RUSH: To the phones. We go to Chicago. This is Ed. Nice to have you with us, sir, hello.
CALLER: Hi how you doing, Rush?
RUSH: Very well thank you.
CALLER: I just called to make a quick comment about Glenn Beck. The way he’s always talking about Republicans and Democrats are exactly the same just kind of really irritates me. But yesterday he changed his tune a little. He talked about how you got DeMint in there and Mike Pence and, you know, there are some good Republicans in there. But I just got tired of hearing him saying it and saying it. It seemed like yesterday he changed his story a little bit. You know, kind of like what you’re saying, that they’re not all the same. They’re not the same, and I agree with you, but I just got tired of listening to it. Finally yesterday he just… You know, I don’t know why he did it but he did.
RUSH: Well, you —
CALLER: And Arnold Schwarzenegger, too. He irritated me, too, when he said about Republicans being the party of ‘no.’
RUSH: Well, look —
CALLER: Like you, I like it., I like saying ‘no’ to this garbage.
RUSH: I have no clue about Arnold Schwarzenegger anymore. I saw his little appearance there on Meet the Depressed. (impression) ‘Republicans need to support the president on dee health care reform.’ Here’s a guy with 27% approval.
CALLER: Yep. He’s on his way out.
RUSH: No wonder Meet the Press wants him on TV. He’s a prototypical Republican. What they all want Republicans to be, is Arnold. You give me a dilemma about Glenn Beck, however, because I have a policy here, and I’ve always had a policy, that I do not comment on other people that do this. I do not believe in media feuds. I don’t believe in doing that kind of thing. Everybody in this business has their own objective, I think I understand what people’s objective in this business are from person to person to person. I know what they want. I know what they’re trying to accomplish. But I don’t feel comfortable commenting on it. It’s just a policy thing here. I really don’t want to get into internecine battles with people on my side of things. I’d rather keep my powder dry, focus on people I think are the real problems, and that’s liberals and Republicans in Name Only.
CALLER: Okay, Rush.
RUSH: What?
CALLER: No, I just wanted to say. I understand. Like I said, every time I hear him say that, it just makes my blood boil.
RUSH: Yeah. Well… (clearing throat)
CALLER: I understand your point.
RUSH: Well, a lot of people are not gonna understand the point. A lot of people are going to think I’m copping out here and so forth, which I’m not doing. Look, I know everybody talks about me and how I do it. There’s a reason for that, and I have to be mindful of the position I occupy here, and I start commenting on other people that do this… You people have listened for a long time know I don’t do it. They all comment about me but I don’t want to get distracted by those kinds of things. But I will tell you something. This day, when I got up and saw some things that happened and said, ‘Okay, yesterday, Obama committing suicide with his health care proposal,’ this is suicide Tuesday. I do not understand what Mitt Romney is doing, endorsing McCain. The era of McCain is over! And Scott Brown s voting for the jobs bill, this meager little $15 billion jobs bill? (sigh)
Folks, I hate to tell you this, but if you’ll go back and if you will review the tapes, the transcripts of this program, you will see. You will not find me being a giant, big-time, pedal-to-the-metal supporter of Scott Brown. We’re talking about a Massachusetts Republican. Now, I know he’s opposed health care, and we gotta continue to support him on that, and he’s opposed to cap and trade, and he hasn’t changed his mind. In fact there’s a story: ‘Scott Brown Fumes Over the New Health Care Plan.’ He wants no part of it. But he did go along with this jobs bill, and he did say, ‘I hope my vote today is a strong step towards restoring bipartisanship in Washington.’ I must tell you, I’m not surprised by this. It’s going to be a waste of energy if you get all bent out of shape and angry about it. Feel free to do it if you want to, but this is not that big a surprise. Especially when you look. There are five other Republicans that join this thing, the usual suspects. You had Susan Collins voting for it and you had Olympia Snowe, because it says ‘jobs’ on it. It’s not a jobs bill on it but it says ‘jobs’ on it and everybody wants jobs. There’s not enough ‘laser-like focus’ on jobs. The problem is, this isn’t going to create any jobs but it’s gonna give all kinds of politicians the cover to say they support efforts to create jobs. The only thing I would ask Scott Brown is: How do you say this, that he said at CPAC?
