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Jan. 12, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:33
January 12, 2009, Monday, Hour #2
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Ladies and gentlemen, I was fortunate over the weekend yesterday.
I had the privilege of trotting the hallowed ground at Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, where the Pittsburgh Steelers at least maintain sanity in an NFL season as a home team winning a playoff game.
Go Steelers.
Up next against the Crips and the Bloods, the Baltimore Ravens.
Next Sunday at 6.30 in Pittsburgh at Heinz Field, the Philadelphia Eagles.
It's the Steelers.
The Steelers have become bird exterminators now.
They play the Ravens on Sunday, and then they'll face in the Super Bowl either the Arizona Cardinals or the Philadelphia Eagles.
Trust me, the powers that be are hoping for the Eagles in the Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida.
It's a great, great game yesterday.
Great spitting snow in Pittsburgh and about 25 degrees.
And the Steelers finally are healthy, and all phases of their game put back into Steelers football.
Back to norm.
Great, great day.
Anyway, my friends, a quick question here for you.
Snurdley raised this during the top of the hour break.
By the way, welcome back.
Here's the phone number if you want to be on the program, 800-282-2882.
The email address is El Rushbow at EIBnet.com, and we're going to get to your phone calls El Quicko here.
So if you're on hold, please stay there because there's a reason you're on hold that being I, El Rushbo, wish to speak to you.
This all got started with, I was walking in there in his office, and then we're watching the news reports, and Madoff, Bernie, it's Madoff.
I keep mispronouncing it because the first time I saw it, I thought it was Madoff.
But Bernie Madoff is judge has shown leniency and Bernie gets to stay in his penthouse apartment.
Bail will not be revoked.
And I looked at a picture of Bernie Madoff on the screen and I said to Sterdley, going to be a lot of people mad about that.
And I said, Sterley said, yeah, but they have a right to be mad.
I said, why?
What did he do?
I mean, beyond the original fraud, what did he do?
How's he violated the bail?
Well, he gave away, like, he's sending out all these assets, his watches and rings and so forth, a million dollars worth of stuff, friends and so forth all over the country.
How do we know this?
Who's telling us this?
Madoff's bunch is denying it.
Lawyer is denying it.
It's the drive-bys telling.
This is no brief for Bernie Madoff.
Now, do not misunderstand.
And then I said to Sturdley, how much is this fraud?
How much is the total Madoff fraud?
Well, easy, $50 billion.
How do we know that?
The only reason we, the only way we know it's $50 billion, is that's because what Madoff is reported to have told his sons, who remain mysteriously innocent in all this, Madolph told his sons, yeah, there's nothing there.
This is going to reach $50 billion.
And so that number is just out there.
Bernie Madoff ran off of $50 billion.
But we don't really know that yet.
We don't really know it.
And we don't know what the number is.
We do not know that he has sent out a billion dollars worth of assets.
What we know is that he had $123 million of checks that were written and signed that were found in his desk.
But we know about that too, according to his sons.
They said that Bernie said he wanted to pay off some friends and families, give their bonuses or what have you before Christmas before he went public and confessed to the crime.
But Madoff hasn't said any of this.
It's his sons that have said this.
And we're all assuming it's $50 billion.
We're all assuming that we know the $123 million is true because they found that the feds found the checks, if we can believe the feds.
And we also know that we don't know that a million dollars worth of assets were sent out all over the country, which got me to thinking about something else.
Everybody in the country right now believes that we are in a depression.
And everybody in the country believes we don't have a prayer unless this stimulus package and the next stimulus package of $2 trillion each get spent right now.
And if it isn't spent right now, we are in heap big trouble.
And then I looked at the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and it's down 90 points, but we're still around.
The exact number.
Where are we?
Hang on just a second here.
If we are at 80.
Yeah, we're at 8,500 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
I'm a top of 13,000 or something.
Why isn't it down to 2,000?
If things are, because the Great Depression, the stock market crashed, it was fee knee.
Unemployment was 25%.
And as you know, people were jumping out their office windows.
That hasn't happened yet, although some people wish that it would.
