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Prepare to be amazed that somebody in the media is actually standing up for objectivity when it comes to AAS. Here's a transcript, courtesy of the EIB network (the "other" people are obviously recorded cues, because Rush does not have guests on his show):
RUSH: Now, "Major League Baseball announced a new drug-testing policy two months ago, the supposed get-tough approach was hailed on Capitol Hill. But on the eve of testimony before a House committee, members of Congress criticized the plan after getting a chance to read it. Senator John McCain, who in January said the agreement 'appears to be a significant breakthrough,' changed course Wednesday. 'I can reach no conclusion, but that the league and the players union have misrepresented to me and to the American public the substance of MLB's new steroid policy.'" This is in a letter that he wrote to the baseball commissioner Bud Selig and the head of the players union, Donald Fehr. "Saying he expects changes to the policy, McCain added: 'To do anything less than that would constitute a violation of the public's trust, a blow to the integrity of Major League Baseball, and an invitation to further scrutiny of the league's steroid policy.'"
Now, apparently what happened is -- this is what McCain is claiming happened -- that the league announced its new policy in January, and everybody hailed it, and the league said that first-time offenders face suspension and a possible $10,000 fine, but when they apparently read the deal it doesn't say that, according to McCain. It says a suspension might happen and a fine of somewhat less than $10,000, and so these members of the Senate and members of the House feel outraged that the terms of the deal were misrepresented to the public, misrepresented by baseball in January when they announced this. So today on Good Morning America Joseph Biden was the guest, and the fill-in host, Bill Weir asked him a couple questions. First one was this, "Let me play devil's advocate in terms of the kids angle on this. If you catch your 14-year-old smoking a cigarette do you blame John Travolta because he smokes in movies?"
BIDEN: Guess what we did? We did say that what we're gonna do is you're not going to advertise on television. You're not going to have -- for smoking, you're not going to have -- advertise on television and make it glamorous. You don't have movie stars doing what they did in my generation on television. The point of this is, goes beyond the kids, though, quite frankly, beyond the health part of it.
RUSH: Now, Biden next admits that the goal of these hearings is to drag these players up there and embarrass the living hell out of them.
BIDEN: You get into the arena now and know that the only shot you have, at least you think it is, is if you go and use anabolic steroids to be competitive. And, by the way, it's not a lot better in the other sports, either. It goes to our national psyche. I think this is a big deal. I think we should make it clear that we think it's a big deal and embarrass the living hell out of these people and hope they begin to act like solid, upstanding people.
RUSH: All right, now, what does that tell you? He admits the purpose is to bring these players up there and "embarrass the living hell out of them so they begin to act like solid, upstanding people." Now, some of you may agree that that needs to be done, but is that the role of Congress? Is that the role of Congress, to embarrass the living hell out of people and to make them act like solid upstanding people? Now, here's the Tom Davis clip. Davis is the chair of the House committee that's looking into this today, conducting the hearings. He was on WMAL yesterday, our Washington affiliate.
VOICE: Rush Limbaugh said you chair the committee on government reform. What does this have to do with government reform?
DAVIS: Well, one of our jurisdictions of course is drug policy. That is something we spent a lot of time on this committee. We've written law. We do a lot of overhearing and steroids are an illegal drug.
VOICE: And plus Congress has --
DAVIS: -- and I don't take my orders from Rush Limbaugh --
VOICE: No, but I found it curious because --
DAVIS: You know what's happened? Some of the people who are into the corporate side of baseball, up there getting the nice seats and the free tickets and everything else, baseball is calling in their chips with these commentators and these people --
VOICE: Wait a minute, what you are saying, Limbaugh is on the take from baseball?
VOICE: But wait a minute. You guys have an anti-trust exemption that only baseball has.
VOICE: They also get tax breaks.
VOICE: Yeah, that's right.
DAVIS: Look, baseball has worked this very, very hard. They have gone to all their friends and said, "We need your defense on this," and now all of a sudden they're left out there embarrassed when they see that baseball's policy isn't what they said it was.
RUSH: Now, the last thing he said, I guess they've learned. They finally read. They subpoenaed a bunch of documents and they found out that the deal as written is not exactly as it was portrayed and that's one of the things. But, you know, this business now that baseball is reaching out to commentators and calling in the chips in exchange for tickets in luxury boxes and this sort of thing? I have to tell you, folks (laughing). I haven't been approached by anybody in baseball on anything since 1983 when I was reprimanded for something I did working at the Kansas City Royals. That's not what this is about. The first part of this question was actually the substance of my point. This committee used to be called the House Operations Committee. Now they call it the House Government Reform Committee. It basically is a committee that looks at reforming government operations and this sort of thing and is branching out now.
The thing about this that's strange is that it looks like there is an agreement of some kind and the players and owners have come to some sort of thing. You've got Canseco's book out there, you've got Canseco and Jason Giambi who have now admitted that this has gone on. So it just strikes me that a bunch of congressmen want to come in at the tail end of the process and get in on the bandwagon, take some credit for what has already been done, make it look like it happened because they want it to happen, and Biden says, "We want to bring them up there, we want to embarrass the living hell out of them." As I said earlier this week, I think baseball ought to have a hearing. I would chair the hearing of baseball players on how Congress has botched a whole bunch of social programs. I mean, wouldn't it be fair to sort of turn the tables? Let's grandstand just to illustrate the point. Illustrate absurdity by being absurd.
