Rush Limbaugh: Bush Naming New Cabinet of Doers to Implement Agenda and Execute Mandate

All right, now, folks, you're going to have to calm down out there. You're just going to have to calm down out there. I am being inundated with e-mails, "What does it mean, these cabinet resignations? Oh no, Rush, how can Bush get anything done with all of these cabinet leaders? Oh, Rush, what's happening, it's all falling apart."

Folks, take a time-out here. You know, do what the New York Jets should have done yesterday afternoon with 52 seconds left, let's take a time-out, don't wait till there's eight seconds. What a horrible bunch of clock management that game was. Folks, this is all good stuff that's happening here. This is excellent stuff. Let me just make this as simple for you as I can, and not because it needs to be simple. I don't want to spend a lot of time on it. This is all good stuff. There's no reason to panic out there. There's no reason to panic over Colin Powell. There's no reason to panic. In fact, some of the best news that's out there today is what's going on at the CIA, despite the media trying to spin this as a hit piece on Porter Goss, this is fabulous news what's happening. This should have happened two days after 9/11. I mean just sit with me on this, we'll explain it. These cabinet resignations, this happens in every administration, but in this second term it's particularly interesting, and relevant for this reason.

The first Bush term, because of the Florida aftermath and the disparity, the difference here in the electoral vote count and the popular vote count, the president reached out, the president reached out to Democrats and tried to give them a welcome hand of friendship and even participation in some domestic matters, Ted Kennedy and the education bill and so forth. But Bush's first term was, aside from the war in Iraq and the war on terror, the same thing, Bush's first term was really absent an agenda. He tried to instill one, tried to initiate one, but he was fought at every turn. We had to go through this process in the Senate where the Senate Democrats had as many committee members as the Republicans did and we didn't really get a whole lot done there. But now with this most recent election, the president is being perfectly frank about his second term.

I got a piece by Ron Brownstein today, "Well, this really wasn't as big a victory as it might look like on paper." We'll go through this in great detail, too, but it was. And this is a mandate, and it would be a mandate if the popular vote difference was only another 327 votes or something, and the reason that this is a mandate is because the president, unlike most incumbent presidents, ran on an agenda, a specific agenda, and he has followed up by saying, "I'm going to execute the agenda, I'm going to spend my capital." And it was detailed, it was specific, he says look, "I said what I was going to do, I'm a man that says what I mean, I mean what I say, and I'm going to do what I'm going to do, and I'm going to enjoy doing it when I do it." And so he's going to get a cabinet of people in there that is designed not to appease and not to establish a new tone. He's going to have a cabinet of doers. What the president is doing, and I know this is going to sound strange to some of you who think, "Well, what was he doing in the first term?" He wasn't able to do it politically in the first term to the extent he will be able to do it now. The President of the United States is consolidating his power. He is preparing a cabinet to execute this agenda that he has planned. I don't care whether these are resignations or forced firings. I don't know what they are. My guess is that they're resignations. People want to leave. It's a tough job, four years away from home and family and constantly on the go, you get burned out. And as far as that goes, it's common.

So he's going to get fresh blood, fresh energy, new energy, and people committed to an agenda that he has laid out. So, you know, this business of Colin Powell leaving at the state department, I don't know who's going to go in there, I have no idea who it is. People are throwing Condoleezza Rice's name around. I have no clue. All I know is that whoever he puts in charge of these cabinet posts, these agencies are going to be his people for his reasons for this second term. This is going to be a pedal to the metal second term. And he's going to have people around him that will be able to fully execute the agenda he set out.

There's a couple stories in the paper today, Bruce Bartlett has a column, hey, you can't do tax cuts and Social Security reform at the same time. You gotta pick one, because you don't have that much time, it's going to take a hard bunch of work just to get one of these things done, so don't divert your attention. And are there are other people who say, hell's bells, go for it. You've got four years here, make it count. You've got 55 Republican senators. Try to consolidate your power and go for it. I'm from the go-for-it school, if only for one other reason, try to get as much done as you can. I know the school of thought is divert your attention and the Congress works slowly and you can only have them work on one major thing at a time, and I understand all that. But, you know, to me, I look at it the opposite, you only have four years here. Go for the gusto.