The point is, for six years, we have been told that we are in a recession when we weren't.
The media did its best to depress you for the express purpose of affecting the outcome of elections in 2004, 2006, and 2008.
It just appears to me, I mean, there are a lot of companies that are not doing well, but some have to be doing well.
A lot of companies are still in business.
They're still paying people.
Still people are going to work.
Some sectors not.
My point is this.
It is not to say things aren't bad.
I'm not that foolish.
What I'm saying is that this downturn is really not all that much worse than many others.
We're not even into Jimmy Carter territory yet, folks.
With interest rates, with unemployment, with economic confidence or lack of it, we're nowhere near even the Jimmy Carter years.
That's yet to come if Obama gets everything he wants.
If Obama gets all this spending, if he gets all this TARP money, if he gets all of this stimulus and all of this debt, that's yet to come.
That's why this, you know, the next year or two is crucial.
But we're not there yet.
And yet everybody already thinks we are.
The left-wing media templates are powerful, and they do have an impact on people.
And it's, you know, there are definite ways out of this, but none of the ways that have succeeded in the past are on the drawing board.
Only things that have failed in the past are on the drawing board.
Al Gore invented the internet, correct?
Performing two Google searches, which you have to have the internet and use it in order to do that.
Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle of water for a cup of tea.
Google operates huge data centers around the world that consume a great deal of power, said Alex Wisner-Gross, a Harvard University physicist whose research on the environmental impact of computing is due out soon.
A Google search has a definite environmental impact.
Google is secretive about its energy consumption and its carbon footprint.
But if you go to Wikipedia, which I know it's an iffy proposition, but at least here's what Wikipedia says about Google.
They run its services on several server farms, each comprising thousands of low-cost commodity computers running stripped-down versions of Linux.
While a company divulges no details of its hardware, a 2006 estimate cites 450,000 servers racked up in clusters at data centers around the world.
The company has about 24 server farms around the world of various configurations.
The farm in the Dallas, Oregon is powered by hydroelectricity at about 50 megawatts.
Now, the next story here is also along the same lines.
It's from the UK Independent on Sunday.
Energy-guzzling flat-screen plasma televisions will soon be banned as part of the battle against climate change.
Economic and climate ministers told the Independent on Sunday, minimum energy performance standards for TVs are expected to be agreed across Europe this spring, they say.
This should lead to phasing out the most inefficient TVs.
At the same time, a compulsory labeling system will be drawn up to identify the best and the worst devices.
The moves which follow last week's withdrawal of the 100-watt incandescent light bulb are part of a drive to slow the rapid growth of electricity consumption in homes by phasing out wasteful devices and introducing more efficient ones.
Giant plasma TVs dubbed the 4x4s of the living room can consume four times as much energy as traditional TVs that used cathode ray tubes.
Well, unless you have a plug-in television, I don't know anybody using a cathode ray tube unless you still have your Sony Trinitron or somebody, some people still have some CRTs.
We're going to go back to that.
We're going to go back to the horse and buggy.
We're going to go back to chicken poop and horse manure in the streets.
Can you believe the absurdity of Google search leading to climate change, plasma TVs leading to climate change in the midst of a freezing winter cycle?
Provda over the weekend.
Did you see this?
Pravda.
A huge story from a noted scientist about how we are on the verge of an ice age, a huge ice age.
And that if this guy's right, now these predictions are all over the ballpark, but if this guy's right, there are areas of the northern hemisphere which in a few years will be uninhabitable in Germany.
It was with a Russian version of the New York Times, Pravda.
And they also said that Germany has warned people that wear metal earrings to take them out because it's so cold it can stick to your ear.
And when you do try to take them out, you'll rip skin off.
They've issued metal earring warnings in Germany and so forth.
Now, I mean, the plasma TVs and Google searches.
Now, here's the thing.
They're just going to ban them.
That's not going to make them give them up.
They're just going to ban plasma.
They're not going to be, you can't sell them.
You're going to have to go LCD or something if you want high definition, if they're even going to allow those.
I don't know.
But this is all just patently absurd.
Google searches.
Remember now, the Google guys, these are some of the biggest wacko environmentalists out there.
