, you know, I'll
probably be fine. Their system might be great for me, I could
walk away. But what about my responsibilities to everybody else?
(Applause.) What about everybody else's - what about our
responsibilities?

"I do not want to see the generations in this country pitted
against each other. We can find a clearly nonpolitical,
bipartisan, even-handed, sensible solution to any problem the
generational changes are going to face this country with, as long
as we don't use it as an excuse to divide this country one from
another, and to be unfair to the seniors in their quest,
legitimately, to have a good life. (Applause.) You know it, and I
know it. (Applause.)"

So, Rush notes, Clinton's speech was all about pitting one
generation of Americans against another, and then he piously
declared that America should not be a country that pits one
generation against another. The Clinton administration has pitted
one group of Americans against another for almost four years,
trying to pit the rich against the poor, the successful against
the failures, the achievers against the lazy.

Clinton has been constantly creating divisions within America,
and although Generation X'ers are probably livid about what
Clinton told the seniors, the fact is that Clinton doesn't care.
He knows that most young people don't vote, so he doesn't care
about them or their concerns.

In contrast, seniors are the largest voting bloc in the nation,
which is why Clinton is not only scaring seniors to death about
Republican plans but promising them the moon if they vote for
him. Seniors end up believing that Clinton will save their
Medicare and Social Security, and they don't care about anything
else.

Clinton needs Florida's electoral votes, so he's going to seniors
to win them over. Generation X'ers should look at this and
realize that despite Clinton's relative youth, he's not "one of
them." Clinton doesn't care a whit about the nation's young
people; all he cares about is promising seniors whatever it takes
to win their votes, even if that means Generation X'ers won't
have a chance of getting any Social Security or Medicare when
they retire.

Clinton knows half of America's young people are too stoned or
drunk to care about voting, so he doesn't care about them. He
instead goes to America's seniors who have only what government
will do for them, so they will vote to whoever promises them the
moon on a silver platter, as Clinton is doing.

*BREAK*

Phone George from San Leandro, CA

George says he agrees with Rush and the Republicans that their
reforms aren't cutting actual dollars, but he doesn't think the
$7,200 they want to spend per person in the year 2002 will buy
the same medical care that can be bought with someone's current
Medicare dollars. Thus, the Republicans are going to cut Medicare
in terms of service, thanks to how fast health care costs are
going up.

Rush says the rate of increase in those costs is declining, but
George says it's still going up way too fast. His doctor has
almost doubled what he charges for office visits in the past
three years.

Rush says the fastest way to get the costs down is to get the
government out of health care. Getting government out of
education would also lower college tuitions.

George doesn't know about that, but he thanks Rush for calling
and adds that Buckler is a fine (non-alcoholic) beer. Rush thanks
him for that unsolicited endorsement and wonders whether Buckler
has any therapeutic value. He thanks George for calling.

Phone Arnie from Huntington, NY

Arnie is not a fawning dittohead like the other callers, and
although he knows Rush will ridicule him for this call, he does
have to admire how Rush has created an entire industry out of
ridiculing the President. He thinks it's outrageous that all Rush
does is ridicule the President.

Rush says he only comments on the President and what the
President does. It's Clinton who ridicules the Presidency, and
all Rush does is point this out.

Arnie disagrees and thinks there are many others who disagree as
he does. Arnie does enjoy Rush's program and he admires Rush's
ability to speak, but he has to wonder if Rush thinks Clinton has
ever done anything right.

Rush says Clinton has done some great things and Rush praised him
at those times. For example, Clinton was great immediately after
the Oklahoma City bombing and Rush praised him for it, but then
Clinton tried to blame talk radio for that. Clinton also did the
right thing on NAFTA and said the right thing about the Saudi
bombing.

Arnie is glad to hear this but thinks Rush has spent the last
four years ridiculing Clinton, making personal attacks against
the man, impugning everything he and his wife do. Rush says his
comments are all issue-related, but Arnie doesn't think so - why
does it matter whether Clinton goes swimming at night?

