Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
Well, the Enron verdicts are coming in, and Ken Lay has been found guilty on all counts.
There were six of them guilty on all six counts of the Enron trial.
So maximum jail time, if it's sentenced, is 45 years for Ken Lay Skilling is guilty of conspiracy and fraud.
He had 28 charges against him.
A bad day for the defense in the Enron trial.
Essentially, these guys have been found guilty of lying to the American public about their attempt to defraud people within the company and its related operations.
Greetings, my friends, and welcome.
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I have never, I said last week I've never seen the Republican base, the conservative base, more upset with its party in the 18 years I've been doing this program than over this immigration bill.
And today, folks, with what's happening in the William Jefferson case, Democrat Louisiana, and the way the House is going, having conniption fits over the so-called Saturday Night Massacre, which was the search of his congressional office last Saturday night.
If you combine these two things, if you combine the House of Representatives' leadership reaction to the warrant search, there was a warranted search.
The executive branch did not invade the legislative branch.
They went to a judge.
The judicial branch authorized the search of the office of Congressman William Jefferson, Democrat Louisiana.
The House leadership's reaction and response, not just the House leadership, both parties.
Reaction to this search of a congressman's office with all the evidence that has been revealed around his activities.
The disconnect there and the disconnect with the Republican Party and its elements over immigration.
I have never seen anything like this in the 18 years that I have been doing this program.
The House Post Office and the House Bank scandal were close.
But folks, I've never seen anything like this.
It's breathtaking to see how literally out of touch and tone deaf all of these people inside the Beltway are.
They know full well how you feel about immigration, and it doesn't matter.
I mean, they're mooning us.
They're flipping us the bird.
By the way, I got complaints.
We illustrated Congress mooning us graphically at rushlimbaugh.com, and I got some email complaints.
With little baby butts, McCain and some of these other guys, Lindsey Graham, put their faces on baby bodies with the diapers down.
And I still got complaints from people that it was too risque, that they didn't expect to see that when they logged on to my website.
We're going to be talking about all of this today, and then you have ABC, which ran this special investigative unit report that Hastert was under investigation by the Justice Department over his role with Jack Abramoff clients.
And Hastert appointed to the Justice Department, and they very seldom do this, but the Justice Department denied it, denied it twice, said there's no investigation.
He's not under investigation.
Hastert's not a target of anything we're looking at here regarding Abramoff.
They even had the assistant attorney general go out and say this on the record.
And ABC is standing by its story.
Now, there has to be something going on here.
The drive-by media is the drive-by media, but there's got to be somebody in the Justice Department telling Brian Ross, oh, yes, there is something going on with Hastert.
The way this has manifested itself, they say, well, Hastert is not a target, but he's involved in the investigation, despite the fact the Justice Department said no.
If you ask me, and I'm only speculating, that's all we can do here.
This is so extraordinary.
If you ask me, somebody in the Justice Department is upset at the way congressional leaders, Hastert et al., have reacted to their search of the office of Congressman William Jefferson, Democrat, Louisiana.
And I think you might say, well, why is the House so disconnected from everybody on this?
Everybody knows.
This is simple.
You and I could not get away with hiding evidence of a crime in our house.
And if somebody came and did a search, we couldn't say, you give me that stuff back.
You have no right.
They demand to have that right.
Now, they can't, you know, no law enforcement official can go into a congressman's office and steal or use any kind of a legal mechanism to get legislative materials.
But we're not talking legislative materials.
We're talking evidence of a crime in a congressman's office who refused a subpoena for eight months.
This was not a massacre.
This was not a surprise.
They've been trying to get in there for eight months.
They finally found a way to do it because they ran out of, well, there just wasn't any cooperation.
This is simple for people to understand.
And yet, I think on the House side, on the House Republican side, I think there's a lot of bitterness at the White House.
And this is probably the way that it manifests itself.
They're upset over the Dubai Ports deal, or upset that Porter Goss was sent packing.
He was one of them.