BROWN: My name is Scott Brown, and I’m the newly elected Republican senator from Massachusetts! (cheers and applause) Let me just say that one more time: I am the Republican Senator from Massachusetts. (cheers and applause)
BROWN: One Democrat said that, and I quote, there was ‘no way in hell a Republican was going to get elected to the seat once held by Ted Kennedy.’ Well, here I am.
BROWN: For the big-government spenders I’m sure my election does not make them feel good at all, but for those who are interested in restoring the real checks and balances in Washington and bringing accountability and transparency back to our government, it feels wonderful.
RUSH: Now, he said that last Thursday. Yesterday he votes for the jobs bill and starts talking about wanting to restore ‘bipartisanship’ in Washington. That’s not what got him elected. And he’s going to sit there and say at CPAC, ‘All the big government spenders, I’m sure my election doesn’t make ’em feel good.’ I think they’re feeling pretty good right now on the jobs bill vote that he made. But again, I’m not spruced by it. He’s from Massachusetts. Folks, he is not a down-the-line conservative, and nobody ever said that he was. He’s a far sight better than Ted Kennedy. He’s a far sight better than having a Democrat in there. And he’s still makes a point here, this Boston Herald story: ‘Scott Brown Fumes Over Health Plan. … ‘If the Democrats try to ram their health-care bill through Congress using reconciliation, they are sending a dangerous signal to the American people that they will stop at nothing to raise our taxes, increase premiums and slash Medicare,’ said Brown spokesman Colin Reed in a statement.
”Using the nuclear option damages the concept of representative leadership and represents more of the politics-as-usual that voters have repeatedly rejected.’ While Brown’s office didn’t specifically reject Obama’s latest bill, there was no doubt Brown views the proposal as similar to earlier health-care plans backed by Democrats,’ and then you have Mitt Romney endorsing McCain. Now, my little take here from little old me, is I think that Mitt Romney made a grave, grave error endorsing McCain. That’s not the future. I don’t know why he did it. (sigh) You know, after all, it was McCain joining forces with Huckabee that screwed Mitt in West Virginia and then later on down in Florida with Charlie Crist. So I think that was not wise. It was an error. I think Scott Brown made a mistake voting for the jobs bill. But, it is what it is. And this is why, folks, I don’t get close to these people. That’s why I don’t want ’em. They’re going to come and go, and I’m going to be here, so are all of us long after they come and go.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: All right, Mike, let’s head back here to the top of the audio sound bites. As I say, get my roster in order here. There we go.
All right, now, Scott Brown, folks, look, I predicted that this was going to happen, I predicted as much. I had a little hope that it was gonna take a little longer for Scott Brown to succumb to Potomac fever and all this bipartisan talk and so forth, but I tell you, I like Mitt Romney, but I think he’s risking his career over a guy, endorsing McCain, who is so out of step with what’s going on right now. McCain’s always conservative when he’s running for reelection in Arizona. The tea parties have produced a wave of conservatism that have swept Republicans-in-name-only aside. I understand Palin endorsing McCain. She’s got no choice. Loyalty, plus if she doesn’t the media will cream her, ‘Oh, he’s good enough to be president but you won’t endorse him to be Senator?’ And it’s understandable Romney would endorse Brown, but I don’t understand Romney endorsing McCain. I just don’t think it’s going to fly. These endorsements are unnecessary. What is there to gain by this? Look, it’s unfortunate, but people are weeding themselves out of the process all the while engaging in this kind of behavior. So in one sense it has a cleansing aspect to it.
