RUSH: I don’t think a lot of people do, but some underestimate the news media’s power. And if you do underestimate their power, you do so at your own peril. You watch the Herman Cain witch hunt, two things have happened. The media today is mad that he’s still in there and that he’s still smiling. The media is also mad that the women haven’t come forward. They have been desperate to get these women. Politico has a story out there, which is basically a clarion call in the last paragraph of the story, “Please, please come forward, it’s the next thing we need,” begging the women to come forward. The women don’t want to come forward from what I have been able to glean. They’re mad that Herman Cain is still out there smiling. They’re mad that he has not been disqualified. They’re mad that he is still a viable candidate.
This was supposed to be over by the end of the day yesterday. Particularly they are stunned that in their view Herman can go change his story throughout the day — i.e., be inconsistent — and still survive this, and they are really ticked at me and others who are defending Herman Cain. They have assumed that we must really want Herman Cain to be the Republican nominee, otherwise we wouldn’t be defending him and they have no clue why he’s being defended. It’s not about securing him the nomination, for any of you in the Drive-Bys who care. It’s simply this. We are not gonna stand by idly and watch you try to take out another one of our own. You never turn this kind of reporting on people like Barack Obama. You never turn this kind of reporting around on Bill Clinton. You never engage in this kind of news coverage, reporting, character assassination of people in the Democrat Party.
We have no choice. We have our intelligence guided by experience in these matters. But there are some even on our side, I’ve done the usual perusal of conservative media, and there are plenty on our side who think Cain’s a boob and he ought to quit, that it’s bringing disfavor on the whole field and on the whole party, and there’s gotta be something there or Politico wouldn’t run with it. Those are the outlets not geared up for the fight, those are the outlets, our own conservative media outlets who don’t think there’s a fight. There’s just the political game going on. And once one of our people’s tainted, he’s finished, ’cause they think the Drive-Bys determine who lives and dies in a political sense.
And as I watch this witch hunt of Herman Cain I’m reminded once again that whether they can do it or not, the media clearly believe that they can make or destroy any political candidate they choose. They do believe that. They do believe they can make or destroy anybody they choose. Now, they can in one circumstance, and that is if they have been responsible for making that person, then they can destroy that person. If the media has had no role in someone’s success, then the odds of the media taking somebody out — without any evidence, with a bunch of baseless charges — is practically nil. But if you are the kind of person in entertainment, politics, the field of celebrity, what have you — if your fame, if your presumed and assumed success owes exclusively to what the media has said about you then you’re vulnerable — they can take you out, like Anthony Weiner.
If you are somebody because the media says you’re somebody, not because you really are. If you’re Kim Kardashian… If they wanted her they could take her out yesterday and be done with her forever, same thing with Paris Hilton. They don’t want to because it’s too entertaining, too much fun. Weren’t you heartbroken? Seventy-two days! They gave it their all, Kim Kardashian and the substitute basketball player? No, the football player, Reggie Bush. Once he said, “No more,” then she found the basketball guy; 72 days, gone. But it was a valiant effort, gave it everything. They had even tried moving. I saw this guy carrying boxes in and out. Well, pictures of it. I wasn’t there. (interruption) Where does she come up to on Humphries? (laughing) Well, now, that, if you want to demonstrate that, that could be harassment.
That’s much lower on the gesture trajectory than the chin where Kim Kardashian came up to Kris Humphries, the basketball player. Yeah, you might have something there but that’s not what Herman Cain did. He went to the chin. So the media: If they make you, they can break you. If they don’t make you it’s not gonna stop them from trying to break you, but it’s gonna be more difficult for them to do so. Now, before the alternative media, there wasn’t a question; if they wanted to destroy somebody, it was over. In fact, that’s how you made a name for yourself in journalism: Pick out some local level, state level whatever — pick out somebody — and destroy ’em. That was a resume enhancement. Especially if they were powerful. They couldn’t be Democrat powerful.
You note the treatment Jon Corzine’s getting. Jon Corzine is Enron times ten. Jon Corzine, former Senator, former Goldman Sachs CEO, former governor of New Jersey, had his own private financial firm where he basically took money from the firm and put it in his own pocket. It’s malfeasance on a near-record level. You know what the Democrats are saying today and the media are saying? “Gee, how could a guy so smart make such a big mistake?” Now, you change his name to “Ken Lay” and Enron, they’re gonna drive him to commit suicide. With Corzine, an accredited favorite Democrat, “Gosh, how could such a smart guy make such a mistake?” It wasn’t a “mistake.” It was a purposeful, willful attempt at breaking the law.
