Racist Richards Blames Bush, Liberals Forgive (Rush)

RUSH: This Michael Richards thing. What was his name? Kramer on Seinfeld, which was "a show about nothing." You know, it is fascinating. (Actually it's not fascinating. I've got to stop saying that.) I have read a bunch of reviews of Michael Richards and what he did at the comedy club in LA and his "apology" last night on Letterman. While there is a slew of outrage out there, in the entertainment community there is, "Well, we have to understand comedians," and, "You know, comedians can get away with anything if it's funny, and I suspect that what Michael was really trying to do was make news and stand out, trying to get close to the edge, close to the line and just in a moment of failing discipline, crossed it." So we get critical reviews of the rant and excuse making and tolerance for it, and then he really sewed it all up by going on Letterman last night and blaming Bush for Katrina.

So when liberals start apologizing for things -- and he's got his apology in the cycle in which the offense occurred. That is also something. He didn't wait a couple, three days like Mel Gibson. He got out there and he apologized in the same news cycle that the immediate offense occurred in, and then when you go out there and blame Bush when you apologize. "Oh, Bush! You were so mad and you were so frustrated because of Bush? Oh! Okay." It's liberalism. The entertainment community wanted a way to forgive this guy. There was no way the entertainment community was going to jump on this guy like Gibson. (interruption) He was not drunk when he did this. Michael Richards was not drunk when he did this. (interruption) What are you saying, he was? No, he wasn't drunk when he did this. I'll make this personal: Two weeks of misreporting, out of context, everything about it wrong, about Michael J. Fox, two solid weeks of it. My apology, when it was offered was said to be insincere, didn't count, so forth and so on. It is fascinating to watch this.

See, I've used the word. It shouldn't "fascinate" me anymore because it's predictable. I coulda told you yesterday. In fact, if I would have talked about this. I had a lot of stuff in the stack I didn't get to yesterday, but if I would have talked about this yesterday, I would have said to you, nothing's going to come of this. There's going to be some initial outrage; people will read about it, but he's not going to suffer. This is not gonna have legs. Let's listen here to him. He's at the Laugh Factory. It was last Friday night -- and, by the way, I don't think if this had ever shown up on You Tube, he wouldn't have apologized. Had there not been video of it, I don't think he would have apologized. This happened Friday; we only hear about it yesterday. The apology comes last night. Somehow he didn't feel too bad over the weekend insulting these guys. Some people are even saying (get this), "Well, now, wait a minute; why should he be the only one punished?"

"How come the black guys in the audience get away with heckling him? How come they are immune from any criticism? How come the black guys aren't held up to the same standard?" I know comedians get heckled. I understand this. I'm just telling you that's what people are saying. (interruption) No, not everybody. The lengths to which people are going to defend Richards: "Hey. My God. What would you do if somebody were saying that while you're working? What if somebody were heckling you when you working? What would your reaction be? How come the two black guys get off scot-free?" Anyway, I'm telling you, I've read all about this. Here is the tape.

Okay. Could you hear that well enough to hear the bleeps to know what he was saying? Did you hear it well enough? (interruption) Oh, come on! I can't explain what he said. I'm not going to do that. (interruption) All right. (summarizing without profanity) "Shut up! Fifty years ago they'd have you upside down with an F-word fork up your butt. You can talk, you can talk, you can talk, you're brave now, MF-er, throw his ass out! He's a N-word! N-word! He's a N-word. Look, there's an N-word. Uh-oh! Oh! You see? This shocks you. It shocks you to see what's buried beneath, you stupid MFers."

That's what he said. That's just the first part of it -- and it rolled right off the tongue, did you notice? It just rolled right off the tongue. So last night his buddy Seinfeld appears on Letterman, and Seinfeld arranges for a satellite interview hookup as though it's going to be a surprise with Michael Richards, so Richards can apologize, and Letterman says, "Michael, how you doing?"

