Unofficial Summary of the Rush Limbaugh Show for Thursday, June 20, 1996 by John Switzer This unofficial summary is copyright (c) 1996 by John Switzer (jswitzer@limbaugh.com). All Rights Reserved. These summaries are distributed on CompuServe and the Internet, and archived on CompuServe (DL9 of the ISSUES forum). The summaries for the past 60 days can be found at ftp://ftp.aimnet.com/pub/users/jswitzer. Distribution to other electronic forums and bulletin boards is highly encouraged. Spelling and other corrections gratefully received. Please read the standard disclaimer which was included with the first summary for this month. In particular, please note that this summary is not approved or sanctioned by Rush Limbaugh or the EIB network, nor do I have any connection with them other than as a daily listener. For links to major newspapers, see http://www.lainet.com/~drudge *************************************************************** June 20, 1996 BRIEF SUMMARY OF TOPICS: transcript of Nicole Brown Simpson's October 25, 1993 call to 911; commercial for the Big Bill Clinton Bungee Condom; commercial for The Prezco Campaign Press Conference See and Say; White House praises its list of White House Fellows for being the first ever where "most of the `fellows' aren't"; vegetarian bus driver who was fired for refusing to distribute hamburger coupons sues to get his job back, claiming his vegetarian beliefs are the same as religious convictions; Rush gets hate mail from Mac lovers who think his purchase of a Windows 95 computer is a betrayal; Cal Thomas quotes Chuck Colson as reminding everyone he was sent to jail for improper use of FBI files; Democrats are teaching callers and guests how to defend the Clinton administration on talk radio; Bruce Lindsey is named an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the second Arkansas Whitewater trial; the rich have gotten richer under the Clinton administration; Secret Service agent testifies he saw Craig Livingstone remove records from Vince Foster's office the night of Foster's death; Nancy Gemmell testifies to the House Government Reform Committee, blowing holes in the White House's version of Filegate; Hillary Clinton's press secretary Lisa Caputo resigns so she can become a VP at CBS; one day after the FAA has shut down ValuJet, three competing airlines raise their fares as much as 150 to 200% along ValuJet's routes; Janet Reno didn't ask Kenneth Starr to take over the Filegate investigation until Republicans raised objections to having the FBI investigate itself; caller defends USAir's raising of prices after ValuJet's shutdown; caller says Democrats don't have to act stupid because they are, given that they reject logical arguments in favor of emotional ones; caller says ValuJet was obviously cutting maintenance so it could keep ticket prices down; the Clinton administration opposes the re-election of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, claiming that he won't do anything to cut the bloated U.N. budget; aide to Dick Gephardt's (D-MO) campaign got the credit report for Gephardt's Republican opponent; the press seems to be getting nervous about how close Whitewater and Filegate are getting to Bill Clinton; attorneys for Paula Jones offer an out of court settlement to Bill Clinton; Charles Colson is amazed there isn't as much public outrage over the Clinton's misuse of 480 FBI files; Nancy Gemmell contradicts the White House's claims about how it got the FBI files; caller says Clinton is either native or corrupt with Whitewater and Filegate; Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) points out that Craig Livingstone was a bartender before heading up the White House's security office; caller objects to Rush's comparison between ValuJet and USAir; the rich got richer during the first two years of the Clinton administration, and the wealthiest 20% of households earn more than the middle 60% of households; caller thinks Janet Reno passed the buck on Filegate to Kenneth Starr because she knows he would not be able to investigate it before the elections; airline travel is still the safest most of travel in America; Clinton's continuing lead in the polls is a good sign because it will force Republicans to find ways to persuade the 20% of undecideds, as opposed to relying on scandal; Mark Levin notes that deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick has a campaign "war room" in the Justice Department and that her old law firm is representing Craig Livingstone; caller says Southwest is just one low-cost airline that proves you can have both safety and low fares; Dennis Casey testifies that Anthony Marceca and Craig Livingstone both worked on Gary Hart's 1984 campaign but were fired for unethical conduct; caller suggests that the airlines' safety records be published; Rep. Thomas Lantos (D-CA) claims Filegate is a "Republican ploy" put on by desperate Republicans; Senator Christopher Bond (R-MO) notes that congressional committees cannot look at FBI files without an FBI agent present; test pilot reports that the maintenance costs at an airline have nothing to do with ticket revenues because market economics drive the ticket prices, while the FAA drives the maintenance schedules; caller asks why people would vote for Bill Clinton when they admit they can't trust him. LIMBAUGH WATCH June 20, 1996 - It's now 1310 days after Bill Clinton's election, but Rush is still on the air with 650 radio affiliates (with more than 20 million listeners weekly world-wide), 210 TV affiliates (with a national rating of 3.7), and a newsletter with more than 500,000 subscribers. His first book was on the NY Times hardback non-fiction best- seller list for 54 consecutive weeks, with 2.6 million copies sold, but fell off the list after Simon and Schuster stopped printing it. The paperback version of "The Way Things Ought To Be" was on the NY Times paperback non-fiction best-seller list for 28 weeks. Rush's second book, "See, I Told You So," was on the NY Times hardback best-seller list for 16 weeks and has sold over 2.45 million copies; the paperback version was on the best- seller list for 11 weeks. WHITEWATER WATCH o Pending and Possible Indictments: White House lawyer and Presidential adviser Bruce Lindsey (according to the May 5, 1995 USA Today, received target letter from Whitewater prosecutors). o Indictments: Governor Jim Guy Tucker (D-AR) (taking out a loan under false pretenses and defrauding the IRS); Herby Branscum, Jr. and Robert Hill (conspiracy, misapplication of bank funds, and failing to file correct statements with federal regulators and examiners); Susan McDougal (for allegedly embezzling $150,000 from conductor Zubin Mehta and his wife). o Convictions: James McDougal (fraud and conspiracy concerning Madison Guaranty S&L and Capital Management Services- May, 1996); Susan McDougal (fraud and conspiracy concerning Madison Guaranty S&L-May, 1996); Governor Jim Guy Tucker (D-AR) (felony fraud and conspiracy-May, 1996); David Hale (felony fraud-March, 1994); Robert Palmer (convicted of falsifying appraisal documents related to Madison Guaranty S&L-December, 1994); Webster Hubbell (convicted of mail fraud, tax evasion, and overbilling clients of at least $394,000-December, 1994); Charles Matthews and Eugene Fitzhugh (bribery-January 1995, defrauding the SBA-April 1995); real estate broker Christopher V. Wade (pleaded guilty to lying to a bankruptcy court and filing false loan applications to buy Whitewater property-March, 1995); Little Rock banker Neil Ainley (pleaded guilty to reduced charges of willfully delivering false documents to the government-May 1995); Arkansas college professor Stephen Smith (pleaded guilty to misusing federal funds to help pay off a loan he took out along with James McDougal and Governor Jim Guy Tucker); Larry Kuca (pleaded guilty to defrauding the SBA of a $150,000 loan together with David Hale-July 1995). NEWS o Yesterday President Clinton appointed the 1996-1997 White House Fellows, ten women and eight men, and Fellowship Director Brooke Shearer praised the awards, saying "for the first time in the program's 32-year history, most of the `fellows' aren't. The fellows, who include a Wall Street Journal reporter, a lawyer for Marriott International, a policy analyst for the International Peace Academy, and the executive Director of Habitat for Humanity, will spend a year working as assistants to senior officials in the White House and Cabinet. LEST WE FORGET The following are from the Rush Limbaugh show on Thursday, June 23, 1994: o Rush noted that on October 28, 1992, Governor and Presidential candidate Bill Clinton stated "I won't to restrain the influence of Political Action Committees and lobbyists." Also, on page 46 of Clinton's "Putting People First," Clinton wrote, "I want to end unlimited soft money contributions that are funneled through national, state, and local parties to Presidential candidates." As late as March 23, 1993, then-President Clinton unequivocally stated "I think we should do away with the soft money issue and work towards change. A proposal that plugs loopholes in the financing of Presidential campaigns by eliminating so-called soft money contributors is what I am for." However, despite having a Democratic Congress, Clinton had done nothing about soft money contributions. In fact, after 21 months in office, he had raised nearly $41 million in soft money contributions from special interest groups, twice as much as Republicans. When asked about this discrepancy with his campaign promises, Clinton replied "I have said all along, I don't believe in unilateral disarmament. And if you look, I have had a lot more advertising and attacks against our administration and our policies than we have had the financial wherewithal to respond to." o EIB announcer Johnny Donovan produced an enhanced version of the 911 call made by Nicole Simpson on October 25, 1993 as O.J. Simpson was breaking down her door. Nicole told the 911 operator "he's going to beat the shit out of me," and a little later O.J. can be heard shouting about how he's going to beat "any white girl" who calls the police on him. <> 911 Operator: 911 Emergency. Nicole Brown Simpson: Can you get someone over here now to 325 Gretna Green. He's back. 911: OK, what does he look like? NBS: He's O.J. Simpson, I think you know his record. Could you just send somebody over here? 911: OK, what is he doing there? NBS: (crying): He just drove up again. Could you just send somebody over? 911: What kind of car is he in? NBS: He's in a white Bronco. First of all, he broke the back door down to get in. 911: OK, wait a minute. What's your name? NBS: Nicole Simpson. 