RUSH: So, the North Carolina Republican Party is running an ad. Everybody seems to be missing the point of the ad. John McCain came out, and without having seen the ad, denounced it and said that it doesn’t represent the kind of campaign he wants to run. He told the people in North Carolina to cancel it. The North Carolina people said (paraphrased), ‘Screw you! You couldn’t run what we do. We’re going to go ahead and do this.’ Bottom line… This ad is not really hard to figure out. This ad is essentially an offshoot of Operation Chaos! This ad is designed to help Mrs. Clinton in the May 6 primary in North Carolina, which is exactly the purpose of Operation Chaos. Here is audio of the ad.
FEMALE ANNOUNCER: For 20 years, Barack Obama sat in his pew listening to his pastor.
WRIGHT: And then wants us to sing God Bless America? No, no, no! Not God Bless America. God (bleep) America.
FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Now, Bev Perdue and Richard Moore endorse Barack Obama. They should know better. He’s just too extreme for North Carolina.
DAVES: The North Carolina Republican Party sponsored this ad opposing Bev Perdue and Richard Moore for North Carolina governor.
RUSH: Well, this just caused the McCain camp to get a little bit upset. He sent the North Carolina GOP chairwoman Linda Daves there an e-mail, saying that this was an offensive advertisement. (doing McCain impression) ‘The television advertisement you are planning to air degrades our civics and distracts us from the very real differences we have with the Democrats. In the strongest terms, I implore you to not run this advertisement,’ and you know what that means when McCain says ‘in the strongest terms, I implore you not to run this ad?’ ‘The Republican National Committee also called on North Carolina GOP officials to pull the ad. ‘Senator McCain has been very clear that he expects to run a respectful campaign based on the critical issues confronting the nation,’ Danny Diaz, an RNC spokesman, said in an e-mail. ‘The RNC has been in contact with the NC GOP and communicated that we do not believe the ad is appropriate or helpful and have asked that they refrain from running it.’
‘The state Republican Party [of North Carolina], however, would not relent. … It is believed to be the first time nationwide that Republicans have used Wright’s comments in a TV advertisement since the comments first drew scrutiny last month. The party has not released details on how much money it plans to spend on airing the ad.’ How about zero? They don’t have to spend any money on this. Now, there are two ways of looking at this, two ways. One is that the McCain camp and the RNC are brilliant; that they, by opposing this, have called — I’m just giving you one of the theories. This theory is out there in certain circles, that the McCain camp and the RNC are brilliant in demanding this thing be taken down because it’s called attention to the ad, and everybody’s playing the ad and it’s not costing the North Carolina GOP anything to have it aired. Not just in North Carolina, but all over the country. So some people say there’s a method here, that McCain knows exactly what he’s doing.
The other theory (laughs) is not so charitable regarding Senator McCain. The other theory is that he hid out of the blue against this ad without even seeing it. MSNBC just went all over the last night. They just had a cow. This is racist. Now, Mrs. Clinton has been hitting Obama for the past six weeks, and they have never accused her of racism, but what this is, I guarantee you, folks… This is why I don’t care there’s a method to the McCain strategery here or not. What I think is happening is just like we cannot say his middle name, Obama’s; just like we can’t call him a liberal; just like they’ve tried to tie us up in what we can say about Obama; this is an attempt by the Drive-By Media to limit what Republicans can say about Obama in the general election — and it’s an attempt to dissuade them from using Reverend Wright, because it’s harmful to Obama; and this will lead to charges of racism against the Republicans, and McCain doesn’t want to be called a racist.
