This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” March 8, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: The White House appears to be resorting to desperate measures to pass a government-run health care take over.
New York Congressman Eric Massa, who resigned early this evening says the Democrats are starting to eat their own. Now here’s what he told the local radio show just yesterday:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ERIC MASSA, D-N.Y.: The light comes on. There was a departure of Congressman Neil Abercrombie who is running for the governorship of Hawaii.
And with the tragic and the very sad passing of my personal good friend, Jack Murtha, mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill. And this administration and this House leadership have said, quote, unquote, “They will stop at nothing to pass this health care bill.”
And now they’ve gotten rid of me and it will pass. You connect the dots. The future of the Democratic Party rests on passing this health care bill. They could get anyone to say anything about me concerning anything at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Wow. But it looks like this is only the latest instance of intimidation to come from the Obama White House. Now according to Massa the anointed one and his team were less than civilized when he voted against the cap-and-tax bill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MASSA: When I voted against the cap-and-trade bill, the phone rang and it was the chief of staff to the president of the United States of America, Rahm Emanuel. And he started swearing at me in terms and words that I hadn’t heard since that crossing the line ceremony on the USS New Jersey in 1983.
And I gave it right back to him. In terms and words that I know are physically impossible. I told him to do things that I know the human anatomy cannot do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: All right. And Massa says it’s typical of the way that Rahmbo operates. Here’s what he had to say about the president’s chief of staff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MASSA: Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil’s spawn. He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to a front end of a steam locomotive. If he doesn’t like that, he can come after me personally.
I was a congressman in my first eight weeks and I was in the congressional gym. And I went down and I worked out. I went into the showers, which, by the way, I for the life of me can’t figure out why they took all the shower curtains off the shower stalls in the congressional shower.
I mean the last thing I want to look is my fellow colleagues naked. But they don’t have any shower curtains down in the gym. And I’m sitting there showering, naked as a jay bird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger at my chest, yelling at me because I wasn’t going to vote for the president’s budget.
Do you know how awkward it is to have a political argument with a naked man? By the way, what the heck is he doing in the congressional gym? He goes there to intimidate members of Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Charming. And here with reaction is former Clinton adviser, the one and only, Dick Morris.
Dick, welcome back.
DICK MORRIS, FORMER CLINTON ADVISER: Good. Well, that’s an all time record for intimidation.
HANNITY: Yes, well, first of all, I don’t know what — I don’t even want to go down this mental image. But he describes the president — you know, the son of the devil, sell his mother, strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive for a vote.
Pretty harsh words. What do you make of this?
MORRIS: Well, Sean, it’s part of a pattern there. There is hand-to-hand combat going on now. Literally hand to hand combat in the House of Representatives. A handful may be 20, 25 congressmen are going to determine the future of the health care system of the United States.
And the pressure is unbelievable on both sides. The administration made three moves in the last 100 hours. The first was they dropped the ethics charges against Alan Mollohan from West Virginia who basically gave out entitlements in return for real estate deals. And the FBI dropped the probe after three years.
They also appointed Scott Matheson, a congressman from Utah’s brother to be a federal judge. And then they pressured Massa into resigning. That’s because Massa voted no. Mollohan voted yes, and Matheson voted no but might be on the fence and might be susceptible to a bribe.
That’s what is going on now in our nation’s capital.
HANNITY: All right. Let’s look at the numbers and then we’ll get into maybe some of the personality politics in here in just a second. We have followed this bill for over a year now. We’ve watched the Senate version. We’ve watched the House version. OK?
Now we’re at the point — you’re right, there’s 20 people that are on the fence. Bart Stupak says he might bolt, I don’t believe it. I think this bill could squeak by even though it’s going to be difficult because they’re twisting arms, probably bribery has taken place as Massa suggests.
What do you think happens?
MORRIS: Well, it’s the people against Pelosi. The question is, will Pelosi’s and Obama’s favors and arm-twisting and threats prevail or will the pressure of public opinion in the districts of these congressmen prevail? That’s the key question.
That’s one of the reasons why the groups that are running advertising in these congressmen’s districts are so worthy of support because you have to mobilize public opinion.
You know the conservatives are fat and happy about this. They thought once Scott Brown got elected it was all over, health care was dead. They are in the middle of their victory lap. But now Obama has resurrected it. And by March 18th, we have nine days to save this country.
HANNITY: It’s coming very, very fast here. I agree with you. How will this still be perceived by the public in the end? I mean the public is obviously angry at the Louisiana Purchase, the cornhusker kickback. Are they going to see this as more corrupt politics?
MORRIS: Yes. In the end this is going to destroy Obama. In the end this is picket’s charge. This is — will wipe out the Democratic Party in Congress. They are going to lose 60 or 70 seats as a result of this.
But in the meantime they could destroy the health care system of our country for a generation. I hope and pray that everybody watching tonight goes to DickMorris.com. And we have a list of the 30 swing congressmen. We have their Washington numbers, their district phone numbers.
Call them. Call every one of them and contribute to help make these ads run throughout the country. Everything is on the line now. And everybody within the beltway is pressuring these guys to vote yes.
And everybody in their district is pressuring these guys to vote no. And it’s going to be the battle of the century.
HANNITY: It’s going to be fascinating to watch and unfold. I agree people have got to get involved. People stopped it to this point and I think they’ve got to now finish the job.
What do you make of the circular firing squad? You’ve got Rahm Emanuel and his supporters clearly distancing themselves from the White House. You’ve got David Axelrod — it looks like they’re trying to push him out from one side.
You’ve got Massa taking shots at him. It seems like, you know, a lot of infighting. What does that mean politically?
MORRIS: Well, whenever you lose control over events because you lose your majority this kind of thing happens. We have a presidential system, but we don’t really. It’s like a parliamentary system. If you don’t keep your majority in the polls, you can’t keep your majority on the Hill or your majority in the government.
And that’s what is happening to Obama right now. But in his last gasp, in the last thing he ever succeeds in doing, he is determined to wreck this country’s health care system and put it under government control.
HANNITY: Yes, but he — but, Dick, you don’t believe —
MORRIS: And he might just get away with it.
HANNITY: You don’t believe that’s his motivation. I think that’s the net results. Do you really believe that’s his motivation? That he would be willing to let Democrats lose
MORRIS: No.
HANNITY: … and himself lose in 2012?
MORRIS: Yes, I do think he would let himself lose. And I do think he’d let Democrats lose in order to pass this health package. I don’t think he wants to destroy the health care system. But I think he wants to put it under government control.
So that in his view money doesn’t determine who gets care, but politics does.
HANNITY: Right.
MORRIS: And that’s as impartially as I can phrase it.
HANNITY: So he’s doing it because he believes it? He is the rigid ideologue? He’s not compromising or changing because he doesn’t have that in him?
MORRIS: We finally have a president that puts ideology ahead of polling. The problem is, he’s wrong.
HANNITY: Well, that’s a good way to put it. Dick, good to see you, by the way. We appreciate, as always, your being with us. Thanks very much.
MORRIS: Thank you.
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