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RUSH: This Arlen Specter business. Maybe I'm outta touch. I am stunned at the way the political class, both Republicans and Democrats, are dealing with this defection of Arlen Specter to the  Democrat Party. It's almost like a religious leader abandoned the religion, which is not the case. We got rid of some dead weight. It is mind-boggling. The Democrats are throwing parties. Some of the Republicans are out there getting it right, Jim DeMint and others. The Republicans that are getting it right are being bashed to kingdom come by both Democrats and Republicans. It is just amazing to watch this.
You would think, if you watch the Drive-By Media and even listened to a bunch of so-called Republicans today, that there is no more Republican Party, that there will never, ever be a Republican Party, and the Republican Party practically never existed anyway. The Republican Party, ladies and gentlemen, won the presidency in 2004. It held the Congress in 2004. The Republican Party emerged victorious in a few short years after Watergate. Everybody is just drunk with Obamaism. There's no perspective on this anymore. There's literally none, leaving it wide open for me to explain all that's actually going on here.
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RUSH: As for Senator Specter and the commentary that's going on about Senator Specter leaving the Republican Party, Senator Specter voted for one of the most irresponsible pieces of legislation in modern history. He voted for Barack Obama's so-called stimulus plan. By the way, speaking of that, you see the news today? "The American economy shrank rapidly in the first three months of the year, the government reported today, a signal that the economy is likely to remain a dominate issue." Yes. The economy's plunging, more and more people losing their jobs, recovery is practically not in sight. Let's talk about it as a political issue to see who it helps. "Economists had predicted that the gross domestic product would drop 4.7%, but it dropped at 6.1%. It was totally unexpected." I'm reading today from some of the wizards of smart, "Well, it is bad, but we can't blame Obama. It would be unfair to blame this on Obama. He's only been in office 100 days." Why can't we blame Obama? Has not the economy been stimulated? Didn't we pass the stimulus bill? Haven't we had a bunch of bailouts, starting toward the end of last year?
We've been trying to get this economy to rebound long before Obama took office and we have been using policies that are identical to what Barack Obama would have proposed, were he president last year. We have proposed political solutions, which have essentially said we're gonna grow the government, we're going to print money, and we're going to borrow money, and we're going to throw money after bad things. We're going to throw money at things that ought to be allowed to fail. We're going to stimulate this; we're going to bring your job back; we're going to cut your taxes 13 bucks a week. There's no sign that it has worked. That's too soon to blame Obama. It would be so robustly unfair to blame Obama. Now, in one sense I can see the point, yeah, we passed a stimulus bill but most of it doesn't get in really good gear until 2010, but, folks, I hate to remind you, when the rest of this stupid plan goes into action, we are really going to be in the sewer. |
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When his tax cuts, the Bush tax cuts expire, thus new tax increases, when inflation hits when the economy rebounds, because of all this printing of money and borrowing and spending, the idea that all of this stuff was done to stimulate the economy, and the economy's not stimulated, the things that stimulate the economy are being stopped. And that is getting regulations and obstacles out of people's way, people who run businesses, people who want to work for businesses. I made the point last night, somebody name for me a government program that's worked. Name one that's worked, from the Great Society, to the war on poverty. I said, see, we're not supposed to talk about failure. We're not supposed to talk about results. We're supposed to only examine the good intentions of people. You coulda heard a pin drop. Well, I couldn't see, Mr. Snerdley, other than the first couple of rows because of the spotlights and everything, but I assume they were looking at me like I was a zombie if there was no reaction. And I'm telling you, I was the only one saying anything like what I was saying last night on this panel.
 Gillespie was good, but I pointed out when I went out, "Look, folks, these three guys are in the political world. They are about winning elections and getting votes. That's not what I do." And the place busted up laughing. And I said no, no, no, no, I'm serious. I don't lie. I don't pander. I will not tell somebody something I don't really believe just to get their vote. That's when you could hear the pin drop. You'll hear it all. I'm going to play all this stuff as the program unfolds. When there was dead silence in there, my assumption was that the majority of the crowd, "I can't believe somebody is saying this. I can't believe what I just heard." But again, I was a bit disadvantaged because I couldn't hear anything in there, other than myself, and the only reason I knew what I was saying is because I knew it was me talking. You know, I don't even have to hear myself to know what I'm saying because it's in my brain, but it was just impossible to hear the other people. So we got that to do, we got Arlen Specter. Wrap this up here. Arlen Specter supported and voted for one of the most irresponsible pieces of legislation in modern history. This is the stimulus package. He joined with the most radical liberal elements of the Democrat Party in supporting the stimulus package.
