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<\/p>\nRUSH: Let\u2019s go to the audio sound bites featuring cable TV pundits and analysts. Jim VandeHei this morning on MSNBC on Morning Joe. Jim VandeHei is the executive editor of The Politico.<\/p>\n
VANDEHEI: What Newt needs is he needs the anti-establishment conservatives to officially rally around him. He would really need, and I think in pretty short order, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, other conservative leaders who don\u2019t like Washington conservatives to basically all gather around and say he\u2019s our guy.<\/p>\n
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SCARBOROUGH: He\u2019s got Sarah Palin because you listen to her last night on Fox, and I mean she\u2019s everything but a Newt surrogate right now. Not so with Rush Limbaugh, though. A lot of people have mistakenly been saying that Rush has gotten behind Newt. He\u2019s not going there. <\/p>\n
And I think Newt Gingrich did more to hurt himself with people like Rush Limbaugh and other bedrock conservatives with those silly Bain attacks a couple of weeks ago.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Then Jim VandeHei decided to reply to that.<\/p>\n
VANDEHEI: One of our reporters e-mailed Rush Limbaugh yesterday before the vote and Limbaugh said he was undecided on who he was gonna vote for. If he actually ended up voting for Romney, that would be a huge surprise and a big blow to Gingrich.<\/p>\n
RUSH: And that prompted Scarborough to keep it all going.<\/p>\n
SCARBOROUGH: Very difficult, and Limbaugh yesterday commented on how he was getting hammered by some for not attacking Romney enough, and, you know, I\u2019m not trying to read between the lines, but it\u2019s certainly possible, judging from what he said, that the guy voted for, you know, Romney or Santorum.<\/p>\n
RUSH: They\u2019re still dying to know. They\u2019re still trying to figure it out. Staying on the same show, Morning Joe, Scarborough, new guest, TIME Magazine senior political analyzer Mark Halperin, and they\u2019re talking about the primary, and Halperin decided to weigh in. He said this.<\/p>\n
HALPERIN: Part of what this month is about is waiting to see what happens to that conservative movement that Jim\u2019s talking about, whether they see Romney now as somebody who has to be stopped.<\/p>\n
TODD: Does he want constantly over the next month an array of folks on talk radio basically attacking him for taking them for granted. You gotta remember about the talk radio base of the Republican Party. I\u2019s not a majority of the party, but it\u2019s the loudest. It\u2019s the most vocal of the party, and he can\u2019t afford to have them constantly badgering him on this. So he has got to figure something out about having to come up with some sort of new plan, new tax idea. That\u2019s the thing I keep hearing, that there\u2019s a lot of people prodding him, come up with a simpler, more easy to digest, and bolder tax plan idea that could excite both the base and yet actually have a conversation with independents.<\/p>\n
RUSH: So it\u2019s still the independents. The independents, conversation with the independents, that\u2019s where the future of electability is for the Republican nominee. Got to be there. But what F. Chuck is saying here basically, and the idea that\u2019s formulating out there, is that Mitt Romney has to come up with some kind of new idea that will shut up talk radio. Let me give you a hint here. We don\u2019t need any new ideas. Just embrace some of the old ones. Some of the old tried and tested and true ideas. Embrace those. The talk radio base is the Republican Party. I know they\u2019re thinking they gotta pay attention to this show the next month to find out, but isn\u2019t everything in politics determined by what happens on this show? And I thought Romney owned talk radio through Bain Capital. That\u2019s what they\u2019re talking about. I thought Romney owned it. These people are just all over the board. <\/p>\n
Stephen Hayes was on the Fox show last night, and they responded… My last comments on this show yesterday created a “bzz bzz bzz bzz, bzz bzz, bzz bzz bzz bzz,” a big buzz out there. The very last words. I don\u2019t know if you heard them. This is how I ended yesterday\u2019s excursion into broadcast excellence.<\/p>\n
