RUSH: I want to go back to December 22nd. This story came out after the last broadcast of the year. The twenty-second was when I left for vacation. It came out that night, posted at 9:18 Eastern Time: ” Brodhead Calls for Nifong to Step Down as Prosecutor — In response to Mike Nifong’s decision Friday to drop charges of rape in the Duke lacrosse case, Duke president Richard Brodhead questioned Nifong’s conduct and called for the DA to relieve himself of his duties in the case.” I thought, well maybe you should step down along with him, Mr. Brodhead! You’re the guy that threw your players under the bus the first moment that an accusation. The coach? Nobody talks about the coach! The whole lacrosse program was shut down for a while, and the coach was canned, and now all this is utter BS.
It wasn’t a piece by Susan Estrogen. I guess it was ran… Sorry. Estrich. Okay, anyway, it was about Nifong, and she was lamenting that Nifong made a mistake; he’s gotta go, but couldn?t understand why do this! Surely he couldn’t do this just to win an election. I was shouting to the column, “Susan, he’s a Democrat! Of course he would do it to win an election!” But the point is, even she — and she’s a lawyer, and she is a law professor at USC, University of Spoiled Children. (Well, that’s what they call it.) She proved the point that nobody thinks law enforcement would be corrupt. Nobody thinks law enforcement would do anything wrong — other than Republicans members of Congress. They are lawmakers. It was amazing to read her piece about this. Now, Brodhead, the University president, the minute this allegation was thrown around, pshew!
These three kids may as well have been guilty. The lacrosse program had to be shut down; the coach had to be let go. I think maybe Mr. Brodhead is just hoping folks will forget his own despicable actions here by calling for Nifong to step down. Then there was a piece in the Los Angeles Times that ran on New Year’s Eve ( a big news day, of course): “Duke’s Recovery from a Rush to Judgment.” Why do they have to put me in every story? There was a headline about Saddam’s execution over the weekend about “Rush to Execute Saddam Considered…” I thought, jeez, I’m being blamed for that now. “Duke’s recovery from a rush to judgment, what you read and hear about Duke University’s out-of-control athletes and parties is far from the truth.” It’s by Michael Skube. Here’s an excerpt:
“Privately, people who rallied to her defense [of the victim] tell you that they were snookered. As they do, a different posse prowls the airwaves and Internet. This one wants not the Duke lacrosse players brought to heel but Durham County Dist. Atty. Mike Nifong ? and along with him, the highest stratum of Duke’s administrative hierarchy, including university President Richard Brodhead. It was the university, these critics argue, that failed to stand up for its students,” it’s customers, if you will, and the story goes on to talk about all these people, all these great leftists who believed this accuser and Nifong now talked about how, “We just got a snookered, Mr. Limbaugh! We just got snookered.” Here’s a quote from somebody named Kennington — and I’m sorry, I don’t know the first name but it shows up earlier in the piece. Kennington, Kennington, Kennington.
Find out if this is a male or female. Why does it matter? It just does. I’m curious. Men and women think differently. Ned Kensington. It’s a guy. “One who has come to understand the critics’ distemper is Ned Kennington, who last March was among those calling for justice swift and certain. ‘I am outraged,’ he said back then, ‘that 40 Duke students know what happened and won’t come forward.’ Today, he speaks in tones measured and a little rueful. ‘I’ll be frank with you,’ says Kennington, a former faculty member who lives near the campus. ‘I trusted that Mike Nifong was talking in a careful, judicious way when he called the lacrosse players hooligans. It wasn’t long after that that I felt betrayed, and I regret what I said at the time.'” Huh. Well. I guess cleansing the soul is healthy. Another quote here from Ned Kennington, the former Duke prof.
NIFONG: Durham has some healing to do, and I need to be part of that healing process, and I need to — to have something to do with what — how — how we move forward in light of the events that have brought all of you here. Because you’re not here today for a swearing in; you’re here today because of things that happened over the course of the last year.
RUSH: This is akin to a star athlete spitting on an opponent on the field and after caught and fined, says, “You know, I apologize. That wasn’t me. This is not who I am.” Yes, it is! You did it! I’m not attacking T.O. I couldn’t even think of who did it. T.O. is not the only one. Bill Romanowski. They all do it. Athlete punches athlete and says, “I’m sorry. That’s not who I am.” Yes, it is! You did it! Nifong is trying to take the third person. He’s trying to assume the role of spectator here. “Well, I know you’re not here for a swearing in, you’re here because of what happened in the past year, and I gotta help with the healing process.” Well, then resign! You are the wart! Nifong is the pus that is oozing from the wart! He wants to cause the healing?
He cannot be the wart and the Neosporin! You can’t be the pus and the Neosporin at the same time. You are one or the other.