RUSH: This afternoon in Washington, the White House spokeskid, Jay Carney, held a daily press briefing.
Obama has delayed the vote in Congress on the use-of-force authorization. Why this is even still going on is just purely for show. But Obama has delayed it, and Jonathan Karl… I mean, the spokeskid is in an unenviable position. He’s now gotta lie right to the media’s faces — and they’ll, of course, accept it and amplify it. Here is the little Q&A between Jonathan Karl and Jay Carney just now.
KARL: But you could have gotten that vote from Congress; it helps the diplomacy. The president asked for a delay in that vote because he didn’t have the votes.
CARNEY: The president ask for delay in that vote because we’re exploring a diplomatic avenue, and members of Congress are interested also in exploring that diplomatic avenue, as you’ve seen in some of the actions that they’ve taken with regards to potential resolutions. The president thought that was an appropriate to do.
RUSH: “Yeah, we’re not gonna have the vote there. We don’t want the vote on force now. No, no, no! No, he didn’t cancel the vote ’cause didn’t have the votes,” which he doesn’t have the votes. “No, we canceled it because we’re working on diplomacy now.” Wait a minute! I thought the very threat of US force brought our enemies to their knees. Apparently not now.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We just played the sound bite of Jay Carney and John Karl of ABC News who said, “Well, Obama asked for a delay in the vote in Congress on the congressional use-of-force authorization because he doesn’t have the votes,” and the spokesperson, Jay Carney, said, “No, no, no, no! hat’s not why.” They’re just having to now lie to the reporters’ faces, which is okay with the reporters, for the most part, ’cause it’s all about saving Obama.
At any rate, Carney said, “No, no, no, no. He wanted to delay the vote now because we want to focus on the diplomacy.” I said, “Wait a minute. Kerry said it and Obama said it, that the threat of US force made the Syrians give up.” Now, when a Republican says this, they panic and start talking about dangerous, irresponsible Republicans with their fingers on the nuclear button. When they say it, it’s okay.
They say, “The threat of US force, just the threat will get us where we want to go.” Now all of a sudden, there won’t be any threat, and I’m reminded here that Vladimir Putin (who’s really running this show now) set a condition that endangers the diplomatic initiative to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons. Putin says, “It all depends on the US and other nations renouncing the use of force against Assad’s regime.”
So what might really be going on here is that Putin is saying to Obama, “Look, your secretary of state throws out this gaffe that sounded so good to us, so we took it. You guys tried to walk it back, but you failed. So now you’ve had to sign on to it and make it look like yours. Fine! I’m running this show now, and if you want us to make sure that Bashar gets rid of his chemical weapons, you have to renounce the use of force.
“If your Congress votes an authorization-of-force resolution, then this deal’s off the table.” It, sadly, ladies and gentlemen, is… I guess it’s possible that the reason Obama asked for a delay in the vote on the use of force is because Putin says, “If that vote happens, then Bashar’s not gonna give up his chemical weapons.” This is just unbelievable! We are not the player in that region or anywhere else.
That, too, sadly, is part of the fundamental transformation of the United States of America that Obama spoke about five days before the election. Now, Putin is the player, and we’re being played. That’s exactly right. That is exactly what is happening here. In this instance, Putin is the puppet master. We’re the marionette. We’ve got a guy with chemical weapons that we’ve huffed and puffed and said, “You better get rid of ’em or we’re gonna kick your ass.”
But we didn’t want to really kick his ass. We don’t want to do it. We just threatened to do it — and then by hook or by crook, John Kerry comes out with this, “You know what would really be the best thing is if Assad just get rid of ’em.” Even Kerry said, “We know he’s not gonna do this, but it’d be the best thing.” So Putin said, “You know what? That’s a great! Why, we’ll take that,” and Kerry tried to walk it back.
“No, I didn’t mean that,” and Obama was forced to say, “Oh, yeah! This is my idea. Vladimir and I talked about it last week,” to which the obvious response is, “Well, then why didn’t Kerry know? Why did Kerry think he was just speaking off-handedly here, if that’s been your policy with Vlad since last week?” Really, folks, it’s the Keystone Cops here. I don’t know how Putin…
Every time I see a picture of him, he has got this stone face. I don’t know how he’s doing it. He’s gotta be Botoxed to keep from laughing. I don’t know how Putin is not laughing hysterically every time he’s on TV. He had to call Pelosi and ask, “How do you do it?” or Kerry. “How do you do it?” They never smile. Well, Botox. It freezes you right up there. And the more you take, the longer it lasts.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Lisa, Orange County, California. I’m really glad you waited. Great to have you on the program. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thank you so much for being able to talk to you again. I have a few comments about the president’s speech last night but I first wanted to thank you for the attention and the time that you devoted today to remembering 9/11. My husband’s a captain with United. He happens to be laying over right now in New York, so I remember often that day.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate your kind words. Thank you.
CALLER: Yeah, well, I appreciate your team devoted to it. My comments kind of are prefaced by Ed Asner’s comments last week about being afraid to criticize Obama because he doesn’t want to be seen as “anti-black.”
RUSH: He doesn’t want to “feel anti-black.”
CALLER: Oh, right. He doesn’t want to “feel anti-black.” That’s interestingly.
RUSH: Right. It’s the same thing. I’m sure the other is true, too. He doesn’t want other people to think he is, but he doesn’t want to “feel anti-black.”
CALLER: Right. You know, I was thinking about the comment that he made last night but, you know, if you’re a conservative white and you didn’t vote for Obama, you’re considered racist. If you’re a conservative black and you didn’t vote for Obama, you’re considered an Uncle Tom. If you’re a liberal white that voted for Obama, you voted out of white guilt to somehow right a wrong.
RUSH: Well, either that or you are “enlightened.”
CALLER: Yes. Exactly. Yeah. Last night, he said conservatives are committed to our military might and liberals believe in freedom and dignity for all people. Obama is just infinitely under-qualified for this position, and I feel with Biden and Kerry and Obama, clones of Baghdad Bob are running the country right now.
RUSH: Well, you’re right but you know something? You say he’s “under-qualified,” unqualified or what have you. But precisely because of what bothers Ed Asner, we can’t really say so. We can’t even be honest in a critique, because that would be just unfair. “Given all what’s happened, it would just be unfair. We have to be very tolerant and open-minded.” That defines it for the left. Anyway, Lisa, thank you so much. I appreciate it.