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RUSH: Tom Coburn was on Meet the Press. David Gregory referenced Ron Brownstein’s column. Chuck-U Schumer was on the program. Gregory says, ‘Ron Brownstein writes in the National Journal this week a column that’s entitled Apocalypse Always, and here’s a point that he makes in conclusion on the piece: ‘When political arguments are routinely framed as threats to America’s fundamental character, the odds rise that the most disturbed among us will be tempted to resist governing agenda by any means necessary.’ Is that the real problem here, Senator Coburn? Is a description of political discourse and political disagreements as being ‘apocalyptic’ having such huge consequence for the direction of the country?’

COBURN: I think that’s a false premise totally. I’ve pretty well been, uh, disgusted with all the media, right and left, after this episode. Because what it does is it raises and says that there is a connection, and — and the president rightly said, there was no connection to this.

GREGORY: That’s not what they —

COBURN: — between political discourse to this event.

GREGORY: That’s — that’s not the premise here!

COBURN: What he said was —

GREGORY: (shouting) But, Senator Coburn, you know as well as I do that there are people — and it is true that it’s very often on the right — who describe President Obama as somehow an outsider who is trying to usher in a system that will do two things: That will injure America and deny them of their liberty.

COBURN: Again —

GREGORY: Do you condemn that belief and try to reject it? That in and of itself is a strain of thought, is it not?

RUSH: Now, Coburn tries to respond to that.

COBURN: There’s no question. Th-there’s all sorts of strains of thought. The problem I have with the premise, David, is that we’re disconnecting what the real problems are in our country. And we’re spending all this time talking about ‘political discourse’ rather than talking about the real risk to our country which is we need to quit paying attention to what all the media says. We need to start watching, as Chuck Schumer has said, what we say.

RUSH: Now, Gregory is intent on getting Coburn to say that Obama is not trying to injure the country.

GREGORY: (shouting) But, Senator Coburn, it’s fine to take on the media and a lot of people would support you in that. That’s fine. But I asked you a very specific question: Do you reject those who believe that the president wants to injure the country and that will — that will deny Americans liberty, and do you think v-violent metaphor of any kind is simply over the line in political discourse?

COBURN: Of course I reject that.

RUSH: You notice how this is a one-way street? The violent rhetoric for seven or eight years during the Bush administration never once seemed to bother people like David Gregory. Never once. Now, you listen to some of the allegations those people were making about Bush? The Iraq war? Go back to the warrantless wiretaps and searches, talking about the disappearance of liberty, and understand that the Obama regime has enhanced and increased the federal government’s power in those searches. Who is it that plays up conflict more than the news media? You know, Gregory kind of just shoves that aside, ‘Anybody can attack the media. That’s fine,’ and dandy, but the media manufactures conflict. They create it where none really exists.

And how come they’re never blamed? I mean, who used more violent rhetoric than Cindy Sheehan when she was out opposing the American effort in Iraq or anywhere else military? Afghanistan, you name it. So, you know, interesting here that the effort here must persist: ‘Do you think Obama was trying to injure the country? Do you think Obama is trying to injure the country? Is Obama trying to injure the country?’ All right, whether he is or isn’t, he is injuring the country. Health care alone is harming the country. Health care, Obamacare alone is going to result in the loss of freedom.

By definition, it has to! It’s putting the government in charge of one-sixth of the US economy. Anyway, what this also is… As news continues to surface about Jared Loughner being a wacko leftist if anything, the media can’t give up the ghost here. It has to be angry right-wingers causing all of the upset in our culture and in our society. So they just don’t want to give this up at all, and you can see the media in this case has got their agenda, and they’re gonna go full force with it — set their narrative, set their template — regardless of the facts.

It was perfectly okay. Obama can talk about the Republicans driving the economy into a ditch in the car and take the car keys away. How come it’s okay for Obama to accuse the Bush administration of injuring the country, but not him? See, for seven, eight years, none of the anti-government, anti-Bush talk ever concerned the media? The reason it concerns them now is ’cause their guy is vulnerable. That’s why it concerns them. This a huge shellacking victory that took place in November, and everybody on the left is combining efforts to make sure to downplay and maybe render impotent that huge victory.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So David Gregory is now upgrading on civil talk to equal violent rhetoric. That was what his incessant interrogation of Senator Coburn was all about. (imitating Gregory) ‘You go on, Senator, I’m asking you, I’m asking, do you believe in all this talk that Obama is trying to injure the country and so forth.’ I guess the 25 states that have filed legal briefs in federal courts accusing this regime of denying individuals’ basic liberty on the Constitution, under the commerce clause, is that violent rhetoric, too, Mr. Gregory? Twenty-five states have filed legal briefs saying American freedom is on the line, unconstitutional behavior by the regime via the commerce clause, demanding that Americans buy health care or face the consequences. Are you telling me that’s not an impingement of freedom?

