SPECTER: I think the subpoena issue has to be handled with great delicacy because when a subpoena is issued, there is a suggestion that the person will not come in voluntarily — and when the person will not come in voluntarily, there is a suggestion that a person has something to hide.
RUSH: Ah, there are two ways to look at this. One is that Specter is attempting to cast doubt on potential witnesses. I don’t think that’s the case. I think he’s warning the committee, “Hey, don’t start issuing subpoenas because everybody thinks if you get a subpoena you’re reluctant. If these people come up here without subpoena, bring ’em up without a subpoena.’ That’s what he’s saying or I hope he’s saying, but that’s not the case. Why would Leahy do that? Why would the chairman of the committee want to give anybody a break here?
This is being made to look like a Watergate scandal. It’s being made to look like the administration won’t be forthcoming about anything going on, “It’s such a conspiracy; they’re so closed off in there! They’re trying to take over all of government.’ Do you people realize this? The Bush administration is trying to ‘take over’ all branches of the government. The executive, they already have. They want the judiciary. ‘They’re trying to take over everything!’ It’s a laughing joke, but this is the impression that they’re trying to leave with people, and Specter is saying: Be careful. You start subpoenaing people who will come up here willingly are already casting a pall on them.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: All right, folks. I want you to listen up because this is the bottom line of this whole trumped-up, nothing scandal about the firing of eight US attorneys by the Bush justice department. What are the Democrats saying? Well, Leaky Leahy says, “There’s nothing illegal by itself firing US attorneys. What I’m saying is, it hurts law enforcement, hurts fighting against crime.” Really? All right, well, try this. It’s a matter of logic. When you’re Bill Clinton and you were just inaugurated in January of 1993, and two months later you fire all 93 US attorneys at once and give them ten days to clear out, you are necessarily and absolutely interfering with sensitive investigations and corruption investigations. By definition that has to happen, and yet that is the very charge that’s being leveled here by these dishonest, knowing-that-they-are-lying-through-their-teeth, liberal Democrats, aided and abetted by their willing accomplices in the Drive-By Media.
Eight US attorneys get a two-year review, and somehow this is interrupting investigations. Do you understand, 93 US attorneys gone at one time. Whatever they are all working on, kaput. Well, maybe not kaput, but you are definitely interfering with sensitive investigations and corruption investigations. It’s about the most disruptive thing that you can do — which is why, as a tradition, pre-Clinton, generally new presidents let the sitting US attorney finish out his four-year term before getting rid of him. These terms don’t run on the same clock as presidential elections on purpose, so that you end up with staggered replacements. It’s more orderly for the country and for the DoJ. Not to mention this: when you lop off 93 US attorneys at once, what do you do? You are taxing the judiciary committee. They have to vet the new nominees. They have to hold hearings, and they have to confirm these nominees.
The FBI is out there doing all these background checks in a hurry for 93 new people at the same time — and then, of course, these districts that have US attorneys are left without an appointed US attorney for months while all this gets sorted out. You talk about a disruption to so-called fighting crime? You talk about disruptions in law enforcement. There is nothing more dramatic — as an example of both taking place — than what Bill Clinton did, compared to this. It’s just common sense. The Drive-By Media is ignoring all of this. In fact, they’re saying Clinton did it the right way! ‘Well, yeah, if you’re going to do it, do it at the beginning of the administration. Do it and get rid of these people.’ It’s sickening. It is pathetic. It is journalistic malpractice. We know who the Democrats are. We know what the Drive-By Media is, but it is still journalistic malpractice, and it is still pathetic. It is sickening and it is irresponsible.