RUSH ARCHIVE: Well, another exciting excursion into broadcast excellence is in the can. By the way, folks, just… I have to remind you again that Gingrich debated John Kerry on global warming one point, and they agreed on practically every point. Nobody is innocent. Everybody is guilty of some transgression somewhere against conservatism, except Santorum. See you tomorrow.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well, even Snerdley got wide-eyed at that one. They all, on the other side of the glass, got wide-eyed at that one. That was the last 20 seconds of the program. But they\u2019re out there listening to all of it. That became a big discussion point. On Special Report with Bret Baier, they played that bite. They had Stephen Hayes from the Weekly Standard. Baier said, “What about Santorum, essentially attracting conservatives who may be disenchanted with this back-and-forth in Florida?”<\/p>\n
BAIER: At the end of the Rush Limbaugh show today, he mentioned —<\/p>\n
HAYES: Rush did.<\/p>\n
BAIER: — Rush Limbaugh did. Said, you know, Rick Santorum is the only one in this race who doesn\u2019t have to apologize for anything that he\u2019s done or hasn\u2019t strayed from conservatism. Was that tantamount to an endorsement? People are debating that. Probably short of an endorsement, but I know Santorum\u2019s people are quite happy that Limbaugh gave him that shout-out.<\/p>\n
RUSH: All right, so what do we have? We have now the media thinking that I have endorsed them all! Not endorsed, but I\u2019ve expressed a preference for all of them. From Jim VandeHei and the guys at Politico, to F. Chuck Todd, to the people at Fox on the Bret Baier roundtable. I\u2019d say brilliantly played here. (interruption) Hmm? (interruption) Did I call Mitt…? No I didn\u2019t call Mitt and congratulate him. But neither did Newt either. Not even a robocall. Did I call Mitt and congratulate him? Why would I…? (laughing) You mean for myself, or for Newt? “Hey, Mitt? Hi, it\u2019s Rush.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I just talked to Sarah and Newt. We\u2019re all congratulating you.” Is that what you mean? (interruption) Yeah, right. Alex Castellanos. He\u2019s a Republican strategerist. He was on CNN\u2019s special Florida primary coverage last night with Anderson Cooper, who said, “Can Gingrich continue to raise the money down the road, especially if Romney has a good February in other states? Can he resist what will be growing pressure if Romney continues to win?”<\/p>\n
CASTELLANOS: I think the guy to watch coming out of all this is Santorum. As we go into some of these, uh, states coming up, who\u2019s the Republican that has the highest favorable ratings? Santorum. If Romney has to keep his foot — with negative ads — on Gingrich\u2019s throat, that means Santorum can run loose a little bit. If conservatives are going to unite on an anti-Romney candidate, I think the bet now is Santorum.<\/p>\n
RUSH: By the way, this isn\u2019t over, folks. They still only have 48-some-odd delegates that have been pledged out of 1,100 plus. I think the number is 1,144. It isn\u2019t over. And by the way, the further north you go in Florida, the closer to “The South” you get, and Gingrich won north Florida. “The cracker vote.” The conventional wisdom is that Gingrich is gonna do very well in the southern states — Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Geo\u2019gia — just as he did in South Carolina. He did well there, so it isn\u2019t over by any stretch. They\u2019re trying to go make it sound like it is because of moment — and money. That\u2019s the thing. What you know Newt\u2019s biggest challenge is right now? Finding people who will give him money. Given all of the thought, the conventional wisdom, all the media, finding people who will donate is going to be big challenge. But 94% of the delegates are still up for grabs. Snerdley, you asked me if I\u2019m going to call Romney. You gotta put yourself in my position. You have to love all of your children equally. I\u2019m the father of the party. I can\u2019t show favoritism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUSH: Let\u2019s go to the audio sound bites featuring cable TV pundits and analysts. Jim VandeHei this morning on MSNBC on Morning Joe. Jim VandeHei is the executive editor of The Politico. VANDEHEI: What Newt needs is he needs the anti-establishment conservatives to officially rally around him. He would really need, and I think in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n