This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by “moral idiocy”
By Simon Maloy

So, yesterday we said we'd send an intern down into rural Virginia to test Mark Steyn's hypothesis that Dijon mustard -- the same kind President Obama so haughtily slathered his hamburger with -- is an “urban” foodstuff that most people would not find “regular.” Well, it turns out the interns didn't want to hitchhike (the higher-ups wouldn't cover the travel expense) several hundred miles in the rain to see if there was indeed Grey Poupon on the shelves at the Food City in Pennington Gap, Virginia (population: 1,781). There was no way we were going to leave the security of the Beltway, so we settled on the next-best option -- giving Food City in Pennington Gap a call. Not only did the extremely gracious Food City representative on the other end of the line confirm that they do, in fact, sell Grey Poupon, she actually sounded surprised that we would ask such a stupid question.

Anyway, Mark Davis took over for Mark Steyn behind the golden microphone today, so let's get to it. Davis got things started by noting that the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA released documents demonstrating that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques back in 2002, and that this would “seem to contradict” her statements that she was unaware that these techniques were being used. Davis said that Pelosi, even at her “highest moment of ego,” never dreamed that her objections to these techniques would convince then-President Bush to soften them, so she said nothing. The “funny thing” about Bush, Davis said, was that he “wanted to win the war.”

But now we have new circumstances, Davis said -- a new president and the absence of a desire to use techniques that a decent society can use to protect itself. According to Davis, the argument from the left is that when we waterboarded Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah, we “cashed in our chips” on being a decent society. Davis disagreed with this, saying that the measure of a decent society is one that is willing to do whatever it can to save lives. Davis elaborated: “We just have diametrically opposed notions of what a decent and civilized society does. To some in this country -- apparently the president of the United States and his party -- decency and civility are defined not by the desire to save American lives but rather the desire to make sure that the detainees are not made uncomfortable.”

Davis then said that waterboarding worked, and if you were to put together a list of techniques that would be forbidden, something that we do to “our own guys” to help them get used to what might happen if they fall into “evil hands” and “the worse enemy hands” can't be included on the list, because if we do it to our own guys, that isn't torture and it isn't “unspeakably terrible.” We must say that's imparting a rather lily-livered character to the “evil hands” out there. If they're so “evil,” why are they using techniques that aren't “unspeakably terrible”? As we explained when Mark Steyn made this argument a couple of weeks ago, SERE training incorporates these techniques because they were recognized to be torture techniques employed by enemy regimes. The New York Times reported that SERE training offers “a sample of the torture methods used by Communists in the Korean War, methods that had wrung false confessions from Americans.” Nonetheless, Davis said he's tired of hearing the “moral equivalency” of people bringing up the fact that the U.S. convicted several Japanese soldiers of waterboarding allied prisoners of war during World War II. Davis said this is a “moral idiocy” that boggles his mind and ensnares the thought processes of many elected officials.

After the break, Davis took a call from a man who said he was an aviator and that he underwent SERE training, which was “unpleasant,” but you get through it, and some of the Democrats who oppose waterboarding would understand that if they underwent SERE training. Davis wondered if what the caller was saying was that if a disapproving legislator were waterboarded -- like Sen. Chris Dodd (an image Davis wanted to savor for a moment) -- then they would emerge from it and acknowledge that it isn't torture. Davis said the caller was “dreaming” if he thought this, and imparting to them a clarity and wisdom that they don't possess, because they're opposition is all about opposing Bush.

One more break, and Davis proclaimed his fascination with Roger Simon's Politico column this morning on Elizabeth Edwards, saying that Simon dared to say some counter-narrative things that he finds himself agreeing with. Then Davis took a call from a man who was upset that the previous caller stole a lot of his thunder, but he still couldn't believe that President Obama is willing to have three Somali pirates shot and to send unmanned attack drones into Pakistan, but he won't allow enhanced interrogation techniques. Davis, instead of explaining the contextual differences between a hostage situation, a military operation, and an interrogation, said that it was amazing that so many on the left spend more time talking about the evil of America than the evil America has vanquished. The caller then lamented the media coverage of Pelosi and the interrogation briefings, wondering how stupid the American people can be if they believe it. Davis said the American people are stupid enough to vote in ways that undermine the war on terror and endanger the security of the country.

Davis' next caller cited approvingly Col. Ralph Peters' column in the New York Post this morning, saying that the Obama administration is not willing to make hard choices in the war on terror. Davis said that treating as paramount the comfort of detainees in Guantánamo Bay is the very definition of not being serious about protecting America.

Yet another break and Davis was back, reading extensively from Roger Simon's column. After one more break, he closed out the hour by reading from a column by David Feherty, who wrote that “if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Osama bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death.” Davis wanted to read from this, he said, because Feherty's “words speak enormous volumes.”

Highlights from Hour 1

Outrageous comments

DAVIS: We just have diametrically opposed notions of what a decent and civilized society does. To some in this country -- apparently the president of the United States and his party -- decency and civility are defined not by the desire to save American lives but rather the desire to make sure that the detainees are not made uncomfortable.

[...]

DAVIS: David Feherty is a golf analyst for CBS -- wait for it. Wait for it. David Feherty is a golf analyst for CBS and he wrote a piece in D Magazine, which is the city magazine here in Dallas, and it was all about the return of George W. Bush, 'cause obviously President Bush now lives about 10 miles from the building in which I now sit, and it's an honor to have him here.

One of the articles that they wrote was called -- that they have for this magazine -- was called “Almost totally famous”: “I, too, am a huge celebrity who happens to live in Preston Hollow. I expect George W. to drop by very soon.” As you can tell, David Feherty, golf analyst for CBS, has a magnificent sense of humor. But what he also has, though, is a magnificent gift for phraseology, and he spent some time talking about what it's like to have George W -- what it will be like to have George W in the neighborhood.

And David Feherty writes, in the midst of a piece that is meant to have a bit of a wink and a nudge, just sort of talks about what it's like to have W in the neighborhood and how people should feel about that. And he spends time talking about how the troops feel about him. David Feherty writes: “From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this: Despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Osama bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death.”