On the December 12 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage referred to Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as “yentas,” said Harman should "[g]o home and cook verenikis," and suggested that the three were in office because they “have rich husbands who put them in power with their money, so they could have a little hobby in between getting their nails done.” Savage later asked his “board operator” if he would rather “be waterboarded for 30 seconds or eat Jane Harman's ravioli” and whether he'd rather “be waterboarded or eat Nancy Pelosi's tortellini.”

After playing a clip of Harman saying, “I think waterboarding, which -- another name for which is the Chinese water torture, is torture, and I think that John McCain is right, that if we ...” Savage interrupted and said:

SAVAGE: Aw, shut up, will you, you yenta. Get this yenta off. Go home and cook verenikis, OK? Do the American people a favor, and go home and cook. Go home. Go home and cook better instead of wasting our time with your stupid feelings. We don't care about your feelings. Now what would you recommend, Jane Harman? To get information from hardened men like this, who would slaughter their own people in a mosque. Who kill their fellow Muslims without any thought about it. What would you do to get information out of them, Jane? Probably have them listen to you and Barbara Boxer have a conversation for a few minutes, could break them faster than waterboarding.

Savage played another clip of Harman saying, “The proof I have seen and read about is --” and then Savage said:

SAVAGE: The proof she has seen and read about. She has no experience in interrogating hardened Al Qaeda members, but she's read about it. Where'd you read about it? In The New Yorker? While you're getting your nails done? In the beauty parlor while getting your hair done? Where'd you read about it, in The New Yorker? While Sy Hersh is writing another one of his disinformation articles? Where'd you read about it? In the L.A. Times weekend edition, while getting your toenails done? What a -- this is the kind of world why it gets me agitated. A real addition to America is to have women like this in politics.

Get out of our way and let us win this war against terror is what I'd like to say. And by the way, I speak for America. Make no mistake about it. It's why your ratings are in the toilet. It's why Congress has the lowest ratings in history. It's because of yentas like Jane Harman, yentas like Barbara Boxer, yentas like Nancy Pelosi, and the weakling half-men in the Democrat [sic ] Party who are waving the white flag. That's why you're hated by the American people. Make no mistake about it. We don't give a rat's behind about how you interrogate Al Qaeda. Our hats are off to the brave men in the intelligence agencies who have to face those scum and be in the same cells with them. But you're worried more about how they interrogate them. You're concerned every day about how they're treated.

Savage continued:

SAVAGE: Do you know that the Al Qaeda members at Gitmo are treated better than the Nazis were. They are treated better than the Nazis were at Nuremberg. That came out yesterday. And that's because these yentas who are living in unreality, who don't understand the first thing about the world they're living in, but have rich husbands who put them in power with their money, so they could have a little hobby in between getting their nails done. They're the ones who are standing up and saying, don't waterboard, don't torture. You do it the old-fashioned way. I read it in a book, a magazine, on the airline. I read you can get it by talking to 'em. Just talk to 'em in a nice way. You'll get the information. Go home. Get out of politics. Go play with your grandchildren. Do anything. Do anything, but get out of politics, you yenta.

Savage opened another segment on waterboarding by playing a clip of Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond (R-MO) from the December 11 edition of PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer in which Bond stated: “It's absolutely outrageous that a former CIA agent would discuss what -- these kinds of things. Because once you describe what techniques are being used -- and they are far less serious and threatening than techniques we use on Marines and pilots who go through our training -- then the high-value detainees will never speak to us.” After playing the clip of Bond, Savage said, “See the damage that Barbara Boxer, Jane Harman, and the Democrats are doing to our ability to win the war on terror? Our own men are subjected to tougher techniques than waterboarding, but that doesn't concern them.” Savage earlier played a portion of the Bond interview in which Bond said of waterboarding, "[T]here are different ways of doing it. It's like swimming -- freestyle, backstroke."

Savage then discussed waterboarding with Phil Newmar, “the board operator for this show,” and told his listeners that Newmar “has just volunteered to go on record right now saying he would subject -- be subjected to waterboarding right on this program to show you that it's not torture.” Newmar later said, “I'm more than willing to step up and experience it firsthand before, you know, I make any judgments on it.” Savage told Newmar, “We'll have to get somebody from the CIA to do it or somebody who knows how to waterboard you,” and proceeded to ask him the following of Harman, Boxer, and Pelosi:

SAVAGE: Would you rather be waterboarded for 30 seconds or eat Jane Harman's ravioli?

NEWMAR: It would definitely be the waterboarding, sir.

SAVAGE: Would you rather be waterboarded or be in the same room with Barbara Boxer after a family argument?

NEWMAR: I'm going to have to ask to be waterboarded twice.

