RUSH: I have a straight-up question. How in the world can I not be TIME Magazine’s Man of the Year? I wonder if anybody sighted New York Governor Eliot Spitzer on a rowboat out on Lake Placid with Don Vito Clintonleone supposedly having a good time over breakfast. (laughing) Greetings, my friends. You are listening to perhaps the most influential radio program in American history, the Rush Limbaugh program on the EIB Network.
I am actually thinking of suspending using the term El Rushbo today because a lot of illegal immigrants in New York might be rather bothered. Eliot Spitzer, the governor of New York, has angrily withdrawn his plan to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. What coincidence! It happens on the day prior to the next debate with the Democrats, tomorrow in Las Vegas. This is the debate where the Clinton camp has warned Wolf Blitzer to be good and not gang up. By the way, Wolf’s denying he’s been wandered or threatened. He is going to go in without body armor. He’s going to go in without Blackwater bodyguards. He’s going to man up and head in there.
Folks, this is amazing. We have to go back to the beginning here to trace this. Because up until October 30th, the whole notion of driver’s licenses for illegals in New York had not caused a ripple anywhere outside of New York, and even in New York, bzz bzz bzz, was sort of small. Then one day, October 30th, I happen to see an AP story, I believe published in New York Newsday, about the whole concept of driver’s licenses for illegals, and the reporter mentioned that it’s a radioactive issue for Mrs. Clinton being that she’s a senator from New York and that she’s a presidential front-runner. I’m reading and I said, ‘Yeah, you’re a reporter; ask her about it! Don’t just talk about how it is radioactive.’
RUSH ARCHIVE: What is amazing to me about this is how Mrs. Clinton gets to be quiet when she wants to be quiet. This is her state. The fact that she’s a presidential candidate only adds to the fact she should be asked about this. The fact that she’s a senator from the state of New York and is not being peppered by the press, ‘What do you think of the governor’s plans here for illegal immigrants getting driver’s licenses?’ It’s amazing how she’s able to skate. She’s given a pass! It’s too radioactive for her, writes the AP. Man, oh, man, oh, man would I have loved over several occasions in the last eight years for you dummkopfs in the media to think certain issues were too radioactive for me to talk about. Good grief. The woman doesn’t have to say diddly-squat about anything, and she doesn’t.
RUSH: But that night, Tim Russert asked her very hard questions about this particular issue. He said, ‘Senator Clinton, governor of New York Eliot Spitzer’s proposed giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. You told the Nashua, New Hampshire, editorial board it makes a lot of sense. Why does it make a lot of sense to give an illegal immigrant a driver’s license?’
HILLARY: Well, what Governor Spitzer is trying to do is fill the vacuum left by the failure of this administration to bring about comprehensive immigration reform. We know in New York, we have several million at any one time who are in New York illegally. They are undocumented workers. They are driving on our roads. The possibility of them having an accident that harms themselves or others is just a matter of the odds. It’s probability. So what Governor Spitzer is trying to do is to fill the vacuum.
RUSH: Now, she didn’t answer the question, but she had stated publicly — and this is key — she had stated publicly that she supported his plan in a Nashua, New Hampshire, editorial board meeting. Now, Spitzer, when he pulled the plan, said he was abandoning it because the federal government had lost control of its borders and left states to deal with the consequences. ‘I have concluded that New York State cannot successfully address this problem on its own.’ Does that sound exactly like Mrs. Clinton’s answer here? ‘Well, I understand what Governor Spitzer is trying to do, he’s trying to fill the vacuum left by the failure of this administration.’ Which tells me that my prediction yesterday, that something was going to happen between then and tomorrow in this debate, maybe Bill goes to the hospital for an unscheduled checkup, maybe they discover a precancerous lesion, it happened today when Governor Spitzer pulls his driver’s license plan, gets this issue off the table for tomorrow night’s debate, because it had not gone away, and it had spawned a number of other little controversies involving the Clintons, particularly planting questions, not tipping waitresses, and this sort of stuff. When we get to the full audio sound bite roster, wait ’til you hear the Drive-Bys spinning away the planting of questions, the Clinton dishonesty, that is a trademark, and some of these other things. It’s just a hoot.
So what I think happened, just as Andrew Cuomo got a phone call once from Don Vito Clintonleone, (doing Clinton impression) ‘Hey, Andrew, how you doing, bud? You know, we really need you to stand down in this election. You’re doing bad in the polls, babe, and Eliot Spitzer and I got things that we gotta get done here, and if you just back out now, just sign this paper. It’s like I’ve told Bob Torricelli, ‘Bob, sign this, or I’m going to take you out on Lake Placid, too.’ And Bob Torricelli went along with it. He knew his goose was cooked, and we can’t have the party go down the tubes, because you’re not helping here, Andrew.’ So just like Andrew Cuomo and The Torch were taken out by Don Vito Clintonleone, I think Spitzer had to get a phone call. Now, Spitzer was asked about this. This morning in Washington, DC, Eliot Spitzer held a press conference. Unidentified reporter says, ‘Governor, was Senator Clinton at the meeting this morning where you decided to pull the plug on the plan?’