They're probably upset that the president's led them down a path here that imperils their reelection.
So there's some real, real turf battles going on here in Washington.
The Senate voting on its asinine immigration bill today.
And I have a number of ways I'm going to put this in perspective just as I did the Dubai Ports deal, except in this case, I'm going to be on all of your people's side, whereas with the Dubai Ports deal, I was standing alone against the wind.
We'll get to all that in the second segment.
We'll get started with all that in the second segment.
Also, this note, Tony Snow, the new White House press secretary, will be here at the top of the second hour or as soon as he can get here after the White House press briefing and a meeting he's got to do after that.
But we're targeting sometime early in our third hour.
Now, some things I want to get out of the way here before we get started in earnest and all this other stuff.
One of the most irresponsible news stories that I have seen in a while, and that's saying something, was published by Reuters yesterday.
New Orleans, still down and out from last year's assault by Hurricane Katrina, is the U.S. city most likely to be struck by hurricane force winds during this next storm season, said a researcher.
The forecast gives New Orleans a nearly 30% chance of being hit by a hurricane and a 1 in 10 chance the storm will be a category 3 or stronger, said Chuck Watson of Kinetic Analysis Corporation, Savannah, Georgia.
It's a risk assessment firm.
Given the state of the infrastructure down there and the levees, gosh, that's just not good news, but that's what the climate signals look like, Mr. Watson said.
Watson partnered with the University of Central Florida statistics professor Mark Johnson also predicted that oil production in the Gulf of MayCoal will be disrupted for a minimum of a week at a cost of 78.
Folks, there's nobody who can possibly know this.
And to report this as a weather forecast, giving it a 30%, like 30% chance of rain tomorrow after 30% chance that New Orleans gets destroyed again.
Yep, yep.
30% chance of rain.
We're going to lose 7-8 million barrels of oil for one week for crying out loud.
They also have statistics in West Palm Beach, where we are here, because Hurricane Wilma roared through here.
We have a 19% chance of being creamed.
Mobile, Alabama, Key West, Florida, and Pensacola both have 20% chance of being creamed by a major hurricane.
It is my contention, ladies and gentlemen, that nobody can predict this.
And to do this under the guys, well, we must prepare the city of New Orleans.
You think they're not?
The city of New Orleans is probably expecting a 100% chance, given the luck they've had lately.
I mean, this is just, it is absurd, this occupation preoccupation we have with doom, gloom, pessimism, destruction, despair.
Man, I can make a hurricane prediction.
Let me make a hurricane prediction.
I think the Carolinas are going to get Carolinas and North.
I think those are the ones that are going to get creamed, and I can tell you why.
When I moved down here in 1997, I didn't have any experience living in a hurricane area.
So every time one of those things formed, I made a B-line for every weather channel I could find in the internet.
And I studied, I watched them day in, day out.
And there were three or four times from 1997 to, say, 2000, maybe even more, where a hurricane was barreling right from my house, coming right at us.
And at the last moment, 100 miles out, it turned north and the Carolinas got creamed.
Well, I think it's about time that cycle got repeated.
I think New York's going to get hit big.
I think Pennsylvania is going to get creamed.
I know as much about it as anybody else does.
I know as much about it where a hurricane's going to hit as anybody else does.
This is just absolutely, I mean, it's just absurd.
Totally irresponsible.
I'm going to take a brief time out here, folks, and gather my thoughts and regain my composure.
We'll be back and continue right after this.
Stay with us.
Hi, welcome back.
Great to have you.
El Rush Bo, serving humanity simply by showing up here on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network and the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
Do you see this story about the Veterans Affairs and all the identity theft?
Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said Thursday he's striving to find out why it took his agency two weeks to reveal the theft of personal data from 26.5 million veterans, telling Congress he's mad as hell that he wasn't told right away.
The employee promptly reported the theft of the local cops and to the Department of Veterans Affairs, but it was not until May 16th that I was notified, Nicholson said.
As a veteran, I am outraged.
Well, let's hope that those people that stole the identity theft are illegal aliens.