911: OK, is he the sportscaster or whatever? NBS: Yeah . . . thank you 911: Wait a minute, we're sending the police. What is he doing, is he threatening you? NBS: He's fucking going nuts. 911: Has he threatened you in any way or is he just harassing you? NBS: You're going to hear him in a minute, he's about to come in again. 911: OK, just stay on the line. NBS: I don't want to stay on the line, he's going to beat the shit out of me. 911: Wait a minute, just stay on the line so we can know what's going on till the police get there, OK? OK, Nicole? NBS: Uh-huh. 911: Just a moment . . . does he have any weapons? NBS: I don't know. He went home and now he's back. The kids are upstairs sleeping, and I don't want anything to happen. 911: OK, just a moment. Is he on drugs or anything? NBS: No. 911: OK. Just say on the line, just in case he comes in. I need to hear what's going on, alright? NBS: Can you hear him outside? 911: Is he yelling? NBS: Yup. 911: OK. Has he been drinking? NBS: No. 911: OK. (to dispatch) All units, additional on the domestic violence, 325 South Gretna Green Way. The suspect has returned in a white Bronco. Monitor comments (garbled). OK. (to Nicole) Nicole, is he still outdoors? NBS: That's right, he's in the backyard. 911: He's in the backyard? NBS: Screaming at my roommate about something and at me here. 911: OK. What is he saying? NBS: Oh, something about some guy I know, and hookers and . . . I started this shit before, and it's all my fault, and now what am I going to do, get the police in on this, and the whole thing . . . it's all my fault, I've started this before . . . brother. (crying) Knowing the kids are close to this . . . 911: OK Has he hit you today or no? NBS: No. 911: OK. You don't need any paramedics or anything? NBS: Uh-huh. 911: You just want the police? NBS: He broke my door, he broke the whole back door in. 911: And then he left and he came back? NBS: He came and he practically knocked my upstairs door down. He pounded it. And he then he screamed and hollered and I tried to get him out of the bedroom because the kids are sleeping in there. 911: Uh, huh. OK. NBS: And then he wanted somebody's phone number and I gave him my phone book - or I put my phone book down to write down the phone number that he wanted and he took my phone book with all my stuff in it. 911: O.K. so basically you guys have just been arguing? O.J. shouting in the background <>: This is O.J.! Fuck this ass (garbled) any white girl fuck me with this shit! 911: Is he inside right now? NBS: Yes. 911: Just a moment. O.J.: You understand? (garbled shouting with profanity) 911: Is he talking to you? NBS: Yeah. 911: Are you locked in a room or something? NBS: No, he can come right in. I'm not going where the kids are because the kids are . . . 911: You think he's going to hit you? NBS: I don't know what he's going to do. O.J.: (continues to shout) 911: Stay on the line, don't hang it up, OK? (contacts dispatch) What is he saying? O.J.: (shouting about `last Friday' and `our friends') NBS: What? 911: What is he saying? NBS: What else? O.J.: (continues to rant and shout) NBS: (not into the phone) O.J., the kids . . . O.J., the kids are sleeping. O.J. (very agitated): You didn't give a shit about the kids when you were <> his <> in the living room? They were here. You didn't care about the kids then? It's different now! I'm talking and you're doing (garbled). 911: He's still yelling at you? NBS: (sighs) O.J.: (continues to shout, using words such as "asshole") 911: Just stay on the line, OK? O.J.: (shouting) What do you have to say about that? 911: (talks to dispatch) O.J.: (continue shouting) 911: (to Nicole) Is he upset with something that you did? NBS: Oh, a long time ago, it always comes back. (sighs) O.J.: (continues to shout, garbled, but includes "what do you mean you called him?") 911: Is your roommate talking to him? NBS: No, who can talk? Listen to him? 911: I know. Does he have any weapons or anything with him right now? NBS: No. 911: OK. O.J.: (continuing to shout, garbled, but with "going to kick his ass" and "it deserves a <>") 911: Where is he standing? NBS: In the back doorway. In the house. 911: OK. O.J.: (continuing to shout, garbled but clearly heard is "I don't give a shit anymore") NBS: (to O.J.) Could you just please, O.J. . . . O.J., O.J., O.J., could you just please leave me. O.J.: I'll beat you with my two <> fists, is what I'll do to you. (garbled) off the air there. You say (garbled) NBS: (to O.J.) O.J., please, the kids . . . the kids are asleep. O.J.: (continues to shout, garbled, voice fades out) 911: Is he leaving? NBS: No. 911: Does he know you're on the phone with the police? NBS: No. 911: OK. Where are the kids right now? NBS: Up in my room. 911: Can they hear him yelling? NBS: I don't know. The room's the only one that's quiet. 911: Is there someone up there with the kids? NBS: No. O.J.: (continues to shout and rant in background) 911: What did he say now? Nicole, you still on the line? NBS: Yeah. 911: You think he's still going to hit you? NBS: I don't know. Not going to leave, he just said that . . . he just said he ain't leaving. O.J.: (shouting) I'm going to say what I say, then I'm leaving when I'm gone. Hey, I can read this whole shit all weekend in the National Inquirer. Her words exactly! (garbled) 911: Are you the only one in there with him? NBS: Right now, yeah. 911: And he's talking to you? NBS: He's also talking to the guy who lives out back, who's just standing there. He just came home. 911: Oh, OK. OK. Has this happened before or no? NBS: Eight times. 911: Oh. The police should be on the way. It just seems like a long time because it's kind of busy in that division right now. (to dispatch) The suspect is still there and yelling loudly. O.J.: (continues to shout in background) 911: Is he still arguing? NBS: Uh, huh. (sound of pounding) 911: Was someone knocking on your door? NBS: That was him. 911: Oh, he was knocking on the door? NBS: There's a locked bedroom and he's wondering why? 911: Oh, he's knocking on a locked door. NBS: You know, O.J., that window above you is also open, could you just go, please. Can I get off the phone now? 911: You want to hang up, do you feel safe hanging up? NBS: No, you're right. 911: Do you want to wait until the police get there? NBS: Yeah. O.J.: (continuing to shout in background) 911: Nicole, is he still arguing with you? NBS: Uh, huh. I'm just ignoring him. 911: OK, but he doesn't know you're . . . OK. Are the kids still asleep? NBS: Yes, I think. 911: What part of the house is he in right now? NBS: Downstairs. 911: Downstairs and you're upstairs? NBS: No, I'm downstairs, in the kitchen. Now he's walking around. O.J.: (heard shouting in the background) <> o USA Today reported that "husbands are battered as often as wives," with women assaulting men at a rate nearly identical to that of men assaulting women, although the injuries were "usually not as serious." o At the New York Gay and Lesbian Conference, Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders attacked the "un-Christian religious right" for opposing education programs on AIDS and sex, saying, "We've got to take on those people who are selling our children out in the name of religion." Elders also told a Senate Committee on May 11th the following when asked why the government was spending more on AIDS (the nation's ninth killer) than on cancer and heart disease (the number one and two killers): "We know that AIDS is a ravaged disease in our country that's destroying our bright young people. We've not found the cure for this disease. We do not have a vaccine for this disease. The only thing we've got is education and to try and treat them as best we can. I feel that if we do not find a vaccine, do not find a good drug, and we do not educate our bright young people, Senator, we're going to lose our entire society." o The Houston Rockets won the NBA championship, finally making Houston a championship city. o The NY Post had the "quintessential New York story" - a thick-necked guy named Sal Inglieri was charged with abusing a kidnapped 11-year-old girl, violating an order of protection to keep away from the girl, assaulting the girl's grandmother, godmother, and brother, sexually abusing the girl when she was a toddler, making children look at pornography, cheating on his taxes, and killing the girl's cat in front of her by bashing its head against a wall. When asked about this, Inglieri angrily stated "I did not kill no cat." Rush noted this sort of thing could only happen in New York. o The Wall Street