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RUSH: Hey, folks, it looks like the Obama pardon list is starting early. The office of the president-select can already start putting names on that pardon list. I’m sure that Rod Blagojevich is somebody that Obama barely knew and he probably never knew this Rod Blagojevich. Greetings, my friends, Rush Limbaugh in the middle of an Ayn Rand novel. Folks, this sitcom just gets better and better every day. This is unbelievable! Except that it’s all too believable. Great to have you here. Rush Limbaugh, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network. By the way, I have to tell you, it’s a shame because it’s going to happen. But I’m afraid we’re going to lose our Chicago affiliate when the press conference starts. The US attorney for Chicago is Patrick Fitzgerald, who has delivered somebody ‘Fitzmas’ today. I don’t know exactly who, but this is really deep and I’m afraid we’re going to lose WLS Chicago. They’ll have to cover the press conference live, it’s happening in their backyard, but those of you in Chicago, if WLS has not dumped us yet to go to that press conference, check RushLimbaugh.com later this afternoon, we update the site to reflect the contents of the program for today’s EIB take on the version of events. Here’s the phone number if you want to be on the program. 800-282-2882. The e-mail address is ElRushbo@eibnet.com.

Remember what Chuck Schumer said, Senator Chuck Schumer, October 26th, 2008, two days before Scooter Libby was indicted. Chuck Schumer, quote, ‘Mr. Fitzgerald is a prosecutor’s prosecutor. He does not have a political bone in his body.’ Let’s keep that in mind. By the way, this is really nothing new for Chicago. Practically every former governor is in jail or has been in jail, doesn’t matter what party. What is going on here with Blago is he was trying to sell the appointment for Barack Obama’s Senate seat, and one of the people he might have been trying to sell it to is the son of the Reverend Jackson. I don’t know that there are any tapes of that conversation that the US attorney might have, but I can just hear that shake down. Jesse Jackson, Jr., goes in there, wants the Senate seat and Blagojevich says, ‘Well, what are you going to pay me? What are you going to give me? What can you do for me?’ And Jesse Jackson, Jr., says, ‘I know how this works, pal, you’re not going there with me, who do you think you are, my dad, shaking me down like this?’ (laughing)

Democrat Governor Blagojevich was going to name a Senator to replace Barack Obama. Democrat Governor Eliot Spitzer was going to name a Senator to replace Hillary Clinton, but for a pay-per-view call girl. Democrat Governor Jim McGreevey named Frank Lautenberg to replace The Torch. By the way, let’s go back in time. Let’s never forget this, Bob Torricelli and a lawyer montage together as Torricelli is proclaiming his innocence.

TORRICELLI: To challenge my integrity is beneath contempt. I do not deserve this treatment.

ATTORNEY: Two watches, a Rolex watch, diamond earrings for his girlfriend.

TORRICELLI: I have never —

ATTORNEY: A television set.

TORRICELLI: — ever —

ATTORNEY: Oriental rug, grandfather clock, other antique items.

TORRICELLI: — done anything —

ATTORNEY: Suits.

TORRICELLI: — at any time —

ATTORNEY: Approximately 14 deliveries of envelopes of cash to Torricelli’s house.

TORRICELLI: — to betray the trust of the people of the state of New Jersey. Never!

RUSH: That’s Bob Torricelli. That was April 18th of 2001, ladies and gentlemen, when Torricelli was defending himself against charges of corruption. You know, both parties engage in this stuff, but corruption is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democrat Party, always has been, always will be. We throw out our corrupt officials. We make tracks to do it. The Democrats circle the wagons for theirs. So here we have Blagojevich, we have Rezko, we have Obama. This is quite a triangle here, folks. And Patrick Fitzgerald, who is now speaking at the press conference, the corruption is to so deep, it is hard to quickly summarize it between all of these people. It’s gonna take a while to figure all of this out. But we’ve got the complaint, and it’s just hilarious. It is just hilarious to listen to this and to read these things. Rezko is now being investigated with the Obama land deal. Blagojevich arrested at 6:15 this morning along with his chief of staff.

Rezko and Blago and Obama go back together for a long, long time and now they’re back together again. We got subpoenas; we got dot-connecting; we got land deals; we got cronies; we have corruption. It’s no wonder that Obama bought off Hillary with this Secretary of State appointment. I now understand why he’s putting all these Clinton people in his administration. It was a brilliant stroke and even more so today. Now, Ben Smith at The Politico is speculating Obama knew all about this corruption investigation going down, not that he was tainted by it himself. The Drive-Bys are making it clear, in fact, without even knowing anything, the Drive-Bys — we’ve got audio sound bites coming — are making it clear Obama had no knowledge; he had nothing to do with this, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. Some of them are even ripping on Fitzgerald now for overreaching. Obama has recruited all the Clintons. He has insulated himself politically from a number of these things. It’s brilliant. Hillary has now been compromised for 2010. Can you imagine how she must feel? She has accepted the Secretary of State. She’s taken herself out of the presidential running in 2012.

