RUSH: The regime is denying any conspiracy between themselves and the SEC and Goldman Sachs over an effort to get this financial regulatory reform bill passed with Honest Obe heading to the Cooper Union Thursday in New York to make the first big pitch. Here is Rahm Emanuel last night on Charlie Rose. Charlie Rose said, “What’s the impact of the SEC’s complaint against Goldman Sachs on financial reform, and what argument are you making?”


EMANUEL: Well, it’s essential I make one point. It’s an independent agency, acted independent. We had no knowledge of what they had done.

ROSE: How was it that The New York Times knew about this before Goldman Sachs did, the filing of the complaint?

EMANUEL: I have no idea. Everybody at the White House found out like everybody else, when it hit the news.

ROSE: When it hit The New York Times, you had it.

EMANUEL: No, when it hit the news, it is — the SEC is an independent agency, operates independently. Nobody at the White House knew anything ahead of anybody else.

RUSH: All right, now, as you digest that from the regime, “It’s an independent agency, we had no idea what was going on here.” “Well, how did New York Times get it before you did?” “I don’t have any idea. It’s an independent agency.” New York Post today: “President Obama is bringing his war on Wall Street to the enemy’s turf.


He’ll make his pitch for financial reform in the heart of lower Manhattan Thursday – even as his team make hay of the Goldman Sachs fiasco with a tech savvy appeal to Democratic donors.” Now listen to this. “Internet surfers who entered ‘Goldman Sachs SEC’” as a search term, Goldman Sachs, Securities Exchange Commission, “were directed to the president’s campaign website via a sponsored link titled ‘Help Change Wall Street.’ The White House’s political arm paid for the keywords — but would not say how much.”


So this is pure Alinsky on steroids. This guy is incompetent to run the private sector but, boy, does he know how to agitate and community organize. They had no advance knowledge this was happening, but they happened to get hold of Google and they said, “Look, we want to buy the search terms ‘Goldman Sachs SEC,’ we want you to direct the first hit to our website where we are going to raise campaign funds and awareness of the effort to demonize Wall Street.” Meanwhile, the White House continues to deny that there’s any link between the timing of the SEC suit and its push for regulatory reform. Here’s the smartest regime spokesman that we have ever had, Robert Gibbs yesterday afternoon in the White House, reporters said, “Can you talk about the Goldman Sachs story? Do you think the charges will galvanize the push for reform?”


GIBBS: The SEC doesn’t notify the White House of its enforcement actions, and certainly didn’t do so in this case. There was plenty of evidence Friday morning before the SEC got involved of the need to create new rules in the road and the desire of the American people to see those put into law. The president will travel to New York on Thursday to once again make the case to the American people about why financial reform is so important to get done and to get done quickly. The American people want us not to play politics with this important issue, but instead get something done and that’s the case the president will push this week.

RUSH: Yeah, don’t want to play politics so we’ll get hold of Google, we’ll buy the search terms, we’ll make sure the first item that pops up when you search “Goldman Sachs SEC” takes you to our White House website, “Help Change Wall Street.” And yet they deny that there is any link between the timing of the SEC suit and its push for regulatory reform. I told you I played golf with some savvy business guys on Sunday who for the life of them could not figure out on their own until I enlightened them that there was some kind of collusion here. They’re strictly money guys. Everybody hates Goldman Sachs. They were hoping Goldman would get its comeuppance. Oh, no. Goldman’s in on this. They’ll pay a little bitty fine here, but I mean they’re going to be sitting pretty once this bill passes.


So a friend of mine, not in the golf group, but another friend of mine just aghast at this sent me a little e-mail a few moments ago. “You know, Rush, we have spent a zillion years working in or closely observing the federal government. Now, Bill Clinton’s war room was an amazing monstrosity but I have never seen anything like this kind of strategic intermingling of a bare knuckles political operation with the levers of power. And the cynicism about how stupid the public must be is breathtaking. Even as Gibbs and Emanuel are denying the SEC case and the push for new regulations have nothing to do with each other, Obama’s Alinskyites are buying web links, knowing that people will be surfing to get information about the case, ensuring that they’ll get Obama’s spin first.


