RUSH: You probably heard by now (if you haven’t, I’ll tell you about it) the panic call to Scott Walker from a leftist ‘journalist.’ An obscure, wacko, extreme leftist publication, journalist pretended to be David Koch. Now, I know David Koch. Little disclosure here, I know David Koch. I know his brother Charles Koch. The so-called evil Koch brothers are nothing of the sort. They are, as is typical, the exact opposite of the way the Democrats and the media portray them. They’re just like any other people. They have organizations that are designed to influence and shape the country in ways they believe in. They happen to be constitutionalists. They happen to be conservatives.
They happen to have a strict moral code, and they’re very concerned about what’s happening in the country, and they have organizations that defend and protect their beliefs as they relate to the founding of the country. Pure and simple. They come from the Koch petrochemical and oil family from Wichita, Kansas. Charles Koch still lives there; Dave Koch lives in New York. David Koch is the man who bought Jacqueline Onassis’ apartment on Fifth Avenue after she died and it was put up for sale. He has since sold it and moved to another place in town, but I’ve met them at charitable events. I have met them at prostate cancer charitable events.
I’ve met them at a number of charitable events — and they are, as is typical of people who are not in line with the American left, maligned in ways that in no way close approach who these two men are and their families. Now, you’ve probably heard by now that this prank call from a journalist at a fringe, extremist, leftist little rag newspaper pretended to be David Koch, who is referred to as ‘a fat cat conservative donor.’ So this guy calls the governor’s office in Wisconsin and claims to be David Koch. That name rings bells in the governor’s office amongst the underlings and he puts the call through, assuming it’s David Koch.
So the governor end up talking to ‘David Koch’ and now the AP has this story. In fact, it’s the top story at AP now. ‘Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has been lured into a conversation about his strategy to cripple public employee unions by a prank caller pretending to be a billionaire Republican donor. Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie confirms the governor is on audio of the call posted Wednesday on the website of the Buffalo Beast, a left leaning New York newspaper. The governor believes the caller is David Koch. He talks about plans for layoff notices and what can be done to punish lawmakers who have left the state. The caller suggest that Walker take a baseball bat when meeting with Democrats. Walker jokes that he’s got ‘a slugger with his name on it.”
Now, the brothers, David and Charles Koch, ‘have given millions to support Americans for Prosperity, which has launched a $320,000 ad campaign supporting Governor Walker.’ I have spoken at Charles Koch’s event in Vail a couple three years ago, I forget which, and I met people there that I had previously met at other groups and organizations. This is the creme de la creme of conservative philanthropy, hardly any subversives at all. Now, funny thing is, if you listen to the tape — and it’s been made available. It’s a long tape. We don’t have it yet, and if we get it we will, it’s gonna take a long time to pare this down to the essentials. But if you listen to it or if you read a transcript of the phone call, Walker says in private to this prank caller exactly what he says in public, even to a possible fat cat donor.
He doesn’t say anything he hasn’t said publicly. He was not entrapped into saying something that’s embarrassing. He didn’t say, ‘Yeah, what I’m really doing here, David, will make you love me! What I’m really doing here…’ None of that. He was being up front. I guess that’s shocking to the left and the Democrats and their media minions, is that there’s not something surreptitious going on here. It is typical. This is a journalist, par… (interruption) Well, if you’re gonna talk about the ethics of posing as somebody else, then you’re gonna have to indict 60 Minutes. That’s how 60 Minutes put themselves on the map. (interruption)
Well, 60 Minutes would go into some gas station ripping people off — you know, one that had a Jesus on the cash register. They put on a hidden microphone and send in fake customers to rip ’em off. I mean, this is a common journalistic ploy. No, the real question here is: ‘Why wasn’t this properly vetted in the governor’s office? How did this call get in? Anybody can make a prank call. You can’t sit here and condemn what happened because prank calls are common. Hell, I used to do this on the radio, for crying out loud. I never called governors and stuff.
But I did this kind of stuff as bits, comedy bits back in the early days of radio, when you could do this without hving to get permission of the person you were talking to to put ’em on the radio or tape-record them. Oh, gosh, I did all kinds of stuff. I pretended to have a picture phone. The fun I had doing that? The phone calls I made with my nonexistent picture phone, the video phone when I was in Pittsburgh. No, that’s not the quite… (interruption) Well, you can say, ‘Yeah, typical journalist: False, misrepresentation, attempt to entrap’ and so forth. The thing is, the guy failed. What they were trying to get Scott Walker on is: He dared talk to a Republican donor!
