RUSH: All right, to the audio sound bites. Last night on Hardball with Chris Matthews, the guest was Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, who we like here. We've always liked Howie. He does his best to get it right and to be fair. Matthews says, "Is it better to be noticed and whacked at, or ignored, Howard" when you're one of these candidates?KURTZ: A couple months ago Hillary, you remember, did all five Sunday morning shows, and whenever anyone asked her a reasonably tough question --MATTHEWS...

RUSH: Gideon in Greenwich, Connecticut, glad you waited, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network.CALLER: Hey, Rush.RUSH: Yeah.CALLER: What's Hillary's equivalent of Karl Rove? Harold Ickes? Somebody like that?RUSH: Well, wait a second. Run that by me again.CALLER: I was wondering who... I guess I'm trying to imagine Hillary --RUSH: There is no equivalent to Harold Ickes. Karl Rove is not a scheming slime ball.CALLER: Well, I'm sorry. No, you're right, I understand. I'm just talking about in...

RUSH: This is like Bob in New Orleans. You're next on the EIB Network. Hello, sir.CALLER: Hello, Rush. Thank you for taking my call.RUSH: You bet, sir.CALLER: You're lighting the way for all Americans every day, and we thank you for it.RUSH: You're very kind to say that, sir, very observant, too.CALLER: I was excited, very, very excited to see that debate yesterday. I saw a school yard bully step out and say "Hey, we're going to play this game," and I saw four politicians raise their hand...

RUSH: You know, Snerdley and I were talking here during the break at the top of the hour. We were examining this timeline with Obama and the attacks on him, and it really starts with Joe Biden. Remember when Joe Biden -- and all these attacks, by the way, on Obama have come from liberals. Obama is the first top-tier black candidate for president, and it is liberals trying to destroy this guy, not just liberals in terms of his electoral opponents, but also the libs of the Drive-By Media. It starts...

RUSH: Back to the audio sound bite roster. This is last night on NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams, Andrea Mitchell talking to Madam Albright, the former secretary of state for Clinton. And Albright said this about Hillary Clinton's role in the Clinton administration.ALBRIGHT: Our first lady is not a policy maker, and I don't think she's claiming that she was. But she was the human face of American, uh, diplomacy abroad. MITCHELL: Most people thought you were the face of American foreign policy.ALBRIGHT:...

RUSH: "Hillary Clinton has personally apologized to Barack Obama over this drug flap that happened on the tarmac at Reagan airport en route to the Iowa debate today. Clinton told Obama that negative personal characterizations are not a part of her campaign, and she disavowed comments by a big shot New Hampshire supporter by the name of Billy Shaheen " Now, get this: Hillary's advisor, not Hillary, the Shaheen guy, reminds New Hampshire of Obama's former drug use -- and, by the way, a Novak column...

RUSH: What is Congress' approval rating, 22, 24%? You want to know one of the reasons why? "The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Thursday to hold two top aides to President George W. Bush in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate in its probe of fired federal prosecutors. On a largely party-line vote of 11-7, the Democratic-led panel," it's led by Pat Leahy, "sent contempt citations against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove to the...

RUSH: All right, to the audio sound bites. Last night on Hardball with Chris Matthews, the guest was Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, who we like here. We've always liked Howie. He does his best to get it right and to be fair. Matthews says, "Is it better to be noticed and whacked at, or ignored, Howard" when you're one of these candidates?KURTZ: A couple months ago Hillary, you remember, did all five Sunday morning shows, and whenever anyone asked her a reasonably tough question --MATTHEWS...

RUSH: "The IRS yesterday hit several employees and consultants of the Rev. Al Sharpton's civil-rights organization," the National Action Network, "with subpoenas demanding a wide range of documents as part of an ongoing investigation, sources said. Charlie King, acting executive director of Sharpton's National Action Network, said he did not know the nature of the investigation, but noted that Sharpton himself was not among the four people he knew to have received the subpoenas. The Internal Revenue...

RUSH: This baseball business. There are a lot of names on here, and I gotta tell you, it's interesting to me because while this steroid use has been growing, or reportedly growing, and the sports Drive-Bys are trying to make just pure hell out of this situation, they've largely aimed it at Barry Bonds, who is, obviously, on the list. What you have now, you have so many players on this list, that you're not just talking about individual asterisks, you have to talk about team asterisks -- if this...

Rush's Morning Update: The TargetDecember 14, 2007Watch It! Download Morning Update Video in QuickTimeListen to It! Windows Media Player|RealPlayer Folks, let's ponder the left's treatment of Senator Barack Obamasince he announced for president.First, Democrat Joe Biden expressed astonishment that he was "clean" and "articulate"-- in contrast to other African-American candidates. Next, liberal Drive-By Media articles questioned whether Obama was "black enough"...or was he,to quote the...

You're Missing Out on Thousands of Rush Quotes! Join Rush 24/7 NOW!"If you have to have your mom go out and do a TV ad for you to basically say that you're nice, you have problems.""Hell, folks, I'm going to go so far out on a limb and tell you that nighttime cable television shows are just talk radio on TV. And who do you think was the inspiration for trying that format on television? Wasn't Jon Stewart!""Harry Reid said, 'I can't run Ms. Pelosi. She runs that place with an iron hand.' This is...

Story #1: Again: Economy Stronger Than Expected RUSH: "Retail sales suggest the economy may be stronger than expected." Who is doing this expecting? "US retail sales surged during November making a surprisingly strong broad-based climb that suggests the economy might not be as weak as feared." By whom? "Meanwhile, US wholesale prices soared last month at their fastest pace since the Nixon administration. That's spurred by record gains in energy prices, a worrisome sign for Federal Reserve...