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| RUSH: So let me ask you a question, folks: What would you rather do? "Would you rather go hunting with Dick Cheney or riding in a car over a bridge with Ted Kennedy?" You go riding in a car over a bridge with Ted Kennedy, he's going to run off if an accident happens and you won't see him again, and it's too late. You go hunting with Dick Cheney and an accident happens and he'll take you to the hospital. BREAK TRANSCRIPT  RUSH: We have some audio from Good Morning America today on the Cheney situation. The media coverage of this is predictable; trying to make it out to be a scandal. This is a montage of Charlie Gibson at ABC, along with their White House correspondent, Jessica Yellin. GIBSON: This bizarre story of Vice President Cheney shooting a hunting buddy. It happened on Saturday afternoon, and this morning there are a lot of questions, like why the administration didn't reveal this incident for nearly 24 hours. We're going to go out to the growing political fallout from this. Why didn't anyone tell anyone when the accident happened? Why did they wait so long and did that make a bad situation even worse? YELLIN: It took the vice president's office nearly twenty-four hours to go public with news of the shooting. That delay has prompted some speculation online and on talk radio that perhaps Mr. Cheney was hoping to cover up the incident. RUSH: Oh, now they quote talk radio! Who on talk radio is saying that? Who said that the White House wanted to cover this up? It's not hard to find out what happened. If you call the White House and ask what happened, here's what you'll be told. You'll be told that the Armstrong family -- and this is family with a deep tradition of Republican roots and support, Katherine Armstrong made the phone call to the Corpus Christi newspaper. They wanted the victim here of this accidental shooting to be taken care of first, the guests taken care of and so forth. She says, "There was no coordination between the Armstrong family and the White House," but it was Katherine Armstrong that called the Corpus Christi whatever newspaper here. Here's what's funny about this. Let's move on to sound bite #7 -- and this also from Good Morning America. They've got the Zapruder film! They've got the equivalent of the Zapruder film with this crack reporter who so-called broke the story, Charlie Gibson interviewed her, Katherine Garcia, and Gibson says, "We're going to turn next on the journalist who broke this story, Katherine Garcia, a reporter at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. As she first spoke to Katherine Armstrong about the shooting. She then sat down and wrote the article that alerted the world to what had happened." Now, we have to redefine "breaking the story," because you know how this happened? Katherine Armstrong called the newspaper and ended up with this info babe. The info babe didn't "break" anything. The info babe was doing what all journalists do: sit at the desk, wait for a fax to come in or a phone call come in reporting some news and bammo! You've got your scoop. So here's a little sound bite of Katherine Garcia -- and nothing against her, don't misunderstand here, but casting this and characterizing this as a breaking story, "broke the story," is laughable. |
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| GARCIA: Yeah, actually that's kinda of how it worked. I was incredibly surprised. I got a phone call from Katherine Armstrong. I, um, decided to start transcribing her story. She was explaining to me what happened -- RUSH: Stop the tape! Stop the tape! That's amazing for a reporter to do that. She gets a call from somebody reporting an accident, answer is, "Whoa, wow. I gotta get a pencil! Maybe I got to get to my computer keyboard. I've got to transcribe this." Wow! What great work by a reporter! That is fast thinking.  GARCIA: -- giving you the details and she kept saying, "The vice president did this. The vice president did that. They -- We were all out a hunting [sic], and at the end... I mean it's a Sunday morning. It's supposed to be incredibly slow at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, and what ended up happening afterwards I said, "Are we speaking about Vice President Cheney?" and she laughed a little bit and said, "Yes, absolutely," and I thought, "Oh, m'God! You're going to have to repeat that story one more time." RUSH: I guess she wasn't writing fast enough. "The vice president? The vice president? Are you talking about Vice President Cheney?" And then, I guess, "You're going to have to tell me this one more time," because pencil lead broke or whatever happened, and then she describes how she got through to the White House press office on the