RUSH: As any of you and all of you who have been paying attention to the Drive-By news media the past number of months have heard, I am the titular head of the Republican Party. I have been anointed to this position by members of the Drive-By Media, and, of course, the Obama White House. I have not been named the titular or any other head of the Republican Party by anybody in the
Republican Party. And so I hereby, ladies and gentlemen, today announce that I am resigning. I am resigning as the titular head of the Republican Party. Clearly I am not the titular head of the Republican Party. It’s not an office I sought. It was a position that was ladled on to me when I was appointed without my acquiescence. So the only thing I can do to remain true to myself and to you is to resign this position that I never had in the first place. But because so many people think I am the titular head of the Republican Party today, I quit.
In the famous words of Roberto Duran, ‘no mas, no mas,’ no more, no more. I quit. I resign as the titular head of the Republican Party. There, frankly, is someone far more qualified and capable and more in tune with today’s Republican Party than I, to be not only its titular head but its real head, and that would be General Colin Powell. So I now pass the baton to General Powell as the titular head of the Republican Party. From this day forward it will be up to General Powell to instruct the party on things it needs to do to win elections in 2010 and of course the all important presidential election in 2012. From this day forward, anything I say about that objective or those two objectives I do not say as the titular head of the Republican Party. I do not say it as an official advice-giver of the Republican Party. Only that kind of strategy and advice and leadership can come from General Colin Powell. So while I never sought the office, and while I technically was never elected to it, I nevertheless was the titular head of the Republican Party. Since I never sought it, was never appointed, but nevertheless the media said I was, so I am, I no longer am, I’m quitting, I’m outta there, no mas, no mas.
I now today pronounce and proclaim General Colin Powell as the titular head of the Republican Party. From now on out, those of you who want to know what the party should do to win elections, to beat back the onslaught of Obamaism, ask General Powell. Look to his wise counsel, his leadership, and his words of encouragement for the Republican Party. Now, many of you are saying, ‘Wait a minute, Rush, Colin Powell endorsed Obama and said that Americans want to pay higher taxes in advance of the California vote yesterday,’ which shows just the opposite. ‘And didn’t you just report, Rush, that yesterday in Boston Colin Powell told 1,500 business leaders and Gisele Bundchen, supermodel, that he’s a Republican waiting for his party to emerge?’ Yes, I did report all of that. Well, General Powell is the one who knows whatever it is that must emerge for him to be a Republican. The media has all said that he is the most genuine Republican out there, the best Republican that there could be and speaks for many, period. So we sit back patiently and await for whatever he is waiting on to emerge so that then General Powell can lead the Republican Party back to its days of glory, electoral victory, and prominence.
As of this day forward that is out of my hands, because I, ladies and gentlemen, once again state unequivocally, I am resigning as titular head of the Republican Party. I will not seek another term. I will not accept another appointment. I have bigger fish to fry. So there are plenty of people who want to lead the Republican Party. There are many of them that appear on any cable TV show that will have them, even Sunday mornings at four a.m., who want the job, more qualified for the job than I. So I graciously back away and give way to the true light, the true direction, the true energy, and the true focus of Republican Party and its leadership in the future, and that would be General Colin Powell. There, I just wanted to make that official.
Let’s go to the audio sound bites. These sound bites, by the way, these things said on television are part of the reason why I have today made this breathtaking announcement that I have resigned as titular head of the Republican Party. This morning on MSNBC — and, by the way, yesterday I issued a challenge to this little TV network: Do without me for 30 days. Try to go 30 days without mentioning my name. They are trying to build their ratings on my back, video of me, comments about me from hack guests. Yesterday it was 12 times I was mentioned on MSNBC. Today I have been mentioned, after asking to be ignored for 30 days, just to see if they could do it and this was the mention. It was by the infobabe Contessa Brewer.
BREWER: You have these staunch conservative talkers, people like Rush Limbaugh, who insist that if you don’t toe the party line and the one that they see as being on the far right, then you should just leave the party altogether. Is that the way they’re going to turn around their failures and find success?
