RUSH: Los Angeles, Brian, you’re next. I’m glad you waited, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush. How are you? I’m a first-time caller, and I am deeply honored to speak with you.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.
CALLER: In addressing Obama’s comments about you, what I have to say is that attacking Rush Limbaugh doesn’t create one job. Attacking Rush Limbaugh doesn’t fix the banking crisis, and attacking Rush Limbaugh doesn’t pay a working man’s mortgage and credit card.
RUSH: Nor does it feed a starving child.
CALLER: No. But these are serious problems, and to me what this is all about, is this is about Obama’s lack of leadership experience and how he is making a mistake here. I think this is where someone like Boehner should claim the mantle of leadership. Boehner could say, (unintelligible) experience was a large concern in the election, and we think Obama shows (unintelligible) leadership (unintelligible) when he tries to get in a negative war of words with Rush Limbaugh. He should say, Mr. Obama, you have broad and positive support. Let’s not (unintelligible) goodwill being negative about Rush Limbaugh. Let’s be positive and not lash out at Rush one week into office. Attacking Rush Limbaugh doesn’t create one job. Rush is a fine citizen, and if you want to address Rush, then address his 54-46 plan, but otherwise, Obama, you need to focus on working with elected officials to solve this. To me, it is about his lack of leadership experience. And it’s already showing.
RUSH: I don’t think that’s what this is about all. Remember, now, Barack Obama comes from the Saul Alinsky Rules for Radicals school. The Obama way is to get rid of opposition. Not a fair playing field, you clear it. You get rid of your opponents as quickly and as rapidly as you can. What he’s trying to do, as I said in the last hour, is marginalize me to the point that Republicans are afraid to mention my name, that they wouldn’t dare do this primarily because he wants conservatism to be thought of the same way you and I think of communism. He wants conservatism to be thought of as the most extreme kooky, wacky thing, and that anybody who publicly espouses it is insane or what have you. There is a method here, and it’s not a mistake. The guy did this on purpose. The Drive-Bys are running around talking about whether this was wise to focus on me and build me up and so forth. Believe me, he’s gotta compliant GOP already. The GOP, they’re all out there saying, ‘Well, we hope he succeeds.’ He’s trying to make sure that they stay right where they are. He doesn’t have any conservative leadership in Washington that opposes him, elected conservative leadership. So believe me, this is about trying to get as many people as possible to think that Reagan conservatism is finished, that it’s nothing more than an extreme anti-American, mean-spirited way of looking at things. That’s what he’s trying to do. Eliminate the playing field. Let’s go to the audio sound bites. I’ll give you an example here of how the press is talking about it. This was Sunday on CNN’s show called State of the Union. The cohost, Howard Kurtz, is talking with David Corn of The Nation magazine.
KURTZ: Was it a tactical error for Obama, in a meeting of congressional leaders, to say, ‘You know, you can’t listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.’ In other words, he’s appealing to a bipartisan spirit —
CORN: Right.
KURTZ: — and he’s saying he’s painting Limbaugh as being kind of the leader of the hard-core, hard-edge conservative —
CORN: Well, I think Limbaugh took that crown and — you know, and — and showed it —
KURTZ: It’s great for Rush.
CORN: Yeah, yeah, it’s good for ratings, probably. He attacks him. When he comes out and says, ‘I hope he’s going to fail,’ you gotta believe that about 70% of the public now wants to see Obama succeed, if not more than that. Rush Limbaugh wants to attack that and attack other media for, you know, supporting that notion or covering that notion, he’s free to do so.
RUSH: Now, this takes me to something else interesting, by the way. You heard Mr. Corn here say, ”I hope he’s gonna fail,’ you gotta believe 70% of the public now want Obama to succeed.’ I don’t necessarily doubt that, but what do they mean? I think they want the recession to end. That’s what they associate with Obama’s succeeding. The argument here is whether or not his way will accomplish this. And it won’t! Folks, those of you who are out there thinking Obama’s way is going to solve this and you want him to succeed because you think it’s patriotic to support the president, I support the president, too. I just don’t support his policies here. His team went out there today and again told every one of us it’s going to be a long time, this recovery, this recession is going to go deep, it’s going to be around a long time. They’re out there lowering expectations as much as they can. Now, one reason is, when it doesn’t get as bad as they’re trying to make you think, then you will automatically credit them with brilliance and success. But there was a letter to the editor of some newspaper over the weekend that somebody sent me, and I read something like this and it really saddens me for the country.
This letter to the editor is entitled: ‘It’s Time For Rush Limbaugh To Go,’ and the guy who wrote the letter is J. Elmer Brunk, J. Elmer Brunk from LeClaire somewhere. ‘On a recent program, Rush Limbaugh said, ‘I hope he fails’ referring to Barack Obama. This is not the first time Limbaugh has so blatantly made comments of dissension and hatred. He has been critical of the soldiers who have served our country well in Afghanistan, Iraq and in all previous military conflicts. It is time WOC-AM remove all Rush Limbaugh programs. Hoping that President Obama fails suggests that he doesn’t care if Americans suffer from the deteriorating economy. He has made millions sowing dissension,’ so he doesn’t care if we suffer. Mr. Brunk, you, sir, are a sad glittering jewel of colossal ignorance. You couldn’t be more wrong about your assertion about me and the military, the ‘phony soldiers’ thing.
