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April 28, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:34
April 28, 2009, Tuesday, Hour #2
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The views expressed by the host on this program, now documented to be almost always right 99% of the time.
I am your host, El Rushbo, America's real anchorman, a truth detector in the Doctor of Democracy meeting, and surpassing all audience expectations on a daily basis.
Arlen Specter, six weeks ago, said he was not going to leave the Republican Party.
We need a Republican Party because there's a one-party rule in Washington.
We need Northeastern Republicans.
We need all this.
Today, he walked out of his orifice in a Senate building and said he's announced that he's changing a Democrat Party.
And the assembled drive-by reporters cheered.
The drive-by reporters cheered and applauded.
President Obama has called Senator Specter, so we're thrilled to have you.
Obama said, I'm thrilled to be here, or Spector's, I'm thrilled to be here.
The truth of this is in Senator Specter's statement.
The Republican Party has, he became a Republican during the big tent era of Reagan, which isn't.
And then the party has moved just too far to the right, become dominated by the right wing.
And that's why he's leading.
It's just the exact opposite.
The right wing has gone away.
The Republican conservative movement is being shut out of the Republican Party.
The Republican Party is more like Arlen Specter than it has ever been.
If you want to know the truth about it, the truth is polls show he's getting skunked in the Republican primary by his opponent there is challenger Pat Toomey.
And the first obligation of every politician is to get re-elected.
And they're going to get re-elected.
Hey, folks, I got a quick question for you.
A very formative experience in the life of my grandparents and parents.
And I remember it too.
I was maybe five or six years ago.
I think it was 1956.
I might have the date wrong by two or three years.
But the then Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, went to the United Nations, took off his shoe, started pounding his shoe, and said, we will bury you.
And we will bury your children.
Well, my grandparents' generation took that very seriously.
They had to.
But as I think back on it, what Khrushchev was actually saying was that the communists will bury you.
We are eventually going to take you over.
My question is, somebody help me out on this.
Did he give a date?
Everybody assumes that Khrushchev was going to do it during his tenure.
And of course, it didn't happen during his tenure.
But I know the communists, I mean, they don't have four-year increments like we have with presidents and administrations.
I don't think Khrushchev gave a date.
Something to ponder.
This was only a matter of time.
A member of the Maersk, Alabama, the ship that was hijacked by the Somali merchant marine organizers, has sued the owner and another company, accusing them of knowingly put sailors in danger.
Richard Hicks, there's a picture of Richard Hicks here.
It's an AP story.
He looks very much like the Reverend Jackson.
Richard Hicks alleges in the lawsuit that the owner Maersk Line Limited and Waterman Steamship Corporation, which provided the crew, ignored requests to improve safety measures for vessels sailing along the merchant marine organizer coast.
Hicks asked the two companies, they pay at least $75,000 in damages, saying he doesn't know if he will ever work on a ship again.
My family not looking, he was the cook, by the way, the ship's cook.
My family not looking forward to me going back out to sea, but I'm not sure if I'm going back.
I'm still nervous.
Leary, I might find something else to do.
He's worked for 32 years as a seaman.
We think the company should be more concerned about the personnel on their ships than the profits the companies make, said Terry Bryant, the attorney for Richard Hicks.
Now, this is, I wonder if this is the Mr. Yellow Page's attorney.
Regardless, Mr. Bryant, you are wrong, because without profits, there are no workers.
Plain and simple.
But, so it's only a matter of time before this happened.
And once this happened, maybe the Somali merchantry and organizer in custody can join the lawsuit, a class action.
And we'll see how the Obama administration handles that.
Speaking of Obama, here is he went back to FBI today.
This was a replay of his trip to the CIA.
They grabbed the secretarial pool again, just like they did at the CIA, put him in the lobby out there, and his giant big, oh, yeah, we love you, President Obama.
And here's a portion of his remarks.