I mean who even thinks of doing this stuff? Yet they’re not just thinking about it, they’re doing it. I don’t think he’s competent at anything else except giving speeches from a teleprompter. But I do think this guy knows the tactical community organizer stuff through and through, and Alinskyite community organizing is a mix of the lawful, the barely lawful, and the clearly unlawful and the extortionate which is what they call direct action, pretty much the same as what the Gambino family calls making you an offer you can’t refuse. That’s what Obama is a professional at and that’s frightening to watch. Anybody who thinks these people will refrain from any tactic to get reelected or that if reelected Obama’s next move won’t be to repeal the 22nd Amendment, needs to get real.”


I really cannot disagree with any of this. Who would think of this kind of stuff? No collusion? No collusion? It’s an independent agency? We weren’t informed and we didn’t know what they were doing? But somehow — and of course they have a close relationship with the Google buds, they always have. Net neutrality was going to really reward Google if that ever happens. So yeah, Goldman is showing these big profits here and it’s all part of the plan, demonize Wall Street. “This is what Main Street hates about Wall Street,” many headlines out, because Main Street can’t package a bunch of loser investments and send them to some guy who knows they’re losers and then sell ‘em to their customers as though they’re winners so that the hedge fund guy makes a billion, Goldman makes a billion but Goldman’s customers lose big. We in Main Street can’t do that. This is what we resent about this. The hedge fund guy is simply smart and there’s not a crime against that yet. The real question with the hedge fund guy and with Goldman is that they have any insider information from the Treasury department knowing that the housing market via these subprime mortgages was about to implode.


Many people think that all Goldman has to do is pick up the phone and they can get to Treasury because Rubin was there, former CEO of Goldman, Hank Paulson was there, former CEO of Goldman, Goldman’s nickname is Government Sachs because they’ve got so many people at various bureaucratic levels. So if they knew that the subprime thing was about to implode and then this hedge fund guy is very smart, could figure it out based on some things that wants to bet short on these collateralized debt obligations, which basically it’s pooling mortgages and then selling them as an investment. If the mortgages you’re pooling are mortgages given to people that don’t have jobs and never did have jobs and have not made a payment, it doesn’t take an Einstein IQ to figure out that you’ve got worthless paper. You just gotta time it right. This investigation has been going on for nine months. Now, there’s no collusion in the timing of the announcement of the investigation and their culmination and the civil charges, there’s no connection between that and Obama just happening to have the lead search item at Google, “Goldman Sachs SEC” right to the White House website urging support for reforming Wall Street now. You’ve got Emanuel and Gibbs, “Independent agency, never tell us what they’re going to do, especially in this case.”


I remember Roethlisberger, the case out in Nevada. His lawyer said, “I never did that, especially with that woman.” This is like Gibbs is saying, “They never tell us about this, especially in this instance.” (laughing) So we’re all being scammed. My friends pointed out, “How stupid do they think we are?” The cynicism in the Obama White House about how stupid all of us are has got to be at an all-time high. They’re in full-fledged takeover mode here.

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RUSH: Now, there’s a little pattern forming out here, ladies and gentlemen, I have detected. When Obama was in trouble over Obamacare, out of the blue Anthem Blue Cross announced a 39% premium increase — and bammo! The regime got into immediate gear. “Look at this! We’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen. How unfeeling could these insurance companies be? Why, here we are in the midst of all kinds of unemployment and people nervous about the economy, and these thieves have the audacity to raise premiums by 39%? Who do they think they are?”


And the regime gets to ride in like a white knight to the rescue. Now, while the regime is speculating out bank reform, out of the blue comes the Goldman Sachs charge! Following the Goldman Sachs charge comes the announcement of exorbitant profits for the first quarter: Over $3 billion in profits in Goldman Sachs. What a lucky break. What a lucky break for Obama. Isn’t that just amazing. And get this. This is from the Financial Post in Canada. The headline: “Goldman Charge Looks More Like Politics Than Fraud — The vote at the SEC to press the charges against Goldman Sachs … split along party lines, with the Democrats on the panel approving the action.” Well, I’m sure that’s just a coincidence here that only the Democrats in the SEC approved moving forward with the charge against Goldman (laughing) out of the blue here after a nine-month investigation — and it just so happens right at the time the regime is running into trouble on their regulatory reform bill.


I have a friend, ladies and gentlemen, a business associate who has made himself a member of Organizing for America, which is the regime’s website and White House outreach operation. It’s their version of ACORN. My friend got a note from Mitch Stewart at BarackObama.com on Sunday at 1:15 in the afternoon. “Dear…” I’ll keep the name of my infiltrator here off the record. “Dear [whoever], “President Obama means business. He’s committed his administration to reining in Wall Street and creating the strongest consumer protections in history. And on Friday he made it clear that we can’t allow another devastating financial crisis — so he’ll veto any reform bill that doesn’t bring the derivatives market under control.