telephone. GARCIA: I think so. I, uh, apparently got a switchboard with the White House. I said, "You know, I'm going to need to talk with some sort oooof, you know, public relations office. I need your press office." You know, of course, I've never actually contacted the White House myself. This was a first for meee, and when she did, she said, "No, unfortunately it's going to be open on Monday morning," and I said, "No, that's not going to work," and I tried to be absolutely dramatic as possible to get the most attention and I said, "Vice President Cheney has apparently shot some one accidentally, and I need to speak with someone and I need a statement." She got somebody straight away for me. It was very interesting. GIBSON: I was going to say, "At that point you got right through." RUSH: And we must get right through an EIB Profit Center Time-Out. We'll do that and, like wow, this is so cool! This is the way journalism happens. Wow. Very slow day at my newspaper. Sunday mornings are very slow, and man, this story just comes across my desk, and wow! I get to break it. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Mr. Snerdley thinks that Katherine Garcia, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, is just what CBS News needs: young demographic, hot reporter able to get these hard-to-find scoops, blah, blah, blah. The only problem she's got is that her story was basically true, and that might be able to of a damper at CBS News. We'll just have to, you know, wait and see. But it's a great find out there if they want to look into it. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Well, Scott McClellan is engaged in the daily White House press briefing, and the White House press corps is just over the top. They're just in a twit. They don't understand why they didn't get the story first. Why didn't the White House tell them first? Why didn't they have the story first? Why did somebody at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times get the story? McClellan should have walked out there with a shotgun. He just should have walked out there with a shotgun. Let me tell you what this is. Hey, let me just tell something about this: Democrats are going to have a lot of fun with this in the media, but go back. W need to find audio sound bite five. Grab me audio sound bite five. It's not that long ago, folks, this is October of 2004, and a certain presidential candidate wandered into a sporting goods store, I think it was in Iowa or somewhere, I forget what state it was, and said this. KERRY: Can I get me...a hunting license here? |
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 RUSH: That was John Kerry, who served in Vietnam and who once ran for president. In fact, that's what he was doing. "Can I get me a hunting license here?" You wouldn't hear him speaking that way, ladies and gentlemen, to his Brahman buds in Boston, "Can I get me a hunting license here?" Remember Al Gore in the debates in the 2000 campaign had to go out of his way to talk about he loves hunting and they're all for hunting, and the left is going to say, "This is proof that the Second Amendment needs to be repealed, taken out of the Constitution. Why couldn't the other guy have shot Cheney? Why did it have to be Cheney that shot this guy?" blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I mean McClellan just really, really taking a beating over the fact that (giggle) they didn't give the press in Washington the story first. To the phones, to Okemos, Michigan. Paul, welcome, sir. You're up first today and it's great to have you with us. CALLER: Yes, um, good afternoon, Rush, how are you? RUSH: Fine, sir, thank you. CALLER: I must say how just exasperated and disgusted I was with you when I turned on the news and right after the news, you come on and right away you're like going after Ted Kennedy for something 35 years ago? RUSH: Mmm-hmm. CALLER: You know, what does that have to do with a hunting accident in Texas in 2006? I -- I -- I don't -- I fail to see any connection. I also think it's terrible -- do you consider yourself a Christian? RUSH: Uh -- CALLER: -- don't most conservatives go around saying how they're defending Christian values and -- and isn't a Christian value to be kind to people and not to judge, and not to bring up people's faults and -- RUSH: You tell me. Are you a Christian? You sound like you're an expert in it. Are you a Christian? CALLER: Well, I -- I -- I was -- I was brought up Catholic, and I try to follow the teachings of Jesus. RUSH: That's good. CALLER: I don't go around -- RUSH: That's good. We all try to follow the teachings of Jesus or Allah or the prophet or somebody. CALLER: So why are you -- why are you slandering Ted Kennedy? RUSH: I'm not "slandering." I'm not