Living our values means that we must hold ourselves to higher standards than our enemies.
We face a long struggle against a determined adversary.
We know that Al-Qaeda is not constrained by a constitution or by allegiance to anything other than a hateful ideology and a determination to kill as many innocents as possible.
But what makes the United States of America so special is precisely the fact that we are willing to uphold our values and our ideals, not just when it's easy, but when it's hard.
So what he basically again saying, look, I kind of envy Al-Qaeda.
They're not constrained by a Constitution like I am.
But don't worry, I'm working on getting rid of that Constitution or changing it so that it's not such a burden on me.
I mean, guys like Obama look at the Constitution as a burden.
He looks at Al-Qaeda and sort of wistfully, gee, these guys aren't constrained by a Constitution.
But I continue to be profoundly offended with this notion that we sacrifice our values when we engage in acts to protect the country.
You know, when you get right down to it, this whole notion of we're torturing here and torturing there, you know, we are, the United States of America throughout our history has been a decent country.
We are a decent people.
And this notion, well, we can't become our enemies in the process of fighting.
We've done that many times.
We have, depending on the severity and the risk that we face, you know, we are a decent people, and we do not compromise our decency when taking steps to defend and protect our country and the Constitution.
And the idea that we do profoundly offends me, bugs me greatly.
So we got to tie two hands behind our back.
Anytime we face ruthless, as he describes them, ideologues who are hateful and killers, we've got two hands behind the back.
One is not enough.
And if we don't put two hands behind our back, we're somehow betraying our values.
What values?
I would like for him to enumerate them.
I want to know what values he's talking about that we hold on to while we defend and protect the country.
I mean, it's easy to run out there and spew this notion, well, we've got to hold on to our values.
What values?
Which ones are you talking about?
Because frankly, his values are not the same as mine.
When it comes to this country, here's President Obama, this is this morning, FBI headquarters, talking about the photo op with Air Force One and the Statue of Liberty.
They had to update the photo file.
I know airlines do that.
The people who manufacture airplanes and run airlines get pictures of their product over scenic areas and so forth.
But when the hell, you can't go buy a ticket on Air Force One.
I mean, have they never heard of Photoshop?
You know, you get a picture of Air Force One, you get a picture of the Statue of Liberty, and you Photoshop it.
Total disregard for the people on the ground in New York, President Obama said.
It was a mistake, as was stated.
It was something we found out about along with all of you, and it will not happen again.
That's just miraculous.
Just to me, he didn't know.
He's the only one who can fly on this airplane.
Nobody can put the wheels in motion to get Air Force One off the ground other than Barack Obama.
If they're going to do a flight like this, he has to be told because he has to also know he can't travel that day on that airplane.
Now, if he's just going to take a jaunt, you know, up to the Waldorf Asteria or something, get on a 757, whatever plane he gets on, is Air Force One.
But to get away, I didn't know.
This will never happen again.
I didn't know.
If George W. Bush were president and this would happen, we wouldn't know the name of the schlub that they're dumping all over here that they're claiming is responsible for this.
This poor schlub had to go out there and apologize, fall on the sword.
It gets even better.
This is yesterday, Washington, a press conference.
Chuck U. Schumer, unidentified reporter says, what's the FAA's reason for not warning the public?
The FAA is sort of like a sphinx.
They mess up everything and they don't tell you why.
The last head of the FAA was a political appointee, a hack, who messed the place up to a fairly, well, we're looking.
There is not a new appointment, a new administrator yet, but we're looking for a much, much better one.
This is up to the FAA, and I put the blame on the FAA, not the NYPD.
Oh, you put it on the Bush is what he's doing is blaming Bush.
But he better coordinate this with the White House because the White House is blaming somebody in their office.
Let me find this guy, too, by the way, because sit here and talk about this.
He's got a name, and he was involved in that Indy Mac bank out in California.
Folks, it's coming up here.
Well, I don't want to waste time finding.
