Monday, June 28, 2004

Amnesia

This exchange on Ho Howie's show is incredible:

CLINTON: Some of the right-wing Republicans -- Rush Limbaugh, a lot of the other talk show people -- immediately said he was murdered. It was -- it was a mad time where you could say anything you wanted about the president or anybody that had the misfortune to know me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: True?

INGRAHAM: I never heard Rush Limbaugh say anything of the like. And I'm certain he didn't say that.

There are extremes on both sides of the political aisle. Right now we have a movie maker...

KURTZ: There are people...

INGRAHAM: Michael Moore, who's alleging that George Bush knows where bin Laden is and isn't getting him because of his connections to the House of Saud. We have that being said, and no one in the media is calling Michael Moore on his nonsense.

There are people on the right who were saying those things. Those things were reprehensible. I don't know anyone responsible who was saying that.

WOLCOTT: It was the "Wall Street Journal." It wasn't just the fringes. The "Wall Street Journal" beat on the Vince Foster case day after day. Day after day.

INGRAHAM: Well, because a lot of the questions -- answers coming out of the White House at the time weren't all that clear, James. That's why they were leaning on it.

WOLCOTT: Look, there were a lot of people who wanted to believe Vince Foster was murdered. And they kept up with that no matter...

INGRAHAM: It wasn't Rush Limbaugh.

WOLCOTT: Well, Limbaugh did play it up on his radio show.

INGRAHAM: No, he didn't say anyone -- that the Clintons murdered anyone.

WOLCOTT: He said...

KURTZ: Well...

WOLCOTT: He played it up. They first (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Vince Foster, he played it up.

KURTZ: We'll have to revisit that another time.


What's incredible isn't Ingraham's denial about Limbaugh, even though she's full of it, it's the fact that Howie can just sit there and pretend that the 'Vince Foster was murdered' notion was just some fringe thing. It was pumped up on the WSJ editorial page. It was pumped up by Rush Limbaugh on his radio AND his television show. It was pushed by the New York Post. It was the subject of congressional, OIC, and other investigations. Howie's own goddamn network, CNN, along with Time, had Gallup run a fucking poll asking people if they thought Vince Foster was murdered.

I'm almost used to the fact that the press pretends that they weren't responsible for all the Clinton hooey - that it was fringe right wing media outlets. But, now they're going a step further and pretending that nice fair and balanced Limbaugh wasn't pushing it.

God I hate these people.

From Rush's TV show:

By the way, do you know--do you know what the theme of the president's State of the Union address is? The age of possibilities or era of possibility or something like that, like, (imitating Clinton's voice) Well, I guess it's possible Vince Foster was murdered,' or--actually, what you're going to do--y--you know, you can imagine other sorts of possibilities, but he's going to try to sound like Reagan. I just want you to be on guard for this. He's going to--he's going to try to sound like he's full of optimism and that there are all sorts of growth opportunities and they've--they've admitted this.



Another:

Now here's some evidence. I always try to bring evidence if I can. CNN and Time magazine did a poll. They had the Gallup organization go out and do a poll about people's attitudes on the whole thing with Vince Foster. Now look at this: Nearly 50 percent say that the Clinton administration is covering something up in Vince Foster's death; 20 percent say that Vince Foster was murdered; and 45 percent say they're not sure if Foster's death was a suicide or a homicide.

You add the 20 and 45 you get 65 percent of the first line we gave you. Half of the people say the administration's trying to cover something up. And yet he says that no serious person ever contemplates this as anything other than a suicide.

Mr. President, half the country's not serious? Is that what you mean? Still a lot of unopened questions--or open questions and unanswered questions, and the reason why is because this administration is doing its best to act like there's something they desperately don't want us to discover. And until they stop that, open up and come forward with whatever it is, this scrutiny, this inquiry is going to continue.


FAIR has more.