You've got a Democrat Party that is still reeling and doesn't know who or what it should be except they know they can't be themselves yet. So they're in the midst of an identity crisis and their opposition will deep, but it will not be based on principle, it will be based just on opposing and obstructing the president wherever he goes, whatever he tries and that will be seen for what it is. I guarantee you that these moves that are being made right now are part of a grand strategery designed to get this second term off and running at what I would call supersonic speed, folks. They're not going to hit the ground here walking, we're not going to start crawling and then walk and then jog, we're going to go full speed here. And that's what this is really all about. So there's really no need to panic about this. It's all good. Some of you may not like the fact some of these individuals are leaving like Tom Ridge at homeland security. Well, won't it take a long time to get a new cabinet secretary up to speed? No. Still going to have a staff in there, still going to have the same people who have been doing the legwork every day. Whoever is the new one, Ridge is going to get 'em up to speed real fast, not going to go out and get people that were born yesterday to fill these jobs.

Same thing with Colin Powell. That's going to be tough. State Department, you know, as we've discussed with Bill Gertz, it's got its own inertia in there, and largely the secretary of state has his work cut out for him just dealing with that bureaucracy over there which is a bunch of liberals that have been entrenched for a long time. But I'll be eager to see who the secretary of state nominee is, somebody who might do battle with them inside. Of course, there's panic now on the left that what this all means is that the cabinet means nothing and Dick Cheney is actually consolidating his power, have you heard that one? Listen to Chris Matthews, this was this morning on PMSNBC talking about the resignation of Colin Powell.

MATTHEWS: I think the one to watch here is the vice president. Will George W. Bush continue to allow the public perception that he has almost a co-president in Dick Cheney or will he say, you know, it's time in true Machiavellian fashion for the prince to move on so that he can govern without the help of a chief counselor. I'm looking at that one, that's to me the fascinating question: Dick Cheney, will he be demoted and if so who will get the authority that he has now?

RUSH: This is just sheer, absolute -- if I were Chris Matthews, I would be embarrassed to be saying this publicly. You want me to translate this for you? Bush still isn't running the show, Cheney is, will Bush now feel that he's got enough years of experience under his belt to take over and run this without Cheney being around? The other theories being bandied about in the mainstream press are, well, Cheney is the one doing all this and Cheney is going to be consolidating his power, is I guess one of the reasons why Matthews is saying will Cheney be demoted. All this is good, folks. They just continue to misunderstand who George W. Bush is and how he views governing and what role he intends to play with all of his advisors and cabinet ministers and so forth in this second term. They're still fixated on the fact that Bush is an idiot. Boy, if this is a political idiot I would hate to see a political genius deal with these people. He only shellacked them every time he's gone up against them. Then later today, or earlier this morning I should say, on CNN the former Clinton administration state department spokesman Jamie Rubin was there. The question was, "Well, when you say listened to, do you think in some camps Powell was listened to more outside the U.S. than what he was able to influence inside the White House?"

RUBIN: On most of the big battles Colin Powell lost, whether it was the decision to invade Iraq without going through the careful planning needed to have a force able to stabilize and secure Iraq, whether it was the need to build the biggest possible coalition, whether it was the need to come up with realistic negotiating positions with North Korea. So I accept the fact that his moderating influence wasn't always successful, but I think that still means that whoever replaces Colin Powell won't have the clout, however limited, that he had.

