RUSH: Well, everybody’s all atwitter over Barack Obama nominating former Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense. Apparently Chuck Hagel doesn’t like Israel much, and a lot of people know this. There have been some people who have said Hagel’s anti-Semitic, and then they’ve retracted that. But Hagel is on record as saying he’s “senator from Nebraska, not senator from Israel.”
I’m paraphrasing but that’s pretty close to a quote. “I’m a senator from Nebraska. I’m not a senator from Israel.” He’s part of this crowd that resents the powerful lobbying abilities of Israel. (interruption) Well, I once used that term and got thrown out of a hotel in New York, so I don’t use the phrase “the Jewish lobby” anymore because it got me thrown out of a hotel before people understood.
That’s where I met the rabbi, Nate Segal, who saved me with the New York Jewish community, ’cause I didn’t know what it meant. I heard Mike Wallace say it the night before and I was just quoting Mike Wallace, and I got kicked out of the Parker Meridian. (interruption) I did. I was supposed to be there for six months, shortly after moving to New York. Here’s the quote from Hagel: “I’m not an Israeli senator. I’m a United States senator.”
This was a quote from Hagel for his book. Now I don’t know if it was Miller’s book. It’s some guy named Miller. I don’t know who Miller is. I don’t know if Hagel wrote the book or not, but there was a book called “The Much Too Promised Land” released in 2008, and in it Hagel is quoted as saying, “I’m not an Israeli senator. I’m a US senator.” Now, our old buddy Ron Fournier who’s over the National Journal…
Ron Fournier was in the tank for Obama from the get-go, like most of the media today is. He used to be at the AP. He was the head Washington reporter for AP. He has an article at the National Journal on Hagel as the nominee for secretary of defense. Headline: “Chuck Hagel’s Biggest Problem: He’s Like President Obama,” and then Fournier goes on to say, “Obama has picked a man very much like himself. Hagel is Obama in a GOP jersey.”
What that means is it’s all about Israel, folks. That’s what that means. Now, one of the reasons Hagel’s gonna be picked here is that he gives Obama a lot of cover. He’s a Republican, and Obama’s proving he’s reaching out here. He’s bipartisan, inclusive! He’s got a Republican who’s just like him. Ron Fournier says so. Fournier lists four reasons why Hagel is worth the fight to Obama. The first three reasons are all about giving Obama cover to do various things, like quit in Afghanistan.
That’s presumably because Hagel is a Republican. But the fourth reason that Fournier cites here in his four reasons why Hagel’s worth the fight, reason four is this. It’s very telling. “As a Republican maverick…” And he was. He was aligned with McCain on a lot of stuff. “As a Republican maverick with little goodwill inside the GOP caucus, nominating Hagel is a stiff finger in the eye of ObamaÂ’s intractable rivals.”
Now, remember, this is from a State-Controlled Media reporter who used to be the head of the AP’s DC bureau. And this is what they really think about bipartisanship and compromise here. We’re told we gotta compromise and everybody’s gotta get along with one another, and Fournier admits that Obama’s picking somebody who is a thumb in the eye to the Republicans. “Here, take this!” See, Obama doesn’t like the Republicans. He resents us deeply, doesn’t like us at all.
Just to remind you, Stephen Moore, editorial writer of the Wall Street Journal, interviewed Boehner. He asked him some questions about how the negotiations went on the fiscal cliff. And Boehner said that every time he told Obama we have a spending problem, Obama said (summarized), “No, we don’t. I’m tired of hearing it.” Obama said to Boehner, “I’m tired of hearing from everybody we got a spending problem. We don’t have a spending problem!
“Our deficit is due to years and years of a health care system that doesn’t work, and I’ve fixed that now with Obamacare.” And Boehner told Steve Moore, “He really believes this. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to come back.” Which is quite telling, by the way, when everybody and their uncles knows that spending is the problem. The Democrats know it, they just don’t care. But it’s a quite different thing to deny it as a problem, which Obama did.
That ought to be a hanging curveball to knock out of the park! I mean, all Boehner woulda had to do is throw Obama’s own spending statistics back at him. But you know, here’s the thing. And I want to prepare you if you haven’t heard this. As we approach the debt limit, one of the techniques, tactics that the left is using is, “Hey, all this is about is paying our bills, and we’ve already spent the money. We’ve got to pay the bills!”
And, by the way, who is it that spends the money? It’s Congress! Obama, he’s powerless to spend money. He can’t spend money without the Congress voting it. So when the Republicans or Boehner want to play hardball on raising the debt limit they say, “My God, you guys have already authorized the spending. You can’t come out now and say we’re not gonna pay for it.” Obama’s off-loading the whole thing to them, while telling Boehner we don’t have a spending problem.
So, anyway, the Hagel business. To be honest, folks, I’m neither here nor there on it. I mean, Obama’s gonna pick who he’s gonna pick. He won the election. There’s nothing anybody can do to stop it, and I’m not gonna get exercised over any of it.
It’s just what we have to live with, what we have to deal with. Anybody who thinks they can talk Obama out of choosing Hagel if they want to try to talk him out of it is, I think, spitting against the wind.
Obama’s who he is.
We’ve had four years to learn it.
If some people want to deny it or don’t want to learn it or want to pretend that he’s not who he really is, that’s their problem as far as I’m concerned.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Wolf Blitzer, CNN, is ecstatic that Chuck Hagel has been named by Obama to be the new Secretary of Defense.
BLITZER: Even as the president was speaking, got an e-mail from General Colin Powell, the retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the former secretary of state, strongly endorsing Chuck Hagel to be the next defense secretary. “I believe that more than ever,” he writes, “we need that kind of independent and bold leader who thinks in and out of the box.” General Powell endorsing Chuck Hagel.
RUSH: Yeah, okay, so who are we to complain now? That’s exactly right. Colin Powell, the titular head of the Republican Party, has just endorsed Hagel. Wolf Blitzer had the breaking news, and there you go. Now, I got an e-mail: “What do you mean you don’t care?” Folks, look. When it comes to Chuck Hagel or when it comes to anybody else on Obama’s cabinet, there’s nothing I can do to stop it and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.
Obama’s gonna pick people that he wants. He’s gonna pick people who are just like him, and any of these people in the conservative media who think they can change that or stop that are whistling… you know, I guess I just rely on the fact that elections have consequences. Obama wins, he gets to pick the Secretary of Defense. If he picks a guy that’s not particularly a big fan of Israel, so be it. There’s nothing I can do about it. I’m not gonna get exercised by it. Yeah, it has meaning. It has certain bits of analysis you could get into on it, but it is what it is.