Bob in Hollywood, great to have you on the program, sir. Welcome to the Rush Limbaugh show.
CALLER: Yeah, hey, Rush. I’m a little upset. This Romney thing is news to me but the thing I was going to call about before, you know, this cloture vote, it’s a reminder that we cannot get too excited about the seats simply changes letters from D’s to R’s in November. You know, the GOP succumbing to any degree of what I would call McCainsian Regressive Syndrome is just poisoning to a conservative renaissance. Now, Scott Brown’s election may have driven this runaway truck into the gravel for the time being, but, buddy, we’ve gotta do an 18-point turn here, and it’s a long road back.
RUSH: That’s an excellent point, and I want to remind people of something. There is a conservative ascendancy out there and it is happening within the Republican Party, and that’s where it ought to remain, and that’s where the ascendancy should continue to grow. I want people to remember it took Ronald Reagan three times to get the Republican nomination. It took him three times, and over eight years to do it. Now, these kinds of things do not happen overnight, and they don’t happen just because there is a fervent, strong desire for it to happen. It has to happen because a bunch of people with the same principles and objectives aligning within the structure of, say, this Republican Party and taking it over, and if that doesn’t happen, all the rest of it is academic.
CALLER: Right, and look at the retiring RINOs, let’s start there in the Senate: Brown, Bond, Gregg, Voinovich, and then the other guys that are up, who’s going to step up and challenge a Vitter or a Shelby or an Isakson or a Murkowski or a Grassley? I’m afraid, Rush, that we’re not going to get the kind of politicians up there on Capitol Hill that can wear your sack, if you will, you know, with that document of negative liberties in hand, you know, that document that appears radical only to these DC compassionates and their red carpet —
RUSH: Okay, let me —
CALLER: — circle jerk media appendages, only because we have gone so far off course for so long. I just don’t know if they’re going to be able to do it, man.
RUSH: Let me ask you a penetrating host question. If they can’t do it who’s going to do it?
CALLER: Well, that’s just it. I mean, you know, we’re kinda at the mercy of this next round of GOP folks who get in there. You know, we can’t clone you and have you take over all, you know, however many seats we need.
RUSH: No, but all this is not going to happen in one election.
CALLER: Of course not. But I mean this is key right here. I mean, God, this Romney supporting McCain now —
RUSH: Hey!
CALLER: You know, where’s this going?
RUSH: Hey, it’s 2010. It’s good that it happened, right? Okay, here’s somebody else weeding themselves out.
CALLER: Yeah?
RUSH: These kinds of things —
CALLER: He has no chance in 2012 now. In fact, I’m really pushing Bachmann and Tom McClintock out here in California.
RUSH: Oh, yeah. Of course Ron Paul won the CPAC straw poll.
CALLER: Yeah, Ron Paul.
RUSH: Yeah.
RUSH: Don’t give up out there. Look, nobody’s ever gonna get perfection. Look at the Democrats, for crying out loud, now. Up until Scott Brown they had 60 votes in the Senate and they still couldn’t come to an agreement on the big stuff that they all want. They couldn’t come to agreement on health care; they couldn’t come to an agreement on cap and trade; they couldn’t come to an agreement on all of the big agenda items. They got the stimulus, which was, you know, early on with Obama. And his cabinet level people and the czars are doing a lot of things to advance their radicalness behind the scenes outside the legislative process. But even them, so many people look at the Democrats as invincible, they never make a mistake, they always win, they’ve got the media on their side and look at them. They are a collection of laughingstocks right now over this. As I say, even David ‘Rodham’ Gergen is laughing at them on this latest attempt at a health care bill. Let me find that sound bite. It’s coming up very soon. I’ve got it here. Where is it? Where the hell is it? I can’t find it. Don’t tell me it’s on the last freaking page. I’m not going to find it in time. Well, now I can’t find it period, but I know I just read it here on the sound bite roster.
