Jim Geraghty on “Voting to Kill”

elections come up in November. Jim, welcome. It's great to have you here with us Rush some very long awaited mega diddos. Thanks so much for having me up you bet, Jim. Now, I want to start off by telling you a little story because uh, and let me ask. I don't want to I don't be wrong in my in my presumption, but but the the focal point of the of the book is that the people you've talked to do take

seriously the threat posed by terrorists around the world. Whatever you want to call him, Islamo fascist, the war on terts a serious thing to them. Correct. Okay, So I'm up in New York over a weekend and I went to a dinner party Saturday night at a friend's house which is in plain view of West Point, and a bunch of people looking out across the Hudson River at West Point, and one of them made mentioned, you know,

this is the birthplace of the American Revolution. And I wonder how many people today even think about the American Revolution. How many people are taught the American Revolution. And it was until Dolly Madison had to run out of a burning White House with a picture of George Washington that the American people back then got serious about the threat posed by the continual presence of the Britties. The British had burned down the White House, and that finally got

the American people all upset. History textbooks today say the American Revolution began when Bill Clinton was elected. And so the question, the question came up at dinner is is

America finished? You think enough people care? And one of the one of the guests that I believe in the total resiliency the American The American people fully aware of the threat that we face, and they will respond to leadership when that leadership tells I'm in a convincing way that the threat that we faced and I raised my hand said, well, when when are they When are they going to respond to say, what was nine eleven? If it was not a wake up call? So what what's

your take on this? After having spoken to a number of Americans? Is there a when you think a majority of them that are going to vote, that are well aware and prepared to vote on this as an issue? Rush We used to hear about the silent majority, and I think what I would call these folks? Are they not vocal plurality? Uh, there are a lot of folks who, Yeah, the day by day they don't necessarily think of these things.

You hear about high gas prices or some other issue that's in the news, and then you get something like that foiled plot to bomb the London airliners, or the bombing plots that were in Denmark and Germany and all these other places around the world, and all of a sudden people wake up to it and they realize, oh, my goodness, this is we are in a life and death struggle. Um, do I have time to share the anecdote of the security moms in my book? Right? Um?

They sickly the tiny of the attacks on the morning of nine eleven, For many parents came after they had dropped their children off to school and either they're on their way home or they just arrived home. They turned on the TV. They see something is terribly wrong. Uh, and then they realize that I've got to get to my kids. They've got to make sure that they're safe.

And they faced this sudden, terrible decision of having more than one child at more than one school, and they many of them described it as feeling like a gun had been put to their heads, saying which child do you pick up first? Which child to make sure is safe first? And this to them was probably for many of the most traumatic moment of their lives, something absolutely horrific. That all they want in a leader is someone who will make sure they never face that moment again, that

sort of choice again. Well, I guess that's questions that sentiments still prevail. I saw Washington Post pole or story. I think it was by Jim Van Derhey, but I'm not I'm not sure that he was the writer. But the headline says Republicans losing security moms, and it was about a poll. If you read the whole story, it did indicate that Republicans were losing this important trust to

security moms, but that the Democrats weren't picking it up. Uh, and it was that was a problem from the Washington Post. But what is the emotion of these security moms. You've just described the same today as it was in the days after nine eleven. I think so um. I remember the carry spot coverage. I had a mentor named Obi wan Kenobi use that because I didn't want it. He

didn't want his name out there. But he basically says that once you go into the voting booths, all of the attack ads, all of the screaming headlines, all of the shouting back and forth goes away. It's almost like the whole room goes silent and it's just you and

your ballot. And he described it as an almost sacred experience, and all of a sudden, it takes away all of the riff raffle, all of the other distracting messages out there, and you look seriously at the two names on the ballot in front of you, and you've get to think more seriously about what that choice signifies, and that, you know what, it is a pretty rare experience in human

history to get the right to choose your leaders. It's Americans do take that seriously, and so you know, they may not have the same seriousness when they're talking to a polster on the phone or even talking to and then I, um, but I think Americans do basically take this extraordinarily seriously once you get all the distractions out of the way, something like say, Congressman Fully, well, let