REPORTER: Was Senator Clinton at the meeting this morning and did anyone specifically try to talk you out of withdrawing this plan?
SPITZER: No, the Senator was not at our meeting today. No, I don’t think anybody has — did anybody try to talk me out of changing course as of this moment? No, I think there is a consensus, and you heard it from my great friends and colleagues who just spoke that now is not the time to push forward with this plan because there is not the support for it.
RUSH: Yeah. He goes on to say a number of other outrageous things. It’s polarizing, hyper-partisanship has taken over, he quotes from a Ron Brownstein book, we have all these bites coming up. But there’s no partisanship when 72% of the people in New York don’t want the plan. That’s consensus. That’s a majority. That is not partisan or polarizing. Polarizing would be 50-50. These guys just keep trying. By the way, folks, it ain’t going away. Just as Dick Turban and somebody else in the Senate tried to get amnesty back in front of us with the wet DREAM Act, so will this come back again, because Governor Spitzer even said so. Governor Spitzer said the issue does not disappear, ‘The issue will not be gone tomorrow or next week in the absence of federal legislation. I hope I don’t need to raise it again, because I hope you’ll see a comprehensive resolution of this issue. But, you have a polarization on this issue that has defied resolution.’ Eliot, over 70% disagreed with you. This is not polarizing. You lost. The Democrats need these voters. It’s what this plan in New York was all about. You go in, you get your driver’s license, you get a photo ID, and they give you a Motor Voter form, and they just assume you’re going to be honest on it, and it was a way to get a whole bunch of people registered and they’re denying this left and right, which, of course, liberals are not going to tell us the truth about anything. But, folks, this issue went on, and on, and on. October 30th — today is November 14th, just over two weeks, and the issue is dead. Once again… because of me! Ain’t it great?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let’s listen to a little bit of Eliot Spitzer today as he announces the pulling of his plan for driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants in New York. Here’s the first sound bite, a portion of his remarks.
SPITZER: After serious deliberation and consultation with people I respect on all sides of this issue, I have concluded that New York State cannot successfully address this problem on its own. I am announcing today that I am withdrawing my proposal. It does not take a stethoscope to hear the pulse of New Yorkers on this topic. It is also clear that even if I could convince the public of the utility of our cause, the legislative process and any number of mounting obstacles would have prevented us from moving forward.
RUSH: So just declare yourself dictator of the state and do it anyway! See what Hugo Chavez is doing. Clearly, folks, this issue… I’m amazed that the Democrats remain tone deaf on this issue and do not understand the level of heat in disagreement over the whole concept of anything legal being granted by virtue of a magic wand to illegal immigrants. In this thing, he talks about polarization. As you know, the issue crosses party lines. It doesn’t matter. Independents, Republicans, Democrats, hell, even moderates (who don’t take a stand on anything) have taken a stand on this. More of Governor Spitzer…
SPITZER: Please allow me this brief observation about another crisis: the crisis of political discourse in this country that was on full display these past two months.
RUSH: Uh-huh.
SPITZER: So partisans unleashed a response that has become all too familiar in American politics. Political opponents equated minimum wage, undocumented dishwashers with Osama Bin Laden. Newspaper headlines equated a driver’s license for an undocumented migrant worker, with a passport terror and a license to kill.
RUSH: It remains a possibility. All of those things remain possibilities! Nine of the 19, or 11 of the 19 hijackers, Governor, had New York or other states’ driver’s licenses, sir, and were free to move around. It’s happened! But that’s not the only reason people are upset about this. These Democrats keep focusing on the things that miss the point. It all is about the rule of law. It’s about right and wrong. It’s about, everybody knows, the Democrats are trying to engineer a scheme to get these people registered as voters. It’s about the welfare state. It’s all about people being told they gotta pay for health care. It’s all about people being told they gotta pay for education. It’s all about people being told they have to pay for the illegals to get in-state tuition at some college when they don’t live in the state that they’re in. Guess why they are supporting that, folks? When you go to college, you get a photo ID. The whole thing here is oriented around creating new voters and new victims, new members of the welfare state, for the Democrat Party. Pure and simple. If people haven’t figured that angle out, they are going to be paying higher taxes for all these benefits for people who are here illegally. It’s repugnant. It’s not American. It’s simply un-American. The Democrats, it’s not that they don’t get it. They don’t care. They’re going to find a way to get this done. It’ll happen under the cloak of darkness somehow, and Spitzer admitted it on this. He said, ‘The issue is not going away.’ Here’s another bite from Governor Spitzer’s press conference today.
SPITZER: In his new book, political analyst Ron Brownstein calls this ‘a crisis of hyperpartisanship, a crisis which has unnecessarily inflamed our differences and impeded progress against our most pressing challenges.’ Nothing reflects the results of hyperpartisanship more than the current immigration debate, which has become so toxic that any time a practical proposal is put forward, it is shot down before it even can be weighed on its merits. The consequences of this fearmongering is paralysis.
