RUSH: There was a movie last night that I thought was gonna win that didn’t. I know it wasn’t eligible because it didn’t start until this year. Wag the Contraceptive. Like Wag the Dog. A movie about a fake war. It was on television, Wag the Contraceptive, and better than anything that was on the roster of possible best movies last night. Wag the Contraceptive.
It just continues. It continues and now, ladies and gentlemen, your host, I, the adorable, the lovable, the harmless, lovable little fuzzball, it’s right here in the sound bites. I’m overwhelmed, by the way, I got more than I can possibly get in here and that’s sad ’cause it’s all good. I, ladies and gentlemen, I am killing the Republican Party. I, your host, the lovable, adorable, harmless lovable little fuzzball am destroying the party.
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ABC’s World News Weekend David Kerley. Are we ready to give this another wing? Here we try it again, take two, in three, two, one.
KERLEY: Establishment Republicans are starting to worry. Santorum, who leads some national polls, has spent a week talking about social issues instead of jobs. Everything from abortion, prenatal testing, to contraception. In the past 24 hours the conservative editorial page of the Wall Street Journal ran two pieces on Santorum, asking, “Is he a moralizer-in-chief?” And proclaiming Democrats are praying for a Santorum nomination. Conservatives, including radio host Rush Limbaugh, aren’t buying it.
RUSH ARCHIVE: The Republican establishment is essentially saying that the conservatives are screwing everything up, making a mess of this.
KERLEY: All this talk on social issues, this move to the right apparently is not helping either candidate among that important group of independent voters. Mitt Romney, our latest ABC News poll shows him with a gap of 14 points, and Rick Santorum has seen his unfavorability rating going up as well.
RUSH: Now, wait just a second. In the first place, this is a crock because Santorum is talking about far more than just social issues. He’s hitting the economy, he’s doing all of this. But the social issues once again, Wag the Pill, Wag the Contraceptive, whatever, was brought up by the Democrats. They entered it into the fray and I’m not gonna let anybody forget about it. The second thing is, ladies and gentlemen, that I don’t believe the polling numbers. I’ve got some polling numbers here in the Stack that show Obama’s not doing well and the gas price is hurting him. And it’s interesting, too, on that score, I’ve got a couple of stories on why the gas price, eight reasons — ten reasons — why the gasoline price is rising, and not one of them is to do with Obama. Both stories are efforts to protect him, to insulate him from having any role whatsoever in the rising gas price. Anyway, here is Joe Klein. This is Chris Matthews’ syndicated show Sunday morning, and he’s at TIME Magazine speaking with Matthews who said, “Democrats certainly keep these tapes of the Republican debates alive for the general, right, Joe?”
KLEIN: I gotta say, this is Jonestown. These guys have all drunk this Kool-Aid that spews from places like the Rush Limbaugh program, God help me, and I have never seen a field go so extreme and so intemperate and caricature their opposition as the anti-Christ as this field has. They are living in an alternative universe where Rush Limbaugh is God.
RUSH: Man, is the jealousy just not dripping in that remark. They’re living in an alternative universe where I, Rush Limbaugh, am God. Here’s how I look at this. ‘Cause all this is aimed at Santorum. Joe Klein, a great guy to tell us what’s good for us. Joe Klein really wants Republicans to do well, right? Joe Klein really wants conservatives to triumph, right? ‘Cause Joe Klein’s telling us, my God, you guys are drinking the Kool-Aid, you’re going off the edge of the cliff here with Jim Jones as Rush Limbaugh, who’s God.
Now, Rick Santorum and a lot of us, by the way, are simply defending the Constitution, which is under assault by this administration. That’s what’s going on here. The First Amendment is being shredded by the Obama regime. That’s what’s going on here. And we’re defending the Constitution and Christianity. Now, I know, I have said, and I stand by it, nobody ever won anything by defending it. What are we supposed to do, though, here? Do we sit back and do nothing while the Constitution’s under assault? Forget that it’s Christianity or religion, the Constitution is under assault. The president doesn’t have the power he’s using. Not legally. So what’s happening here is we are defending the Constitution and Christianity, both of which are the target of big government leftists and the media, people like this David Kerley guy and Joe Klein.
