Posted 3:31 AM by Scoobie Davis

Truncated Transcript of Rush Being Clubbed Like A Baby Seal--WITH AN IMPORTANT UPDATE
Transcribing is no fun but it was a blast transcribing Rush's conversation with Greg (possibly Gregg) from Orlando. The only problem is that the audio from Limbaugh's web site cut off the last part of the conversation in which Greg from Orlando confronts Rush about his lie that he didn't avoid military service in Nam because of a pilonidal cyst (the last part of the conversation is described in Joe Conason's blog). If anyone has a transcript of this last part of Greg's conversation with Rush, please let me know.

UPDATE 9:35 A.M. PST: 1) I received a WAV file from one of our friends at Rush Versus Reality. To Limbaugh's credit, he didn't delete the last part of Greg's conversation from his audio file. To Limbaugh's discredit, the reason he didn't need to do this was because Limbaugh or someone in the control room muted Greg's follow-up when he tried to confront Limbaugh about the pilonidal cyst lie. The audio file I received is no different than the one on Limbaugh's web site except it goes a few seconds beyond the audio on Limbaugh's web site; there is no followup response by Greg about Limbaugh's pilonidal cyst lie--it's just Limbaugh going to the next caller: "Judy in Chicago, you're next..." In my last conversation with Rush (scroll down to 11/27), the same thing happened: When Limbaugh began to give his long speech after he interupted me I began to interject but soon discovered after saying a couple sentences that Limbaugh was still talking and couldn't hear me--and soon thereafter, I was disconnected. In both cases, Rush performed a "seamless mute"--one in which the listeners don't have any idea that the caller is trying to make a point but is muted. In other cases, the muting of the caller is not so smooth. A case in point, when I was confronting Matt Drudge about the Ken-Lay-stayed-overnight-in-the-Clinton-White-House smear, when I mocked him about not responding and said "Where’s Drudge? Hello. [laughing] There’s no Drudge," this was muted but it lead to four seconds of dead air for radio listeners--a major no-no for radio. 2) Rush's distortions of Kerry's words that led to his questioning of Kerry's fitness as a battlefield commander deserve a response. I'll give that later.


Here is a transcript of the incredible conversation:


LIMBAUGH: Here’s Greg in Orlando Florida. Nice to have you on the program, sir. Welcome.

GREG: Hello.

LIMBAUGH: Yes sir.

GREG: Yes, about John Kerry. I’m not as sure that he’s going to be as easy to write off as a garden-variety liberal. Did you see the New Yorker piece on him a couple weeks ago?

LIMBAUGH: Yeah, You mean the one with molasses dripping off of it.

GREG: It started out telling the story of how when Vietnam happened, he went down to the recruiting station and signed up with his two best friends, John J. Pershing III and Fred Smith, the founder of Federal Express. Now that’s the kind of gravitas that gave me a chill up my spine. And I’m wondering if in the debates with Bush, he might ask Bush just off-the-cuff “Where were you when you were supposed to have shown up for duty in Mississippi and you didn’t show up for that year?”--in the national guard when he dodged the Vietnam draft. And Rush you never mentioned how you dodged the Vietnam draft.

LIMBAUGH: I didn’t

GREG: Yes, you did. You claimed you had a boil on your butt—

[Limbaugh mutes Greg]

LIMBAUGH: No, you see, that’s part of popular mythology that is out there that I have not whined nor complained about, Greg. But that is just a bunch of internet BS and hyperbole. Never happened. Was not the cause, wasn’t the case. This business of Bush is a bunch of BS, too. And if John Kerry tries to bring up Vietnam in a debate with George W. Bush, and asks that question, all Bush has got to do is bring up Bill Clinton—and all he’s got to do is give a couple quotes about John Kerry. There’s just a story in the paper today, Greg, and I’m sorry, you missed this. I forget who wrote it—it might have been Tony Blankley’s column today. John Kerry said something, “You know, I’ve learned a lot with my military experience and if you’re leading the way and you turn around and the troops aren’t behind you, you got a real problem.” Now what he was trying to say is: Bush is trying to take us into areas nobody wants to go, but the answer to the question—or the question that is: “Oh, Senator, you were commanding officer in Vietnam and you actually turned around and troops weren’t there? What kind of commanding officer were you?” We can play this any number of ways you want, Greg, baby. But until you can get your facts straight and stop believing a bunch of internet B.S. and hyperbole, you guys are—You see, this is exactly what they have been doing for fourteen years, my friends. And we haven’t been complaining about it--we haven’t been whining about it. And not one thing he said has anything to do with the ideas that are important to the American people today. It isn’t about personalities, Greg. Although if it were, you’d definitely be climbing out of a hole that you’ve just dug for yourself. Judy in Chicago, you're next. Welcome...

UPDATE: Limbaugh is also a racist (scroll up to my 12/18 post).