Rush says he mentioned that only in the context of Aldrich's
book. Aldrich claims Clinton sneaks out of the White House for
midnight trysts with some woman at the Marriott Hotel, but Rush
doesn't believe this. He was one of the first to doubt this
story, saying he couldn't believe it is possible for the
President to elude his Secret Service detail like this.

If all Rush wanted to do was ridicule Clinton, he would have
jumped on Aldrich's story instead of pointing out why it was
unlikely to be true. But then, though, Rush found one of Hillary
Clinton's own columns in which she wrote about how she and Bill
managed to sneak past the Secret Service for a night swim. Then
Newsweek reported in 1994 that both the President and First Lady
can sneak out of the White House with the Secret Service.

Arnie, though, says that if something is said enough times about
someone, it becomes a reality and can cause people to hate the
President. Rush disagrees - those who disagree with Clinton do so
for substantiative, not personal reasons; the character stuff
does offend them, but the issues are what motivate these people's
disagreements.

And if Rush and his shows did have this much influence and if he
was doing nothing but bash Clinton, then why is Clinton over 50%
in the polls after four years? Rush thus doubts that he has the
power to get people to believe lies by saying them over and over
again; however, he does think the mainstream press has this
ability, especially when it comes to Newt Gingrich.

Arnie says Rush is certainly polite and respectful, but he and
many others are getting to the point where it seems they are
piling on Bill Clinton. Rush says he's getting to the point that
he cringes when he reads another one of these sorts of Clinton
stories. Rush is tired of getting mad about Clinton, but the
bottom line is that you can't escape all these scandals.

If Rush is going to remain true to keeping his audience on the
cutting edge and what's on the front page of the papers, he has
to discuss this stuff. Rush is looking forward to the day when
Clinton is either out of office or re-elected so that this stuff
won't matter anymore, so that he doesn't have to keep discussing
them anymore.

Arnie says that simply in the name of basic fairness, there
should be some balance and some acknowledgment that there are
positive things that can be said about the President. Clinton is
trying to do his best and he's not really that bad a guy.

It's thus unfair that Rush and others make all these allegations,
especially when Clinton cannot answer back because he is the
President. Arnie thinks he's speaking for many people who feel
the same way, and it just gets worse with Rush's colleagues at
WABC who are even more openly antagonistic toward Clinton.

Rush says most of those colleagues are gone - they either have
moved to other stations or are lying in a gutter somewhere. Rush
thinks he's the only Clinton foe left at WABC and he thanks Arnie
for the call.

*BREAK*

Phone Joe from Reno, NV

Joe gives "Reagan-Democrat with all due respect dittos, sir" from
a lifelong Democrat, and he would like to respond to the two
questions Rush asked earlier about what good it is to discuss the
issues if someone doesn't tell the truth. Joe doesn't think
Clinton is lying, plus all the scandals are just Clinton being a
regular politician.

Rush says he's not referring to the scandals but to the lies
Clinton told about the Republican Medicare, welfare, and other
reforms. Joe says this leads to his second point, which is that
the Republican Congress will be re-elected and if history is any
judge, a Democratic President will also be elected as balance.

Rush says this means Joe views Clinton as a counterweight, but
people are always complaining about gridlock. Joe says he's a
middle of the road Democrat who votes more for the man and his
ideas than for the party, and gridlock is a cliche; this is just
what goes on in politics.

After all, Joe notes, confrontation and the political process is
what makes America work. Rush agrees, and he loves gridlock
because he believes the less those in Congress do, the happier
Americans will be. He also thinks Joe is right in saying that
this confrontation is just the democratic process as it was
intended to work.

Joe, though, says he does like the Republican ideas but likes
Clinton being there, too, as a counterbalance. Rush says this
doesn't make any sense because all Clinton will do is veto the
Republican ideas - if Joe likes the Republican ideas, why will he
feel good about sending a President there who will stop every
single one of them?

*BREAK*

THIRD HOUR

Items

o "Marching in lockstep" is a phrase often used to describe the
people who listen to Rush. According to the mainstream media,
Rush gets his "marching orders" from the Republican party and
Newt Gingrich and passes them on to his "mind-numbed robots."

