RUSH: This was last night on CNN’s Showbiz Tonight. That had to be CNN Headline News. I think it’s Headline News that does that show. Well, that means nobody saw it. Well, this is even better. The host out there was ‘A. J. Hammer,’ and his guest was the Reverend Sharpton. Here’s the question from the reporter, A. J. Hammer, and the Reverend Sharpton’s answer.
HAMMER: You look at a guy like Rush Limbaugh, okay? He has certainly said things and then later apologized for them. He talks about Barack Obama on his show all the time. He has referred to that man as a Halfrican. He has played a song called ‘Barack the Magic Negro.’ On surface, I find that offensive. A lot of people find that offensive. But the outrage over that paled in comparison. Where do you draw the line and decide who you go after?
SHARPTON: I don’t know, because Mr. Lumbard [sic] has done years of stuff against me, now Obama, others. He has a right to do that with individuals. That is not — we’re talking about when you castigate a race or a gender, and he’s very, very careful that he will hit individuals. I think he wanted us to come after that.
RUSH: (Laughing.) He called me ‘Mr. Lumbard.’ Did you hear that? ‘Mr. Lumbard has done years of stuff against me.’ He thinks I’m setting a trap. That’s what they think this is. I’m going to tell you what it is, because the Reverend Sharpton’s got this right. I go after individuals, not genders or groups or this kind of thing — particularly minorities — and I go after people of power, which is the mainstream media’s primary reason for existing: to investigate people in power. That’s what I do. I just investigate the people in power the Drive-By Media ignores: Democrats and liberals. But I actually think it’s this. They know, folks, that if you’re going to take out the king, you take out the king. If you make a move on the king and you fail, then it’s over and you can’t go back again. So this is not enough to take me out. Don’t think they don’t want to, but the Reverend Sharpton knows this is not the arena to step in.
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