RUSH: Here’s Todd in Ketchikan, Alaska. Welcome to the EIB Network. Nice to have you here, sir.
CALLER: Thanks, Rush. Hey, dittos from the great state of Alaska.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Hey, my question to you is, what do you think about this debacle with our great Senator Stevens?
RUSH: You mean the raid on his home by IRS and other agents?
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: I don’t know what they found. I know they’re looking to see if he’s accepted gratuities above and beyond what’s legal and this sort of thing. Alaska — I don’t want to offend you here, Todd — but Alaska is the king of pork. Every Alaskan citizen, I think last year, according to calculations — everybody thinks Robert Byrd runs this show, but I’ll tell you, the Alaska delegation scores a thousand dollars per resident of the state in pork. That’s hefty. Here’s my take on this is this. I don’t know if he’s guilty or not. It’s premature. But you get your house raided, it don’t look good. The Republicans, contrary to what the Democrats say about the election in 2006, did not lose it because of Iraq. They lost it because of earmarks and corruption and the apparent arrogance and insulation from real people in the way they live. They also lost it because they failed to govern as they promised they would when they were campaigning. They became citizens of Washington rather than representatives of their voters and their districts.
The Democrats right now are doing everything they can to water down their own ethics legislation. They’re doing everything they can to get these earmarks to survive. If this is true, it’s an opportunity for the Republicans to take the lead in cleaning this stuff up. It does present an opportunity. The only thing I’m waiting for out there is, when is the raid on Searchlight, Nevada? There’s a prominent US Senator that lives there, and there have been countless stories in the Los Angeles Times about shady land deals with his sons who are lobbyists and so forth. We are speaking here, of course, of the exalted Dingy Harry. So while they’re raiding Ted Stevens, where’s the raid in Searchlight, Nevada? Nevertheless, people are fed up with this kind of stuff. They always have been, but it’s been so blatant and so up front, the earmarks and the pork, bridge to nowhere in Alaska, that kind of thing. There is an opportunity to gain the upper hand here if the Republicans have the mettle.