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Jan. 17, 2006 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:23
January 17, 2006, Tuesday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24 7 Podcast.
You know, something really repugnant happened yesterday.
Martin Luther King was a great American.
He really was the person who made it clear to this nation that we were denying the opportunity to access the American dream to some Americans.
His message of equality and his methods really were heroic.
And that's why Americans who are both conservative, liberal in the middle, or apolitical, rightly marked his day yesterday.
And it was done across the country with paste and class, with one big exception.
Hillary Clinton.
You know, she's been running this pretense of being a moderate for several years now as she plans to run for president in 2008.
And you knew it was only a matter of time before the real Hillary, the non-moderate Hillary, the ideological Hillary, the Hillary who practices the politics of true division and demagoguery before she surfaced.
Yesterday at a Martin Luther King commemoration in Harlem in Harlem, hosted by Al Sharpton, in response to a question, Hillary trotted out the P word, plantation.
The way she did it is classic.
She compared the Republican leadership of the current House of Representatives to the operation of a plantation.
This is her quote.
When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation.
You know what I'm talking about.
Yeah, I know what she's talking about.
Now the way she makes the statement.
She implies that she's speaking merely about the operation of the Republican House.
But she says it on Martin Luther King Day.
There's a message there that she's trying to offer up.
And when she adds, you know what I'm talking about, yeah, Senator Clinton, I do know what you're talking about.
You're trotting out the race card again, and you're implying that the Republican Party is a party of bigots.
It's been stated again and again and again and again and again, and she uses this particular day, this occasion to bring it out again.
This needs to be responded to because the race card has been played by some Democrats way too often without being challenged.
So let's talk for a moment about plantations and who really is running a plantation.
Are the Republicans running a plantation?
Or is it Hillary Clinton's own party?
What is it?
85 to 90% of black Americans in the last election voted for the Democratic candidate for president.
That's nearly nine out of ten.
Okay.
Name the most prominent black Democrat in the United States.
Barack Obama, the senator from Illinois, maybe.
Now come up with the second one.
For a lot of us, no one really does come to mind.
And they're talking about plantation.
The fact of the matter is that if you are a black Democrat, the leadership of that party has made it clear that you are only going to go so far.
Give us your votes.
We'll support the issues that you say that you care about.
But that's the end of your upward mobility.
And she's talking about a plantation.
Let's look at the Republican Party.
And anyone who knows me and is familiar with my show, either my own local show in Milwaukee or sitting in here for Rush, I'm hardly an apologist for the Republicans.
But the fact of the matter, and this is a fact, Is that there is only one political party in our country that truly is a party of opportunity for everyone, and it is the Republican Party.
The Secretary of State of the United States is a black woman.
She was preceded in that office by a black man.
The Secretary of State's position is arguably the most important position in the President's cabinet.
The only current black justice on the Supreme Court of the United States was appointed by a Republican president.
All across the country, black Americans who run for office for major positions as Republicans are encouraged and are supported by Republican voters and are encouraged by Republican leadership.
You can go back to the 90s in J.C. Watts, very popular and influential congressman from Oklahoma.
He got to Washington and very shortly he was made part of the House leadership team.
Look across the country right now.
You have Michael Steele running in Maryland, has a real chance of winning his party's nomination.
Lynn Swan is running for governor of Pennsylvania, Republican, real chance of winning his party's nomination.
Ken Blackwell in Ohio, Republican.
Where are the black Democrats when it comes to national office?
Let's go beyond black.
The Attorney General of the United States, Alberto Gonzalez, is Hispanic.
These aren't token positions.
This isn't the bottom of the cabinet the way Senator Clinton's husband ran it.
This isn't Secretary of Education, Secretary of Commerce, HUD, the positions that no one really pays any attention to.
These are the most important positions in our government, Secretary of State of the United States, Attorney General of the United States.
Look at the people who President Bush has been closest to Karen Hughes, white female, one of his closest advisors.
Some say the most the person that Bush is relied upon the most.
Yet the Democrats keep trotting out this notion that somehow they are the party of opportunity.
Well, then how come there is no real opportunity for blacks to become prominent players in positions of power and influence in the Democratic Party?
Now let's go beyond just running down the rosters here.
Which party...
