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RUSH: Monica Lewinsky, speaking of rejection, let me tell you something. It's about time that somebody -- well, this is gonna be hard, because, look, there's a plausible explanation for her being messed up. You know that long, detailed monologue I did on the day we had that blockbuster story that weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq and that Karl Rove and people in the White House had made an active political decision to cover up the discovery and what that begot us.
That got five years of an insane Democrat voter base. Five years of Bush lied, people died. Five years just unnecessary -- we lost the House and the Senate in 2006. I'm convinced that those five years of pummeling that were not responded to, were not answered to, gave us Obama. We're still suffering from it. The military is still suffering from it. The whole premise of the War on Terror, we're still suffering from that. There's so much about what the United States does that's now considered to be illegitimate because that's what the Democrat Party said, and there was no reaction to it.
So, in a certain sense, Monica Lewinsky has been a victim of similar things with what the Democrat Party and the willing allies in the media did to her in order to save Bill Clinton. But at the same time, there's been enough time go by -- I mean, she made a speech yesterday at some Forbes thing for women or people under 30 to talk about whatever they talk about. And she was just lamenting how the Internet destroyed her life. How Matt Drudge destroyed her life and the New York Post called her the Portly Pepper Pot, or some such thing. She clearly isn't over it, despite every attempt to make people think she's over it. But the thing that strikes me about it, Matt Drudge didn't do anything to her. Bill Clinton! And she's admitting, by the way, she was in love with the guy now.
She was totally, completely gone in love with Clinton. And that Clinton knew, and even despite that, here comes Carville and Begala and all of the things they did to destroy her and her reputation in order to protect Clinton. Clinton's right in assisting all that. But at some point, she's found a way, I guess because she still loves the guy, she has found a way to absolve Clinton of any blame in what happened to her, to absolve Clinton of having any role in what happened. Instead she's blaming the Internet, blaming Drudge, or what have you, and that's not what did it to her. Bill Clinton did it. The Democrat Party did it. And she was right in there doing it to herself.
She was 19 years old, and she knows the guy's married, and she knows the guy's wife is the first lady and is either right outside the door or upstairs, what have you. Well, somewhere, maybe in another wing, but she's there. The point is, Monica knows that Bill's married. Hillary's married to Bill on the days when that is useful. I'm getting a little worn out with all of the, "Oh, the Internet deprived me of my privacy and the Internet destroyed my image and reputation." There's a lot of people that did that before the Internet even got involved.
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RUSH: Now, one point I want to make, I didn't completely cross all the T's and dot all the I's here. I started to say, just like the five years of incessant, never-ending pummeling that this country and the military, the presidency took over the Iraq war, handed out by the Democrats and the media, five years, never ending, I mean, it was horrible. And I don't think we've recovered from it yet. I think it's had a permanent effect on Republican branding. I think it's had a permanent effect on the War on Terror. I think it's had a permanent impact on the already existing distrust of these institutions that we need to trust. I think the same thing with this Clinton-Lewinsky business.
I think that episode played out in a way that shocked people. I think a lot of people thought that there should have been and would be a serious price payed by Clinton for such reckless behavior, for such irresponsible behavior. From using the affections of a young intern, to lying as president under oath before a grand jury, and then we learn of all of the bullying this man engaged in with people like Kathleen Willey and Gennifer Flowers.
The fact that Bill Clinton to this day is the biggest rock star of the Democrat Party I think still has a lot of people mildly discombobulated in the sense that it wasn't that long ago there were prices to pay for such lapses of judgment and morality in positions of power and authority. And today, the episode has enhanced Clinton's resume, it's enhanced his image with some people, and I think people are still scratching their heads over this and asking, "Why teach our kids right and wrong if wrong is how you win?"
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RUSH: What do you mean, why do I think this? Because I've been told it. I've had people share this point of view with me, and I frankly kind of pooh-poohed it. Initially I just chalked it up to jealousy on the part of guys, Clinton got away with it. But I've rethought this, particularly given that blockbuster news about weapons of mass destruction.
I would love to come up with yet another -- I've already been as persuasive as possible. I'd love to come up with another way of characterizing those five years of the Iraq war, 2003-2008, and the lasting negative destructive impact on the national psyche because of that. Not just the Bush administration and not just the Republicans, but the national psyche.
And I've had, you know, over the years when Monica Lewinsky and the Clinton stories come up, I've had people say, "Can you believe the guy's the biggest rock star in the Democrat Party after all this?" And I said, "Well, it's who the Democrats are. Failure is a resume enhancement." But here comes Monica again. She won't go away. She keeps telling us how she's over it and she wants to move on, but she's not over it. She has been permanently scarred by this, and I don't think she's the only one.