They're the only ones who can get away with it.
That's part of the new Senate immigration bill.
Identity theft will be legalized.
Well, I'm sorry, it'll be amnestied.
Identity theft amnesty.
So it's okay to steal the identity of somebody if you're an illegal immigrant, but boy, if you do it, and if you happen to be in on this scam of stealing personal data from 26.5 million veterans, you are going to fry.
And I have other examples of that as the program unfolds today.
Just some of the comparisons.
The illegal aliens, ladies and gentlemen, if this bill were ever to become law, will end up with actually having more rights and more freedom than citizens of this country have.
Wait till you hear some of the things that my exhaustive research has discovered.
Let's go to the audio tape.
Here is Elizabeth Vargas, ABC's World News tonight, last night.
We begin with a major development in a Washington bribery scandal.
Tonight, sources tell ABC News the case involving convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff has led FBI investigators to some of the most powerful members of Congress, namely the man second in line for the presidency after the vice president.
Our chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross joins us with his exclusive report.
Brian.
Elizabeth federal officials tell us the congressional bribery investigation now includes the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert.
Based on information from the convicted lobbyist, Justice Department officials describe the 64-year-old Illinois Republican as very much in the mix of the corruption investigation.
Well, they went then and talked to Stephanopoulos.
They bring him in to discuss this potentially seismic event.
Elizabeth Vargas, who's the pregnant infobabe being moved aside here for Charlie Gibson, said the political implications of Speaker Hastert is now a target.
George, what are they?
Potentially seismic, Elizabeth, and it really is going to depend on the facts and whether prosecutors can demonstrate, acquid pro quo, that Haster took that official action in return for the campaign contribution.
As Brian said, he's denied that.
But if they can prove that, if they can get an indictment, this would be a political earthquake.
Well, the only problem with this is none of it's true.
And that's a pretty big problem, but it hasn't deterred ABC from continuing to report the story.
After all this came out, the Department of Justice went on the record and released the following statement.
Speaker Haster is not under investigation by the Justice Department.
But our man Brian Ross, the ever, ever, ever pursuant investigative reporter says he has knowledgeable sources inside the Department of Justice who say that Haster is under investigation.
Now, there could be any number of explanations for this.
One of the possibilities is it's typical drive-by media.
Okay, you got a Democrat in trouble over there, Congressman William Jefferson, Democrat Louisiana.
Let's try to take the heat off of him.
He's one of our boys, and let's focus on Hastert.
It could also be that somebody, the Department of Justice, is leaking to ABC that Hastert is part of an investigation because the Department of Justice is upset over the way Hastert and boys have reacted to the search of the office of Congressman William Jefferson, Democrat Louisiana.
ABC is sticking by its story despite the denial.
And local media in Washington, of course, paying far more attention and credence to ABC's unnamed anonymous source than they are to the express denial on the record by the Department of Justice.
I have in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers a copy of the letter to ABC that lawyers for Denny Hastert have mailed.
It's addressed to David Weston, George Stephanopoulos, and Brian Ross regarding the false story regarding a Justice Department investigation.
Dear Mr. Weston, Stephanopoulos, and Mr. Ross, at 7.25 p.m., the statement of the Department of Justice confirmed Speaker Hastert is not under investigation by the Justice Department.
At 10.21 p.m., you wrote, whether they like it or not, members of Congress, including Hastert, are under investigation, one federal official said tonight.
This statement is false, and your republication of it after actual knowledge of its falsity continues and constitutes libel and defamation.
ABC News' continued publication of this false information after having actual knowledge of its falsity evidences a specific and malicious intent to injure and damage Speaker Hastert's reputation by continued repetition of a known falsehood.
We will take any and all actions necessary to rectify the harm ABC has caused and to hold those at ABC responsible for their conduct.
Please advise regarding who will accept service of process to remedy this international falsehood.
Very truly yours, J. Randolph Evans, Stephan C. Pacentino, Counsel to Speaker J. Dennis Hastert.