Obama knew all this was coming down. He knew that there was going to be all kinds of taint associated with his hometown political machine. A bunch of thugs up there in Chicago, folks. I mean we said it, we quoted President Clinton, and here it is, a culture of a Chicago political thugs, and it’s gone down right before our very eyes. So we’re going to get into this in much greater detail with audio sound bites as the program unfolds before your very eyes. I’m just wondering if Obama’s lighting up about now. You know, he said he’s fallen off the wagon, when he tried to quit smoking, but he was not going to smoke in the White House. Probably go outside, out back, maybe the rose garden, but I wonder if he’s lighting up about now, because a cold man just got a chill today. At least he’s compromised Hillary. There is some comfort there.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is just too great, everything associated with the Democrat Party’s involvement in this Blagojevich thing. I just listened to a little bit of Patrick Fitzgerald, and he went out of his way to say Obama, the president-elect, is not involved in this. He’s not mentioned in the complaint, had nothing to do with this, he’s totally ignorant. All this was going on around him, just like in the Clinton days, all this stuff, the Chinese funny money and all that was happening, and he didn’t know a thing about it, he had no clue. Now, Ben Smith at The Politico says that the transition team — that’s Obama — was aware of this investigation. As I said, they were taping Blagojevich as recently as Friday. They hand down their arrest and indictment today. They wanted to make their move before Obama’s Senate seat could be sold, and Blagojevich was trying to get a cushy union job out of this once he left the governorship. It’s clear that was trying to score big time by selling the seat. Listen to this from the complaint that they publish here at The Politico.

‘Rod Blagojevich said he knows that the President-elect wants Senate Candidate 1 for the Senate seat but ‘they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. F-them,’ says the complaint.’ Apparently Blagojevich dropped the F-bomb a lot on these tapes. He was angry that he was unable to secure the price that he wanted for appointing somebody to the Senate seat. ‘The transition hasn’t yet responded to questions about Rod Blagojevich’s indictment, but the key question is whether the transition was talking to prosecutors, whether Obama and Valerie Jarrett knew that Blagojevich had offered her the Senate seat in exchange for a labor job, and how she, the transition, or SEIU handled the solicitation of a bribe. Andy Stern, the president, had met with Blagojevich just before the election on the subject, though nobody is identified in the complaint.’ So we’re continuing to learn about all of this as it unfolds before our very eyes. Let’s go to the audio sound bites to give you a flavor. This morning on CNN the anchor Heidi Collins talked to the FBI spokesman Ross Rice on the phone. She said, ‘I’m wondering if you can give us sort of the overall scenario as to how all this happened.’

RICE: About 6:30 this morning Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested without incident by FBI agents here in Chicago. Both men were charged in a criminal complaint that was filed in US District Court here in Chicago on Sunday with two violations of federal law. One, solicitation of a bribe, and the second is mail fraud. The complaint alleges three separate and distinct areas of corruption that the two were allegedly involved in. One, as you mentioned, was the selling of President-Elect Obama’s Senate seat. The second was financial dealings involving the Chicago Tribune. They were gonna try and get assistance to them from the state for the sale of Wrigley Field in exchange for a purge of their editorial board. A third was the solicitation of campaign funds from people that wanted to do business with the state of Illinois.

RUSH: That’s just hilarious. I’m sitting here, folks, in the middle our sitcom. They were going to try to offer some assistance to the Tribune Company in exchange for getting rid of their editorial board because Blagojevich didn’t like the criticism that he was getting from the Chicago Tribune. There’s an AP story here by Mike Robinson that was published this morning. He’s the legal affairs editor. If you read this, it is the funniest story without anybody trying to make it funny, that you may have ever seen. ‘Illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to the Tribune Company, the owner of the Chicago Tribune and the sale of Wrigley Field. In return for state assistance, Blago allegedly wanted members of the paper’s editorial board who had been critical of him fired.’ So the Drive-Bys get even here, somebody trying to take them out is in turn hoisted on his own petard. Here is Blago just yesterday, very defiant in Chicago outside the window factory.

BLAGOJEVICH: I don’t believe there’s any cloud that hangs over me. I think there’s nothing but sunshine hanging over me. I should say if anybody wants to tape my conversations, go right ahead, feel free to do it. I appreciate anybody who wants to tape me openly and notoriously, and those who feel like they want to sneakily, and wear taping devices, I would remind them that it kind of smells like Nixon and Watergate.

RUSH: (laughing) Uh, and he said this.

BLAGOJEVICH: Whether you tape me privately or publicly I can tell you that whatever I say is always lawful and the things I’m interested in doing are always lawful, and if there are any things like that out there which you’ll hear, is a governor who tirelessly and endlessly figures out ways to help average, ordinary working people.