I don't want to overemphasize or exaggerate here, but we all know -- it's not a matter of opinion -- it wasn't that long ago that for the kind of behavior Clinton was caught engaging in, there would have been a price to pay at least in terms of reputation, respect. I mean, here's a man who wantonly used a 19-year-old intern in the Oval Office of the White House countless times, lied about it under oath to a grand jury, while he was married, potentially subjecting himself to blackmail and other things.
I'm just saying there are a lot of people in this country who expected there to be a price to be paid, that the institution would demand it. And instead, not only was there no price to be paid other than the loss of a law license that he never used for a year, there was no shame; there was triumph. (imitating Clinton) "That's right, Limbaugh, I got away with it, buddy, ha-ha. I'm the biggest thing in the Democrat Party, Barack Obama notwithstanding. Everybody loves me. Women still want me with my pants down, Limbaugh, you know it's true, everybody does, and you just can't stand it, right?"
And I've had people say to me that, why should we bother telling our kids right and wrong when it seems like the bad guys' behavior outside the norms is what everybody wants; is what gets attention; is what sells; is how you stand out in a crowd with a lot of noise, how you make yourself known, renegade. I mean, that isn't new, but in the office of the presidency and distinguished positions of leadership, the short version of this is, I think that there has been a lingering, multiplying, sort of built up over time unease about all of this.
And now the guy, not only did he not pay a price, he is the biggest thing in the Democrat Party. He's the biggest rock star. (imitating Clinton) "Limbaugh, you forget what I've done. I have done so much image repair. Look at all the charity work that I do. I fly all over the world helping people out. I mean, I knew I had a problem. I've rebuilt my image and I've changed it around." Yeah, and all of it's for show, and it's worked. My point is, folks, I think that there is a national malaise. I think there is rampant cultural rot going on in the country that has people very worried, above and beyond politics, even though it's part of it.
The cultural rot has parents concerned. It has a lot of people concerned about the underlying decency and goodness of the country and has it been shattered and will nobody stand up for what used to be right and wrong, morality. We can't talk about it because nobody has the right to define it because whatever you think is moral, you don't have the right to impose that on anybody else, is the prevailing viewpoint today.
Morality used to be clearly understood. Right and wrong used to be clearly understood. Now it's all gray, and the likelihood of getting away with it depends on how cool and hip you are to the media. The likelihood of getting away with it depends on whether you got a D or an R after your name.
And one of the things I remember worrying about -- ah, I didn't worry about it. One of the things I commented on, I warned people that the Lewinsky-Clinton affair was very likely gonna end up being seen as cool by young people. "Man, that was really cool. Finally got rid of the stuffed shirt behavior. Yeah, the president's just like us. He's a horn dog just like we are in college. Oh, yeah, man, I'd do it if I could, props to Clinton." And there you have declining standards, reputations, and so forth.
And here's Monica. Now she's showing up at some Forbes event, 30 Under 30 summit. She's 41 years old. And she's out, she said her new objective in life is to eliminate bullying. She wants to be a spokesperson for bullying. She wants to stand up for the bullied. And yet the guy she admits being in love with was one of the biggest bullies that she's probably ever encountered. Ask Paula Jones, ask Kathleen Willey, ask Linda Tripp, ask Ken Starr, name it, the list goes on and on and on. And I know. I'm not making it up. And a lot of people say it troubles them.
All of this by itself, not big, but throw it all in with what Obama has done and what's happening to the health care system, what's happening to the economy, what's happening to jobs, the Iraq business, five years of incessant, everything that used to define the greatness of the country is under assault, it's under siege, it appears to people. Things that people used to count on.
Do you remember last week or do you even know last week, a running back from the Dallas Cowboys by the name of Joseph Randle was caught shoplifting. Now, as a running back for the Dallas Cowboys, Joseph Randle doesn't have money problems, but he got caught shoplifting underwear and a cologne, bottle of cologne or whatever, and he got caught and he apologized to his teammates, and he said, "That's not who I am."
Really? That's not who you are? You shoplift, that's not the real you? "No, it's not the real me. That's not me. I'm sorry to anybody who was offended by what I did," blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, guess what's just happened? A Los Angeles-based brand called MeUndies has just hired Joseph Randle as their spokesman. A shoplifter hired as a spokesman. I'm sure they'll have great TV commercials. I'm sure the commercials for this are gonna make fun of the shoplifting. This guy loved 'em so much, he just couldn't wait to buy them. He had to have them right now. Took 'em and so forth. The company had to see this great opportunity.
Meanwhile, the people who make this country work, that are out there toiling away in anonymity are left to scratch their heads and say, "What? How does this work?" And I think all of these things, and there are any number of them, when you tie 'em all together they feed off of themselves, and they, over time, created a giant unsettledness out there that makes people question what they've always thought to be virtuous. They're asking what happened to it. Why is the opposite of virtue what triumphs? And then they say to themselves, "It wouldn't for me. If I get caught shoplifting, I'm not gonna get hired as a spokesman for the underwear company whose product I stole." You know if it's your kid, it wouldn't happen to your kid.