slandering Ted Kennedy. I simply reported the truth. I am. You are missing the point here, Paul. Let me tell you: the point is not to compare specifically these two things. It's to compare the reaction. There is outrage. There is a demand: Howard Dean is out there saying Cheney ought to resign, that Cheney is horrible. Cheney is this. Cheney leaked. There is an all-out planned assault on this administration, and there has been from the get-go, and this story is the latest vehicle for this irrational pursuit of a good man to continue. By contrast, Ted Kennedy has been lionized and heralded and treated as one of the greatest American liberals in history. The feminist movement finds absolutely nothing wrong with Senator Kennedy and what he has done. He is a serial womanizer. He was the author with Chris Dodd of the waitress sandwich. Sorry. My Christianity ought not allow me to mention the truth, I guess, of the past. We're talking here about the lack of consistency in coverage -- and I'm sorry that you didn't pick up on one of the most clever ways of making that comparison that probably has been uttered by anyone in the mainstream media. Ted Kennedy was hunting that night, too, in fact. I mean, there, if you want the commonality, Cheney is out there hunting. He was hunting quail. Somebody sent me a note today, "Gee, is Dan okay?" (laughing) Somebody sent me that. Cheney is out hunting quail with some very, very good friends. Ted Kennedy is out hunting. He's hunting babes. He found one, loaded her into his Oldsmobile and failed to make the turn onto the bridge at Chappaquiddick, fine and dandy, and, bam! We know what happened. You gotta redefine your definition of what's "despicable." All I did was utter some words and you find it despicable. Senator Kennedy and his past actions, you apparently have no comment on. Here's Don in Lake Ronkonkoma. This is Don. Welcome, sir. Nice to have you with us. |
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CALLER: Hey, Rush, great to talk to you.  RUSH: Great to have you on the program, sir. CALLER: Listen, maybe it took 24 hours to break the story from the White House because the vice president was at the hospital with Mr. Whittington and his wife. You know, he could have easily left the field and told Harry, "You know, that looks pretty bad. You ought to put some ice on it." RUSH: Ha-ha-ha! Hoooo! Better be careful. You're going to upset Paul in -- where was he calling from? Michigan? Yeah, Okemos, Michigan. That's a very un-Christian thing you just said there, Don, because we all know what that means. CALLER: Oh? RUSH: That's what Juanita Broadderick said Bill Clinton said to her after she said he raped her. CALLER: That's right. RUSH: "Better put some ice on it." CALLER: (laughing) RUSH: Cheney could have said, "You better put some ice on that, bub," and kept on pulling the trigger looking at the quail. Cheney also had his own medical staff with him, as the vice president's traveling entourage consists of that, and they were helping the guy, too. The story the White House is putting out is that they wanted to leave this up to the Armstrong family to break the news, and look it. Does anybody have any...? First, you go make sure that the victim's okay and you get the victim stabilized and the hospital and all that. I mean, what's Cheney supposed to do, walk down to the local sheriff and surrender, or better yet, walk to the media and surrender? "Hi. I'm Vice President Cheney, and I'm guilty." Is that what they expect him to do? And then of course these people are all Republicans, they know what's going to happen the minute this hits, and so the idea they're planning a cover-up is, you know, absurd. They no doubt were trying, no pun intended, trying to get their ducks in a row here for the media onslaught, which was to come. BREAK TRANSCRIPT (Shotgun blast, bumper music) RUSH: Here's the broadcast engineer trying to slip one by me but you can't do it. This is an appropriate bumper. It's Junior Walker and the All Stars, and "Shotgun." The media at the White House press briefing, they're acting like a bullet was used. He ought to walk out there with a shotgun. "This is a shotgun, this is a shotgun shell, and this is buckshot," and then, "This is birdshot, and the accident happened with birdshot. If the vice president were using buckshot, we would have a deceased victim here, and had he been using a bullet he would have been a stupid hunter,: and now the press is asking, "Well, is it appropriate now for the vice president to resign?" They're just beside themselves that a private citizen ended up reporting this rather than the White House Press Office or the Vice President's Press Office. END TRANSCRIPT |
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