This is what provoked a challenge to him in the primary. This is when finally Pat Toomey and a bunch of others said, "That's it for us with Senator Specter, that's it. We have got to run somebody against him." Is there something obscene about that? Isn't that how politics works? But what are we getting today? What we're getting is several learned conservatives ripping Pat Toomey, ripping the Club for Growth from which he comes, because the Republicans needed Specter regardless. We do? Yes, we needed Specter to stop and thwart all of these Democrat ideas. It's mind-boggling. I'm going to lay this out in a little bit more understandable fashion. |
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RUSH: Joe Lieberman was asked on MSNBC yesterday about my comments regarding the departure of Arlen Specter from the Republican Party to the Democrat Party. Norah O'Donnell said to Senator Lieberman, "Rush Limbaugh said today of Specter leaving the party, 'A lot of people are saying, "Specter, take McCain with you and his daughter."' Now, Senator McCain is your good friend, Senator Lieberman." There were people saying that to me, getting it in the e-mail: "Hey, Senator Specter, if you're leaving, take McCain with you and his daughter." I repeated that. So they asked Lieberman yesterday, "McCain's your good friend. Any chance McCain will leave the Republican Party?"
LIEBERMAN: No, I don't think so at all. And, look, this is the problem. It's good for the Democratic Party, bad for the Republican Party that Arlen Specter left them and joined the Democratic caucus but overall it's not great for American politics 'cause both parties should have moderate or centrist wings in them that modifies the parties and creates more opportunity for common ground and less partisanship. So respectfully, I disagree with Rush.
RUSH: Well, respectfully I disagree with Senator Lieberman on this notion that parties need moderating influences. I'd like to know where the hell they are in the Democrat Party. You do have some conservative Democrats from the South that are over in the House. But they get squished like mosquitoes by Nancy Pelosi. Where are these moderating influences? See, one of the things that's wrong with this, there are so many cliches and templates that are wrong with this. I keep hearing, for example, that the Republican Party is monolithic in its views and the monolithic views of the Republican Party are just right wing, ultra-right-wing. But the Democrat Party is open to diverse ideas? Really? They keep saying the Senate is filibuster-proof? Well, if the Senate is filibuster-proof, it must mean the Democrats are not diverse at all. Mustn't it mean that? Where are the conservative Democrats, Senator Lieberman, who will not vote to block filibusters? Where are the conservative Democrats in the Senate who voted against the stimulus package? Where are they, who are they? I get so sick and tired of hearing how monolithic the Republican Party is. I get so sick and tired of hearing how far right the Republican Party has moved.
The Republican Party is moving left and that is why it is in trouble, and there is certainly a greater diversity of viewpoint in the Republican Party. For crying out loud, I guarantee you the Democrat Party would never, ever nominate their equivalent of John McCain. The Democrat Party would never, ever nominate somebody who rips and has made his name by ripping and criticizing his own party and his own presidents. That would never happen. Democrats throw those people out of the party or they bury them. We nominated a guy whose claim to fame is criticizing his own president and criticizing his own party, and they say we're monolithic. The monolith is the Democrat Party. Again, I ask, they say he's now filibuster-proof. They got their 60 votes, 59 votes. Well, that's the bare minimum you need for cloture. Where's the diversity?
If all 60 of them, all 59 of them are gonna vote identically, where's diversity? Yeah. Conservatives had the maverick the last four years. We never hear about a Democrat maverick. I told you yesterday this was what the template is going to be, I told you yesterday this was how the press was going to play this. The Republican Party is dead because it loses Arlen Specter? Arlen Specter, who voted for one of the most horrendous pieces of legislation in our lifetime, this stupid, worthless stimulus bill? He joined with the far left of the Democrat Party who voted for that and somehow him leaving the Republican Party hurts the Republican Party? Just the opposite. Last night on Fox, On the Record, Greta Van Susteren talking to Lindsey Grahamnesty about this. And she said, "How did you first hear about Senator Specter defecting to the Democrats?"
GRAHAM: Here's the challenge for the Republican Party. Can the person running now win in Pennsylvania? I can't win in Pennsylvania. Rush Limbaugh can't win in Pennsylvania. If you're worried about giving the country over to the Democratic Party and not being a vibrant, relevant Republican Party, we need to find somebody that can win in Pennsylvania.
RUSH: Does this make sense to anybody? Parties stand for something. You are not building the party, Senator Graham; you're not expanding the party; you're not broadening it by caving on the things that identify the party. And to have somebody in the party who's not a Republican, in terms of beliefs, principles, what the party stands for, you lose by having people like that. That's what was wrong with the McCain candidacy. The McCain candidacy was gonna try to go get liberals and Democrats to join our party as liberals and Democrats. But voters are smarter than that. If you can vote for a genuine liberal and a genuine Democrat, why vote for the generic? Why vote for the fake? To what benefit is the Republican Party? Where is the benefit having somebody who's not a Republican in it?
