{"id":10450,"date":"2014-01-13T17:47:54","date_gmt":"2014-01-13T17:47:54","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-01-13T17:47:54","modified_gmt":"2014-01-13T17:47:54","slug":"christie_saga_makes_clear_republicans_still_don_t_know_what_they_re_up_against","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/01\/13\/christie_saga_makes_clear_republicans_still_don_t_know_what_they_re_up_against\/","title":{"rendered":"Christie Saga Makes Clear Republicans Still Don\u2019t Know What They\u2019re Up Against"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Can I share with you something? This whole Chris Christie business. I said that when he first got out of trouble, it was noticeable to me that none of the other wildebeests came to his defense<\/a>, other RINOs. He was just left to sink or swim on his own, and none of the Democrats that supposedly like him and have worked with him and Obama — nobody — rushed to his aide. Which is classic, by the way. But there\u2019s something else about this. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

If you watched the Sunday shows yesterday — which I didn\u2019t. I get reports, transcripts, that kind of thing. I can\u2019t watch them anymore. I tried watching cable news the other night and I just went nuts. It just makes me mad. It\u2019s so much out of the… It\u2019s sophomoric. Anyway, you noticed all of the Republicans who are saying, “Yeah, he\u2019s in the clear IF he\u2019s telling the truth.” The number of Republicans who are saying, “Oh, yeah, everything\u2019s cool, man. That was a great press conference — IF he\u2019s telling the truth.” What does that tell you? It tells you that there\u2019s some doubt. <\/p>\n

I mean, all those Republican — it\u2019s a lot of them — are with that caveat. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: We announced on Friday pretty close to the end of the program that there was going to be a release of documents surrounding Bridgegate. It\u2019s 907 pages. 907 pages of documents on Bridgegate? What in the name…? I mean, how is that even possible, when nobody knew anything? All there was was that e-mail from the woman, Mary Kay… I keep forgetting her last name. “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” and whoever got the e-mail knew exactly what that meant, and they did it. <\/p>\n

There were 907 pages. Now the Feds — get this, if you haven\u2019t heard. The Feds are looking into the money that Christie got in New Jersey for Hurricane Sandy relief to find out if there is a connection between any of that money and Bridgegate or anything else. I sit here and I continue to be really shocked that the Republican Party thought an hour and 45 minute press conference could wipe up a this away. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s the kind of naivete I had in year two of my program. I actually believed at one time that the media was interested in the truth and that when they were asking me questions it was because they wanted to know what I really thought. Thus, I actually thought I had a chance to persuade them of things, whatever it be, about me or my take on an issue or ideology. I actually thought that, and then when that didn\u2019t happen — when I saw myself misquoted, taken out of context on purpose — I got mad.<\/p>\n

I said, “These people weren\u2019t even listening to what I was saying,” because I have good manners. I was raised to be polite. I was raised to answer people\u2019s questions. It took me awhile to understand that the media don\u2019t care what I think or say, that that\u2019s not why they want to talk to me. The story\u2019s written before the interview. I\u2019ll give you example. H.R. can tell you the number of requests from television — Good Morning America, Today show, you name it, national and local — about Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims<\/a>. <\/p>\n

“Oh, we would love to talk to Rush about his children\u2019s book,” and of course the publisher is just dying for me to do it. “You gotta do some TV. I mean, every author does TV. I said, “I am not going to accept any of these.” Why not? Because they don\u2019t want to talk to me about the book. They want to take the occasion to smear me on other things that they think they haven\u2019t had a chance to smear me on. Take your pick. If anything controversial happens.<\/p>\n

The book is just what they will tell me they want to talk about, and there might in fact be a couple questions about it. But that\u2019s not why they want to talk to me. I learned this 23 years ago. I learned, especially in my case, and I think every Republican ought to have this attitude, is why I\u2019m sharing this. I don\u2019t mean to make this about me. But I know for a fact that when the media wants to talk to me about my book, that they don\u2019t. <\/p>\n