RUSH: So, you see, ladies and gentlemen, this is no longer accurate for Contessa Brewer or anybody at MSNBC to say that I am, uh, what? Telling people if they don’t toe the party line, to get out of the party? I have never said if you don’t toe the line, get out of the party. What I did say, when Colin Powell said that the American people want to pay higher taxes, and they want bigger government, and that the Republican Party should no longer listen to me, I said, ‘General Powell, you’ve already left the Republican Party. I mean, if you haven’t, leave.’ It is my encouraging General Powell to leave the Republican Party that has now led to this statement that I am throwing people out. But, as titular head of the Republican Party, I maybe coulda done that. Theoretically as titular head I could have thrown people out of the party, although that’s debatable. But since I have resigned as titular head of the Republican Party, I can’t throw anybody out of the party. Frankly, the only people I don’t want in the party are Democrats and liberals! I’d be glad to welcome them into the party if they convert, if we are able to bring them to us, but I don’t want to go get them as they are. Let them stay Democrats and liberals. But the corruption of the Republican Party is no longer mine to stop, because I have resigned as the titular head of the Republican Party. Also on MSNBC today, on Scarborough’s show, one of the ways they’re getting around not mentioning my name is to use the term talk radio, and Mike Barnicle had this to say about the Republican Party and me.
BARNICLE: The Republican Party is in danger of becoming a talk radio party. These conservative, ultraconservative talk radio hosts, many of them speaking basically only to themselves, a small fringe of the electorate.
RUSH: Mike, I’m being charitable here when I say the people speaking to themselves that don’t have much of an audience are the people at Newsweek, are the people at TIME, are the people at the New York Times. If the truth be known it’s the Washington/New York media axis that does its job for other media people. They write and say and opine as they do to impress themselves and each other. Let’s see. Katrina vanden Heuvel on the Today Show today on NBC, Matt Lauer said to her, ‘Katrina, when Democrats listen to that speech, do they applaud? Do they love what they have heard?’
VANDEN HEUVEL: This is a party in a death spiral. It’s a party on the verge of self-extinction if they don’t open up and become a more tolerant, modern, diverse party. At the moment, every demographic group is slipping away from the Republicans except for weekly churchgoers. Got nothing against them, but that’s not going to make a party. Michael Steele has a lot of problems when you’ve got Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh out there.
RUSH: Oh, so maybe MSNBC only mentioned my name once but the parent, NBC, has my name out there. So, you see, the case is being made here by the American left that Colin Powell is the greatest example of the titular head of the Republican Party that we could have. Yesterday on Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, on her show on MSNBC, she talked to Chris Shays, the former moderate Republican from Connecticut, the former moderate Republican from Connecticut, and they’re discussing Michael Steele’s speech.
MITCHELL: He talked about Edmund Burke, he talked about William F. Buckley, about Ronald Reagan, he mentioned President Bush, former President Bush. No mention of Dick Cheney. No mention of Rush Limbaugh. Is he trying to move the party to a broader party, one that would include you? You were the last standing moderate from the Northeast.
SHAYS: Ronald Reagan never said who couldn’t be a Republican. But we have talk show hosts who have never won elections who define very narrowly who’s a Republican. The bottom line of any national party is it has to give you the capability to represent your district. And if it doesn’t allow you to represent your district, you get defeated. And that’s what has happened all throughout the Northeast and other parts of the country.
RUSH: So if I understand this right it is people like me and talk radio who polluted the otherwise pure minds of voters in his Connecticut district. Talk radio did not permit him to actually govern as a liberal Democrat as his constituencies supposedly wanted and therefore he got beat. Christopher Shays, I would point you to the former majority leader in the Senate, Tom Daschle. Tom Daschle adopted the partisan leadership role of the far radical fringe of the Democrat Party and the state, not just the district, the state of South Dakota canned him. And if Dingy Harry Reid is not careful, he’s headed for the same fate. He has got major electoral problems. He’s up in 2010. I’ve got the story here, polling data for Dingy Harry is not good. If the election were today, Dingy Harry would lose. And here is another majority leader of the Democrat Party by virtue of that position, has to tack radical left and ignores his own voters.
