Who’s Saving Thousands of People in New Orleans, Vince?

RUSH: Here is Vince in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hello, sir, you’re up next.
CALLER: Good afternoon, Rush. I just want to take issue with the way you’re spinning the facts around to try to absolve President Bush.
RUSH: I’m spinning nothing.
CALLER: There’s no way that there is not a racial component to this. This is the land of David Duke. This is the land of — I mean, President Bush did not even leave his vacation.
RUSH: Wait, wait, was David Duke in charge of the evacuation of New Orleans?
CALLER: No, he wasn’t. But David Duke represents the mindset of the Republican Party. He was a Republican, correct?
RUSH: Jeez. Vince, do you really think that? Hold it. In your heart, do you really, do you really believe the Republican Party wants black people to die?
CALLER: I really do. After this debacle, this disgrace that I witnessed on national TV, I’m sure that 99% of black America feels the same way about the Republican Party.
RUSH: That may be, but that’s an absolute shame, because nothing could be further from the truth. Vince, who’s been running New Orleans for the last 35 or 40 years, what party?
CALLER: The Democratic Party.
RUSH: What party has been running the state of New Orleans for the last 25 or 30 or 40 years?
CALLER: The Democratic Party.

RUSH: Well, then, tell me something. How in the world do you get from what happened to poor black people in New Orleans run by Democrats in a state run by Democrats, a city that failed to implement the evacuation plan for the specific people you’re talking about? How do you get from there to blaming Republicans want black people dead?
RUSH: Well, I mean, I think that it’s just a pattern, an ongoing pattern, Bush’s refusal to meet with black leaders, the CBC, the NAACP. He just doesn’t care about what goes on in black America and, you know, that’s just a few more voters that he doesn’t have to worry about voting against Republicans.
RUSH: Vince, your call does more to depress me than what I’m seeing in New Orleans, because I have no doubt you really believe what you just said. I have no doubt that probably a lot of black people believe exactly what you just said. The crime is that you’ve been told this by a bunch of race hustlers who want you to believe it for their own self-interests and purposes. The Republican Party has been trying to reach out to blacks for as long as I have been watching politics. George Bush has only refused to meet with the NAACP. Why should George Bush meet with anybody like Julian Bond, who has accused him of being Hitler, who has accused him of being a murderer? He’ll meet with the Urban League. George Bush has more responsible black people in high level government positions than any previous administration, including Bill Clinton’s, in America history. Now, Vince, I think you’re a lost cause, and it’s an absolute shame, and I think the people that think like you are an absolute lost cause, in terms of being able to see this for what it really is.
You ought to be looking at these people in New Orleans who were suffering last week and you ought to be concluding that they have been promised things by a party, the Democratic Party, which has utterly failed them. You ought to be asking yourself after 50 years of complaining about whatever it is that you’ve been complaining about, and voting for the people who have been promising you they’re going to fix it, why is it that you’re still complaining? You don’t know George Bush from Tom Sawyer, or Huck Finn. You don’t know George Bush, yet you think George Bush wants black people dead — and I know that this is part and parcel of the clich? that liberals have sponsored and successfully, apparently, put out there about all Republicans: racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe, and the reason that exists is because you can’t debate or your leaders cannot debate us on the substance of ideas. They have to discredit us before the debate begins that we’re not even worth debating with, we’re racist. But the idea that you actually believe that George Bush had anything to do with what happened in New Orleans because he wanted black people to suffer or die, I would be ashamed to admit in public that I actually think that, if I actually thought it, I’d be afraid of being laughed out of the room in which I said it. But, you know, it’s even worse than that. There are now people — in fact, the president, White House press secretary, somebody recently was shouted a question by a reporter, “What about the rumor that the levees were broken on purpose?” I guess Vince thinks that’s possible, too, that Bush ordered the levees broken so that black people specifically would be flooded and killed. Well, Vince, let me ask you one question. Who is it that’s getting them out of there? Who is it that’s rescuing them? Who is it that’s rehabilitating them? Who is it that’s taking them to high, safe ground? Who is it that’s flying them wherever they have to? Who is it that’s trying to reunite them with their families?
How in the world you can look at this and suggest that this is happening because Bush hates black people, wants them to die because he doesn’t meet with black leaders? The only group he doesn’t meet with is the NAACP, and why should he reward them with the things they’ve said? Why should he meet with you after the things you’ve just said about George Bush? What would be the point of meeting with you, Vince? Your mind is made up. It would be a pointless discussion. The fact of the matter is that even though such thinking exists in the country, efforts are still made to reach out, save, to rescue the very people who apparently believe they were targeted for murder by a hurricane that I guess George Bush steered to New Orleans, by a hurricane that I guess George Bush is actually responsible for creating because he hasn’t done enough on global warming. You have to ask yourself, if Bush wants black people to die, why aren’t they dying in droves in Mississippi, Vince? Why aren’t they dying in droves in Alabama? You gotta get a little bit more local here, Vince, and if you really want to get to the bottom of this, you admitted that your city of New Orleans and state of Louisiana have been run by blacks and Democrats for all of these years, and somehow you don’t see that, somehow you miss that? How do you look at the mayor or the governor of New Orleans at any year in the past 30 years and look at the poverty in New Orleans and exempt them? If politicians are responsible for the welfare and the safety and the prosperity of citizens, how do you explain the Democratic Party presiding over such rampant poverty in New Orleans? How do you explain the Democratic Party allowing a hundred thousand or more citizens to not have transportation out of the city during an emergency? How in the world do you get from that, the reality, to blaming George W. Bush for it simply because he doesn’t meet with black people?
END TRANSCRIPT