<\/a>And using experience guided by intelligence, I know what they would love to do, the vast majority of them — of course there are exceptions. The vast majority would love to do hit pieces, with my participation. So I\u2019m sitting here saying, “Why do these Beltway Republicans not also get this, when they have experienced it themselves, when they have seen how Republicans rebuke conservatives, whoever, are treated?” You know, John Podhoretz in the New York Post<\/a> over the weekend had a piece. <\/p>\n

I think it was Podhoretz. Yeah. It was. It was a piece in which he was attempting to educate his readers into understanding that it was not just media bias that is causing the media to drop everything and try to expose Christie as a crook in Bridgegate and why they left Obama alone in the IRS scandal. Podhoretz says a lot of people don\u2019t understand… This is his opinion, by the way, and I don\u2019t totally subscribe to it, but there\u2019s a couple of elements to it that are correct. <\/p>\n

He says the reason why the media is going to the end of the earth to destroy Christie and why the IRS scandal is no big deal is not liberal versus conservative so much. It\u2019s personal. They are Obama. I\u2019ve made this point. They all go to the same schools. They all party together. I mean, when the press looks at Obama, they see themselves. David Gregory sees himself, and he\u2019s not a crook. F. Chuck Todd looks at Obama, sees himself. He\u2019s a member of the DC establishment in good standing.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s card-carrying, goes to the right restaurants, goes to the right cocktail parties, knows the right people, went to the same schools. They\u2019re one and the same. This is Podhoretz\u2019s point, that they can\u2019t even conceive that Obama\u2019s a crook, \u2019cause they\u2019re not, in their minds. They\u2019re all part of the same clique, and Obama happens to be the most popular guy in the clique, and there\u2019s no way. So if something happened the IRS, it\u2019s \u2019cause Obama didn\u2019t care, or people were doing it without his knowledge, like it woulda happened with them. <\/p>\n

<\/a>Podhoretz\u2019s point is there\u2019s no ideology to it. There\u2019s bias, but it\u2019s bias based on the fact that they\u2019re friends and associates, and they come from the same place, they go to the same places, and they\u2019re the same people. Christie\u2019s not one of them. Try as hard as he might by embracing Obama a week before the election and doing this, he\u2019s not one of them. A, he\u2019s a Republican so he can\u2019t be one of them. But B, look at him.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s out of control, no discipline, he\u2019s a bully, does all this stuff.” He\u2019s not one of them. Now, the fact that they are all liberals and Christie\u2019s not is also a factor, and I think it\u2019s more of a factor than Podhoretz does, but Podhoretz still has a point. The purpose of this is not to excuse the media for not going after Obama on the IRS. The point here is, I don\u2019t understand why Republicans don\u2019t get this. Like, you can look at all these Republican consultants and advisors who thought Christie hit a home run with that press conference. <\/p>\n

“Man, he did it right! He came at it, and he didn\u2019t hide, and he took it all on himself, and he was factually honest and he was nice and he was forthcoming and he was engaging. He was charismatic.” That\u2019s not gonna impress them. Christie can\u2019t impress them, is the point. No Republican can. We\u2019re not one of them — and the sad thing is, I think that attitude that all you have to do to get the media off your back is please them and it establishes that those people are already occupying a position in their own minds where they\u2019re inferior and where they\u2019re defensive and where they need to prove themselves and where they need to make the other side like \u2019em. <\/p>\n

I learned two years into my career that doing that\u2019s not possible. <\/p>\n

You cannot become one of them when you\u2019re not one of them, and you can\u2019t make them like you. Membership in that club, it\u2019s really strict and unique, and you don\u2019t get to admit yourself. Did they not see what happened with McCain? McCain was loved and adored until he becomes a candidate, then he becomes a dirty old man kicking kids off his front yard. So that\u2019s what amazes me. What amazes me is after all of this, after that hour and a half press conference they thought a home run had been hit and they thought the media minds had been changed.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll guarantee you, they\u2019re sitting there stunned that this investigation is still underway and that the Feds are now involved, \u2019cause they thought that Christie had succeeded. They thought Christie knocked it out of the park, when it didn\u2019t matter whether he knocked out of the park or not. This is the only guy beating Hillary in the polls, and they\u2019re gonna go destroy this guy whatever it takes. No matter what he says he believes, no matter policies of Obama\u2019s he signs on to or agrees with or, you know, doesn\u2019t join the Obamacare lawsuit, he cannot buy their affection. <\/p>\n

