RUSH: Robert in San Diego. Thank you, sir, for the calling and for waiting. Great to have you on the program. Hi.

CALLER: Hi. Thank you. Regarding this IRS hearing and so forth, I think what we should do is just demand that these people apologize to Mitt Romney — they influenced an election, that’s what they did — and then move on. Uh, I think the Democrats are really, really good. I mean, they’re geniuses. This was gonna come out at some point. It didn’t come out in the summer of 2012, which would have been a disaster for them, and it didn’t come out in the summer of 2014. It was leaked in the summer or the spring of 2013, which is very remote from the next election, about as far away as it can be —

RUSH: That’s exactly right.

CALLER: — and it was perfect timing for them. I think they pulled off a great election and released this at the least damaging point, and they’re really good.

RUSH: Yup. They can be good when they’ve got unlimited media support for what they’re doing. Stop and think about this. Now, look, I’m not trying to make this about me. I’m really not. When you have the New York Times — which, to them, is the gospel. I mean, to the rest of the media, to the political class, the ruling class, the New York Times is gospel, and they’ve got a story today excusing the media for not reporting on the IRS scandal a year ago when it would have had an impact on the election.

It was known a year ago.

It was known to the media. It was known that the inspector general was looking into it. It was known because the Tea Party had complained about it. It was known that the IRS was targeting Tea Party groups and denying them tax-exempt status. It was known that Romney donors were being audited and harassed. Now, the New York Times says that that wasn’t reported last year when it could have affected the election because of me.

Because what was happening with me in one week so overwhelmed everybody in the media that it blinded them to anything else happening. The New York Times story says that that IRS story happened to really break into full-fledged knowledge during that week made famous by me, and I was such a distraction… Now, if you’re Obama and you’ve got a media willing to tell that story — if you have a media willing to excuse themselves from reporting on something that could impact the election because have to cover a talk show host on the radio… Ha-ha!

Well, then you’re pretty confident that you’re gonna be able to keep things suppressed and sheltered during an election. Same thing with Benghazi. So, folks, Robert here is exactly right. The release of the IRS scandal news happened just recently. Lois Lerner, who today took the Fifth Amendment, was at an American Bar Association meeting and planted a question with a friend of hers in a Q&A at a convention, a conference. And her answer revealed the details of the IRS scandal involving the Tea Party.

That was just, what, a month ago — three weeks ago, whenever it was — and we’re dealing with it intensely ever since. She orchestrated the release of this news at this time. Robert’s right. This is about as far away from the 2014 election as you can get. So it’ll happen and be forgotten. Nothing’s gonna happen here. You have the news that could have been reported a year ago and been impactful on the election, but it wasn’t because of me. Then you have Benghazi.

So, yeah. “The Democrats are really good,” but they’ve got willing accomplices in the media that will help them implement their media plans. You might say… Now, this a stretch here, but maybe the Republicans have strategerists that are this good, too. But they don’t have a media that would go along with this. Well, they do, but not the mainstream media. The mainstream media would not help ’em with it. In fact, I don’t think they do have a media that would be complicit with them in a scandal like this.

I know I wouldn’t be.

If it were a Republican president and administration who had done this kind of thing and they’d come to me and said, “Look, will you help us through this?” I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t lie for ’em or excuse it. But their media will do that. So, yeah, they’re smart. Yeah, they’re good. But they’ve also got a lot of help. But all that aside, the point is well taken. By the 2014 election season, this will likely be old news. I don’t mean to be throwing cold water on things here.

I’ve just been around block now a number of times, and I’ve seen these things work, and I’ve seen them not work, and we’re in a pattern here of it not working — meaning, to our benefit. The House Bank Scandal worked to our benefit. Watergate worked to their benefit. But name another. I mean, Clinton impeachment? It didn’t matter. His approval numbers always stayed high. He won reelection. It didn’t matter. Hillary is still a viable presidential prospect after all of the shenanigans that she has been involved in?

It hasn’t mattered. Every day, I am treated with a just most pained facial expression by Mr. Snerdley, who every day shows up here thinking, “Okay, this is it! They’ve gone too far. They’ve bitten off too much.” I say, “No, no, no, no, no.” Let me give you another one, folks. Try this. Hee-hee-hee-hee. I shouldn’t laugh, but I can’t help it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay, grab audio sound bite number nine. By the way, remember Obama said that he would not rest until these folks were brought to justice, the Benghazi terrorists, said he wouldn’t rest. I don’t know. I guess they don’t want to take ’em to Gitmo. They just don’t want to take ’em to Gitmo. And that’s all about protecting the base. No bad optics. The Benghazi criminals, terrorists, not gonna take them to Gitmo. They’re trying to close Gitmo, the left thinks, so can’t take ’em to Gitmo, bad optics, just leave ’em over there and nothing to see here.

Dr. Krauthammer last night on the Special Report with Bret Baier talking about what’s-her-face, Lois Lerner taking the Fifth, and everybody loves Dr. Krauthammer. But I really don’t think the inside-the-Beltway crowd quite understands Obama. When he got elected, they thought he was a centrist. When he lost the 2010 midterms they said he would move to the center. In 2012, they thought he’d be held responsible for the economy. None of that’s happened, and now they think that this scandal that’s bigger than Watergate will end his presidency, and it won’t. The Democrats are worried about this Fifth Amendment thing that Lerner took. Dr. Krauthammer said this last night on Fox.

