RUSH: Caroline Kennedy. By the way, it’s Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg. The Drive-By Media is doing its best to leave off her married name and simply refer to her as ‘Caroline Kennedy.’ For example yesterday in Syracuse, New York, she had this exchange with Drive-By reporters.
REPORTER: Are you ready for this, Mrs. Kennedy? (sic)
REPORTER: Mrs. Kennedy!
REPORTER: You’re not going to answer questions at all?
REPORTER: Mrs. Kennedy, you’re avoiding questions. Mrs. Kennedy? Mrs. Kennedy, you’re avoiding questions.
REPORTER: You don’t want to answer questions from reporters, ma’am?
REPORTER: Mrs. Kennedy, you’re avoiding questions.
SCHLOSSBERG: Well, uh, eh, I’m following the process laid out by the governor.
REPORTER: The governor told you not to talk to us?
RUSH: It wasn’t pretty in upstate New York. The Drive-By Media not getting the memo, ladies and gentlemen, to be nice to Mrs. Schlossberg. It’s Mrs. Schlossberg! How can that kind of accuracy be even tough for these people in the media? She made a statement, by the way, in Buffalo, but ‘declined’ to talk about her qualifications.
SCHLOSSBERG: Well, I just wanted to say that, um, as some of you may have heard, I’ve told Governor Paterson that I’d be honored to be considered, uhhh, for the position of the (sic) United States Senator. I wanted to come upstate and meet with, uh, Mayor Driscoll and others to — to, uh, tell them about my experience and also to, uh, learn more about how Washington could help, uh —
REPORTER: But you’ve never held public office. So what experience?
SCHLOSSBERG: There’s a lot of good, um, people in this — candidates that the governor is considering. He’s laid out a process and, um — and, um, I’m proud to be in that process.
RUSH: This is amazing, these reporters are actually hitting her pretty hard. They’re calling her ‘Mrs. Kennedy,’ which is erroneous, but they’re really trumping the fact she’s got no experience. It doesn’t matter. All this is wired. Big-time unions in New York and Mayor Bloomberg have called Governor Paterson and have pretty much said, ‘Hey, get this done and get it done as soon as you can. This is what everybody wants,’ and that’s why she’s not answering any questions because it’s probably a fait accompli. Eventually in Rochester, New York, she came up with some experience. She had some experience that she wanted to share with people to let us know why she’s qualified.
SCHLOSSBERG: I have had a lifelong commitment to public service. I’ve written books on the Constitution and the importance of individual participation, and I’ve raised my family — commitment to education in New York City, uh, training principals, working for kids, and — and I think I really could help bring change to Washington.
RUSH: Well, now, shazam! That sounds like somebody else that recently ran for high office. That sounds like Sarah Palin. I mean, it pales to Palin. It pales in comparison, but, ‘Why, I’ve had a lifelong commitment to public service. I’ve written books. I’ve raised my family. I have committed to education in New York City; training principals, working for kids.’ She’s stealing Hillary’s thunder. Of course Hillary can drop the ‘working for kids’ now. She’s over at Foggy Bottom in the State Department. Now, this morning on Scarborough’s show after the mugging — by the way, by the way, people are saying in e-mails to me. ‘What does she need money for, Rush? She works for NBC. Everything’s on an expense account. They feed her. There’s probably food and coffee at the studio. She goes to the hotel. She can go to a hotel restaurant and sign into the room or get room service and so forth. What does she need cash for?’
Folks, have you ever of tips?
‘But, Rush! But, Rush! She could sign the tip on the receipt and charge it to the room.’
Not a bellman! Not somebody helping her with her luggage. You know, not a doorman. Look, my friends, I, El Rushbo, am not out of touch. I’m telling you that when you live in New York and you travel to Washington on business for whatever, and you leave with six bucks, something is wrong about it — especially when you’ve got a lot more, there’s something weird about this. But, as I say, it’s a shame. I think she probably has one of the highest tax rates possible. I’m sure she earns a lot of money at PMSNBC. She’s probably paying the top marginal rate, plus she’s got New York taxes. Oh, my gosh. Well, I don’t think she lives in New York. Maybe New Jersey, but whatever. Taxes in that region are as high as you’ll find anywhere else. The Fed rate plus that, I’m sure she’s at 50, 55%, and if she weren’t paying so much in taxes, she probably would have more than six bucks to give a mugger. As I said, the whole thing is embarrassing. But, anyway, on the show that she works on, they talked today with Peggy Noonan and Democrat strategerist Lawrence O’Donnell about Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg.
NOONAN: You know what’s interesting, may I ask? We don’t know what Caroline Kennedy stands for, what her positions are —
O’DONNELL: Well!
NOONAN: — what her political philosophy is.
O’DONNELL (shouting): The Obama agenda!
NOONAN: She was born into a family.
O’DONNELL: She campaigned for the President!
NOONAN: I understand that.
O’DONNELL: She campaigned for the President-elect!
