RUSH: The media is portraying Benghazi as nothing more than a failed and cheap Republican political trick to try to embarrass our great and beloved president. (interruption) No, this is the coldest spring since 1975. It is. Not just this year. This is the coldest spring in America since 1975 — and, by the way, 1975? You go back then and you’ll find cover stories in Newsweek on coming ice age and global cooling. By 1980 they were all turned around and talking about Sweat City.
Anyway, here’s a montage yesterday and last night of all kinds of different media people on Benghazi.
ALAN COLMES: This is ridiculous. This is a partisan witch hunt.
KWAME HOLMAN: (b-roll noise) The political battle lines were clear.
ANDREA MITCHELL: (rotunda noise) This is political.
KURT ANDERSEN: (background noise) So much political energy bashing the administration…
SHEPARD SMITH: Democrats say the Republicans are trying to score political points.
JOHN FUGELSANG: The partisan nature of the hearing…
WOLF BLITZER: It was pretty partisanly (sic) divided.
DANA BASH: (rotunda noise) Passion, through a partisan prism…
LARRY SABATO: …partisan rhetoric…
BILL O’REILLY: …has now become a partisan situation.
JOHN MULLER: Partisan lines have clearly been drawn.
PETER SLEN: …a partisan pall over the hearing.
F. CHUCK TODD: (music) Could the vast right-wing conspiracy be back?
RUSH: That was F. Chuck Todd. So now it’s the vast right-wing conspiracy — and you also note there is never, ever a left-wing partisan witch hunt or a partisan hearing or a partisan operation. Never, never on the part of the Democrats. Never. Only the Republicans mount these things. Evan Bayh was on Fox News last night with Bret Baier. He was talking about Hillary and her possible presidential bid in 2016.
BAYH: It’s largely a political spinning, uh, in an attempt to harm her for three years from now, and there’s just so much that’s gonna happen over the next three years. It’s hard for me to believe that this will still have legs at that point in time absent something more than we’ve seen to date.
RUSH: “Yeah, there’s nothing here. Nothing to see! This is just a cheap, partisan political effort, this Benghazi thing, to get Hillary.”
Four people dead.
An administration with no answers, no explanations other than it was a video and we didn’t have time to go in there and save ’em — and we have testimony under oath by people on the ground that all that is untrue — and it’s “a partisan, political effort.” So it’s not just the Republicans who are being impugned but Greg Hicks and every one of these witnesses that testified under oath. They’re nothing more than political hacks — partisan, political hacks — out to get our beloved president. Such a shame.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You know, folks, incompetence is used often by the Democrats to cover up a cover-up. Do you remember Sandy Burglar? Sandy Burglar stole Top Secret documents from the National Archives in his pants. He put them in his pants and in his socks, and he walked out of there with them. The scandal went away when the Democrats said, “You know, Sandy’s so disorganized, it’s typical.” They had Clinton out there saying (impression), “Yeah, I remember that guy! (chuckling)
“I’d walk in that guy’s office and I swear! I couldn’t even see the top of the desk! He had so much stuff up in there, had so much garbage and clutter in there. He’s just the greatest guy. Sandy Burglar is one of my long-time friends, but, man, this guy is so disorganized. I’m sure he walked out of there and he didn’t even know he put those documents in his socks! Heh heh! I’m sure he didn’t even know. He wouldn’t intended to do that on purpose. The guy’s just a putz.”
They use this incompetence defense all the time. Tim Geithner and Charlie Rangel are tax cheats. (Clinton impression) “Come on, Limbaugh! (laughing) You know they’re not tax cheats! They didn’t understand that tax program, TurboTax and stuff. Charlie? I mean, come on! He’s just so disorganized. That guy spent all of his time down there in the Dominican Republic on the beach. He didn’t know what was going on. There was no effort by these people to defraud anybody.”
All the Democrat tax cheats that I can remember have used the incompetent or disorganized defense.
When, “Hey, it wasn’t my fault! I’m incompetent,” is offered as a cover, folks, you know the actual scandal is really awful.
You can make book on it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, the one thing to learn about Benghazi, I’m gonna tell you what it is. I, El Rushbo, am going to tell you the most important thing about Benghazi, is to get it behind us and make Hillary Clinton the first female president of this country. That’s the most important thing. I know, folks, I know, on her watch an American ambassador and three others were murdered, and I know that Hillary’s judgment regarding security for these people was fatally flawed. I know that it was unforgivable, a dereliction of duty, not to do everything possible to save these people once the attack began. And it was wrong to tell multiple groups who wanted to save these people to stand down twice, no matter who did it. And it was wrong not to fight for the attempt to save them.
And that, by the way, was due to Hillary’s negligence and her poor judgment in the first place. And I know, it was deplorable and perhaps legally actionable to lie about a video being responsible for what was known to be a sophisticated, coordinated terror attack. The video was not a factor. I know that. I grant you all of that. But that’s not what’s important. It is imperative for the good of this nation, and for the good of her gender, for the advancement of her career and the satisfaction of the media that Hillary Clinton be the next president. That’s what is important about Benghazi. That is what matters about Benghazi.
All this other stuff is a distraction. All this other stuff is a partisan political trick to hurt Mrs. Clinton and get in the way of her destiny and what is hers. All that other stuff is now water under the bridge. All that other stuff, all the facts are collateral damage. All of that is small potatoes in the big scheme of things. All of that doesn’t matter. We are talking about the woman who Bill Clinton cheated on, who knows however many times through the years. The fact of the matter is she is owed. We owe it to her. Forget the fact that she screwed up health care and nearly cost her husband a second term. Forget Whitewater. Forget the Rose Law Firm phone records. Forget Cattlegate. Forget Travelgate. Forget that she accomplished nothing as a carpetbagging senator. Forget that she ran a lousy campaign against Obama.
She stubbornly refused to give a damn about caucus dates. Forget the fact that she accomplished nothing as secretary of state beyond making a fool of herself with that ridiculous Russian reset button and then her gross negligence that led to what happened in Benghazi, and forget that she lied about the whole thing. This Benghazi is about Hillary Clinton becoming president. It’s not about you. It isn’t about me. It isn’t about the country. And it isn’t about what happened in Benghazi. It’s about making sure that what happened there is quickly forgotten and mischaracterized as a cheap political stunt aimed at denying Hillary and this country what she is owed.
This is about Hillary Clinton, pure and simple. And a little bit, in an ancillary way, it’s also about Barack Obama. But from the standpoint of the Drive-By Media, this is about making sure that nothing impedes Mrs. Clinton’s road to the White House. That’s all you have to know about Benghazi.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Cindy in my hometown of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Hi, Cindy. I had a little bit of time; I wanted to get to you. How are you?
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Mega-space heater dittos in May.
RUSH: Thank you very much. (chuckles) I appreciate that.
CALLER: Hey, you’ve made this point, but I was hoping to make it, too. You know, it’s obvious that we’ve proven that the whole video thing about Benghazi was a lie. So why can’t the Republicans just stipulate everything that they say with that like the Dems do with gay marriage. Like, you know, “Americans are for gay marriage; Americans are for abortion,” all this kind of stuff? Why can’t we stipulate and say, “Well, of course the video was a lie. It’s been proven to be a lie. So what are we left with? We’re left with either they chose not to act or they’re incompetent.”
RUSH: You know what? I tell you the answer. The Republicans still make the mistake of thinking the facts will carry the day. They don’t think the facts need to be flavored or positioned or spun. They think that just the facts alone will carry the day.
They don’t anymore.