RUSH: Who is he talking about? He is reading from Ronald Brownstein’s book. I wonder who Governor Spitzer could be talking about here: ‘a crisis of hyperpartisanship, a crisis which has unnecessarily inflamed our differences and impeded progress.’ See? When liberals don’t get their way, when liberals don’t get their way, it’s always somebody else’s fault standing in the way. It’s not their own failure to lead. It’s not their own failure to understand what the American people — or in this case the people in New York — want and don’t want. It’s all about ramrodding what they want down everybody’s throats, by hook or by crook, and when something stands in the way, such as opposition, then it’s gotta be dealt with. It’s gotta be silenced. It’s gotta be destroyed. It’s gotta be disrespected. It’s gotta be impugned or what have you. Same way if you’re in a back of a bunch of liberals and you start talking about things they don’t want to hear: They want to shut you up. So what is Spitzer doing here? He is leader. He is the governor of the state of New York, and it sounds like he’s cowering in the face of a little criticism. He didn’t care about public opinion when he was tossing all of his targets in jail in New York. But now, all of a sudden, he can’t lead the people of New York?
‘Oh, it’s too complicated, Mr. Limbaugh! This issue, Mrs. Clinton illustrated, is much too complicated for a 30-second sound bite, Mr. Limbaugh. It’s just too complicated.’ The New Castrati all believe this. ‘Shot down before it can even be weighed on its merits’? He’s talking about the whole idea of illegal aliens getting driver’s licenses in New York. Shot down before it can be weighed on its merits? This is the third or fourth time it’s been shot down because the merits are known by the American people and the people of the state of New York! They know amnesty when they see it, and they are never going to support it, whether it is citizenship, or driver’s licenses, or what have you. The American people are not going to support amnesty. It’s going to have to be forced down their throats — and, by the way, folks, let us not forget, in Oregon, North Carolina, New Jersey, all three states, ballot initiatives. In Oregon it was health care for kids paid for by increased tobacco taxes: down the tubes 60-40. The governor and supporters say, ‘Well, the people just didn’t understand this. It’s too complicated. We’re going to come back and we’re going to get it done the next time.’
In North Carolina, 16 counties tried to pass what is called the transfer tax. It’s basically, a tax on homeowners when they sell their house. They needed that money for development. It went down 60-40, in 16 counties. Orange County, New Jersey, North Carolina said, ‘Well, we’re bringing it back.’ And, of course, we all know New Jersey, on the ballot, borrow $450 million, billion, whatever it was for stem cell research plant, voters said, ‘Nope, sick and tired of this.’ Governor Corzine said (paraphrased), ‘Screw you! We’re going ahead and doing it anyway.’ That’s how Democrats act. That’s how liberals are, and that’s what they’re going to do with this illegal immigration issue, mark my words. I have long wanted this issue to be part of the presidential debate and campaign, and it now is. Even though Governor Spitzer has pulled his plan, it is still going to be part of the presidential campaign, the whole subject. It is not going away. Here’s what happened. In every instance in this illegal immigration business — be it the amnesty bill this past summer, the wet DREAM Act, now this driver’s licenses sham for illegals — when informed people of this country make a difference, it shows. What happened in New York with Governor Spitzer is a terrific victory for our side.
You know all it took? All it took was information, which we got out to the American people. The Drive-Bys didn’t. The Drive-Bys were trying to cover it up! The Drive-Bys wrote stories about, ‘Yeah, this issue is radioactive for Mrs. Clinton.’ They didn’t dare ask her about it themselves. No, no, no, no, no! They can’t embarrass Mrs. Clinton, because an illegal immigrant issue for the Democrats, is an illegal immigrant issue for the Drive-By Media. So these are the challenges we face, and this is who we’re fighting on this: amnesty, the wet DREAM, now this thing. This is the issue for the GOP. The Democrats are hamstrung by it. Voters sense this. You couple the illegal immigration issue with taxes during the presidential campaign next year, and it’s a win-win for the Republican Party if they got somebody, if they can nominate somebody who can carry the banner on both of these issues. Because the Democrats are out to lunch on it and the Drive-Bys are as well. Let’s see. Let me play this bite one more time. Play sound bite eight. This is the question of whether or not Clinton was at the meeting today.
SPITZER: I’m sorry?
REPORTER: Was Senator Clinton at the meeting this morning and did anyone specifically try to talk you out of withdrawing this plan?
SPITZER: No, the Senator was not at our meeting today. No, I don’t think anybody has — Did anybody try to talk me out of changing course as of this moment? No, I think there is a consensus, and you heard it from my —
RUSH: Stop the tape. That’s not the question. The question is, ‘Did somebody make you make this decision?’ Did somebody call you up and say (Clinton impression), ‘Hey, Governor Spitzer? Hey, hey, Don Vito Clintonleone here. I think you better get rid of that for a time now. Put it off now at least until after that debate. We’ll come back and attack that after.’ That’s probably the way this went down. The reporter asked the wrong question.