RUSH: Now, "Major League Baseball announced a new drug-testing policy two months ago, the supposed get-tough approach was hailed on Capitol Hill. But on the eve of testimony before a House committee, members of Congress criticized the plan after getting a chance to read it. Senator John McCain, who in January said the agreement 'appears to be a significant breakthrough,' changed course Wednesday. 'I can reach no conclusion, but that the league and the players union have misrepresented to me and to the American public the substance of MLB's new steroid policy.'" This is in a letter that he wrote to the baseball commissioner Bud Selig and the head of the players union, Donald Fehr. "Saying he expects changes to the policy, McCain added: 'To do anything less than that would constitute a violation of the public's trust, a blow to the integrity of Major League Baseball, and an invitation to further scrutiny of the league's steroid policy.'"
Now, apparently what happened is -- this is what McCain is claiming happened -- that the league announced its new policy in January, and everybody hailed it, and the league said that first-time offenders face suspension and a possible $10,000 fine, but when they apparently read the deal it doesn't say that, according to McCain. It says a suspension might happen and a fine of somewhat less than $10,000, and so these members of the Senate and members of the House feel outraged that the terms of the deal were misrepresented to the public, misrepresented by baseball in January when they announced this. So today on Good Morning America Joseph Biden was the guest, and the fill-in host, Bill Weir asked him a couple questions. First one was this, "Let me play devil's advocate in terms of the kids angle on this. If you catch your 14-year-old smoking a cigarette do you blame John Travolta because he smokes in movies?"
BIDEN: Guess what we did? We did say that what we're gonna do is you're not going to advertise on television. You're not going to have -- for smoking, you're not going to have -- advertise on television and make it glamorous. You don't have movie stars doing what they did in my generation on television. The point of this is, goes beyond the kids, though, quite frankly, beyond the health part of it.
RUSH: Now, Biden next admits that the goal of these hearings is to drag these players up there and embarrass the living hell out of them.
BIDEN: You get into the arena now and know that the only shot you have, at least you think it is, is if you go and use anabolic steroids to be competitive. And, by the way, it's not a lot better in the other sports, either. It goes to our national psyche. I think this is a big deal. I think we should make it clear that we think it's a big deal and embarrass the living hell out of these people and hope they begin to act like solid, upstanding people.
RUSH: All right, now, what does that tell you? He admits the purpose is to bring these players up there and "embarrass the living hell out of them so they begin to act like solid, upstanding people." Now, some of you may agree that that needs to be done, but is that the role of Congress? Is that the role of Congress, to embarrass the living hell out of people and to make them act like solid upstanding people? Now, here's the Tom Davis clip. Davis is the chair of the House committee that's looking into this today, conducting the hearings. He was on WMAL yesterday, our Washington affiliate.
VOICE: Rush Limbaugh said you chair the committee on government reform. What does this have to do with government reform?
DAVIS: Well, one of our jurisdictions of course is drug policy. That is something we spent a lot of time on this committee. We've written law. We do a lot of overhearing and steroids are an illegal drug.
VOICE: And plus Congress has --
DAVIS: -- and I don't take my orders from Rush Limbaugh --
VOICE: No, but I found it curious because --
DAVIS: You know what's happened? Some of the people who are into the corporate side of baseball, up there getting the nice seats and the free tickets and everything else, baseball is calling in their chips with these commentators and these people --
VOICE: Wait a minute, what you are saying, Limbaugh is on the take from baseball?
VOICE: But wait a minute. You guys have an anti-trust exemption that only baseball has.
VOICE: They also get tax breaks.
VOICE: Yeah, that's right.
DAVIS: Look, baseball has worked this very, very hard. They have gone to all their friends and said, "We need your defense on this," and now all of a sudden they're left out there embarrassed when they see that baseball's policy isn't what they said it was.
RUSH: Now, the last thing he said, I guess they've learned. They finally read. They subpoenaed a bunch of documents and they found out that the deal as written is not exactly as it was portrayed and that's one of the things. But, you know, this business now that baseball is reaching out to commentators and calling in the chips in exchange for tickets in luxury boxes and this sort of thing? I have to tell you, folks (laughing). I haven't been approached by anybody in baseball on anything since 1983 when I was reprimanded for something I did working at the Kansas City Royals. That's not what this is about. The first part of this question was actually the substance of my point. This committee used to be called the House Operations Committee. Now they call it the House Government Reform Committee. It basically is a committee that looks at reforming government operations and this sort of thing and is branching out now.
The thing about this that's strange is that it looks like there is an agreement of some kind and the players and owners have come to some sort of thing. You've got Canseco's book out there, you've got Canseco and Jason Giambi who have now admitted that this has gone on. So it just strikes me that a bunch of congressmen want to come in at the tail end of the process and get in on the bandwagon, take some credit for what has already been done, make it look like it happened because they want it to happen, and Biden says, "We want to bring them up there, we want to embarrass the living hell out of them." As I said earlier this week, I think baseball ought to have a hearing. I would chair the hearing of baseball players on how Congress has botched a whole bunch of social programs. I mean, wouldn't it be fair to sort of turn the tables? Let's grandstand just to illustrate the point. Illustrate absurdity by being absurd.