So it's a twilight zone.
This whole, everything that's going on here, immigration, the disconnect between the House and the American people over the search of the office of Congressman William Jefferson, Democrat Louisiana, and now ABC sticking with a story that's been officially denied by the Department of Justice, which is the arm that would be investigating Hastert if such things happening.
They stick with an unnamed anonymous source over an on-the-record Associate Attorney General's flat-out denial, and now they've been threatened with lawsuits and so forth and so on.
I, folks, when I saw this last night, when this first happened, that this leak, that Hastert was being investigated, it just smelled, it smelled like crap, frankly, to be quite honest with you.
The timing here was very, very suspicious.
Brian Ross can be a menace, folks.
I've had my own little run-ins with him where he has gotten it totally wrong about me.
And when that happens to you, it's quite natural that you begin to doubt other things that people report when you discover, like, who would ever believe Dan Rather again, for example.
So it's a strange situation to observe.
And ABC, as far as I know, and I haven't seen anything since we went on the program today, haven't seen anything from ABC that says they're discontinuing the story.
Just some speculation as to why they're sticking with it, which I have come up with my own theories and shared them with you twice.
I already don't want to become redundant.
Some lawmakers are warning of a voter backlash now against members of Congress.
Really?
What was their first clue?
I wonder what would give them their first clue, who are trying to protect their own if party leaders keep escalating a constitutional dispute over the FBI's raid of the office of Congressman William Jefferson, Democrat Louisiana.
Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi has gone public again on camera saying, hey, I want him off the Ways and Means Committee.
She even went to the Congressional Black Caucus and get him out of the Congressional Black Caucus.
And who you saying to what?
What?
What, babe?
Who you said who?
What?
This is accusing her of almost racism because it wouldn't have happened to a white guy.
Oh, folks, it's, I mean, it's a laugh riot.
What we've always thought about Congress is actually being demonstrated to be true.
Back in just a moment, as we continue to unfold before your very eyes.
Some of the finest bumper music anywhere, L. Rushbo, America's real anchorman behind the Golden EIB microphone at 800-282-2882.
Jim in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Welcome, sir.
It's great to have you on the program.
Hey, how you doing?
Just fine, sir.
I've got a bone to pick with you, Rush.
Really?
What's the idea of predicting a hurricane is going to hit North Carolina?
I have to live in North Carolina.
Well, that's what I think is going to happen.
And I happen to live in Florida and I don't want them to hit here.
And if they don't hit here, they usually hit you.
Yeah, but you're 98% accurate in everything you say and do here.
And so great.
Now I got it stuck in ready for a hurricane.
Thank you.
That's very funny.
You couldn't have predicted like Mexico or something.
You know, it would be wonderful, but I don't think they get up that by the time they get that way, they're heading west.
Yeah, but you predict it.
It'll happen.
That's a great idea.
He's exactly right.
Even when we start making jokes about things, they generally come true.
It'll be an I Told You So moment.
Jim, that's excellent.
I appreciate the call.
Thank you.
Thanks so much.
Asheville, North Carolina, and another Jim.
Welcome, sir.
Great to have you.
Hey, Megan Ditto's Rush.
It's an honor to speak with you.
Thank you, sir.
The reason I called was to make the point that if Congress is fighting this subpoena with such force and statements, why would anyone give a darn about their subpoenas when they subpoena people from the other branches, whether it's the executive branch, ordinary citizens, business leaders?
If they're not going to honor a legal or legitimate subpoena from another branch of government, why should anyone care about their subpoena?
Well, one thing, though, it's a great question, and I raised it yesterday.
This is from the same bunch of people that's constantly using its subpoena power to drag anybody and everybody up before them to explain what for.
These are the guys that go out and write all these laws, spend all this money, and then when it's not spent correctly or it's not allocated properly or things go wrong, they pretend they had nothing to do with it.
They get away with acting as spectators, and they bring everybody up and put them under the lights.