And wait till they're hit with the news that they are a major contributor, because it's not just one Google search.
It happens at a time.
They're gazillions.
Think of the carbon footprint that Google is causing to destroy the climate.
Wait till Larry Page and Sergey Brin hear about this, and I want to see the justification for them being allowed an exemption.
Environmental impact of Google searches.
And again, you have to ask, who invented the internet?
Of course, the answer, Al Gore.
All right, your phone calls are coming up right after this.
Be patient.
Tony Dungy stepping down as coach of the Indianapolis Colts.
Said goodbye to team members, players, and the executive staff of the Colts this morning at their Indianapolis Colts complex.
Jim Caldwell, the designated head coach in waiting, will take over.
No word yet on whether Dungy is going to actually retire or maybe seek another coaching because I think he will retire for at least a year.
But upheaval continues in the National Football League.
Here's AJ in Houston as we go to the phones.
AJ, great to have you here.
Hello.
How are you doing, Rush?
Happy birthday to you.
Thank you very much, sir.
All right, happy new year and all that.
But, Rush, let me tell you something.
As a black man, I feel we've been bamboozled by the media and by Obama.
There's no way in the world black folks are never going to wake up and smell the coffee.
Come on, you don't know nothing about the man.
I did polls of my own and asked black folk, what do you know about this man?
Too late.
They can't tell me nothing.
AJ, it's too late.
It's really too late.
But the bamboozled part comes in right now.
He didn't change all the promises, pretty much what he told them what he's going to do.
I want to see what the black, what are you going to do now that you should have been doing in the first place?
It doesn't matter.
This is my problem, Rush.
AJ, I said, why is it such that you're going to change now what you should have been doing already to get yourselves out of this?
And, Rush, infrastructure.
I thought infrastructure is like the raggedy houses in the neighbor, black neighborhoods, build some stores in the ragged neighborhood, you know, get them raggedly burnt out in Detroit is ridiculous.
It's unimaginable.
Rush, I thought economics 101 was your state and your dog-going mayor take care of your city and your state.
They are the keepers of each city and state.
Federal government comes in last.
You don't even need the federal government.
Why do we have a governor and a mayor if you can't bring business into your city to make jobs for your people?
It's a step.
Come on, Rush.
It's economics 101.
When is the black folk going to wake up and smell the coffee?
You in poverty.
Look at your neighborhood.
Come on, people.
Get the jobs back in there.
Now, if Obama can do that, he will make me proud.
Until somebody gets in that black neighborhood and get these burnt out houses fixed up, get these kids to look into some pants off their butts and look at me.
I'm so sick of it, Rush.
How can another group of people come in our country and get better and do better than what you should have been doing?
I don't get it.
We've been here 500 years, and the Mexicans and the Chinese and the Arabs and the Indians can come over here and their kids do better than ours.
Something is wrong with this picture.
Black folk better wake up and they better look at the rhetoric this man is talking.
Because, Rush, I'm going to tell you something.
We're not in no depression.
The media, all of them are pieces of crap.
And Rush, I'm telling you, if America don't wake up, the sovereignty of our country is gone.
I'm sorry, black, white, green, and red.
We're not going to have a country, man.
I'm sorry to ramble, Rush, on your birthday.
I'm so sorry, sir.
But somebody got to wake the black people up.
The preachers are not doing it.
The churches are getting empty.
The kids are running wild.
And everybody's scared to put the pressure on the butt.
I'm sick of the way we're raising them.
You go to jail if you hit them.
Rush, what are you going to do when they kill somebody and they're in jail?
Well, I should have did this.
Rush, I'm tired of American sovereignty being gone.
We got to get back to raising these kids the right way.
Put some on that butt.
Stop sitting in them in the corner.
Stop being tough, soft.
I'm sick of where is America?
What is wrong with us?
We're turning into one of these socialized countries.
And we got to stop it, Rush.
And we need y'all help, man.
This is unbelievable.
I'm so sorry, sir.
I'm sorry.
AJ, I sympathize with you, my brother.
Do you feel better?
Do you feel better now?
