RUSH: All right, here’s the headline. Now, yesterday, for those of you that were not here, yesterday when the indictment of Congressman William Jefferson was handed down, I predicted a series of media, Drive-By Media and Democrat Party responses. One of the most prominent predictions was that it wouldn’t be long before the Drive-Bys and the Democrats began lamenting the fact that we can’t get rid of Jefferson because he’s so important to New Orleans, and the death toll in New Orleans continues to pile up, posttraumatic stress disorder, don’t you know. The Katrina death toll, the Bush death toll continues to pile up, and how can we in good conscience strip from the poor people of New Orleans? My gosh, I’ve got spittle coming out of my mouth like Chris Matthews does. Excuse me. How can we deprive the poor people of New Orleans their most powerful member of Congress during such a traumatic time?
Lo and behold, listen to this headline that I hold here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers. It is an Associated Press story: ‘Jefferson indicted; New Orleans recovery suffers more bad news.’ The two have nothing to do with one another, and yet do I know these people, or do I, El Rushbo, the all-knowing, all-caring, all-sensing, all-feeling, all-concerned Maha Rushie, know these people? Here’s the story, and by the way, this story does not mention his party. ‘The corruption indictment today against U.S. Rep. William Jefferson dealt another setback to a city struggling to recover from the economic and political devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The investigation surrounding Jefferson had crippled his position as a champion for the city long before the 16-count indictment was handed down in Virginia.’ Jefferson indicted, New Orleans recovery suffers more bad news. How damn stupid do they think we are?
They must think that we are a bunch of blithering idiots. We all know that Congressman William Jefferson has such important sway in Congress, that without him the people of New Orleans will suffer. This is right up the libs’ alley. Government is the lifeline of the American people, and without it, and without their member of Congress, and without their senator, oh, my God, people may not survive, why, the death toll may climb even further, why, there might even be suicides in New Orleans from people upset and distressed over the fact of losing Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana). Everybody wants to work with an indicted member of Congress, right? Everybody does, especially the new chairman of the Kickback Caucus on the Democrat side. What do you bet this guy walks? You know this guy R. Kelly? Is he an R&B singer or rap singer? What is he, R&B? He’s kind of both? Well, he’s up there in Chicago, indicted five years ago on underage sex, and nothing’s happened to R. Kelly. I gotta be real careful here. But first off, is that charge against R. Kelly federal? I just want to know if it’s federal. If it’s state, that’s a different matter.
They’ve got videotape. They have got Jefferson and the 90 grand out of the freezer and so forth, and I was watching all day today, and I was struck with the contrast in the Drive-By Media reporting, the disconnect, if you will, between the panting — (panting) — excitement over what might be the sentence for Scooter Libby and the reporting of this indictment, federal indictment against Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana). Now, let me explain something to you people. I know it’s frustrating for you people to understand and see this double standard, but there are some things here at work that cannot be denied. Number one, we’re talking about the Drive-By Media. Who are they? They’re libs. We’re talking about the Democrat Party. Who are they? They’re libs. What is one of the many defining characteristics of liberals? They will not discriminate. The last thing they want you to think about, or think of them, is that they see people differently, see some people as better than others, see some people worse. They do not want you to think that. Remember the story I told you out of southern California, Palm Springs? I was having dinner with a major well known television personality in this country, and some other friends. The subject of illegal immigration came up, and the well known national TV personality was a dunce on the subject. He knew nothing and my host was peppering him with facts and figures and statistics, and none of it mattered. If this guy hadn’t read it in the New York Times, it didn’t exist.