And we're going to get to the bottom of this to find out how you screwed up and how we can pass the blame off to you from us.
And they subpoena people all the time to come up there.
Now, in the case of Congressman William Jefferson, Democrat Louisiana, this was a search warrant that finally resulted in the search of his office last Saturday night.
This was not a subpoena.
They have been trying for eight months.
In addition, folks, Andy McCarthy with a post at National Review Online today, points out that the Justice Department was very careful in the way they did this search.
No agents that had been involved in the original investigation did the search.
They shuffled agents two or three times to make sure that the agents that were actually doing the searches and the investigations only knew specific items, and that's what they were specifically looking for, and that's what they specifically got.
And they did it with a search warrant, which happens to be issued by a judge.
And it's asinine because we've had the whole Congress going bonkers lately about warrantless searches of individual citizens, the Bush domestic spy program, yada, yada, yada.
Now, all of a sudden, here comes a search with a warrant from a judge, which is the judicial branch.
This was not the executive branch storming into his office and taking things out of there.
This was exactly how it would happen with you or I.
We know what he was trying to hide in there, or we're pretty sure we know what he was trying to hide in there.
And for members of Congress to have no anger about what he was doing, but instead focus on the FBI and the Justice Department in this is simply outrageous.
And I'm telling you, it represents a disconnect that is pretty big.
And this is, I said in the top of the program, this is easy to understand.
American people could not in any way, shape, manner, or form get away with what William Jefferson and the rest of the Congress is trying to let him get away with by returning whatever was taken from his office.
It's absurd.
Nobody elects people intending for them to be immune from the law.
Now, we understand that you can't go in there and steal legislative documents, although that has happened.
Remember in some of the memos that popped up on Republican computers and the Senate Judiciary Committee staff about strategy that the Democrats on that committee were using to thwart Bush judicial nominees.
This stuff does happen, but that was legislative to legislative.
You can't go in and disrupt their duties as lawmakers.
But their duty as lawmakers does not allow you to hide $90,000 or $10,000 in cash.
It does not allow you to hide records of the commission of a crime.
Otherwise, you could commit murder and stash the body in a congressional office and get away with it because there's no evidence.
You couldn't get the evidence.
It's absurd.
And nobody thinks that members of Congress should have this kind of immunity from the law.
And with these guys coming out and demanding that this search be squelched and the materials be given back represents one of the biggest disconnects from leaders and elected officials to their constituents and the citizens of this country that I have ever seen.
You want to hear something that's actually even weirder than all this is Barney Frank this morning on the House floor during one-minute speeches.
I disagree with the bipartisan House leadership criticism of the FBI search of a member's office.
What we now have is a congressional leadership, the Republican part of which has said it's okay for law enforcement to engage in warrantless searches of the average citizen, now objecting when a search pursuant to a validly issued warrant is conducted of a member of Congress.
What they did, they ought to be able to do in any case where they can get a warrant from a judge for the leadership of this House, which has stood idly by while this administration has ignored the rights of citizens, to then say we have special rights as members of Congress is wholly inappropriate.
Unbelievable!
Barney Frank is coming out against Hastert.
He's coming out against Frist on the basis that the American people are searched without warrants every day in the domestic spy program, and this is outrageous that they are defending Congressman William Jefferson, Democrat Louisiana.
Now, let me tell you something.
This is, well, I'm going to tell you what this confirms.
What this confirms is something I've been trying to tell these guys for the 18 years I've been behind this microphone, specifically since 1994.
You cannot make friends with these people.
And I told you yesterday, I said one of the possibilities, the reason why Hastert and the boys are coming out and opposing this search warrant is because they want to curry favor with the Democrats, like trying to curry favor with the Democrats on immigration, aren't they?
We're trying to out Democrat Democrats on immigration, aren't we?
Thank you, Senator McCain.
Why wouldn't we do it here?
And because Congressman William Jefferson's black, Democrats, Republicans rather might have a little guilt.
We don't want to appear to be going after Congressman Jefferson because he's New Orleans, aren't we?