But now, according to David Gregory and the left, this is violent rhetoric. So one day they call it uncivil rhetoric. Now they call it violent rhetoric. So violent rhetoric is not urging violence. Violent rhetoric is noticing the government’s efforts to expand on the individuals’ expense. So this is how they’re attempting to quell any opposition. That’s what all of this is about. They’re trying to get Coburn intimidated into shutting up. They’re trying to get every Republican they can intimidated into shutting up, being critical of what Obama is doing, all on the basis of this shooting, which we have established has nothing to do with language or right-wingers or anything. It has to do with a demented mind who was a Bush-Hater and truther.

Now, there’s another poll out there. CNN has a poll out today talking about the Arizona shootings. It’s gotten very little press. It was taken January 14 through 16 and here’s one reason why it’s gotten very little press. Which of the following statements comes closer to your overall view? And they are placed here in random order. Which of the following statements comes closer to your overall view: Government and society can take action that will be effective in preventing shootings like the one in Arizona from happening again; 33% agree. Shootings like the one in Arizona will happen again regardless of what action is taken by government and society; 66%. No opinion; 1%. So twice as many people believe that it’s gonna happen again regardless of what action is taken by government and society. CNN is not making a big deal out of this poll, and they’ve linked to a PDF file which most people won’t bother to plow through. With Coburn, they are. They are defining violent rhetoric down to shut up the opposition.

The news media, the rest of the Democrats want to do what Hugo Chavez has done in Venezuela. They want to make it a crime to complain about government policy. Actually, they’ve been trying to criminalize political differences for as long as I’ve been doing this program. But now they’re brazen about it. They want to make it a crime to complain about government policy or to support an opposition candidate. They want to criminalize political discourse, political free speech. Now, they’re probably gonna call that wild rhetoric that’s going to promote violence and so forth. This is how they do it. Remember that CNN poll back in August? We spent a lot of time on this. Only 42% of Americans believe Obama is a citizen, only 23% of Republicans do. And then there was the other poll, 30% of Americans think he’s a Muslim. And the media had a cow over that poll. Only 42% of Americans believe Obama’s a citizen, and they had a fit, they were incredulous, they made fun of Republicans. And yet, 35% of Democrats believe that George Bush knew about 9/11 and it’s a ho-hum reaction. No big deal. Bush made people crazy. It’s understandable that Democrats would think that.

RUSH: Here’s James in Atlanta, as we go back to the phones on the EIB Network. Great to have you here, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you?

RUSH: Pretty good.

CALLER: Longtime listener. I’d like to do a shout out to Wayne Utley in Fredericksburg, Texas, who turned me on to you 17 years ago.

RUSH: Okay, thank you.

CALLER: Couple of quick questions for you. One, why would any conservative appear with anybody like a David Gregory? Why do we do this?

RUSH: Well — (laughing) — they think that the mainstream media is where the action is. I don’t know. If they say ‘no’ they’re gonna get ripped to shreds, or maybe they see it as a golden media opportunity to get a message out. Who knows?

CALLER: I feel so educated by you because I know when you say polls really what I hear now is propaganda.

RUSH: Yeah, exactly.

CALLER: That’s what that word means. And I feel so rabid. I don’t know where the people like me are. Why don’t I see these people in the media who don’t care what anybody thinks about what they say? Why don’t we just get this big wrecking ball out and make it happen?

RUSH: When you say why don’t you see people like me in the media, who do you expect to see in the media?

CALLER: I want passion on our viewpoints. I am tired of accommodating.

RUSH: But from who, guests or hosts?

CALLER: From the guests. For me the guests are gonna be the politicians, the people who are supposed to represent us, supposedly fighting for our causes. We’re so caught up in these polls and the game and the business of the media. In my lifetime, is it possible we can expect anything to go back to what we might hope that America could be? You know, when you get away from the game of all this, how does someone like me who’s passionate about what he believes, who has to work hard for a living, expect ever for our country to return to a place that we can be proud of?

RUSH: You don’t expect the current crop of Republicans to follow through on their campaign promises?

CALLER: You know, Rush, that’s not enough.

RUSH: Wait a minute. Why are you saying this, just because Coburn disappointed you on Meet the Press?

