Verbatim Rush Limbaugh: 'I'm doing McCain the biggest favor . . .'

From an e-mail from former Republican Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas to radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh:

Rush,

I have not seen you in a long time but I do hear you frequently and I know that you have serious reservations about Sen. [John] McCain. . . .

I was the Republican Leader from January 1985 until I left the Senate voluntarily in June 1996. I worked closely with Sen. McCain when he came to the Senate in 1987 until I departed. I cannot recall a single instance when he did not support the Party on critical votes.

(At my age, I cannot be entirely certain, but here are a few key conservative examples:)

1. Consistent pro-life record;

2. Strong advocate for strict constructionist judges (we were misled on the Souter nomination);

3. Supported voluntary school prayer;

4. Supported Constitutional Amendment for a Balanced Budget (needed two-thirds and lost by one vote - 66-34);

5. Strong advocate for reducing spending and opposing pork-barrel "earmarks" which has, I might add, angered some of his colleagues;

6. Consistent on defending Second Amendment rights;

7. Opposed "Hillary Care," which would have been devastating;

8. Probably the Senate's strongest advocate for strong national defense;

9. Of course he has cast many votes since I left. I totally disagreed with the McCain-Feingold legislation [on campaign finance reform]. On immigration, Sen. McCain was not in the Senate when Congress passed President Reagan's immigration legislation, which passed overwhelmingly. It granted amnesty to 2.7 million illegals. It was not much different than the 2007 McCain, Kennedy, Bush effort. . . .

McCain is a friend, and I proudly wore his P.O.W. bracelet bearing his name while he was still a guest at the "Hanoi Hilton." I believe our major candidates are mainstream conservatives and that our nominee will address our concerns by keeping taxes low, reducing corporate taxes, protecting and assisting the vulnerable, strengthening our traditional values, and above all, keeping America strong militarily, whatever the cost.

Whoever wins the Republican nomination will need your enthusiastic support. Two terms for the Clintons are enough.

God Bless America,

Bob Dole

And from Rush Limbaugh's

radio show Tuesday:

If I really wanted to torpedo McCain, I would endorse him, because that would send the independents and liberals that are going to vote for him running away faster than anything. . . . What people don't realize is, I'm doing McCain the biggest favor that could be done for him. . . . If I endorsed him thoroughly, with passion, that would end the independents and moderates, because they so despise me, and they so hate me.

[. . . The "Drive-By Media"] all want to talk about the same thing: Why do you not like McCain? What in the world is it with McCain? How come you don't like McCain? . . . They think I'm against McCain. They think I'm trying to torpedo McCain. They think I'm trying to savage McCain. . . . And yet, am I not doing the best thing in the world for his candidacy, based on the way he structured it? He wants independents; he wants Democrats; he wants people from across the aisle joining our party to give him his electoral majority, correct? Who is helping him accomplish that? Me.

It is I, El Rushbo, the all-knowing, all-caring, all-feeling, all-sensing, all-concerned, all-everything El Rushbo. . . . Couldn't it be said that I am secretly supporting Sen. McCain because I secretly do want him to win . . . ? So who may be, in this whole kit and caboodle, in this whole shebang, who may be the most valuable asset McCain has? Me.