“But the Senate could begin debate as soon as this week, and Republican leaders are teaming up with Wall Street lobbyists to defeat the bill — so the President needs your help to show that the American people stand with him on Wall Street reform.” This is last Sunday. This is two days ago. But of course the White House had no idea the SEC was going to do what it did, and only the Democrats on the SEC voted to bring charges against Goldman. There’s nothing political about this, you understand — and of course the Republicans are not in bed with Wall Street. Wall Street gave all of its money to Obama! In fact, Goldman Sachs gave almost a million dollars to Obama. A million dollars Obama got from Goldman Sachs. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac! Drudge has a little lead item there on his front page: Will Obama send the money back? Of course he not going to send the money back, but it’s a great question.


Now, it is supposed to be against the law — but, of course, this regime is lawless whenever it feels the need to be. It is supposed to be against the law out there for our government to propagandize against American citizens, which it sounds like they’re doing by buying that Google link. Now, this message from Obama to members of Organizing for America was actually from last Friday. “P.S. — Don’t miss the President’s message from Friday below. … It has now been well over a year since the near collapse of our entire financial system … We’ve made strides — businesses are starting to hire,” blah, blah, blah, blah, “We cannot delay action any longer. … Please stand with me to show your support for Wall Street reform. … So I’m asking you to join me, starting today, by adding your name as a strong supporter of Wall Street reform.” This is last Friday. But (stammering) we didn’t know SEC was going to do what it did. The fact that we bought some links at Google to make ourselves the lead search? Bah! Pure coincidence. The president hates Wall Street. Just so the American people know, we’re going to fix it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Folks, let’s go back to the premise of this whole financial regulatory reform bill. The whole premise of this is that is based on the fact that Wall Street’s to blame for the financial meltdown, and it’s not. Government is to blame for the meltdown — and no less than Alan Greenspan said so in testimony before some congressional committee last week. It was these subprime mortgages that were required by the government to be lent through the Community Redevelopment Act or what have you. This was a Clinton operation picked up by the Obama administration. ACORN’s involved in this. So here once again we have people on Capitol Hill — Chris Dodd, who’s being shamefully retired from his seat in the Senate; Barney Frank over in the House and any number of other people; Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — who are the literal and real architects of the financial meltdown last year and they get to act like spectators.


“Whoa, what happened there? Why, how did those people on Wall Street pull the wool over our eyes on this one? These thieves! We gotta go in there and regulate these people. Why, look! You can’t trust the private sector at all. Private sector always screws you.” That’s why we’re here. The whole thing, the whole Dodd bill for financial regulatory reform is bogus. The only reform that’s need is a reformation of government, a reformation of the Congress, a reformation of what’s going on at the White House. I mean, even without getting into any other specifics, the whole premise of this is wrong. A lot of us are, frankly, fed up. Every time the government makes a mistake, which is frequently, they sit back and turn it around and blame it on the private sector, which is the golden goose of this country, and they exonerate themselves!


And they host themselves up as great heroes, saving the downtrodden from the excesses of the greed of people like those at Goldman Sachs. Now, one other thing on this whole notion that Obama had no clue and the White House had no clue what the SEC was going to do and when they were gonna do it. My friend has infiltrated the Organizing for America website. Technically that’s a Democrat Party operation, and that’s why the guy, Mitch, who sends out the notes to all the subscribers at Organizing for America says, “By the way, the president has asked me to include a note, “which in this latest e-mail on Sunday they did included a note from the president which was written on Friday. In that Obama message on Friday he tells everybody to go to that same link to Stand for Wall Street Reform, which happens to be the same link as the Google link when you search “Goldman Sachs SEC.”


So we know that at least as of last Friday they had already made arrangements with Google to buy the search terms so that Organizing for America’s website, Stand for Wall Street Reform — it’s actually at My.BarackObama.com/StandForWallStreetReform. That’s where you get taken. That’s where you’re directed, if you search “Goldman Sachs SEC” at Google. But we’re told that there’s no collusion. “It’s an independent agency. We didn’t know what they were doing.” These guys are light years ahead of everybody. This plan has been in the works for months is what this means. This has been in the works for months. This is the tactic, just like Anthem Blue Cross announces a 39% rate increase when the health care bill gets in trouble. Now the financial regulatory reform bill’s in trouble. Here. Even at ThePolitico.com.