At any rate, my point in all of this is, there’s a way to do this that is positive, uplifting, inspiring, as opposed to negative, dividing, tearing down, and so forth. I just don’t think that running around with a bunch of pitchforks, essentially, is the way this is going to happen in a successful way. But, look, I realize, my friends, I hear from you. I hear from about ten of you 50 times a day. The Republicans suck, the Democrats suck, everybody sucks, and I’m starting to suck because I don’t see that everybody sucks. Ten of you people write me 50 times a day. I know how you feel about it, but I’m not going to sit here and say that you suck because you are in my audience. You do represent a challenge. But instead of sitting there and writing everybody sucks and sitting there and saying everybody’s wrong and do this, why don’t you people go do something? Why do you go do something? Back away from your computer screen and telling everybody else sucks and go show us how it’s done.
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RUSH: Folks, it has been just one year. I’m not going to sit here and preside over a bunch of people committing suicide on our side after one year of profound advancement and success. We’re in the first inning here, gang, or we’re in the first quarter if you prefer a football analogy. And we don’t have the umpires in either game on our side. I’m talking about the media. We’re in the first inning here. It’s the World Series. Obama’s the one getting shelled, and we’re going to start firing on ourselves too soon if we’re not careful.
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RUSH: I understand all the pent-up rage and anger out there, but you know the best way to deal with that is action — and I’m not talking about fingers-on-a-keyboard kind of action.
And there’s another piece of advice that I’d like to give everybody here, and I’ve said this countless, countless times. Remember to put your faith in ideas and not people. People will always, always disappoint you! I’m one of the few who will never disappoint you. You will never, ever, as long as I am alive, detect me changing a core belief. It will never, ever happen. But others do because they have different motivations than I do. The ideas are what matter to me, and the people who have those ideas at the moment are worth supporting. But you don’t get involved in supporting personalities. That’s how we got Obama, and that’s how we’re stuck with it. Now, this takes time. Where were we a year ago? Look at the hopelessness every felt a year ago. We thought we’d lost the country a year ago, and now it’s Obama who’s getting shelled every day.
Now, I probably am correct when I say that the Republican Party right now is not trying to harness the fervor behind the tea party and the town halls. They’re not there yet. We know this. We know the Republican Party. We’ve talked about it. It’s run by a bunch of country club, blue-blood Rockefeller liberal types, and I’ve told you exactly why: They don’t like abortion. You think that’s too simplified, but it’s not. It’s exactly what it’s about. This is why the country club, blue-blooders do not want any part of any tea party or any town hall stuff, or any people who believe that social issues are a matter. The only reason social matters are a matter is because the government has made them issues. We haven’t voted on all these things. Supreme Court dictated abortion, all these kinds of other things, and cultural rot. They ought not be political issues but we had no choice.
We didn’t make ’em political issues, they did, and so we have to fight ’em. It’s the nature of the game! The Republican Party is not yet there trying to harness the fervor behind the tea party in the town halls. For any non-conservative they’re trying desperately not to get run over by the tea parties right now. They’re trying to hold onto what they think is their right — their birthright, in fact — which is leadership of the Republican Party. A lot of them have left. Others are facing serious conservative challenges. They’re trying to hang on. This is the first inning of the first game of the World Series. A year ago, it didn’t even look like we had a chance to make the World Series. So here we are in the midst of what anybody with any kind of objective view and a memory of at least one year’s worth of history would have to proclaim is an amazing success story.
We all thought that by last August they would have health care. We all thought they’d have cap and trade. We all thought that we were going to be witnessing the actual makeover of this country from capitalist to socialist. And after a year we’ve held it off, but it’s an every day thing. There’s no rest. There’s no respite from it. Now, if you happen to think a third party is the best way to go, then go out there and form it. You think a third party is needed? You go form it. You people who think everybody sucks, go show us how not to suck! You form a third party! Find your candidate, name your party. Go out there and name your congressional candidates and your Senate candidates. Show me how you’re going to put together a third party governing force. Show me. You sit out there and saying everybody else sucks, then you say that I suck because I don’t realize everybody else sucks.
