RUSH: The Attorney General, Eric Holder — and the IRS and the liberal lawyers at the ACLU — will conduct briefings with several hundred pastors in the African-American church community in how to participate in the presidential election, which the Congressional Black Caucus chair expects will help Obama’s campaign.

Representative Emanuel Cleaver (Democrat-Missouri), said, quote, “We will have representatives from nine denominations who actually pastor somewhere in the neighborhood of about 10 million people, and weÂ’re going to first of all equip them with the information they need to know about what they can say and what they cannot say in the church that would violate their 501(c)(3) status with the IRS. In fact, weÂ’re going to have the IRS administrator there, weÂ’re going to have the Attorney General Eric Holder there, weÂ’re going to have the lawyersÂ’ organization from around the country, the ACLU — all giving ministers guidance about what they can and cannot do.”

They’re gonna tell ’em just how close they can get to the line. They’re probably gonna tell ’em how they can jump over the line a couple times. What’s funny about this is Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson. These guys fund-raise from the pulpit! They pass the plate for campaign donations from the pulpit. It’s been reported, but nobody does anything about it because nobody’s got the guts to. Who wants to criticize black churches for being engaged in politics? They’re minorities, they’re disadvantaged, they ought to have some chance at making the contest fair.

Nobody’s gonna level any charges against ’em. (interruption) Well, there may be something else going on here. Because, frankly, ladies and gentlemen, Holder’s not gonna do anything to anybody if they do cross the line, and neither is the IRS. I mean, for crying out loud, if the New Black Panthers can engage in near-criminal activity and voter intimidation at a polling place and Holder lets that go, what the heck is he gonna do to a black minister who crosses the line on politicking from the pulpit? Nothing!

So what’s this really all about? Why do you have to have Holder and the IRS and the ACLU have meetings with black pastors about ostensibly protecting their 501(c)(3) status? That’s not what this is. That’s not what this is. There’s something else going on here. I don’t know what it is. Some people might speculate that maybe the Democrats are worried about black turnout. I find that hard to believe. I don’t see black turnout having to be goosed. No, really.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m suffering from too many decades here of behavior that I think is locked in. I know black unemployment is high. Black teenage unemployment is high. I know that there are… You know, this is probably one of the biggest unreported stories in the country, too. How many average American black people are really ticked off ’cause they thought so much more was gonna happen whenever the first black president was actually serving?

We actually have the inauguration of the first black president. Like that early town hall meeting in Naples or Tampa, wherever it was, where the people that showed up actually told Obama they needed a new kitchen and they needed a new car. They got that specific about what they expected. I don’t know how much disappointment there is that those kinds of things have not been delivered. I mean, expectations, I don’t care how unreasonable they are, they’re still real to the people that have ’em.

So then you’d have to say, “Well, are they really so disappointed that the bubble burst or whatever that they’re not gonna vote?” I can’t see that. I can’t. But it may be. Look, folks, there’s something to this besides helping these preachers stay on the right side of IRS law when it comes to preaching in the pulpit, ’cause nobody’s gonna prosecute ’em on that anyway. Nobody’s gonna go after ’em on that.

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RUSH: According to an article in The Politico today, Eric Holder is telling black leaders that the sacred right to vote is under attack, that that’s what he’s meeting with them about. “Holder to Black Leaders: ‘Sacred’ Right to Vote Under Attack — Attorney General Eric Holder told a council of African American church leaders Wednesday that the ‘sacred’ right to vote is under assault nationwide, with federal lawsuits and at least a dozen state laws that could weaken — or block — minority access to the ballot box this fall. … Holder said in a speech before the Council of Black Churches. The twin factors of lingering bias and systematic assaults from the right, he said, means that ‘for the first time in our [lifetimes], we are failing to live up to one of our most noble ideals’ — the right to equal access to the vote.”

