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RUSH: Bob Dole says that the Republican Party should be “closed for repairs” because it’s so out of whack. Here, we have two sound bites. This is Bob Dole. He was on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, who said, “What do you think of your party, of the Republicans today, Senator Dole?”


DOLE: I think they ought to put a sign on the national committee doors that says, “Closed for repairs” until New Year’s Day next year, and spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas.

RUSH: So Chris Wallace then said, “Now, you described the GOP of your generation as Eisenhower Republicans, moderate Republicans. Could people like Bob Dole — or even Ronaldus Magnus — could you make it, Senator Dole, in today’s Republican Party?”

DOLE: I doubt it. Not… Reagan couldn’t have made it. Certainly Nixon couldn’t have made it, ’cause he had ideas, and, uhh. We mighta made it, but I doubt it.

RUSH: What in the world…? (laughing) Dole didn’t make it in ’96! I don’t… This is just — and, you know, if you read further in the story about what bother’s Bob Dole, he says, “The party has changed so drastically in recent years that the current GOP would not welcome the likes of [Ronaldus Magnus].” Now, Dole may be on to something, but not in the way he means it. What Dole is trying to say is the party’s gotten so extreme to the right that not even Reagan would be accepted.

What has happened is that… I mean, you’ve heard the people in the Republican Party, the consultants and the whatever say, “The era of Reagan is over.” What they mean is, “This business of the Republican Party being conservative? We gotta scratch that! We gotta wipe that. We need a more moderate Republican Party,” and that’s what Dole is saying. Oh, by the way. There was this little story over the weekend. I don’t think too many of you probably saw this.

But a Republican consultant was working with Mayor Doomberg, a Democrat, a liberal Democrat — well, he may still call himself an independent, but he’s a liberal Democrat. He’s the Mayor of New York City. A Republican consultant was helping Mayor Doomberg come up with TV ads against guns. His name is Mike Murphy, Republican consultant. That’s not a Democrat political consultant helping a Democrat come up with ads to eliminate guns, but a Republican consultant.

So in Dole’s view, this party’s gotten so far to the right, it’s so extreme, that not even Reagan would fit in. Not even Reagan could win, and certainly Bob Dole couldn’t, and Nixon couldn’t and so forth. So he wants the party to put a “closed for repairs” sign up because it lacks vision and is unable to strike deals with Democrats. That’s Dole’s major complaint is that we don’t have anybody willing to strike deals with Obama. That’s what legislation is to people in Dole’s generation: You strike deals, make deals.

The way the deals happen is this: The Democrats put forth an idea to advance their agenda. The Republicans are sitting there not doing anything. The Republicans are not putting forth anything to advance their agenda; they don’t do that. They sit around. All they do is wait for the Democrats to put forth something to advance their agenda, and then the Republicans say, “We must have an alternative!” So the Democrats set the table. The Democrats set the agenda.

The Democrats buy the groceries and cook the meal. We argue about the caloric content. That’s about the extent of it. There are Republicans today saying, “You know, we’ve gotta have alternatives every time they propose something.” Why don’t we just say no? They ought to say no to Obamacare, say no to amnesty. Say no to all this stuff. What do you mean we have to come up with our own alternative? But Bob Dole’s generation believed in deal making. That was it: Striking a deal, coming up with compromise.

I would venture to say that today’s Republican Party is actually doing pretty good at making deals with Obama on amnesty. That’s one area. I don’t know, but it’s interesting and illustrative of the continuing internecine battle going on inside the Republican Party. Here we have the most radical, leftist president and agenda that this country has ever faced, and the Republicans are in an argument over whether or not they ought to agree with part of it.


Here they have (and have had for five years) the greatest opportunity ever to contrast what they believe and what we believe with what’s actually happening. We’re have gone beyond theory now. The liberals are actually implementing a genuinely radical agenda. We’ve got an opportunity that’s being squandered to contrast what we believe, ’cause we’re buying into all this same old criticism that we’re not bipartisan enough and we’re not cooperative enough. It’s sad in its own way.

Striking deals with the Democrats is what got us into the mess that we’re in today! Too many of those deals were struck by old line Republicans who believe that when the Democrats put something forward, we must have an alternative. They still set the agenda. All we do is mess around at the margins with it. Bob Dole further “said he was disturbed by his party’s obstructionist behavior on Capitol Hill. ‘It seems almost unreal that we can’t get together on a budget or legislation,’ he said.”

Uh, Obama’s budget hasn’t gotten a single Democrat vote in five years.

Does it not matter what the legislation is? Does it not matter what the budget is? Is it that no matter what they put forth, we’re supposed to strike a deal with ’em? Again, folks, I rear my head and say, “This is what happens when people do not look at things ideologically.” Eh, it’s just a bunch of Republicans and Democrats running around. The Democrats happen to have the power right now so we’ll strike some deals with ’em and so forth and we’ll win a couple elections down the road and they’ll strike some deals with us.

And the ruling class inside the Beltway continues on uninterrupted.

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