I'm sorry.
Yes, sir.
I just wish our media stopped being on the enemy side.
Ain't going to happen.
Rush.
These terrorists want to kill us, and the media is so stupid.
You're talking about the cities and the mayors.
Yes, sir.
They're out of money, too, AJ.
But, Rush, they're supposed to be the keepers of the house.
Gone.
Rush.
They're keeping their house, AJ.
But I'm not.
Don't hold them accountable for each one of their people.
AJ, do you realize you're asking corrupt people all of a sudden turn around and be honest?
You're asking your black people here to wake up and realize what's happened.
They don't care.
It's not just black people.
The people that voted for Obama.
They don't care about anything yet except that he's there and he's going to be inaugurated.
It's historic.
It's symbolic.
It doesn't mean anything.
But, Rush, I feel so bad.
It should be.
But you know why I feel bad?
Because it should be a good occasion.
This man got so much trash coming up behind him.
I'm so sorry.
I might be the only person.
What do you mean by that?
AJ, hang on here now.
What do you mean Obama's got so much trash coming up behind him?
Rush, if you know, Rush, I'm so sorry.
I may not be the smartest guy in the world, but I know when things are tainted.
And I'm so sorry, Rush, if everybody, when you get mad and talk about this man, oh, come on.
This is the first president ever.
And we know corruption is in the White House.
We've been knowing that.
But when you blatantly do it in front of our eyes the way these Democrats are doing right now, and the Republicans are going along with it and letting them do it, McCain sold us out.
He sold Sarah out.
He stuck a dagger in her.
Sarah had that party going, man.
And McCain missed the bolt of jumping the dagger in this people, these Democrats, and McCain sold her out.
Sarah was a good person.
The media ain't doing Kennedy like that.
And I'm sick of these people, and I'm sick of the media.
I don't even watch TV no more.
I'm so sick of these so-called fine-dressing to me and looking like women.
I'm sick of them.
They makes me sick.
They're selling out our country.
They're going to get us killed.
Thank you.
They're going to get us killed.
Well said, AJ.
I mean, there's lots of people out there standing up cheering you.
That's AJ from Houston, the substitute official Obama criticizer.
And back to the phones.
We go to Jacksonville, Florida.
This is Scott, your next to the Rush Lindball program, sir.
Hello.
Allen Brothers and Boston Legal Mega Ditto's Rush.
Thank you, sir, very much.
I was over at my in-law's house last night watching two-hour season seven of 24, and what a great show last night.
I'm looking forward to it tonight, also.
And the one thing, Rush, I wanted to say was one of my favorite scenes was when Jack was sitting in the SUV with a young FBI agent.
And if Cookie could get the audio clip of this and play it, I tell you.
And the gentleman looks back.
He goes, Mr. Bauer, and Jack kind of looks at him.
You know, it's wrong what the Senate is doing to you, grilling you like that.
And I just want to let you know that I appreciate, and a lot of other agents appreciate what you have done for our country.
And Jack looks up so sincerely and says thank you.
Yeah, I think this is going to be the best season of 24 yet.
Well, it's off to a rousing start.
I, of course, as a powerful, influential member of the media, have seen advanced episodes, but I refuse to talk about it because, I mean, why ruin it?
You're just going to watch these.
I don't think that you will in the slightest way be disappointed.
I have, folks, my favorite scene of episode one last night is Jack Bauer being grilled by these pompous senators.
Here's the guy who has done everything possible to keep his country safe in the midst of genuine terrorist acts, and these people want to throw him in jail forever for torture and so forth.
And he just basically says, you guys can do what you want, but I think the people you claim to represent fully appreciate and understand what I and others have been trying to do.
We sit here.
We sit here and we have fantasies.
We dream, for example, of big oil CEOs saying, you know what?
The tables are wrong here.
You guys need to be seated where I am and I need to be where you are.
So I'm going to start asking you questions about why you have targeted my business for eventual destruction.
You guys are the ones making it harder for us to do business.
Here, let's go to the audio soundbites.
Now, this is the perfect illustration of something that is a big bugaboo of mine.
