RUSH: Just a little aside about the Republican Senate candidate in Iowa, Joni Ernst. For the longest time I have been suggesting, not just me, but a lot of us have been suggesting that the Republican Party would be well advised to avoid Drive-By Media.
They’re not their friends. They’re not there to make them look good. They’re not even there to be fair with them, such as, what sense does it make to do a candidate debate moderated by a bunch of Drive-Bys? Doesn’t make any sense at all. There’s no upside to it. And people have said over the years, and I used to be one of them, “Well, but, you know, you have to show you can overcome adversity.” They’ve shown that! We’ve been saying this for 25 years. They’ve shown they can overcome adversity. After 25 years we’ve learned it’s a no-win situation.
You know, George Stephanopoulos is responsible for the War on Women with one stupid, silly, irrelevant question to Mitt Romney about contraception that nobody was even talking about. It was not a factor in anybody’s campaign and here comes Stephanopoulos asking. Romney was bamboozled, had no idea what to say. It was not even a subject, and Stephanopoulos kept pushing and pushing and pushing and finally Romney gave an answer, and whatever the answer was it didn’t matter because then Stephanopoulos could run with it and say, “Romney has said X,” putting contraception out there, and they were allowed to create the War on Women. That’s how it happened.
Stephanopoulos has come from the Clintons’ war room and supposedly he’s an objective journalist? Give me a break. Cut me some slack. He moderated a debate with Scott Brown and Jeanne Shaheen, or scheduled to or did, I forget which. Scott Brown, “Yeah, I’m a little concerned.” You ought to be concerned.
Anyway, “Appearing on AmericaÂ’s Newsroom Thursday, Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst defended her decision not to sit down with The Des Moines Register editorial board, a move that Hillary Clinton slammed as ‘disqualifying in Iowa.'” Well, she’s moved ahead in the polls in Iowa. “They made it very clear in a number of editorials that they would not be supporting my candidacy. ItÂ’s better for me to be on the road visiting with Iowans than to sit in front of a board that was not going to endorse me,” is what Joni Ernst said. That’s exactly right.
She’s not gonna persuade them. She’s not gonna change their minds. She’s not gonna convince them she’s not some three-horned devil. She’s not gonna convince them that they ought to endorse her. It is a total waste of her time. Meeting with the Des Moines Register editorial board is no different than walking in and having a conversation with the Democrat National Committee. What do you think’s gonna happen? It’s a total waste of time. So I applaud that move.