SAVAGE: [laughs] And the last question: Would you rather be waterboarded or eat Nancy Pelosi's tortellini?

NEWMAR: Put a bullet in my head before I'll eat that tortellini.

SAVAGE: [laughs] All right, we're on record, Phil. We'll have to find somebody willing to waterboard you.

According to Wikipedia: "Varenyky (Ukrainian) or vareniki (Russian ...) are a kind of stuffed dumpling associated with Ukrainian cuisine. Some variants are also found in Belarusian, Russian and Polish cooking, and are sometimes said to be of Turkish origin. Varenyky are similar to Polish pierogi, Siberian pelmeni, and Italian ravioli."

As Media Matters for America has documented, Savage has previously said that the U.S. Senate is “more vicious and more histrionic than ever, specifically because women have been injected into” it. Savage has also previously singled out Boxer, calling her a “weasel,” a “harridan,” and a “lying little witch.” As Media Matters also noted, Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency reportedly dropped its representation of Savage two days after announcing that it had signed him as a client. The move followed a rant by Savage on February 26, documented by Media Matters for America, over singer Melissa Etheridge's Academy Awards acceptance speech, in which she thanked her wife. Savage said, “I don't like a woman married to a woman. It makes me want to puke. ... I want to vomit when I hear it. I think it's child abuse.” In 2003, Savage was fired by MSNBC for telling a gay caller he should “get AIDS and die.”

Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage's show, says that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches more than 8 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine , making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.

From the December 12 edition of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: So we've got schmucks in Congress like Jane Harman worried about how Al Qaeda was treated. Whether they were waterboarded and whether the interrogation tapes are around. This is why their ratings are in the toilet.

Here's a message from the American people to the Democrats who are worried about how Al Qaeda was treated at Gitmo and whether they were waterboarded. Here's our message to you, you idiots: We hope they were waterboarded. In fact, we'd recommend even more torture. We're glad that no bombs have gone off in America since 9-11. And if you idiots would get out of the way, we could wipe the planet of this virus. But because of schmucks like Jane Harman and because of schmucks like Barbara Boxer and because of the whole Democrat machine, we're worried now about whether or not they were treated properly in their interrogations. But the American people don't see it that way. And the media won't tell you why they're hated.

Now here's former CIA agent John Kiriakou making a great argument for the use of waterboarding while being opposed to it. Listen to 07.

KIRIAKOU [audio clip]: He was unwilling, completely unwilling to give up information early on. He was perfectly willing to engage you in a conversation once he was through the medical danger that he was in initially. But the conversations were about philosophy, about Islam versus Christianity. They weren't substantive.

SAVAGE: Mm-hm. But listen to 09 now, not 8.

KIRIAKU [audio clip]: It's my understanding he lasted 30 or 35 seconds, which was quite remarkable. The next day, he told his interrogator that Allah had visited him in his cell during the night and told him to cooperate because it would make it easier on the other brothers who had been captured.

SAVAGE: Isn't that interesting. So, waterboarding helped him see Allah. So there's an argument for using it. If it could help radical Muslims have a visit - a personal visit from Allah, then there's an argument for using waterboarding. It's amazing to me that this has not reached the Democrats on the committee. You'd think that they'd be interested in religion and how people can meet their prophets. Listen to clip 20:

[begin audio clip]

GWEN IFILL [NewsHour senior correspondent]: Do you think that waterboarding as I described it, is, constitutes torture?

KIT BOND: Uh, there are different ways of doing it. It's like swimming -- freestyle, backstroke.

[end audio clip]

SAVAGE: Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm. Now here's Jane Harman, one of the silliest women -- I would say next to Barbara Boxer she's about as silly as they come. It makes our enemies laugh at us to think that women from Brooklyn like this are on intelligence committees. Listen to 21.

HARMAN [audio clip]: I think waterboarding, which another name for --

SAVAGE: Hold it. Jane, Jane, we're not talking about waterskiing. We're not talking about a Disney movie from the 1960's when you were a girl. We're talking about interrogating terrorists. We're not talking about waterskiing, so let's back that tape up, play 21 again.

HARMAN [audio clip]: I think waterboarding, which -- another name for which is the Chinese water torture, is torture, and I think that John McCain is right, that if we --

SAVAGE: Aw, shut up, will you, you yenta. Get this yenta off. Go home and cook verenikis, OK? Do the American people a favor, and go home and cook. Go home. Go home and cook better instead of wasting our time with your stupid feelings. We don't care about your feelings. Now what would you recommend, Jane Harman? To get information from hardened men like this, who would slaughter their own people in a mosque. Who kill their fellow Muslims without any thought about it. What would you do to get information out of them, Jane? Probably have them listen to you and Barbara Boxer have a conversation for a few minutes, could break them faster than waterboarding. Listen to what she recommends in 23:

HARMAN: [audio clip]: The proof I have seen and read about is that the old-fashioned forms of interrogation get the truth. Things that are more extreme are the ones that get the people being tortured just to say anything to get that treatment to stop.

