RUSH: Time for another update. We’re update loaded here, ladies and gentlemen. Dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut. Trumpet fanfare. The Breck Girl is in the news, which is good, because I love this update.
(Playing of ‘I am Woman’ update theme song.)
The Breck Girl, John Edwards, potentially the first female president of the United States. That’s Paul Shanklin with the exciting vocal portrayal there, ‘I Am Woman.’ What is the Breck Girl news today? Well, it’s from our old buddy Nedra Pickler at the Associated Press. ‘Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards was skeptical –’ (laughing) — wait ’til you hear this. The Breck Girl was skeptical ‘about voting for the Iraq war resolution and was pushed into it by advisers looking out for his political future, according to an upcoming book by one of his former consultants.’ And guess who it was that forced the Breck Girl to vote for the Iraq war? None other than Democrat strategist Bob Shrum.
‘Bob Shrum writes in his memoir to be published in June that he regrets advising Edwards to give President Bush the authority to go to war in Iraq. He said if Edwards had followed his instincts instead of the advice of political professionals, he would have been a stronger presidential candidate in 2004. Edwards spokesman David Ginsberg disputes the suggestion that Edwards was making a political calculation with the 2002 vote that he has called the most important of his career. ‘John Edwards cast his vote based on the advice of national security advisers and the intelligence he was given, not political advisers,’ Ginsberg said. ‘He got political advice on both sides of the argument, and made his own decision based on what he thought was right, not political calculation.”
Now, what’s Shrum trying to do here? Shrum’s trying to get the Breck Girl off the hook, and the Breck Girl doesn’t like the method being used to get him off the hook because it’s making him look like he was a prisoner and a slave to political consultants. So the Breck Girl is now trying to turn it around and say, ‘No, no, no, I believed Bush. Bush lied and people died. Bob Shrum had nothing to do with it.’ Shrum obviously has burned his bridges now perhaps not getting into the Edwards campaign, which is too bad, because Shrum has not been exactly successful in presidential campaigns. He ran the campaign of John Kerry, who served in Vietnam. But one thing the Breck Girl has going for him on this is he can always change his mind. Women can change their minds (snapping) like that. It’s expected and it is applauded. And as such, the Breck Girl can later say, ‘You know what, I have thought about this, and Bob Shrum is right. He is to blame for my voting for the Iraq war.’ But regardless, blame it on somebody else. The Breck Girl is out there trying to get all the credit for admitting that he made a mistake, but when it comes time to say he did it, based on his own thoughts? No. It has to be somebody else’s fault.