“Are Democrats or Republicans hurt more by ties to Goldman Sachs?” And they went out and they asked Brad Sherman, Democrat from California (who has had very, very many unkind things to say about me and this program) and the question that the Politico asked these guys in the health care arena — I guess it’s a blog they have and David Mark is the guy at Politico doing the interview. He asked Brad Sherman, “How can Democrats get out ahead of the Goldman Sachs story politically?” Sherman says, “We can say, ‘No taxpayer money to Wall Street firms, their creditors and the counterparts.’ Then we go to the voters and tell them there’s no money for Wall Street, but regulation instead. If you can’t run on that slogan, you’ve got a problem.”

If you can’t run on the slogan: No more money for Wall Street, just regulation. “But there are serious problems with the Dodd bill.” Now, this next is very interesting, folks, because the Democrats from Dodd on down are denying that the $50 billion slush fund is there to bail out companies. “It’s not about that!” Dodd’s on the floor of the Senate: “I can’t believe members are distorting the purpose of my bill like I’ve never seen anything like this on my entire career.” But here’s Brad Sherman, Democrat in California: “The Dodd bill has unlimited executive bailout authority. That’s something Wall Street desperately wants but doesn’t dare ask for. The bill contains permanent, unlimited bailout authority.” This is Brad Sherman (if I’m reading this right from The Politico) a Democrat, California.


“As an active member of the House Financial Services Committee were you surprised to see suspicious shorting – perhaps illegal – by a top financial services firm?” Meaning Goldman. “Goldman is accused of hand-selecting bad mortgages to sell. If that’s true it’s absolutely outrageous. There are two issues here. First, did they mislead their clients into buying this type of mortgage rule? And second, did they hand-select the worst?” No, the hedge fund guy did! At any rate, it is bailout authority. What’s the $50 billion slush fund for? So it’s happening right before our very eyes. They are insulting our intelligence. They are thinking that we are the biggest bunch of rubes and hicks to come down the pike since Sarah Palin. You know, they think Sarah Palin is a rube and a hick and they’re all worried about her. She’s I guess gonna appear in testimony in Tennessee on this hacking case, hacking here e-mails, and state-run AP is very worried that she could dazzle jurors.


She could be very persuasive with the jurors? Wait a minute, I thought she was a hayseed hick and a rube? I thought Sarah Palin was a walking personification of stupidity! How in the world can she possibly dazzle and impress a bunch of jurors in Tennessee? They tell us the truth now and then. So right out in front of our eyes, my friends: Manipulation of everybody’s thoughts and emotions. The government single-handedly caused the subprime mortgage problem. Now in order to extricate themselves they act like white knights, Dodd, Barney Frank, “We’re going to stop these business cycles! It’s just a shame how these Wall Street people are enriching themselves on the backs of Main Street. We gotta put a stop to this. This greed. And of course the Republicans are lying numbered with all these lobbyists from Wall Street,” when in fact the Republicans would kill for a dime from Goldman Sachs.


Republicans don’t get any campaign contributions from these people. The dirty little secret is, this is classic crony capitalism. Classic. What we were talking about last week and the week before. Classic crony capitalism. In this case the capitalist entities have surveyed the field and they see this regime. They understand what this regime is, where this regime is going, and they fully understand they want to be most favored status with the regime rather than an enemy of the regime. So, wherever the regime is taking the country, they’re gonna hop on and go — and hope, as an insider, to limit the damage the regime causes in their industry. And if the regime happens to really rip into their industry but Goldman Sachs is part of the regime and supports the regime in this, maybe the market gets thinned out.


There are fewer competitors to Goldman Sachs and they get an even bigger share of the market at the end of the day. A small price to pay for being a fine in this SEC investigation into bungling a bunch of mortgages that were worthless and selling them to investors as a good deal — and right at the top of this whole mountain of deceit is the president of the United States and his cronies organizing practically every step of this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Oh! Goldman Sachs! Folks, folks, this is too rich. Goldman Sachs has hired Greg Craig! This is incestuous. Greg Craig was the lawyer for Elian Gonzales’ father, hired by Fidel Castro to make sure that Elian Gonzalez was returned to “Cuber” with his father, and of course Janet Reno sent in the AFT guys in a full raid of that little house in Little Havana, took the little kid out of there and flew him back to Havana. Greg Craig was a lawyer. Greg Craig was also big in the Clinton administration before he was hired by Fidel Castro. Then, Obama gets elected and he hires Greg Craig to be White House counsel to lead the effort on closing Guantanamo Bay. But that got botched. Well, it didn’t get botched. I mean, it was supposed to be closed, but it never was going to be closed. Since it never got closed, Obama needed a fall guy. So Greg Craig got canned. Now Goldman Sachs has hired Greg Craig to defend them against this charge brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.