Finally, after about an hour of being beat up on, after being pummeled, he was frustrated as he can be, said, ‘I just want to tell you, if some poor person of color wants to come to my country and take a chance on improving their life and finding a better life, then I’m not going to keep ’em out.’ And of course my host just practically abandoned the dinner table. But embodied in that answer is, ‘I’m not going to discriminate. I’m just not going to discriminate, poor person of color.’ Well, here’s Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana). I’ll tell you how the libs look at this. ‘Yeah, it’s bad, it’s bad, it’s not a good thing that he did, but look at the heritage.’ In fact, folks, go back to the archives and find these stories about his sharecropper past and how tough his young life was, how much he has overcome, and he just wants his piece of the pie. Yeah, he went outside the boundaries of the law, but, come on, look at where these people have come from, slavery and years and years and years history of discrimination and so forth, and the libs aren’t going to discriminate. So part and parcel of not discriminating is, not a sense of entitlement to break the law, but we’re just not going to be too critical here because we understand the hardships and we understand the guy growing up so poor and eventually being surrounded by so much money wanting his piece of the pie. And we all know everybody cheats and breaks the law now and then. This is the attitude. So that’s partially why there is a huge variance in the coverage of the upcoming sentence this morning of Scooter Libby and the real reporting of the nature of the indictment of Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana).
Now, ‘House Majority Leader John Boehner moved quickly to force the expulsion of Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana) from Congress following his indictment yesterday on federal corruption charges. Boehner,’ the Republican leader, for those of you in Rio Linda, ‘will ask members of the House to vote on a resolution requiring the ethics committee to review the indictment filed against Jefferson in order to seek his expulsion from the House.’ What Boehner is going to do is ‘offer a privileged resolution on the House floor as early as today calling for the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to review the indictment’s 94 pages. The House will then vote on his resolution calling for the ethics panel to act. The Justice Department indicted money laundering, racketeering,’ and so forth. So anyway, he’s a Kickback Caucus leader. The interesting thing will be to see how the Democrats react to this.
Now, the next story in the stack here from the Washington Post today, ‘Democrats Fear a Wider Black Caucus-Pelosi Rift.’ Folks, I’m not going to read this whole story to you, but the double standard… It’s hard not to have to go outside and take a long walk after reading some BS like this in the Washington Post today. The double standard of Democrat versus Republican is so a disgusting. One of the lines in here, this is Representative Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland, chairman of the Congressional Campaign Committee. ‘For the good of the people of Louisiana’s 2nd District, who have been through so much, we hope this matter is quickly resolved.’ And of course they mention DeLay in this story, how DeLay was indicted, and DeLay had to quit and so forth. ‘A serious rupture with the black caucus would divide Democrats at a time when unity is needed to confront Republicans on the war in Iraq and as they face off with President Bush on domestic spending.’ Maxine Waters said she would not discuss the case of Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana).
This story is full of hand wringing, ‘Oh, my God, this is so bad for the Democrats, what can we do? What can the Democrats do to stop this rift from getting so big that it divides the Democrats in their much needed battle to destroy President Bush?’ Democrat leaders fear that Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana), his indictment ‘coming exactly one year after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi engineered his ouster from the powerful Ways and Means Committee, could rekindle a smoldering dispute between the speaker and black lawmakers who were once pillars of her power.’
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RUSH: The story out of the Washington Post: ‘Democrats Fear a Wider Black Caucus-Pelosi rift.’ Here you have Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana) caught red-handed taking a bribe — he is indicted — and the Democrats are debating how it might divide their ranks if he’s treated harshly by Congress, and then, of course, there’s the ‘politicized justice department,’ which is another thing I predicted yesterday, and we haven’t gotten there yet, but don’t be surprised if you hear that this was purely political. It’s Alberto Gonzales trying to deflect attention from his controversy over the firing of the eight US attorneys. In fact, this story does even allude to the politicized possibilities of the indictment here of Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana). When Tom DeLay was indicted by a hack local prosecutor on trumped-up charges, there was no discussion about whether he stays or goes. He had to go, and over at justice, everybody knows this case is handled by career prosecutors and career FBI agents.