I want everybody to prosper in this country. I want everybody to have success. I want everybody that wants one to have the job they want, not the only job they can get — and that’s a 20-year history of this program. Your blatant ignorance represents the real problem in this country. Ignorance is our most expensive commodity. My hope for Obama’s policy failures is based solely on the fact that they won’t work, they won’t create permanent, good jobs, J. Elmer Brunk. My way will prevail. I love you. I want you to be as prosperous as you can. I wish you’d get rid of all this hate that you’re carrying around. Your guy won. Be happy, Elmer.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is Marsha from San Diego. Marsha, I’m glad you called. Welcome to the Rush Limbaugh program.
CALLER: Hello, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: I’m just calling because as I get ready for work in the morning sometimes I have the news morning shows on in the background. And this morning I happened to land on our Good Morning San Diego show, and yet another shining example of the complete inability of liberals to speak the truth regarding you came up. I stopped for a moment because they said they were going to be discussing the Fairness Doctrine with the local radio talk show host Rick Amato. So that had me stop, especially when he said, ‘And yet again Rush Limbaugh has said that he hopes Obama fails.’ And they went on with the discussion, and then of course the male host brought it up two more times that, ‘Yes, you know, Rush had said that his desire is for Obama to fail.’ And the female host piped in, ‘Oh, how un-American.’ I was just seething, because I have listened to you for years, of course recently have never heard you say anything other than you hope his policies fail, not him. I want to clarify, did you say anything over the weekend that you wanted Obama to fail, so that in my response to them, because I plan to call them and tell them, and help them see the truth.
RUSH: No.
CALLER: Have you said anything recently?
RUSH: No, no, no, no.
CALLER: Okay good. I didn’t think you had, I just wanted to be sure because as a conservative I try to speak the truth and I wanted to be able to defend you, you know, with the correct —
RUSH: Let me tell you what has happened here, and this is very typical of these amoeba brain celled local television news people.
CALLER: What a correct description.
RUSH: They read news accounts that are themselves flawed. None of these people ever call me, like you, you’re not even a journalist and you called me to find out what I said. They never call! You’re a better journalist than these brain dead Ken and cub Barbie doll cookie-cutter models that are now local TV infobabes and anchors. What happened was I got sick and tired, Marsha, of hearing so many people say ‘I hope Obama succeeds’ on my side. So many Republicans, elected Republicans were saying, ‘We want the new president to succeed.’ I got a request the Friday before the inauguration from a newspaper asking me for 400 words on what my hopes for Obama were. I went through this lengthy monologue by saying, ‘Folks, I do not want what Obama is doing to work. I don’t want more socialism in America, I don’t want more liberalism. Liberalism is what’s gotten us to the problems we have now. Why would I want more of it? I do not want him to succeed,’ and I think it’s a mistake for Republicans to say that ’cause they know what he’s about, too. This business of hoping he succeeds is based on the historical nature of his candidacy and his election and the fear to be critical of him, I went through all of this that I’m saying to you now, and then I ended it by saying, ‘I don’t need 400 words, I only need four: ‘I hope he fails.” Well, this whole monologue was ignored, those four words made the news story. Your Ken and Barbie anchor and anchorette out there probably just read that, because the AP, nobody reported this in proper context, never do, and that’s how all of this got started.
CALLER: Okay. That’s what I thought. I just wanted to make sure.
RUSH: I’m a conservative. Everybody knows this. In fact, since last Thursday or Friday, Marsha, just to tweak these people, I’ve been saying, ‘Hey, I support the president. I just don’t support his policies.’
CALLER: Yes, which is accurate, and I believe that as well. You certainly never had Pelosi and Frank, all of them being asked under Bush’s administration, ‘Do you hope for President Bush’s success or failure?’
RUSH: Well, they never once wanted him to succeed.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: They tried to destroy Bush before he was inaugurated.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: This is nothing more than a typical liberal media straw dog. This is no different than how they took me out of context in the Michael J. Fox thing or any number of things like this.
CALLER: I remember that.
RUSH: They do it on purpose because I’m the threat, I guess.
CALLER: I guess. You certainly are. You’re the only one speaking the truth on a national level, and we can’t have that.
RUSH: Let me ask you. Are you aware that Obama wants me to fail?
CALLER: Oh, absolutely.
RUSH: Are you aware that he told the House Republicans —
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: — on Friday they should stop listening to me?
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: Richard Nixon had a list of names on a piece of paper called the enemies list, and that was in the impeachment file on him that Congress was preparing. Here you have a president actually targeting a private citizen. ‘Don’t listen to this guy. This is not helping us get things done.’ And everybody is running around applauding and your bimbo and bimbette out there are calling me un-American.
CALLER: Yes. And can you imagine if President Bush said he hoped that any of the — you know, Rachel Maddow would fail or, you know, Chris Matthews —
RUSH: If Bush had said don’t listen to Chris Matthews, that he isn’t how things get done —
CALLER: Oh, yeah, the complete, utter hypocrisy.
RUSH: — that would be put in a war crimes trial investigation.
CALLER: Well, thank you. You do a great job. It’s a pleasure talking to you.
RUSH: Thanks, Marsha. I’d stop watching those people. Do you realize how vacuous and vacant most local news is anymore? Do you really need to wake up with Wake Up San Diego?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I have a quick question for you, as we close out yet another exciting excursion into broadcast excellence. Do you believe that President Obama wants the Republican Party to succeed? I ask this also — very slowly for you people at Wake Up San Diego or whatever the hell the show is — do you believe Obama wants the conservative movement to succeed? Do you think Obama wants talk radio to succeed? Answer to all three is undoubtedly no, correct? So when are you going to call him un-American, you bimbettes, bimbos, idiots.