For these claims to be made about eight US attorneys whose work was under review for two years before the moves were made versus Clinton? The Democrats are forced to say, “It’s not illegal. The president can do it. It’s just bad. It hurts fighting crime, interrupts law enforcement.? Yeah, I don’t know how much more interruptive and how you could put the brakes on any harder on any investigations, than to fire all 93 US attorneys at one time. Of course, now begins the besmirching of the nominees to replace these eight led by Tim Griffin in Arkansas, who is a decorated veteran of the Iraq war, a member of the US military. Folks, I know exactly how you feel. Where are these people on our side fighting back? As I say, I am more than happy to pass this information on them, more than happy to share my own thoughts, but I’m not the administration. I’m not the Department of Justice. All right, let’s go to the phones because people have been waiting patiently out there. Margot in Burr Ridge, Illinois. Great to have you. I’m glad you waited and welcome.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush. I thank you so much for all that you do. I appreciate it so much. I wanted to say that we cannot give up Alberto Gonzales. We must never give up with these people because we started something when we let them get away with Watergate. They are just following a typical career criminal path, and that was started with Watergate. They got away with that, and they’ve been emboldened ever since. We’ve let them get away with so many things. A serial killer… Every serial killer starts the same way. They kill their family pet. Well, that was Watergate. You know, that was the family pet, and every time we let them get away with it, they just know they’re going to get away with more and more and more. You know, Bork, the Loral sale of the technology to China, Anita Hill, Newt Gingrich having to give up his $4 million book deal. I mean, it was ridiculous. It seems like every other week they’re getting away with more and more and more, and I just don’t see us fighting back. We have to stop and make a stand.
RUSH: I agree with you, but who is “we”?
CALLER: Well, I don’t know. I do all the talking I can to my friends and my family.
RUSH: No, I’m being rhetorical. “We” is the administration. “We” is the people under attack.
CALLER: Yeah, yeah, yeah. They especially!
RUSH: We are fighting back. We’re fighting back the best we can. I’ll give you a great example. Yesterday, when this whole thing was percolating, I went to great lengths with a lot of patience and care and precision here behind the Golden EIB Microphone to explain (and I don’t mean to sound egotistical here) to Republicans, “Look, you don’t have to defend Bush. If you’re scared of doing that, you can go out and attack Democrats and defend your own party, because whether you understand it or not, you’re under attack, too. It’s not just Bush. They are in the process of trying to isolate Bush so that you won’t defend him, and in the process isolate you so that you won’t speak up.” I provided a pathway, a lighted pathway for these people to finally stand up and say what was going on here was ridiculous and to refute some of these charges that have been made about the firing of these eight attorneys. What happens? John Sununu goes out and suggests that Gonzales needs to go. A Republican senator says Gonzales has to go!
Now, do you know that Sununu is up for reelection? What does this tell you? It tells me that the real entity most influencing Republican Party behavior is the Drive-By Media. You look at somebody who’s up for reelection and take a look at what they do and it will tell you right away who they think they have to placate. In this case, it’s not the voters of the state of New Hampshire. In this case, it’s the Drive-By Media and what might be said. This is the McCain ploy, the McCain tack — and look how much it got him and where he is in the polling right now, at least it’s early in the presidential sweepstakes. Nick in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Thanks, Nick. Thank you for waiting. Welcome to the program.
CALLER: No problem. The only reason this is a “scandal” is because the Republicans are behaving as though it’s a scandal. If you go back to Gonzales’s press conference the other day, what does he say? He says this was mishandled and we’re going to get to the bottom of it, et cetera, et cetera — and then finally gets around to saying, “But it was the right thing to do.” Well, if it was the right thing to do, why are we going to have to get to the bottom of it?
RUSH: And why was it “mishandled” if it’s the right thing to do?
CALLER: Right. It sounds like it was handled perfectly.
RUSH: The president said the same thing, though.
CALLER: Yeah. He’s “very unhappy.” Rush, it is just so disgusting, and it goes to what you were just saying. It’s because they read the papers and they hear that this is a big scandal, and they act like it is. The Republicans ought to know by the very fact that George Bush is in office and that we managed to have a majority for a while, that the American people don’t believe the media. I don’t know why they can’t learn that lesson and go ahead and get something done and stand up.
RUSH: Let me tell you something. Their universe of reality is different than everybody else’s. They’re in Washington, and Washington is run by the media. It’s run by the left — as I keep saying, socially as well. The social pecking order, it’s huge. It’s just as big as it ever was in high school. It’s a big clique. It’s a distorted sense of reality. Washington is not the country, but it’s where most of these people live and work, so they think it is.