Now, this tells me that Snerdley may be right, there might be some… what’s the way to put this? I don’t want to say lack of interest, but maybe the enthusiasm is waned. ‘Cause, folks, nobody’s trying to stop anybody from voting. This is not the Jim Crow era. This is not the 1800s. It’s not right after the Civil War. There is nobody trying to stop people from voting. The problem we have with vote fraud is dead people voting. The vote fraud problem we have is people who don’t exist voting, or people who do exist voting multiple times in multiple places. Our problems are things like early voting. That’s a travesty if there ever was one. There aren’t any Democrats anymore like Bull Connor trying to fire hose blacks to stay away from the polling place. There aren’t anymore Democrats like George Wallace trying to keep blacks out of universities and so forth. There aren’t anymore Democrats like J. William Fulbright from Arkansas, Clinton’s mentor, who are trying to deny blacks the right to vote. There aren’t any more Democrats like Lester Maddox doing that.

Really, I have to laugh when I listen to these guys talking about voting rights and how they’re being watered down. All anybody wants is a photo ID to get rid of the fraud. And of course Holder, the Reverend Jackson, the rest of the civil rights coalition, “Oh, no, no. That’s discrimination.” I’m gonna say this again. I’ve said this once before but I’m gonna say it again. You know and I know how much is required just in the general economy. You have to have a photo ID before you can engage in much of American commerce. Getting a credit card. I can’t think of all the things. It would be easier to list the things that you don’t need a photo ID for. Cash a check. I don’t care what it is. You need a photo ID. And yet here’s a group of people, supposedly looking out for the best interests of their charges, civil rights leaders, who don’t want black people to have a photo ID, all because somehow this is gonna lead to them not being allowed to vote. Somebody explain that to me?

How does having an ID that proves that you are who you are stop you from voting? It’s the other way around. Everything’s upside down here. So what Holder and the boys are trying to do is make it easy, continued easy for vote fraud to exist. That’s the only reason to oppose a photo ID for voting. You want to cheat. But to run around and tell average, ordinary African-American citizens that there is a worldwide effort, a nationwide effort to deny them the right to vote is near criminal, because it isn’t true. It’s nowhere close to being true. It’s an insult, and it’s a disservice to the people they claim to be looking out for, and all they’re doing by making sure these people don’t get a photo ID, all they’re doing is making sure these people are shut out from the US economy at large, which is also on purpose. Because if you’re shut out of the economy at large, where do you have to turn? You have to turn to the government for whatever you get, which is just fine with them.

This is what we despise about liberalism, is the humanity it destroys, the dignity that it takes away from people. They’re afraid some Democrats are only gonna be allowed to vote one time. So they have these preachers get together with a meeting ostensibly about what they can and can’t do from the pulpit. That’s a crock. Obviously what’s going on here is they are afraid that there is a waning enthusiasm on the part of black voters, that’s what this is, and they’re gonna try to scare ’em. The preachers are being told to scare ’em by telling them X, somebody, Romney is trying to fix it so you can’t vote. That’s what this is all about. I’m convinced now. Can’t prove it, but I wouldn’t doubt it.

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RUSH: I’ve got Eric Holder audio sound bites explaining what this black church visit is about. It’s really… Folks, it’s irresponsible. In fact, let’s just go right to ’em. Twenty-four, 25. This is irresponsible. It’s worse than irresponsible. This is reprehensible what Holder is doing here. This was this morning in Washington. It was a Congressional Black Caucus Faith Leaders Summit on Voting Rights. This is why Holder is having meetings with the black churches, the ministers. He’s gonna bring the IRS along, and he’s gonna bring the Congressional Black Caucus along and the ACLU along.

We’ve got two sound bites. Now, keep in mind, this is the Attorney General of the United States. This is not some rabid pundit on the left on MSNBC. This is not some say-anything-to-get-noticed, rabble-rousing media person. It’s not some kooky, left-wing communist member of Congress. This is the Attorney General of the United States, who is supposed to look at this country in a nonpartisan way and enforce the laws of this country. He’s the number one law enforcement officer of this country, and his job is to protect and guarantee freedom, along with everybody else who takes an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. But this! This is just…

What he’s doing here in these two sound bites is reprehensible.