Okay. So if you’re the only ones that don’t suck then you go show us who do suck how not to. Do it! You got all the answers. You’re making all the success. You’re in such a powerful mode here. I guess you can all call me and write me and tell me what you’ve done to bring about this massive success in this past year. Yeah, I want to me hear about it. I want to hear about it. I want to hear who your third-party leaders are. Who are you going to run for president in the third party? Who is it? Tell me who it is! ‘Well, I can’t come up with one buh, buh, buh, buh (mumbling).’ Well, then why are you so insistent the Republicans name one today? If you can’t come up with somebody in a third party, if you’ve got somebody out there, call and tell me, and we’ll discuss it. Ideas, my friends, and not personalities are what matter.
Let’s go to the audio sound bites. I gotta get some of these things out of the way here. One of the reasons I waited, ladies and gentlemen, to discuss Scott Brown voting for the jobs bill… One more thought on that. You have to realize that Scott Brown is a Republican in Massachusetts and he’s gotta vote, at some point, this way. He’s got to if he wants to get reelected. He’s up in a couple years. It’s a chump change little bill, $15 billion instead of $85 billion. Now, his voice e-mail box is full and a lot of people mad at him and he does have some explaining to do, but he’s going to do this a couple or three more times, but he’s going to hold fast on health care and he’s going to hold fast on cap and trade. And he’s out there making that point again today in the local media and the Boston Herald. The reason I waited for almost an entire hour to go by to weigh in on it was because of this sound bite from last night on MSNBC.
CHRIS HAYES: At this point the chances look good, although, God! You do not want to be manning the phones in Scott Brown’s office tomorrow morning. I mean (snickers) if you look on the Internet now or on Twitter the Scott Brown hash tag, I mean i-i-i-it’s unbelievable the backlash that’s going to be pouring in tomorrow. I mean, there’s — there’s just going to be tremendous denunciations. Rush Limbaugh and everyone is going to be going down the line.
RUSH: And I knew, because of that sound bite, that all these Drive-Bys going to be tuning in here at 12:06 Eastern Time to hear me denounce Scott Brown. So I wanted them to have to wait for an hour to hear it and say some other things more important before I got to that. Diane Sawyer was practically having an orgasm over this.
SAWYER: And speaking of bipartisanship, one fresh sign of it tonight: Newly elected Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown was among a handful of Republicans joining Democrats to clear the way for the passage of the president’s $15 billion job-creation bill. And majority leader Harry Reid praised Brown saying, ‘I hope this is the beginning of a new day, at least in the US Senate.’
RUSH: What a laugher. (laughing) So we’ve got gridlock, the Democrats can’t get anything done with the supermajority, then here comes a Republican voting with them. ‘Ah, maybe now we’re going to get some things done here.’ So we find out that gridlock is simply Democrats unable to get their agenda through. But now that Brown and a couple other Republicans voted for it, I guess Washington is not broken anymore! It’s a beautiful thing! My God, yesterday and Sunday, ‘Oh, it was a horrible thing! Washington’s broken. Oh, no, can we ever put it back together? It’s like Humpty-Dumpty.’ Today, last night, ‘Ah, Washington is not broken anymore. Scott Brown voted with the Democrats.
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RUSH: To the phones in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This is Karen. I’m glad you called. Welcome to the program.
CALLER: Hi, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: I am so pissed off at Mitt Romney. I mean I just couldn’t be more pissed off. I was upset when Sarah Palin —
RUSH: Did you say pissed off?
CALLER: — does he not have the guts to —
RUSH: Yeah, okay.
CALLER: — just back away, but then this that I heard today about Mitt Romney, you know, I was pissed off when we didn’t get to vote in the primary election here, but it was already decided in June of, you know, in the last election. Because we wanted to vote for Mitt Romney. But I am so pissed off at him, don’t they get it? Do they not get it? We are so mad. We have had it. We want Republicans to act like conservatives.