The only thing he could do is become one of them, and that\u2019s switch parties. And I jokingly suggested that\u2019s how he would get the presidential nomination after being on the Democrat side. I jokingly suggested it and a lot of people took it seriously, got mad. But that\u2019s why I\u2019m marveling at two things here today. I\u2019m marveling at the theory, the thinking, the strategy behind trying to get A-Rod out of his mess, which was just mind-boggling to me, a total waste of time, and this continuing feeling on the Republican side that they can gain acceptance by the media and the Washington culture. <\/line><\/p>\n

And so after that grand slam of a performance, now the Feds are trying to find evidence that Christie might have misused Hurricane Sandy money, and they\u2019re trying to find out if he\u2019s lying about not knowing anything about Bridgegate. They thought the Republicans inside the Beltway, the establishment, they thought that this was ended because of Christie\u2019s great performance in a press conference. And I\u2019m not passing judgment on whether it was a good performance. It\u2019s not my point. My point is they thought it was and they thought that\u2019d be enough. Like Brian Lamb, he doesn\u2019t understand me. Well, I think I\u2019m an open book, but it\u2019s clear and obvious now that at the highest levels the Republican Party, they still don\u2019t know who and what they\u2019re up against.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: I want to take this call. I think I want to take the call. I just barely scanned the subject line on my call screener monitor here. I\u2019ll tell you what it says. It\u2019s Kate, Carson City, Nevada, who says that she\u2019s confused. She says, “You always told us the media tells us who they\u2019re afraid of by their pile-on.” She doesn\u2019t think the media fears Christie, like conservatives, but they are piling on. Is that right, Kate? Is that why you\u2019re confused?<\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s exactly it, Rush. And first I need to wish you a happy birthday. I\u2019ve tried for years and years and years to call you.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Wait a minute. This is Fairfield Kate, right?<\/p>\n

CALLER: This is Fairfield Kate, yes, sir, it is.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Fairfield, Kate, Fairfield, California, Kate. Yes, one of my old callers from Sacramento. I don\u2019t care, I could go deaf — I mean, I am deaf. But I mean I could lose my cochlear implant, I\u2019d still recognize your voice.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Thank you, dear. I appreciate that. Yeah, Carson City Kate now. Hey, listen, and happy birthday, and I prayed for you at Mass yesterday because I know you need the prayers, and I remembered.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Thank you very much.<\/p>\n

CALLER: So I\u2019m proud of myself for remembering.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I always need the prayers. There\u2019s no question. <\/p>\n

CALLER: I know that. Listen, I am confused because what you said about John McCain. They loved McCain until he became the candidate, because they knew he was a RINO who couldn\u2019t win, okay? Why aren\u2019t they loving on Christie because he\u2019s another Northeastern RINO — McCain wasn\u2019t Northeastern, I get that, but he\u2019s another RINO who can\u2019t win. I am confused.<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, wait a minute. <\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay.<\/p>\n

RUSH: When you say he\u2019s a RINO that can\u2019t win, that\u2019s what you know. They don\u2019t. All they\u2019ve got, they live in the world of polls. They\u2019ve got two polls, and the only Republican beating Hillary in 2016 is Christie. That\u2019s all you gotta know. I mean, they are a little bit afraid of Christie, but this is blood in the water and they\u2019re sharks. This is instinct.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah.<\/p>\n