HOLDER: Of all the freedoms that we enjoy today, none is more important or more sacred than the right to vote. I’ve heard a consistent drumbeat of concern from citizens who, often for the first time in their lives, now have reason to believe that we are failing to live up to one of our nation’s most noble ideals and that some of the achievements that define the civil —

RUSH: All right.

HOLDER: — rights movement —

RUSH: All right.

HOLDER: — now —

RUSH: Stop this. Stop this. I really don’t know the word to properly describe what this is. “I have heard a consistent drumbeat of concern from citizens who, often for the first time in their lives, now have reason to believe that we are failing to live up to the most noble ideal: the right to vote.” Where is this happening? I want to know. Who in this country feels threatened? Who feels like somebody is trying to keep them from voting? And don’t pop this voter ID thing at me.

If you look at polling data, you will find a majority of African-Americans favor a photo ID. African-Americans are human beings! They have the same concerns as anybody else. They don’t want an electoral system that’s filled with fraud and deceit. They don’t want to be taken advantage of. They don’t want to have their vote not count or to count 25 times. A majority of them favor a photo ID. But where is this movement that’s designed to get people to stop voting? Who’s behind it? I want some names!

Holder ought to name names.

He ought to name the organizations.

He ought to produce the evidence!

Who is it, in 2012, that has a stated effort to deny anybody — I don’t care who it is — the right to vote?

And these people from whom Holder has “heard a consistent drumbeat of concern from citizens who, often for the first time in their lives, now have reason to believe” that people don’t want ’em to vote? Who are these people that have this fear, and why do they have this fear? Could it be they’ve been told a pack of lies by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton or other civil rights leaders? Who is it that’s scaring them? The last I looked, everybody was campaigning to try to win their votes!

I don’t see anybody trying to stop them from voting. Not en masse on a racial basis. This is absurd. It is irresponsible! This is the Attorney General of the United States making this claim. He doesn’t name names, he doesn’t name organizations, and here he is having meetings with the Congressional Black Caucus and ministers of African-American churches and attempting to tell these people, “There are people that don’t want you to vote!” Here, play the rest of the bite.

HOLDER: — in the balance. Congressman Lewis may have described the reason for these concerns best in a speech when pointing out that the voting rights that he worked throughout his life and nearly gave his life to ensure — and I quote him — “are under attack by a deliberate and systematic attempt to prevent millions of elderly voters, young voters, students, and minority and low-income voters from exercising their constitutional right to engage in the democratic process,” unquote.

RUSH: John Lewis is who he’s talking about. From Georgia. Made famous in the march to Selma. I want to know: Who is it that’s trying to prevent millions of elderly young students, minority, low income… That pretty much covers it all, doesn’t it? Every victimized cliche and group you could come up with, he’s covered it. Who is it that’s trying to stop millions of people from voting? I know, I know. They’re trying to say that photo ID, voter ID is the weapon here.

Intellectually, this doesn’t compute. Remember, now, I live in Realville. I have a photo ID. I can’t vote where I live without it! I have to show my photo ID when I go vote. I have to prove that I’m in the register. I can’t just show ’em my card. They have to see a picture. How in the world…? And it’s up to me to get the picture, and nobody is stopping anybody from getting a photo ID. Now, I’ve heard what Jesse Jackson is telling people. In Georgia they tried to do this, and they said, “We’ll even do it free. Just come down to the office.”

And Jesse Jackson said (summarized), “Don’t leave your home! That’s what they want. They want to get you out of your home, and they want to get you in there and they want to take away your privacy.” Well, somebody ought to ask these people: “Do you see all the millions of Americans that have photo IDs. Just exactly what has happened to ’em because of that? How have their lives worsened? How have people who have photo IDs been prevented from voting? When’s the last known case of this?

