The election year is coming soon and Democrats know that Rush Limbaugh is perhaps the biggest threat to their political success in November, 2008. Why is Limbaugh such a threat to the Democrats? Because that pesky Rush keeps exposing the lies they tell to try to pull the wool over the voters’ eyes.

On the Rush Limbaugh show this week, A caller wanted to talk about how the Democrats use imposters posing as Military to smear the troops. Fresh in his mind was a story that Rush had just recently done on one of these imposters who was just sentenced to 6 months in jail for fraud.

"What's really funny is, they [Iraq war critics] never talk to real soldiers," the caller said. "They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media."

"The phony soldiers," Limbaugh then said.

Of course anyone who listens to Rush knew exactly what he was referring to. Just the day before, Rush had done a story on Jessie MacBeth who had written a scathing smear of our soldiers accusing them of the same kind of atrocities in Iraq that John Kerry did after Vietnam.

MacBeth claimed to be a Corporal in the Army Rangers in Iraq and claimed to have witnessed these atrocities. He was exposed by ABC News of not even being a real soldier but was kicked out of Basic Training after only 44 days. He was never in Iraq or Afghanistan, he was never given the rank of Corporal, he was never an Army Ranger, he was a fraud, but a hero to the left media. He was a “phony soldier.”

The caller named "Mike" then went on for the next 92 seconds talking about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction while Rush was busy getting a document from his printer he had just requested from his staff. Rush then proceeded to elaborate on his "phony solder" comment referring to Jessie MacBeth and others like him who get into the drive-by media pretending to be soldiers.

Several Democrats released statements late last week condemning the remarks, and in a speech on the Senate floor Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called the comments "so beyond the pale of decency that it cannot be left alone."

Just as patriotism is the exclusive realm of neither party, taking a stand against those who spew hate and impugn the integrity of our troops is a job that belongs to all of us," Reid said. "I can't help but wonder how my Republican colleagues would have reacted if the tables were turned -- if a well-known Democratic radio personality had used the same insulting line of attack against troops who support the war," the Nevada Democrat added.

One might well wonder where was Harry Reid when Dick Durbin accused soldiers at Gitmo of using torture and compared them to the regimes of Hitler and Pol Pot. And where was Harry when John Murtha accused the soldiers of Haditha of being murderers, then refused to apologize when they were exonerated? Why didn’t Harry speak up when John Kerry called the soldiers terrorists and accused them of “terrorizing women and children in the dead of night?” If Harry wants to call his Republican colleagues hypocrites, perhaps he should first learn the facts, then look in the mirror.

The trouble with the statements by Reid, Harkin, and other Democrats is that they refuse to face the fact that Rush wasn't talking about the soldiers, he was talking about the imposters. Why don't they understand this when it's as clear as the nose on your face if you just look at the transcript or listen to the tape? And if they do know the truth, then why do they persist with this insane false rhetoric? There is only one answer, blind ambition and lying for political gain. They trust that their supporters on the far left will never hear the real truth and they are desperate to shut Rush up and anyone else who might speak it before they do hear it.

Reid, along with several other Democrats, have sent a letter to Clear Channel Communications CEO Mark Mays this week, calling on him to formally condemn Limbaugh's comments. Mays replied by telling the Democrats that Clear Channel believes in free speech and they have no intention of censoring Rush. The Soros/Clinton groups through left wing blogs then began a campaign to flood Rush's advertisers with complaints about his show and his comments.

I hope there were millions of them because what the left fails to understand is that talk radio is driven by the free market. No radio program distribution network, like Clear Channel, is going to take a successful host off the air who is bringing in millions of dollars in advertising fees. The more emails Rush's sponsors get from the sheep on the left, the more listeners it will appear to the sponsor that Rush has. The more listeners, the more revenue for both the sponsor and the media which carries the program, and the more secure Rush‘s broadcast becomes.

Geraldo Rivera, the big mouth with nothing driving it, appeared on Hannity & Combs Wednesday night with the claim that Rush should apologize for his words. Obviously, he had no clue what the issue was all about or what Rush really said. He claims that Rush refuses to "clear it up" and just wants to drag it out to make more money. Rivera is oblivious to the fact that Rush has talked about little else this week, replayed the audio of the program in question, done everything he possibly can to "clear it up" but the left just refuses to listen. Rivera also refuses to face the fact that Rush wasn't talking about the soldiers, he was talking about the imposters. In all his ugly arrogance, he refused to hear a word Hannity said about what really happened and nearly turned red with anger in defending his erroneous position.