Which, if I may dovetail, is the prime reason for the original founding of Operation Chaos. The whole purpose of Operation Chaos and its founding was to have Clinton bloody up Obama politically because the Republicans and McCain were not going to do it because they feared the charge of racism. So now that exact charge is being made from the Drive-By Media at MSNBC, and it will spread to other Drive-By Media outlets. I don’t know if anybody will buy it or not, but McCain’s buying it. This is the point. McCain’s buying it. McCain is afraid of it. McCain is out there saying, he will not sponsor anything else, he will not sanction it. What is McCain doing? Is he crisscrossing the country helping some of these gubernatorial candidates with their campaigns? Is McCain running around the country? Is he helping anybody run for House seats or Senate seats? Is he? I don’t know. I haven’t heard about it, if he is. I know he’s down in New Orleans today saying we gotta get serious about fixing this. He’s with Bobby Jindal. There’s a bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz about McCain meeting with Bobby Jindal because, as you know, I was the first to suggest that Bobby Jindal would be a fabulous vice presidential candidate, despite his age.
The people of Louisiana don’t want to lose him because he’s doing revolutionary work down there. Bottom line here in this ad: There is nothing wrong with tying Obama to other candidates, like these Democrats running in North Carolina. There’s nothing wrong about that at all. There’s nothing wrong pointing out that Obama has extremely liberal relationships, and there’s going to be more. I think the depth — we got a couple of them in the Stack today — a couple of the relationships that Obama has with pure radicals is going to surface. And if the McCain camp is not going to use it because they fear the charge of racism, somebody’s gonna use it. Mrs. Clinton has been doing this for a month now — talking about Jeremiah Wright, talking about Bill Ayers — and they don’t call her a racist, do they? But they’re calling Republicans racists for doing this, only when Republicans do it is it racism. This is why Republicans cannot be cowed. All this is, is an attempt to shut up any criticism of Obama. The Democrats know his weaknesses. Like I told you yesterday: The superdelegates, they know what they face.
There’s a guy in Canada who wrote an analysis almost as good as mine yesterday on the outcome in Pennsylvania. He said, basically the superdelegates know they’re going to be committing murder when they choose a candidate, because neither of these two candidates — Hillary or Obama — is going to win via the Democrat primary purpose. A bunch of hacks, unelected hacks called superdelegates are going to end up choosing the Democrat nominee, and one of them they’re gonna kill. Politically, they’re going to have to kill one; and when they do that, you know, this is going to cause reverberations throughout the party that the Drive-Bys and the Democrats know full well that they’re doing everything they can to limit this. Now, there’s another theory that McCain’s not smart enough to denounce the ad for the purposes of having it aired free of charge in far more places than just North Carolina.
The theory is that McCain is doing what he always does, and that’s doing what helps him politically — in this case, buying into the liberal attack and joining in the attack on his own people. He is attacking his own people. He’s attacking the Republican Party here, and he’s doing it in sort of a dictatorial fashion by demanding they pull the ad that he sent out instructions, and that the RNC seconds this and so forth. Look, I want to know which Republican candidates he’s helping as he crisscrosses the country. Now, I know it’s early. Senator McCain has to know the numbers. The numbers, preelection polls, House and Senate; it’s a disaster in terms of the number of seats the Democrats pick up in both: five to seven, maybe eight in the Senate. The Republicans that are retiring in the House and Senate, the numbers are huge. Some people are speculating Democrats may pick up another 30, 35 seats in the House of Representatives in November. And McCain has to know this, and if he’s got any kind of conservative agenda, he’s going to have problems.
He’s gotta be out there trying to help. Who’s he trying to help? This is not a challenge. I don’t know. I haven’t seen Senator McCain campaigning yet for people running for the House or Senate. But here’s a question that I have about this North Carolina ad and the McCain reaction to it. Is this how you build support for your campaign within your party? The North Carolina GOP runs an ad tying Obama via Reverend Wright, to Democrat gubernatorial candidates, and McCain comes out; slaps ’em and says, ‘Stop it! It’s demeaning. I want to run an honorable campaign,’ and there’s nothing wrong with the ad! There is nothing racist about the ad. The racist in the ad, if there is one, is Wright, the preacher! Now, is this how you build relationships and support for your own campaign within your own party? Is this how you help rebuild the Republican Party in these states? Is this how you treat fellow Republicans, by trashing them to highlight the ad and then come off like you’re above the fight?