“When was it that somebody showed up with a photo ID and because of that were told they couldn’t vote?” This really is irresponsible. It’s absurd, and it’s a classic illustration of the disservice done to the black community by black leaders. They’re lying to them, scaring them, keeping them huddled in fear in the corners of their homes with imaginary monsters and threats (who are gonna do imaginary, monstrous things to them). If I didn’t know better, I would say they’re setting up an excuse for Obama losing here.

If I didn’t know better, I would say they were already scared that Obama’s gonna lose, the black vote’s not gonna turn out, and this is all the setup and excuse for it. But I reject that because it’s way too early for anybody to be thinking that way. Don’t you need a photo ID to get food stamps or to use food stamps? I don’t know. But you need a photo ID for virtually everything. You need a photo ID to buy cigarettes! But to get the EBT card? I know it’s an ATM card, but maybe not.

The government probably passes out those things. They don’t care who gets ’em. I don’t care. (garbled) Still, this is… Folks… (garbled) I got a cigar in my mouth to help me talk. (interruption) I know you do! You need a photo ID to buy cigarettes. I have this cigar in my mouth to make sure I don’t utter a profanity. I am so ticked off here. I’m not gonna tell you what profanity I was thinking. The problem is I wasn’t thinking of a profanity. I just knew I was headed in that direction. This is… I can’t tell you.

Stuff like this is what depresses me. You know, we’re never gonna get over the hump. We are never going to get over it, not with stuff like this happening from the highest levels of our government. We are never gonna get these people who are the prisoners of liberalism free and liberated to join the rest of the country and pursue happiness and prosperity. It just isn’t gonna happen with this kind of irresponsible… This is drivel. Here’s the next sound bite. This is Holder promising now to fight these imaginary laws that are gonna keep people from voting.

HOLDER: The recent wave of changes to state-level voter identification laws also has presented a number of problems requiring the department’s attention. In December, we objected to South Carolina’s voter ID law after finding — and this is based on the state’s own data, the data that they sent — the proposed change would place an unfair burden on nonwhite voters.

RUSH: How?

HOLDER: (crosstalk)

RUSH: How the hell does that happen?

HOLDER: (crosstalk)

RUSH: Stop the tape! This is reprehensible and irresponsible. How in the world does it place this “burden on nonwhite voters”? An attorney general of the United States is not even supposed to think this way, much less talk this way. “State’s own data… proposed change would place an unfair burden on nonwhite voters.” Why? Because they don’t have photo IDs and they’d have to go get them?

Why don’t they have them? Who’s fault is that? Nobody’s preventing them from getting them? The only people telling them not to get them are people like Holder and Reverend Jackson, civil rights leaders. “Don’t you dare go get one because if you do you’re gonna undermine our whole movement! The more of you that get photo IDs, the more you undermine our number one vote technique, which is fraud.” Here’s the rest of this bite, if I can handle it.

HOLDER: And this past March, we objected to a photo ID requirement in Texas because it would have a disproportionate impact on Hispanic voters. We also will continue working to enforce provisions like the Motor Voter Law, and to that end have recently filed two lawsuits to increase access to registration opportunities. In addition to these and other efforts to ensure access to the ballot box —

RUSH: I can’t. Stop it. There is no “lack of access to the ballots box.” You can register to vote when you buy a Big Mac, practically. In many places they register you to vote when you have no idea you can vote. That’s not a problem. Voter registration is not a problem. Maybe getting people interested in registering in certain places is, but it’s not a burden. It isn’t hard. It’s easy. It’s just… This is the kind of stuff that keeps this country torn apart, folks. And this is the kind of stuff that puts a big obstacle, a giant roadblock in the way of ever overcoming some of this stuff.
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RUSH: This is Rachelle in Orange County, California. Hi.