Which political party is doing everything in its power in states all across this nation to kill school voucher programs, be it in Florida, my own state of Wisconsin, and others, school voucher programs, which are aimed at allowing poor and largely minority children to attend private schools where they can get a good education.
It's Democrats that are unilaterally opposing those programs, wanting to exile kids to inferior public schools rather than deny them opportunities to go to better schools.
Why?
Because the Democrats are so beholden to the teachers' union, and when push comes to shove, when push comes to shove, that special interest constituency of the Democrats, the public school teachers union, is more important to them than the black constituency, even though they get 90% of the black vote.
And I'm telling you, they are taking that vote for granted.
Then Senator Clinton has the audacity to get up on Martin Luther King Day and play the race card.
I don't want to hear this spin that she's going to offer now.
Well, I was merely talking about the House of Representatives using that word on that day on that occasion in Harlem was done for a very specific reason.
It would be one thing if she said it, and there was some substance to it.
If the Republican Party was the party that had absolutely no interest in welcoming in and embracing blacks who choose to join the party.
If Republican presidents showed no interest in giving positions of power and influence to minorities.
In fact, it is just the opposite.
When you take a look at how members of minority groups have been able to advance within the Republican Party, it really is remarkable because there isn't a large pool of black or Hispanic, particularly black Republicans.
What's the excuse for the Democrats?
90% of American blacks are voting for Democrats.
What?
They can't find anyone to run for the Senate.
They can't find any black Democratic governors.
In choosing the cabinet, there are no blacks who could have served in truly influential positions.
Look at their roster of presidential candidates.
What chance would a black Democrat of winning the Democratic presidential nomination?
On the other hand, who's the one Republican that has regular old rank and file Republicans almost begging her to run for president.
Keeps saying she's not going to do it, and she certainly wouldn't be supported by everyone.
But there are a lot of Republicans who are hoping and praying that Condoleezza Rice runs for president.
Yet it's the Republicans that are running the plantation.
Maybe Senator Clinton doesn't know her history.
On the plantation, the slaves didn't get to run the operation.
To suggest that the Republicans are operating a plantation is repugnant.
You can raise issues of race that are debated in this country, and that's fine.
We've had a debate for years about affirmative action policies.
We've had debates for years on welfare policies.
We've had debates for years on how to revitalize urban urban America.
All of those issues are fair game.
But to trot out the race card and use this plantation word, you know what a plantation was.
A plantation was a business operation in which persons of color were required to do the grunt work and were owned, owned by the white operators of the plantation to use that word,
that strong word on this day about the Republican Party, when she represents a party that is completely denying opportunity to black Americans is appalling.
She needs to be called out on this.
Because it's not only offensive, it's not true.
You want to take a look at a political plantation, Senator Clinton ought to look in the mirror at her own political party.
Because that's the party that has systematically and consistently denied blacks positions of power.
And all you have to look at who's there and take a look at the political positions that they are taking today.
On the other hand, if you are a young black man or woman with a desire to serve your country and conservative beliefs, and you walk into the Republican Party, you will be welcomed, embraced, and there is no limit at all to how far you can rise.
If you want to aspire to be president of the United States and you are a black Republican, even a black Republican woman, there are Republicans out there who will encourage you to do so, will hope and pray that you choose to run.
That's just the truth.
That's not spin, that's not rhetoric, it's the truth.
And for her to trot out that word on that day, when the reality is exactly the opposite of what she's trying to imply with her loaded language is just wrong.
My name is Mark Delling and I'm sitting in for Rush.
1 800 28282 is the Rush Limbaugh program telephone number.
My name is Mark Belling.
To the phones we go, Brian on a cell phone in New York City, you're on.
Good afternoon.
Hi, good afternoon.
How are you, sir?
I'm great.
Good.
I just wanted to say that uh, you know, I listen uh quite often to rush.
Sometimes I agree, sometime I disagree.
And um, you know, the what you were talking about with Hillary Clinton and uh African Americans being embraced by Republicans, you know, there's certain validity to what you say, but I didn't firmly disagree with respect to Republicans embracing African Americans.
My thing is this if Republicans want to embrace African Americans and give them opportunity, why don't they show African Americans, minorities in particular, that they also believe uh same issues that African Americans are firm on, like affirmative action like going to Harlem.