What do you expect from a guy that left New Jersey $8 billion in debt, whatever budget deficit? What do you expect here? At any rate, the media in addition to believing they can take somebody out, they also believe they can make anybody (no matter how unqualified) into a viable candidate — and we know they can because we see Obama. They took somebody who was not qualified — he not just unqualified, he was the least qualified. He still is. After three years, he’s still the least qualified guy in any room he walks into; but they made him into a viable candidate, even a messiah. You can’t doubt that they can do that.
By the same token, if they’ve made Obama; and if they wanted to take Obama out, they could. They could do it because he is the pure product of the media.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
Let’s go to the audio sound bites just to show you the media obsessed with me and defending Herman Cain. You know, the media theme of me and other conservatives defending Herman Cain is that we’re racists. We’re doing it because we are racist. I kid you not! I don’t even understand it. Just like I don’t understand that apparently to liberals the chin is a sexual organ. I would love to have that explained or demoed to me, ’cause not even our resident female and sex expert, Bo Snerdley, understands how the chin is a sexual organ. But it is apparently. So from last night and this morning a montage of the media on Herman Cain and me.
WILLIE GEIST: (music) Rush Limbaugh calls the Politico story a quote, “hit job.”
MARK HALPERIN: Rush Limbaugh and others out there saying this is an attack on our guy.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: …a hit job…
CAROL COSTELLO: Conservatives are coming out in support of him, like Rush Limbaugh.
JOE KLEIN: Rush was in his very high tenor, whiny mode.
SGT. SCHULTZ: Rush Limbaugh is attacking the mainstream media for being racist!
TOURE (NEBLETT): Rush Limbaugh talking about, “We see who the real racists are.”
RUSH: That was Toure, the one-name social commentator that appears on NBC now and then. Here’s F. Chuck Todd talking with Jamal Simmons on MSNBC this morning.
SIMMONS: I just can’t let it pass by that Rush Limbaugh and some of these conservatives are now trying to use race to defend Herman Cain, who is somebody who has so avowedly demeaned the notion of even having race play a part in politics or having anything to do with his candidacy.
TODD: It is interesting. It’s sort of like every —
SIMMONS: (chortling)
TODD: You know, these commentariates on the left and right, can we just agree not to play the race card?
SIMMONS: At all! Like, you know, and when you see it played, it is — it is frustrating.
RUSH: Oh, F. Chuck wants to end playing the case card now! Really? Did I hear that right? F. Chuck’s says, “Ah, you know, with the commentariate, it’s too easy. We gotta stop playing the race card.” That must mean it ain’t working for ’em here, or else it means whatever we’re doing is effective and they don’t like it. And, by the way, just to prove something that I said that’s true: Herman Cain has announced this morning that yesterday was his biggest fundraising day ever. Now, you know why? Why do you think that is? Outrage is exactly right. People are fed up with this. It’s one-way street! If the media were actually watchdog, if the media were actually going after everybody this way — if this was standard operating procedure, if they went after anybody who has power or wants power this way — it would be a different story.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So Herman Cain announces this morning yesterday was his biggest fundraising day ever. He said this on the Headline News network (which used to be “CNN’s Headline News” but it’s now just “Headline News.” Even Headline News doesn’t want to be known as being associated with CNN). He also said that he’s not changed his story at all, that he just got the wording right. Now, the media claims that we on the right only like Cain to prove that we aren’t racists. That’s the theme, that you and I, and anybody else coming to Herman Cain’s defense, say, “See? See? See? We’re coming to the defense of a black guy, and that means we’re not racist like you people always say we are!” That’s not what this is about, because we know we’re not racists and we’re not on a life mission to prove it to anybody.
The real racism in this country exists in the Democrat Party anyway, and it surfaces in an ugly way constantly, frequently, often, as it did during the 2008 presidential campaign. No, this is due strictly to outrage and what is perceived accurately as totally being unfair. “Even if Herman Cain did this,” as they say, they still build Bill Clinton up as a hero in the Democrat Party — and I don’t care whatever the worst that’s been alleged about Herman Cain is, it doesn’t even compare to what we know factually happened with Bill Clinton and a number of women! So the very holier-than-thou reporters on the left who are acting shocked and outraged, “How could this happen in this modern era this kind of blatant sexual harassment?” And trying to destroy Herman Cain? We know that’s what they’re trying to do.