SAVAGE: I want you to listen to the beginning of this lie. Listen to it again. Twenty-three.

HARMAN [audio clip]: The proof I have seen and read about is that --

SAVAGE: Hold it. The proof she has seen and read about. She has no experience in interrogating hardened Al Qaeda members, but she's read about it. Where'd you read about it? In The New Yorker? While you're getting your nails done? What'd you read it in the beauty parlor while getting your hair done? Where'd you read it, in The New Yorker? While Sy Hersh wrote another one of his disinformation articles? Where'd you read about it? In the LA Times weekend edition, while getting your toenails done? What a -- this is the kind of world why it gets me agitated. A real addition to America is to have women like this in politics.

Get out of our way and let us win this war against terror is what I'd like to say. And by the way, I speak for America. Make no mistake about it. It's why your ratings are in the toilet. It's why Congress has the lowest ratings in history. It's because of yentas like Jane Harman, yentas like Barbara Boxer, yentas like Nancy Pelosi, and the weakling half-men in the Democrat Party who are waving the white flag. That's why you're hated by the American people. Make no mistake about it. We don't give a rat's behind about how you interrogate Al Qaeda. Our hats are off to the brave men in the intelligence agencies who have to face those scum and be in the same cells with them. But you're worried more about how they interrogate them. You're concerned every day about how they're treated.

Do you know that the Al Qaeda members at Gitmo are treated better than the Nazis were. They are treated better than the Nazis were at Nuremberg. That came out yesterday. And that's because these yentas who are living in unreality, who don't understand the first thing about the world they're living in, but have rich husbands who put them in power with their money, so they could have a little hobby in between getting their nails done. They're the ones who are standing up and saying, don't waterboard, don't torture. You do it the old-fashioned way. I read it in a book, a magazine, on the airline. I read you can get it by talking to 'em. Just talk to 'em in a nice way. You'll get the information. Go home. Get out of politics. Go play with your grandchildren. Do anything. Do anything, but get out of politics, you yenta.

[commercial break]

BOND [audio clip]: It's absolutely outrageous that a former CIA agent would discuss what -- these kinds of things. Because once you describe what techniques are being used -- and they are far less serious and threatening than techniques we use on Marines and pilots who go through our training -- then the high-value detainees will never speak to us.

SAVAGE: See the damage that Barbara Boxer, Jane Harman, and the Democrats are doing to our ability to win the war on terror? Our own men are subjected to tougher techniques than waterboarding, but that doesn't concern them.

Now, Phil Newmar is the board operator for this show. And he has just volunteered to go on record right now saying he would subject -- be subjected to waterboarding right on this program to show you that it's not torture. Phil, is that right? Come on the air.

NEWMAR: Yes, sir. I would do it in a heartbeat.

SAVAGE: Phil, do you have any military experience?

NEWMAR: None whatsoever.

SAVAGE: And you're still not afraid of waterboarding. You know what it is?

NEWMAR: I know exactly what it is. I've seen it in movies, I've seen Code Pink do it. I'm more than willing to step up and experience it firsthand before, you know, I make any judgments on it.

SAVAGE: All right. But you're willing to be waterboarded live on the air on The Savage Nation sometime in the future. We'll have to get somebody from the CIA to do it or somebody who knows how to waterboard you. Would you rather be waterboarded for 30 seconds or eat Jane Harman's ravioli?

NEWMAR: It would definitely be the waterboarding, sir.

SAVAGE: Would you rather be waterboarded or be in the same room with Barbara Boxer after a family argument?

NEWMAR: I'm going to have to ask to be waterboarded twice.

SAVAGE: [laughs] And the last question: Would you rather be waterboarded or eat Nancy Pelosi's tortellini?

NEWMAR: Put a bullet in my head before I'll eat that tortellini.

SAVAGE: [laughs] All right, we're on record, Phil. We'll have to find somebody willing to waterboard you. Thank you for [unintelligible]. So this is what's disturbing the Democrats, the white-flaggers, which is that we're not treating our detainees, who would blow up their children's nursery school, properly. It's sickening. Now you know why their ratings are in the toilet.

The newspapers will tell you that Congress has a lower rating that Bush, but they won't tell you why. This is the reason why. It's this kind of behavior that they have these investigations every other day, the Democrats. Waterboarding. The CIA interro-- we don't care. We want tougher interrogation, not weaker. Tougher, not weaker.