Let's take Hurricane Katrina.
Hurricane Katrina happens.
The federal response is supposedly slow.
As the president said today in his Swan Song press conference, he had 30,000 federal people in there almost overnight.
There wasn't anything slow about it.
But that notwithstanding, every member of the House and every member of the Senate stood up, demanded hearings as though they knew nothing of what went on in New Orleans, and they got to act as total spectators while the Bush administration gets dumped on here for a lack of recovery effort.
In the meantime, it was Congress which authorized the expenditure to fix the levees and to prevent flooding.
It wasn't the hurricane that tore down New Orleans.
It was the flooding aftermath when the levees broke, when the levees didn't hold.
And all the money that had been spent and all of the attention that had been given and all the warnings.
And yet every time something like this happens, members of Congress and the Senate get to sit there and act like spectators like they had nothing whatsoever to do with it.
Chris Dodd was on Good Morning America today, being interviewed by Diane Sawyer.
As you know, the original TARP fund, the Troubled Assets Relief Program, $700 billion, $350 billion, has been allocated to the banks, and the banks are not lending it.
And there hasn't been any oversight.
There wasn't any oversight written into it, as we are now learning.
And the reason there wasn't any oversight written into it is because everybody just decided to rely on a handshake.
Okay, we're bailing out the credit markets here.
Of course, it's come now that we're bailing out the auto companies from these funds.
And a number of other institutions have been able to change their structure so they're called banks so that they can have access to TARP funds.
There hasn't been any accountability.
The banks are not lending.
I quoted the Business Week story earlier today about why they won't lend.
There's little financial incentive to make fresh loans.
In the current unease, new corporate loans are immediately marked down to between 60 cents and 80 cents on the dollar, forcing banks to take a hit on the debt.
It's more lucrative for them to buy old loans that are discounted already rather than make new loans.
And Enil Keshyap, a University of Chicago Booth School of Business professor, said, banks don't have enough money to bear the risk of making new loans right now.
We're going to need TARP 2 and TARP 3.
Well, we haven't even gone through halfway of TARP 1, and the banks are still not lending any money.
Now, most people would look at this and say, well, now, wait a second here.
It was members of Congress that were running around screaming bloody murder, saying we had to do this.
We had to do it now.
The Bush administration, too, they were demanding with $700 billion.
It was a crisis.
If we didn't get it now, we're in deep trouble.
The first vote failed.
The country did not collapse.
The country kept on keeping on.
Two weeks later, after the pressure had been applied to those that voted against the bailout, they ended up voting for it.
And lo and behold, the magic didn't happen.
We didn't bail anybody out and nothing got, well, we bailed the banks out, but they had to lend the money.
Nothing got circulated in the private sector.
We have announced all these other stimulus programs.
Government's the only entity that can fix this, we're told by President-elect Obama.
And yet all this spending and all this infusion hasn't led to anything positive happening.
The auto company's got their money, but I haven't seen any improvement there.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down about 85 today, and it's been down last week.
Nothing's happening.
Obama's announced all of his big, exciting plans.
And if government's the only entity, all the announcement of the plans alone should be causing a huge spike in economic activity, a huge spurt.
Because if the government's the only entity, and everybody knows the government's the only entity, but the government's in the game, and the government's going to get in a game even bigger, and yet there isn't any confidence.
There isn't one bit of detectable movement in our economy as a result of these bailouts or promised bailouts that's leading to any increased economic activity.
Is there?
There isn't.
And so now all of a sudden, it's just like Katrina.
It's time to start pointing the fingers of blame.
Well, who's responsible?
And in that light, I want you to listen to Chris Dodd on Good Morning America Today with Diane Sawyer.
She said, now, if Treasury didn't set up any mechanisms, in other words, for the banks to put the TARP money into circulation, and you, Senator Dodd, were there when the American people were asked to sign on for this bailout, how can they believe the American people, how can they believe it's going to happen with another bailout?
And this is a critical piece here.
Obviously, it's been totally mismanaged, in my view, by the Bush administration.
And we've seen that over the last number of weeks.
