Limbaugh Dropped from Rams Bid
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Tonight, breaking news. Rush Limbaugh sidelined. His bid to buy into the National Football League sacked. What happened, and is it fair? Also tonight, our new series, "Politicians Behaving Badly"; we're "Keeping them Honest." Senator John Ensign, he cheated on his wife, his parents paid his mistress's family. He helped her husband get a job with a lobbying firm, but denies letting the husband lobby him. The news tonight, he now could be facing a federal investigation. And later, "Up Close:" we've all seen this picture of Jaycee Dugard as an 11-year-old. Tonight for the first time, you'll see what she looks like after 18 years in captivity and hear how her and her kids' reunion with her family is going. First up, the breaking news: Rush Limbaugh is out as a potential investor in the St. Louis Rams. This news broke this evening. Earlier in the day Limbaugh was defiant, saying that he would not cave in to pressure.</s>RUSH LIMBAUGH, TALK SHOW HOST: I'm not even thinking of caving. I'm not a caver. None of us are. We have been betrayed by too many who have caved. Pioneers take the arrows. We are pioneers. It's a sad thing that our country, over 200 years old now, needs pioneers all over again. But we do.</s>COOPER: Now from the amount of attention this story has received you might think Limbaugh was going to be the sole owner of the team. He wasn't. He was hoping to be a limited non-voting partner in a group headed by this man, Dave Checketts, owner of Hockey's St. Louis Blues. But critics of Limbaugh said his past remarks about NFL players and the league considered racially charged by some should disqualify him. Some of the remarks attributed to Limbaugh were false, others, however, were not. The negative attention apparently put his fellow investor's bid in jeopardy. Any bid to buy a team in the NFL needs three quarters of existing NFL owners to agree. Yesterday, an NFL owner said he would vote against a bid involving Limbaugh. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell also expressed doubts. So today, Checketts group jettisoned Rush, releasing a statement reading in part, quote, "It has become clear that his involvement in our group has become a complication and a distraction to our intentions; endangering our bid to keep the team in St. Louis." With us now: sports analyst and former ESPN anchor Stephen A. Smith; the Reverend Al Sharpton, who lobbied the NFL against the Limbaugh bid; and McGraw Milhaven, morning host of St. Louis radio station KTRS. Stephen, was this really fair? I mean, Rush Limbaugh had the money, he certainly loves the game of football. Why shouldn't he have been allowed to bid?</s>STEPHEN A. SMITH, FORMER ESPN ACHOR & RADIO ANALYST: Well, I would have liked to see him go through the process. I think as an American citizen, somebody who makes money pays his taxes, he's got a right to pursue whatever he wants. But I also believe that the players association, the players themselves had a right to protest. And at the end of the day, the NFL is a multibillion dollar business. And he's clearly a polarizing figure. And there's nothing broke about the NFL. They have replaced baseball as America's pastime and you don't want to upset the apple cart and he was definitely going to do that. So based on business purposes alone, in that regard...</s>COOPER: Well, his criticisms isn't fair, though, some of the quotes attributed to him, you used one of them about slavery, that was not something he ever said.</s>SMITH: I should have said reportedly. The other quote was accurate but the point is that there were a plethora of quotes that are online for example, that he has adamantly and emphatically denied and nobody has found that there's any truth to that. But he is the same guy who did say that the NFL was like watching the Bloods and the Crips without weapons. He is the guy that caused a big stir with the whole Donovan McNabb controversy back in 2003. So it's not like he has no history of being racially inflammatory to some degree.</s>COOPER: Reverend Sharpton, I want to play for you a couple of things, but actually, I want to play for you what he said about today, his Bloods and Crips comment, because that's the comment that you cited in your letter to the NFL. I know we are going to play that later, but if you guys have that comment ready to go. OK, let's play that.</s>LIMBAUGH: Al Sharpton belongs in this smear. It is a smear characterized by mischaracterization and lies. These are the paragons of virtue that today's media rely on for source information, for characterization of other people's fitness.