Rush went on the radio and promised a tape of Obama's wife saying 'whitey'. It likely doesn't exist. The repub groups that claimed to have it, promised it would come out 9 days ago, and they won't talk about it now, or why it's not coming out.
it was a smear job, most likely. Only 8% of the Bush big money backers have donated to Mccain, and FOX and other outlets have a new plan to demonize Michelle Obama, because people just like Obama so much. I'm not the world's biggest Obama fan, but this is outright dirty politics. Reminds me of 2000, when Rove called voters in S. Carolina and flirted with the idea of mccain having an illigetimate African-American baby. It was an outright lie, and it cost Mccain the nomination.
Lets clear this shit up right now;
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This Michelle (My Belle) Obama "whitey" rumor, the tape and so forth, the DVD that was out there, I heard about this for two weeks before I ever commented on this. I heard about it for two weeks. I didn't talk about it. I didn't repeat it. I didn't reference it, and then all of a sudden I see that some in the Drive-By Media think that Hannity has the tape and that he is holding the tape. Then some other people said the RNC had the tape and they're going to hold the tape 'til October, they were not going to release it prior to the Democrat nomination fight finishing 'cause they didn't want to get rid of Obama because they think he's the weakest candidate of the two, since Hillary was on her way out, let's leave her out. And then after two or three weeks of this, I did mention it as a rumor going around 'cause it had reached critical mass and there were people saying that they had seen it, but they wouldn't produce it.
So it had finally risen to a heat level, if you were, that it warranted mentioning on this, the most listened to radio talk show in America. Now the AP, starting last night, has put out a story that I, essentially, am behind all this. Here, "The rumor that Michelle railed against," blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, "was circulated on conservative Republican blogs for weeks and was repeated by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh." Well, once they put my name in the story, nobody else in the story matters. Listen to this. This morning on Channel 5, KTLA, the CW network in Los Angeles, the anchor Frank Buckley reading his teleprompter.
BUCKLEY: The Obama campaign is fighting back against rumors and smears with a website, fightthesmears.com. It's using the site to debunk a rumor that the candidate's wife, Michelle, used the word "whitey" in a speech from the church pulpit. The rumor that Michelle Obama used the word in a diatribe at Trinity United Church of Christ has circulated on Republican blogs for weeks. It was repeated by talk show host Rush Limbaugh. The rumor included claims that there was a videotape of the speech. The campaign says no such tape exists.
RUSH: How old is this story? Obama denied this ten days ago or sometime last week. Obama denied this last week. All of a sudden I started noticing this last night on my RSS feeder. There must have been 35 newspapers last night which had the same AP story in it, so I got all 35 newspaper versions and some TV stations like this. I was last in line on this one. I was a nonfactor on this. But, what happens is, this is as far as the Drive-Bys are concerned, folks, and this is an example of the power of this program. When the Drive-Bys are looking at Republicans or conservatives to really nail us to the wall, until I mention it, it doesn't matter. 'Til I bring it up, it doesn't exist. Well, I mean what the hell, I was last in line. Hannity was denying on the radio for days that he had the tape. Let's go back. This is me on May 30th, and this is what I said about this.
RUSH ARCHIVE: There are these rumors circulating -- and I don't know if this is true, but there are a number of people suggesting -- and I first heard this, by the way, when I was gone Monday and Tuesday of last week.
RUSH: Okay, stop the tape, stop the tape. That would have May 14th and 15th or whatever when I was out there playing Torrey Pines, so the middle of May. That's when I first heard this. What is it now? June the 12th. So this is about a month ago that I said this, and all of a sudden now this becomes front-page news, thanks to the AP and the Drive-By Media.
RUSH ARCHIVE: And that the Republican Party supposedly has it now, of Michelle Obama speaking from the pulpit of this church talking about whitey. I don't care if it's unacceptable, Snerdley, I mean I'm just reporting what's out there. I'm reporting on a rumor that is out there.