Again, the good news here, Barack Obama, the president-elect, has said he entirely is to rebrand this effort entirely and demand accountability.
And I agree with him.
You can't go forward without demanding that lenders actually report and not be involved in providing or acquiring acquisitions that are healthy institutions.
Executive compensation needs to be dealt with.
We mentioned foreclosure mitigation needs to be a part of this.
Where were you the first time?
This is just, it's infuriatingly hilarious and it's outrageous.
Chris Dodd and Barney Frank and others in Congress wrote the legislation that led to the, remember all of the late night negotiations.
Remember all of the things that had to be done here in order for this thing to get passed and for the president to sign it.
Now all of a sudden the president's to blame because he didn't put any accountability in it.
President does it right legislation.
President does it right the law.
Members of Congress say, so once again, these clowns screw up royally and now get to act like spectators and say they were tricked.
They were tricked by Bush and the banks.
Now, the Bush administration, in this case, is Hank Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, who according, read the TARP legislation.
I myself have done so.
I have shared it with you.
The Treasury Secretary is a dictator here.
The Treasury Secretary is a czar.
Parts one and two, the purpose and explanation of the TARP bailout.
Give the Secretary of the Treasury sole authority.
He's the only one to spend these funds and to take action to, what's the phrase, to secure the welfare of the American people.
And so here comes, these guys thought they had a crisis on their hands.
They thought they had an emergency.
They passed this legislation to dole out $750 billion because this is what people like this do.
They spend your money.
That's what they're experts at.
Without accountability.
They do it all the time.
They don't want us knowing about their earmarks.
They don't want us knowing about pork.
They, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, the rest of these people, are the ones who spend money.
That's all they're good at.
And they do it stealth ways.
They do it in public ways.
But they do it without accountability for themselves.
The one group here that is never held accountable other than at the ballot box every two years or four is the United States Congress.
And here they are now running around blaming everybody else, Bush, the banks, or whoever, just as they tried to blame everybody else for Hurricane Katrina or every other natural disaster that happens.
Every federal law in this country is written in Congress, a combination of the House and the Senate.
And every time some disaster strikes, be it an economic disaster, natural disaster, guess what?
They had no clue.
Why, they didn't know there wasn't any accountability in it.
They didn't know that there was nothing in there to force the banks to lend money.
Dodd was not finished, by the way.
Diane Sawyer said, are you saying the Bush administration tricked you, pulled the wool over your eyes?
They didn't say what they were going to do.
535 members of Congress cannot manage a program like this.
We can demand, as we did, accountability standards, warrants for taxpayers, limitations on executive compensation.
But if the administration did not fulfill those commitments, then obviously they let us down and the country down.
The administration can't fulfill a damn anything unless it's in the legislation.
Executive compensation, that's another strawdog.
That was a political insertion into this thing.
It has nothing to do with whether the banks are going to lend money.
This is pure Democrat populist politics, class envy.
Make the people who are suffering economic insecurities and so forth think that rich guys are going to have a limit on what they can make.
Make them think it.
Don't actually do it.
Just make them think it.
And even if you did put in limits on executive compensation, it doesn't improve the life of one homeowner who's having trouble paying his mortgage.
It has nothing to do with it.
So this is once again another cowardly cop-out by Senator Dodd, but he's just the figurehead here.
He's the banking committee.
They're all this way.
They didn't say what they were going to do.
535 people can't manage a program like this.
Well, you certainly think you can manage a war.
You certainly think you can manage the Iraq war.
You certainly think you can manage the recovery of Hurricane Katrina.
You can do everything better than anybody else does it, except everybody has to go by the laws you write.
And the laws you write have screwed up so much of this country, and you get to pretend that you had nothing to do with it and then claim we can't do anything about this.
All we can do is sit here and hold hearings and punish people who had nothing to do with it while we save our own bacons back in a sack.
We stick with the phones.
Ladies and gentlemen, however, we are going to go back to Friday for the audio soundbites in Blagojevich With his answer to the state senate having this impeachment, state House having its impeachment vote against him, he pulled out the oldest trick in a Democrat playbook, putting a parade of victims up on stage with him, and the drive-bys are just livid with him for doing that.
