Rush Drops the "S" from his "Phony Soldiers" comment

Barack Obama said: "We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops that we are not just air raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there"....He didn't mean the soldiers were doing this on purpose, he was referring to the "cluster-F**K" that was going on, and it needs to be handled.

John Kerry said: "Education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."...He didn't mean the soldiers were stupid, his reference was to George Bush, figuratively speaking Bush IS stuck in Iraq (and is about as sharp as a bowling ball). Kerry supports the troops in an unconsciously competent way (he doesn't have to even think about it)

When you listen to the conservative commentators and media, they usually paraphrase it as "Obama said our soldiers are bombing and killing innocent people" and "Kerry called our troops dumb" (Sean Hannity practically ANY night of the week)

Now let's take a look at Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" remark. I think we need to pick this apart to try and get an understanding of who Limbaugh was referring to.

CALLER: No, it's not. And what's really funny is they never talk to real soldiers. They pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and spout to the media.

RUSH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER: Phony soldiers. If you talk to any real soldier and they're proud to serve, they want to be over in Iraq, they understand their sacrifice and they're willing to sacrifice for the country.

RUSH: They joined to be in Iraq.

The caller is clearly talking about actual soldiers. The "phony soldiers" appear to be soldiers that don't agree with the war, or veterans that speak out against the war. Conservative commentators may have spoke too soon when they say Rush was referring to the people that aren't or weren't soldiers at all, but scammers. I say spoke too soon because according to Rush (even though he did say "soldiers) what he meant was:

LIMBAUGH: I was not talking, as Contessa Brewer said here, about the anti-war movement generally. I was talking about one soldier with that "phony soldier" [Comment: he dropped the "s"] comment, Jesse MacBeth. They had exactly what I'm going to play for you. This is Michael J. Fox all over again. Media Matters had the transcript, but they selectively choose what they want to make their point. Here is -- it runs about 3 minutes and 13 seconds -- the entire transcript, in context, that led to this so-called controversy.

Note is drops the plural. He refers to the transcript running about 3 minutes and 13 seconds...Rush edited 1 minute and 35 seconds out of it. Listen to his edited radio broadcast HERE (transcript can also be read at the same link). For any conservatives that would like to cross reference the typed transcript, it can also be found at Rush's site, or from the conservative blog Wake Up America.

I truly believe Rush meant any serving soldier or veteran that is against the war and speaks out against it as one of the "phony soldiers". I say this because it seems to be a trend among conservative commentators, radio show hosts etc. For example Melanie Morgan, when she was on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer and subsequently got banned from that show for her viciousness towards Jon Soltz. The post with videos can be viewed at 'Melanie Morgan banned from 'The News Hour with Jim Lehrer'.

Once again, listen to the broadcast Rush replayed and read along either HERE (shows where edit starts and ends), HERE or HERE.