RUSH: Yeah. According to the Drive-Bys, I started the rumor. I gave the rumor credibility by mentioning it myself. Last night on MSNBC, DNCTV, here's Dan Abrams talking about it, also with the social commentator Nancy Giles.
ABRAMS: We're learning more tonight about the GOP strategy to hit Senator Obama close to home. The Los Angeles Times reports today, conservative voices are energetically taking on Michelle Obama. Let me read you this. Rush Limbaugh: She's a lovely and angry wife.
GILES: Oh, come on.
ABRAMS: Michelle Malkin: Obama's bitter half. National Review: America's unhappiest millionaire.
RUSH: And then, of course, Dick Durbin -- yeah, play Durbin, number four. Listen to what Durbin said.
DURBIN: The hottest ring in hell is reserved for those in politics who attack their opponents' families. And if there are some Republican strategists who think that's the way to win the election, I think they're wrong.
RUSH: The hottest ring in hell is reserved for people like you who attempt to criminalize members of the United States military trying to save your butt from foreign attack.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay, so we have learned here that the Democrats and the Obama campaign have decided to go back into two-week-old history, start a website designed to protect Michelle (My Belle) Obama from any, shall we say, criticism out there. Here's what's going on. The Drive-Bys are gearing up and laying the groundwork to protect Michelle (My Belle) Obama, and they are putting in the record that I am the one leading the attack on it. That's what this AP story is about. AP is a news monopoly, and all the TV stations and all the newspapers get AP. That's why this story's in thousands of newspapers today. And, of course, my name is in there in the first paragraph or so. I mean, I look at this as an honor, of course, 'cause they think I'm the devil. I've got two horns coming out of my head and they think if they put my name in the story where Ms. Obama is being criticized, all of a sudden that's gonna rally the troops. It's to get it in the Nexis database. So this is one of these things that's going to live for five years, that I attacked Michelle (My Belle) Obama. Now, month after month, Nancy Reagan was smeared by the media. Month after month, Pat Nixon was smeared by the media. Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri, was smeared by the media starting with the New York Times. And of course what did they call her? A trophy wife.
Now, who do these libs think they're trying to intimidate here? Who do they think they are dealing with? If they're going to have a website here called "fight the smears" or whatever. Well, I'm thinking I might put up my own website, "fight the Obama smears" website, the "fight the Drive-By Media smears" website. Now, why wouldn't people comment on Michelle Obama? She is subject to scrutiny to the extent, folks, that she does subject herself to scrutiny by making public statements that are provocative, and intentionally so. She's on the campaign trail, and she's out there telling poor women to stay poor. She's telling women, don't go into corporate America. She's telling women to stay in service work and stay poor and do all of these other things. She's inserting herself policy-wise into the campaign. It seems to me, like Hillary Clinton was, that she's fair game. Why wouldn't people comment on these things that she says? The media cover things that she says. Why do the media cover her remarks if she and her remarks don't matter, or if she and they are of no importance to the campaign, then why is what Michelle Obama says covered?
So what we have here is just a continuation of the same old thing: You can't criticize this, you can't say that, you can't say that, you can't say that, you can't criticize a liberal, can't talk about his wife, can't talk about his girlfriend, Scarlett Johansson. Well, I don't know girlfriend. He's got an e-mail relationship with Scarlett Johansson. You can't talk about Jeremiah Wright, can't talk about Bill Ayers, can't talk about his grandmother, can't talk about his race, can't talk about his father, can't talk about his half race, can't mention the middle name. And now we can't talk about Michelle (My Belle). Listen to Dick Durbin again. This is yesterday on DNCTV. Norah O'Donnell said, "Can I ask you about what Maureen Dowd wrote in today's New York Times about the Republicans targeting Michelle? She said, 'It's good news for Obama that Hillary's out of the race but it's also bad news. Now Republicans can turn their full attention to demonizing Michelle Obama. Ms. Obama is the new unwilling contestant in round two of the sulfurous national game of "kill the witch,"' that's what Maureen Dowd wrote. What's your reaction to that, Senator Turban?
