Rush called out Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) today while discussing the dishonest resolution on the floor of the Senate. Transcript follows beginning with Harry Reid’s statement on the Senate floor . . .
REID: Rush Limbaugh took it upon himself to attack the courage and character of those fighting and dying for him and for all of us. Rush Limbaugh got himself a deferment from serving when he was a young man. He never served in uniform. He never saw in person the extreme difficulty of maintaining peace in a foreign country engaged in a civil war. He never saw a person in combat. Yet he thinks that his opinion on the war is worth more than those who have been on the front lines. And what’s worse, Limbaugh’s show is broadcast on Armed Forces Radio, which means that thousands of troops, overseas, and veterans here at home, were forced to hear this attack on their patriotism. Rush Limbaugh owes the men and women of our armed forces an apology.
REID: Mr. President, just as patriotism is exclusive realm of neither party, taking a stand against those who hate and impugn the integrity of our troops is a job that belongs to both parties, all of us. I’m confident we will see Republicans joining with us in overwhelming numbers. “Confident” is the wrong word, Mr. President. “Hopeful” is the right word. So I asked my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans alike, to join together against this irresponsible, hateful, and unpatriot[ic] attack by calling on Rush Limbaugh to give our troops the apology they deserve — and I hope that all would sign this letter.
RUSH: All right. Well, somebody needs to tell him I did apologize to the troops earlier today, FOR him and FOR the Democrats and FOR the group that has fed this smear campaign, this bunch of lies that he knows is false, but he just wants to get this in the Congressional Record now. This is in the Congressional Record, and he wants it there permanently. This is a way to discredit me and rehabilitate the Democrats — and notice who they use to try to rehabilitate themselves: a private citizen. I would say this. What I want to do now is demand that Harry Reid come on this program and confront me like a man. Live, unedited, come on this show and let’s go at it. I’m not going to allow hack politicians to lie about what I said, to cover up what they have said and done. These are partisan character assassins. They’ve attacked me just as in the past they’ve attacked Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, and scores of other conservatives. Senator Reid, it is time for you to stop hiding behind the speech-and-debate clause and your Senate immunity.
You want to come on this program and call me unpatriotic, come on this program and call me unpatriotic. You want to call me a liar, you want to tell me that I did not say what I said, you come on this program and you tell me to my face that I said what I did not say. Stop hiding behind your special protections as a senator and spewing the talking points of an embarrassing, partisan hack media group called Media Matters for America. Hillary Clinton didn’t serve in the military, by the way, Senator Reid. She just voted against General Petraeus. Barack Obama did not serve in the military, Senator Reid, and he didn’t even show up to vote in support of Petraeus. John Edwards didn’t serve, and after voting to send our troops to war, he has undermined them ever since. It is unconscionable for an esteemed United States senator to launch an all-out assault on a private citizen, which is a lie from front to back, in order to cover your own actions and words, which have been the true demoralization of the US military — and if anybody owes the military of this country an apology, Senator Reid, it is you. It is Jack Murtha. It is Dick Durbin. It is any and all who have joined your effort to secure defeat of the United States and the United States military in not only Iraq, but the war on terror.
Sir, have you no decency left? Have you no shame whatsoever?
— end of snippet
According to John Edwards, Mark Penn’s