Journal reported that the Clinton administration's new condom ads had not spurred condom sales much. The CDC developed the ads to encourage the sales and use of condoms, but condom sales actually fell at least 3%. James Curran of the CDC, however, insisted that the ads had been a success, but that such success would need more than a "few months" to be demonstrated. Rush decided to help by playing a commercial for the Big Bill Bungee Condom: <> Hi, I am the president of the Bungee Condom corporation. You haven't heard a lot from us lately because, well, ever since the administration moved left, business went south. However, I'm not blaming our President or his husband, uh, her wife, uh, I don't blame the Clintons! I have learned a lot from the Clinton administration. In fact, I have decided to contribute to the Clinton Defense Fund. <> Yes, every time you purchase a Big Bill Clinton Bungee Condom, we'll contribute a whopping ten cents to the Clinton Defense Fund. Yes, when you buy a Big Bill, you can help Big Bill with his big bills! Remember, the Big Bill Clinton condom is our smallest size, so that, like the truth, it can be stretched until something breaks and everything comes out! <> So buy a Big Bill Bungee Condom today! And we'll give ten cents to the Clinton Defense Fund. Now, in order to make this ten cent contribution, we are raising the price of each Bungee condom by 75 cents! See, I told you we learned a lot from the Clinton administration! <> Bungee Condoms, when all other cover-ups fail! o EIB introduced a new product: "The Prezco Campaign Press Conference See and Say" based on the 1992 campaign: <> <> Mom and Dad! We know you're confused about the political candidates today, and your kids will be, too, when they're old enough to vote. So why not start them out early? Prezco presents the Campaign Press Conference See and Say. Just pull the string and the candidates come to life! <> <> Paul Tsongas says . . . <> Uh, ack, I don't want to be Santa Claus. <> <> George Bush says . . . <> Read my lips! No new taxes! <> Dan Quayle says . . . <> What a waste it is to lose one's mind, or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. <> Bill Clinton says . . . <> I know I've made some mistakes. I think everyone knows that I've tried it once but I didn't inhale. <> Ross Perot says . . . <> Let me tell you something - I don't have an answer for that. I haven't even thought of that yet. <> The Campaign Press Conference See and Say! So that your kids will be as confused about politics as you! From Prezco! Now available in Democrat, Republican, and Independent. Buy all three! ******** MORNING UPDATE Bruce Anderson was a bus driver in Santa Ana, CA, and one day he was asked to hand out coupons for free Carl's Jr. hamburgers as part of a promotion to increase ridership. However, Anderson is a vegetarian, and he refused to cooperate, saying that he didn't want to participate in the deaths of cows. Thus, in an "act of courage" that inspired vegetarians everywhere, Anderson, saying that he was probably saving "half a cow," stood his ground. The Transit Authority, though, took the ground away from Anderson and fired him, so he's now suing to get his job back, along with attorney's fees and back pay. Feminist Gloria Alred, who takes any chance she can get to appear on TV and in the press, is defending him. Alred insists that because Anderson has shunned meat, dairy products, and other things made from animals his convictions are just as valid as any religious beliefs. Rush, though, points out that while Anderson's beliefs are valid they are valid only to him; he can believe what he wants so long as he doesn't enforce his beliefs on anyone else, including his superiors at the Transit Authority or the passengers on his bus. These people can eat whatever they want and it's none of Anderson's business one way, which means he has no right as a bus driver to lecture his passengers on what they can eat. Hopefully now some hard-working bus driver who knows how to do his job (and keep his mouth shut while on the job) has taken over Anderson's route. If so, he can now say that he got his job due to a hamburger promotion, to which Rush can only say "make mine medium rare." FIRST HOUR Items o Rush's email is overflowing with letters from angry Macintosh users who think he has "betrayed" them and his Macintosh heritage by buying a Windows 95 computer, as he described yesterday. These people are also livid because the "Snappy" camera that Rush talked about is supposedly available for Mac computers, too. Rush points out, though, that just because he bought this Gateway 2000 laptop, he's not giving up on his Macs. He does want to be versatile, but he's not giving up his Macs - it's not like he's attending his college reunion and dancing with an old flame while his wife looks only stony-faced. It's clear, though, that Mac computer users are nothing if not loyal. They are absolutely convinced that theirs is the best computer system around. Rush did say that the corporate types at Apple probably would be happy should he stop using their products, but that didn't mean he was going to give up his Macs. o Rush notes that Charles "Chuck" Colson was one of those who went to jail because of Watergate - Colson's crime was misusing FBI files, and he was given a one to three year jail term. Cal Thomas in his column today makes this point, quoting Colson as reminding everyone that he went to jail for what the White House is now calling a "bureaucratic snafu." o There's a story by Christopher Georges in today's Wall Street Journal titled "Democrats' Talk-Radio Recipe: Deflect, Deny, Evade, Act Stupid." Rush has been criticized for claiming that the Democratic party is training callers to get on right- wing talk radio, so he'd like to read this story: "Here's how to get ahead in politics and talk radio: sound dumb. "At least that's what the Democratic Party tells those who are training to counter Republican dominance of the radio waves. This advice and other tactics are outlined in an 11-page Democratic National Committee internal memo recently issued to congressional candidates and local party officials who will appear on talk shows as the November elections draw near. "Indeed party officials, who Wednesday confirmed the document's authenticity, are - in the memo - quite forthright about how to spread the Clinton message. Among the tips: " `Some hosts may try to slam you with obscure facts. . . . The key is that you can always change the subject.' " `If a caller raises a `hot' topic in reference to the President, you can answer: `I understand that the President is a deeply religious man and he is a regular churchgoer.' ` "To get on the air, `when asked what you want to discuss . . . make your reservations about the host seem bland.' " `Make sure you know and support the administration's position.' " `We're breaking new ground here,' said Jon-Christopher Bua, who heads the talk-radio effort and wrote the memo. `We're going to take back the airwaves.' " Thus, the Democratic party is telling both callers and guests how to deal with talk radio, just as Rush was saying. However, it's going to be tough for would-be callers to know the administration's position on the issues, given that their position changes on the hour. Not surprisingly, the Democrats who were asked to comment on this story were embarrassed by this report, especially the part about "acting stupid." o There's an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the second Whitewater trial: Bruce Lindsey, a close friend of Bill Clinton. Lindsey will be asked about illegal siphoning of money from Perry County Bank so it could be given to Clinton's re-election campaigns in Arkansas. Prosecutors contend that some $30,000 withdrawn from Perry County Bank was not reported to the IRS, as required by federal law. Lindsey is claiming that he's been named an unindicted co- conspirator so that hearsay evidence can be admitted; supposedly, certain things could not be raised in the trial had Lindsey been actually indicted. Rush, though, suspects the real reason for this is that the statute of limitations on Lindsey's alleged wrong-doings has expired, which means he could not be indicted, even if he confessed in full. o The rich are supposedly getting richer in America, and Rush has seen two different treatments of this story, which concerns a new analysis of Census data. According to USA Today, the rich earn more than all of the American middle class, but another story makes a more interesting point: during the first two years of the Clinton Presidency, the share of national income earned by the top 5% of households grew at a faster rate than during the eight years of the Reagan administration. So although Bill Clinton in the 1992 claimed he would defend the middle class by raising taxes on the rich, in reality the rich have gotten even richer under Clinton. Rush suspects that this means that if Clinton is re-elected, he'll propose tax increases even greater than those he's done before. o Deborah Oren of the NY Post writes that a Secret Service agent has given a sworn statement that he saw Craig Livingstone, who's at the center of Filegate, remove files from Vincent Foster's office the morning after Foster's death. Livingston tried to call the Secret Service and get hold of this agent, but the Secret Service refused to give him this information. o The House Government Reform Committee yesterday heard testimony from Nancy Gemmell, a civil servant who blew holes in the White House's account of the handling of these FBI files. Gemmell testified that teenagers without