That's actually a good idea. Lindsey Grahamnesty says, "I can't win Pennsylvania," although I'm not running. He said he couldn't win in Pennsylvania. Only Arlen Specter can win in Pennsylvania. Pat Toomey can't win. I think Senator Grahamnesty could learn a lot by going to AskHeritage.org. AskHeritage.org is a repository of undiluted, unapologetic, full-fledged, pedal-to-the-metal conservatism on whatever the issue of the day is. |
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RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to know what the conventional wisdom is in Washington, DC, you go out and find wherever David "Rodham" Gergen is and you listen to him. Last night he was on CNN's Larry King Alive, and Larry King said to David "Rodham" Gergen, "According to Rush Limbaugh, a lot of Republicans wished that Senator Specter would take McCain and his daughter Meghan with him as he exits the GOP. Do you think that more defections are coming? Do you think Olympia Snowe might go or Susan Collins?"
 GERGEN: That kind of Rush Limbaugh response is... uh, Mr. Steele's response indicates sort of the bitterness among some conservatives, and yet one has to remember that when Ronald Reagan tried to build a majority party, he erected a big tent. He welcomed into the party people who did not agree with him on all of his conservative positions, and the Democrats did go into eclipse. But what Democrats did was, they started going out -- Rahm Emanuel was at the leadership of this -- trying to recruit moderates in the South and elsewhere to run as Democrats, and it helped to build up this majority. The conservatives, by contrast -- the Club of Growth and others -- have said if you're not pure enough, if you're too moderate, we're going to run somebody against you in a Republican primary, and we're going to take you down.
RUSH: I just... This is 180 degrees wrong. It is the Democrat Party that demands 100% fealty and purity, or you don't matter. You will not be allowed to count. But I have to tell you, this Ronald Reagan business. "He erected a big tent. He had all kinds of people who didn't believe his conservative issues, all of his conservative issues." That's another lie. I don't know how he passed 'em if they didn't believe him, but I'm going to tell you a story last night. In the greenroom before we went out to start the debate at the Milken Institute Global Forum, we are talking about this very subject: What do the Republicans have to do to come back? Somebody said that they'd gone to a reception the night before -- a big-time Hollywood reception, Beverly Hills reception -- and there were a lot of Republicans there, I was told. A lot of Republicans, and they all said, "You're just going to have to get rid of the pro-life position. Republicans are just going to have to become pro-choice. It's the only way the party can grow."
To which I said, "Yeah, I remember Ronald Reagan being big time pro-choice, and he won two landslides."
I said it very sarcastically. Ronald Reagan was pro-LIFE, and he won two landslides. You know what the response was? It was one of the Democrats.
"Well, Reagan was pro-life, but, I mean (muttering), he never made a big deal about it. I mean... (muttering)"
"Didn't make a big deal about it? Pat Robertson was up there every other day on the big pro-life day in January? Reagan is there making phone calls and so forth. He didn't make a big deal out of it?"
But let's accept the premise that Reagan didn't make a big deal out of it. The one thing Reagan was not was pro-choice. I get so sick and tired of hearing this, "The only way..." I heard it back in the nineties out in the Hamptons. I hear it every now and then, and I heard it again last night. "The only way Republicans can ever come back and win is if they become pro-choice and get rid of the pro-life Christians, just get rid of them," and yet there's the blueprint: Ronald Reagan, two landslides with a pro-life candidacy. George W. Bush won twice. He's pro-life. Republican Party can't win with pro-life? God help us. |
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 RUSH: On this Reagan business, I don't mind reminding you of something. I made this point during the whole campaign. Reagan did attract moderates, but he did it by attracting them to him. They came in as conservatives. Reagan did not change who he was to go get them. Reagan ran against Gerald Ford. He ran against the GOP establishment. He ran as a conservative. Moderates came to Ronald Reagan. Like Gergen! Gergen was slumming around with Reagan for a long while. He glommed onto him as best he could. He was a typical, you know, celebrity worshiper. That's what a lot of these guys are now. They just go where the bright light is. Gerald Ford was pro-choice; he lost. You know, if you talk to people that campaigned for Reagan in 1976 -- and I have -- they'll tell you they don't remember Gergen or a Duberstein or Colin Powell or any of these people being around.