I should have put it at the top of the stack, but I didn't.
Calderon or some such thing.
Damn it.
Caldera.
That's right.
I can't keep it caldera.
Calderon's a Mexican president who's probably got pig flu.
Calderon.
No, caldera, caldera.
This guy was involved.
He'd been Peter principled.
In other words, he's got no experience heading up the White House military office that he's heading up.
But this guy did it.
They arranged it.
The White House did this.
The FAA didn't do this.
And the idea not to tell anybody about it is definitely Obama administration secret service.
Look at, in one sense, I can understand it.
You don't say Air Force One is going to be flying at 1,000 feet over Manhattan because then you might lure people who get surface to air missiles or want to take a shot at it.
But, you know, 30 minutes before it happens, warn people.
15 minutes before, warn people that they didn't even think to do it.
And now Chuck U. Schumer wants to dump on the FAA about this.
Here's the mayor of New York City.
He's furious, too.
He's not as mad at these people as he is mad at the people who eat salt, but he's still mad.
I'm annoyed.
Furious is a better word that I wasn't told that did have the normal language of saying that this is sensitive information, should be distributed on a need-to-no basis, that they did not plan to have any publicity about it, which I think is ridiculous and just poor judgment.
Why the Defense Department wanted to do a photo op right around the site of the World Trade Center catastrophe defies imagination?
Wanted a photo op out at the Statue of Liberty over Ellis Island is where they wanted to do the photo op, but because of flight pattern, and they were 1,000 or 1,500 feet.
Again, he's mad.
He's not as mad as he gets at people who eat salt, but he's still mad there.
Now, here's Janet Napolitano, or is it Reno?
The Janet Reno of this administration.
She was on the Today Show today.
And the question, how would you explain how the government could have sanctioned a low-flying plane over lower Manhattan, which, of course, still has the memory of 9-11?
My understanding is the FAA sanctioned that, but I share that concern.
I don't know how that happened, and we want to get to the bottom of that.
You know, mistakes were made, mistakes shouldn't be repeated.
Are you embarrassed that the government made this mistake, did not realize the panic this would cause in lower Manhattan?
Well, I don't think it was the right thing to do, and it certainly wasn't intended as such.
But again, we're looking into that right now.
What exactly happened here?
Nobody knows how it happened.
This is Air Force One.
There is the Secret Service.
There is every defense agency, the Department of Defense, the FBI, everybody knows about this.
The FAA has to know about it.
Guess who else has to know about this?
Air traffic control in New York.
If you're going to have a 747 fly on the route that thing flew yesterday, you're going to have to tell other aircraft, you're going to have to reroute them on their arrival and departures out of LaGuardia and Newark and JFK and Teterboro, which is where the private jets go out of.
A lot of people knew about that.
And even after it's up there, okay, it's up there for 10 minutes.
There's a panic, announce it.
But what's just hilarious, Obama didn't know.
Napolitano didn't know she's Homeland Security.
Do you think the Department of Homeland Security didn't do I know where my airplane is all the time?
Damn straight I do.
What kind of question is that?
My airplane, yeah, but his two fly at the same time.
If his airplane is like mine, if I'm not on mine, it doesn't fly unless I specifically send it somewhere, taking somebody or picking somebody up.
I know where it is.
Even last Friday, when I was burning fuel to celebrate Earth Day, I sent it down to L.A. to pick up some friends.
I get hourly reports where that airplane is.
I know where it is.
There's a lot of people.
This administration had to know what was going on.
The idea that they don't is just, it is preposterous.
And dumping this on the FAA because a Bush hack, as Schumer says it, ran the place.
Here's Gibbs.
I mean, this is the best one.
This is yesterday at the White House, Gibbs doing the press briefing, and he had an exchange here with Chuck Todd of NBC and Bill Plant, CBS.
Chuck Todd said, you guys feel you owe folks in New York City an apology?
