RUSH: We’ve got a little news here, ladies and gentlemen.
‘Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) on Wednesday denied that he is conducting or ever planned to conduct a congressional investigation of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin and called on a conservative magazine to retract its report that he asked investigators to compile information on the popular conservative talk radio hosts. ‘The American Spectator report about a congressional investigation into talk radio is completely false,’ Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a statement to Cybercast News Service. ‘There is no investigation.’ Waxman was referring to a report Monday that he ‘has asked his investigative staff to begin compiling reports on Limbaugh, and fellow radio hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin based on transcripts from their shows’ to build a case for bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. When asked if there had been ideas or plans to compile reports on the talk radio hosts, a spokesman for Waxman said, ‘No, there were not.’ In his statement, Waxman called on the Spectator to ‘immediately retract the item and apologize for the confusion its fictitious report has caused.”
As I say, there needs to be an investigation. I think in this case, folks, we need to look at this the way the Democrats look at such allegations and charges, and that is the nature of the evidence is really not material. It’s the seriousness of the charge. That’s how they looked at Anita Hill versus Clarence Thomas. Remember, the charge that Gary Sick, a Columbia University professor, made in his book: George Bush flew to France prior to the ’80 election to convince the Iranians to keep the hostages until after the election. Tom Foley, speaker of the House, ‘We have absolutely no indication that that happened, but the seriousness of the charge requires us to investigate.’ Well, it’s a pretty serious charge that the chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee is going to compile reports and conduct investigations of private citizens who work on the radio. That’s a pretty serious charge that somebody has made. And the seriousness of the charge here needs to be what is looked at. Anybody can deny anything and demand a retraction.