security clearances were allowed to look through the files, and that Craig Livingstone himself didn't even have a security clearance when he took over the job of White House security. o Hillary Clinton's press secretary Lisa Caputo has resigned so she can join CBS as a vice president of corporate communications. Some are speculating that Caputo is resigning because too much heat is being felt in the White House, but Rush is more interested in how she's jumping from the administration to CBS. It seems that the revolving door linking liberal Democrats in office and those in the mainstream media continues to be wide open. *BREAK* It didn't take even 24 hours after the FAA grounded ValuJet before three competing airlines that fly the same routes raised their prices, in some cases doubling them. USAir, for example, raised its fares as high as 150% for routes previously flown by ValuJet. Rush bets the liberals are very happy with this since it means "customers are getting what they are paying for." Liberals, of course, claimed ValuJet was unsafe because they weren't charging enough and thus "you get what you pay for." Rush thus wonders how many accidents USAir has had versus ValuJet, which to date has had one crash. This provokes a scream from Bo Snerdley, who undoubtedly knows he'll now be inundated with callers who work at USAir, but Rush says this is what the liberals' logic really means. Bo asks if this means the country should reregulate the airlines, but Rush tells him to stop overreacting like a special interest lobbyist, such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest which is renowned for concluding that everything in life is bad for you. Phone Bob from Grass Valley, CA Bob says Janet Reno has recommended that Kenneth Starr takes over the investigation of the FBI files, which interests Bob because it puts a light on Janet Reno's relationship to the Clintons. Bill Clinton picked three or four people for the job of Attorney General before picking Reno, so Bob is wondering whether the Clintons really wanted Reno. This could be why Reno is taking steps to distance herself even further from the Clintons and this FBI files mess. Rush says this is interesting logic - Reno has said she doesn't want any part of investigating Filegate, so she's asked the court that appoints independent prosecutors to give Kenneth Starr jurisdiction over this matter. However, Rush wouldn't jump to Bob's conclusions because this is a natural step for the Attorney General to take. Reno, after all, is head of the department that controls of the FBI and is part of the Clinton administration, so there are conflicts of interest with her handling the investigation of these files. Rush finds it interesting, though, that Bob thinks this means Reno is not as loyal as the administration's first choice for Attorney General, and/or that she is trying to get as far away from them as possible. This just goes to show what the public thinks this administration is capable of. However, Rush does think it's entirely appropriate for Reno to make this request since it wouldn't be proper for Reno to investigate "herself" (i.e. an agency under her control). Bob agrees and he's glad Reno has made this request. Rush notes, though, that the court has not yet given Starr authority to investigate Filegate. It could be that the court will reject her request and throw this ball back into Reno's hands, so people will have to wait and see. Rush thanks Bob for calling. *BREAK* Returning to Janet Reno and her desire to get away from Filegate, Rush notes that Kenneth Starr advised her on Tuesday that he didn't think he had any jurisdiction to investigate the misuse of the FBI files. Reno ordered the FBI to investigate itself, causing Republicans such as Bob Dole to point out that the FBI and Justice Department couldn't investigate itself like this. It was thus only after Republicans complained about Reno's intention to investigate herself that she asked the judges to give Starr jurisdiction about this matter. Phone Kelly from Dayton, OH Kelly is on her way to work for USAir airline and thinks Rush's comments about ValuJet and USAir are unfair because USAir was forced to cut its prices when ValuJet came into the market. Thus, USAir is raising its prices now only to regain what it lost when it lowered prices. Rush says he firmly believes that whatever the market can bear is what the price of something should be. If competition brings prices down, then so be it - this is what competition does. However, his comments earlier were motivated by how liberal panty-weights were whining about how ValuJet wasn't charging enough. Rush rejects the notion that low fares cause accidents while high fares prevent them. There are many airlines that charge more than ValuJet that have had accidents. Kelly agrees and notes that USAir has had accidents, too. Rush says everyone who starts an airline has to know that accidents will happen sooner or later, and Kelly adds anyone who knows how much is involved with getting a plane off the ground is very much aware of this. Rush says he's learned how much it would cost to maintain and keep a corporate jet, and he can't even imagine what's involved with maintaining a fleet of passenger jets at the standards required by the FAA. It has to be a mind-boggling amount of money - the amount it takes for just a year must be far more than most people will ever earn in their lifetime. In any case, Rush wasn't criticizing USAir or ValuJet's other competitors, but just taking off against the liberals who were whining that ValuJet's tickets "didn't cost enough." This just isn't logical - by this logic, every airline ticket should cost $12,000, with every passenger guaranteed that their plane won't crash. This simply cannot be done, though. Phone Gavin from Virginia Beach, VA Gavin says the Democrats don't have to "act" stupid because their rejection of logic makes that inevitable. Conservatism is rooted in logic, while liberalism is rooted in common sense. Rush agrees, but the troubling thing about this piece about Democrats and talk radio is that it seems to be working - Bob Dole is still trailing by almost 30 points in California, despite everything that has happened with Clinton. As the U.S. News and World Report poll earlier this week shows, people will still vote for Clinton, despite admitting they don't trust him or think he has a good character. Dealing with the substance of issues by using logic thus doesn't seem to matter; this perhaps is what did in the Republican Congress - they tried to deal with the issues substantively and logically, while the Democrats used emotion-laden arguments and attacks. The Republicans made the "hard choices" the people were demanding, but the people didn't seem to care. Gavin thinks the Republicans probably were keeping their arguments too detached for most people; he's not certain that a logical approach cannot prevail. Rush says this might be, but he agrees with Gavin's point that the Democrats don't have to act to be stupid because they are. Gavin says the Democrats just demagogue their points and they get away with it because reporters never challenge them on it. Rush admits that the Democrats really aren't acting "stupid" - a better way to say this is that the Democrats don't have to use substantive arguments because they can't; they have no substance. When Hillary, Bill, and the Democrats are attacked, they don't respond to the substance of the charges but instead counter- attack the character of their accuser. This is what the Democratic memo advocates because they know they cannot win on the substance. *BREAK* Phone Luke from Seattle, WA Luke cannot believe that Rush has not asked how any airline could pay for maintenance and everything else when they are selling tickets for only $49. ValuJet obviously cut its maintenance to be able to keep these prices - for example, the papers are reporting that despite 31 complaints, one jet went for a year without weather radar. Rush says he read this story but wasn't sure whether the radar was totally non-working. Luke says the radar not working at all. Rush says the story he read says that the 34 violations recently cited by the FAA weren't enough to shut down ValuJet or ground its planes, but the FAA reportedly did know of more serious violations when it was claiming ValuJet was safe to fly. Rush asks if this is what Luke is referring to. Luke says yes - a plane without weather radar is okay as long as there aren't any thunderstorms, but those storms can pop up any time. ValuJet refused to fix the radar, though, despite repeated requests from the pilots to do so. As it stands, the FAA's minimum maintenance standards are scary but ValuJet didn't even do those. Most major airlines double these minimums but because upstart airlines like ValuJet come in, lie about things, and do the minimum maintenance or less, pressure is put on all the other airlines to cut back, too. Rush says it sounds like Luke works for an airline, and Luke admits he does and has been in the airline industry for 30 years. Rush says he was surprised to learn that an engine overhaul on a corporate jet can be half a million dollars per engine, and there are two such engines to take care of, far more frequently than most people would think. But this cost can be much more for a big jet. However, what Rush wants to point out is that just because a company is charging low prices doesn't mean it's skimping on maintenance. Similarly, just because a company charges a lot for tickets doesn't mean it's splurging on maintenance. And even if a company did spend all its profits on