Telephonic Interview of the Vice President by Rush Limbaugh

[mjh: first, let’s discredit Richard Clarke]

Lush: Why did the administration keep Richard Clarke on the counterterrorism team when you all assumed office in January of 2001?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I wasn’t directly involved in that decision. He was moved out of the counterterrorism business over to the cyber security side of things, that is he was given a new assignment at some point here. I don’t recall the exact time frame.

Lush: Cyber security, meaning Internet security?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yes, worried about attacks on the computer systems and the sophisticated information technology systems we have these days that an adversary would use or try to the system against us.

Lush: Well, now that explains a lot, that answer right there explains — (Laughter.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, he wasn’t — he wasn’t in the loop, frankly, on a lot of this stuff. And I saw part of his interview last night, and he wasn’t —

Lush: He was demoted.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: It was as though he clearly missed a lot of what was going on. …

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I’ve worked with a lot of them over the years. I suppose he may have a grudge to bear there since he probably wanted a more prominent position than [Rice] was prepared to give him. …

[mjh: now, blame the Democrats]

Lush: But it’s just part of the — what to me appears now to be an obvious attack machine at full throttle. You have this book coming out while John Kerry is on vacation so he doesn’t have to say this stuff. The author of this book is associated with Kerry’s foreign policy advisor, up at the Kennedy School. You have a Bob Woodward book that’s coming in a few weeks from the same publisher. Despite all of these attacks, and by the way, I actually think, Mr. Vice President, if you’ll permit me an editorial comment here, you have the Clinton administration — if they had defended the country as eagerly and with as much fervor as they are attempting to defend themselves in all this, we might have — and I don’t expect you comment, I just — we might have escaped some of the attacks that we’ve had. [mjh: yup, craven Dems caused 9/11]

But with this frontal assault, the President’s poll numbers remain up [mjh: ?!]. The administration remains focused. They haven’t taken you off your game. …

Lush: Mr. Clarke, to get back to him for a moment, is saying that actually if we would just take some more time and talk to these people, understand why they hate us, we might be able to forge some kind of peace with them. … [mjh: nowhere else have I read such a quote attributed to Clarke]

THE VICE PRESIDENT: In Iraq, we were concerned not only about the fact that Saddam had hosted terrorists in the past. He’d stimulated and encouraged them by providing financial rewards for suicide bombers that hit Israel, as well as his past involvement with weapons of mass destruction. … [mjh: past?]

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, we’ve got, obviously, a very important election here, Rush. This may be the most important presidential election in many years because of the issues that are going to be decided here, especially with respect to how we defend the country in this war on terror. And it’s very important we get our side of the story out. …

Lush: When you criticize Senator Kerry’s record, it is said that you’re attacking him and going negative and this sort of thing. I see it’s not deterring you, and so forth. But how do you plan a campaign against an opponent who will claim to have said or not said anything he’s accused of having said or not said? … [mjh: 2004 winner of the Rumsfeld Obfuscation Award; ”it’s the unknown we don’t know…”]

Lush: Does it frustrate you when you see Senators Hagel and McCain, Republicans, sort of attack the administration’s attack on Kerry’s voting record and defend it… Does it bother you to see what some people regard as Republican defections? …

This transcript appears at www.whitehouse.gov — your deficit dollars at work. Blowhard Lush Limbaugh delivers his army of dittoheads to Bush. This is not the reason Lush isn’t in jail for drug crimes. Or is it? mjh