You mentioned that uh Hillary.
Well, you can't make the re you can't make the Republicans believe things that they don't believe.
On the other on the other hand, when a black person, because of their own ideology, finds that they have more in common with the Republican Party than the Democratic Party, there's not a door that is closed to them.
They can become Secretary of State of the United States, they can become a Supreme Court justice.
There is no limit at all.
The point that I am making is is that that door is closed in the Democratic Party.
Furthermore, she's running around throwing around this plantation word like candy.
That's a powerful word.
And she need she deserves to be condemned for that.
The plant you do we have to think what those plantations were.
The plantations were people who are deni were people who were denied every basic right and every basic liberty they had on the basis of their race.
And she uses that word in talking about the Republicans when she is a member of the political party that has closed all sorts of doors to minorities.
I it's just wrong.
Right, sir.
But here's my point when it comes to Republicans specifically.
I don't see them in Harlem.
I grew up in Harlem and I served my country and I still am.
I don't see Republicans in Harlem.
I don't see them rolling up their sleeves and setting up their their uh their headquarters uh where African African Americans are.
I don't see them there.
So if Republicans want to embrace African Americans, they're gonna have to actually go into the neighborhood where African Americans live and talk to them about the issues that concern African Americans.
That's all I'm trying to that's the only I I understand I understand the point that you're making.
The flip side of that is that since most American blacks give their votes and give their support and give their loyalty and give their allegiance to the Democrats.
Perhaps the Democrats have at least some onus to be willing to give blacks positions of power and authority in this country, and they're the party who have who who has not.
Remember, they have almost all American blacks, so what is their excuse as to why there isn't a prominent black candidate for president?
There is only one black American senator, and those who are in Congress generally are not given positions of power.
Thank you for the call.
Thank you for the call, Brian.
To Salt Lake City and Chris.
Chris, it's your turn on Rush's show.
Thanks for taking my call.
I just want to point out there's a much higher percentage of black delegates in the Democratic Party than there is the Republican Party.
And there will be the first black president of this country will come from the Democratic Party.
I think you you know that and and should acknowledge.
I don't know that.
I don't know that.
Of course you do.
Of course, you're telling me Barack Obama isn't a prime candidate for the first black president of the United States.
I think that he is.
I wonder how many um how many American Democrats will support him for that position.
I want to also point out if you're talking about African American.
Let me ask you a question, Chris.
Can I ask you a question?
You asked me the question.
If something does happen to Vice President Sheeney, and we know that his health has not always been good, do you doubt for a second that Condoleezza Rice would not be strongly considered for that position?
Well, let me ask you a quote.
What is the answer?
Yes, I think yes, but but she would not get reelected in two thousand eight, and I'll tell you why, because I don't see Pat Robertson and Ted Nugent joining hands to support a black female president.
Do you can you honestly tell me that NRA that's really easy to coalition are going to support a black female for president?
That's real easy to say, but the reality would suggest otherwise, I don't see them recoiling in horror that she is the Secretary of State.
They haven't objected to Colin Powell being the Secretary of State.
I haven't seen any concern from Pat Robertson or the NRA about Clarence Thomas serving on the United States Supreme Court.
In the meantime, take a look at your own political party, and other than Barack Obama, name a prominent black American Democrat.
There are almost none of them.
So you can go and you can label and imply that those Republican groups and Republican individuals are somehow bigoted, which is the tactic that Senator Clinton used.
But the reality would suggest otherwise there is no reason to believe that a black American Republican is going to be denied opportunity.
But history tells us that a black American Democrat can only go so far.
You know, Senator Clinton started this.
She went into Harlem yesterday.
She throws around the P word plantation on Martin Luther King Day when talking about the Republicans.
She may not like to get into that conversation in any depth.
She can take the quick cheap shot, knowing exactly what she's implying.
But if you look at this with any depth at all, if you want to throw that word around, there's only one political party to which it applies.
And that's her own party.
The Democrats.
And they have totally escaped heat on it.
I mentioned Barack Obama in the United States Senate.
Black Democrat.
If they didn't have him, I don't know what they'd do when challenged to the question, name a prominent American black Democrat.