maintenance, that doesn't guarantee they won't have accidents. Luke agrees, but ValuJet was buying engines from Turkey, which no respectable carrier would do. Plus they subcontracted out their maintenance, which the FAA should not allow. Luke also heard, though, that the reason why ValuJet could get away with such things is that congressmen who had stock in ValuJet told the FAA to back off on the airline. Rush asks where Luke heard this, and Luke says he heard it second-hand. Luke also heard this rumor a few years ago about Continental airlines, which at the time was the darling of deregulation. Luke notes that Senator Ted Kennedy wrote the deregulation law back in 1978 - it was an anti-union bill, despite Kennedy's liberalism. Luke is both a union guy and a conservative, and his point is that an airline is a special case - you can't cut costs because people can die. This means spending money on maintenance. There was one major airline that was going to lay off maintenance workers and subcontract much of it out, but when the pilots heard about it, they went to the president and warned they'd go public if this plan was followed through. One thing that should be remembered about pilots is that they are "always the first on the scene of an accident," so it's natural that they would be concerned about the safety of the planes they fly - they want to live just like everyone else. Thus, when a pilot says something is unsafe, the airline should take notice. Also, the one thing bad about non-union airlines is that they can be fired for refusing to certify a plane. This was why the unions were started, after all, back in the 30s. Rush notes that American Airlines was running commercials about how if the maintenance guy didn't say the plane could fly, that plane didn't fly, and Luke says this is also the case with United and USAir, which like American are union airlines. Union pilots have that power, too, but not the ones for non-union airlines. The Airline Pilots Association union was started in 1931 because United Airlines was telling pilots to fly with oil leaks, through bad weather without instruments, etc. - this was probably much like the situation with ValuJet today. Luke predicted a year ago that ValuJet would have a major accident - of course, every airline has accidents, but it's the number of accidents per flights and per miles flown that matter. If United flies 2,000 flights a day and has one accident a year, while ValuJet has one accident with 200 flights a day, United is obviously safer. As to the pilots union, 100 pilots resigned en masse from United in 1931 to make their point. The same mentality that was running United back then is running ValuJet now - the bean-counters are demanding profits first, at the expense of maintenance and qualified workers. Nobody would go to the cheapest brain surgeon for a brain tumor, after all. Rush says another thing that boggles his mind about airlines is how they can report losses of $500 million per quarter. Luke says these losses are purely on paper, but Rush doubts that because he knows about losses - this money has to exist to be reported. These losses are real money, not just an accounting gimmick. Rush thanks Luke for calling. *BREAK* Phone Art from Fort Meyers, FL Art says he almost hurt himself laughing at CNN's report that the Clinton administration is opposing U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's re-elections. Supposedly, the Clinton administration wants a new chief of the U.N. because Boutros- Ghali will not do anything to cut the fat and bureaucracy from the U.N. budget. Art thinks this is hilarious, given that Clinton is doing nothing to cut the fat from the U.S. budget. Rush says the U.S. owes the U.N. more than a billion dollars, and Boutros Boutros-Ghali is leaning heavily on the U.S. to fork over the bucks. But the Clinton administration's hypocrisy on this is no different than how it attacks Senator Alfonse D'Amato's ethics or how Democrats claim other Republicans engage in nothing but personal attacks because they have no issues of substance. *BREAK* SECOND HOUR Today's St. Louis Post Dispatch reports that another "file controversy" is brewing: an aide for Rep. Dick Gephardt's (D-MO) campaign obtained the confidential credit report of Gephardt's Republican opponent, John Moore. Undoubtedly, Gephardt will follow the lead of his President and call this an "accident" and "bureaucratic snafu." Rush has noticed, though, what appears to be nervousness on the part of the press concerning the recent events in Washington. Cokie Roberts and Tim Russert were on the Charlie Rose show recently, and Roberts appeared surprised that the Clintons had lied about how Whitewater was nothing but a deal the Clintons had lost money on. The rest of the mainstream media also seems a bit nervous about the Clintons' position. For example, Peter Jennings last night said "the reach of the independent counsel has reached deep into the White House," while Tom Brokaw said "the rising tide of Whitewater tonight reaches into the inner sanctum of the White House." Newsday reported "Whitewater legal clouds drift closer to Clinton," and the Los Angeles Times wrote "by formally implicating Bruce Lindsey, Starr brings the legal fallout from Whitewater precariously close to Clinton." The Philadelphia Inquirer also noted "while the legal implications for Lindsey are somewhat unclear, the political repercussions are shaking the White House. Hanging the label on Lindsey stretches the criminal shadow of Whitewater closer to Clinton than ever before." Bernard Shaw of CNN observed "one might imagine the response of the White House rapid response team has an emergency room feel to it this week." Bill Plant of CBS said "what they fear at the White House is it's also a political tactic, designed to bring the suggestion of wrong-doing that much closer to the Oval Office." Jim Miklaszewski of NBC said "the political impact of still another scandal, this one hitting the closest aide to the President, could be devastating." Miklaszewski then pointed out that the last person named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the White House was Richard Nixon. Thus, it appears there is much nervousness out in the press, both about how their guy might get in trouble, as well as about how there might actually be something to a story the press has smugly insisted was no big deal. The Philadelphia Daily News even reports that "being a friend to Bill Clinton has been extraordinarily dangerous - it's like standing under a tall, isolated pine tree during an electric storm. You've got a hell of a chance of being hit by lightning." Bill Clinton, of course, gave Lindsey the kiss of death by giving him his full confidence. Rush wonders just how many people are like Bill Clinton and know even one person who's dead or indicted due to their connection with them. Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT) got it right about how it's those who are closest to the Clintons who have problems with their memory. You have to find people who aren't connected to the Clintons to find people who can remember things clearly. ******** According to ABC, attorneys for Paula Jones have offered to settle her sexual harassment lawsuit against Bill Clinton out of court. ABC reported that this settlement would allow Clinton to continue to deny he made any improper sexual suggestions, but Jones would be able to continue to maintain that he did. Clinton would also have to admit that he did meet Jones and that she did nothing improper, as well as say that he regretted quotes that appeared in American Spectator of aides who said Jones did go along with some improper arrangements. Clinton would also have to say he would not oppose having his insurance companies pay Jones' legal bills. Clinton has already said he will reject this settlement out of hand, which is not surprising. ******** Charles Colson is quoted in today's column by Cal Thomas as reminding everyone that he was sent to jail for giving just one FBI file to a reporter. Colson said he was also skeptical of the Clintons' explanation for Filegate, given that the people involved are highly political. "I just know," Colson said, "how people think from having been in that seat. If I had any dirt on political opponents, I would use it. It's just human nature." Some people have said that the White House was looking for dirt on Billy Dale and that the other files were requested to provide cover for this. Rush doesn't know if this is true, but Nancy Gemmell, a former White House security official, told a congressional committee yesterday things that contradict the White House's previous claims about this. The White House has tried to blame Anthony Marceca for Filegate, saying he was working on a list left him by Nancy Gemmell, who retired in August, 1993. However, Gemmell said this was not the case because she never saw any Secret Service lists that included Republican names. She also said that the Clinton operation was very sloppy, even to the point of allowing teenaged interns into places where they would have access to these files. Thus, not only did the White House come up with a list of Republican names on its own, but their security was poor to begin with. Charles Colson told Cal Thomas that he is amazed at how little outrage there is about this scandal, given that had any of this happened in 1972, people would be rioting in the streets. He wonders if everyone is truly satisfied with the explanation that this incident was a "little mistake." Rush doesn't think people are satisfied with the White House explanations. If anything, the