RUSH: Time for some fun with the audio sound bites, my friends. We’ll start with me, in fact. I just want you to hear, just be reminded, this was me back on June 17th of last year. Last year sounds like a long time ago, but it wasn’t really. Just six months ago.
RUSH ARCHIVE: There isn’t a Democrat versus Republican mind-set in Washington anymore, ladies and gentlemen. There is an election, presidential election, there’s a pretense of it, but in truth, the only real enemy of Washington today is the Tea Party. The Republican and Democrat establishments, the Chamber of Commerce, the whole way Washington is working, the only enemies are people who want to reintroduce free markets, get rid of crony capitalism, blow up the relationships that exist between Washington and individual businesses or business at large, Wall Street firms. You people in the Tea Party that believe in liberty, freedom, free markets, you represent the problem. To John Boehner, to the Republican establishment, to the Republican consultants, Obama is not the problem. Anybody opposed to the way Washington does business today is the problem, and that would be you and me.
RUSH: And that’s from last June. And it’s, I think, only intensified. It has to have intensified. Since then we had this landslide — and you look at it two ways. Landslide election victory for the Republicans without a mandate. Well, they didn’t campaign on. They have a mandate. It’s called “Stop Obama.” They don’t want it. They don’t want to touch that. They don’t want any part of stopping Obama. That’s stopping Washington. And that’s not the rule of the day.
The other aspect is, a landslide loss for the Democrats, huge, and the second midterm landslide defeat in a row for the Democrats. They’ve lost a lot of seats, nationally and at the state level. They’re ripe, sitting ducks. And they’re not the enemy, they really aren’t, as far as the Republican Party is concerned.
Here’s some evidence. Yesterday in Washington at the Washington center and Bipartisan Policy Center. Well, that’s a great place. Washington Bipartisan Policy Center. Former Senator Robert Bennett of Utah spoke. He was talking about the Republican Party, and this just a portion of what he said.
BENNETT: Just as the people under McGovern went too far in that direction, in the Tea Party thing they have gone too far, slipped off the edge of the menu completely into Alice in Limbaughland, and as a result they’ve made themselves irrelevant to the governing process. And I’ve said to some of my Democratic friends, if we Republicans can’t contain that, the Democrats are gonna win five out of the next six presidential elections just the way the Republicans did.
RUSH: Did you hear all that? Forget the Alice in Limbaughland bit, which is what makes the sound bite fun and is one of the reasons why I played it, did you hear this guy’s out talking to Democrats, about you, complaining about you to the Democrats. Do you think the Democrats have ever gone to Robert Bennett and started complaining about Bill Maher? Or Jon Stewart? “Oh, man we gotta, you know, if we don’t get rid of these guys that are making us look like nuts and communists here, we’re never gonna win the presidency.”
You ever hear the Democrats talking to Republicans — here’s Robert Bennett. He proud. Former senator from Utah. (imitating Bennett) “Oh, yeah, yeah, this Tea Party thing, they’ve gone too far, slipped off the edge of the menu completely into Alice in Limbaughland.” The Tea Party is the backbone of this country. The Tea Party is the people who make this country work. The Tea Party is the natural Republican base. But that’s not how they see it. You know how they see the Tea Party? When you say “Tea Party,” what do you think they see? Well, it’s a tie, but they probably see Christine O’Donnell and Sarah Palin, and maybe Sharron Angle, or who knows whoever. But that’s who they see. They think that everybody in the Tea Party is —
When you compare the two bases — and I consider the Tea Party to be the Republican base. When you compare the Republican base and the Democrat base and you think it’s the Tea Party that’s off the edge of sanity, what in the world else must you think? That, to me, is just is a striking, striking sound bite. These guys probably agree with de Blasio that the cops are the problem in New York City. It really is amazing. But I wanted you to hear it. And I kind of like this Alice in Limbaughland. They obviously think of me when they think of the Tea Party, and frankly, other than supporting it, I’ve got nothing to do with the Tea Party, and neither does anybody else, really.
The Tea Party came into existence out of thin air, essentially. What I mean by that is, the Tea Party doesn’t have a leader. The Tea Party just came into existence because of the shock and awe at what was happening to America by Obama. Average Americans who had never been in politics before. And that’s the rub. They’ve never been in politics before, and they can’t be controlled, they can’t be buttoned up, and they can’t be set aside.
They can’t be utilized as normal political groups are. You’re never gonna be able to get rid of the Tea Party. This is the thing that Republicans don’t understand. You’re never gonna be able to get rid of the Tea Party because the Tea Party is made up of average Americans who happen to be the ones still making this country work. There’s no way to get rid of ’em. They live and breathe, and they happen to be people who just came into existence ’cause they were outraged at what they saw happening to their government and their country, and they wanted it stopped.