All these great moderates were not part of the Reagan campaign in 1976. And when Reagan won in 1980, the moderates came out of the woodwork all claiming to be Reagan supporters, but they were just celebrity worshipers. But you want to hear something funny? Yesterday afternoon in Washington... You know, one of the things that really upset Arlen Specter was when Lincoln Chafee was defeated as a Republican for his reelection bid in Rhode Island. Because if Lincoln Chafee had won, Specter thinks he would have become the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. But Lincoln Chafee was unpredictable. There was no guarantee he was going to stay a Republican after he won. But here, nevertheless, is Senator Specter at his press conference yesterday afternoon.
SPECTER: The Club for Growth challenged Linc Chafee. Remember Linc Chafee? They made him spend all this money in the primary and he lost the general! They don't make any bones about, uh, their willingness to lose the general election if they can purify the party. I don't understand it, but that's what they say. And for the people who are Republicans to sit by and allow them to continue to dominate the party after they beat Chafee, cost us Republican control of the Senate, and cost us 34 federal judgeeees, there ought to be rebellion. There ought to be an uprising.
RUSH: Of who? Moderates? I'd love to see that! Was George Washington commanding a bunch of moderates as they sailed across the Delaware? Can you...? By definition, an uprising of moderates is not possible. There ought to be a rebellion. There ought to be an uprising of moderates. By the way, the Club for Growth is being besmirched today all across the conservative spectrum. There are some so-called conservatives who think the Club for Growth is ruining the Republican Party because of demand for "purity." All the Club for Growth is... I mean Pat Toomey was heading up, Steve Moore, a great guy, used to head it up. Pat Toomey heads it up. He ran in the primary against Specter, he comes out of the Club for Growth. They just believe in private sector capitalism, which is what the Republican Party used to believe in! It's not demanding purity. It's remaining true to principles. Go to their website, check 'em out: Club for Growth. They're you! They're just a great bunch of guys.
(We Just Disagree starts playing)
RUSH: All right, folks, since Senator Specter wants an "uprising;" he wants a "rebellion" from moderates, we have a great theme song, a moderate theme song just for you right now. Who is it, Dave Mason? Dave Mason sings the moderate theme song.
(Dave Mason singing We Just Disagree)
MASON: Been away, haven't seen you in a while. / How've you been? / Have you changed your style and do you think / That we've grown up differently? Don't seem the same / Seems you've lost your feel for me / So let's leave it alone, 'cause we can't see eye to eye. / There ain't no good guys; there ain't no bad guys. / There's only you and me and we just disagree.
RUSH: Conflict resolution 101.
MASON: Ooo. Ooo. Oohoo.
RUSH: That's the moderate theme song. "It's only you and me, and we just disagree."
MASON: Oh-oh. Oh-whoa. |
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RUSH: No good guy, no bad guy. All just wonderful people.
MASON: I'm going back to a place that's far away. How bout you? / Have you got a place to stay? Why should I care? / When I'm just trying to get along. We were friends / But now it's the end of our love song.
RUSH: I can see Obama singing this to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
MASON: So let's leave it alone.
RUSH: Or Hugo Chavez.
MASON: 'Cause we can't see eye to eye. / There ain't no good guys; there ain't no bad guys. / There's only you and me and we just disagree. / Ooo. Ooo. Oohoo. Oh-oh. Oh-whoa. / So let's leave it alone, 'cause we can't see eye to eye. / There ain't no good guys, there ain't no bad guys. / There's only you and me and we just disagree.
RUSH: Oh, there you have it.
MASON: Ooo. Ooo. Oohoo. Oh-oh. Oh-whoa.
RUSH: That's it, that's it. Dave Mason and We Just Disagree, the moderate theme song that will provide the impetus for that moderate uprising, the moderate rebellion so desired by Senator Specter. So, you know, I want to go back to this Club for Growth business again, because even among conservatives now, there's rebellion against conservatives who don't even control the party. The conservatives don't control the party! The party's not going right-wing. So Club for Growth, the Club for Growth is now the problem, not the union PACs, not the unions, not the feminism PACs. Not all of the other left-wing, far-left groups that spend a fortune in primaries. ACORN? Oh, no!
ACORN's not a problem. George Soros is not a problem. But the Club for Growth is a problem! Club for Growth. Do you realize how insane this is? There is Republicans saying this. And, I'll tell you what: I'm to the point, if they all want to leave, let them leave. This thing's going to have to be rebuilt anyway. The conservative movement and the Republican Party are going to have to be rebuilt anyway. Let 'em go. I mean there's a perfect place for these people who want to blame their own side for all this mess. There's already a chorus blaming the Republicans for all this mess, when in fact the Republicans can't stop it. Republicans can't prevent anything Obama's going to because it's the Democrats who are monolithic. |
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