White House is sustaining interest in this and other scandals by acting like it has something to hide. *BREAK* Rush knows some people are disappointed that Clinton's lead in the polls is back to 20 points, but Rush thinks this is a blessing in disguise. He'll explain this later, though. Phone Susan from Boca Raton, FL Susan says Clinton's culpability in both Whitewater and the FBI files is obvious - if Clinton didn't know what his friends and associates were doing, then he's too naive to be President, while if he did know, he's too crooked and corrupt to be President. In any case Clinton shouldn't be President. Rush says there are millions of Americans who would just claim that none of these scandals have affected Clinton at all. This means that those who want to convince others of Clinton's culpability have to set things up so that the other person comes to this conclusion by themselves. Thus, if someone insists Clinton wasn't involved with these scandals, they should be asked how Clinton could not know anything about what was going on. They should be asked if they would not know anything about what their close family members were doing, and then they should be asked to explain why all the Friends of Bill are dropping like flies. Susan says she was talking to an extremely liberal friend in California recently, and when he learned Susan was going to call Rush, he asked her to tell Rush that although he is extremely liberal, he will be voting for Dole in November. Susan was encouraged to hear this, and Rush is pleased as well. He thanks her for her call. Phone Mike from Salt Lake City, UT Mike says Wolf Blitzer was sitting in for Larry King last night, and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Rep. William Clinger (R-PA) were the guests. Clinger pointed out that Craig Livingstone was a bartender and political hack before taking over the job of White House security. Rush says he mentioned this stuff on yesterday's show, plus Livingstone apparently wants to be a Hollywood producer. Livingstone reminds Rush of the hanger-ons who think that they should be the centers of attention, despite the fact they're only on the periphery of matters. They're the kind of guys who cut in at the head of the line and then when people object scream back "don't you know who I am?" Mike says the latest White House counsel Jack Quinn and Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) were also on this show last night, and Lantos whined that the FBI files could not be an enemies list because it didn't have names like Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh on it. Mike thought it funny that the second name he mentioned was Rush's, and Rush notes that since the documents only go to the G's, nobody knows yet whether "Limbaugh" is on the list. Mike adds that Southwest Air is a low-cost airline and it leads the nation in safety records. Rush asks if Southwest is union and Mike says Utah is a right to work state, so he would assume they are non-union. Rush thanks Mike for calling. *BREAK* Phone Mark from Charlotte, NC Mark says Rush's comparison between ValuJet and USAir was off the mark. ValuJet's accident record cannot be compared to USAir's, given the length of time both airlines have been in service. Mark agrees with Rush that high fares do not guarantee safety, but Mark has been in the airline industry for 12 years and has heard talk about the FAA shutting down ValuJet for half a year. The FAA's internal documents also show that the low cost air carriers are just as safe if not safer than many of the major airlines if ValuJet is excluded from them; however, if you put ValuJet into that mix, the low cost carriers are much less safe than the other airlines. Also, Kiwi Airlines and Nation's Air were also both shut down for violations that were not as serious and major as what is seen with ValuJet. Their maintenance was clearly shown to be lacking, and while there's no correlation between cost of the tickets and safety, as Rush mentioned, ValuJet is still down at the bottom of the heap. Mike thinks ValuJet has been one of Clinton's "baby dolls," with violations and problems being brushed under the rug until now. There were things found that would have resulted in $100,000 fines if they were discovered in any other airline, but ValuJet got fines of only $5,000 to $8,000. Rush asks why ValuJet was getting this special treatment, and Mike says Mary Fackler Schiavo, Inspector General for the Department of Transportation, has been on ValuJet's case for some time, but Secretary Pena and members of Congress are trying to turn her into the fallguy on this, claiming she wasn't doing her job. Yet FAA Administrator David Hinson and Secretary Pena both said ValuJet was safe to fly after the crash in Florida, and now they're not saying much while Schiavo appears to have been muzzled. Rush says these are valid questions, and he has asked why nobody in the press is asking Pena about how he praised ValuJet as being a safe airline a month ago but is now claiming the airline is not safe. Mark says he's been sensitive to this because he works for USAir, and they have gone through a lot over the past five years. Any crash affects airline employees across the industry because they see things such as mechanics at ValuJet getting gar less training and being paid far less than others in the field. Eventually something is going to happen and it could have been prevented. Rush says he tried to tell Luke from Seattle that he has no idea what it costs to run an airline, but he assumes it costs a lot, given the huge losses that the airlines have run up in the past. It could be that ValuJet's fares were so low that they couldn't afford proper maintenance, but even if so, it still doesn't mean that paying higher ticket prices guarantees a safe trip. Rush is also tired of liberal hypocrisy about how the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poor; the left bombards the nation with whining about corporate layoffs and wage stagnation, but then complains that ValuJet's tickets just don't cost enough. He rejects the notion that this crash happened because the price of these tickets was too low. Liberals seem to want air fares to be priced as high as possible, under the notion that doing so will make air travel safer and this just isn't true. Most people believe that when they get on an airline, they'll arrive safely - if they didn't, they wouldn't get on it in the first place. Rush is not trying to attack USAir for raising its fares, but is just wondering about this liberal hypocrisy he's seeing in their complaints about ticket prices. Rush is no expert on what it takes to run an airline, how much maintenance costs, and so forth, but ValuJet was showing a profit, regardless of whatever else they were doing. Why are the other airlines that fly far more not showing a profit? ValuJet has had only one crash, and though it was a tragedy, ValuJet did show that a low-cost airline can make a profit. Now maybe the crash was a consequence of this and maybe it wasn't, but Rush does know that a fare of $49 does not guarantee a crash, nor does a fare of $250 guarantee your safety. *BREAK* Rush is intrigued by how he hasn't gotten one call from a liberal angry about how the rich have been getting richer during the Clinton administration. He also hasn't heard from anyone angry that the wealthiest 20% of households earned more than the total earned by the 60% of the middle class in the middle of the income spectrum. This all happened during the first two years of the Clinton administration, so Rush wonders where the class envy fanatics are - why aren't they complaining about this? Phone Bill from Monroe, MI Bill says Janet Reno must have known what the Republican reaction would be when she ordered the FBI to investigate itself. If so, then she also knew she could dodge the bullet by passing the buck to Kenneth Starr. Thus, Bill thinks Reno wanted to pass the buck to Starr, knowing that he wouldn't be able to get to this matter before the elections. In contrast, the FBI would have investigated this matter post-haste to defend its reputation. Rush hopes Bill is wrong about this, and Bill says he does, too; he's hoping for indictments of members of the Clinton administration, such as William Kennedy Smith. Rush notes that Smith is the one who hired Craig Livingstone as head of White House security. It's interesting that of the four lawyers who came to Washington from the Rose law firm in 1993, only Hillary remains in the White House, and she's embattled. Vincent Foster is dead, Webster Hubbell is in jail, and William Kennedy Smith was forced to resign in disgrace and might be investigated further in these latest scandals. Of course, the Clintonites continue to insist that none of this stuff has touched President Clinton. Bill adds that the FOX network just showed footage of Clinton at the governors conference, telling them that the church burnings had to be stopped because the First Amendment protected freedom of religion. Bill, though, had thought the First Amendment was about free speech. Rush says the First Amendment is about both free speech and the freedom of religion, as well as freedom of the press. Bill didn't realize this and he adds that he used to fly privately before he had a stroke; he learned then that most accidents were the result of pilot error, not mechanical failure. Rush says the statistics do say this, but since, as Luke from Seattle noted, the pilot is the first at the scene of an accident, he's the easiest guy to blame. Thus, there could be many accidents that are attributed to pilot error that