This is incestuous. This is all a scam! Every bit of it is a scam. If you missed the first hour of this program, I really don’t want to take the time to repeat this, but the New York Post is reporting that if you go to Google and you search “Goldman Sachs SEC,” you know where you end up? The first website you’re taken to is a White House website, a Barack Obama website urging you to support financial reform now. They bought the search field. They bought the search terms from Google. Well, Rahm Emanuel and Robert Gibbs say, “Oh, we didn’t know about this. There’s no collusion going on here. There’s no conspiracy. SEC is independent agency. We didn’t know what they’re going to do and when they were going to do it.


“It’s just a coincidence here that we had a website set up to take advantage of the charge to help us demonize Wall Street to get our regulatory reform bill passed.” Greg Craig now… (laughing) Jeez. Folks, the cynicism in the White House over just what a bunch of rubes that we must be in this country. They have got to look at us with so much contempt. Greg Craig was also supposed — and we haven’t heard any results of this. Obama assigned Greg Craig, when he’s in the White House, to investigate the Air Force One flyover of New York City. You remember that? The president said, “Well, how did this happen?” Let me tell you something: Air Force One does not leave the ground without the president knowing about it. But he didn’t know about it. So some flunky took the fall in the travel office or somewhere and Greg Craig was investigating how this happened.


So Greg Craig botched that investigation, he botched closing Gitmo, he gets canned, and now the Goldman Sachs people hire him. The template on this is: “A-ha! Craig Greg gets his revenge.” (interruption) Snerdley, do not doubt me. You doubted me yesterday when I told you that this is all a scam that Goldman’s in on, and now you realize I was right. Don’t doubt me when I say the reason they’ve hired Greg Craig is because they want to present him as a guy, “He’s got it out for the White House. The White House let him go. He didn’t do it right on Club Gitmo, and they got rid of him, and now Greg Craig representing evil Goldman Sachs has a chance to get even.” That’s the story line. Don’t doubt me on this. When, in fact, they’re all in bed. It’s a giant bed. The Sleep Number people made them a giant bed. There are 15 of them in there. The sleep number is 69. I guaran-damn-tee you.

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RUSH: Greg Craig cleared Obama from any dealings with Rod Blagojevich. Remember that? Greg Craig defended Kofi Annan in the oil-for-food scandal. You’d forgotten that, Snerdley? Greg Craig was supposed to investigate the Air Force One flyover of New York City. Greg Craig represented Fidel Castro and Elian Gonzalez’s father. Greg Craig was big in the Clinton-Gore recount I think at some point, David Boise, I’m not sure if he was part of that, but like I said, folks, it’s a giant bed these people are all sleeping in. He’s the fixer. And now he’s at Goldman Sachs ostensibly to get even with the Obama administration. He’s now sided with these evil Wall Street guys. Yeah, he may as well be a Republican now.

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By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem and Hugh MacLeod in Doha

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday strongly defended Jewish settlement construction in East Jerusalem in the face of US pressure and what one of his own top diplomats described as the worst crisis in relations with Washington for more than three decades.


A defiant Mr Netanyahu appeared to be digging in despite clear indications that the Obama administration is now demanding the scrapping of plans for 1,600 new Jewish homes, whose announcement overshadowed last week’s visit to Israel by the US Vice-President Joe Biden. Mr Netanyahu’s stance appeared to guarantee, after a highly charged week, the protraction of a stand-off in which a full-scale diplomatic row blew up at the start of Mr Biden’s visit and appeared to abate at the end of it. But it was then reignited by demands from Hillary Clinton and an angry White House that Israel make amends for the “insulting” announcement just as indirect negotiations with the Palestinians had finally been arranged.The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday strongly defended Jewish settlement construction in East Jerusalem in the face of US pressure and what one of his own top diplomats described as the worst crisis in relations with Washington for more than three decades.

Read the full article here.

The future safety and economic security of this country depends on us becoming energy independent.  What most people don’t understand about the urgency of this is the fact that Saudi Arabia is the number one backer of Al Qaeda.