DURBIN: The hottest ring in hell is reserved for those in politics who attack their opponents' families. And if there are some Republican strategists who think that's the way to win the election, I think they're wrong.
RUSH: Now, note in Senator Turban's world for whom the hottest ring in hell is reserved for. It's not reserved for Adolf Hitler. The hottest ring in hell is not reserved for Bin Laden nor other terrorists who have killed thousands of Americans. The hottest ring in hell is not reserved for child molesters and murderers and so forth. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The hottest ring in hell is reserved for people who would dare attack a politician. The hottest ring in hell is reserved for anyone who would attack a politician's wife. Dick Durbin: hubris, arrogance, conceit, and stupidity. This is who we're dealing with, my friends.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Get this. I just got an e-mail, just as the bumper music started. "Just this second, Rush, Jay Carney and Andrea Mitchell are anguishing over you spending half an hour today denying that you started the whitey rumor. Carney basically said your riff was a pretext for you to continue perpetrating it. Of course, no mention of the fact that Carney and Mitchell were themselves continuing to talk about the whitey rumor. Unreal!" It is unreal. I should not be surprised. They are going to try to tag me with starting this rumor. And they're going to tag me with continuing to talk about it and denying that I started it as a means of perpetuating that she said it. I've always said it's nothing more than a rumor but I've never seen any evidence of it. Now, here's the thing about this. Does anybody remember Bob Beckel? Bob Beckel, this was Tuesday of I think Montana and South Dakota. And Bob Beckel was on the Fox News Channel somewhere, and he brought this thing up, and he said he was really worried. He didn't want to say what it was, but that he thought it was real and that it was devastating. It had him really, really worried. I'm not sure exactly when he said it, but it was our old buddy Bob Beckel that really is the guy that gave this credence by saying it worried the hell out of him. Of all the things, I'm doing Show Prep feverishly last night and this morning, and I saw this story. Of all the things that I thought would end up being the focus of the Drive-By Media today, it certainly wasn't this. It's such a nonstory, but this is how they work. They've gotta get my name associated with this. They think they can hurt me. They think they can protect Michelle with this, Michelle (My Belle) Obama. When are they going to learn? They didn't make me; they can't destroy me.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here's Jay Carney, this afternoon, PMSNBC live talking about the rumor.
CARNEY: This rumor started circulating among conservative bloggers and then was picked up and just repeated as a rumor by Rush Limbaugh, of course, the widely listened to conservative talk radio host. Now over -- driving over to the studio just half an hour ago I heard Rush Limbaugh's show and he's talking about this nonstop, talking about how it's -- you know, he's not to blame, he was -- he was just reporting a rumor. He spent half an hour at least when I was listening to him re-circulating the very rumor without shooting it down.
RUSH: (laughing) So this is how news is manufactured. This is how templates are set. This is how action lines are set. The action line now is that I have decided to resurrect this rumor, which has -- (laughing) -- which has been destroyed. There is no tape. Obama said there's no tape. There's never been a tape produced, but I, Rush Limbaugh, decided to resurrect it and not shoot it down. Now, why am I mentioning it? Because I somehow am in the story here as Boris Badenov, the evil spy. Now, here's Beckel on June the 3rd, Fox News Channel Fox & Friends, Alisyn Camerota was talking to Beckel, and he talked about this rumor. Now, some people think that Beckel was just trying to bait a bunch of conservative bloggers and talk show hosts by purposely acting frightened that the thing had some legitimacy to it, the theory being that he knew that it didn't.
BECKEL: I always hear rumors. I hear thousands of them in the course of a presidential campaign, but this one I have heard from enough sources, it worries me. I won't give any details of what it is except to say that there is some thought that there might be a very big shoe dropping on Michelle Obama tomorrow --
CAMEROTA: Wait a minute.