really weren't but that's the way they were logged because it was the easiest explanation available. Besides, there are still crashes where nobody will ever know what went wrong. One crash in Pittsburgh will never be explained, and although the latest about the ValuJet crash is that it was caused by oxygen canisters that were not properly capped, nobody will ever really know. They might come out with some explanations that are likely, but the real answer may never be found. *BREAK* Rush is starting to bothered by all the talk about ValuJet and its crash because flying is still the safest mode of flying available to Americans. The statistics prove this out time and time again. For example, people who work for the Clinton White House have a better chance of going to jail than someone has of getting killed while on a plane. People face greater dangers driving to the airport than flying on the plane. Of course, an airline crash is a spectacular event, with hundreds dying at once. But what if twice a year the news reported that 25,000 people died that day on the nation's highways? If this were reported this way, the car makers, the roads, and every other aspect of automobile travel would be investigated as thoroughly as is happening with the airline industry. The number of people who perish in auto accidents is far far more than those who die in airplanes, yet parents think nothing of putting their 16-year-old in the front seat of the family car, handing them the keys, and saying "happy birthday, son." *BREAK* THIRD HOUR Rush still hasn't heard from the class envy fanatics who are angry that the rich have gotten richer during the first two years of the Clinton administration. This fact should broom away the entire cliche of the 80s being a decade of greed and selfishness, especially since during the Clinton administration the rich have more money than the entire middle class. Undoubtedly, though, Clinton will come up with some monster tax increase proposal should he be re-elected. He might even suggest this before the elections so as to whip up the class envy fanatics. The fact Clinton is still high in the polls is a good sign, though, as far as Rush is concerned, because the Republicans cannot count on scandal to win them the elections. Republicans should use these scandals, but they must still spell out what the Republican party is for - people must end up voting for Republicans on the issues, so that the GOP wins with a mandate. Also, a large number of Americans don't care about these scandals or any abuse and misuse of power. They don't care about such things because they either think Clinton cares about them or because they are more concerned about what government will do for them. Thus, it's a waste of resources to try to convince these people that they should care about these scandals, especially when the goal is to convince them of the value of the Republican stance on the issues. It is frustrating to live in this sort "so what" age, where things such as a total lack of character are ignored, but Republicans have to accept it and go beyond it. About 40% of Americans are concerned about scandal, while another 40% want the status quo to continue. This leaves the 20% in the middle who are too busy living their lives to pay close attention to politics except at elections. The Dole campaign should thus drive the point home to these 20% of Americans by connecting personal character with personal leadership. The GOP must show that character descends from leadership - people seem to like Clinton as their leader because he "cares," so they have to be shown what kind of leadership he really provides. Those who like having a President be their babysitter should ask if they'd trust their kids with a babysitter or nanny like Clinton, someone who is surrounded by friends who have been indicted and convicted. Bob Dole can push this point home by saying something like "Bill Clinton says we are cutting Medicare. I say we're not cutting Medicare. One of us is not telling the truth." Dole can also say this sort of thing about the school lunch program, kicking old people out of their homes, or any of the other things that are being said about the Republican reforms. The people cannot be persuaded by getting in their face but they can convince themselves if they are led to draw their own conclusions. Clinton, of course, will respond by saying Dole is admitting he's lying, but that will only expose Clinton for what he is. In any case, Dole has to force the audience to come to its own conclusions in all this - this is how Dole can close the gap and persuade. Rush, after all, doesn't tell his audience what to think. He validates what people think, but he gives people the information and lets them come to their own conclusions, and the same thing has to be done with the middle 20% of undecided voters. *BREAK* Mark Levin, president of the Landmark Legal Foundation and former chief of staff to the Reagan administration's Attorney General, Ed Meese, has some comments to make about Janet Reno's decision to turn over the investigation of Filegate to Kenneth Starr. Levin writes the following about this: "Newsweek magazine now reports that Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, considered the power behind Ms. Reno's throne, has set up some kind of campaign war room in her Justice Department office, not unlike the quick response team in the White House. This, too, is a first. Precisely what are the lawyers assigned to the Justice Department's `war room' doing, and with whom are they at war? "Meanwhile, Mrs. Gorelick's former law firm - Miller, Cassidy, Larocha, and Lewin - are representing Craig Livingstone, the man at the center of the Filegate scandal. Shouldn't Mrs. Gorelick recuse herself from this matter?" Rush finds it interesting that Livingstone "just happened" to get a lawyer from the deputy attorney general's old law firm. Had any of this occurred during Ed Meese's tenure as attorney general, the press and Democrats would be out for blood, shouting about how the "appearance of impropriety" was enough to send Meese packing. There's far more than any appearance of impropriety, but nobody is suggesting Reno leave town. Phone Eric from Huntersville, NC Eric says he'd like to tell Mark from Charlotte that USAir controlled 92% of the gates at the Charlotte airport for a long time, until ValuJet came in and offered competitive service. Eric pays attention to these things because he is a survivor of one of the five USAir plane crashes, and he has since learned that two of the top five safest airlines are low-cost airlines: Southwest and America West; also, People's Express had no accidents or mishaps at all in its existence, despite offering $49 fares between Houston and Texas. Eric thus doesn't think a ticket's price has anything to do with its safety - an airline can be competitive without sacrificing maintenance but by shaving costs with ramp personnel, food, and other extras. He thus agrees with Rush that low fares do not guarantee greater risk. In fact, the Air Transport Association did a survey between 1969 and 1994 that found Southwest was one of the top ten safest airlines, which is not surprising since Southwest has not had any accidents or major incidents. The major airlines, though, have many major incidents that do not get reported, yet for some reason people are making a big deal about the incidents concerning ValuJet. Rush says these allegations still do not look good for ValuJet, and it is interesting to see how much attention ValuJet has gotten after one accident. He asks Eric what kind of crash he survived, and Eric said it was a 737 that crashed on takeoff from New York and went into the East River back in September, 1989. Rush says he remembers this crash because two women were killed, and Eric says they died on impact but were not drowned as previously reported. Rush says experiencing this has to be a harrowing one, and Eric says he still flies because he has to, but he no longer adores the aviation industry as before. The bottom line to him, though, is that he does not think low- cost airlines are inherently more dangerous than the majors. Southwest, America West, and People's Express are all examples of upstart airlines that are doing a great job. Rush agrees, but these airlines have not had the same reports of violations as ValuJet did. Rush admits that an airline can charge too little to do the job, but he still thinks it has to be possible to charge low fares and make a profit while still remaining safe. He thanks Eric for calling. Phone Ed from Los Angeles, CA Ed says Paul Weyrich yesterday interviewed Dennis Casey, who headed up Gary Hart's Presidential campaign in 1984. Casey was employing both Anthony Marceca and Craig Livingstone in the campaign, and they apparently were axed for unethical practices and petty theft. However, Marceca and Livingstone were not forced out until Casey threatened to resign from the campaign. Ed thinks the White House must have known about these two men's past, and Rush says this might not have been the case, given that Livingstone didn't even have a security clearance himself when he took over the White House security office. Ed adds that the news media doesn't seem interested in "looking under the skirt" to find this stuff out. Rush says the press is getting nervous about all this and they're being forced to actually do some real reporting about it. He thanks Ed for calling. Phone Lisa from Kasbeer, IL Lisa thanks Rush for keeping her informed; thanks to Rush's show, she actually knew what was going on in the November elections and realized