RUSH: Oh, this is a massive transformation, too. During the first term Powell had a lot of power, and Powell was the guy that was going to temporize, moderate Bush, Powell was the guy gonna protect us with our allies around the world, and all of a sudden, Powell wasn't able to get anything done, Powell, he really lost all of his battles out there, ah, Powell, it's no big deal to lose Colin Powell, they're out there now saying. So they're still discombobulated, folks. I think these people are still, the Democrats are so busy looking backwards, every one of these comments looks backwards and that's all they're doing. Their kooks are still looking at Florida 2000. Bob Wexler, their congressmen from down here, rather than try to win the 2004 election, wanted to re-fight the 2000 election and get lawsuits over voting machines, instead of get-out-the-vote. These people are still so stuck in the past and that's their problem. The only time they had any success was years and years and years and years and years ago and they keep trying to replicate it and they cannot look forward. Meanwhile, the only direction President Bush is looking is forward. So they're not seeing the same things here, folks. And please, Rush, Rush, did you hear what the media -- My friends, let me be candid. (Clearing throat.) I am the media. I don't care what the media is saying or is going to say.

As you see on the Drudge page that William Safire is retiring his column at the New York Times. It figures. They got a too many conservatives on their editorial page now with David Brooks and him, so Brooks is on Saturday, Safire is a couple other days. That's way too many conservatives there. Let's talk, is Safire being forced out, ladies and gentlemen, by the New York Times. Let's turn it around on 'em. They want, is Powell being forced out, is Cheney consolidating all of his power and conducting a palace coup? Well, let's ask Little Pinch Sulzberger, are you forcing Safire out? Or is he quitting on his own, or are you worried you got too many conservatives there since there are now two of them?

You know, it is amazing to me how former Democrat operatives are now in the press commenting on changes in the Republican administration, people like Jamie Rubin and Chris Matthews. Chris Matthews was a Carter guy, for crying out loud. A lot of credibility he brings to all this. One thing we know for sure, and this is all I need to know and it's all I need to tell you about whoever the new secretary of state is, no matter who Bush chooses, he or she will be far better than Madeleine Albright. Whoever Bush chooses will be far better than little Ricky Holbrooke would have been. So, you know, it doesn't matter. The whole mind-set on the left, get this now, the whole mind-set on the left is absurd. Here we have, of course in a Republican administration cabinet members have to moderate that president's views. It was this way with Reagan. George Schultz as secretary of state, it's a good thing he was there, because Reagan was a madman, you know, Reagan had his finger at nuclear button, Reagan was an old dunce, Reagan was a cowboy, Reagan was going to blow up the world except for George Schultz. And now, of course, Colin Powell was going to moderate George W. Bush, because Bush is a cowboy and a madman, and he knows no limits, he's going to do whatever he wants to do to anybody in the world. But Colin Powell was going to moderate him.

You know, it shows how out of touch the old media is, always turning to failed Democrats for input. Jamie Rubin, Madeleine Albright, all of these failed diplomats, failed Democrats to go out and get input on what the Republican president is doing. And, of course, we never, we never, when Clinton is president, no cabinet minister is ever going to moderate Clinton. When there's a Democrat president, the cabinet members are simply pure servants, they're totally subservient to the brilliant Democrat president that we have, but we get a Republican -- now, folks, you may think you hear frustration. I don't. I'm excited, I'm ecstatic. It's the same old same old. They're not getting it. They're not learning. They're still following their same old template. All of this is going to create a continued backlash. The president is a very popular man. He was elected by three million votes. He's got an Electoral College majority, and he has a mandate on which he ran. And if you look at the exit poll data honestly to find out what it was that was most important on people's minds, it was the war on terror and Iraq, number 1 and 2. Combine them and they dwarf anything else in combination. Anybody in the administration knows that that's why the president was reelected. Other factors, too. I'm not trying to say there weren't other factors, but those two are the big ones. And so the president's out on his high horse preparing here to implement his agenda. Takes us to the CIA. There's a piece in Newsday today, and you've heard some of this news going around in other newspapers, Porter Goss, very disliked over there, why, they're resigning in droves at the CIA because Porter Goss is bringing his own guys in there and they're not showing the due respect that these old career guys at the CIA deserve.