This case is not being handled specifically by ‘Bush appointees.’ Everybody involved in this from the journalists in the Drive-By Media and everywhere els,e know this full well. Now, as I said, the Republicans — in their infinite wisdom, to show the world and to show the country that when they took over the House in ’94 that they were clean as pure as the wind-driven snow, that nobody should fear their leadership — acting totally defensively, acting total out of fear, come up with this law, they passed their own regulation or rule that if a member of the Republican leadership’s indicted, pfft! He’s gone. The Republicans handed the Democrats Tom DeLay’s head on a silver platter. It’s not hard to find a hack Democrat prosecutor. They found one in Ronnie Earle, who did what he had to do to get the indictment. Who cares if it ever comes to trial? That’s it! DeLay’s gone. The assumption here that eight US attorneys were fired for political reason has never been proven. Therefore this case must be political too, despite the bribe!
This case is political and the indictment is political, despite the videotape, despite the evidence and despite the $90,000 in cold cash. The idea that Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana) — indicted on multiple federal felonies, caught on tape demanding and taking a bribe, cash actually found in his freezer — doesn’t shame the House Democrats on the Congressional Black Caucus especially just demonstrates how they know they’re protected by the media. In the real world, the Congressional Black Caucus would want to get rid of this guy as quickly as they could because they don’t want what his actions are and alleged to have been to taint them. ‘Oh, no, no! Can’t have that. Solidarity, innocence ’til proven guilty, all that.’ I predicted that, too, yesterday. It’s true. If some Republican, not even in the leadership, had been indicted, he’d already be gone, and the first thing that you would have heard on the news was the Republican leader, whoever it would have been would have gone out there and said, ‘I just talked to so-and-so scumbag. All these indictments making us look bad. We are not going to tolerant this kind of behavior among our caucus,’ and they’d get the guy outta there, if something like this had happened. Meanwhile, the Washington Post writing a story asking: how can the Democrats save themselves on this? How can they stay unified?
It’s so important to stay unified because they have to destroy Bush. So the Democrat party is now, clearly, the party of corruption. This business makes me mad, but I laugh about it. The people of New Orleans can’t get by without their congressman! He’s such a lifeline, it would destroy them. They’re in such dire straights. Now the death toll continues to mount; they have posttraumatic stress disorder, and if Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana) is being stripped from the people of New Orleans now, who knows what the suicide rate would become? Would the French Quarter remain open? Would the hotels shut down? Would New Orleans mayor ‘School Bus’ Nagin finally say, ‘You know what? This is it. I’m pronouncing the city dead. We’re going to board it up. Nobody is going to be able to move here. We’re going to move everybody outta here. They just took our congressman!’ Right. I wonder, did Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana) share any of that $90,000 in his freezer with his constituents? Just how important to them is he? Of course, something else we’re going to have to nip in the bud here is Hurricane Katrina being used to defend every pathetic Democrat argument out there.
Last time I looked, in eight years the Clinton administration, they didn’t do diddly-squat for New Orleans in shoring up levees down there; neither did the Democrat mayors do anything for New Orleans, and neither has this Democrat Congress do anything for New Orleans. Bush has done more for New Orleans and the recovery than the Democrat Congress has done, just as Bush has done more for Africa than Bill Clinton ever dreamed of doing. Now we see, get this: ‘Noted film director Spike Lee has said that he will return to New Orleans to film a follow-up to his documentary about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. ‘That’s right, the story is not over! It’s still something that’s evolving, and we want to stay on top of it.” The only thing that’s a story to Spike Lee and these people is another way to continue to bash Bush and Republicans and shore up the notion that the only way to protect America is to have government get bigger and bigger and bigger and that’s why we can’t take Congressman Jefferson away from the people of New Orleans. Let’s go back to the archives. We have a couple of sound bites here from Congressman Jefferson. If you people have forgotten the story, during the rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina, we had helicopters and we had boats, and the Drive-By Media cameras were showing and reporting a bunch of things that, frankly, weren’t true: murder and rape in the Superdome, mass suicides and this sort of thing.