</s>COOPER: All right, that's not the bite I wanted. But Reverend Sharpton, what about that, he's basically saying you were spreading lies about him.</s>REV. AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER: Well, what I said you just said I said. I was very clear in the letter to the NFL, the two quotes, both of which he has admitted saying, both of which established his remarks against NFL players and against Donovan McNabb. These other quotes I did not quote, didn't use. So I'm not going to defend what I didn't say. But I think what we must be fair about here, Anderson, the one that made Rush Limbaugh a major factor here was Rush Limbaugh. He got on the "Today" show Monday and said this is the main streaming of Rush Limbaugh. If he was a minor player, he shouldn't have made network appearances talking about how now this was his transformation to the main stream. He holds everyone else accountable. If he wanted to make that transformation, he must be held accountable like all of those, including the President of the United States that he holds accountable.</s>COOPER: Well, let me try to bring up that bite about the Bloods and the Crips. Do we have that? Let's play that.</s>LIMBAUGH: But that comment was more of a -- oh, no. Don't let this happen to the game. You don't want to see brawls; I don't want to see it. So I was criticizing a mindset that is destructive and it was not helpful. It was not racial. "Bloods and Crips" makes it look racial, but the way I chose to describe it, I could have perhaps chosen a different term.</s>COOPER: McGraw, what do you make of this, is this fair what happened to Rush Limbaugh?</s>MCGRAW MILHAVEN, KTRS RADIO, ST. LOUIS: No, Anderson. If I can steal a phrase, this by definition is a high-tech lynching. There are people out there especially some St. Louis sports writers who don't like Rush Limbaugh's politics. And they make up quotes and do anything they can to besmirch the man, to defile him, so that they make it as awful as possible so that the NFL says this is too toxic, I don't want to touch it. This is a high-tech lynching. To Al Sharpton, Rush Limbaugh is mainstream. He is the most listened-to man in America. And I certainly don't need to carry the water for Rush Limbaugh. But by definition, Anderson, this is a high-tech lynching.</s>COOPER: Reverend Sharpton, I want you to respond to that but...</s>SHARPTON: Mr. Limbaugh...</s>COOPER: ... I want to play for you what Rush Limbaugh said about going mainstream right on his radio show. Let's play that.</s>LIMBAUGH: This is not about the NFL. It's not about the St. Louis Rams. It's not about me. This is about the ongoing effort by the left in this country, wherever you find them, in the media, the Democrat Party or wherever, to destroy conservatism. To prevent the mainstreaming of anyone who is prominent as a conservative.</s>COOPER: What's wrong with him being mainstreamed, Reverend Sharpton?</s>SHARPTON: Well, first of all, your guest just said he's already mainstream. Rush now agrees with me, he's not mainstream. I do not think you destroy conservatism by denying Rush Limbaugh a partnership in an NFL team. I think he has an inflated view of himself. I think what you do is hold him accountable. The players are the ones that objected to his involvement. The head of the players' union, then advocacy groups like mine came in. So to act like liberals and Democrats had this great conspiracy, we came in supporting the people that played the game. Sports writers didn't start this. Liberals didn't start this. The players themselves have the right to say they have an opinion about who they're going to play for.</s>COOPER: I want to give each of you a chance to respond. We've got to take a quick break. We'll come back to our panel in just a moment. Let us know what you think. Join in the live chat at AC360.com. Also ahead, is Texas's governor trying to cover up the execution of an innocent man? The governor is accused of gutting the investigation into whether a man put to death for fire that killed his three kids was innocent. Why would he do that? His critics say to avoid political embarrassment. Tonight, the Texas Governor Rick Perry fired back.</s>GOV. RICK PERRY (R), TEXAS: The facts of this case clearly show that this was a heinous individual who murdered his kids.</s>COOPER: And he says a key forensic scientist who says otherwise, that the fire was likely an accident is simply against the death penalty. Tonight, only here, the other side: what that expert has to say about the governor's allegations. He's hitting back hard. And later, the new age guru and an ancient ritual: sweat lodges now at the center of a tragedy that left two people dead. "Crime and Punishment" tonight.