RUSH: Let me grab a phone call here. We haven’t taken one yet today — I just realized that — I’ve been on such a roll. This is Dan in Los Angeles. Nice to have you on the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hi. Rush?
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: How you doing?
RUSH: Very well, sir, thank you.
CALLER: Yeah, I was calling to alert you to the fact of what Dan Rather said on Chris Matthews’ show?
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Were you aware of what happened?
RUSH: Yes, I was. We have the audio sound bite here.
CALLER: Oh, you do?
RUSH: Yeah, yeah.
CALLER: Stop and then you look on the Internet and I couldn’t find that anywhere. Where’s the outrage from the Al Sharptons and, you know, all those other guys?
RUSH: Well, exactly right. You have to hear the bite. It’s coming up in just a second. It’s sort of like the turnout in the Iraqi election, 62%, but at last count 38 people had been killed. That’s more people than die in our elections. By the way, it’s a higher turnout, too. If that had happened when Bush was president, Biden and Obama would be running around talking about how this policy is horrible. ‘This is an absolute failure. They shoulda never healed the elections! Thirty-eight people are dead.’ Now they’re out there claiming credit for it and what a great stable situation we have. It’s amazing. So yesterday on The Chris Matthews Show, this is his syndicated Sunday show. And during the panel discussion, Dan Rather, who now works at HDNet, said this about Obama and health care reform.
RATHER: Part of the undertow in the coming election is going to be, uh, President Obama’s leadership, and the Republicans will make a case — and a lot of independents will buy this argument — ‘Listen, he just hasn’t been (mutters). Look at the health care bill, his number one priority. It took him forever to get it through, and he had to compromise it to death,’ and a version of, ‘Listen, he’s a nice person, he’s very articulate,’ this is what’s going to be used against him, ‘but he couldn’t sell watermelons to –‘
MATTHEWS: Okay.
RUSH: ‘[H]e couldn’t sell watermelons to’ who? A state trooper? He couldn’t sell watermelons on a highway? Yeah, the rest of it is ‘if a state trooper is flagging down the traffic on a highway, Obama couldn’t sell watermelons,’ and Chris Matthews says, ‘Well, whoa! (muttering) I didn’t think you meant that.’ I’ll tell you (laughing) from Massa describing Rahm Emanuel walking in a House shower with no curtains stark naked poking him in the chest and yelling at him about health care, to Dan Rather saying Obama ‘couldn’t sell watermelons on a highway with a state trooper flagging down traffic,’ (laughing) I’m telling you, folks, they are falling apart. (interruption) No, it’s no longer Black History Month. If this had happened Black History Month, Oh. Well, I don’t know the menu was still up there or not, but this is hilarious. Dan Rather! (laughing) ‘He couldn’t sell watermelons…’ (laughing)
No wonder you can’t find the sound bite anywhere on anybody’s website. We only have it ’cause we roll on all these stupid shows. But they’ve taken it down at Matthews’ website. They’ve taken it down at the HDNet. You can’t find it. I’m sure they’ve scrubbed it at YouTube. Here. Because you might not be able to find it anywhere, we need to listen to this over and over and over again.
RATHER: Part of the undertow in the coming election is going to be, uh, President Obama’s leadership, and the Republicans will make a case — and a lot of independents will buy this argument — ‘Listen, he just hasn’t been (mutters). Look at the health care bill, his number one priority. It took him forever to get it through, and he had to compromise it to death,’ and a version of, ‘Listen, he’s a nice person, he’s very articulate,’ this is what’s going to be used against him, ‘but he couldn’t sell watermelons to –‘
MATTHEWS: Okay.
RUSH: You know what we need to do here, Mike, to cut to the chase here? Just roll off, ‘Listen, he’s a nice person, he’s very articulate…but he couldn’t sell watermelons to –‘
Now, we know from the early part of the bite that he’s talking about Obama because he says here, ‘Part of the…’ Here, just listen to it again for yourself establish beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s talking about Obama.
RATHER: Part of the undertow in the coming election is going to be, uh, President Obama’s leadership, and the Republicans will make a case — and a lot of independents will buy this argument — ‘Listen, he just hasn’t been (mutters). Look at the health care bill, his number one priority. It took him forever to get it through, and he had to compromise it to death,’ and a version of, ‘Listen, he’s a nice person, he’s very articulate,’ this is what’s going to be used against him, ‘but he couldn’t sell watermelons to –‘
MATTHEWS: Okay.
RUSH: ‘He couldn’t sell watermelons’ (laughing) if a state trooper (laughing) was flagging down traffic on the side of the road.
RATHER: ‘Listen, he’s a nice person, he’s very articulate,’ this is what’s going to be used against him, ‘but he couldn’t sell watermelons to –‘
MATTHEWS: Okay.
RUSH: (laughing) Okay. (interruption) What do you mean? No, we’re not going to stop? Why should we stop? I know Matthews says, ‘Okay, okay! Okay, Dan! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.’ ‘Hey, let’s hear it for Chuck. Oh, Chuck! Stand up, Chuck!’ I mean, these guys, they are just filled with this kind thing. We, of course, are the party of ‘no.’ We’re the party that doesn’t have a big tent. This Democrat Party is a gulag! It’s a growing gulag, and the very people they need to pass this health care bill are being purged from the party. Then you got Dan Rather. How is he going to get out of this? How’s he going to get out of this? He probably won’t have to get out of it. They’ll probably give him another award. You know, when the fake documents — Bill Burkett and all that, Bush in the National Guard — Brokaw and Jennings circled the wagons and they gave Dan Rather some sort of lifetime achievement award. So maybe he’ll get another award here for this. Or, I know what! Just say he was bar-hopping with Ben Roethlisberger earlier in the week and he just wasn’t quite sobered up.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay, we have the whole sound bite here. There’s cross-talk at the end on the state trooper line, and, yeah, some of you have written me notes. ‘Don’t you understand that Rather is saying this is what Republicans would say?’ Of course he said Republicans are going to say this. It doesn’t matter. Republicans have not said it. Dan Rather did.
RATHER: Part of the undertow in the coming election is going to be, uh, President Obama’s leadership, and the Republicans will make a case — and a lot of independents will buy this argument — ‘Listen, he just hasn’t been (mutters). Look at the health care bill, his number one priority. It took him forever to get it through, and he had to compromise it to death,’ and a version of, ‘Listen, he’s a nice person, he’s very articulate,’ this is what’s going to be used against him, ‘but he couldn’t sell watermelons to –‘
MATTHEWS: Okay.
RUSH: Matthews is trying to stop him there. So even if he’s trying to indict the Republicans here, Matthews would have been laughing and agreeing with him. ‘Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, watermelons, and fried chicken, too,’ Matthews would have added. But Matthews: ‘Oh, no, no.’ (laughing)