But there was a humongous rescue effort going on involving National Guard troops and during all that, Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana) commandeered National Guard vehicles to take him to his fashionable home, which had been flooded. They got in there, and Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana) went in there on his own, was in there for a while, and came out with what witnesses described as something that looked like a microwave. The original vehicle that took ’em in there got stuck in the mud, and they had to send a helicopter over to rescue Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana) or send another truck or something. In the midst of all these rescue efforts, Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana), with all this care and compassion for his constituents, commandeered rescue vehicles for his own personal reasons. Well, this caused the Drive-By Media to circle the wagons around Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana), and he appeared with Paula Zahn on her ill-fated CNN show. Oh, by the way, have you heard of what Bernard Shaw has said about CNN? Oh, he’s upset. It looks too much like Fox to him! He’s sorry to see what has happened to CNN. We’ll have comments on that coming up. Anyway, this is September 14th of 2005, and Paula Zahn has Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana) as the guest. She said, ‘So let’s try to set the record straight here tonight for you. On a day when you had some 10,000 people trapped in the Superdome with no food and no water living under just horrendous conditions, you end up using a National Guard truck to take you to your home where you retrieve personal belongings. Why is that not an abuse of power?’
JEFFERSON: The National Guard troops took me to the Superdome area, took me to the Convention Center where I visited with constituents, took me uptown to the Wal-Mart area which had been looted, so I took a tour of that. I saw people at the Convention Center and asked them how they were and they talked to me about the — the need to get buses out and so on. I then went uptown to the area where I live and — and to my neighborhood. Every member of Congress went back to see what happened in their own area, as I did. The difference was, I couldn’t travel without guards because there was shooting and — and snipering and all that stuff going on in my district. If I have had been Bobby Jindal, I could have gone without any help. But they all told me I needed to have and must have National Guard or some sort of escort, because they were worried about people being shot, and that is the only reason they were with me.
RUSH: Bobby Jindal could go in? How come Bobby Jindal could go in there by himself without worrying about being shot but Congressman Jefferson couldn’t? Why, the constituents love Congressman Jefferson! Why, it’s just a flat-out joke. What’s this guy doing going to the Wal-Mart area? The fact that Wal-Mart got looted, Democrats ought to celebrate that. Next question: ‘Well, what was so critical inside your house,’ Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana), ‘that you wanted to retrieve?’
JEFFERSON: I wanted to see the condition of my house, as every other congressman who went down there did. The trouble is, as I told you, they didn’t happen to have guards with them and I did because they worried about being me being shot. But I went to the house to see whether it was under water, whether it had been looted, that sort of thing. There wasn’t anything especially important to retrieve from the house.
RUSH: No, of course not. (laughing) Just some cold cash that might have been in there. (Laughing.) So he’s worried about being shot. He’s worried about his house being looted. He’s worried about his home being looted while the poor sat in the sweltering Superdome. People are just trying to find food and televisions and water and ways out of there. Congressman William Jefferson is so important to his constituents ladies and gentlemen, so important that the city may not survive if he’s removed from Congress. So there you have it — and, by the way, the Drive-By Media could tell you all this too. They could go back to their archives and do all this and give you all the details. Rather than just report the news of the indictment and say, ‘Is it political?’ they could give you what I just did. Nope! They’re still having the media orgasms over Scooter Libby and his 30-month sentence.
