Obama Builds Team of Has-Beens

RUSH: The Lord Messiah Barack Obama, the Most Merciful, out there making his cabinet selections. We got Tom Daschle in there. We got Eric Holder in there, he of the Marc Rich pardon. He’s an attorney general, he’s at the Justice Department. We’ve got Tom Daschle in there now as the secretary of Health and Human Services, at least AP says it’s been offered, talking about Mrs. Clinton going to the Department of State. That’s still kind of dicey. They’re still going back and forth on this. Something doesn’t meet the eye here. There’s something screwy going on in this. I think both are still playing games. Bill Clinton’s out there saying, (doing Clinton impression) ‘Hey, I’ll be glad to tell anybody anything they want to know about my Library and Massage Parlor, the donors, I’d be happy to open up and tell everybody about this.’ I don’t know why they wouldn’t do this during the campaign, but they’re willing to do it now. But Hillary is out there saying, ‘Hey, I’m not sure I want this.’ Being a Senator you work for yourself. I think there’s a little power play going on here between these two. Hillary wants to show she’s not beholden to Obama, she doesn’t need Obama. Everything the Clintons do is a calculation. And, remember, nothing that happens with the Clintons is a coincidence.

In the Washington Post today, there was a story on this yesterday, and you may have heard this if you’re wasting time watching the Drive-By Media. They are now comparing Obama to Abraham Lincoln by virtue of his cabinet selections. You know, one of the things about Abraham Lincoln was that he put together a team of rivals. He put together a team of people who were opposed to one another. This was supposed to bring out the best, and now they’re saying that Obama is doing the same thing. In the Washington Post today: ‘A Familiar Precedent For a President-Elect — Obama Inspired by, Compared to Lincoln.’ It’s in relation to a cabinet he largely has not picked yet, and basically it’s about choosing Hillary. They think if Obama chooses Hillary, well, that’s what Lincoln did. Lincoln his own Hillary as Secretary of State, and now Obama is contemplating Lincoln’s particular model of presidential leadership as he moves toward assembling his own team of advisors.

I look at it, here you have Hillary if she goes, you have Eric Holder, you have Tom Puff Daschle, Hagel, and they’re looking at Jamie Gorelick. This is shaping up as the third Clinton term, headed up by Barack Obama. This is not a team of rivals. It’s more like a team of has-beens. This is a team that’s already been there, and people have said, ‘Well, that’s true, Rush, they have been there, but now they’re seasoned. They’ve been there, it’s been 16 years since the first Clinton team took office. They’re tougher now.’ Well, Greg Craig, the chief White House counsel, he’s a lawyer for Elian Gonzalez, helped Bill during impeachment, he’s the White House counsel. You got Rahm Emanuel in there. I mean, this is the Clinton team. Change? This is change? I don’t see the change. I certainly don’t see the hope, unless Clinton’s a man from Hope, and he ends up being in the cabinet somehow, some way, too. I know that’s a stretch, but I mean gee whiz, hope and change? So we got the third Clinton term led by Barack Obama.