Limbaugh falsely implies Bush visited Dover to honor soldiers

By Stephen C. Webster
Friday, October 30th, 2009 -- 4:37 pm
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rushlimbaugh20090217 Limbaugh falsely implies Bush visited Dover to honor soldiersDissecting President Barack Obama's recent visit to Dover, where he saluted America's war dead on camera, right-wing radio personality Rush Limbaugh echoed the words of Elizabeth Cheney, falsely implying that President George W. Bush had done the same, but without the cameras.

"I don't know why he went to Dover," Cheney said during a Fox News radio interview on Thursday. "I think that it is clearly important for a commander in chief, whenever he can in whatever way possible, to pay tribute to our fallen soldiers, our fallen military folks. But I think, you know, what President Bush used to do is to do it without the cameras. And, um, I don't understand, sort-of showing up with the White House press pool, with photographers, and asking family members if you can take pictures. That's really hard for me to get my head around."

"President Bush used to do it!" said Limbaugh, as though to imply that the former president would visit Dover to honor the war dead, much as President Obama did earlier this week. "Boy, we didn't know it! She just told us something we didn't know. Bush used to do it, but there were no cameras. He did it privately with the families."

While Cheney's statement that President Bush used to "pay tribute" to fallen soldiers "without the cameras" is technically correct, it is deceptive in the context of President Obama's actions. Speaking about Obama's visit to Dover, then claiming that Bush "used to do it" sans media, is wrong because President Bush did no such thing.

"Mr. Obama's predecessor, President George W. Bush, visited the families of hundreds of fallen soldiers but did not attend any military funerals or go to Dover to receive the coffins," CBS News reported on Friday.

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President George H.W. Bush was first to institute a policy banning media coverage of America's war dead returning home for burial. President Obama repealed that rule after just over a month in office.

During the early hours of Wednesday morning, President Obama gave a very public tribute to Army Sergeant Dale R. Griffin, of Terre Haute, Ind., who died in Afghanistan. It was the first time in decades a U.S. president and the media have been present to observe American caskets being unloaded.

Speaking to The Oregonian, the family of fallen soldier Pfc. Christopher "Ian" Walz -- who was also received during Obama's visit to Dover, but was not photographed by the media -- called the president "very genuine."

"[Ian] would have been really proud," Katrina Walz told the paper. "He really liked Obama."

Under the Obama administration's rules, individual families are given control over whether or not the caskets of fallen loved ones may be photographed by media. During Obama's visit to Dover, only one family authorized the media's presence.

"A majority of Americans favor allowing the public to see pictures of the military honor guard receiving the war dead at Dover, with about 60 percent responding positively and a third answering negatively in polls posing the question in 1991 and 2004," The Washington Post reported in February.

This audio was cut from the Oct. 30, 2009 edition of Rush Limbaugh Show, courtesy of watchdog group Media Matters.

This video is from CNN, broadcast Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009.

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Story comments are below...

  • 911WasInsideJob
    Why does Rush Limbaugh travel to the Dominican Republic with viagra? Male prostitutes? Female prostitutes? Or child prostitutes? Let's take a vote.
  • Chip
    He's into boys.
  • missskeptic
    I'm sure he's just building houses for Habitat for Humanity <snark>
  • carlos1888
    I demand that American's see the cost of war. Republicans are so gung-ho with the lives of others, but won't put any of their children in harms way. Liz Cheney should get off her fat ass to pay tribute along with that blow hard Rush. By the way, Rush Limp-balls is not qualified to serve his nation, could never get a security clearance because of his drug us and his physical stature and lose of hearing from drug abuse disqualifies him from almost any job except for the one he has now. What a sorry, pathetic bunch of individuals.
  • dennycrane
    Shock us when this sphincter-mouthed "Jabberwacky" actually tells the truth.
  • winski
    Only in one of limpberger's drug-induced tirades does this character emerge...glad he's back..easier to find so we can get him to the dump quicker...
  • Chip
    Why do we still care what this loser says?
  • johntwodogs
    Here's how Obama can REALLY pay tribute to families and soldiers: Bring them home. Remove them from harms way. End these wars and illegal occupations, NOW!
  • sambarber
    Libertate: WTH? Are you Ann Coulter trolling in secret, or are you really that stupid?
  • lunaursus
    Truth is no longer sought. Lies, deception and omission are the center of everything now and integritry is a lost word.
  • donofcali
    Of course it makes no difference to his republicon audience whether the obese, pedophile opium addict has told the truth or not. They will hear no retraction. To these monkeys, what Opium Rush said has become truth in their minds, regardless of facts.
  • nader paul kucinich gravel
    Wall Street
    Glorify Israel
    Anti 9/11 Truth

    ? Nuclear Warfare
    ?? Biological Warfare
    ??? Chemical Warfare

    bbc beck blitzer bolton breitbart coulter
    cspan drudge gutfeld hannity huckabee imus
    ingraham krauthammer kristol limbaugh malkin
    north oreilly rivera rove scarborough stossel susteren

    Gotta Serve Somebody by Bob Dylan
  • libertate
    Bush at least had the sense to not to ogle at the corpses he made, unlike Obama.
  • dennycrane
    If it was your son/daughter I would just send you a "mass-printed-document" with a name change, Forget the "ogling."
  • NapalmGod
    This is amazingly easy. Just say:

    "He chose to honor our fallen soldiers, rather than sneaking them in as if ashamed of them."
  • kajaja420
    i don't think limbaugh meant "bush went to dover" but "bush viewed the fallen soldiers in general"

    your headline is "deceptive in context" almost like you're implying Bush never honored the fallen soldiers at all. (and i hate bush and i'm a liberal). Instead of trying to be the liberal fox could you try and be the unbiased BBC for once and not get caught up in these "expose's" showing the lies the commentators are spewing (except for that GOP defunding the left one, thats actual news)
  • dave
    maybe there were ALL looking for viagra and oxycontin? and WHO did find some? JACKPOT!!!!
  • jimbo92107
    I think Obama should definitely attend funerals for US soldiers killed in the Middle East.

    Each of them. Individually. Get some idea of what damage your policies have wrought.

    It's one thing to send our soldiers into war to protect America. It's quite another to WASTE our soldiers on other people's civil wars. Every casket arriving from Iraq or Afghanistan contains a dead US soldier whose life was WASTED. Every one of those soldiers DIED IN VAIN.

    The moral lesson of Afghanistan is exactly the same as the one in Vietnam: Don't fight other people's civil wars. America has gained absolutely nothing from this bloody, hyper-expensive, 8-years and counting fiasco. Have we learned nothing from our shameful history of needless wars?

    Right now, Barack Obama is in danger of becoming the worst parts of LBJ. Good time to reconsider your actions, Mr. President.
  • tacticalgrace
    Bush didn't "view" them he made them that way and about 5000 others just like them And yet he still lives and takes up oxygen on the planet, what a pity.
  • terrymo1
    The day beckerhead limpballs,tells the truth,the world will end!
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