RUSH: Wildebeests — wildebeests. That’s what the Drive-By Media heard me say. No. I take it back. They did not hear me say it. They read in The Politico that I said it. Wildebeests. I compared the RINOs not defending Christie to wildebeests. They all found that amusing.
JOHNNY DONOVAN: And now, from sunny south Florida, it’s Open Line Friday!
RUSH: I sit here and honestly, folks, I’m surprised at the reaction on the Republican side to what is happening to Chris Christie. When that press conference was over yesterday, all of these opinion makers, or practically all, I mean, there’s some exceptions to this. But all of the wise men, all of the wizards of smart said, “You know what, he handled it perfectly. Why, he was honest, we hope he was honest. He was right in there. He went out there and he nailed it. Christie was absolutely superb,” and they are now stunned that the media isn’t letting go of it.
These are Republicans who can’t believe it. They thought Christie buried it yesterday. They thought Christie’s press conference was just the greatest thing they’d ever heard and he buried it and he ended it and they can’t believe — and this is quite telling, folks. I mean, the Republican wise men are confused. After witnessing what happened to George W. Bush, after witnessing — pick your favorite Republican — after witnessing years and years and years of how they are treated, they actually thought Christie had buried this yesterday. And now they’re wringing their hands and they don’t quite know what to make of this.
They’re worried, “Maybe, does somebody know Christie was lying?” They thought Christie nailed it ’cause he came out and he told the truth and he fired a couple of people and he spent two hours with the media. I mean, he did it exactly right. Except, have you seen the statistic? In one day the media has already spent — well, I don’t have the — it’s a phenomenal comparison, the amount of time the media spent on Christie versus the IRS scandal. In one day, they have equaled what took place in 17 days or some such thing. That’s not it. I have it here in the Stack. I’ll get to it. But it’s not a surprise to you and me how unbalanced the media coverage is. It’s stunning to me, though, how surprised the Republican intelligentsia is over this.
Some of the Republican intelligentsia believe that Christie’s biggest problem now is — wait for it — talk radio. Some Republicans actually think that the biggest problem Christie has is right here, talk radio. I’m not the one, and nobody else I know on talk radio is spending all this time trying to destroy Christie. It is their buddies in the Drive-By Media who are trying to do that. It is their buddies who will not let go of this. It is their buddies who, you know, when Rahm Emanuel engages in typical Chicago thug behavior, they call it tough politics, sharp elbows. With Christie, they call him a bully and worse.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Folks, this has been fascinating. After the Christie press conference it was just predictable. It’s becoming predictable, and that’s not a good thing. You can turn on… Well, Fox has always been unpredictable, but now they’re starting to become predictable, and that’s what MSNBC, CNN, CBS, ABC have always been. You knew what they were gonna do with Christie, and you know what’s gonna happen on the Republican side.
The Republican side take on the Christie press conference was that it was a slam-dunk home run. “Man, oh, man! This guy is the greatest leader, greatest potential leader the Republican Party has fielded in who knows how many years! You see what this guy did? He made mincemeat of the media, he told the truth, he fired a couple of people. He went out there, and he basically buried this thing.”
They really thought that was gonna be the end of it.
You could tell by looking at some of the post-press conference comments. I’m not kidding you. I was looking at those comments, and I’m… I don’t know, folks. So much of this… How in the world do these learned inside-the-Beltway Republicans/conservative media people still — and the Republican Party still — don’t get it? They thought because of how well they wanted and thought Christie did yesterday, that that was gonna end it.
They’ve got this friend of his at the Port Authority who took the Fifth Amendment during a hearing in Trenton. That’s got ’em all excited. There’s no way they’re gonna let this go, and there’s no way… Letterman last night had Anderson Cooper on. The whole Letterman show last night — well, not the whole show, but I mean almost the whole show — just made mincemeat of Christie, just sliced and diced and threw him to the whales. I accidentally saw it while channel surfing around.
