Democrats Set Perjury Traps

RUSH: This is Redding, California. Matt, I’m glad you waited. Welcome to the program.

CALLER: Hello. I got a comment regarding — seems to be making a lot of waves, that the lady isn’t willing to testify on the investigation regarding the US attorney. I seem to think that that’s going to be a coming trend as the Democrats reap what they sow after the Scooter Libby deal.

RUSH: Yeah. You know, it’s interesting. The New York Times has this story: ‘Aide to Gonzales Won’t Testify About Dismissals.’ This woman’s name is Monica Goodling. ‘The Justice Department’s White House liaison, who helped coordinate the dismissals, asserted her Fifth Amendment protection against compelled self-incrimination in a letter that her lawyer sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee. In the letter, Ms. Goodling’s lawyer, John M. Dowd, questioned the fairness of the panel and cited the possibility that she might be a witness in a criminal inquiry, although there is currently no known criminal investigation into the dismissals,’ and, of course, what they’re saying is they might try to make her the criminal.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: With these hearings these days, you’re right. You’re right on the money out there, Matt. It’s a perjury trap. A lot of this stuff is just being set up for perjury traps. That’s why they want Rove and Harriet Miers under oath on this whole issue. So, the lawyer says that the obvious lack of impartiality of the Senate and conclusions already reached make anybody, especially Monica Goodling’s testimony, perilous here. He’s wise to have her plead the Fifth. Now, what do you think about this, though, Matt? The Fifth Amendment is what it is. It’s certainly a constitutional right. But most people think, ‘A-ha! A-ha! Fifth Amendment! A-ha, a-ha! Guilty! You’re afraid to go up and show it. You’re afraid to admit it.’ You know that’s how people react to people who take the fifth.

CALLER: I would think so, but given what happened with Scooter Libby, I think it might be an upcoming trend if these investigations proceed.

RUSH: Well, there’s a way around this — not for her. There’s a way around this for the Democrats. They can grant her immunity.

CALLER: True.

RUSH: They can grant her immunity up there, and that almost forces her to come testify. I don’t know if it forces her, but it would take away her reason to plead the Fifth. This is interesting. Grab sound bites four and five. Last night on the NBC Nightly News — by the way, NBC Nightly News went HD last night. I tuned to my local NBC affiliate. I have the ability to get local affiliates here in HD. So I eagerly turned in to see it in HD. I watch anything in HD. By the way, speaking of that, American TVs have to be all digital in two years, and there’s something like 15% of the country that still has these old analog, the ASCII tuners, and so the government is going to give vouchers or money away to people to actually go out and get a converter box to turn their old-fashioned, worthless TV set into one that will receive digital signals.

RUSH: Now, digital is not HD. It’s a step toward it, but technically it’s not HD, not even close to it. Like DirecTV. That’s digital, and it comes to you digital. They’re worried up there in Washington that they’re not going to have enough people understand what’s happening. On go-for-broke day, everybody’s gotta be digitally. Some of these people that don’t want to even have a computer and the Internet in the house are going to turn on the TV and get nothing but snow, and they’re not going to believe the fact that it’s Oprah. So we’re going to give people vouchers, 30 to 50 dollar vouchers if they don’t get a new television. Anyway, I turned to my local NBC affiliate Channel 5 where I live and sure enough it was HD, but they forget it to do the 16-by-9 picture. It was a standard 4-by-3 proportion television picture, not the widescreen.

It was in HD, but they forgot (at the local station) to switch over. They do that now, like ’24’ is on last night, and Prison Break comes on at eight o’clock, and they announce the lottery numbers down here right in the open to Prison Break, and they show it on their 4-by-3, non-HD signal because they haven’t got the graphics for the lottery winners in HD yet. Sometimes they remember to switch to HD after the lottery numbers. Sometimes it’s ten minutes before they remember over there to switch it to HD. I didn’t watch the whole thing. I don’t know if they eventually went to 16-by-9 last night on my local NBC affiliate. Anyway, they still have some of their electronic news gathering stuff that’s standard definition but all of their studio stuff — the interview with Gonzales last night was in HD and was with Pete Williams. He said, ‘Mr. Attorney General, what is it that you would like people to know about this controversy?’

GONZALES: These attacks on my credibility, which really have pained me and my family. You know, I have grown up — I grew up with nothing but my integrity. And someday, when I leave this office, I am confident that I will leave with my integrity.

RUSH: This is the first Hispanic-American attorney general, still fighting for his reputation and his integrity. He says these attacks on his credibility have pained him and his family. That will sit well with the American people. The American people love people who are in pain. The American people love people who are suffering and who are willing to talk about it, because everybody thinks they’re in pain and suffering, too. So it forms a bond of relatability. Then there was this faux pas with Pete Williams finishing his report on the attorney general with this.

WILLIAMS: Congress could try to force Monica Lewinsky — Monica Goodling, rather. to testify by giving her immunity.

RUSH: (Laughing.) What’s still on their mind out there? Monica Lewinsky. Monica Goodling. Anyway, it’s a perjury trap. They’ve all seen what happened to Scooter Libby. You know what I think needs to happen? When you hire anybody that’s going to work with anybody that liaisons with the White House, is in the White House or any other cabinet level post, you’re going to have to not only pay them their salary, but guarantee them lawyers, if they’re Republicans. Republican administration aides are going to need legal fees built into their compensation.