Don’t you love it, all these people talking about how the Tea Party, “Yeah, it’s faded away. Yeah, the Tea Party, not a problem. The Tea Party had its day, shot its wad. The Tea Party exist anymore.” And then every election people become shocked and dismayed that the Tea Party is still there and still a factor, and they start ripping into it again, just as former senator Bennett did here. Eric Cantor, who was defeated — remember, he was in line to be Speaker, second in command in the Republican leadership. He went down to defeat in Virginia.
Now he’s working on Wall Street somewhere in a financial institution. Anyway, he was on CNBC, which has lost all of its audience. Did you know that? CNBC and CNN are competing for the number of people you can put in a thimble. It’s amazing what has happened to CNBC. MSNBC, ditto. Anyway, Cantor showed up over there last night, actually this morning on their program Squawk Box, and the cohost was Joe Kernen. He said to Eric Cantor, “Is the president gonna be willing to alienate the far left with some of these things like tax reform or trade?” You know, I could comment on that question, but I’m not going to ’cause I want to get to the answer. Here’s what Cantor said.
CANTOR: This is the question. The question is, will the next two years be spent relitigating the differences that had been well defined over the last six years, all right? I mean, we know that Republicans don’t agree with Obama —
KERNEN: Right.
CANTOR: — on environmental reform or his health care bill or his unilateral moves on immigration. We also know the Democrats don’t agree with Republicans on tax reform, entitlement reform, and the rest. So are we gonna be spending the next two years and see Congress relitigating that or are we gonna get something done?
RUSH: Here we go gonna. Here we go with this magic, “Are we gonna get something done?” Is just getting something done all there is? What if the something that gets done adds up to being more and more destruction? And if it’s what Obama wants, that’s what it’s going to be. What is wrong with relitigating or to continue to litigate? The election was about stopping any more of this. He couldn’t be any more clear. And yet here another’s former — capital F — another former Republican advising us on how we need to be here. We need to stop talking about these last six years, and we need to start working together and getting something done.
What does Cantor want to get done? Does he want amnesty? What does he want? Does he want Obamacare fully implemented so it’s no longer an issue? I mean, that’s been the Republican modus operandi. Just agree with the Democrats whatever they want every 90 days and then tell us, “Don’t worry, don’t worry, don’t worry. We had to give them this, get this issue off the table. We’re losing this issue, but we’ll kick their butt the next time.” And it just keeps playing itself out like Groundhog Day. So what do they want to get done? Amnesty. What do they want to get done? Fully implement paid for Obamacare. What do they want to get done?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Jake, Clarksville, Georgia, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Mr. Limbaugh. And thank you for taking my call today.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: I’m like Mr. Snerdley, I’m still holding out hope for that 29th vote.
RUSH: We all are.
CALLER: I wanted to comment on a sound bite that you played earlier today from the former Senator from Utah, Mr. Bennett.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: He made a comment that, I believe he said that if they followed the Tea Party, that the Republican Party would lose five out of the next six presidential elections?
RUSH: That’s exactly right. Let’s listen to that sound bite. We played it about an hour ago. Let’s play it so you know what Jake here is talking about. This was former Senator from Utah, Robert Bennett, who was speaking at the Washington center Bipartisan Policy Center yesterday, talking about the Republican Party.
BENNETT: Just as the people under McGovern went too far in that direction, in the Tea Party thing they have gone too far, slipped off the edge of the menu completely into Alice in Limbaughland, and as a result they’ve made themselves irrelevant to the governing process. And I’ve said to some of my Democratic friends, if we Republicans can’t contain that, the Democrats are gonna win five out of the next six presidential elections just the way the Republicans did.
RUSH: So you’re right, that’s exactly what he said. And he’s talking to a Democrat — He’s running down his own base to a Democrat, and he said the Democrats are gonna win five of the next six presidential elections if the Tea Party doesn’t shut up and go away. Go ahead, Jake. Are you there?
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: All right. Take it away.
CALLER: I would like to point out to Mr. Bennett that without the Tea Party, the Republicans have successfully lost four out of the six last presidential elections.
RUSH: Precisely. Exactly. It’s not as though the Republicans are out there winning presidential elections. By the way, the two presidential elections they’ve won, two out of the last six, how’d they do it? George W. Bush ran as a conservative. George H. W. Bush ran as the third term of Ronald Reagan. They did not run like Romney did. They didn’t run as Northeastern moderates or liberals. They ran as conservatives. They won. The Republicans, when they nominated Dole, sayonara. They nominated McCain. Disaster. And they nominated Romney. And they want to do it again.