RUSH: Do you remember this story from the Associated Press not that long ago: ‘Eric Holder, the nation’s first black attorney general, said Wednesday the United States was ‘a nation of cowards’ on matters of race, with most Americans avoiding candid discussions of racial issues. In a speech to Justice Department employees marking Black History Month, Holder said the workplace is largely integrated but Americans still self-segregate on the weekends and in their private lives.’ So are we braver now? I mean, we’re having this great conversation about race, Holder said we’re not talking about it enough. Oh, Obama has made a surprise appearance in the White House daily briefing room. Our microphones are there.
OBAMA: — continue to believe, based on what I have heard, that there was an overreaction in pulling Professor Gates out of his home to the station. I also continue to believe, based on what I heard, that Professor Gates probably overreacted as well.
RUSH: Throw him under the bus, I told you, I told you!
OBAMA: My sense is you’ve got two good people in a circumstance —
RUSH: Threw him under the bus!
OBAMA: — in which neither of them were able to resolve the incident in the way that it should have been resolved and the way they would have liked it to be resolved.
RUSH: Skip’s gone. Skip’s been thrown overboard.
OBAMA: The fact this has garnered so much attention I think is a testimony to the fact that these are issues that are still very sensitive here in America.
RUSH: Throw the race card again.
OBAMA: And, you know, so to the extent that my choice of words didn’t illuminate, but rather contributed to more media frenzy, I think that was unfortunate.
RUSH: No teleprompter.
OBAMA: What I would like to do, then, is make sure that everybody steps back for a moment, recognize that these are two decent people, not extrapolate too much from the facts, but, as I said at the press conference —
RUSH: What?
OBAMA: — be mindful of the fact that because of our history, because of the difficulties of the past, African-Americans are sensitive to these issues.
RUSH: Don’t extrapolate from the facts?
OBAMA: And even when you’ve got a police officer who has a fine track record on racial sensitivity —
RUSH: But still stupid.
OBAMA: — interactions between police officers and the African-American community can sometimes be fraught with misunderstanding.
RUSH: Oh. Not here. Not in this case.
OBAMA: My hope is that as a consequence of this event —
RUSH: Yes?
OBAMA: — this ends up being what’s called a teachable moment, where all of us, instead of pumping up the volume, spend a little more time listening to each other and try to focus on how we can generally improve relations between police officers in minority communities and instead of flinging accusations we can be a little bit more reflective in terms of what we can do —
RUSH: You engaged the accusations!
OBAMA: — more unity. Lord knows we need it right now —
RUSH: You engaged —
OBAMA: — because over the last two days, as we’ve discussed this issue, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but nobody’s been paying much attention to health care.
RUSH: Not true. Not true, dude.
RUSH: Ah, ah, ah, we have been talking about health care. You can’t say that about us, old Barack buddy.
OBAMA: — but I just wanted to emphasize that —
RUSH: No teleprompter here, by the way. Diarrhea of the mouth time.
OBAMA: — that as president, I shouldn’t have stepped into this at all because it’s a local issue, I have to tell you that that thing — that part of it I disagree with. The fact that this has become such a big issue —
RUSH: He’s a community organizer. He can’t step away from defining issue here.
OBAMA: — race is still a troubling aspect of our society —
RUSH: He’s trying to turn down the volume? (laughing)
OBAMA: — I were black or a white, I think that me commenting on this and hopefully contributing to constructive as opposed to —
RUSH: Obviously polls plunged, baby, that’s why this is happening.
OBAMA: — part of my portfolio.
RUSH: Your five-minute career, yeah.
OBAMA: At the end of the conversation, there was a discussion about my conversation with Sergeant Crowley, there was a discussion about he and I and Professor Gates having a beer here in the White House. We don’t know if that’s scheduled yet, but we may put that together. He also did say he wanted to find out if there was a way of getting the press off his lawn. I informed him that I can’t get the press off my lawn. He pointed out —
RUSH: Can’t get involved. That’s a local issue. I can’t get the media away from you, Skip.
OBAMA: — to the Boston press as well as national press, Sergeant Crowley would be happy for you to stop trampling his grass, all right? Thank you, guys.
RUSH: Okay, here you go, President Barack Nifong trying to turn down the volume on this incident. He threw Skip Gates under the bus. I hope you were listening at the beginning of the program. If you weren’t I’ll simply recap. We will know when the heat is too much to bear. We will know when the focus groups are screaming bloody murder, because he will throw Skip Gates under the bus just like he threw Reverend Wright under the bus and just like he threw his white grandmother under the bus. Today it happened. He threw Gates under the bus. And, by the way, we’re braver now, Holder, we’re talking about race. I’m going to continue to talk about race here because I want to impress Holder. The concept of a beer in the White House between Sergeant Crowley and Skip Gates and President Nifong, is there some prejudice here that the cops in Massachusetts drink beer? Where’s the Kobe beef that other people get when they go to the White House?