CALLER: They all disappoint me. Nobody gets on there with any cojones. They’re always ashamed and embarrassed, and they have to sort of take the edge off the way they feel. They have to be politically correct!

RUSH: Well, wait a second, now, don’t forget, we have warned you several times on this program, the ruling class consists of a lot of Republicans who hate the Tea Party, who are scared to death of the Tea Party and what you believe in because it will upset their standing in the ruling class —

CALLER: I agree with that.

RUSH: — in Washington, DC.

CALLER: That’s the establishment, and I want the passion that says even if we have to destroy that peace, let’s do it. Set the goal.

RUSH: Look, there are all kinds of these people that do show up. Michele Bachmann shows up.

CALLER: I like Michele Bachmann.

RUSH: Okay, they’ll have five Democrats on with her when she shows up, but she shows up. Mike Pence shows up. Boehner shows up. There are a lot of them that do. The invitations aren’t extended to a lot of the people you wish to hear from. They are extended to establish Republicans who are going to ultimately capitulate and go along with whatever premise the media puts forth because that’s who they want the acceptance and friendship of. It’s no mystery.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, now, let me ask you to put the brakes on out there. It’s not time to start calling me with the 20-year-old refrain, ‘Why don’t the Republicans do X?’ I’m not gonna have much patience for it. It isn’t time for this yet. Besides, I can’t tell you any more than I’ve already told you for the last 20, 22, 23 years, which basically is, how the hell should I know? Look, the Democrats are desperate right now. They are clamoring for the end of conservative media. They want their Cronkite-Sevareid situation back where there’s only one voice in America telling everybody what to think and everybody believed the voice. And anybody who didn’t believe the voice was thought to be a kook. I remember the days when just Cronkite, and then after Cronkite came along you had Huntley, Brinkley, and then ABC got started with — yeah, they had so many of them out there, can’t remember who. But Cronkite was basically it on CBS. And now the Democrats, they failed to make hay with this issue. They failed to tie the Jared Loughner issue to New Media.

Now, they’re gonna keep trying with events like this. But Coburn going on Meet the Press and not expressing your passion and so forth, he had a different agenda. He was up there to criticize the media. You don’t want your media criticized. He’s criticizing all media. He says he’s sick and tired of watching it. He doesn’t specify. He thinks it’s problematic, full of false premises and to a certain extent he’s right, particularly about the standard state-controlled legacy whatever you want to call ’em mainstream media, they’re just a series of false premises, all oriented toward an agenda. Here’s Obama from the Audacity of Hope, pages 75 and 76: ‘The spin, the amplification of conflict, the indiscriminate search for scandal and miscues — the cumulative impact of all this is to erode any agreed-upon standards for judging the truth. We have no authoritative figure, no Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow whom we all listen to and trust to sort out contradictory claims.’

So in his book The Audacity of Hope he pines away for all of the old days of Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow. Have you ever noticed, by the way, folks, that the push for the civility is in inverse proportion to how well the Democrats think they are winning the national debate? Even now Democrats control 99% of the news media and the rest of the establishment, and they still can’t win an argument with that large a percentage. And if you don’t want to say 99%, say 90, 85%, by the time you go nationwide, local newspaper, a lot of local radio stations and so forth, local TV stations that editorialize or have their own ‘if it bleeds it leads’ newscaster, the vast majority of media in this country is left wing, and they still can’t win an argument. They still can’t create a mantra. Well, they can create it, but they couldn’t pull this off. Even CNN, 66% of the American people say no amount of government policy or talk is gonna stop events like this, 66% say it’s going to keep happening.

Now, I think it’s a little soon here to start thinking the Republicans are not exhibiting passion, especially in the aftermath of this event. Nobody in elected office is really expressing passion. It’s still too near, too close to this episode. Give it a little time. Remember I’m here, I will tell you when it’s time to get upset, mad, ticked off, or what have you, and we’re not there. If you start down that road you’re letting the media win this. And, boy, this is certainly not the time for that. It’s a challenge. For 23 years, ‘How come the Republicans…’ and, by the way, I almost had to hang up on that caller. He sounded vitriolic. The day is coming where the regime is gonna be monitoring these shows and a caller like that may be singled out, needing psychiatric treatment. Well, I wouldn’t put it past ’em. I would not put it past ’em. You’ve got Sheriff Dupnik now, all of a sudden in addition to everything else he’s a psychiatric expert.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Although for me personally it’s very frustrating to get these phone calls, ‘Why is Coburn going on the show! Where are our people? Why are they saying that?’ blah, blah, blah. It’s very frustrating to me because I’m sitting here behind the Golden EIB Microphone. I’m not in charge of where Tom Coburn goes or what he says. I’m not in charge, ‘Where are the Republicans and what are they doing?’ Contrary to public opinion, I don’t have a pipeline. I have no clue what they’re doing. I don’t know what their plan other than what I read in the paper, but I’ll tell you this: What I’m hearing from the callers is very positive.

