RUSH: This Obama comparison to Nixon, you hear it now and then. In fact, it was asked about at the press conference this afternoon with the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason said, “How do you feel about comparisons by some of your critics of this week’s scandals to those that happened under the Nixon administration?”
OBAMA: I’ll let you guys engage in those comparisons, and you can go ahead and read the history, I think, and — and draw your own conclusions. My concern is making sure that if there’s a problem in the government, that we fix it. That’s my responsibility, and that’s what we’re gonna do.
RUSH: Yeah, if there’s a problem, we’re gonna fix it. I didn’t know there was a problem, but if there is one, we’re gonna fix it. Right. I’m gonna have a jobs plan. Well, deficit problem, okay, I’m gonna have a plan to reduce the deficit. Obamacare. He’s causing all these. Anyway, this Nixon comparison is starting to bug me ’cause it’s the wrong comparison. The comparison ought to be to Putin. That’s the comparison. What’s going on in this country is the same kind of stuff that goes on under Vladimir Putin. It’s not Obama-Nixon, it’s Obama-Putin. Nixon talked about siccing the IRS on people on one White House tape. Nixon didn’t do it. Nixon talked about it. He speculated about it, as though, man, wouldn’t it be fun to sic the IRS — but he never did.
Nixon did not sic the IRS on McGovern. Nixon’s campaign was audited, if you can believe that, which is what he was talking about on the tape. The head of the IRS at the time was a guy named Donald Alexander, and he was hailed as a hero for the rest of his life because he didn’t allow the IRS to be used against Nixon’s enemies. But can I tell you the honest-to-God truth? There is no proof that Richard Nixon ever tried to get the commissioner of the IRS to do anything, ever, Donald Alexander. There’s no proof that Nixon ever sicced the IRS on anybody. He talked about it in a White House tape, and that was unprecedented. Presidents we assume joke and talk about all kinds of things, fantasizing about their power.
Nixon was taping himself. He was the first one who was heard doing it, but he never did it. You don’t think JFK sat around or FDR sat around joking about maybe using the IRS on people, or Clinton or whatever. But the point is, Obama did it. The comparison is Obama-Chavez, Obama-Putin, not Nixon. I don’t know, folks. This stuff bugs me.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So Snerdley can’t believe it. Snerdley thinks I have to have some advice for Obama. He’s gotta be in trouble here. Sorry, folks. I don’t see him in trouble. If he gets in trouble, real trouble, I’ll have some advice, but he’s not in real trouble. You want to make a Nixon comparison? At least Nixon had the grace to quit. That’s about it.
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