I finished watching what I was watching, I was on Apple TV, and I switched back to DirecTV. For some reason it was on the CBS affiliate, maybe from the football game over the week, and there was Letterman. I don’t watch Letterman, but there’s Anderson Cooper and Letterman and they’re talking about Christie, and I’m remembering what I heard all these learned Republicans say about how Christie made a slam dunk yesterday and ended it and buried it — and they are just ripping Christie apart, and everywhere else in the Drive-By Media, the same thing.
If you go to anything published, if you go to anything on the air, TV or radio, the left is just salivating now. And, in fact, Paul Bedard at the Washington Examiner and the Media Research Center did some studies, and they found out that the Big Three networks covered Christie’s story at a rate of 17 times more coverage in one day than they covered Obama’s IRS scandal in six months, just the three broadcast networks, their nightly newscasts and their cable affiliates. Seventeen times in one day, more coverage of Christie, and none of it favorable. Seventeen times more coverage than they gave the IRS scandal in six months.
And all of these learned inside-the-Beltway Republican types who said that Christie hit a slam dunk and a grand slam and buried this and gave ’em what-for and this is the model for how you do it and all that, even they had a caveat, which is, he better be telling the truth when he said he didn’t know. He’d better be telling the truth when he said that he asked his staff for a report and they lied to him. He better be telling the truth that he had absolutely no knowledge of this in any way, shape, or manner. They’ve attached a caveat to it, which — I mean, what does that mean? No, seriously. What does that mean? Take your pick. It doesn’t matter the names. I mean, you want a name? I don’t know that this guy said it, but just to make my point, Brit Hume.
Let’s say that Brit Hume was on Fox and praising Christie, grand slam. I don’t know that it was Hume. Just throwing a name. Okay, let’s say Dr. Krauthammer, pick a name, doesn’t matter. Dr. Krauthammer, let’s just assume, I don’t know if he did or not — well, actually I do — praised Christie’s performance to the hilt, slam dunk, model, this is how you do it. Spend as much time with the media as it takes, tell ’em what-for, get rid of it, sweep it, put it behind you and move on. Great leadership, classic illustration of how you do it. And then you say, “But it could all fall apart if he’s not telling the truth.”
Now, when whoever adds that caveat, what does that tell you, the viewer? Yeah, exactly. If they’ve gotta throw in the caveat, “If he’s not lying,” it means they don’t know, either, if he’s lying or not. Now, I don’t want to get too fine with this, but if they are not sure after the two-hour presser that Christie was being honest, then why praise it to the hilt? No, I’m not trying to stir anything up. I’m just doing what I always do. Folks, I observe. I’m a journalist, in a sense. I observe and I come here and I tell you what I saw, and I have unending curiosity. I ask questions about practically everything. That’s how I learn. So that’s all I’m doing. I don’t have to stir anything up. The Republican leadership, the establishment, they’re all upset ’cause I compared ’em, the RINOs, to wildebeests. Of all the things I said yesterday, that’s the take away. We got the sound bites coming up on that and we’ll get to that and other details.
But that is a startling stat. Seventeen times in one day, 17 times the coverage the media spent on Obama and the IRS scandal in six months. And the second part of the observation on the inside-the-Beltway Republican establishment types, after they said and thought that Christie hit a home run in the press conference, they were then shocked. They were surprised the coverage kept going.
That’s what gets me. You know, maybe I’m gonna have to give average, ordinary voters a pass for not figuring out the left. ‘Cause if our political people inside the Beltway still to this day cannot predict what the left is gonna do with a scandal like this, if they do not understand, if they really think that a Republican could go out and end a scandal with a press conference, it tells me that they still don’t know the nature of the enemy and what we’re really up against. And that’s a shocking but true, sad reality.
All right. A brief time-out. Couple more things on the economy, and then your calls mixed in with the audio sound bite roster on — what are they calling it, Lanegate? Christiegate? What’s the name of this scandal? Bridgegate. That’s what it is. Bridgegate.
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