I mean, the airplane looks like Air Force One.
It was Air Force One, Chuck.
Two fighter jets.
There seems to be a lot of panic up there.
I would contact the White House.
The White House military.
Hold on a second.
Stop the tape and reek hewitt.
are the white house he's the press secretary at the briefing room in the white house which in the west wing is telling the press to contact the white house I would contact the White House.
The White House military won't tell us anything.
He'll refer us to you.
Then let me go discuss with the White House military.
I have seen some news reports, but I don't know.
I have no information on this.
I can tell you what I saw.
The way this works, I'm just saying appearance-wise, it's odd that you guys don't have a response.
I mean, this is the president's aircraft or what it looks like.
I was working on other things.
You might be surprised to know.
I don't know of every movement of Air Force One or what happens to it, but I will certainly talk to the military office.
You certainly as hell know the days you're not going to be on it, and you know the days you are.
Boy, I'd tell you this is buck passing.
Like, I've rarely ever seen it.
I mean, folks, this plane doesn't go anywhere.
These two 747s do not go anywhere without Barack Obama knowing about it or being on it, because when they're gone, he can't take one.
He cannot use one.
He's got to know it's not available.
I'm surprised Gibbs didn't say, well, we're looking into this now.
We think that right-wing extremists who are returning from the war have taken the airplane up.
We'll let you know as soon as we find out.
It's really hard to believe Obama here and say, we found out about the plane flying up in New York at the same time as you do.
We did.
The White House military office director is Luis Caldera.
That's the guy's name.
He is we.
He is White House staff.
His office is in the White House.
And the White House military office is a fairly high-ranking office in the White House staff.
He is part of Obama's we.
He's the guy that planned it.
He's the guy that set it up.
But he can't do it on his own.
He's got to get clearance from all kinds of people to take that airplane up there.
You don't just call Andrews Air Force Base and say, hi, I'm Caldera, White House military.
Get that plane up there about 10 o'clock on Monday morning, photo ops, a couple passes, 1,1,500 feet.
Gonna have an F-16 with you and get your ass back down.
It doesn't work that way.
You know what it's like in the bureaucracy getting and moving something that big?
There's Obama.
We found out about it when you did.
This guy, Caldera, is part of Obama's we with a capital W and a capital E.
I mean, my God, if Obama is going to can Rick Wagner for botching GM, Obama ought to fire himself or at least caldera.
I mean, this is it's just, it's just beyond the realm of believability.
I can't believe this.
And drive-bys are actually discussing how come so many more cases of swine flu in Mexico than here.
How many more come so many more deaths in Mexico?
Did they really not know this?
Well, just hang in or be tough, folks.
I will explain it in a few minutes.
First off, one more Bob Gibbs subbite than back to the phones.
We've decided to put together a montage here of the this is how he was sold to us when this administration was immaculated.
Smitest, smartest, the brightest.
I mean, this guy, he's the most eloquent, the best press secretary anybody's ever had.
This is a montage of Robert Gibbs answering reporters' questions.
I don't know how many briefings he ended up getting.
I will double check on this.
I'd have to go look at the information.
I don't know.
I have no information on this.
I don't know.
I'd go back and check my notes.
I've got no information on that.
I have not talked to anybody about that.
And I will check on it.
Let me check.
Let me check.
I said five minutes ago that I would try to find out.
I haven't forgotten.
I will certainly check.
Again, I will check individually on your question.
I will ask.
While I check on the other question.
Guys, my ears work fine.
I will check on the questions.
And I can check.
I don't know.
I have not seen.
I will check.
I honestly don't know.
I got to check with the White House.
I've got to check on the White House, find out why Air Force One was up there.
All right, Steve, in Colville, Utah.
You're up next on the phone.
It's great to have you here.
Thank you for waiting, sir.
Hello.
Well, Rush, your accuracy rate's going up again.