RUSH: They don’t get it. This is what I’m telling you now, I tried to say that the Republican Party is trying to fight this off right now, they’re trying to fight off the tea party people. They’re trying to avoid being run over by them. Nobody is willingly going to give up a position of leadership they think they hold and a lot of people, it’s very difficult for people to change their core. Now, again, with Romney endorsing McCain, this is all about the future. This is Romney wanting McCain’s endorsement in 2012 if he runs for president. This is all about Republicans hanging together and this is one of the things that irritates people, especially new arrivals, to what is considered to be the same old politics. It is tone deaf, it’s suicidal, at least it seems to me, but at least you find out where people think things are important early on in a process like this so it’s got its value even though it does make you mad.
CALLER: Yeah, but who in the hell wants McCain’s support? I mean I wouldn’t want his support. He’s an idiot, a total idiot.
RUSH: Well, imagine — they keep talking about the Republican Party tent, right?
CALLER: Hmm hmm.
RUSH: Okay, so imagine you got this tent, and we all know that McCain is still ticked off that he didn’t win the presidency, and he’s still ticked off that he had to fight so hard to win the nomination. So 2012 comes along, let’s say McCain loses the Senate run, so now he’s out there really ticked off, and some people just might — just throwing this out there, I’m not trying to convince you of this. I don’t even know if it’s true or even accurate. But maybe they’re just figuring down the road they’d rather have McCain not outside the tent throwing bombs at ’em, rather have him inside the tent doing whatever he’s doing, I think either way it’s irrelevant because I think you’re right, the era of McCain’s over.
CALLER: Yeah. And he’s gonna throw bombs anyway.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Because he’s McCain.
RUSH: Okay. Now, you sound so ticked off that this is it for you and Romney?
CALLER: Well, just about. I mean he’s going to have to really turn around and start making — you know, I tell you what, I’ve gone to these tea party things, and I’m not alone. There are a lot of people there that are so mad at the Republican Party, and they keep saying, ‘Well, we need a third party,’ and I’m afraid for that because I think it will split the party —
RUSH: Let me ask you a question. These tea party people you’re talking to, are they mad at the Democrats as well?
CALLER: Well, that goes without saying.
RUSH: Well, I don’t know. See, people only have so much anger in their reservoir, and if so much of it’s directed at the Republicans, I wonder if they’re going to be able to channel it at the real problems we face here, and right now, I hate to say this, ’cause I know it’s going to make people tell me I suck, but the Republicans are not the problem right now! The Republicans are not trying to take over the country and make it the Soviet Union west!
CALLER: You’re right.
RUSH: The Democrats are. The Republicans are not trying to take over any portion of the US private sector and run it and make sure that people over 70 don’t get medical care. The Democrats are.
CALLER: You’re right.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: You’re absolutely right.
RUSH: So all this anger focused at the Republicans?
CALLER: We just want them to act like conservatives.
RUSH: I don’t believe in conspiracies out there, Karen. But the best damn thing that could happen for Obama and the Democrats is for something to cause the Republican Party to split up, because if that happens, then you can kiss the country good-bye, you can say hello to Obama, reelect him in a landslide in 2012, and it won’t matter who our candidates are.
CALLER: Well, I hope people are going to remember when Clinton got in, because that idiot would never have gotten in if it hadn’t been for the Republican Party splitting. And I hope people remember that.
RUSH: Depends. It depends on the level of rage. What I’ve often found is that the more enraged and angry people are, the less rational they are. And the rationality declines proportionately to the rage increasing. You tell me there’s all this rage at the Democrats and it goes without saying, but I don’t know that people have that much anger to be split around equally. If the focus is not taking power away from the Democrats first, then we’re sunk. ‘Cause they’re the ones that pose the threat to this country like we have never faced in our lives.