Because we just feel so bad about his district and so forth.
So they stand up for Congressman Jefferson and his quote-unquote rights as a congressman.
And what do they get?
Barney Frank slamming them for not having the sensitivity to understand how this is totally inappropriate, yet they think it's okay to spy on the American people without warrants.
My boy lollipop.
Our Barney Frank theme song didn't have time to play it here.
So that's now, before we get the immigration, I want to go back, folks, because people have forgotten where this William Jefferson stuff started.
And my source.
I'm going to go to ABC News, Jake Tapper, this is September 13th of 2005.
And I've been scratching the surface of this all week and discussing the trials and the tribulations of Congressman William Jefferson.
Let's listen to this.
September 13th, 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Amid the chaos and the confusion that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, a congressman used National Guard troops to check on his property and rescue his personal belongings, even while New Orleans residents were trying to get rescued from rooftops.
On September 2nd, five days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Congressman William Jefferson, Democrat Louisiana, who represents New Orleans and is a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, was allowed through the military blockade set up around the city to reach the Superdome where thousands of evacuees had been taken.
Military sources tell ABC News that Jefferson, an eight-term Democrat congressman, asked the National Guard that night to take him on a tour of the flooded portions of his district.
A five-ton military truck and a half-dozen military police were dispatched.
Lieutenant Colonel Pete Schneider, Louisiana National Guard, told ABC News that during the tour, Congressman Jefferson asked the truck take him to his home on Marengo Street in the affluent uptown neighborhood in his congressional district.
According to Schneider, this was not part of Jefferson's initial request.
Jefferson defended the expedition, saying that he set out to see how residents were coping at the Superdome and in his neighborhood.
He also insisted he didn't ask the National Guard to transport him.
I did not seek the use of military assets to help me get around my city, Jefferson said to ABC News.
There was shooting going on.
There was sniping going on.
They thought I should be escorted by some military guards both to the convention center, the Superdome, and uptown.
The water reached to the third step of Jefferson's house, according to a military source familiar with the incident.
And the vehicle pulled up on the Jefferson's front lawn so he wouldn't have to walk in the water.
Jefferson went into the house alone while the soldiers waited on the porch for about an hour.
Finally, according to the source, Jefferson emerged with a laptop computer, three suitcases, a box about the size of a small refrigerator, which the enlisted men loaded up into the truck.
Jerry Hauer, Homeland Security expert and ABC News consultant, said, I don't think there's any explanation for an elected official using resources for their own personal use when those resources should be doing search and rescue or they should be helping with law enforcement in the city.
Jefferson said the trip was entirely appropriate, took only a few minutes to get his belongings.
The truck stayed at his house for an hour in part to assist neighbors.
This wasn't about me going to my house.
It was about me going to my district.
Well, Louisiana National Guard then chimed in, said the truck in front of Jefferson's house got stuck as it waited for Jefferson to retrieve his belongings.
Two weeks later, the vehicle's tire tracks were still visible on Jefferson's lawn.
The soldiers signaled to helicopters in the air for aid.
Military sources say a Coast Guard helicopter pilot saw the signal and flew to Jefferson's house.
The chopper was already carrying four rescued New Orleans residents at the time.
A rescued diver descended from the helicopter, but the congressman decided against going up in it.
The pilot sent the diver down again, but Jefferson again declined to go up in the helicopter.
After spending approximately 45 minutes with Jefferson, the helicopter went on to rescue three additional residents before it ran low on fuel and was forced to end its mission.
45 minutes could mean an eternity as somebody that's drowning to somebody that's sitting on a roof.
It needs to be used its primary purpose during an emergency.
Coast Guard Commander Brendan McPherson said ABC News, we did have an aircraft that responded to a signal of distress where the congressman was located.
Congressman did decline rescue at the time, so the chopper picked up three other people.
Anyway, what happened is the guard had to send a second five-ton truck to rescue the first truck and Jefferson and his items because the first truck got stuck in the mud in a lawn outside his fashionable home on Marengo Street in his district.
