Media Steamed at Hagel Non-Announcement

RUSH: All right, to the audio sound bites. Let’s go to me, shall we, yesterday on this program talking about Hagelmania.

RUSH ARCHIVE: Let me tell you something. There are going to be a lot of real PO’d national reporters who dragged themselves out there for this. (Hagel) could have done this with an e-mail, could have done it with a fax. Besides, how do you pad an expense account if you’re a reporter and you go to Nebraska?

RUSH: Yes. Nothing against Nebraska. It’s just things are cheaper there. How do you pad an expense report when you go to Nebraska? Now, listen to this montage: Chris Jansing of PMSNBC; Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash CNN; Michelle Kosinski, MSNBC; Brit Hume; Pat Buchanan; Wolf Blitzer; Bill Press; James Carville. You tell me if I don’t know the Drive-By Media.

JANSING: A lot of people were surprised that it was sort of a non-announcement announcement.

BLITZER: What was Hagel thinking?

BASH: It was a Seinfeld press conference: about nothing.

KOSINSKI: We’re still waiting for that big announcement. But the problem is the press conference is already over.

HUME: After considerable fanfare that brought some reporters from Washington all the way out to Omaha…

BUCHANAN: I hope a lot of these reporters didn’t file their expense accounts to fly to Lincoln, Nebraska for that. (Laughing.)

BLITZER: There was a huge buildup to what he was going to say. We were anticipating an announcement.

PRESS: This was one of the biggest con jobs ever perpetrated on the press.

CARVILLE: To kind of mix my metaphors here: He came, he saw, and he punted. I mean, you’re getting ready for the guy to come out in a shotgun formation, stand about, you know, five yards behind the center — and here he is 15 yards back getting ready to punt. We all got excited, thought it was going to be something different.

RUSH: Yeah, but at least he didn’t cry like Pat Schroeder when she got out of the race. He didn’t really get out of the race. He’s just gonna delay his decision. His brother, Tom Hagel, was on MSNBC last night. They had him all lined up, and the guy said, ‘I don’t even know if I’d vote for my brother.’ Here’s the question. David Gregory says, ‘Tom Hagel, Chuck Hagel’s brother, would you vote for him, though? Can he count on his brother’s vote?’

TOM HAGEL: Well, who knows who will be running, right?

GREGORY: You’re not going to commit yet?

TOM HAGEL: No. Because I don’t want to turn our relationship into — you know, I guess subjected to all the political problems that could arise.

RUSH: Come on, Tom! It just means your brother doesn’t rev you up out there as a presidential candidate. His own brother wouldn’t vote for him.