I'm a former Secret Service officer, and without going into specifics, the idea that Obama didn't know about this plane being up is just laughable.
Obviously, if one of the planes that can be used and designated as Air Force One is unavailable, there are all sorts of contingency plans in place for if the president needs to be evacuated from D.C., dirty bomb, biological weapons, nuclear attack, everything.
There's contingency plans for each and every possibility that can arise.
And that one of the planes is unavailable.
To think that there was no plan and that there was no knowledge that that was unavailable is incredible.
Absolutely incredible.
Well, it's not believable.
It's not possible.
Your Secret Service, I didn't know you guys are allowed to talk after service.
I guess that's why you can't give specifics.
I will not go into specific contingency plans, but just that there are plans.
Well, but it makes total sense.
Okay, it makes total sense.
President of the United States is the most at-risk individual in the world, and he's the most open.
His airplane is going to be flying up the Statue of Liberty up in New York for whatever length of time it's going to be out of service.
People have to have contingency plans, as you say, on a daily basis to evacuate them in case there's any kind of an attack.
Meaning, he has to be aware.
He has to be told this.
Absolutely.
There are so many plans from what different locations.
Obviously, when he goes out to speak, and Obama travels quite a bit, as we've all seen, plans for these specific locations, you know, closest hospitals, blood typing, blood matching, emergency evacuation plans.
If the weather's bad, how it's going to be.
I mean, it never ends.
The planning never ends.
And to say, hey, we were caught off guard.
We didn't know that one of the two planes that we typically use is unavailable.
I mean, come on.
What even that?
Unbelievable.
He said, we found out when you did.
Correct.
But the White House military office guy, Louis Caldera, is we.
I mean, Louis Caldera is in the White House.
The White House military office is part of Obama's staff.
Correct.
Well, I appreciate.
Steve, I'm glad that you have called and backed me up on this because it makes total sense.
But here's the thing about this.
How is it I ask this question, ladies and gentlemen?
How is it that Barack Obama's own staff, in this case, the White House Military Office, is not part of the we in the administration, but when Navy SEALs rescue a captain thousands of miles away, Obama is the main member of the we that carries out the rescue.
We ordered this, so we had standing orders, that we did this, 3,000 miles away.
We knew what was going on, whatever it was.
Well, we found out about this same time you did.
We're sitting there watching the news.
You see, my God, there's my airplane flying around up and standing at liberty.
I didn't know anything.
I'm going to get to the bottom of it, though.
Just a daily insult to everybody's intelligence.
Here's Torin.
I hope I'm pronouncing that right.
Austin, Texas.
Hello.
Yeah, this is Torrin.
How are you doing, Rush?
Very well, sir.
Thank you.
My point is, going back to the GM story.
Yes.
I'd like to, I've always thought this, but it's more reiterated now, that I think that it's almost un-American to buy American.
Buying an American car supporting a union organization that is out at one time not only to destroy the business it was working for, but now it's out to destroy the fabric of the country in which it lives.
So buying American is un-American.
I've had a lot of people send me email notes that have sentiments similar to yours.
I'm never buying an American car again.
Well, it's hard to get it.
I work at a GM dealership.
I work at a GM dealership.
I sell cars, so it's just kind of hard.
Well, you know, you're going to have some, you know, you're going to have some help.
I wouldn't give up quitting the job just yet.
You know, with the union owning 39% of General Motors, you're going to have some help.
You know, when people come in, want to test drive a car and drive it, and if they don't buy it, you know, you're going to have some guy walking around threatening the potential buyers' kneecaps.
I think it might be an easier sale.
I think what's going to have to happen is not only is he going to have to do what he does at GM, he's going to have to find a way to hurt the other car manufacturers so that people are more prone to go to GM as opposed to buying cars that they actually want to buy.
We'll see.
You know, I'm reading all this happening last night, and I'm chit-chatting with people.
And last night was one of the nights that just made me laugh.