RUSH: Including himself, trying to sell the Senate seat for a big-paying labor job. Guess he’s just an average, ordinary guy, Rod Blagojevich, governor of Illinois. I mean, this is psychopathic. This guy knew what was coming. He’s trying to flavor it, but this is right off the pages of Bob Torricelli. Here, let’s go back, one more time, April 18th, 2001, Torricelli denying the charges and cut-ins of David Chang’s attorney, Brad Simon.

(Replaying of Torricelli sound bite)

RUSH: And this Blagojevich from yesterday.

BLAGOJEVICH: Whether you tape me privately or publicly I can tell you that whatever I say is always lawful and the things I’m interested in doing are always lawful, and if there are any things like that out there which you’ll hear, is a governor who tirelessly and endlessly figures out ways to help average, ordinary working people.

RUSH: And it’s a sad day in Chicago, Mayor Daley today has just thrown the governor under the bus.

DALEY: Well, first of all, just like you, we just found out this morning, and it’s a sad day and you have to wait for the press conference to find out the information why he was arrested. If it’s true it’s a very, very sad comment because the selection of a US Senator is vitally important to the future of this state and of this country. And if it’s true, it’s a very, very sad day and very sad comment about him.

RUSH: Yeah. Everybody knew this was going on. ‘I had no idea this was happening, just found out this morning, it’s a very sad day.’ Folks, there’s a subpoena out on the land deal records between Obama and Tony Rezko and Rezko’s wife, and the only paper that had that story prior to the election was the Washington Times. But that’s all percolating out there. As I said at the top of the program, the Obama pardon list is getting a real early start here. He may have some pardons to announce on Inauguration Day in order to get off to a clean start. Now, let’s go to MSNBC Live today, Chicago, Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky said this about the charges against Blago.

SCHAKOWSKY: I really think that the prosecutors better have a really good reason for going into the governor’s home and in front of his wife and children, taking him into custody, which is usually is the case if there’s a flight risk or there’s some serious crime.

RUSH: Oh, my, how times change. This is Patrick Fitzgerald who could do no wrong, ‘not a political bone in his body,’ said Chuck Schumer, and here is Schakowsky, ‘You better have a good reason for doing this.’ Jeffrey Toobin this morning on CNN had this to say.

TOOBIN: Wow, is the operative phrase here. Keep in mind how unusual it is in any kind of white-collar investigation to have a suspect arrested in his home rather than allowed to surrender. This guy is the sitting governor of one of the biggest states in the union. It’s not like it would be easy for him to flee. So the fact that they thought it was necessary to arrest him in his home rather than call his lawyer and ask him to surrender his client, which is the customary way in a white-collar investigation, shows that this is a very fast moving investigation.

RUSH: Does it sound to you like Toobin is not too happy with Fitzgerald there? ‘This is not done, the guy’s a governor, he’s not going to flee, he can’t go anywhere. Why is Fitzgerald doing this?’

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We have a guy from Effingham, Illinois, up first today. Brian, great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Mega dittos from Effingham, Illinois. I’ve been listening to you for 16-plus years.

RUSH: Thank you, sir, appreciate that.

CALLER: I just want to say today in Effingham is a rainy day, it’s gloomy, it’s windy, but today has got to be fantastic, hopefully we’re rid of Rod Blagojevich as governor.

RUSH: Uh, I would love to share in your joy, but be rid of it? How many ex-governors of Illinois are in jail, and this one about to join, I think the number is three?

CALLER: Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. But, you know, the deal is here he’s been so anti-business, he’s cost Illinois jobs, I mean we can’t get anything done in Springfield because he keeps holding up all this legislation and we got rid of Emil Jones, but now hopefully we can get something done and help the people of Illinois.

RUSH: Look, I don’t want to throw cold water on things, but until you get rid of the Democrat Party and their union buddies nothing’s going to change in that state and nothing is going to change in Chicago.

CALLER: You’re right.

RUSH: What Blagojevich was doing is fertile proof. He’s trying to sell the Senate seat, make an appointment to fill the Obama seat, get a union job that, to him, is big money. It’s big money and it’s forever. And I guarantee you he didn’t want a job, he wanted a position. He didn’t want to have to do any work. He wanted power, and he wanted power being on a board or some silly position with some union. You know, it’s amazing. Like I said yesterday, we support the workers, we love employees, we love people who make things happen in this country. But the union leaders we don’t support. And it seems like wherever you look, wherever you find corruption, or wherever you find failing businesses, wherever you find things that are in trouble, you find union leadership with its fingers deep in the till somewhere, you find their involvement somewhere, somehow. We love the workers. We support the workers. But we don’t support the union leadership. I mean, everywhere you go, and we’ve got Obama and this card check deal, which is gonna allow unions to unionize your small business much easier than ever before.

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