Meanwhile, you got Obama meeting with Richard Trumka three times a week, for crying out loud. I’m gonna tell you something, folks. A vision of America, David and Charles Koch versus Richard Trumka? Trumka doesn’t even rate a consideration in my mind, in terms of a vision for America. So you can sit here and talk about this all you want, try to make hay out of the fact that he took a call from David Koch. If David Koch called me, I’d take the call. If Charles Koch called me I’d take it. Bill Koch called me I’d take the call. Hell, if Freddie Koch called me, I would! Freddie Koch, their brother, lives over there. IF Freddie Koch called me, I’d take the call. Nothing wrong with the Kochs. They’re great people!
For crying out loud, I’d much rather spend time with them than Richard Trumka! I’d much rather go to a conference about what’s wrong with America with those guys than I would are Richard Trumka who’s meeting with Obama. For crying out loud, we’ve got some people trying to subvert capitalism. We’ve got an administration that is leveling an assault on free markets of this country each and every day and now we’re all out of whack because the governor of Wisconsin — well, nobody’s out of whack, but the left is acting like some moral transgression of the highest order is taking place here because Governor Walker talked to David Koch.
Big whoop! It’d be no different than if… Take a donor. It doesn’t matter who. Pick a name. George Soros! George Soros, for crying out loud, calls all these leftists, and they take a call, do you think there would be an accompanying story rooted in controversy over it? I think it’s a sign. They’ve got nothing to hold onto. They’ve got nothing of substance on their side to promote their case. This is typical of the left trying to discredit and impugn the people who oppose them. Don’t argue with them on the merits. Don’t by any stretch.
In fact, go so far as to leave the state and then fake a call and pretend to be somebody you’re not, hoping that the governor steps in a pile of it. We’ve heard so much more about the Koch brothers in the mainstream media than we’ve ever heard about George Soros, and compare how little they do compared to Soros. The Koch brothers, I don’t think they’ve (sigh) I know they haven’t. Who funded Media Matters? Who funds Americans for the American Way? George Soros is at the root of all of the problematic Democrat liberal things in this country. So, anyway, if you haven’t heard about it, you have now, and that’s the hay that they’re going to try to make out of all this.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We have some sample sound bites of the prank call from the so-called journalist Ian Murphy of the Buffalo Beast who posed as David Koch calling the governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker. In our first excerpt, Murphy, the ‘journalist’ (the term used loosely here) posing as David Koch, says, ‘I’m a little disheartened by the situation there, Scott. What’s the latest?’
WALKER: We’re actually hanging pretty tough. I mean, you know, amazingly there’s a much smaller group of protesters, almost all of whom are in from other states today. The State Assembly is taking the bill up, getting it all the way to the last point it can be at where it’s un-amendable. But they’re waiting to pass it ’til the Senate’s in, but the Senate Dem — excuse me, the Assembly Democrats have about a hundred amendments they’re going through. The State Senate still has the 14 members missing but what they’re doing today is bringing up all sorts of other non-fiscal items, many of which are things that members in the Democratic side care about — and each day we’re gonna ratchet it up a little bit.
RUSH: Okay, so he’s saying exactly what he says in public. There’s nothing new here. There’s no news — and there wasn’t, by the way. In the whole call he didn’t say anything that he hasn’t said publicly. So there’s no gotcha here. But the media is having fun with it all because it’s a secret conversation, and we found out about it! We made it public, a secret conversation between Walker and a rich Republican donor! We never hear about all the calls George Soros makes to people. Somehow those end up never being taped. Then the hoaxing ‘journalist,’ Ian Murphy, posing as David Koch says, ‘Now, you’re not talking to these Democrat bastards, are you?’
WALKER: Uhhh, there’s one guy that’s actually voted with me on a bunch of things I called on Saturday for about 45 minutes, mainly to tell him that while I appreciate his friendship and he’s worked with us on other things, tell him I wasn’t gonna budge.
MURPHY: [Bleeped] right.
WALKER: His name is Tim Cullen.
MURPHY: All right. I’ll have to give that man a call.
WALKER: Well, actually in his case, I wouldn’t call him, and I’ll tell you why. He’s pretty reasonable but he’s not — he’s not one of us.
RUSH: Well, how about that? ‘So, are you even talking to these dumb Democrat bastard?’ Yeah, in fact in his case he’s a pretty reasonable guy. He’s not one of us but, yeah, I’m talking to him,’ and then they finally had this exchange.
MURPHY: Bring a baseball bat!
WALKER: (chuckles)
WALKER: I have one in my office. You’d be happy with that. I’ve got a slugger with my name on it.
MURPHY: Beautiful.
RUSH: ‘Beautiful.’ So that’s it. What was learned from this… Oh, Walker did end up saying, ‘Hey, look, it’s Wisconsin, it’s Madison. There’s a lot of sixties protesters still hanging around, let ’em protest.’ So there’s no news here other than he got scammed by somebody pretending to be David Koch and wasn’t. So, ‘Bring a baseball bat.’ The impersonator says, ‘Bring a baseball bat.’