RICHARDS: I'm really busted up over this and I'm very, very sorry to those people in the audience, the blacks, Hispanics, whites, everyone that was there who took the brunt of that anger and hate and rage and how it came through. I'm concerned about more hate and more rage and more anger coming through, not just towards me, but towards a black-white conflict.

RICHARDS: There's a great deal disturbance in this country and how blacks feel about what happened in Katrina -- and for this to happen, for me to be in a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, you know, I'm deeply sorry -- and I'll get to the force field of this hostility, why it's there, why the rage is in any of us? Why the trash takes place, whether or not it's between me and a couple of hecklers in the audience or between this country and another nation.

RUSH: Okay. So we got so much rage out there: blacks are still upset at Katrina, and, of course, the war in Iraq. "Oh, we love Mike! Oh, he's exhibiting such a depth of social conscience!" (interruption) Yeah, Snerdley, program observer, has a question. What's the question? Mmm-hmm. It has nothing to do with him wanting to put a fork up your butt. Mr. Snerdley is black, African-American, and he's asking this from his perspective. It has nothing to do with it. It's a way to deflect. It's because of Katrina! (interruption) Right. Because of Katrina, it's okay to call you the N-word. Well, it's not okay. It's a reason to forgive him. It's a reason to not hold him account. It's not okay for him to do it, but he is exhibiting remorse. I've read this was a gut-wrenching apology. This was a heart rendering, tough-to-do apology. He bared his soul. He said he has demons! He's got this closeted rage. (Uh, we all do, ladies and gentlemen.) He's going to get to the root of it. He's afraid that this might inspire another black-white conflict out there, and we can't have that. So Seinfeld was then asked by Letterman, "Jerry, anything you want to say to Michael here?"

SEINFELD: You know, I've known Michael many years, and I know how he works on stage, and none of that justifies what happened, but I -- you know, I've been talking to him today, and he's someone that I love and I know how shattered he is about this, and he deserves a chance. That's why I wanted him to come on. He deserves a chance to apologize.

RUSH: He deserves a chance! So it's over. He got his chance; came on Letterman. He's just "shattered" about what he did.

It took two days for the "shattered" to manifest itself until the video appeared on YouTube.

RUSH: You know, you could contrast the treatment by the media of my statements on ESPN about the media and its treatment of Donovan McNabb versus the way the Michael Richards episode is being stamped down, tamped out, gotten rid of and so forth. Here is Dave, Grand Rapids, Michigan. You're next, sir. Nice to have you with us.

CALLER: I'm to the point where, you know, people are wondering if Michael Richards can recover from this. I sincerely hope that he doesn't. I've lost all respect for him and also Jerry Seinfeld for continuing to go on with his prescheduled appearance on Letterman and not simply calling in and saying, "You know, I was going to be on to plug the release of the seventh season Seinfeld episodes on DVD, and I can't make this appearance at this time." So you have a scheduled appointment for Jerry Seinfeld to plug the DVD, and he does damage control by having his alleged friend Kramer on the show!

RUSH: What are you saying? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa! Are you saying that Seinfeld's motivation was purely personal and financial in limiting damage to the sale of the DVD season seven by defending Richards?

CALLER: Yeah, absolutely -- and ironically, it's this Friday, which is known as black Friday, that they're hoping to sell the most copies of it and have it under everybody's Christmas tree.

CALLER: It's on the same program where, unfortunately, they scheduled a spot for Mel Gibson's new movie.

CALLER: Right. So I don't know. How do I explain to my adopted son years from now, who's biracial, that he's going to encounter people throughout his life that hate him to the point where they wish it was 50 years ago and they could hang him upside down up from a tree?

RUSH: In other words, like they said about Gibson, "I don't care whether it was drink or not. It's in his heart; it's in his soul." You think this was in Michael Richards' heart and soul?