NOONAN: But she was born into a Democratic family.
O’DONNELL: She agrees with the Obama agenda!
NOONAN: And she breathed it in —
O’DONNELL: You — you — you know exactly what her — her — her —
NOONAN: — and she’s part of that family.
O’DONNELL: You know what her positions are!
NOONAN: No, you don’t! You don’t know philosophically —
O’DONNELL: Listen to the —
NOONAN: — where she stands on taxes.
O’DONNELL: — Obama speeches! That’s the candidacy she supported!
NOONAN: You barely know with Obama where he stands on taxes. I’m talking about philosophy.
O’DONNELL: Oh, I think we do!
NOONAN: I’m talking about some serious stuff here. What it is you’ve decided, over time as you live, that you stand for and what are the reasons behind it. What’s the logic behind it? What’s interesting to me about Caroline Kennedy is that’s all — that may turn out to be surprising, how she thinks.
RUSH: Where have we heard this before, ladies and gentlemen?
ROSE: I don’t know what Barack Obama’s worldview is.
BROKAW: No, I don’t, either.
ROSE: I don’t know how he really sees where China is.
BROKAW: We don’t know a lot about Barack Obama and the universe of his thinking about foreign policy.
ROSE: I don’t really know. And do we know anything about the people who are advising him?
BROKAW: Yeah, it’s an interesting question.
ROSE: He is principally known through his autobiography and through very aspirational (sic) speeches.
BROKAW: Two of them! I don’t know what books he’s read.
ROSE: What do we know about the heroes of Barack Obama?
BROKAW: There’s a lot about him we don’t know.
RUSH: And we don’t know much about Caroline Kennedy. I can tell you about her. She’s a liberal! What else in the world could she be?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: John in Buffalo. This is a television reporter from upstate New York. John, hi. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Thanks, Rush. First-time caller. I won’t take too much of your time. I just wanted to give you an interesting report. Ms. Kennedy, slash, Schlossberg was in Buffalo yesterday to visit with our mayor.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: Our City Hall is a huge art deco era building that sits in the heart of downtown on a park-like traffic circle.
RUSH: I’m sure. It’s probably the biggest building around.
CALLER: Yeah. Traffic was restricted around the circle. All of a sudden, no parking was allowed anywhere around City Hall. You would have thought we had visiting royalty.
RUSH: You did.
CALLER: So I don’t know that we even needed to hear with Mayor Bloomberg and the unions. I think just evidenced by yesterday here in Buffalo, it’s a done deal.
RUSH: Yeah. The fact that you’re even questioning this is suspect.
CALLER: Yeah. So I just wanted to give you that report.
RUSH: Well, did you have a chance, as a TV reporter yourself, to talk to Mrs. Schlossberg.
CALLER: Oh, no! No! Oh, that’s the best part. Complete blackout on the press. Nobody allowed.
RUSH: Well, we have some audio sound bites of some reporters talking to her.
CALLER: Well, they must have caught her outside because they were not allowed to talk to her inside City Hall.
RUSH: Well, it wasn’t pretty. In fact, I want you to listen to one of them where the Drive-Bys are just really hammering her over having no qualifications. Number 11. This is in Syracuse, by the way.
CALLER: Yeah. I didn’t think it was here.
RUSH: Yeah. Here’s Syracuse. This is what happened.
REPORTER: Are you ready for this, Mrs. Kennedy?
REPORTER: Mrs. Kennedy.
REPORTER: You’re not going to answer questions at all?
REPORTER: Mrs. Kennedy, you’re avoiding questions, Mrs. Kennedy. Mrs. Kennedy, you’re avoiding questions.
SCHLOSSBERG: Following the process laid out by the governor.
REPORTER: The governor told you not to talk to us?
RUSH: Now, that doesn’t sound all that impressive. What is it with reporters in Syracuse? Did they not get the memo here that she is royalty and you don’t diss Democrats like this, especially the Kennedys.
CALLER: That must be the case. That just must be the case. They were totally ignorant of that fact.
RUSH: Mike, grab sound bite 12. This is what we have a partial of Mrs. Schlossberg while in Buffalo, and I want to know if this was said inside while you were there.
SCHLOSSBERG: Well, I just wanted to say that, um, as some of you may have heard, I’ve told Governor Paterson that I’d be honored to be considered, uhhh, for the position of the (sic) United States Senator. I wanted to come upstate and meet with, uh, Mayor Driscoll and others to — to, uh, tell them about my experience and also to, uh, learn more about how Washington could help, uh —
REPORTER: But you’ve never held public office. So what experience?
SCHLOSSBERG: There’s a lot of good, um, people in this — candidates that the governor is considering. He’s laid out a process and, um — and, um, I’m proud to be in that process.
RUSH: We have a time problem. Were you there, John, for that?
CALLER: No. I was not.
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: I wasn’t aware of that.
RUSH: All right. Well, we’re happy to inform you, and the skids are greased. The greased are skids. It’s a Kennedy.