In the House, you've had Charlie Wrangle for years, but have you noticed that they never elevate him into a position of leadership?
Why not?
Why not?
Why is that door closed in the Democratic Party to black Americans?
So for Senator Clinton to go run around and now imply that there's a bigoted party in this country.
When her own party has a whole lot of explaining to do.
She's starting a conversation that I'm not sure she wants to play out to its conclusion.
Washington, D.C., Calvin, Calvin, you're on the Rush Limbaugh program with Mark Belling.
Well, good morning to you, or good afternoon, rather than and to your listeners and callers here.
I got two points to make.
I guess we can trade baseball cards when we say about prominent blacks because you had uh Mike Epps Epstein, uh you had Ron Brown, who was the DNC chair, then he became the uh Secretary of Commerce.
Uh but this one person you did not we felt and mentioned.
And it goes back to the situation of having a position that you that you were appointed to by the president and really working opposition, and that is Arthur Fletcher, who was under the Nixon administration.
Now he's the one that brought in really affirmative action during that particular time.
And this is the difference in having a African American in a position and then having an African American work in a position as far as bringing equality to the to his race and to who he is.
Now, the situation in the House, and that's why I think it's not a Democrat or Republican situation here.
Well, remember who started that question of whether it is a Democratic or a Republican situation?
That was started by Senator Clinton.
She's the one that opened this thing up.
I'm merely responding to it because it can't go unresponded to.
She's she's the one that says it is a Democrat or a Republican thing.
She's the one that made that comment.
She's just playing politics because she's dealing with that core people.
When she goes over and deal with uh uh Jewish or or or uh the Caucasian group, she'll be she would be beginning that word.
She's just politics, but let me I understand what it is.
I under I understand what it is, but she's doing it by playing the by playing the race card, and if she wants to get into a dialogue of where real opportunity in this country is for black Americans, it ain't her own political party.
Well, it's not it's it's a race thing as I brought uh since I told you you're the guy I was talking to before I talked with you the one who was screening calls, and that's the right.
Yes, that's one of the guys we have here.
Okay, well, that is this.
That Charles Wrangle and Conyers are the highest ranking members in the House.
Yeah, and how long have they been there?
At least at least eight to ten terms.
Forever.
I mean, Conyers and Wrangle have been in the House about as long as I've been alive.
They've been there forever.
They never ever rise beyond the level that they're at.
Why?
But it takes it well, it comes to a point of white and black.
Yeah, I know it does.
So white democrats don't want to concede their power to guys like Charlie Wrangle and John Conyers.
Which is true because if we had a majority Democratic House, those two particular Afro Americans would hear one of the two most powerful committees in the House.
That would be the ways and means the judiciary.
Now, that's why Dash wouldn't come up with any type of fight or come up with any type of social programs or you have a theme during the time of re-election.
But the fact that the fact is they don't go any farther than that.
How do you explain that given so few to choose from, since most American blacks are not Republicans, that you have so many prominent blacks in positions of power in the Republican Party?
Perhaps you do.
But on uh are they uh are they were the worthy of a Sir Good Marshall who stood up for black rights.
I I see Colin Powell, he he had a fight with Condonies of Rice on the war.
Both of them were what were like Hornrock.
I know, but they ha they have different ideologies.
The fact of the matter is, though, that despite those differences and and ideologies, they were both qualified to be in the positions that they were in, and the door wasn't closed to them.
Now, if you're suggesting where are all of the liberal blacks in the Republican Party, if you were liberal, you wouldn't be a Republican, and therefore you wouldn't be in a position to be in a Republican cabinet.
If your philosophy and ideology is different, however, there isn't a limit as to where you can go or what you can be given.
And given what the numbers are in the Democratic Party and the incredibly high percentage of the Democratic vote that is black.
It's pathetic.
It's truly pathetic that you look at all the governors across the country that are Democrats, white.
Almost all of the congr the the representatives of Congress who come from districts that are majority white are white.
The United States Senate, you only have Obama.
And when you take a look at past Democratic cabinets, yeah, you've got Mike Espy who had agriculture and Ron Brown who had commerce.
Try to go any higher than that.
Go into Clinton's inner circle and find someone of color.
They weren't there.
Let me just say because I know you had to cut me off.