Now, Santorum, he may defend a little awkwardly here and there. I wouldn’t say that what JFK ever said wanted to make me puke, like Santorum did, but the substance of what he said I can agree with. He’s feisty, but the thing about Santorum, the reason they’re upset about this is Santorum’s not gonna back down, he’s not gonna surrender, he’s not gonna give away, he’s not gonna be shut up on this. That’s what bugs ’em. He’s not, “Oh, I’m sorry for bringing it up,” and running to the nearest corner and cowering. He’s not doing that. When liberals attack religion as Obama is with this contraceptive rule, Obama’s not asked about separation of church and state. Have you noticed this? This is a fundamentally key and profound point.
The left runs around with all this separation of church and state business. Santorum reacted to JFK’s Catholic speech in 1960, and what basically JFK was, this an absolute separation, I will never ask a priest or a friend in religion for advice, that’s not what the founders intended. This whole separation of church and state thing has been entirely manufactured and made up. The phrase is not even in the Constitution. And these leftists, they’re the guys so concerned about separation of church and state. Let me tell you who’s playing God, and that’s Obama. Obama’s playing God.
He thinks he’s God, and he has been acting this way since the campaign started in 2007 or 2008. When Barack Obama tells the Catholic Church or its schools that it must make free contraceptives available, that’s a violation of the First Amendment. He cannot do it. He is violating the precious separation of church and state. And when he does it he’s never asked about it, is he? “Oh, no! Obama’s never asked about it. Oh, no, can’t do that! Why, Obama’s on the right side of this, Obama’s trying to shut up these dangerous, social-issue Christians. So it goes only for the left. The state, the regime, Obama, is free to impose its will on religious institutions all it wants.
But religious institutions are not free to exercise their faith in the public square. That’s what Joe Klein wants us to believe, this Kerley guy at ABC, Obama, and all the rest on the left. Obama’s free to trample on the whole concept in the Constitution of religious liberty and freedom. They can impose their will on religious institutions. They can make the Catholic Church abortifacients and birth control pills and all this stuff. And if that doesn’t fly, then make the insurance companies do it on behalf of the Catholic Church. And nobody says, “Waaaait a minute, what about separation of church and state, Mr. Obama?”
But when the religious institution stands up and tries to exercise its faith in the public square, it’s shot down. It’s criticized. It’s told it can’t do so. “Separation of church and state!” Now, who said that these values issues are being debated anyway? Santorum has hammered Obamacare. Santorum has hammered Romneycare. Romney and Santorum are all over the gas price issue. They are not ignoring economic issues. The emphasis in repeat weeks on social issues is due to the media. George Stephanopoulos, January 7th, bringing the whole subject of contraception up asking a question of Romney in a debate in New Hampshire. Nobody was talking about it! Specifically the presidential candidates on the Republican side. Nobody was talking about it. They were all talking about the economy.
And that’s why this came up, because they don’t want the Republicans talking about the economy because it’s a blithering failure on the part of Obama. They don’t want ’em talking about it. That’s why the whole contraception thing came up, and it came up precisely because Santorum and Romney and Newt are not ignoring economic issues. Now, if people are sick of these things — if you in the audience, if you’re sick of this stuff being discussed — you’re sick of the media, then. Don’t be sick of the substantive responses that we’re getting, here.
Now you have people saying that Rick Santorum “is ignoring real problems. He’s talking about something because the media asks him about it. He needs to stay on message.” Why are we so afraid of the media? Let’s attack the media then! If it’s the media’s fault, let’s all join an attack on them. They’re the ones trying to derail this, all for Obama. But you just keep in mind: The real denial of separation of church and state is being perpetrated by the White House. The real crossing of that line is not occurring with Rick Santorum or Mitt Romney or Gingrich or me or anybody else. It’s happening with Barack Obama. The Democrats and the media, they’re the ones blurring the line.