And please don't misunderstand this.
It is infuriating.
He says it's un-American.
It used to be as GM goes, so goes America.
I guess it's true.
I guess it's in the toilet.
I guess it's true.
It's like, folks, have you been researching this for me?
Did Khrushchev give a date when he said that they were going to bury us?
This is Mike in Baltimore.
Nice to have you on the EIB network.
Hello.
Hey, Rush, how are you?
Good.
Mega, mega dittos.
Thank you, sir.
I've got a quick comment.
I'm just curious because I lived in Manhattan during the 9-11, and I remember the panic.
But for that plane to be flying over just recent and for there to be a big panic, I'm curious as to why.
I mean, the Democrats, for the longest time, were telling us that Bush and Cheney were using terrorism as a tool to get elected.
And the Democrats were using that, or Republicans were using that as a tool to get elected because terrorism, it was just, you know, please don't use that to get elected.
Well, a plane flies low, and man, do the memories come back vividly.
Maybe it's not a tool.
Maybe it still exists that there is a threat in the minds of the people of America.
Well, I think that's exactly right.
That's an excellent point, by the way, particularly when talking about people in Manhattan and down near ground zero.
I mean, do you realize that people were even fleeing out of the Goldman Sachs building?
Right.
Goldman Sachs building is down there.
A lot of financial buildings are, a lot of financial orifices.
I mean, look at the video.
People were running for their lives down there.
And yeah, they try to tell me, oh, terrorism was just something Bush used as a tool.
That terrorism isn't really real.
Exactly.
Exactly.
It brings it right back home, right to the people who actually feared for their lives for a minute.
All right.
Look, I'm sorry, folks, but I have to ask this question.
Thanks for the call out there, Mike.
I have to ask this question because I'm not an idiot.
You send a Boeing 747, which is Air Force One, and either one or two, I'm not sure, I only saw pictures of one, but there might have been two F-16s, the escort jets.
Presumably, that's where the pictures were being taken.
You know, the Air Force jet getting the view of Air Force One right in front of Statue of Liberty and so forth.
But you don't need to do that to get a picture of Air Force One near the Statue of Liberty.
And furthermore, do they not have a picture of this 747 near the Statue of Liberty?
They probably got pictures of this Air Force One in Grand Canyon, you know, flying underneath the Golden Gate, well, not underneath, but I mean, they probably got.
But why do you need them?
Now, wait, wait a second.
No, no, stick with me on this sturdily.
It has nothing to do with it being Obama's plane.
It's not as though you have to have publicity shots for Air Force One in order to sell tickets for people to ride it.
Because no matter what people do, they cannot get on Air Force One.
So what does it really matter?
Where is this PR photo going to be used?
And to what purpose?
You could do the same thing with Photoshop.
You really could.
You could accomplish the same thing with Photoshop.
Now, you stop and think of this.
We're all sitting here, and except the people in lower Manhattan.
You know, people are laughing about this.
But you stop and think for a minute.
Do you really believe that everybody involved had no idea that this would cause a panic?
Do you really believe that everybody involved thought, big deal, we're going to go up there and get a photo op in front of the statue?
Nobody needs to know.
Do we really believe that there's not one person in the chain of command that caused this event yesterday that didn't realize that a Boeing 747 at a thousand feet over Ground Zero was just going to be looked up?
And oh, hey me, maybe look at that.
Well, it's a little off course and I wonder what president's doing this.
Is that really the reaction people are just going to have?
There's more to this than we know.
I have no idea what.
I'm just telling you the excuses that are coming out of the Obama's.
We found out when you did dumping it on this caldera guy, the White House military office dumping it at the FAA, the mayor of New York not being told about it, but his second or third in command was, and he didn't pass it on to the mayor.
NYPD knew this.
Does none of this, none of the explanations for what took place yesterday, make any sense to me, including the need for a photo op?