Jesus Christ was a liberal, so I'm quite sure he wouldn't be a Republican either.
Thank you for the call.
Uh normally when you try it out a comment like that, it's when you literally have nothing else to say in response to the incredibly good point that the host made to uh Cincinnati and Charlotte.
Charlotte, you're on uh Russia's show with Mark Belling.
Hi.
First thing, Jesus Christ wouldn't have been for abortion.
Certainly wouldn't have been for slavery.
And let's make the point.
Plantations, plantations were started, run, and almost this country was fought a war where the the Democrats were the plantation owners and the Republicans were the ones that signed a proclamation or anticipation.
Well you can go as you can you can go back a hundred years after that.
Which was the political party that tried to keep segregation in the American South.
Now you can argue that that was the Democratic Party then, and the Democratic Party of the 1960s is not the Democratic Party of the 2000s.
You can make that case you can make that case, but I'm not sure how far they have grown because they're Democrats are still standing in the schoolhouse door, black and school voucher programs, as the Democratic Supreme Court down in Florida did when kill when it killed Jeb Bush's voucher program that was allowing black children to go to better schools than the ones that they were stuck in.
That was a Republican governor that tried to give them a break and give them a better education in the Democratic Supreme Court that told them that they can't do that.
So I'm not sure that they have evolved as much as they would like to think.
I don't think they've evolved quite that much either.
Let's look back at some of the programs that the Democrats have come up with.
Like, for example, welfare uh based on a lot of information that was wrong and led to uh uh blacks or or blacks that were poor, uh, live a life that was very similar to plantation life.
The men had to not be there.
The women had to take care of the children, and they had to be subservient and answered to almost every part of their life to a government that served as the plantation owner.
Well, you're responding to why some blacks have abandoned the Democratic Party.
The ideology doesn't make sense to them, and they don't agree with it.
And I have no problem with those who don't see it that way.
The point that I am trying to make here is in response to Senator Clinton, who's suggesting that the Republican Party is a bunch of bigots, because that's what the word plantation means.
If she's going to suggest that, she ought to be she ought to be making the suggestion from a house that isn't all glass because that's a really, really l powerful stone that she's throwing, and she is in no position to be able to make the point that she made.
And I do think, I do think there's going to be a point in which black American Democrats are going to start asking people like Senator Clinton to give us more than just these words and ask where prominent American black Democrats are.
Have they vanished?
Have they just been taken away on a spaceship?
What is the explanation for, given how many black American Democrats there are, that they can't win a primary election for governor or the United States Senate in any of these states other than Illinois where Barack Obama was the candidate?
You've got black candidates who run for statewide offices, Democrats, all across the country, and in Democratic primaries, Democratic voters do not vote for them.
The only time you see a black candidate elected in a Democratic area is if the district itself is predominantly Democratic.
Obama's the one exception.
But with Republicans, white Republicans are not only more than willing to vote for a black candidate for office in a primary election, they do it all the time.
And they're probably going to do it again in Pennsylvania.
They're probably going to do it again in Maryland.
Clint Ken Blackwell in Ohio is proof that they can that they will do it there.
So I think for her to make this comment is simply flying in the face of reality.
If she wants to talk about plantations, she ought to start raising some hell in her own political party because that's where the problem is.
Thank you for the call, Charlotte.
My name is Mark Belling, and I'm sitting in for Rush.
Mark Belling sitting in for Rush Limbaugh.
I have been responding to Senator Hillary Clinton's comments in Harlem yesterday at a Martin Luther King Day commemoration in which she referred to the Republicans in the United States House of Representatives as running a plantation.
I think she went there with the goal of using that word about Republicans to make the comment about the House of Representatives is just weird in terms of that's the application that she gave.
I think she wanted to throw that word out with regard to Republicans.
And I don't think it was a very smart thing to do.
You know, the reason Hillary is not going to be elected president is that in the end, she's just not that smart.
Politically, she probably thought this would be a good cheap shot to take, and it would be a way for her to bond with a black audience and bond with Al Sharpton, whose support is very, very important.
She never thought it through.
Does Hillary Clinton really want to get into a debate about access to opportunity in the Democratic Party and start explaining away her party's sorry history in that regard?
It was a dumb thing to do.