CALLER: I was just noticing that I think, especially from the last election, that I think the black churches are probably now being swayed because of the whole gay thing with Obama. I believe the African-American churches, they’re very religious, and they, you know —

RUSH: Really? You think Holder and the boys are heading out to talk to the preachers ’cause there’s some panic that’s set in over Obama supporting gay marriage, and black voters are not cool with it?

CALLER: Yes. I’m pretty sure, because I’ve heard that a lot from, you know, you talk to young people to even older people in African-American communities, they are not really cool with that. I think the whole voter fraud or whatever it is, I think that’s a distraction.

RUSH: You know what, I think you may have a point here because I think whatever’s going on they are panicking.

CALLER: Oh, yes.

RUSH: They are panicking, and I’ve told my audience, of which you are a proud member, for months now that internally, Oval Office, White House, the campaign, they’re in trouble, and they know it. They’re not at all where they expected to be, and they’re doubling down on all the stuff that’s hurting them. This Bain Capital ad is hurting Obama, doubling down on it. Promising gay marriage. Voter fraud, it’s so ridiculous. There isn’t anybody trying to stop anybody from voting. They’re trying to create panic and fear. They’re trying to take these people that listen to ’em and say, “You know, a lot of people don’t want you to vote.” And the truth is, these people are probably, as you say, ticked off at Obama because of policies. And so they’re trying to get the black preachers on board to preach to the flock and understand, “Hey, we can’t hold it against Obama. He’s gotta do what he’s gotta do. You gotta maintain your support.” That’s what you think is going on here?

CALLER: Yes. I mean, I’m in California and we voted for Prop 8 to ban gay marriage and it was a big turnout by the African-American vote —

RUSH: That’s right.

CALLER: — in 2008 that I’m pretty sure had a lot to do with Prop 8.

RUSH: I think she may have a point here. I think that is probably a good explanation for what’s going on here.

CALLER: Yes. I believe so, too. Yeah.

RUSH: Well, something is going on. They are panicked. I mean to be worried about the black vote as we near the first of June, with the first black president running for reelection, to be worried about the black vote, something’s going on out there. I appreciate the call, Rachelle.

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RUSH: Would you like to hear a list of things, just a partial list of things that you need a photo ID for in America? Some are federal, but most of these are state laws or activities for which a photo ID is required. Boarding an airplane. Can’t get on an airplane without a photo ID, right? Cashing a check. If you write a check somewhere at a consumer institution, you’re gonna have to prove that it’s your check. Cashing a check. Using a credit card. Driving a car. Applying for a business license. Applying for permission to hold a protest or rally. You need a photo ID. You need a photo ID when applying and securing employment. You gotta prove to ’em who you are. When you buy a house or real estate, gotta have photo ID. When you rent a domicile, when you rent a car, when you purchase a firearm, including BB guns, you need a photo ID.

When you walk into a place in Iowa and say, “Could I get me a huntin’ license here?” Now, that’s waived for 16 and 17 year olds when their legal guardian provides a photo ID, but you need a photo ID for a hunting license or fishing license. Certainly for purchasing adult beverages or purchasing tobacco or products that contain nicotine. Purchasing a car, photo ID. Initial registration of a car, need a photo ID. Applying for a building permit. Receiving prescription medicine. Purchasing over-the-counter medicine that contains pseudoephedrine. Sudafed! You need a photo ID to buy Sudafed. People in Rio Linda know what that is.

Photo ID to serve on a jury. Photo ID to open a bank account. Photo ID, cash transactions of $5,000 or greater. And that’s a partial list of what you need a photo ID for. And the attorney general is out trying to scare African-Americans into thinking that somebody, probably the Klan, is riding tall to make sure they can’t vote. That’s what he’s doing. It’s no different than calling a meeting and saying the Klan is having meetings tonight and they want to burn crosses on your front yard. That’s what he’s doing. It’s the equivalent of what he’s doing. It’s irresponsible, and the results of all this are on him, folks. Just is.