You know, I’ll tell you something. It is no wonder that so many Republicans want to dump Ronald Reagan so badly. He was honorable! He fought hard to rebuild the Republican Party and lead the conservative movement. So we’re dealing now with the era of McCain, the era of moderates and country club blue-blood Republicans. What is this business, McCain only wants to run on policies? He wants to have serious debate on the major issues? What is this? He attacked Mitt Romney relentlessly. If you go back and look at the Republican primary, you didn’t see all this honorable stuff that McCain is now insisting on in the presidential race. Maybe he only wants to run on policies when dealing with Democrats, but he’s more than happy to attack Republicans. This is sadly disappointing, regardless what your theories are. Here on MSNBC Live yesterday, we have two more sound bites here of Linda Daves; who is the North Carolina Republican Party chairman. Norah O’Donnell: ‘I understand in this ad you’re challenging those candidates to do that, but what’s interesting, I think, is that an e-mail essentially that John McCain wrote said, ‘The TV advertisement you’re planning to air degrades our civics, distracts us from the very real differences we have with the Democrats. In the strongest terms, I implore you to not run the ad.’ In fact, McCain says it’s offensive. So are you going to heed McCain’s call, pull the ad off the air?’
DAVES: We plan to run the ad because I think that we’re thinking about the people of North Carolina. This is not about the president’s race. This is about the people of North Carolina, and they have a right to know.
O’DONNELL (interrupting): Aren’t you a loyal Republican?
DAVES: Well, of course I am, but I’m also the chairman of the state Republican Party, and it is also my responsibility to point out the weaknesses of the Democrat candidates in North Carolina.
RUSH: Amen! Amen! Linda, you go, babe! You go. For Norah O’Donnell to ask her if SHE is the loyal Republican? That question needs to be asked of a bunch of Republicans in Washington, not in North Carolina. If you want to find loyal Republicans, you’ll find ’em in North Carolina. You’re going to find ’em in a lot of states. The problem is we’re not going to find very many of them in Washington. We’re not going to find enough. One more bite: Norah O’Donnell said, ‘It’s interesting. The chairman of the RNC essentially said it’s not appropriate or helpful. Are you playing the race card?’
DAVES: No, none whatsoever. If this had been Hillary Clinton I’d do the same thing, and I really would encourage people to get past that race card thing. That is an accusation that is frequently made by people when they want to divert the discussion from the real issue at hand, and the issue at hand is good judgment and patriotism.
RUSH: I’ll tell you, thank God for Linda Daves in North Carolina. She is exactly right. If it had been Hillary Clinton, they’d do the same thing. Get past the race card thing. But, see, here’s the question from Norah O’Donnell: ‘Are you playing the race card?’ They haven’t asked Hillary Clinton if she’s playing the race card against Obama. This is a Drive-By Media effort to intimidate Republicans like those in North Carolina to pull these kind of ads and to shut up about Barack Obama and his preacher, and some of the other lunatics that form his inner circle — and we can see here that in North Carolina, it isn’t going to work. Kudos to them.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let’s continue to explore this notion that anti-Obama ads are racist. Floyd Brown — who was the guy who did the Willie Horton ad; my buddy Roger Ailes has been tarred and feathered incorrectly with being the architect of the Willie Horton ad against Michael Dukakis, The Loser, back in 1988. It was Floyd Brown that did it. He’s got a new anti-Obama ad that’s running, as well.
FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Mike Boyd, killed at 15; beaten with bricks after a gang member crashed into his car. Severo Enriquez, just 14 years old; when he refused to flash a gang hand sign, he was shot five times in the back. They all died in 2001, in Chicago. The Sun-Times called it ‘urban terrorism’ and demanded action on gang violence. But that same year, a Chicago state senator named (pause) Barack Obama voted against expanding the death penalty for gang-related murders. Can a man so weak in the war on gangs be trusted in the war on terror?
RUSH: Whoa! This just has them fit to be tied in the Drive-By Media. Last night MSNBC Hardball, host Chris Matthews talking to Roger Simon of the Politico and Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post about this ad.
