RUSH: Charlie Rangel was on CNN today with Ashleigh Banfield, who, by the way, I saw is now dating Aaron Sorkin, he of mushroom fame. He’s also the screenwriter for that news show on HBO. He used to date Maureen Dowd. Something happened there. So now it’s Ashleigh Banfield’s turn. She was talking with Charlie Rangel. She said, “I want to ask you about this deal that we’ve been talking about, the provisions that have just come out today from the House Republican leadership. I want your reaction to these specific three provisions. What do you think? Can you deal with this, Charlie?”
RANGEL: This is all about a handful of people who got elected as Republicans that want to bring down our government. You can see it in the streets. You can see where they’re coming from. And the same way they fought as Confederates, they want to bring down the government and reform it.
BANFIELD: Wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I’m sorry, are you likening — and I’m only assuming you’re referring to the Tea Party members who are pretty intransigent on their views, are you likening them to Confederates?
RANGEL: Take a look at the states that they control. Take a look at the Dixiecrats. See how they went over to the Republican Party.
RUSH: So, while the Democrats and the media have run an absolute coup and have taken over this country, Charlie Rangel wants you to believe that it’s the Republicans who are modern day Confederates who want to bring down the government and reform it. Bring down the government? Charlie, you guys have already done it! Anyway, that’s Rangel. Here now on the House floor, Representative Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California, talking about last weekend’s veterans protests against the government shutdown.
SWALWELL: Mr. Speaker, this shutdown is shining a light and showing the world some of the extreme members of the Tea Party. The rally moved to the White House where Tea Partiers waved the Confederate flag in front of the president’s home. The picture is unnerving, it’s despicable, and it’s not the same flag that we just pledged allegiance to in this House. Condemn this behavior. If you don’t and you let it go, you are condoning it. Out of many, one, e pluribus unum. As one America, let’s denounce this. It’s time to come together.
RUSH: I guess there was one guy with a Confederate flag and they got a picture of it and now it’s the whole Tea Party. Plus, Confederate flag in front of the White House with Obama living there, so Rangel’s upset. Eric Swalwell is upset. Here’s Jay Carney. During the press briefing this afternoon the CNN correspondent, Brianna Keilar, “Does the president hold firm to the assertion that he’ll not negotiate when it comes to Obamacare on the full faith and credit of the US, or on the government being shut down?”
CARNEY: Some of the ideas that we’ve seen this morning when it comes to sort of demanding ransom to try to, you know, rally Tea Party members in exchange for opening the government or raising the debt ceiling, that’s not acceptable and it has not been through this whole process.
KEILAR: Is there nothing in the Boehner proposal that’s acceptable to you?
CARNEY: Reopening the government and extending the debt ceiling, that’s acceptable.
RUSH: So, according to Carney, the only acceptable Boehner proposal would be surrender. And if they hang in long enough, they’ll get that. And if they don’t get that it’ll be worse than Confederates. What will they call ’em next? They’ll come up with something. Now, we’ve arrived here at the piece de resistance. On the Senate floor, Senator John McCain has had enough. He’s just had it. (imitating McCain) “This is not right. They’re really piling on. This is over the top.”
MCCAIN: For the majority leader and the Democrats in the House and the White House to say, absolutely, categorically not, we will not consider what the Republicans in the House of Representatives are doing, in my view is piling on. It’s piling on, and it’s not right. Let’s stop this. Let’s stop it, sit down, consider the Speaker’s proposal, get our proposal done, and then get this resolved, which we could do in the next 24 hours.
RUSH: I’m gonna tell you, folks, why would I bother to call? Come on, can we just be nice for a change? Why are you guys being so mean to us? Come on! Now you’re really piling on. You’re not even listening to what the Speaker says? This is not nice. We’ve gotta sit down. You’re piling on and it’s not right. Let’s stop it. Let’s just stop this. And Obama in the White House is quaking in his boots because the maverick has said this is it, you’ve gone too far. Obama’s quaking in his boots, he calls Carney in, says, “You know what, we’re piling on. We’re really being too mean to these guys. We gotta back off a little bit.”
What does he think is gonna happen here? See, if the Democrats said to McCain, “You know, John, you guys are piling on. You gotta at least listen to what we’re saying.” McCain, “You know what, you have a point. Okay, we’ll be back backtrack a little bit.” Just different worlds. These guys don’t even know what they’re up against, clearly. They don’t have the slightest idea what they’re really, really up against. By the way, for Charlie Rangel, congressman, the Confederates were Democrats. The Dixiecrats were Democrats. They were militant Democrats. It was the Republicans that fought the Confederate Democrats. But what does a little truthful history matter?