The very same people put on a hero pedestal William Jefferson Clinton. The lack of fairness is quite obvious. It’s nothing more complicated than that. It’s actually very simple, and then that leads to outrage. People are willing to defend Herman Cain against the assault on principle because they recognize it for what it is. It’s yet another attempt by the State-Controlled Media to determine who our nominee is, to take out our people, pure and simple. We had the sound bite yesterday from October 28th. A Democrat strategerist, Karen Finney (who, I think, at one time was big in the Clinton administration), said, “Republicans are supporting Herman Cain because of his race.”
She said, “One of the things about Herman Cain is, I think that he makes the white Republican base of the party feel, ‘Okay,’ like they’re not racist, because they can like this guy. I think he’s giving that base a free pass, and I think they like him because they think he’s a black man who knows his place. I know that’s harsh, but that’s how it sure seems to me.” She’s a member of the Democrat National Committee; and, in fact, that kind of symbolic demonstration — that kind of show — is what the Democrats do. So we have another case of projection here. Back to the audio sound bites. This morning on Scarborough’s show on MSNBC, Mark Halperin from TIME Magazine is the guest and they discuss all this. Scarborough says, “Do you think Herman Cain’s numbers will slightly go up? Why will the numbers go slightly up? What do you think’s gonna happen here?”
HALPERIN: What’s fueling Herman Cain, what has fueled his rise is an anti-Washington, anti-liberal establishment, uh, rallying around someone. Who the right profile for that sentiment in the party —
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
HALPERIN: — and there’s a lot of conservative voices, Rush Limbaugh and others out there saying, “This is an attack on our guy —
BRZEZINSKI: “A hit job!”
HALPERIN: — because he’s rising so much.”
RUSH: Well, it’s partially because he’s rising so much. You know, I’m getting more and more e-mails. It’s not even because he’s rising so much. I’ll tell you what it is. Like I said yesterday — and please don’t doubt me on this. The reason this looks just like Clarence Thomas is because it is; and the reason this looks just like Marco Rubio is because it is; and the reason this looks just like Alberto Gonzalez is because it is. Blacks and Hispanics who rise and achieve to the top their professions as Republicans will not be experimented. They must be taken out. That could only happen in the Democrat Party. Only in the Democrat Party will a black or a minority be allowed, be permitted without fight to appear on the Supreme Court, sit on the Supreme Court, be the attorney general, run to the presidency or what have you.
An achieved independent minority like a Herman Cain or a Clarence Thomas or a Marco Rubio… Just last week the Washington Post tried to destroy Rubio with a multipart hit piece, and they’re still at it. Alberto Gonzalez. There’s one other Hispanic guy, a brilliant jurist ( I’m having a mental block on who it is) was also nominated by Bush for a prominent position. I’m having a mental block of his name but they took him out, destroyed him. Herman Cain is getting too uppity. The danger is if a black or an Hispanic rises to the top and demonstrates it can happen with conservative principles as the juice: self-reliance, hard work, conservative values, all those things. If you can get there without the Democrat Party putting you there or helping you to get there, you represent the biggest threat the Democrat Party has.
That’s why Clarence Thomas had to be taken out: He got where he got without one bit of assistance in the Democrat Party and the left, and as such nothing they could do. They didn’t own him when he got there. They didn’t control him when he got there. They’re not gonna permit Herman Cain to keep this up, and I really don’t want you to doubt me on this. This may sound simplistic or maybe not even possible. “The Democrats don’t think that way, Rush. Really.” They do. The Democrat Party and liberalism is built on a series of lies, and anything that exposes the lies — particularly exposes them brightly — has got to be dealt with. So Herman Cain has become the enemy of the moment. Actually this is last night, sound bite five. This is a full sound bite from the TIME Magazine contributor and I guess he works at MSNBC, Toure, about the Republican primary and Herman Cain, and Lawrence O’Donnell, the host of the show said, “Toure, there’s just this blender of Republican racial politics has gotten mixed up together. I can’t make any sense of it. Guide us through this.”
TOURE: Well, one thing I see — saw Rush Limbaugh talking about we see who the real racists are and Clarence Thomas is using that same sort of bazooka to fire back — is that when we point out moments of racism or moments of minstrelsy in Herman Cain’s, uhhh, example they just fire back and they use the word “racism.” That’s racist! You’re racist, so it becomes this sort of negating tool that we’ll just say “racism” wherever we see any racial politics taking place — we’ll say the race card is being played any time somebody points out a moment of racism — and that just sort of muddles the conversation to where a lot of people are like, “I don’t want to be part of this at all.”
