Ed Schultz's rant about Hillary Clinton yesterday - "I am done with the Clintons."

ES: You hit the nail on the head my friend when you said that I’m not real happy with Hillary Clinton for not coming on this program. You are not embarrassing me. You are exactly right. And if you will notice a couple of things, I do not put surrogates on this program. I want the candidates. Barack Obama was on yesterday and John Edwards will be on tomorrow. Chris Dodd has been on repeatedly, I bet John Edwards has been on this program 15 times this year. We’ve had Richardson on, Kucinich in studio and on repeatedly, who benefits?

Carl: We do

ES: You better believe it. You better believe it. In this audio culture that we are battling through okay? There are in this country conservative talk radio stations and there are progressive talk radio stations. Most programmers in this country will not drop the Ed Schultz show in the middle of a couple of conservatives because they are in the ridiculous mindset that it will screw up the format and it has to be of one line of thinking. Okay that’s the way the industry is, this is the fishbowl that we have to swim in, so be it. I have been in front in Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden have been in attendance, please turn down your radio if you can.

Carl: I don’t have the radio on.

ES: Oh ok we had a little echo, but thank you for hanging on. I have spoken on numerous occasion behind closed doors in the Johnson room on Capitol Hill to the senate democrats about the state of talk radio. I am not at liberty to say all the things that we have discussed but I will tell you this. They have been told, they have been asked, please be accessible, talk to the base. If there is one thing that the republicans have done, conservatives have done is that they have always gone to the base and solidified the base. Talk to the people unedited. Don’t give me a 10 second soundbyte that I have to take off of CNN and then make a case for the progressive movement. Don’t do that to me. I carried more water for John Kerry than anybody on the radio in this country, day after day after day. I wanted Kerry to be the president of the United States. The listeners of this show wanted Kerry to be the president of the United States. Here I am fighting this battle. I’ll give any of these candidates, Don’t give me your surrogates. Obviously I will visit with Elizabeth Edwards and there is one exception obviously Tom Daschle is a friend of mine. He’s been a friend of mine for a long time. We’re in this fight together. I am absolutely perplexed about how Hillary Clinton can stand up and say that ‘we’re so concerned about the right wing sound machine and Rush Limbaugh and Hannity and all these other people with microphones, where’s our people.’ Well you know what Hillary, here we are, here we are. Name one place Carl where you can get Hillary Clinton unedited, the answer is you can’t find it.

Carl: I would agree, I want to make something perfectly clear

ES: No no no no. I’ve got plenty of time. I’ve got to the top of the hour, you may be the caller to the top of the hour.

Carl: OK sir.

ES: We all have our issues, and something is really strange here. Does Hillary Clinton think that I am going to nail her. Does she think that this is some kind of torpedo thing or something. Every time the Bush white house gets in trouble they don’t run, they sprint with a stopwatch to fox news. They can’t get there fast enough. They call their conservative talk show hosts on the air from the white house demanding access. That my friend is infrastructure. If we are going to build the confidence of progressive listeners, independently minded thinking people in this country, who like the fact that there are people out there making decisions on destroying CIA tapes and the protect America act, just to name a few current things that are out there. That maybe it would be good to talk to the folks unedited. This is part of the fight of the culture of media access. And I am down on Biden and I am down on Hillary Clinton and I am not going to hide it. They are not helping Hartman out, they are not helping Rhodes out, they are not helping Stephanie Miller. I called Woody the other day and I asked ‘woody when was the last time that Hillary Clinton was on Bill Press show’ ‘oh about 2 years ago.’ Don’t tell me behind closed doors that you are really concerned about the sound chamber of America and we are out here battling and battling and battling and we don’t have any access. That tells me that number one you don’t give a dam, or you are afraid to talk to the base or you are afraid of the questions. You know what Hillary if you are afraid of the questions, if you are afraid of it Biden, I don’t want you to be president of the United States. I want somebody who is going to flat out get after it in front of the people. Is it grandiose, no, not at all because this show is going to make it with or without them. But I know what the people want. I know what the American people want. How many times do we have people call in complaining about the main stream media not reporting this and not reporting that. We give them a microphone and they don’t even freaking use it. I am done with the Clintons. I’m done with the cheap shots. I’m done with the innuendos. I’m done with the blaming it on the Des Moines Register. Hillary I do not want you to be the nominee. Biden I do not want you to be the nominee. I’m taking a stand here and I am being self serving. Just like there are Americans out there being self serving about health care. Just like there are Americans out there being self serving about tax cuts or faith and politics. I can’t believe that Barack Obama can call me yesterday from his bus just on a whim after we asked about it maybe an hour beforehand ‘hey we’d like to get you on talking about what the former president said about your experience.’ ‘yea we’ll make it happen.’ Boom. You mean to tell me that the guy who happens to be leading in Iowa is so much less busy than Hillary Clinton. No I am not the issue Carl. Because I have to ask the question, is this the way the white house is going to be run. Is this the way it is? Because keep in mind that on the front cover of talkers magazine, the front cover of one of the biggest industry magazine that is out there, the monthly magazine of talkers magazine. There’s Bush, he’s sitting there with slanthead Hannity, and Michael Medved and Neil Borsch and Laura Ingrahim. They are coddled right into the white house. That president spent more time with right wing talkers than he does with the families that have served up lives in Iraq. They think talking to the American people is important. They think getting their base solidified is huge. Where are you hillary? You should be on all of these progressive talk shows weekly. All of them. Not mine, all of them, ok? This is about winning the fight of audio because audio is positioned for the future. We are not in the radio business anymore, we are in the audio business. It stored, it’s podcasted, it’s downloaded, it’s satellited and da da da da da. The spoken word is far more influential today, by the way newspapers are declining in readership, declining in revenue. Hell the right winger that is running the FCC who is the chairman right now is trying to change the rules so these right wingers can get their newspapers under control. Oh excuse me, Hillary is probably concerned that I am going to ask her about ‘what in the hell are you doing taking money from Rupert Murdoch.’ Maybe that is the question that she doesn’t want to answer.

Carl: Is that against the law?

ES: It’s not against the law, but I don’t think..

Carl: Ok then why do you keep all these people that call your show Ed keep saying the same thing, it’s not against the law to take money from these people that you guys don’t want her to take money from. None of the candidates anybody can take the money from those people. I don’t care if it is special interests or whatever, but you guys keep whining about her taking money from….

ES: Carl you’re a plant, you are not a core democrat. You’re a plant and you know it, yes you are. Since I took the floor I am going to give you the final comment in fairness but I believe that you are a Clinton plant but go ahead.

Carl: I absolutely am not a Clinton plant and absolutely am not a full fledged Hillary supporter. I still have not made up my mind who I am voting for Ed. That is not a fair statement. You go on for almost 25 minutes, granted it is your show.

ES: No it was exactly 8 minutes, and you are one of the very few callers that I have carried through break and given you more air time. Stop attacking me carl, I didn’t attack you, I talked about the issue, now I am going to give you a third chance to talk about the issue without involving me.

Carl: (silence)

ES: I didn’t think you could do it.