Yet if anyone wants to see true "marching in lockstep," they
should look to "King William of Whitewater," who is claiming that
his administration did not attempt to pressure anyone in the
journalism community to cancel their interviews of Gary Aldrich,
author of "Unlimited Access."

Larry King and CNN are insisting that the White House's request
did not influence their decision to cancel an appearance by
Aldrich, insisting they made this decision using their own
editorial judgment. ABC ignored the White House, though, and had
Gary Aldrich on "This Week with David Brinkley."

The NY Daily News, though, yesterday reported that NBC might be
negotiating a deal with President Clinton for him to appear live
on their new cable network MSNBC on its inaugural debut of July
15th. This might be why they don't want to interview Gary Aldrich
on NBC, out of fear Clinton would cancel his appearance in
retribution.

Thus, anyone who gets their news from NBC and can't break their
habit, they should probably not take much of it seriously until
July 16th because it seems NBC doesn't want to do anything that
might anger Clinton. NBC evidently does not want to take the risk
of Clinton cancelling his appearance, so their news will be
written accordingly.

Rush would thus ask who is "marching in lockstep" here. As to
MSNBC, some of the people who will be playing the role of
"objective journalist" are Tom Brokaw, Katie Couric as the perky
but insistent career woman, Bryant Gumbel as the biased yet
objective journalist, and Brian Williams.

o A woman riding in a car with her boyfriend in Orlando, FL shot
him with a .22 pistol because she didn't like his driving and
because he slapped her. Daniel Brown, 35, is in good condition
after being shot in his arm by his girlfriend, who didn't like
the fact that Brown didn't want to respond to a driver who had
cut them off.

The woman wanted Brown to retaliate and when he refused and
smacked her across the face, she pulled out her gun and shot him,
while the car was in motion. Rush has no doubts that many people
will think the woman was justified in doing this, but he has to
wonder about the wisdom of shooting someone while they are
driving a car that you're riding in as well.

Bo Snerdley notes that if Nicole Brown Simpson did this, she'd be
alive today, and Rush tells his callscreener to shut up because
he doesn't want to hear Bo's opinions since they are always
perverted when discussing this subject. Rush has to wonder,
though, what talk shows inspired the man to hit the woman and the
woman to shoot the man. "Obviously," talk radio is the cause of
all incivility in America, so which host is responsible.

Bo asks about the driver who cut these two off, and Rush admits
this is a good point, too - what talk show host inspired him to
cut another car off? These questions must be answered so that
these hate-filled hosts can be fired.

o President Clinton attended a fund-raiser at Chicago last night
and described what life would be like if Republicans controlled
both houses of Congress and the Presidency by saying the
following:

"So if the American people believe the country - the presidency
and the Congress - should be in the hands of the people who
fought the Family Leave law, who fought the V chip, who fought
the tobacco initiative, who fought the economic plan, who fought
the 100,000 police, who fought the Brady Bill, who fought the
assault weapons ban, who sought to gut the environmental
protection of the country and weaken workplace protection, and
make it easier for people to raid the pension plans of their
employees - they can do that. And they know. And there is no
guesswork."

Rush, though, knows of only one government official who raided
government pension plans: Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton's Treasury
Secretary. Rubin took about $60 billion from the government
pension funds to avert a default during the government shutdown.

Thus, Rush would rewrite Clinton's statement to say that if
people want a President who will rip off pension funds,
micromanage businesses, raise taxes, lie to the American people,
collect files on innocent American systems, expand the welfare
state, pit one group of Americans against another, and do his
best to expand his own power at the expense of Americans' lives,
they can vote for Bill Clinton.

o Rush warns liberals that he's going to mention God right now,
which will bother everyone who believes in the separation of
Church and Radio, so it would be better if liberals turn the
radio off for a few minutes. Tomorrow is Independence Day, which
is the most sacred American holiday because it celebrates
America's freedom.

This freedom separates America from every other nation and it
still lives today in America. It's hard to imagine the sacrifices
the founders of America endured, putting their lives, families,
wealth, and status on the line. They believed in an ideal that
emphasized individual freedom and the value of the individual, so
that the individual could not only dream but also be able to
achieve those dreams.

