RUSH: We start on the phones in Dallas today. This is Steve. It’s great to have you on the program. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. It’s such an honor to get to talk to you once again. Our last conversation was back in 1983, and I’ve never had the opportunity to say thank you for the gift you gave me back then and I’ve wanted to all the years since then.

RUSH: You’re saying 1983?

CALLER: Yes. I had the honor of waiting on you at a restaurant.

RUSH: That would be ’93.

CALLER: In San Diego.

RUSH: Where? At a restaurant. Okay.

CALLER: In San Diego.

RUSH: In San Diego.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: Oh, it could have been ’83. It could have been ’83, then. You can’t hear me, folks. Our phone system triumphs again. Steve, go ahead and make your point here and I’ll listen while you speak. It’s not gonna be possible for us to talk together because when I’m talking, you can’t hear me if I’m speaking at the same time. So go ahead and make your point.

CALLER: The question I have is it seems to me clear that if we wanted to lock up the presidency for the next 16 years, a Trump and Cruz ticket would be the best way to do it. We would be able to resist the establishment and then give the opportunity over the next 16 years for the core conservative to be able to take back the Republican Party. I was curious what your thoughts would be on that.

RUSH: You know, I’ve not heard that possible pairing. I have heard, for example, Trump-Kasich. We’ve heard Trump-Rubio. That would be kind of hard now, with the way that Mr. Trump has been characterizing Senator Rubio recently. And there hasn’t been… I mean, I know he’s been hard on Cruz, too. He hit Cruz last night, “Lying Ted! Yeah, lying Ted! You know, Ted and his big lies. He holds up the Bible, puts up the Bible, ‘By God, I’m a great guy, great guy! I love the Bible,’ and he puts the Bible down and starts lying again. Lying Ted. Lying Ted. I never met anybody who lies bigger than Ted Cruz.

“Ted picks up the Bible, says what he says, puts the Bible down, starts lying again.” Can somebody like that be on his ticket? Look at the combination: Okay, here’s Trump. Would Cruz do it? Let’s say Cruz does it just for the heck of it. We’re discussing a hypothetical here. Cruz does it; stays close. Cruz does it to be one whatever away, one step away, one heartbeat away, whatever. Cruz gets out of the Senate, where he ostensibly has no friends. Cruz could provide Trump legislative assistance, liaison assistance, policy assistance, and so forth.

He could be one of the guardrails for Trump on the right. I don’t know. At first glance it seems like one of these things, “Nah, come on. That would never happen.” But it does establish a firm presence. You’ve got a point about two outsiders (and that’s what they have in common) on the ticket. And then here’s the real question. You have a ticket like that, I have to… You know, Bret Baier mentioned this on Monday night, on Special Report, when doing the Hillary roundtable or whatever.

And Bret Baier’s not the only one. I’ve heard it, too. He talked about all of the Republicans. Well, not all. Some Republicans in Washington, elected Republicans who have told him that if Trump’s the nominee, they’re voting for Hillary. And I’ve heard that, too, and some of them have been quoted. There have been some Republicans who have allowed themselves to be quoted saying that they are thinking of it, that it’s something they might consider, that they might have to do. Now, stop and think of that for just a sec.

Stop and think what that would actually be. And when the establishment types, Republicans go out and say that to people like Bret Baier so he can then repeat it, they’re not helping themselves. They are confirming what everybody supporting Trump, supporting Cruz believes, that they really aren’t Republicans. That they really aren’t that opposed to the Obama or Democrat agenda. How in the world, knowing everything we know, do you, as an elected Republican, vote for Hillary Clinton?

And when you do, and when you telegraph it and you’re honest that you did it, what does it say about you and the people in your party who agree with you? Should we go through the roster of Clinton policy beliefs? Should we spell out what Hillary Clinton being elected president means for the Supreme Court? And here we have Republicans apparently running around proudly saying to Bret Baier and others in the media that they’re thinking of voting for her.

They really think they’re helping what by doing this? They really think that that’s going to inspire Trump supporters to abandon him? What do they think is gonna happen when they are open about this? Now, some of them talking to Bret Baier, it’s apparently off the record. But I think the numbers would surprise you. The names probably wouldn’t, but I think the numbers of Republicans that might be tending in this direction would surprise you, because they’re taking all of this personally.

They’re taking it as personal rejection of their and their breeding and their standing and their brilliance and their competence and their qualifications and their accomplishments and all of that. But stop and think what that would actually mean. But they’re talking about it. So we have a Cruz and Trump ticket, Trump-Cruz put in proper order, the way the caller mentioned it. What happens to these Republican establishment guys who dislike both of them?

But let’s say for discussion purposes that’s the ticket. Can the party unify behind that ticket? Can the Republican establishment get behind it? Can the money people donate to it? Will the consultants actually not sabotage the ticket like they did sabotage Sarah Palin? It’s all valid questions. Those are all valid questions. So another break here we have to take. We’ll stop and think about that. That’s an interesting suggestion there in a whole lot of ways.