RUSH: We’re going to switch gears here because we gotta talk about, in the interests of fairness, since we talked about Mr. Shorenstein, liberal Democrat, we gotta switch and talk about McCain now, which means if we’re going to go to the sound bites, it means talking about me, sadly. This is Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer yesterday. Gloria Borger had this to say about Senator McCain.
BORGER: Talking to some Republicans this week who were saying to me, ‘Look, conservative talk radio is killing us in this campaign and we have to figure out a way for John McCain to make peace with conservative talk radio,’ because if they continue with the decibel they’re continuing at with Rush Limbaugh, et cetera, they’re worried that it’s really going to hurt them. They know they might pick up some independent voters in the general election as a result, but they’re worried about consolidating their base right now, and this is a problem for them.
RUSH: It’s just stunning! In the first place, there’s no bashing of McCain going on by talk radio. It’s the other way around. Bill Cunningham goes out there, does the warm-up for McCain, mentions Obama’s middle name, and what happens? McCain’s out there ripping into Cunningham, and a lot of people in conservative talk radio took it personally as though he meant it for them, too. I didn’t, but a lot of people did. Mr. Snerdley, help me out here. I will admit that during the primary season before it was all over, we were on McCain’s case pretty well. Have we been on McCain’s case here? Look, my McCain Stack has three stories in it. McCain’s not in the news, folks. The whole story’s the Democrat side. One of the stories in my McCain stack was how he had a barbecue for the media yesterday in Sedona. He loves the media. He loves to grill hamburgers or ribs or whatever, and had the Drive-Bys out there. That’s one of the stories, but we haven’t been on McCain’s case. This is an outdated comment. If they are worried about conservative talk radio, maybe they’re — it just doesn’t make any sense. They’re the ones out there ripping conservative talk radio.
Do you people in the Drive-Bys have no idea how all this got started? Go read the New York Times today. They finally get it, pointing out how McCain’s not been consistently conservative, switching a lot of positions, flip-flopping around. Flip-flopping, just been on the wrong side of some things. We did that back during the primaries, Gloria, now the New York Times is doing it. Elisabeth Bumiller, I’m sure you know her. You guys hang around the coffee klatches together. Anyway, folks, let’s do two more in this cycle because they fit together. Also Late Edition — wow, Wolf must have had one hell of a show yesterday, because most of our sound bites so far have come from Wolf Blitzer’s show. Blitzer says to Charlie Crist, the governor of Florida, ‘What worries you the most about John McCain in terms of electability? Not being able to bring in that Rush Limbaugh conservative radio talk show wing of the Republican conservative base?’
CRIST: That’s not a concern of mine. It really isn’t. I mean, you know, this is a conservative guy, this is a reasonable man. He is the right guy at the right time for our country, regardless of party.
RUSH: Yeah, they’re not worried. Then who is Gloria Borger talking to? Because she says that they are concerned. Now, Brit Hume decided to throw his two cents in on this during the roundtable, Fox News Sunday, Kristol and Hume are talking about McCain, and Bill Kristol says, ‘Well, the reason he’s a stronger candidate than a lot of other Republicans would be, is he’s a little bit heterodox, he’s got his own views, he shouldn’t back off on that. I think actually –‘
HUME: If the conservatives don’t want a President Obama or a President Clinton, they ought to get off McCain’s back and let him campaign as whatever he wants to and campaign from the center.
RUSH: Who among us is stopping McCain from doing anything? Nobody can stop him. I have on the record said, ladies and gentlemen, he shouldn’t call, he shouldn’t ask what we want. That’s not who he is. He’s gotta be who he is. Who in the world are they talking about? Maybe I’m missing something, Mr. Snerdley. Who in the world is telling McCain how to campaign, if this is what criticism of McCain is being interpreted as. The only thing I’ve said about McCain is I really wish if you’re going to go get moderates and independents you bring ’em in as conservatives, not liberals. I don’t want a whole bunch of socialist liberals as socialist liberals coming over to the Republican Party. But who knows, folks. Anyway, this has become such a template and such a narrative that the Drive-Bys can’t let go of it even when we have let it go, they can’t. (interruption) What about Hillary and Obama, what are you talking about? Hm-hm. Oh. Oh, that’s right, Snerdley has a good point. When I talk about Hillary, trying to keep her alive, the Drive-Bys love me, and they all want me on their shows. This is true. I was going to be on one tonight, I had to turn it down because I’m going to go home and go to bed. But I talk about McCain and they get on my case here. No different than the way it’s always been. This narrative of theirs, this is a great way to illustrate, they had this narrative that conservative talk radio is beating up and being real mean to McCain, and that hasn’t been the case, I don’t think ever. They’re just political criticisms.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So the same template on the conservative side continues, as well. On the Democrat-liberal media side, the Drive-By side, what we have is: ‘Limbaugh is still pummeling McCain. McCain wants to get Limbaugh and his team on his team. What’s he going to have to do to do it?’ while McCain is out ripping a talk show host! Then we have Brit Hume, of all people. I’m a little stunned by this. Maybe it’s because I’m sick, I’m stunned. Brit Hume saying that conservatives need to get off McCain’s back? Does anybody ever ask moderates to get off anybody’s back? Or liberal Republicans to get off anybody’s back? This is absurd, almost obnoxious. ‘Yeah, conservatives need to get off McCain’s back. Let him campaign the way he wants to bring those moderates in.’ So the Republican template is, ‘We conservatives should just shut up. We should not participate in the process. Just get behind the Republican nominee and push him over the finish line, because it can’t happen without us. We need to get behind and push him over the finish line,’ then the next four years we’ll read about what a bunch of Neanderthals we are. Screw it.