CALLER: Absolutely, and the only reason that Mel Gibson is getting a partial pass on it is because it wasn't on video, and/or his lawyers bought the trooper's video before it got released.

CALLER: Well, it's still not top of mind with most people in the vernacular that he chose. You know that he did something racist, but you don't exactly remember what it was. But Michael Richards, this is one of those that is going to live on in infamy.

RUSH: Well, we'll see. I know there are people trying to stamp it down and erase it, scrub it, from everybody's mind.

RUSH: As to Seinfeld, I hadn't thought of your angle about trying to make sure to do damage control, because I didn't watch the show last night. I didn't know that season seven DVD --

CALLER: No, it's released today, but this shopping day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday.

RUSH: Gee, I did not know, as I say, I was going to answer you by saying friends are friends and, you know, some people have friends who hang by them and some don't. It's incidents like this if you're Michael Richards where you find out who your friends are.

CALLER: Exactly, and you are brilliant for turning it into a liberal-versus-conservatism thing because they are actually coming out today saying, you know, "It was an attempt at being funny," when Michael Richards said himself last night that it was anger and hate! He didn't at all say that he was "trying to be funny."

RUSH: What do you mean? They're the ones turning it into conservative versus liberal! In his apology he talks about how it's Hurricane Katrina and the war in Iraq and we've all gotta come together and kumbaya and so forth. I think the reason for me that it's interesting to look at in a political context is because here you have Michael Richards -- a very accomplished Hollywood liberal, a comedian -- and he utters words that are often accused of being in the hearts and minds of conservatives, and yet when he does it there is no distancing of him from these people! They circle the wagons, and they're going to try to help out here, because they've gotta do their own personal damage control. They can't let this stand as though it is something that reflects all Hollywood. So they're going to circle the wagons: "He didn't mean it! He was enraged. Something was wrong," blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But let's compare, in fact, let's grab sound bite #8.

Let's compare this to what happened to Trent Lott. Trent Lott happened to make a statement at Strom Thurmond's 108th birthday party that (paraphrased), "Things would have been a lot better off, Strom, if you'd have won some elections in the past," and of course everybody from the Bush White House to a bunch of cowardly Republicans said, "Trent, you gotta go! We can't defend you on this." On This Week with Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Stephanopoulos said to Robert Reichhhhh, former labor secretary in the Clinton administration. It's this past Sunday. "This does show that there is yet again another second act in American politics, shows you something about the face-to-face life of the Senate. These are all personal relationships in that small, little room, and he had more of them." This is about Lott being reelected to a leadership position.

REICH: I hope that you're right, George, that he didn't mean what he said, but if you look at Trent Lott's history with regard to the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, voting against Martin Luther King holiday, this man does have a record that could be interpreted, could be interpreted as somewhat racist.

RUSH: That's George Will there at the end saying it would be a mistake to interpret Trent Lott as a racist. So they're still trying to destroy Trent Lott, the Democratic Party is in Washington and all their grand pooh-bah analysts on television. So there is a marked contrast here. Trent Lott, what he said was inconsequential compared to this that Michael Richards uttered.

There's a great deal disturbance in this country and how blacks feel about what happened in Katrina...

I busted out laughing at that piece of drivel he tried to shove out there. What an ass.

To blame Katrina for something he said?

An absolute coward.

I thought he came off very well on Letterman, he seemed dazed and very upset with himself, he was rambling, but his contriteness seemed sincere, he also seemed to be an intelligent man with some depth.

In an old article someone posted today, I learned that Richards is a veracious reader that collects rare books, also that during the Vietnam war he served in the army.

The lengths to which people are going to defend Richards: "Hey. My God. What would you do if somebody were saying that while you're working? What if somebody were heckling you when you working? What would your reaction be? How come the two black guys get off scot-free?" Anyway, I'm telling you, I've read all about this.