That's why Americans can come from modest backgrounds to achieve
success in their chosen fields, and why Americans can live their
lives without the fears that were commonplace before America was
founded. Freedom is what made America great because it allowed
the people of America to make this country great.

Rush doesn't take this freedom for granted, so he says with pride
and awe "God bless America." He is sad, therefore, to read that
only 9 out of 40 people chosen at random on the streets of
America know what the Fourth of July is about, and he wonders how
many other Americans don't know either.

*BREAK*

Phone Eddie from Philadelphia, PA

Eddie is angry about what the Democrats and the media are doing
to Dole over cigarettes - it seems they are trying to make
smoking the next big "Cold War." Rush agrees - the left is
portraying tobacco companies as the "new evil" and claiming Bob
Dole doesn't care if people die from lung cancer.

Eddie notes that the alcohol industry is never blamed for drunk
driving or deaths due to liver damage; instead, the blame is put
on the person who abused alcohol. However, when it comes to
tobacco, the entire industry is condemned for being a purveyor of
evil.

This is a ridiculous issue - his parents both smoke, but four out
of five children do not, and his father told him recently that he
has the right to smoke and the right to quit, and while he will
respect other people's rights by not smoking in their house, he
will continue to smoke in his own. Eddie thus hopes Rush keeps
the fight going on this.

Rush says the next step will be to pass laws banning the smoking
of cigarettes in your own house. Some city councils across the
nation have already proposed such ordinances - they haven't
passed yet, but it's only a matter of time.

This is none of the government's business, but the city councils
are claiming that smokers are endangering the health of their
children and guests. These guys don't have the guts to ban
smoking outright, but this is what should be done - hold hearings
to see whether smoking should be banned. However, this would give
the people the power to decide this, and those in government
won't want to see that happen. Rush thanks Eddie for calling.

Phone Ron from Modesto, CA

Ron asks Rush to consider refusing to have liberals on his show
anymore; it's fun to hear them most of the them, but it's clear
the left has a full court press on right now. Even the local
Sacramento press is out in full force - the television will show
Bob Dole arriving in town and the news anchors will mention "he's
in trouble about this" and "he's down in the polls, etc."

No matter what the news is about Dole, the reporters will make
sure to mention all the negative news they can about him. Bob
Dole could be shown smiling and waving, but the reporter will be
talking as if he was a snarling demon.

Rush says he can understand Ron's point, but he doesn't want to
exclude liberals from his show because he has a great time
talking to them. Liberals are so cliched that they are the ones
who are parrots and marching in lockstep.

They might be trying to take over Rush's show but they don't have
a prayer of doing this. Rush, in fact, wishes more liberals would
call his show, especially since often they lie to get on the air.

Rush does think Ron has a good point, though - no matter what the
news is about Dole, the press will make sure to mention how badly
he is doing in the polls, how divided his party is, and how he
doesn't have a chance. Rush thanks Ron for calling.

*BREAK*

Phone Al from Philadelphia, PA

Al is a senior citizen who carries his own weight and says he
finds Rush very entertaining and interesting, not to mention
informative. However, it's definitely not true that Rush is
brainwashing his listeners, as Al can attest - he had been a
registered Democrat all his life, but about six months after
Clinton got into office, Al registered as a Republican, and this
was a couple of years before he started listening to Rush.

As to Medicare, Al doesn't think every senior citizen thinks as
Clinton wants them to; rather, these seniors know there are
problems with the system and want the system to keep on working,
so they are willing to see changes made. Rush hopes Al is right
about this - not all seniors have fallen for Clinton's line, but
it does appear the vast majority of seniors do believe the
Democrats.

For example, after Clinton gave his speech to seniors in Chicago,
a conference delegate named Dorothy Easter of Indiana said "Bill
Clinton is going to keep our Social Security and Medicare
intact!" But when told this is what Republicans said they were
going to do, too, Easter dismissed it with a cynical "uh-huh!"