Wahhabism, the religious beliefs that are held by radical Islam, were founded by Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab in the 1700s.  He perverted the Muslim religion, and built up enough power to control Bedouin tribes by force, using massacres to terrify tribes to convert to Wahhabism.  The killing was obscene, where men, women, and children were butchered in ways only the most twisted serial killer could fantasize about.


After a couple hundred years, this extremist belief became the main religion in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  Saudis hide the fundamentalist beliefs from the western world, playing nice with other countries to make money off oil sales, some of which the government donates to extremist organizations.  The Chechen government’s special envoy to Europe, Hajj Salih Brandt, stated that Wahhabism Fundamentalism is:


“A deviation of Islam taught in Madinah University in Saudi Arabia, sponsored by the  Saudi government and exported from there…out of it has come Hamas, the Taliban, Osama Bin Laden the FIS (Islamic Salvation Front), Sudan, and now gangs roaming Chechnya and Daghestan.”


The funding for these extremist organizations comes mainly from Saudi Arabia.  We need to take away the power that money provides by reducing our dependency on oil from foreign countries.  Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were originally from Saudi Arabia.  The non-pilot hijackers that completed their training returned to Saudi Arabia to obtain new passports and visas before heading to the U.S.  Is this what we want?  To purchase our oil from a country that teaches their children Wahhabism?  They are taking our money, which we used to purchase their oil, and fund terrorist groups, such as Hamas and the Taliban.


In December 2001, a Riyadh doctor named Sahr Muhammad Hatem wrote a letter to a London-based newspaper.  In the letter she stated:


“The mentality of each one of us was programmed upon entering school as a child (to believe) that… anyone who is not a Muslim is our enemy, and that the West means enfeeblement, licentiousness, lack of values, and even Jahiliya (a term used to describe the backward, pre-Islamic era) itself.  Anyone who escapes this programming in school encounters it at the mosque, or through the media or from the preachers lurking in every corner…  We all focus on Bin Laden and his ilk…but we have yet to focus on the more dangerous people, and I mean those who fill our heads with this rhetoric in the schools, the mosques, and the media, who disseminate words without hesitation, without considering the consequences or even understanding that in this era, the entire world hears what is said.”


Using our own natural resources will not only make us more independent, it will boost our economy with exports and weaken the terrorist groups by drastically reducing their funding, which in turn will increase our national security.  As educated, voting citizens we have the power to make the necessary changes.


In November of 2010, we must elect the right people to ensure we change national policy in a way that will allow us to tap into our natural resources and to stop the out-of-control frivolous spending our government is doing.  On February 5, 2010, the government raised our debt ceiling by $1.9 trillion, bringing it to $14.3 trillion, which is weakening the dollar.  With our currency weakened, companies will still lay off employees to try to stay afloat, causing more and more people to collect unemployment and lose health benefits.


Let’s put our own people to work – by giving them jobs drilling, refining, and transporting oil.  We cannot rely on other countries to supply us with critical resources.  As a child, my father taught me that I couldn’t rely on anyone to take care of me but me.  My brother and I learned to work for everything we have, and to take hand-outs from no one.  As a result, we both have careers, homes we can afford, families, and savings for our future.  Our country needs to behave in the same manner as a whole.  We cannot rely on others to help us (stop buying our debt, China), nor should we buy goods elsewhere when we have them here at home.  So, let’s cut back corporate taxes, roll up our sleeves, and get drilling.

Analogizing his own struggles with alcohol to the problems of our polity and in our politics, he said, “Hello, my name is the Republican party, and I have a problem!” “I’m addicted to spending and big government.” ”It is still morning in America.” ”It just happens to be kind of a head-pounding, hung-over, vomiting-for-four-hours kind of morning in America. And it’s shaping up to be kind of a nasty day. But it is still morning in America.” And, again, “I believe in redemption, but the first step to getting redemption is you’ve got to admit that you’ve got a problem. I have not heard people in the Republican party yet admit that they have a problem.”

Glenn is among the best talkers in the business of broadcast. I am not sure he’s a very good listener.

First, there is a good and strong tradition in alcohol and drug treatment that personal failings should not be extrapolated into the public sphere; that too often when this is done, conclusions are reached based on the wrong motives and, often, the wrong analysis. Glenn has made that mistake here and taken to our politics a cosmologizing of his own deficiencies. This is not a baseless criticism; they are his own deficiencies that he keeps publicly redounding to and analogizing to. It is wrong and he is wrong.

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