Tom Harkin and Harry Reid seemed to think this matter was an important enough national issue to require Congressional attention and brought it to the Senate floor. Following Reid's misinformed comments, Harkin took to the floor and said "I don't know, maybe he [Limbaugh] was high on his drugs again. I just don't know."

Is that an appropriate comment for a U.S. Senator to be making on the Senate floor? Since when is it the job of the U.S. Senate to be attacking a radio talk show host with personal smears? This is the kind of rhetoric we have come to expect from the “drive-by media,” but not from elected officials in Congress. This shows just how desperate the left is getting to keep the truth hidden from the voters. It also shows how dangerous the Democrat Party is becoming on issues of free speech.

After misrepresenting what Rush said, and pretending to know what Rush was thinking at the time (neither one heard the show), Reid and Harkin then tried to push through a measure to condemn Rush Limbaugh. They actually wasted the taxpayers' money and congressional time to further push their agenda to shut Rush up. But it's not so much about Rush as it is about laying the groundwork to reintroduce the "Fairness Doctrine" in Congress to shut down those who disagree with the left. This will be high on the Congressional agenda in the coming year.

They did it to Don Imus after he was critical of Hillary Clinton. They did it to Michael Savage a while back and actually got his program cancelled. They tried to do it just recently to Bill O'Reilly over a story on his visit to a black restaurant in which he actually was defending blacks. Now they think they have something on Rush because of a distorted and misleading story, no, let's call a spade a spade here, a LIE by Media Matters mischaracterizing 2 words from the mouth of Limbaugh.

Fred Thompson made the following suggestion: Why not ask General Petraeus and the troops what they think about Rush's comments? See if they think he demeaned or smeared them in any way. But Thompson knows well that his suggestion will never be taken by the smear merchants of the left. They know they would never get the answer they want from the real Military. Instead they turn to their left wing hack, Wesley Clark, to reinforce their lies. The are not interested in hearing from anyone who actually heard the show.

Webster defines the word "phony" as: "not genuine or real: as (1) : intended to deceive or mislead (2) : intended to defraud." Anyone who was listening to the program knows what Rush was talking about. He was talking about Jessie MacBeth, who is sentenced to 6 month in jail for pretending to be a soldier and collecting G.I. benefits he was not entitled to. Rush was also referring to other imposters dragged out into the media by the left who also claimed to be soldiers but were not. They were in fact "phony soldiers" just like MacBeth. Rush simply called a spade a spade, he has nothing to apologize for.

Isn't it ironic how the Democrats are jumping down Limbaugh's throat and accusing him of doing exactly what they themselves have been making a career of doing - smearing the Military. You would think that if Rush had actually done what they accuse him of, they would be applauding him and make him one of their heroes.

"This disgusting attack from Rush Limbaugh, cheerleader for the chicken-hawk wing of the far Right, is an insult to American troops. In a single moment on his show, Limbaugh managed to question the patriotism of men and women in uniform who have put their lives on the line and many who died for his right to sit safely in his air conditioned studio peddling hate," John Kerry said in a statement. No he didn’t, Mr. Kerry. Rush wasn’t talking about soldiers. Isn't it interesting that MacBeth had done exactly the same thing that Kerry did some 35 years earlier? It’s no wonder that Kerry would rush to his defense. Rush has never “peddled hate” on his show, he exposes the truth as a fine gentleman and does it in an entertaining and humorous way. Obviously, Kerry has never heard the show.

Now Reid is saying that Rush wasn't referring only to Jesse MacBeth because his words "phony soldiers" was in the plural form. Right! MacBeth wasn't the first "phony solder" the left has used, only the most recent one. They have a history of promoting phony soldiers as heroes and patriots of the left. Oh, how they love a liar. Just their kind of people.

Think that’s the end of it? Not on your life. Now we have Brian McGough of VoteVets.org claiming Rush called him a “suicide bomber” and the drive-by media all following in lockstep. Here is what Rush actually said:

You can count on the liberal media and the Democrat Party to continue to distort and lie about anything Rush may say between now and the election next year unless they can achieve their real goal and remove him from the airwaves. It’s only a matter of time before they do the same to Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Michael Savage, Neil Boortz, and the rest of the new media who have this nasty habit of exposing the truth about the Democrats and what they really stand for.