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RUSH: Our buddies at the Red State blog, RedState.com, have more details on the indictment of Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana). It turns out that he gave thousands to a bunch of Democrat freshmen, the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee. ‘It could well be that Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana) could set the record for the most corrupt acts carried out by a member of Congress. He may be the most corrupt politician ever, far outdistancing Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham, who was indicted on four counts. This is 16. Jefferson’s 16-count, 94-page document for which he could serve more than 200 years in prison if convicted, eclipses the legal troubles of Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham, Bob Ney, and Jim Traficant. Cunningham pleaded guilty to four counts, sentenced to eight years in prison. Bob Ney pleaded guilty to two, received a 30-month sentence. If convicted, Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana) would face sentencing on as many counts as Cunningham, Ney and Traficant combined,’ and they list all the different members of the Congressional Campaign Committee. The Black Caucus got a lot. He spread that money around. This is one of the reasons why they’re defending him. He contributed to their campaigns. He wasn’t bribing them. I’ll play this down the middle. He was contributing to their campaigns. He’s not a dumb guy. I mean, he’s dumb what he did, but he’s politically not dumb. Let’s go to the phones. Leland in Wiggins, Mississippi, I’m glad you called, sir. You’re first today. Great to have you with us.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush. Every time I hear the term ‘Hurricane Katrina’ and ‘corruption in New Orleans’ together, I absolutely seethe. I live here in south Mississippi. We were affected by Katrina, and I have watched one Louisiana politician after the other pass the buck about the problems of Katrina when it comes down to nothing more than a culture of corruption which has caused the levees not to be built and which has caused people like William Jefferson to flourish, and I’m glad — I am so happy — to see that you at least are showing the hypocrisy of the media, who have mentioned none of this.
RUSH: Well, I’ll tell you what. The thing about Mississippi that is interesting is, Mississippi was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Gulfport and a number of cities were wiped out by Hurricane Katrina, and you didn’t hear any complaining from Haley Barbour, the Republican governor; you didn’t hear whining and moaning, and the Drive-By Media didn’t even go there. The reason they keep harping on New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina is because, A, there are pictures; B, they tied it to Bush; C, it’s a Democrat state, and it was a Democrat town. By the way, I think a lot of New Orleans people are being represented in Congress now because they live in Houston! You know, one of the dirty little secrets here is that some of those people that fled have no desire to come back, so they are being represented. Taking Congressman Jefferson away from them ain’t going to be a big deal because they’re still being represented where they live now in Houston and in other places. But Hurricane Katrina, it’s not even about a hurricane. It’s not about the devastation of a city. You have to understand this. It is about destroying the Bush administration — more than that, folks. I think this goes beyond Bush, and I think this illegal immigration bill is a great example. This is about the libs doing what they constantly try to do, and that’s destroy conservatism. That’s who their enemy is. The enemy of liberalism is conservatism. That’s why they talk about the Fairness Doctrine, and try to discredit any and all conservatives that they can. Here’s Doug in Pickerington, Ohio. Doug, thanks for waiting. Welcome to the show.
CALLER: Yeah, dittos, Rush.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: You hit on already the most important already. If he’s so doggone important to New Orleans, why hasn’t there been more done down there? Why is it still in this total oblivion or just the mess that it is?
RUSH: Well, he’s tried. He’s up against Bush! He’s up against the Bush administration, and he’s distracted by this politically motivated indictment that is coming. He wants to help so bad.
CALLER: Yes, Mr. Limbaugh, but let me say one other thing, too. He should step down for one reason: because it’s ‘the seriousness of the charge.’ It’s the seriousness of the charge. How many times have we had to listen to that about Republicans, and it’s about time to take a dose of their own medicine.
RUSH: Well, who’s going to give them the dose? They’re not going to take it themselves. The Drive-Bys are not going to hand it to them. So who’s going to give them the dose? We do what we can do here to shame them, but they pretend in circumstances like this, we don’t exist. You’re exactly right. Clarence Thomas had to go because of the seriousness of the charge. The nature of the evidence? Irrelevant. Ed Meese had to go because of the ‘appearance of impropriety’ when he was the attorney general during the Reagan administration. The nature of the evidence was irrelevant. The seriousness of the charge here against Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana), is the damage it could do to the Democrats, and that’s why it’s being massaged the way it is by the Drive-Bys and the Democrat Party. The nature of the evidence? ‘Why, what evidence? He hasn’t been convicted yet.’ The seriousness of the charge is something that gets thrown out. I’d love for these people to get a dose of their own medicine. The only place that happens is at the ballot box. If you’re living in hopes and dreams that they’re going to face the same scrutiny and behavior of the Drive-Bys that we do, you’re going to live the rest of your life disappointed.