Now, as I said earlier, I understand, if you are going to do this, that you don't publicize it way in advance, because the plane's going to be flying low and thus is a target, but you don't have to wait until 45 minutes after all this hubbub has been created, to explain what's going on.
You could do it five minutes after the process starts, but they didn't.
They this panic, the idea that that that this was not going to happen, that nobody figured something like this panic would result something I don't buy.
So there really This that makes common sense.
That just too much we don't know.
I know the carbon footprint and the money being wasted and all that.
Sure, it's an extravagance and so forth.
But beyond all that, there are just some aspects to this that literally make no sense.
And we have the Secret Service guy call, folks, trust me on this.
The number of people who have to know when Air Force One is going to be launched is a lot.
You do not do this in secret.
It's just for something like this.
Now, if you're going to take Air Force One to Baghdad on Thanksgiving with Bush, yeah, they can do something.
But even that had to be planned in the greatest, greatest detail.
And everybody involved in it knew what had to happen.
And if there was one break in the link, if the word got out, they were not going to go.
Because the plane would become a target.
I got to run.
We'll be back here in just a second.
Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, has come out and said, hey, the only reason Specter left is he was going to lose.
Not bad, Mr. Chairman.
Not bad.
Not bad.
It's getting in, get it, and get out.
One of my favorite philosophies.
And also, Rush, was President Obama on the plane?
Could it be that, do we know that he wasn't?
Could it be that he wanted the photoopathy himself?
Folks, he wasn't on the airplane.
He was the FBI talking to the secretarial pool as though the secretarial pool was a bunch of agents and he was delivering a lecture on American values, like abortion.
Well, he didn't talk about abortion.
He said, we're going to defend American values.
We're not going to waterboard Khaled Cheg Mohammed.
We're going to murder a million babies a year.
We're going to defend American values.
He wasn't on the airplane.
Even if he was.
Now, I don't know how many of you have been on the 747.
The windows are not that big.
I've said all there is to say about it from my perspective.
I'm just saying none of this makes any sense.
The explanation, what they said they were doing up there, Obama saying he'd hit no, found out about it watching television.
Gibbs saying call the White House when he's in the White House.
Here's Joanne in Mobile, Alabama.
Great to have you on the EIB network.
Hi.
Hi, Rush.
It's great to talk to you.
Listen, I am thrilled about Specter joining his leftist people because what this means is, according to my calculations, that now I do believe that Jeff Sessions, who is true conservative, knows the law, follows the law, I think he is now going to be ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
And this is great because we need to get our conservatives in the leadership positions in the Senate and the House.
I think you may be right.
I think you may be right.
I love Senator Sessions, too.
I love Senator Sessions as though I were an Alabaman.
And this guy, he's been shafted by this very committee, not the same members.
He was up for federal judge with Reagan.
They turned him down.
But he is a really, really good guy.
He's solid citizens and so forth.
I think, by the way, here, Joanne has a point, too.
And when talking about Specter as the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, of course, that is most important to Specter.
And I think that he held on.
He wanted to be chairman of that committee again.
And now he realizes that he's up against the Penns, Senator Leakey Leahy.
And he wasn't going to be chairman anytime soon.
Plus, the polling data in the Pennsylvania primary is losing right now to his challenger, Pat Toomey.
So there are a lot of things.
But this is, again, a little bit surprised at Steele because I fully expect the Republican Party to be a little upset about this.
They count numbers.
I heard, who was it, Cornyn or Kyle or somebody the other day say, I can't get anything done in this Senate without Arlon Spector.
I need standing up for Specter's re-nomination, re-election.
You know, these people hang together.
So I expected the Republicans to sort of go, ah, no, we've lost that number.
We've lost that number.
They don't care about ideology.
Conservatives, you know, applauding this.
Steele came out and said, hey, he left because he's going to lose.
So in some people's minds, Steele has stepped in it again.
Not here.
Quick question here, folks.
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