They are not being distracted by any of this. They are still as passionate as they were prior to and right after the election. They’re not distracted; they’re not intimidated. They’re not intimidated at all by the media trying to blame them or their leaders for this incident out there — and if everything is gonna end up being fine, it’s going to be because of the people, people like these callers. They are ready to roll! They want action. They voted for it, they expect it — and if they don’t get it, this crop’s gone and a new crop is gonna be sent in there. This is what these people in Washington are going to have to understand. They want action. They want the agenda as promoted and promised.

As is always the case, the people are ahead of the politicians. The people don’t care what David Gregory says. The people don’t care from David Gregory thinks. I just checked my e-mail. The vast majority of people do not want our people going on these shows. Why go on these shows and give them an opportunity to cast us in a certain way, misrepresent or what have you? Their audiences are very small. Why mess with it? They don’t care what that idiot sheriff had to say. They’re not intimidated by any of this. The same can’t be said, though, of elected officials. Many of them are intimidated, and Tom Coburn was eventually beaten down to a certain extent by Gregory.

‘So you really…? I want to know, is Obama trying to injure the country?’

‘No, of course not. Of course not.’

He said that just to get rid of the question, but the voters are not buying any of the things that the media is trying to sell since this event happened — and I have to tell you something, I’ve mentioned this on many occasions in the past. Any time — and this not the first time. Oklahoma City was not the first time either but it was the largest at the time. It was the largest event where a president tried to personally blame me for an event like this. There have been several smaller attempts. Wacko X here does something, ‘Oh, conservative radio does this!’ And each time what gives me strength is knowing you don’t buy it, you don’t believe it. The biggest strength, the biggest confidence-builder I have is all of you. I know who you are.

You don’t buy any of this. You don’t succumb (or haven’t ‘surcame,’ as Cornel West says). You haven’t surcame to all of this BS in the media that you and I together are responsible for the acts of lunatic fringe leftists. So I never worry when they come out and start accusing me of things like this that you’re gonna believe it, that this program is going to be affected by it, because you don’t. You don’t care what the idiot sheriff had to say, you don’t care what Gregory has to say. You care that the people you elected not fall prey to all of this. So you get frustrated with all this idiot talk from Washington, including Republican politicians who want to sit together. Coburn said that, by the way. He’s gonna sit next to Schumer.

That’s not what you want to hear. You don’t want anybody sitting next to Schumer. That’s not what the election was about. And you, you know damn well that if it was the other way around — the Republicans lose bigger than ever in history — and they ask the Democrats, ‘Hey, let’s sit together during the State of the Union,’ the Democrats say, ‘You’ll be lucky if we let you in State of the Union much less sit next to us!’ But you are not interested in bipartisanship, because you know what it means.

You know that ‘bipartisanship’ means ‘caving.’

You know that ‘civility’ means ‘censorship.’

You’re not interested in any of this, so you get frustrated — and I’m glad you are. Don’t cool down. You get frustrated with all this idiot talk from Washington, including from Republican politicians who say they want to sit together. We want to defeat their agenda while the wind is at our back from a fresh election. This is the best time to do it. So I understand every one of you scared to death that they’re gonna drop the ball. You have history on your side. But let’s just wait and see.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is Enid in Marietta, Georgia, we go back to the phones. Thanks for calling.

CALLER: Rush, what an honor it is to finally get to speak to you after all these decades.

RUSH: Thank you very much.

CALLER: I am so excited. (giggles) But, Rush, I just want you to know I felt so relieved and so vindicated, I knew that if anybody was gonna call out that idiot, David Gregory in his 15 minutes of fame, it would be you. I had to suffer through it live. Why, you may ask? Well, my husband said, ‘Can’t you watch anything besides Fox News?’ And I said, ‘Why bother?’ So I tried, and I can’t handle it. I can’t take Meet the Press, and all I had to see was David Gregory trying to make himself look important for me to remember why I can’t stand network news.

RUSH: Well, your instincts are right on the money out there, Enid. All those programs exist for the advancement of the Obama agenda.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: There’s no question about it. So I guess it was a worthwhile pain. You watched it, and then you had your pain assuaged by listening to me nuke it. So everything happens for a reason, and I’m happy to have been of service.

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