me let me bring that up. By the way, if you're just joining us talking with Jim Garretty, his book is Voting to Kill and he is a blogger the Terry spot at National Review Online, which is one of this program's favorite websites and blog sites. Um. The the the the folly episode has now had uh, you know, full throated treatment ever since Fully resigned on Thursday, after whiles actually since the emails were uh leaked and their

existence known since I guess Thursday Friday morning, what have you? Uh. The the impression is that this is the issue now, the Republican corruption culture. Corruption is back, George Allen, Tom delay, Janine Pierro up in New York is a nationally known story, and now this folly business. And it does appear the Democrats have once again lost their footing on their opposition to the war on terror and Iraq, and now they're

rallying around this folly thing. Um. And I wondered how you felt about it, since your book is basically supporting the premise that the war on terror and the threat America faces the issue on which people to vote, going to vote? Does this change that? Um? These starts of issues come along every now and then, Uh, you know, scandals. We we saw them believing that the Abramov scandal was going to absolutely be the issue that decided this year's elections,

and yeah, where is that? It's nowhere? My My first instinct is that this might be the second coming of the Wellstone funeral um, which I'm sure you remember from two thousand two. Was this, you know, an event that Republicans attended and everyone wanted to, whether they agreed with Paul Wellston or not, pay their respects and and you know, pay tribute to a guy who, even if you didn't agree with them, seemed like a very decent guy. And it turned into a partisan pep rally um. And I

think that eagerness to score political points. We're seeing it a bit in the coverage so far. And I could see this if the Democrats are not careful. They will echo that's exact same sentiment of cticizing, what is it? It's hard a tragedy that you know knows no no partisan lines. I mean, this is just a terrible thing

to happen in this poor kid's life. And now they're going to, you know, refocus the entire Democratic campaign for two thousands six over this, you know, I mean honestly, well, I know, I don't think I think there's gonna be more of this kind of stuff. I think the Clinton war room is in full speed, and I think there's a whole host of these things they're holding, uh to release in a timely fashion, i e. Press leaks or bombshell stories, not just about sex scandals and so forth.

But you know, Jim, the one thing about this this this when you compare it to the Wellstone memorial, understand it in the sense of Democrats really overplayed it. Uh Wellstone's death of tragedy. But this is pedophilia. There are a lot of people who just they have no patience tolerance. They don't want to be made to try to understand anything about it. Uh, they don't want to be bought off with trips to rehab. This is pedophilia, and there's

some people who fear it's gonna have legs because of that. Oh, there's no way that every Republican should be saying they'd like to, you know, beat this guy with their own

bare hands. I mean, there's no doubt that, you know, no one should make any effort to defend this guy, but you know, to say that this is some sort of issue that I have my doubts that people when they look at their congressmen and the challenger in front of them, and their Senate race, their governor's race, I have my doubts that this is what it's going to be on their minds, because ultimately, this is one guy

and as far as we know one page. Maybe there are some others, but this is, you know, this is not necessarily the grand issue of the republic that was going to affect every single person on the level of terrorism is So I would I would assume you would then believe that the Democrats are making a mistake by not giving voters something about them to vote for on whatever the issue is. They still are not doing that.

They're still trying to run on the basis that Republicans are scumb and you can't trust them and put us back in power because it's ours and we deserve it. But in terms of UH, the issue of terrorism, I would assume, if your theory is correct, that you would have to believe that they're actually hurting themselves with their position on a rock and Jack Murtha cut run the president fighting back on it. You think this will prevail

an election day? Absolutely, And what's interesting, well, we will see. But we saw a very similar dynamic in two thousand four where Carrie was pulling on certain issues very well. Everyone liked his plans to give us all free healthcare and you know, I'm going to spend more money on this. I'm gonna spend more money on that. Uh. And nearly across the board he was doing fine except for this big, glaring weakness on the issue of terrorism that you know,