RUSH: Okay, now, that’s Toure on MSNBC, where the motto is, “Resist We Much,” and he’s a stand-alone commentator. Lawrence O’Donnell says, “Please, break this down for us and explain it to us.” Did any of you understand what Toure was saying? What is he saying? What was he saying? Because I know what he was trying to say. What he was trying to say is, “They are stealing our technique. They’re stealing our technique, and they’re muddying the waters by using our technique. We’re the ones who have exclusive right to the race card! We are the ones who get to decide who’s racist and who isn’t, and when guys like Limbaugh come along and call us racists, why, that just muddies the water and makes everybody want to forget all this and leave.
“We own it! We own who’s a racist and who isn’t. Limbaugh can’t do that. Limbaugh and these others come along and say we’re being racist? We own that ploy!” (interruption) Why what? Why what now? Oh, because they haven’t taken him out. The reason they’re reacting and the reason they getting upset, they really thought that last night it was the end of it! They really thought Herman Cain was gonna be finished by last night. (interruption) Snerdley, you ask me these questions and I have to answer them since you ask them. I’m very uncomfortable answering this but they’re still ticked off that I’m a factor. What they’re really mad at here is that somebody or a group of people on our side in the media could maybe save whoever it is they go out to destroy.
So they seek in this case Herman Cain. “Okay, we’re gonna take Herman Cain out,” and we get our dander up and we put a stop to it or slow them down that’s gonna make ’em mad, too, pure and simply is. And then if we, in their perverted eyes, steal one of their techniques (i.e., playing the race card or accusing the race card of being played), then they really get ticked off, and that’s what Toure was saying here. “Well, they just fire back, and they just use the word ‘racism.’ That’s racist, you’re racist.” That’s right, Toure! For 23 years we’ve been hearing it. Maybe not from you, but people all over your side of the aisle. For twenty-three years I’m a “racist;” and I’m not, never have been. You guys are. We say it. You don’t like it. Yeah. Exactly. They used it on one of their own and we caught it and pointed it out, but that 2008 presidential campaign was rife with racism on the Democrat side.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: It was Miguel Estrada that I was thinking of, another Hispanic conservative Republican who was destroyed at the very mention of his name being nominated to a high judicial post. Alberto Gonzales, you name it. Folks, it’s undeniable. It is what it is. Now, I got a note from a friend of mine paying attention to all of this and all of this reporting, particularly about sexual harassment and what it is and how it’s evolved into a political tool of the left. He said: This whole thing is complete fabricated BS, Rush. Let’s look at it. Politico is a leftist site. Sexual harassment is a leftist BS piece of social engineering that attempts to regulate against the grain of human nature, exactly like feminism. Feminism attempts to regulate against the grain of human nature, and by extension, so does sexual harassment. They are inextricably tied together, sexual harassment and feminism, and they are both attempts to change the direction of basic human nature.
Sexual harassment, most people cannot even explain the parameters of it. Legal settlements, when it comes to sexual harassment, often have little to do with guilt. They come with confidentiality provisions that make it impossible for somebody to defend himself without risk of breaching the agreement and reopening the whole prohibitively expensive episode. So the disgrace here is that our people paid any attention to this at all. Now, my friend sending me the note says, “I’m not a huge Cain fan, Rush. The only story here should be how the media treated this nonsense versus the real transgressions, perhaps even crimes of Bill Clinton and John Edwards.” And that is exactly right. It’s a point that we made yesterday. Clinton and Edwards. How could they be so silly? How could they be so stupid while we go to every length we can to defend them? And here you’ve got nothing in comparison. Here’s Maude Behar on her show, The View.
BEHAR: Rush Limbaugh, he says this is an unconscionable racially stereotyped attack, okay? Remember when he called President Obama “Barack the ‘Magic Negro'”? This man is the biggest hypocrite. Who listens to this guy?
RUSH: Everybody, Maude, everybody listens to this program. I did not come up with the name. This song explains how it all happened.
(playing of “Barack the ‘Magic Negro'”)
RUSH: You see, Reverend Sharpton couldn’t even stick to the lyric line. He starts protesting. The group still sings.
(continued playing of song)
RUSH: So Maude Behar says that I called President Obama the “Magic Negro.” In fact, ladies and gentlemen, “Magic Negro” has its own Wikipedia entry, and what they say is that African-American filmmaker Spike Lee popularized the term in 2001, and then they say usage of the title “Obama the ‘Magic Negro'” by David Ehrenstein, Los Angeles Times column inspired this, so Wikipedia gets it right.
Related Links