This is good! It is about time. Do you remember the last interview we did with Bill Gertz over his most recent book? He told us of the liberal institutionalization that has befallen the CIA. It's almost like the state department. You have career people in the CIA who were attempting to undermine the president's policies. They were leaking things, they were talking to the New York Times and the Washington Post. You remember the thing that came out in July, this intelligence brief that supposedly painted this horrible scenario for Iraq. No, no, no, not Adelphia -- it's got a name. I'll find it here in just a second. It's the thing that came out in July, and they leaked it. I'll get the name of it here in just a second. Not really part of the CIA, but -- well, it is and it isn't.

You remember what it is. It predicted three options for Iraq, and all three were horrible. Even the best one was horrible. Yes, civil war, we had no hope. These things were all leaked by anti-Bush elements in the CIA. And Porter Goss has been sent over there to clean it up. This piece in Newsday is supposed to be a hit piece, but the truth is that the CIA is a part of the executive branch. It is answerable to the president of the United States. We now have CIA personnel writing books and leaking to the media, and those involved in such activities need to be removed from their position of public trust. The president's elected. He's in charge of the executive branch. He can't do his job when certain nameless and faceless bureaucrats are trying to undermine him and the war effort. So while this story is intended to be a hit piece on the president, it tells me the administration is doing exactly the right thing. The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden; this according to knowledgeable sources.

Let me tell you something, folks, these are the people that blew 9/11, these are the people that failed to see the Soviet Union crumbling, these are the people that are career liberals in that establishment over there who lived and breathed only to sustain their own jobs. The national intelligence estimate, they leaked that.

the worst of the lot that really needs to be booted out is the idiot Mannetta.... who fouled up in the name of political correctness when our nation was at war...

I hear Condi Rice is the new Secretary of State. Fantastic.

I had a horrible thought in 2008. It was Arnold as President and due to pressure from his wife he nominated Hitlery for the Supreme Court and the idiots in Congress went along. God forbid.

We need to keep people like Condi in office.

The changes that Bush has made in the last two weeks are great for the country. I couldn't be happier to see Powell leaving.

That makes at least two of us. Powell was a hemorrhoid.

same here. GWB has it well in hand. He knows what he's doing. Let the lefties keep thinking he's stupid.

6 posted on 11/15/2004 6:26:49 PM PST by visualops (Freedom is worth fighting for, dying for and standing for: the advance of freedom leads to peace-GWB)

Mineta is the cabinet member I would MOST like to see resigning, and the President should put somebody EFFECTIVE in his place.

I think the new position will give Condi Rice the much needed exposure she needs if she plans to run for higher office. Any word on if she is going to also remain National Security Advisor?

Smoke. I was already feeling gassy as it was.

If GWB can just turn Iraq into a success I'll be happy and the world will be thankful. History will gage him a success and the GOP will most probably retain full control of the government.

That is enough of an agenda I think. Please leave amnesty for illegals and further fed control of local schools off your plate.

My cynicism will be curbed when I hear something like 'limited government' or 'balanced budget' come out of the Presidents mouth.

The problems with Bush's appointments are that he is appointing technicians, not people who can sell ideas. They might accomplish things, but the votors will slowly lose confidence because these people don't have the charisma to sell Bush's policies.

Clinton made sure his appointments were able to hit the talk shows every week, and effectively sell (lie) their ideas.

Newt Ginrich is a great idea salesman. Rush is another.

Condi is more articulate. She is smart and quick witted.
She will do fine.
I don't get the idea about technicians...
I think it is better to have people who are the same page....rather than a suit pontificating.

Rush has it exactly right. I would take it a few steps further. The real reason Pres. Bush kept Tenet and appointed Powell, was to politically inoculate him from all the grief the libs in the CIA and the State Dept. Had Pres. Bush done it any differently, the Libs conspiracy machine would have gone into overdrive.

Now is the perfect time to clean the rats out. With new leadership in the CIA and State Dept. they all will see the writing on the wall and get out before the get into really deeeeep trouble -- if they are not already trying their darnedest to clean their tracks -- which most likely they are.

This I believe will become one of the biggest political stories in the years ahead. The war in the CIA and State Dept.

How's this for a "new tone" for the Bush administration:
You lost. We won. Now get the hell out of here and let us do what the people elected us to do!

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