Cindy Sheehan Takes Over Capitol Hill

RUSH: Cindy Sheehan and the kook-fringe left literally took over Capitol Hill yesterday. House Democrats tried to unveil their lobbying reform package, which is — folks, this is one of the biggest scams yet. They say they’re going to get rid of all the lobbyists, the lobbyists aren’t going to have any influence at all, and yet I got an AP story here in the stack coming up, K Street, Lobby Avenue, is being repopulated with people put there by the Democrats gearing up. If you think lobbyists are ever — this is one of the things that attracted people to Perot. He was out, he was going to get rid of the lobbyists, and the Democrats had this new ethics reform, they’re going to get rid of the lobbyists. You want to bet? It isn’t going to happen, I mean there’s — they’re as much a part of government as voters are. Getting rid of lobbyists is lining saying we’re going to get rid of voters.
Anyway, more detail on this as the program unfolds today. But the press conference the Democrats had to unveil their lobbying reform package was drowned out by chants from anti-war activists who want Congress to stop funding the Iraq war before taking on other issues. We have audio sound bites — well, a sample via audio sound bite of what happened yesterday afternoon when Rahm Emanuel tried his heart out to explain and announce the Democrat Party lobbying reform package.
EMANUEL: Every step of the — every — okay, at every — (chanting in background) all right. All right, what do you — we’re going to keep going here. (Chanting continues.) We’re going to have a — thank you. We’re going to come back right after our meeting, okay?
RUSH: They fled. Cindy Sheehan and the Democrats forced the Democrats — Cindy Sheehan and the kook fringe, protesters, forced the Democrats to leave. It doesn’t happen to Democrats, folks. They do not get heckled like this. Rahm Emanuel finally gave up trying to be heard over the chants, retreated to a caucus room where Democrats were meeting. Cindy Sheehan had this to say.
SHEEHAN: We’re here to let the Democrats know that the grassroots movement and the peace movement elected them for change. We elected them to bring the troops home, stop funding the war, and for accountability.

RUSH: Oh, that hurts. Even I, who am deaf, that is painful to listen to. But it’s funny as hell. But it’s still — I was covering my ears, which doesn’t do me any good, because I hear electronically. I feel like punishing myself. Play that again, Mike. This is Cindy Sheehan. This is the woman whose ragtag bumble — by the way, they were pretty choreographed in unison on their chant, the escalate, investigate, troops home now, and it sounded like bigger than a college football stadium. Here, one more time.
SHEEHAN: We’re here to let the Democrats know that the grassroots movement and the peace movement elected them for change. We elected them to bring the troops home, stop funding the war, and for accountability.
RUSH: Okay, she said we want the Democrats to know they’re back in power because of the grassroots. Now, when Cindy Sheehan was finished, Rahm Emanuel slinked back to the microphone there — really did, because snuck up on the microphone so wouldn’t be noticed, and promised hearings. Rahm, they don’t want hearings. They want impeachment, and they want us out of Iraq. Here’s what Emanuel said.
EMANUEL: It is a comprehensive package, it will alter the way business is done. And the most important thing that a Congress can do is begin to hold the hearings and ask the questions that our constituents are asking and finally demand the answers that have been missing from this policy in Iraq.

RUSH: They don’t have a chance to effect policy unless they actually do defund it, and I don’t think they can’t get that done in both houses, and they certainly can’t get that past a presidential veto, and they also don’t have the votes for impeachment. So that isn’t going to happen. So he had to come back — he was going to talk about lobbying reform. He may have talked about that as well but he had to make sure to say, “Well, we’re going to investigate.” They don’t want investigations. Now, about this lobbying reform business. In fact, let me find the story. Yes, had it in the stack from yesterday.
It’s our old buddies at AP. ‘New Democrat lawmakers aren’t the only ones measuring for drapes and unsealing boxes. In a job-swapping cycle unseen for some time, Democrat congressional aides and former members are leaping to lucrative lobbying posts. Washington’s $2.3 billion lobbying industry is under going one of its periodic adjustments to shifts in government power, the first since the White House changed hands in 2001.’ Now, the question is, why are the lobbyists, the Democrat lobbyists flying back into town gravitating, when the Democrats are saying, we’re not going to be dealing with you, when the Democrats are saying, we’re going to have lobby reform, we’re not going to be dealing with lobbyists, why are the lobbyists flocking back? Because the Democrats are going to deal with them. It’s a way of life. They say money is the mother’s milk of politics. Lobbyists are the oxygen, just like voters are. Those of you who actually think that there’s ever going to be serious lobbying reform and a reduction in power that lobbyists have can forget it.
How do you think Congress can arrive, owning nothing, on a salary of whatever it is, 140 or 50 and five or ten years later have a net worth of three to four to five, $7 million? How do you think this happens? And you think that the mechanism by which this happens all of a sudden is going to be — it would be like in Congress decided, you know what, we’re going to hand over the power to write tax law right to the president. Do you think that you’re going to give up that kind of power? They will never give up that power, social architecture in the tax code, saying here, what really needs to be pointed out is that when the Republicans won the House and Tom DeLay successfully took over K Street and put lobbyists sympathetic to Republicans, the Drive-By Media and the Democrats attacked him as somebody who was corrupting and perverting the political process, this story today is exactly what DeLay did, and everybody’s hailing it as a shift in power and something that happens periodically in cycle.