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RUSH: Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana) says he’ll take a leave, a temporary leave of absence from the House Small Business Committee after his indictment. But that’s not the big committee. He’s on the Homeland Security Committee. That’s the one they’re concerned about, whether he should be removed from that one.
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RUSH: I went in and I went back to Snerdley’s office. I always like to check the temperature of the staff every day, make sure everything is hunky-dory and cool. He was sitting there slouched over, I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ He said, ‘I just don’t understand it. I’ve been following politics all my life and I just don’t know how the Democrats keep getting away with it. Democrats can destroy anybody they want, who doesn’t do anything even, and then you take a poor little guy like Scooter Libby who is just really a peon in the big scheme of things, didn’t do anything, 30 months in jail. You got a president of the United States who lied under oath, suborned perjury and is running around like a rock star.’ And I said there’s a one-word answer, and that’s media. There’s a secondary reason, too, and that is that the Republicans don’t know how to fight this stuff. After all these years, they don’t know how to fight this stuff. They certainly don’t know how to defend themselves. The Republicans are always on defense. But it’s just the way it is. I know it seems unjust and unfair, but as I said to the guy earlier in the last hour who wants Democrats to get a dose of their own medicine, the only time they do is at the ballot box. They’re not going to be treated the way Republicans are in the media.
You’re not going to hear stories about the American people upset at Democrats, be it Clinton or Congressman William Jefferson or Sandy Burglar. They’re not going to seek these people out. The impression is left the country doesn’t care what Democrats do, only cares what Republicans do. But recent elections don’t bear that out. Some do, but I still think November of last year was about Republicans, not Democrats. It wasn’t an endorsement of liberalism.
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RUSH: Here’s Tim in New Orleans. Tim, welcome to the EIB Network, sir.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. I have a couple points. First of all, I’m in Congressman Bill Jefferson’s district.
RUSH: You are.
CALLER: And I’m a Republican, I’m conservative, and I voted for him. I’ll explain that in just a minute. But you’d be surprised how many people actually, of his constituents, are calling the local radio programs and complaining that it’s a conspiracy.
RUSH: I’m not surprised at that at all.
CALLER: Right. And it will hinder the effort to get more money for the area.
RUSH: I’m not surprised. I predicted this yesterday. This is exactly what I expected to happen.
CALLER: Right. And also the mayor, Ray Nagin, has left his options open to run for Bill Jefferson’s spot, if he should leave. He has not said that he was not going to. He said, ‘I’ll leave my options open.’ But I voted for Bill Jefferson because of the opponent that was running against him last year. There was a local sheriff here who spent several thousand dollars his own money campaigning for Bill Jefferson because the other candidate was also questionable, maybe not as questionable as Bill Jefferson, but I guess his thinking was that the better candidate would be in there for the duration, and the sheriff actually expected the indictment and hopefully would leave the position open should Bill —
RUSH: Well, all I can say is that that’s some just really great choices that you had.
CALLER: Right. Right. I agree.
RUSH: The lesser of two evils is obviously what you’re facing there. Well, look, I thank you for the report coming out of the New Orleans, although even I didn’t need it. I’m not surprised at all the locals are calling local shows saying it’s a conspiracy to get rid of our guy, to stop aid from being sent to New Orleans and so forth, utterly, utterly predictable. That’s another thing about the left and Democrats today, they are just totally predictable. Look, I’m like you. Sometimes, if I can see it, if you all can see it, why doesn’t everybody see it? And to answer that, you have to understand the degree of rage and hatred that’s making people irrational out there.
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