BECKEL: -- and that -- yeah. I can't tell you what it is 'cause I don't want to perpetuate the rumors. But I will tell you this, it is -- whoever is promoting this thing is doing it in enough ways, in a very smart way that it gets to me in ways that make me get worried about it.
CAMEROTA: Okay.
BECKEL: Normally I don't worry about these things.
CAMEROTA: But it's your understanding that this is bigger than, say, a college thesis paper?
BECKEL: Significantly.
RUSH: Okay, now, the theory here that Beckel is just trying to bait people, "Bob Beckel said it, oh, must be true," and then conservatives start rolling with it at even greater speed, but that Beckel knew all along that he was lying, that there was no tape, and he knew there wasn't a tape, and they knew he knew that if he gave it credence, that it would suck in some conservatives on this. Okay, even so, take the theory face value. How does Beckel get exempted from those responsible for spreading this thing around? Well, he didn't mention what the supposed slur from Michelle (My Belle) was, but everybody at the time knew what it was. So he was playing it very cagey.
Here's John in Canton, Ohio. John, welcome to the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. This is the fourth time I've talked to you and it's been a pleasure each time.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Regarding that rumor, I believe you said shortly after you first mentioned it that the person who had spread these rumors had spread false rumors in the past, and at that time it made me think, well --
RUSH: Yes, the guy that spread this was the guy who claimed that Karl Rove had been indicted by Patrick Fitzgerald.
CALLER: That's correct.
RUSH: It's the same guy. I said, "This guy's got no credibility," and I was frankly kind of surprised why anybody was believing what this guy had to say.
CALLER: Well, I pretty much wrote it off at that time, when you said that, I thought, well, it's probably just one more --
RUSH: Yeah. In that regard, I shot it down out there.
CALLER: Yes, you did. And, you know, rather than being a uniter, this guy is really a divider. I think somebody mentioned this before, 'cause the author that I've bought books from, most are probably Thomas Sowell. I love Thomas Sowell. I voted for Alan Keyes in '96 and 2000 Republican primary, I voted for Ken Blackwell in 2006 for governor. And you really have to struggle to, you know, watch your thoughts about people of other race because of Obama and this whole mess. He's not a uniter, he's a divider. And it's really difficult, I don't know, I shouldn't say much more, but --
RUSH: Well, I know where you're heading. We made the point here that he does not unite people.
CALLER: No, not at all.
RUSH: That everybody in his inner circle has something wrong with them: mad, they're enraged, they're angry. I mean, no matter what his wife said or didn't say in a tape, she's still mad.
CALLER: Oh, yeah.
RUSH: And Jeremiah Wright's fit to be tied all the time. Obama can't unify his party. I've got stories in the stack here about how Blue Dog Democrats, and it's not just this one Democrat named Boren from Oklahoma, there are a number of Democrats, conservative Democrats who get elected in conservative districts, they're not going to support Obama. Their constituents don't support him. There is no unified Democrat Party on Barack Obama. I have another story in the stack. Obama losing ground with Latinos. I have another story in the stack that suggests that not all are happy with the Obama campaign. It's a giant, total media-created myth. Along with this messiah business, there's no evidence that he's unified anybody, any time, at any stretch of his career. So it's an interesting psychology play.
END TRANSCRIPT
Read the Background Material...
• HotAir: Bob Beckel and the Mighty Big Shoe
• LA Times: Barack Obama vs. the Internet Rumor Machine
• AP: Obama Site Confronts Rumors
• NewsBusters: 'Hottest Ring in Hell' for Messing with Michelle
• New York Times: Mincing Up Michelle - Maureen Dowd
• CNN: Oklahoma Democrat won't Endorse Obama
• UPI: Obama Warned of Risk of Losing Latino Vote
*Note: Links to content outside RushLimbaugh.com usually become inactive over time.