Now I've been talking here about prominent black Republicans when it comes to elective office.
It isn't even simple it isn't limited to that.
Some of the most prominent American conservative thinkers are black.
Thomas Sowell, Hoover Institution based out at Stanford, brilliant columnist, now in his 70s, leading thinker.
His books have been bought by many American conservatives, highly admired.
Walter Williams, who sits in from time to time for Rush, who's going to be here Friday.
Going to be here Friday.
Prominent economist, George Mason University, leading thinker when it comes to free markets.
Who are the opinion leaders On the liberal side, black that are listened to by the entire party.
When you do have a prominent American black like Jesse Jackson, the Democrats don't really embrace him.
They love it when Jesse goes and beats up on the Republicans, but when he wanted to run for president, he ended up having to run on the third party ticket.
You can say, Well, that's just Jesse.
Jesse was not presidential quality.
Where are the American black Democrats who are presidential quality then?
Are the Democrats going to offer the excuse, well, there just aren't any that are qualified, that old bigoted line?
Or is it that they've been denied access to power and opportunity by Democrats themselves?
I think it's a truly provocative point.
And in her own weird way, we have Senator Clinton has done us a favor, probably the only one she's going to be doing us in a long time.
But she's done us a favor because this question is one that really ought to be looked at.
Cell phone in Racine, Wisconsin, Mike.
Mike, it's your turn on Russia's show with Mark Belling.
Hi, Mark.
Hi.
First of all, I just want to say thanks and how and offer the fact that how blessed we are in Southeast Wisconsin to have you all to ourselves.
Yes, it is a blessing, isn't it?
It is.
Absolutely.
So what's on your mind, Mike?
Well, early on, you had a caller that was that made mention of the fact that blacks will never support Republicans because we don't support affirmative action.
And some somebody really needs to get their put their foot down and say this.
And since no one else will in the in the Republican Party, I'm going to say it.
Affirmative action is the modern day democratic of equivalent of slavery.
You know, we'll throw you a few pieces of meat and a few bones here and there, but um you're you better vote for us.
Well, it's a night it's it's a philosophy with regard to affirmative action as to whether or not you ought to do things on the basis of quota.
Quotas are or pass judgment on individuals on the basis of their of their qualifications.
But let's use the affirmative action mentality.
If that's the case, if affirmative action is the law in this country, it certainly is a good thing for the Democrats that it isn't applied to individuals who run for elective office because they're way, way down in terms of filling their own quota.
Now, affirmative action is indeed an issue that most American blacks do embrace, including, by the way, some who are in the Republican Party, not all.
But the school voucher issue, welfare reform issues, a number of blacks have embraced those as well.
The Democrats don't do that.
I'm not arguing that at any time in my lifetime I expect half the American blacks to become Republicans because there is a philosophical difference there.
You can't make members of a party think about things differently than they do.
You can't do it.
However, when individuals do share your beliefs and do share your values, it is morally wrong to say we don't want you because of your skin color or your gender or your ethnicity.
It is wrong.
And that was the whole message of Martin Luther King.
It is morally wrong, it is indefensible.
Then hats have the Democrats explain why that door is closed to persons of ethnicity and racial status.
Why do they do it?
Because it's certainly not for lack of potential members, given the fact that almost all American blacks are Democrats.
That party has some explaining to do, and for this, a senator of that party to go and suggest that it's the Republicans that ought to be called a plantation is just absurd.
My name is Mark Belling sitting in for Rush.
Mark Belling sitting in for Rush, Mary Madeline, the grand diva of the Republican Party is going to be with me in the third hour of today's program talking about the Martin Luther King Day observances in New Orleans, Mayor Rain Nagan, who distinguished himself just wonderfully during uh the hurricane, said, quote, God is mad at America.
He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country.
Pat Robertson makes comments like that.
Everybody portrays him as a nut.
I don't know what the reaction's going to get.
He went on to say that when New Orleans is rebuilt, it will be, quote, a chocolate city, a chocolate city, suggesting that New Orleans will continue to be a city that has a uh majority of population of black Americans.
Can you imagine if a tornado hits Salt Lake City and the mayor of Salt Lake City said, you know, when we rebuild our city, it's going to remain a vanilla city?
You just can't say things like that.
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