that he was right in pointing out to callers afterwards that he shouldn't get any credit for those elections because it was the people who were responsible for that victory. Rush agrees and he notes that it's fun being part of a winning team. Republicans don't think they're winning now, but they have to hang in there and persevere. He thanks Lisa for calling. *BREAK* Rush apologizes for not asking Eric in the previous segment what the cost of his ticket was for the 737 that crashed. Rush should have gotten that data so that he could determine the relevant safety of that airline. Phone Vicky from Stamford, CT Vicky says she's read that a lot of airline incidents never get reported, and she doesn't remember reading anything about ValuJet until after the crash. Thus, she wonders whether it would be worthwhile for some group like Consumer Reports to publish the airlines' safety records. Rush says the FAA keeps those records and there have been attempts already to get that information published. However, Rush suspects that the reason there's opposition to this comes from the airlines because all of them get many citations every year. For example, USA Today reports that the 34 violations given by the FAA as justification for shutting down ValuJet were not serious enough to ground the airline. In fact, these 34 violations were not as serious as the incidents that did occur back when the FAA said ValuJet was safe. A lot of these violations were for improper paperwork, and Rush suspects this sort of thing happens all the time. Those in the industry probably fear that if all of this information was published it could undermine public confidence in the airline industry, with most people not paying close enough attention to know the difference between serious and bureaucratic violations. Rush admits he's making only a wild guess on this, though, but one thing he knows is that the government would never privatize the FAA's function. Vicky says if this information were publicized, though, it would motivate the airlines to do a better job. Also, Vicky saw the head of the ValuJet flight attendants' association on TV the other night warning about how hard they had to work, without getting breaks. Vicky suspects that a push will be on to unionize all the airlines. Rush says he doesn't doubt that the unions will claim that ValuJet illustrates the dangers of a non-union workforce. It's obvious that this is a golden opportunity for the unions of America, especially with regard to the safety angle. Phone Curtis from Claremont, CA Curtis says the congressional hearings on Billy Dale and Filegate are giving the Democrats new opportunities to show how partisan they can be. Rep. Thomas Lantos (D-CA) was ranting and raving last night about how Filegate was a Republican ploy that came about only because Dole was way behind in the polls; Curtis had thought Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) was bad enough, but Lantos has gone even further. Rush says Clinton is also trying to bury this story by saying he's apologized and it will never happen again. Yet Charles Colson went to jail for misusing just one FBI file and giving it to one person not authorized to see it. Curtis adds that Rep. William Clinger (R-PA) pointed out last night that Congress didn't even know about these FBI files until it subpoenaed the 3,000 documents that the White House was claiming were protected by executive privilege. When the White House finally turned over 1,000 documents, Congress discovered the FBI file on Billy Dale and that lead to the discovery of the 480 other files. Rush says this means Lantos' claims that Filegate is a Republican witch-hunt cannot be true since the Republicans didn't even know these files were there. They were discovered accidently in the course of another investigation. Phone Kevin from Vandalia, IL Kevin says Senator Christopher Bond (R-MO) was on KMOX a couple of days ago and said that whenever he was on a committee that was looking at FBI files, an FBI agent had to be present. Thus, Bond could not look at these files by himself, so why could the White House do this? Rush agrees - FBI Director Louis Freeh claimed he was victimized and then after the White House got hold of him, he changed his story to say he victimized himself. However, the bottom line is that there are laws prohibiting such use of these files and those laws were written because of Watergate. Kevin finds it interesting that the White House had carte blanche access to these files, without any FBI agents around at all. Rush agrees but even worse is that all of this started because the White House sent requests for these files that weren't even signed; Bernard Nussbaum's name was printed on the forms but nobody signed them. People are thus asking why the FBI even granted this request without someone's signature. It seems clear all of this was about digging up dirt on Billy Dale to give the White House an excuse for their firing of him. Travelgate seems to be where all of this started. Nussbaum meanwhile is denying he made these requests, so the buck was passed to Marceca. The White House has given out one explanation after another for why this happened, and the press doesn't seem to care - the media just whines about how the Republicans are "picking" on poor, old Bill Clinton. Any protestations of innocence or even ineptness just don't ring true anymore, and the only thing that is sure is that none of what is going on is as the White House has claimed. *BREAK* Phone Joe from Millbrae, CA Joe is a test pilot who works for a major airline, so he knows the maintenance operations and ticket operations are essentially independent, with no connection at all between the ticket price and the maintenance that is done on a plane. The ticket price is market-based, where the airline has to price tickets so they are competitive with the other airlines, while the maintenance operations are based on regulations and the airline's efficiency. The trick for the airline is to make sure its ticket and other revenues covers its expenses, and maintenance comes to only about 30% of the cost of running an airline. Operations - the flight crews, cabin crews, etc. - cost another 30% or so, and then there's administration, fuel, and other things. The airline just hopes it can raise enough in revenues to cover all this. Thus, the price of a ticket is not related to how much maintenance an airline does - free market economics and the FAA are that two things that determine what an airline does and how, and these two have nothing to do with one another. Economics drive the ticket prices and the FAA basically drives the maintenance schedules. Rush says he's met pilots, ticket agents, ground personnel, and baggage handlers, but he's never met the guys who determine what airlines go on what routes and for how long. He's curious who are the people who design the routes and figure out what gates each plane will use. Joe says these people are on duty 24 hours a day, just in case weather or other conditions require a plane to change its destination or in case a plane is coming in too late to make its passengers' connections. Someone has to be there to arrange matters so that these passengers can get to where they want. Also, though, all of the planes have a maintenance schedule, so someone has to be deciding when a plane goes into the hanger, what gets done, when it gets put back in service and where, and so forth. This might also require sending the plane to a centralized repair depot that can handle major maintenance. This is thus an enormously complex job, and one guy determines the maintenance schedules, although he is helped by many other people across the nation. These other people are typically the ones who also figure out what to do with passengers whose flight is late - do they get shuttled to another flight, to another airline, or put up at a hotel until the next day? Rush says he finds it amazing anyone can keep all of this infrastructure going and coordinated, especially for a big airline. Joe says it amazes him that all of this works - it's by no means to get a plane to a gate, make sure it gets loaded with all the proper baggage, etc. Even something like moving a plane to another gate because the plane that is currently at that gate is delayed can be a major hassle. Rush finds all of this fascinating, but he has to go to the break. He thanks Joe for calling and cluing him in on these things. *BREAK* Phone Sherry from Wichita Falls, TX Sherry saw Rush's TV show on Tuesday night and was interested in the U.S. News and World Report poll that shows people are going to vote for Bill Clinton, even though they admit they don't like the quality of his character. She wonders what these people are thinking - they admit he doesn't have any good qualities and that they wouldn't trust him, yet they're planning to vote for him. Rush says it might be these people think Clinton will get even with the rich or do something for them. Maybe it's just because he's young and these people think he's sincere in saying "I feel your pain." Rush, though, admits he doesn't understand this either. Sherry says the country doesn't need feel good politics, but do good politics - leaders who will do good for the country and its children. Rush says the answer for this is less government, but maybe that's the answer - the people who support Clinton might want more government, and they know that Clinton is still a big government activist who wants to be involved daily in people's lives. Thus, they think Clinton cares, while the Republicans, who want less government, supposedly don't.