The Accused Are Assumed Guilty

RUSH: Andrew in Evansville, Indiana, hello, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. It’s good to be on. Thank you.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: I had an idea I wanted to run by you and see what you think about this. You’ve had some experience with out of control prosecutors. What if the state started passing laws that punished prosecutors, put them in legal jeopardy for frivolous or political prosecution? Why couldn’t we do something like that, because they’re out of control all over this country. Look at Spitzer up in New York. I forget the guy’s name down in Kentucky, but he’s suing the governor down there. It’s getting to the point where, you know, for the left the prosecutors are like the new court system. You know, they get in there and they can sue the governor. They can sue everybody they want.
RUSH: No, the prosecutors are the new political system, is what you mean.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: You know, I must confess: before I can answer that, I’d like to seek true legal expertise on what kind of laws there are, because I’m not sure how the… I think we’re talking about an area where the legal industry is required to police itself. You know, one thing you can do is sue for wrongful prosecution if you think it’s happened to you. That’s after the fact. There’s nothing that can be… A judge, for example, cannot stop an investigation. A lot of people say, “Rush, why don’t the judges just throw out the investigation?” Judges can’t throw out an investigation. They can tell a prosecutor, “Enough’s enough. Move on,” but a judge cannot cancel any kind of a police investigation. Now, once charges are filed, judge can say, “These are baseless charges,” and throw it out. But once an investigation is underway, there’s nothing that can be done. That’s why they have so much power, because it’s only after the fact. I mean, look at DeLay. About all you can do is try to wage a media war, which is what DeLay did. But now if you listen to DeLay, he’s looking forward to his trial. His thoughts of canceling all this out, they’re gone.

CALLER: But the problem is, it’s such an un-level playing field, because you may wage a media war and win, but all you’ve done there is–
RUSH: Let me tell you something. Wait a second. I was going to elaborate on this. I hate to tell you this, but it never has been a level playing field. What’s changing now is that policy is being criminalized, but in terms of a legal playing field, it never has been. It is why, in our founding documents, particularly in our legal system, it quite clearly stipulates that one is “innocent until proven guilty,” and the reason that’s thrown in is because everybody — I don’t care who you are, ask yourself. Go back to any big case in your day and remember it, and the minute you heard that X was charged with what, your first inclination was, “Guilty.” Folks, it’s just in our DNA. It’s the way human nature is. “O.J.? Gotta be guilty. Michael Jackson? Got to be guilty. Tom DeLay? Gotta be guilty.” Why would the prosecutors mess around? Prosecutors are good people. They are law enforcement, and they’re enforcing our laws, and keeping bad people away from us — and so they charge somebody, you’re guilty. So what’s happened is most people have to set out to prove their defense, prove their innocence. It’s up to the prosecution to prove their case, and these guys… look at Ronnie Earle. If they want they can charge you with anything without there even being any evidence, and they get their mug shot of you, and your fingerprints and so forth, and you still have to go in, and when you’re acquitted, you still have the mug shot.
The media still has the mug shot, still has your fingerprints, and they still have the phrase, “Tom DeLay, accused of money laundering, (whispering) and acquitted three years later, said today that,” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So the accusation will always follow you. You’ve been accused of something, you are “the accused,” and that has always been the case. It’s why in the legal system, we’ve always strived to get the best judges possible, the best prosecutors. But when you start electing prosecutors and you get party politics going on, this really is nothing new. I mean, you could go talk to people who have been impacted by this, affected by it at the local level where it never makes any news outside the local town Gazette. But this is common. Now it’s being expanded. Watergate was a good example of it, and you’ve got the Democrats. If Democrats are able to win elections, they wouldn’t even be bothering with this. But Watergate was such… Folks, I mean, do you understand what Watergate was to these people? You cannot understand. Whatever the most pleasurable experience in your life is — think about it right now; whatever it’s been — multiply it by a factor of a hundred and pretend that you’re having it for three years uninterrupted. That’s what Watergate was, and they want it back.
They want it again! They want to relive it, and so this is the excellent chance, and Iraq provides the same opportunity for Vietnam, and if they have to politicize policy differences again to do it, they will do it. I don’t mean to be negative about this. I’m trying to be realistic. I’m going to ask some people with genuine legal expertise. I have done so in fact, not very intensely, but I have asked when this DeLay thing came up, I’ve asked some people and I’ve pretty much gotten the answers that I’ve shared with you, there’s just not a whole lot you can do. There really isn’t. Your day comes in court if you ever get charged with something, and that’s where Rove and Libby and whoever else, and we don’t know whoever, if anybody else, if anybody at all. So it’s difficult, you know, not to jump the gun here because — and, by the way, one more thing to you. I have not lost faith here, but I can’t come behind the Golden EIB Microphone here and pretend that this stuff isn’t going on, and act like it isn’t going on. That would be phony optimism, avoiding reality. I’ve got to talk about this stuff, and within the context that it’s out there. But we should keep our cool, as I am, and see what happens down the road. It’s supposed to happen this week if all these leaks true, and once we know something firm then it’ll be much easier to address this, particularly as it plays out in the future.
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