Rush Limbaugh 'Free Speech', CBS News, Katie Couric

'STOP PRETENDING'

Rush's CBS Home Run, Couric Shunned?






Utilizing his one- time opportunity to reach millions of non- listeners and leftist opponents, Rush Limbaugh spent his precious moments of CBS airtime to make the case regarding the War On Terror. History will record that he made it count.

And in a performance that will likely quiet criticism from the right as to why Rush chose to appear during Katie Couric's debut week, Limbaugh hit a home run. Arguing that patriotism means "each generation has a responsibility to the next", the talk titan implored the left to "stop pretending" that terrorism is nothing more than a series of isolated incidents.

"Our way of life is in grave danger," said El Rushbo, who added that "it's a cold hard fact" that militant Islam is interested only in our demise and that means that negotiations are a mistake.

"Evil always wins" when good attempts to negotiate with evil, he continued, emphasizing that it is crazy to offer "rights" to those who merely want to kill us.


With surprisingly solid television presentation skills, especially given how rarely he participates in the medium these days, it became immediately apparent that CBS News would do well (especially in terms of ratings) to bring Rush back for future commentaries.


UPDATE-- a transcript has now been placed on his website:

My friends, it's time to face a hard, cold fact. Militant Islam wants to kill us just because we're alive and don't believe as they do. They've been killing us for decades. So it's time to stop pretending these terrorist incidents are mere episodic events and face the reality that our way of life is in grave danger. This threat is not just going to go away because we choose to ignore it.

Some say we should try diplomacy. Yeah, well, tell me, how do we negotiate with people whose starting point is our death? Ask them to wait for ten years before they kill us?

When good negotiates with evil, evil will always win and peace follows victory, not words issued by diplomats. But some Americans, sadly, not interested in victory, and yet they want us to believe that their behavior is patriotic.

Well, it's not. When the critics are more interested in punishing this country over a few incidents at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay than they are in defeating those who want to kill us; when they seek to destroy a foreign surveillance program which is designed to identify those who want to kill us and how they intend to do it; when they want to grant those who want to kill us U.S. constitutional rights, I don't call that patriotic. Patriotism is rallying behind the country, regardless of party affiliation to defeat Islamofascism. Patriotism is supporting our troops in the battlefield, not undermining the mission and morale.

Let there be no doubt about this: America will prevail. We're the same country that survived a bloody civil war, defeated the Nazis and the Soviets. Each generation has a responsibility to the next, our generation will not disappoint.

To watch the video, click below:





In the meantime, Limbaugh himself reports that Couric has already faced a backlash from the left for choosing him to do the segment. From his website on Thursday evening:

RUSH: When Katie Couric approached me in early August about appearing as a commentator on their Free Speech segment on the evening news, I said, "Do you know what possibly could happen to you as a result of doing this? I mean, you could be shunned at cocktail parties; people could question your sanity and so forth," and, lo and behold, it's happening. Last night Charlie Rose had as his guest the New York Times TV writer Bill Carter, and they're talking about the evening news, and Howard Kurtz is on there as well. And Kurtz says, "The commentary and lighter segments -- showing pictures of Ron Burgundy, fictional TV anchorman -- is going to leave some people hungry for more traditional news."

Bill Carter responds...

CARTER: I would drop that commentary segment as of tonight.

ROSE: (Laughter.)

CARTER: I thought it was terrible, and I thought who -- you know, they're going to have bigger names on there --

ROSE: Yeah.

CARTER: -- but do we really need Rush Limbaugh commenting? He -- he comments all the time! You don't really need him doing that. I feel like that's kind of a sideshow. They're looking for more stars in there. But, you know, Katie was the star last night. Why take two minutes away from her? I just didn't think that really brought value at all to the newscast.


RUSH: All right. So there's the lead TV critic, or a former one (sniveling voice), "No, he's just a sideshow. We don't need him," and I warned them at CBS that their friends would find this questionable, but they have stuck with it. I don't know that there were any lobbying efforts to pull out like there are with the Clinton administration and Sandy Burglar and Madeleine Albright at ABC.

We'll have more on the Couric / Limbaugh fallout as events warrant.


COMING NEXT WEEK: What advice does Dr. Laura Schlessinger have for President Bush? Read the Radio Equalizer's exclusive interview with Dr. Laura to find out!

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