“We’re concerned with death here. We’re concerned with body counts. We’re concerned with the breakdown of law and order. [inaudible] Insurgencies, gangs, whatever you want to call them. They’re out of control in major American cities, and Philadelphia is just one example, and where are the hearings on this? Oh, I know. Senator [Joseph R.] Biden [D-DE] and Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi [D-CA] are too busy trying to weaken the commander-in-chief so we can’t win the war in Iraq. They are not only invested in defeat, they can’t allow victory. They simp — politically, they cannot allow it. Four-hundred-and-six Philadelphians murdered last year; unbelievable. We have lost just over 3,000 soldiers in Iraq in nearly four years, about 600 of those were due to non-combat accidents. There were 821 deaths in Iraq, troop-related deaths last year; 406 in one American city! And consider the media attention. We hear about how out of control Baghdad is. We hear about how nobody can control it, and Bush can’t control it and the U.S. military can’t control it.
Let’s get a little proportion and let’s talk about the fact that it is not safe to walk in parts of our own American cities. Democrat [sic]-run cities, liberal politicians. The contrast in big media coverage, especially the TV networks, is sickening. If we were to follow the way Democrats want to deal with Iraq and apply it to how we should deal with Philadelphia and other crime-ridden big cities, we should do the following: Cut off all federal funding for Philadelphia. Withdraw all federal agencies and FBI offices, any federal law enforcement, get them the hell out of there by 2008 so Hillary Clinton doesn’t have to deal with it when she’s inaugurated in January of 2009. It sounds to me like there’s a civil war going on in Philadelphia and in other major American cities, and we ought not be in the middle of it. We need — well, diplomacy. OK, I guess that’s right, try diplomacy.
Send some diplomats in there. Negotiate peace between the gangs and the citizens who are at war with them. But before anything — before anything is done, a resolution. We need a resolution from the United States Senate, which forces President Bush to remove all federal presence from Philadelphia and now. He is not the decider. Senator [Arlen] Specter [R-PA] said it yesterday, he’s not the sole decider. They have co-deciders in the United States Senate. Senator Specter, maybe you should take your eyes off of Iraq and Baghdad and focus on your hometown.” –RUSH LIMBAUGH, January 31st, 2007 [Source: Media Matters]