Could it be perhaps, Congressman Shays, the person that actually abandoned voters was you? You say I’ve never won an election. True, I’ve never run for election, but I was made an honorary member of the victorious House of Representatives in 1994 because they thought I won about 30 elections. But you see where this is all shaping up and why I today have resigned the position of titular head of the Republican Party. I’ll take you back to our first hour. If you think the Republican Party is poised to make great gains and make hay out of the vote in California yesterday, you are wrong. The Republican Party today and the people who run it are focused on throwing out of the party talk radio, conservatives, religious people. The people running the Republican Party today, they’re the ones who want to throw people out of the party. It’s very interesting that the people running the Republican Party today want to throw out the identical people the Democrat Party wish would go away, and that’s me, talk radio, conservative Christians, you name it. So the modern Republican Party, now led by General Powell, is more closely aligned with the Obama Democrats than with even Rockefeller Republicans.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Ken in Grand Rapids has been waiting the whole show. I appreciate your patience, Ken. It’s great to have you on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Eh, it’s only been two hours. I appreciate you, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: You’re the only remaining living hero of mine, I must tell you, after my grandfather died last year at the age of 96.
RUSH: Well, thank you, sir, very much. I really appreciate that.
CALLER: You bet. I’m here in Grand Rapids Michigan, Rush. You know what the state of Michigan is going through right now, and there’s lot of us just looking for some marching orders. I’ll be honest with you, you know, we’re kind of fed up with the whole…everything that’s going on. It’s really frustrating to wake up every day —
RUSH: I know.
CALLER: — and you’re a hardworking individual —
RUSH: I know.
CALLER: — and —
RUSH: I know. I know. A lot of people are. I’m waiting for marching orders. I’m in the same boat as you are.
CALLER: Who are you waiting for orders from? From who?
RUSH: General Powell. General Powell is the titular head of the Republican Party.
CALLER: Oh, yeah, right.
RUSH: General Powell is waiting for the Republican Party to emerge that can win, and until that happens, none of us can get marching orders. So I empathize with you, Ken. I really do. I know a lot of people are waiting to be told what to do, and I’m with you. General Powell has the answers. He just hasn’t shared them with us. And I’m chomping at the bit to hear them so that I can join you in executing and following the marching orders.
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RUSH: MSNBC is refusing to report the news that I have resigned as titular head of the Republican Party. They have also been unable to accept my challenge to go 30 days without mentioning my name.
CONTESSA BREWER: Fresh blood today in the pitched fight between the current president and the former vice president on the eve of both President Obama and Dick Cheney’s speeches on terrorism and torture.
CARLOS WATSON: In fact they are also talking about (snorting) former secretary of state Colin Powell, who fired back at the man he served with in the Bush administration. Now that happened after he listened (snorting) to Cheney say Rush Limbaugh (snorting) better represents the GOP than Powell.
BREWER: Ohhhhh, you said his name! He is not gonna like that.
WATSON: Hey, Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, or Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh.
BREWER: Right.
RUSH: So MSNBC failing to report that I have resigned as titular head of the Republican Party and unable to go even a day without mentioning my name.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Aaron in Cleveland. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, it is… Longtime caller, first-time — or longtime listener, first-time caller. I’m a little nervous. Sorry.
RUSH: I liked it the first time: longtime caller, first-time listener. But regardless.
CALLER: (laughing) It’s truly an honor and a privilege to speak to you, sir. I just wanted to comment. I find all this talk about kicking people out of the Republican Party because they don’t toe the party line — they don’t, you know, follow your exclusive instructions and whatnot. I would like to hear Joe Lieberman’s perspective on being kicked out of the party for not toeing a party line.
RUSH: Hmm. That’s an interesting point. Well, we’ll have to wait on the answer to that question. I, of course, cannot answer it as I am the former titular head of the Republican Party. Colin Powell now is the titular head. I passed the baton. We’re all waiting for marching orders for him and for his assessment of the oddity of Joe Lieberman joining the party for a while and not being kicked out.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, MSNBC just did report that I have resigned as titular head of the Republican Party. That makes it official now. Colin Powell runs the show.