MATTHEWS: It’s a giant permission slip to somebody that doesn’t want to vote for him to begin with, and it’s also a permission slip for the Republican Party to use him as a target throughout the general election. This guy the — hides under a rock, every couple generations shows up again with another — another ad against a black candidate or using a black person —
SIMON: Yeah. (crosstalk)
MATTHEWS: — as the — as the bad guy.
SIMON: I’ll say I’m not a great fan of — and Brown, and, you know, I wrote extensively about the Willie Horton ad when it was used in a negative way. Uh, I’m not sure you can say this ad is racially motivated.
CAPEHART: Right.
SIMON: Um, this is a attack on Barack Obama for a specific vote, not extending the death penalty, uh, to gang members or whatever the heck it’s about, but it’s not — I mean, you can’t say that every time somebody uses Barack Obama’s picture in an ad, it’s racism.
CAPEHART: Correct.
SIMON: I mean the guy is what the guy is.
CAPEHART: Bravo, Roger.
RUSH: That was Jonathan Capehart. So Matthews had his lunch handed to him by a couple fellow travelers there on DNCTV last night. See, the knee-jerk reaction is what Matthews had. Well, you got an ad talking about Obama. Black guy. Therefore the ad’s racist, whatever the ad says — and Roger Simon says, no, no. This is about some vote he made when he was in Chicago, Illinois, against expanding the death penalty for gang-related murder. But, you know, there’s a method to Matthews’ madness; and once again, it is to stifle any criticism of Barack Obama at all by saying that any criticism is racist. Look, I don’t mean to beat a dead horse here, but this is one of the primary reasons that I started Operation Chaos; because it became clear to me that the Republicans — as evidenced here by McCain’s denouncing this ad in North Carolina and the Republican National Committee doing the same thing; it became clear to me a long time ago that the Republicans — are not going to attack Obama. They’re just not going to do it because they’re afraid of being called racists. So if Obama’s not going to be attacked and bloodied up politically, somebody’s going to do it. Who better than the Clintons? Ergo, Operation Chaos. Now, these two sound bites here from Chris Matthews and the previous one from Norah O’Donnell, illustrate what the Drive-By Media technique is and that’s to stifle any criticism of the guy they think is their eventual nominee. Matthews was not finished last night. He was talking to Norah O’Donnell on his show last night about Pennsylvanians.
O’DONNELL: But this seems to be some residue of people that — that Clinton voters who don’t like Obama. Obama voters are more likely to like Clinton and be willing to vote for her in November. We saw that not just among Catholics, but among all voters in Pennsylvanian exit polls.
MATTHEWS: Well, somebody doesn’t like that group of voters might call them Archie Bunkers. I’ll call them Reagan Democrats. They’re Reagan Democrats, people who are culturally conservative, maybe a little culturally conservative on the racial front, on the ethnic front. Uh, they like to think of themselves as Democrats on economic issues, but when it comes to the squeeze on some of these cultural issues — this — Didn’t this all come up earlier about three weeks ago in San Francisco, this conversation?
RUSH: Absolutely right, and it was harmful to Barack Obama. You know, Obama to this day — and this is I think a characteristic that is attributable to all elitists. He doesn’t understand what he said wrong. When he was out in San Francisco with the elites at the Getty mansion, and he starts talking about the bitter clingers, holding on to guns and God because they’re disappointed the government’s ignored them and so forth; they haven’t had jobs in 25 years. He believes that. He doesn’t understand what was wrong about that, and Matthews doesn’t, either. Of course they’ve had this conversation three weeks ago, Chris, when this all happened. But, now, these Reagan Democrats who didn’t vote for Obama, they are culturally conservative on the racial front. So I know exactly what’s happening here, and we better not buckle to it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We’re going to start in Steubenville, Ohio. This is Kelly. I’m glad you called. Great to have you with us.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Great to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I’ve tried several times, and it’s great to get through. I just wanted to comment about the stuff you’ve been talking about this morning about the North Carolina leader of the Republican Party there. I just think it’s great that we have finally found somebody who can deal with these stupid questions, and be clear and not be distracted and get to the point. I, for one, am a Catholic homeschooling mother of six, and I am completely disturbed by this Reverend Wright thing. Not that I would ever vote for Obama or Clinton to begin with, but it’s just beyond disturbing to me. And I can’t imagine how some of these people rationalize it and make it out to seem like it’s just not a big deal.