Bush was beating him like a drum on this. And the lesson of two thousand four, or even to a certain extent, two thousand two, is if voters don't think you can handle protecting the country, they don't care what you have to say about prescription drugs or healthcare or any of these others issues which you know they can be important, but no issue is more important than who's going to keep me safe. Who's going to make sure that, you know, somebody doesn't plow and it's scott An airline

or into my skyscraper. There could be a lot of people comforted by this, and I'm one of them. I have to tell you that I'm uh not as confident as you are that the nine level was five years ago. We don't even show videotape of it anymore. We never are allowed to see the suicide jumps from either of the two towers. Those are suppressed. It's too soon. We

can't deal with it emotionally. The Democrats have tried to paint a picture that it was, you know, just an episodic event, not part of any systematic effort on a part of people that want to kill us, not just a battle in a war. It was just we kind of screwed up. But these things happen now and then there not much we can do about it. We need to go back to having our normal lifestyle. They're trying to do their best to a race from people's memory

that had happened. In the meantime, we have not been hit since uh Madrid has London has foiled a plot among the airliners. As you pointed up, we haven't been hit. And the theory that some people have is that we've just started getting a false sense of complacency about our security and if that transfers into people voting differently than on security, it'll have a negative outcomes. So people are

gonna be comforted to hear your theory on this. I think, well, you know, it's one of those things where even if they don't have the images on the television's, they don't go out of our heads. You know that that's something that you know, even if if I never saw a picture of it or video of it for the rest of my life, I'm never going to forget it. And

I think a lot of voters are that same way. Plus, you know, we saw the ratings for that past mental nine eleven movie that you actually want it's time slot one of the nights and did very well the other night. There's an interest in this, and the more that the Democrats and certain elites in the media say, oh, we shouldn't talk about this, this is something that's uh, too emotional, it stirs up too many bad memories, it's too soon. People notice that and I think people kind of resent it.

They resent being treated like children, and they resent being talked down to of what they can and can't handle. Certainly they didn't have their problem with pictures of Abu Grabe or you know, uh, the the picture of the Virgin Mary with dung on it and all these other horrific images, but we're not allowed to see the one

that will make us as Americans angry. I mean, people know the score on this, so it's safe to assume that your your your opinion or your thoughts on the what I call the drive by media's effort to shift public opinion on all this is ultimately going to fail. Abu grab Club getting all all these things designed to portray America and its worst, the al Qaeda Bill of Rights. We've got to give these people lawyers and trials that that's actually infuriating more people than anybody gives credit to.

If I were in charge of the r n C, and sadly I am not, I would be running the footage of Senator Dick Durman, of Senator Democratic of Illinois comparing US troops in Guantana obey to Nazis seven. Just remind these people what they think of our armed forces, what do they think of our efforts in the war on terror? And how they see us as the bad guys because you know, every American, even a whole lot

of conservative Democrats, a lot of Joe Lieberman Democrats out there. No, we're not the bad guys in this, you know, even and and their attitude towards our guys in guantanam Obey and our guys fighting the war on Terrell around the world is do what you gotta do. We trust you, we know you're not bad guys. You just you know, life requires you to make some difficult choices and do some tough things, and you know we're fine with that. Do what you have to keep us safe. I think

is the overwhelming mentality of so many Americans. True, Jim, you know something. Uh, I'm inclined to adopt your belief and be confident about it for for a host of reasons, but one main one, and that is you've got a book coming out. It's out, it's election time on the premise of how people are going to vote. If you're wrong, you're gonna have a lot of trouble selling your next book. November, So well, best of luck with it, and thanks for

your time today. This is um I'm glad that you were you had some time, because I don't think the American people can hear enough, especially in these times, positive thinking and confidence about themselves. You've obviously talked to them, researched it enough to write a book. You're ultimately expressing confidence in the seriousness of the American people, and I think they need to hear that about themselves. UM. So I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Jim, you've got

Jim Garritty. The book is Voting to Kill and it's uh by a man who has got a great piece. It survived the two four two four elections. By the way, that Carry spot t k s. As I say, this piece was, this blog was just a front of information, humor and serious combined about the absolute foibles of the of the Carry campaign and the man. So this is a good read. It's a good book. Happy to recommend it until you