Jefferson insisted the expedition did not distract from rescue efforts.
Now, what all this leads to is that this box, the size of a small refrigerator, it has now been speculated by investigative sources that Jefferson was retrieving the cash that constituted the bribe that he had been paid and so forth.
And he needed to get in there and get it out.
I bring all this history back because you see what's happened to this story.
Nobody in the House of Representatives, except Nancy Pelosi, and she's even tiptoeing around it, appears to be in the slightest way outraged over what a member of Congress has done.
No, the focus is on the executive branch, how out of control they were in this search and how the Justice Department had no right and no business going in there.
And we've got to get those materials back.
And ABC chimes in, by the way, Hastrit's the real guy under investigation here.
Oh, no, he's not, says Justice Department.
Oh, yes, he is, says ABC.
And that's where we are.
But the disconnect on this, tell you what, let these guys keep going.
Let them keep saying and doing things as they are.
And it's going to be 1994 all over.
You can throw this incumbency always gets re-elected rule out of the window here, folks, if this kind of stuff keeps up.
And this may be impossible for them to do damage control on now.
Anyway, it's so absurd.
All this, you couple that with the disconnect on immigration, which is coming up in the next hour.
And it is, we need to do an investigation.
What has happened up there that has so distanced these people from the citizens they serve and the people who elect them?
Quick timeout.
We'll be back after this.
Stay with us.
I'm just sitting here, ladies and gentlemen, thinking of how frequently the Democrats will throw a black member of their party or even of Congress overboard into the sharks, the little Major Owens lingo there.
I mean, you've got Nancy Pelosi basically telling William Jefferson, scram, get off the Ways and Means Committee.
He's saying, screw you, I'm staying here.
That's a powerful position.
My people in New Orleans need the money.
I'm not going anywhere.
So what's she going to do?
You got Barney Frank now, who basically came out and said, William Jefferson has no defense.
And yet when Barney had the problem with Stephen Goby, who was running a prostitution ring from Barney's basement, and Barney said he didn't know about it, they circled the wagons and they backed Barney up on that.
And then you look, the Democrats threw Carl McCall overboard to the sharks.
They threw Maynard Jackson overboard to the sharks.
Al C. Hastings, a judge, the Democrats, yeah, they didn't go to bed for L C Hastings.
But the one black that they have backed all the way is their first black president, William Jefferson Clinton.
Not to be confused with William Jefferson, Democrat Louisiana.
So fascinating to watch these guys.
Here is Mark in Cleveland.
You're next on the EIB network.
Hello.
Your man Brian Ross got released from NBC many years ago for telling a whopper about GM General Motors pickups and the side impact problem.
Wait a minute.
Was that Brian Ross that did that story?
That was when NBC Dateline or whatever the show was rigged these General Motors trucks to blow up.
Right.
You could see the little explosion, the little pre-explosion before the car smashed into the pickup.
Yeah, they were trying to say that the trucks were unsafe and it'll blow up if you get creamed in a collision.
And then actually to spice it up, put explosives under the chassis.
That was Brian Ross that did that?
Right, yeah.
You can probably Google it if you like.
Oh, I've just been told that one of our researchers, seeing your call on hold, did some research and just came back, said, yes, you are correct.
Not that we doubt you, Mark.
We've got to back these things up because people can call the program saying they want.
So don't take it personally.
Trust but verify.
Trust but verify, exactly.
I'm glad you called Mark and Cleveland.
How about that?
Brian Ross was involved in that NBC story where they rigged trucks to blow up.
Yeah, I mean, talking about the drive-by media, folks, that was perhaps the first drive-by hit.
NBC making a truck blow up, try to convince viewers that it was a collision rather than their own explosives that they sent.
And Brian Ross got canned.
Who was the news director at the time?
Michael Gartner?
Gartner, yeah.
He was his stois not long after that, too.
Michael who?
He's back in journalism school now.
First hours in the can, the fastest three hours in media.