RUSH: Well, they know it’s a big deal. That’s why they’re trying to rationalize and say it isn’t. They know that it is a killer deal.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: And so is Bill Ayers, and so are a number of others. Not with the people that are already on board for Obama. They don’t care.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: But as Obama has demonstrated, he can’t get people he doesn’t already have. He is not expanding his base.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: He basically has his elite, wealthy white liberals, and 80% to 85% of the black vote. Beyond that, nothing. That’s why he hasn’t won a primary since the 22nd of February.
CALLER: I just drove up to my house, and I thought, ‘I’m going to Google her name and I’m going to find her e-mail and I’m just going to send her e-mail and say, you know, ‘God bless you,” because more people have to stand up.
RUSH: Let me spell her name for you. It’s Linda Daves. D-a-v-e-s.
CALLER: Great.
RUSH: At least that’s how it appears on my cue sheet here.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm. Yeah.
RUSH: D-a-v-e-s. You’re exactly right. But here’s the thing. I’m not taking anything away from her. In fact, I’m going to play these two audio sound bites again because she deserves to be heard again.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: But this was a Republican defending her actions against an attack by the Republican presidential nominee.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: She hasn’t not yet been attacked by the Democrats; well, maybe she has in North Carolina. I hope she holds firm, steady and all that when the Democrats start laying into her.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: That’s what McCain doesn’t want. McCain doesn’t want the Democrats attacking him; he wants the Democrats liking him because that’s where he’s seeking his majority victory.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: But she stood up to the Republican presidential nominee — that’s even more impressive — and basically said, get out of my state.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: So here she is — thanks for the call, Kelly. I appreciate it. This is on MSNBC Live last night, and Norah O’Donnell asks Linda Daves who is the North Carolina Republican Party chairman, if she is going to pull the ad off the air because McCain asked her to.
DAVES: We plan to run the ad because I think that we’re thinking about the people of North Carolina. This is not about the president’s race. This is about the people of North Carolina, and they have a right to know.
O’DONNELL (interrupting): Aren’t you a loyal Republican?
DAVES: Well, of course I am, but I’m also the chairman of the state Republican Party, and it is also my responsibility to point out the weaknesses of the Democrat candidates in North Carolina.
RUSH: Right. And when she does that, who does she hear from? The Republican presidential nominee and the Republican National Committee. And of course this question, ‘Aren’t you a loyal Republican?’ As I said brilliantly mere moments ago, ask that question of people in Washington, ask that question of Republicans in Washington. One more Linda Daves bite, she’s asked by Norah O’Donnell, ‘Are you playing the race card here?’
DAVES: No, none whatsoever. If this had been Hillary Clinton I’d do the same thing, and I really would encourage people to get past that race card thing. That is an accusation that is frequently made by people when they want to divert the discussion from the real issue at hand, and the issue at hand is good judgment and patriotism.
RUSH: The accusation of racism is frequently made by people when they want to stop and shut down the discussion at hand, not divert it. And as I said, Mrs. Clinton has been using Reverend Wright and attacking Obama (finally) for the last month, and note that nobody is accusing her of being racist, because even the Civil War — the uncivil, civil, whatever you want to call it — the race war in this country has been on display for months in the Democrat Party. We have seen that that’s where racism is in this country. It’s in the Democrat Party. These people at MSNBC, these pathetic people understand that. They’re doing everything they can to shift it based on cliches: Racist! Sexist! Bigot! Homophobe! Uncaring Republicans! — and make them out to be the racists; when all the racism in this campaign is on the Democrat side, and the lead racist in this campaign has been none other than the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.