Al bets Easter was a Democrat and member of AARP; seniors grew up
during the time of FDR, where the conventional wisdom was that
Republicans didn't want to help any of the small people. However,
Al thinks and hopes a lot of seniors understand the truth about
Medicare.

Rush says he's often wondered how effective it would be to tell
seniors that the Republican plan not only ensures Medicare would
be there for them but also reforms the program for the sake of
their grandchildren. Al thinks this would be a very effective
tact - most seniors think about their grandchildren a lot and
want to see a good world left for them.

Al does think it's important to do something about Medicare now
because if this doesn't happen, he doubts the program will be
around for his kids, much less his grandchildren. Thus, it's time
to do something about this program and refute the notion that
Republicans would be willing to throw seniors out in the streets.

Rush says these seniors seem to believe it (if not, then seniors
are being paid to go on CNN and say they do). However, Rush does
think there are some people who believe that if Republicans
controlled Congress and the Presidency, America would quickly
turn into a nation where everyone is living on the streets,
huddled around a barrel fire, without any food or medical care,
breathing polluted air and drinking polluted water.

These people think that Republicans want to set things up so that
only the rich have the good life, while ruining it for everyone
else. There are people who believe this because it's what they've
been told for years upon years. Rush thanks Al for calling.

Phone Robin from Moments, IL

Robin gives 50% dittos and says he's a wavering Republican who's
leaning to Clinton right now. Rush asks how this can be, and
Robin says he's morally conservative but more liberal on social
and economic issues.

Robin thinks Filegate won't be a big deal for Clinton - he has to
come clean and admit some well-meaning but misguided members of
his administration engaged in dirty tricks in an effort to
counteract the Republican attacks on Clinton's character. Clinton
should thus clean this up and then propose legislation to outlaw
negative campaigning altogether.

Rush says this cannot be done because of the First Amendment,
which specifically prohibits any restrictions on political
speech. This is why truth in advertising laws do not apply to
political ads.

If Clinton proposes this sort of legislation, it would only be to
set himself up to be a dictator. Robin says that Clinton at least
can pledge not to engage in dirty tricks and negative campaigning
himself.

Rush asks what good Clinton's pledge would be, given how he's
lied so many times before. Robin thinks that Clinton simply has
been so busy so far that he hasn't been able to keep track of the
people in his administration, so some of them ran amuck.

Rush cannot believe that Robin is saying this and he knows Robin
wouldn't be saying this about Bush, who was said to have known
everything that happened in his White House. Yet for some reason,
Clinton is a "dumb ol' Bubba" who doesn't know what's happening
in his own administration.

Robin thinks this explanation can sell among the American people,
and Robin would also like Clinton to focus on the economy and
reduce the welfare rolls and crime, as well as the deficit.
However, all of this has to be done without hurting people.

Rush says that Clinton won't do any of this, and Robin's wife in
the background shouts "dittos, Rush!" as encouragement. Rush is
glad for the support but says Clinton won't do any of the things
that Robin has listed. Besides, the economy is supposedly the
best in 30 years.

Robin says the economy was stagnant when Clinton took over, but
he's improved it. Rush says that's not the case - the economy is
growing more slowly now than when Clinton came into office. Its
growth is the slowest of any non-recession year since records
started being kept and is worse than even the Bush recession in
terms of growth of GDP.

Robin thinks improvements can be made, especially in bringing
medical costs down and welfare rolls down. Rush says Clinton will
not do anything to reduce welfare, given that this is where his
votes are.

Robin says Clinton has worked with the states to bring about
welfare reform to see what works without etching it in federal
law. He thinks Republicans' reforms won't work but will hurt
people. Welfare is supposed to be a safety net but it's become a
cage, yet Republicans want to fix things by cutting the floor out
of that cage.

Rush says the Republican reforms would do is open the door and
free the prisoners in this cage. They want to help those trapped
in welfare learn how to escape it. Rush thanks Robin for an
eye-opening phone call.