KRAUTHAMMER: Here’s why this has legs. You now have somebody plead the Fifth. In a court of law the jury is not supposed to interpret that as hiding something, but this isn’t a court of law and we aren’t a jury. The fact that you have a committee headed by a Democrat in a Democratic Senate who’s leading all this, who yesterday, submitted over 40 questions about the IRS scandal and said, “I have a suspicion there’s a lot here we don’t know.” This thing is gonna go on, and it could be fatal.

RUSH: That’s what you are hoping, isn’t it? You are. You are invested in that happening, aren’t you, Snerdley? You really think that’s where this could go. Well, I would, too. Don’t misunderstand here, and I’m not trying to be a pessimist, now. You know that’s not me. I am the mayor of Realville. When he says this thing is gonna go on and it could be fatal, he means fatal to Obama. Well, yeah, I don’t know. Impeach, what is fatal? End of the administration, whatever. The woman took the Fifth. It took 45 seconds. The low-information crowd isn’t even gonna see it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Katie Pavlich at Town Hall: “According to Republican Rep. Jim Jordan and White House visitor logs, former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman visited the White House 118 times in 2010 and 2011. This is the same time period when Tea Party groups were inappropriately targeted and intimidated by the IRS.” Now, 118 times (snorts), even over two years, for somebody does not work there, is a lot of time. Wait ’til Obama hears about this! Wait ’til he hears that the IRS guy was in the White House that much.

If he’s mad now, he gonna really be mad. All this stuff was going on behind his back. You know, somebody may get fired before all’s said and done. Hee-hee-hee-hee. “Testifying in front of lawmakers on Capitol Hill [today], Shulman admitted that many of the meetings with the White House were to discuss how to implement Obamacare. ‘The IRS has a major roll in the money flow,’ Shulman said.” By the way, if they’re doing hearings, where is this Sarah Ingram?

She’s the one that’s gonna be coordinating Obamacare at the IRS. Why isn’t she up there testifying? Maybe she’s coming; I don’t know. But I just want to remind you, folks, if you didn’t hear it. We had a great call from a guy in San Diego who said, “Look, Rush, this is the Democrats. I mean, they’re carrying this out great. They made sure this story didn’t come out last year at that time — and are blaming you for that — so as not to affect the 2012 election. Now it’s coming out in 2013.

“There’s no election this year, and the campaign season for 2014 won’t heat up for one year, by which time all this will be forgotten.” So this is being orchestrated. They could release the kitchen sink, and it’ll be forgotten by the midterm elections. The idea… Well, as I said yesterday: The country will not sit for the removal of the first black president. It isn’t gonna happen. It just isn’t gonna happen. If you’ve got hopes and dreams of impeachment and a conviction and sayonara, that’s not gonna happen.

The Republicans aren’t even gonna go near that.

They wouldn’t get close to going there.

They remember Clinton. They’re still stung. In fact, if you want to know why Lindsey Graham has become Lindsey Graham it’s because of what happened to him when he was one of the House managers carrying the water and presenting the case against Clinton in the Senate. Lindsey Graham was one of those House freshmen in 2004, and Lindsey Graham was a pedal-to-the-metal conservative. He was one of the House managers that presented an aspect of the case, or impeachment of Bill Clinton.

Those guys in the House, they just got beat up. I remember the late Henry Hyde was involved in this, but there were a couple others in there who have since moderated. They have done everything they can to distance themselves from that experience. The Republicans have never forgotten it. The idea that there’s gonna be an impeachment and a trial? I think, folks, you can pretty much stop dreaming about that. Now, this Doug Shulman guy, back to him.

He paid 118 visits to the White House in two years. During that same time he never visited the Cincinnati office once, where all of this intimidation and other things with the Tea Party stuff was happening. Never once. Now, I’ve got another headline. This is from Breitbart.com. “Democrats Turn on IRS; Compare IRS Scandal to Totalitarian Regimes.” The point of this story is that the Democrats are mad now.

“As the House Oversight Committee commenced its hearing on the IRS scandal [today], it was clear that Democrats, visibly angered by the decision of IRS Exempt Organizations director Lois Lerner to answer questions, turned on the agency. Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. In a fiery statement, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), cited the State Department’s annual human rights report, and the practice of tyrannical regimes that enact human rights on paper but fail to honor them in practice.

“He compared the conduct of the IRS in singling out Tea Party and conservative groups to those regimes. The witnesses were then sworn in. Lerner read an opening statement in which she denied providing false information to the committee or any other body: ‘I have not done anything wrong,’ she said defiantly,” and then that she wasn’t answering any more questions. That’s when Trey Gowdy said, “You can’t come in here and deny things and make a statement and then not answer questions!”
But that’s what she did, and Darrell Issa excused her. So now they’re trying to make us believe that the Democrats are mad about what’s happening, that the Democrats are mad at the IRS, and that the Stephen Lynch guy compared the IRS scandal to what happens in totalitarian regimes and banana republics. Okay. Words are one thing. We’ll see what they do, if they are that angry about it.