RUSH: This is instinct, Kate. <\/p>\n

CALLER: They are so dumb, Rush, they are so dumb that they do not yet know that Christie is a RINO who cannot win, they don\u2019t know that?<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, because they have a Northeastern bias, and they think the Northeast determines who wins and loses elections, determines American culture, determines everything, and Christie\u2019s a Northeasterner, and they know that Christie embraced Obama. They know that Christie is trying to be like them. And they are good people, and they win. They\u2019re a little worried about Christie in that sense.<\/line><\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay. So McCain, they loved on him, he was very much like Christie, but for whatever reason they\u2019re choosing to go after Christie sooner than they went after McCain.<\/p>\n

RUSH: The opportunity presented itself. There\u2019s blood in the water. This is instinct. <\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay.<\/p>\n

RUSH: This is not a strategy. I mean, they didn\u2019t close the lanes themselves. The Christie —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: — administration did that. So they just can\u2019t pass it up.<\/p>\n

CALLER: It\u2019s just the sheer hatred for Republicans in general, it\u2019s blood in the water, and they\u2019re going to go after him —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah. There\u2019s a Republican in distress who wants to be president, go kill the guy.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Because that\u2019s the equivalent of a shark trying to kill you.<\/p>\n

CALLER: But then my question is, what if he becomes the candidate? What if somehow he gets through all this and Christie becomes the candidate? Then what happens? As a conservative, I\u2019m still confused by the fact that they\u2019re going after him. I understand what you\u2019re saying, but then when he becomes the candidate and they\u2019ve already used this, they can\u2019t really —<\/p>\n

RUSH: They\u2019ll bring it up again.<\/p>\n

CALLER: They\u2019ll just bring it up again.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Recycle it. Yeah. Remember, there\u2019s a bunch of low-information people not even paying any attention to this and will hear about it for the first time during a general presidential election.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, I\u2019m sure you\u2019re right. I know you\u2019re right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: But they\u2019re not gonna stop digging. The point is, even if Christie gets the nomination, that won\u2019t deter them. They don\u2019t accept defeat in the sense that you and I do. It\u2019s everything\u2019s just a setback that might take them a little longer to get where they want to go. <\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: But now Christie is tainted, and in the LexisNexis database or in Google search, wherever you go, Chris Christie, I guarantee you Bridgegate is gonna be the first or second thing mentioned about Chris Christie now.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Not that he did or didn\u2019t know; just that he was mired in controversy and that there was doubt, and that no Republicans offered to come forth and offer assistance. This is so easily predictable. This is what frustrates me about the Republicans not understanding this themselves. But they don\u2019t. I\u2019m convinced they don\u2019t. Anyway, Kate, I appreciate the call. I\u2019m sad I\u2019ve run out of time and it\u2019s a hard break, I\u2019ve gotta go, but always great to hear from you, and all the best. And thanks for the prayers.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now this controversy in New Jersey over the spending, federal dollars, Hurricane Sandy relief. Christie ran some ads that included himself and they cost more than other ads would cost, and the Christie administration said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute! The White House approved them.” Here\u2019s what this is about, in a nutshell. “Aides to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are pointing out that the Obama [Regime] approved of the New Jersey tourism ads starring Christie and his family that a Democratic congressman has encouraged federal investigators to probe. <\/line><\/p>\n

“Using federal relief …” By the way, folks, there\u2019s one other thing to mention here about why they\u2019re going after Christie. One of the things that is happening throughout the country is whenever Republican governors are elected, they happen to be cleaning up the messes that were left them, and their states are ending up in much better circumstances than when the Democrats held the statehouse, whenever the previous administration was a Democrat, and that makes the Democrats look bad.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just another element here. Christie, whatever your opinion of him is, as a presidential candidate, the fact is that he has come in and improved things somewhat. In the process, he\u2019s made his predecessors look bad. That\u2019s just another reason why the Democrats are targeting him. It\u2019s why they wanted to take out Bob McConnell. But in the process of taking out McConnell, the way they did it, they took him out of politics.<\/line>