*BREAK*

Phone Tom from Brunswick, ME

Tom says he saw the clip of Dole stating his personal opinion
about tobacco and how he doesn't know personally whether it's
addictive, and Tom's first thought is that this is a real
opportunity for the Republicans. Dole and other Republicans
should now call on Bill Clinton to order the FDA to declare
tobacco as a controlled substance; if cigarettes are really so
devastating to America, then Clinton should take the bull by the
horns and have the FDA control this dangerous substance.

Clinton won't dare do this, though, because he cannot alienate
that many voters or that big an industry, and Republicans will
win by exposing Clinton's hypocrisy. Clinton will be shown
flip-flopping on yet another issue.

Rush says Clinton would respond by saying he only wanted to
"educate children" about this, but Tom is not impressed; Clinton
wanted to give parents a $1,500 tax credit for college
educations, but this comes to only 10% of what it costs to send
his two kids to school for a year.

Rush says Tom "obviously" is a wealthy guy who's sending his kids
to schools that are too nice for ordinary people. He thanks Tom
for calling.

Phone Vince from Toronto, OH

Vince says people who call in and say "50% dittos" obviously
aren't regular listeners because if they were, they would know
that "dittos" only means that they love the show, not that they
agree with Rush. This has been explained uncounted numbers of
times but the left still doesn't get it.

Vince is also 36 and he can't remember any President who was so
disliked as Bill Clinton. His friends vehemently oppose Clinton
because of the ethics issues and his policies, and Vince wonders
if Rush knows of any President who was despised this much.

Rush says the left despised and hated Ronald Reagan with a
visceral hatred on a personal level. The left also totally and
utterly despised Richard Nixon and held him in contempt.

However, Rush would agree that he cannot think of any other
President who's divided the country as much as Clinton. Ronald
Reagan unified the country, despite the hate that liberals felt
for him. Most Americans loved and respected Reagan, and Reagan's
supporters in particular loved the man.

Clinton's supporters, though, don't feel this way - they hold
their nose to vote for him and support him. They are actually
more loyal to the party and their ideology than to the
individual.

Vince says the Senate once tried to impeach a President, Andrew
Johnson, and Clinton certainly has gone way beyond whatever
crimes Johnson committed <<Editor's Note: since I happen to be
reading about this right now, I can say that Johnson was
impeached on charges that he violated the Tenure of Office Act by
attempting to fire Secretary of War Edwin Stanton without getting
congressional approval. Johnson, a Republican, was targeted by
the Radical Republican wing of the party because they didn't like
his approach to Reconstruction. The vote in the Senate was 35 to
19 to convict but since this was one vote less than the needed
two-thirds majority, Johnson was acquitted>>. Rush doesn't know
if he would say this, but Charles Colson did go to jail for
giving one FBI file to a reporter, and the White House has over
900 FBI files in its possession.

Another point about these files that should be made is that the
press is claiming Aldrich's book is unsubstantiated BS, full of
stories and quotes that were not verified and authenticated. But
this is what appears in most FBI files, so Aldrich's book at
least has allowed President Clinton to feel a small glimmer of
what is being felt by the people whose files he decided to
request and go searching through.

If Clinton feels violated by Aldrich's invasions of his privacy,
then he should certainly be able to empathize with each of the
900 people whose FBI files his White House was keeping. And if
Clinton didn't know what was in those files, why did he claim
executive privilege to keep Congress from seeing them?

*BREAK*

Phone Carol from Rutland, VT

Carol says she heard Rush mention the "greedy geezers" a couple
of days ago who wanted their Medicare so she'd like to say that
she and other seniors have worked all their lives. They know
Medicare is not part of Social Security but the elderly should
get things such as Medicare first, ahead of the young people who
are having babies and never working. If there's anything to be
distributed, then it should start with America's seniors, who
have paid their dues.

Carol also would like to address those who think seniors are
getting a cushy deal with Social Security because they didn't pay
that much into it and are withdrawing many times what they did
pay in. Rush notes he's not one of those people, not yet anyway,
and he thanks Carol for calling.

--
John Switzer | Ever wonder what would happen if the Mafia set
| up a newsgroup and some moron spammed it?
jswi...@limbaugh.com | Sigh . . . I can always dream.
*** Access the Congressional Record at http://thomas.loc.gov ***