They’re the ones trampling on religious freedom and religious liberty.
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RUSH: You know, the real irony here, ladies and gentlemen, is that the Founding Fathers of this country wanted there to be no “religious test” for federal public office. There was not to be a state religion, and that’s what the Constitution said. The original intent was that there not be an official religion and that there not be a religious test for federal public office. And what we have now, ironically, practically is a religious test. You cannot be religious and hold public office. You cannot be Christian. You cannot be pro-life and hold public office. That’s what the Joe Klein, the Barack Obamas and this David Kerley clown at ABC are saying. If anybody is bastardizing the US Constitution, it’s the Democrat Party. It is not the Republican presidential candidates.
It certainly is not I, the harmless, lovable little fuzzball, El Rushbo. Oh, there might be some kooky Republican talk show hosts that are trampling on the Constitution. I don’t know who they are. But certainly nobody major. The left is where this is happening. Very simple. Now, there’s polling data out there. Gallup/USA Today poll: The Obamacare mandate is hurting Obama in the swing states. The respondents were asked: “Do you think the individual mandate under Obamacare is constitutional?” Seventy-five percent nationwide think the health care mandate is unconstitutional. Seventy-five percent in a Gallup/USA Today poll.
Now, we have noted before that there are very few things that 75% of the US population ever agree on, but the unconstitutionality of Obamacare is one of them, as are most of Obama’s other dictates (“dictates” if you prefer that pronunciation). Obama is the one ruling against the American people. It is Obama trampling on individual liberty and freedom. Religious freedom included in that. In fact, I’ll tell you something: If you look at this, we have a clear majority of registered voters who call the passage of Obamacare a bad thing. They support its repeal if a Republican wins the White House in November. Don’t believe any poll that shows you repeal of health care is 50-50 or even slightly majority opposed to repeal.
It’s massive, the percentage of people that want to repeal this.
In fact, in some of the battleground states (I have to say this) according to the poll, Romneycare seems to be hurting Romney a little bit. In head-to-head matchups, Santorum leads Obama 50-45. And yet Joe Klein and these guys want us to believe that all this is hurting the Republicans. It’s the exact opposite. The Romney campaign and the Santorum campaign are all broad-based. They are hitting all cylinders in the campaign against Obama. They are answering questions from the media about this phony Wag the Pill issue that the Democrats have created on this contraception business. One more audio sound bite about how I, your host, am destroying the Republican Party. This was Saturday morning, MSNBC’s Up with Chris Hayes. He had a guest on, some columnist named Victoria de Francesco. But he’s the guy, Chris Hayes. This what he said…
HAYES: The rhetoric of Rush Limbaugh, the Republican of the Republican Party, the rhetoric of local Republicans, was hung around the neck of John McCain who had walked away from comprehensive immigration reform, and he did very poorly.
RUSH: So we killed off McCain, too! So we destroyed the Republican Party this year. We’re killing the Republican Party. And the ABC story basically that we played in the first sound bite is about how the Republican establishment is in panic over what I’m doing. The Republican establishment is in panic over the fact I’m killing the party, and you know how I’m killing the party? By not relegating discussion of social issues for the ash heap. They don’t want it talked about. “Oh, gawd. Oh-ho-ho, no!” They just can’t handle it being discussed. They think it’s gonna send the independents driving away. And the electoral history of it is anything but. I remind you again about the 2002 midterms.
Do you remember those? After the midterms were over, the exit polling data came out — and nobody believed it, but all of the exit polling data was that values played such a large role in Republicans winning in a midterm election where historically the party in power does not win seats, the Republicans gained seats. This was after 9/11, true. And there was, at the time, universal support for George W. Bush. But still, it happened.