It's hilarious.
Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.
All that coming up in due course, Metro Detroit next.
This is Michael.
Great to have you, sir.
Welcome.
Michael.
Yeah, hi.
How are you, Michael?
Oh, man, I don't believe it.
Great.
Hey, dittos to that first caller from Houston.
That was awesome.
And dittos to you.
Happy birthday, white trash cake dittos.
Thanks very much, sir.
Appreciate that.
This goes back to your comment in the first hour about ownership of the economy in six months.
Yeah.
This is amusing, frustrating, and it strikes a nerve with me.
Last week, our governor here in the state of Michigan was on local television and rushed.
Go ahead.
You can't just say the governor.
You can't assume everybody knows who Jennifer Grandholm is.
We've got to mention her name.
There you go.
You can't get a straight answer out of her in regard to the economy without her blaming George Bush policies.
Exactly.
This goes on constantly.
And I hope somebody from her office hears this because we're tired of hearing about this.
And I guess my question, my comment is: at what point, and here I'm talking about state government, but at what point does a politician take ownership of their economy?
How long can you keep pointing the finger at the president?
It just never stops.
Well, wait a minute.
We've got to have realistic expectations here.
In terms of Democrat politicians taking ownership of economic mistakes, never.
Just.
No, no, it's never.
Like Bush did a press conference today, and he owned up to some mistakes.
You know, this is a farewell thing.
And it's amazing the drive-bys.
We've got some of this too.
The drive-by said, this was the real George Bush that we know.
And they love him.
They thought it was just fabulous today.
This is the real George.
He was sensitive.
He was funny.
He was warm.
But your point about Jennifer Grandholm is exactly right.
And I would put it this way, phrase it this way.
Just like, you know, Krauthammer thinks in six months that Obama's going to own the economy.
The American people are not going to care about his policies.
They're going to look at economic numbers in their lives.
They're going to say, and wishful thinking.
I hope Krauthammer's right, but Jennifer Grandholm has gotten away with running that state into the ground, and she still gets re-elected.
You ask their office, their office is laughing themselves silly because there are still enough people in Michigan that are electing her.
Now, Michigan has also got a people drain.
I've got a story somewhere here in the stack that Michigan, I think, is one of the top four states in the country of people migrating out of it.
And a large part of it is because of the economics of the situation.
She's been the tax increaser, the tax raiser, and so forth.
But yeah, the state's mostly Democrats, so she can dump on Bush and get away with it.
Well, here's what's interesting.
Even the local reporter finally asked her after she had made this comment.
Again, we've been hearing about this for so long.
He said, Governor, you've been in office for seven years.
What policies have you enacted?
What changes have you enacted to steer us in the right direction?
And it goes back to the same thing, the George Bush policies.
It's like you just sit there and you want to bang your head on the wall.
It's like, stop it.
Just stop it.
You know, if I were Grandholm, I would have answered that question in a different way.
So at least I'm not in jail like the mayor of Detroit is.
Oh, don't break it.
No, you don't go there.
People are asking, you know, your standards are too high here.
I've done a mark of a remarkable thing here.
Look.
Well, look, why can't I be?
He is in jail, right?
Yeah, he's in jail.
All right.
See, in some circles, it is racist to mention that Kwame Kilpatrick is in jail, but he is.
By the way, speaking of Michigan and Detroit, our affiliate there, WJR Radio, is going to broadcast the automotive roundtable on their website, WJR.com.
It's going to originate in their studio and be heard throughout the ABC Radio Network tomorrow night.
And I wanted to mention this to you because they're right in the thick of things here with the auto bailout.
And WJR is the community leader in Detroit.
So it's on their website.
It'll be all over the ABC network tomorrow night, Automotive Roundtable.
Just go to WJR.com and you get all the details.
Back in a sec.
Joe the Plumber was over in Israel.
He was over there in Israel on Saturday.
He arrived at noon and he really lashed out at the media in Israel for ripping into the Israelis and taking up the cause of the gazookas in Gaza.
Details are coming up, plus another exciting hour of your phone call.
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