RUSH: Well, you knew this was coming. You knew it was coming. ‘The Obama administration will issue a new revised moratorium on offshore drilling today, two administration officials told The Associated Press. Both officials requested anonymity so as not to pre-empt the official announcement.’ Here’s Gibbs at the White House press briefing this afternoon. Bill Plante, CBS: ‘New offshore drilling moratorium coming out later today, eh? What’s different about this that allows you to believe you can escape another court turnover?’
RUSH: So, ‘To hell with the law. We’re just going to have another moratorium. Screw it. We’ll make the court turn us down again. We’ll make the court overturn us. We’re not gonna stop this moratorium. We’re gonna stop this drilling — and, by the way, it’s not because we gotta find out what caused this. It’s because we want to shut down the industry. We want more economic pain.’ The first rig has already left the Gulf. It’s in the Houston Chronicle. It’s on the way over to Egypt. There is no question whatsoever what’s going on. This is a question admitting it. Same thing here with…. If Obama succeeds in blaming others for his disastrous policies or not — and you know he’s gonna try this. I mean that’s not even a brilliant conclusion, folks. He’s doing it! He’s been doing it for a year and a half, talking about the mess he ‘inherited.’ He wants to keep it up.
It’s hard, though, to blame Bush. I mean, Bush isn’t on the ballot. Bush isn’t running anymore. They’re gonna run against Bush in 2010, gonna help ’em, but 2012 come along, Obama can’t run against Bush. There will have been four years of Obama. But if the Republicans are running things, ah, it’s easier. So what do we need? We need a presidential candidate who has the ability to articulate conservatism and insist that Obama is the problem, that he has had one-party rule and he now has a record, and his record of disaster is wide and deep and will do him in. That’s easier said that done, ’cause right now there’s not a Republican conservative out there saying it, and it’s gonna take guts. I think they’re still a little afraid to do so. They were afraid to criticize him the first because his candidacy was ‘historic,’ first black presidential candidate — and now first black president, and every bit of criticism of Obama they’re calling racist.
You saw what Howard Kurtz did to me yesterday on Reliable Sources, totally mischaracterizing what I said. Anybody criticize Obama is a racist, sexist pig and they’re laying in wait for whatever person is nominated by the Republicans. But all that nominee has to say, whoever the Republican nominee is, is, ‘Mr. Obama, you destroyed the job market. You chased investment offshore. Your regulations are smothering small business. Your spending policies have amassed an unprecedented debt. This is all on you.’ It’s easy to say it. It’s true! All a Republican nominee has to do is utter the truth. The question is: Will we have one with the fortitude to do so? It’s going to be a while before we know.
This is Gibbs, the White House press secretary, this afternoon. Reporter: ‘You have had some days to digest what the Business Roundtable said, things the administration is doing as an obstacle to growth in hiring. Are you having second thoughts either about the direction of your policies,’ bashing big business?
GIBBS: No. I — I — I — I — I — I — Again, I — I — I’m happy to compare the environment that business operates in now and the environment that they operated in, say, [in] the end of 2008. I think corporate profits are a pretty good example.
RUSH: No, the business community’s doing fine. This is Obama’s spokesman justifying continuing to target business. Look at their profits! Corporate profits are pretty good example. They’re making evil profits. ‘We gotta go out and seize ’em,’ is what Gibbs is saying.