Yes, the lengths people will go to defend Richards. Rush thinks they are all liberals, but many are conservatives, and are right here.

so,

why does anyone care what comes out of some entertainer's mouth, anyway?

seriously? what's the point?

I really don't care at all.

that applies to Richards and limbaugh...................

"I thought he came off very well on Letterman, he seemed dazed and very upset with himself, he was rambling, but his contriteness seemed sincere, he also seemed to be an intelligent man with some depth.

In an old article someone posted today, I learned that Richards is a veracious reader that collects rare books, also that during the Vietnam war he served in the army."

I'm not taking issue with what you said. The trouble is that leftists hold themselves up as paragons of virtue when it comes to this. Most conservatives feel differently because we look at how the left has treated blacks: As helpless children.

I can't give Richards a pass. For me he exposed what the left is all about.

I agree with you, it wasn't all a pre-written statement where its all planned out, he was saying it the best he could. And incase some of the people and RUSH are too dense to pick up on what he said..."There's a great deal disturbance in this country and how blacks feel about what happened in Katrina." He wasn't even saying he agreed with that sentiment just that that is how THEY FEEL. And yes he is quite intelligent, i've seen a lot of interviews with him and he's the complete opposite of the seinfeld character, he speaks with that soft voice and is quite in depth as you say. Doesn't justify his original actions, but everyone Jerry is right, we all deserve a second chance.

The Kerry defense works! "uh, um, I meant to bash Bush! I'm politically correct!"

Who cares if Ku Klux Kramer made David Duke look like Martin Luther King Jr that night-- all one was to say is "Bush is the anti-Christ!" and all sins are forgiven.

Was it also Bush's fault Michael came up with that epic "upside down with a fork up your a**" blast? I mean, even without the racial slurs, was disturbing enough in itself. What dark, screwed-up place in his psyche did that come from?

Why is everybody making such a big deal about this? I must be missing something. I've never seen even part of one episode of Seinfeld.
The guy is obviously angry because he has no talent.

The absolute best thing on "Seinfield" was when, at a Puerto Rican Day Parade, Kramer accidentally set a Puerto Rican flag on fly and then stomped on it, trying to put the fire out.

Too bad he's an idiot.

The difference is this:

The Republican Conservative cannot get away with it because we have in our 'family', The Religious Right.

The Conservative Christian bloc IS the target here, and the Republican party takes the hit.

We feel so guilty because we espouse a strong Christian honest moral persona...so that when somebody pulls a Trent Lott...yur gone!

When a celebrity or important liberal commits the act the Left does not have to anything but accept it as a brain fart and "nothing to see here ...lets move on".

Because it's Christlike to forgive. < wink >

I felt bad for him; he was obviously being harassed by members of the audience and overreacted. And the apology was in fact heart-felt, and he was assuming personal responsibility for his actions.

UNTIL, he dragged Bush into the matter, stating that the response to Katrina and the war were somehow in play and contributed to his actions. Are you kidding? NO WAY - he reacted to taunting by hurling racial statements into the crowd, and now wants to drag the FEMA response and the war in Iraq into the scenario to deflect blame from himself!!!

Blaming someone else when you yourself are at fault is no example of good character. And it diluted his apology to a very large extent.

He was using those as examples of how race crap affects society and he was saying that he hopes what he said doesn't contribute to anymore crap dealing with race...and "There's a great deal disturbance in this country and how blacks feel about what happened in Katrina." Is he wrong? DO blacks not feel that way? He wasn't even saying he agreed with that sentiment just that that is how THEY FEEL. THAT is not blaming Bush, relax.

Come on everybody! Michale Richards' tirade was just a "botched joke". He meant to say "Bush would have said these things!"

Kramer is a hollyweird liberal. Thus he is forgiven. Had it been a conservative that said this, well get out the rope and let's hang him in from of the lodge hall at 7 p.m. with all CNN cameras rolling. Nope, liberal said it, so he is forgiven. Conservative said it: kill the conservative.

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