RUSH: Obama said to the New Republic he’d get a lot more done without Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. The rest of the media’s in the tank. Everybody else has fallen in line. There is no opposition other than Fox News and Limbaugh. The way it works, and what this all boils down to, the Republicans, I mean, everybody knows they want to get along with Democrats. Everybody knows they want to socialize. They want their lives to have meaning, but Limbaugh is the one standing in the way ’cause what happens? The Republicans are simply afraid that I’m gonna criticize ’em if they do something that is cooperative with the Democrats. And so that’s a problem. He started his first term the same way.

You know, the timing here is interesting. I think within the first week, maybe two, in 2009, Obama convened a meeting at the White House of the congressional leadership, House and Senate, Republican, Democrat. And he said to John Boehner and Eric Cantor, “You can’t listen to Rush Limbaugh. That’s not the way things get done.” And I remember, I talked to Boehner here in the EIB Southern Command offices some short weeks later, and he brought that up, and he said, “Why would he say that to us? We’re sitting in there talking about legislative action coming down the pike in his first year, ‘Can’t listen to Rush Limbaugh. You gotta stop listening to Limbaugh. That’s not how things get done.'”

I said, “You really don’t know why? He was hoping one of you would agree with him, Mr. Speaker. He was hoping that one of you Republicans would go to the microphone after that meeting and agree with him, ’cause his whole purpose is to eliminate any opposition.”

“Ah, Rush, that’s not what he’s trying to do.” Boehner disagreed with me and said that I was misreading the situation. Here we are four years later, and it’s the same thing. Different words, same thing. “The Republicans would be more willing to work with the Democrats,” meaning, the Republicans would be more willing to cave in. The Republicans would be more willing to compromise their principles. “The Republicans would be more willing to give me what I want if it weren’t for Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.” ‘Cause I’ve got everybody else in the tank.

This is on This Week Needs David Brinkley from ABC yesterday. Martha Raddatz was a cohost and she’s talking to Chris Hughes, who’s the editor-in-chief and publisher of the New Republic. She said, “Chris, you had a pretty extraordinary interview there with President Obama. He pointed out something that he thought was a problem with the Republicans. He said in the interview that certain members of the media are hurting the Republican Party, too. He said if a Republican member of Congress is not punished on Fox or by Rush Limbaugh for working with a Democrat on a bill of common interest, then you’ll see a lot of more of them doing it. I think Boehner genuinely wanted to get a deal done but it was hard to do so in part because his caucus is more conservative, probably, than most Republican leaders are.”

By the way, Boehner is now saying — well, I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but he’s saying he wouldn’ta done the fiscal cliff deal the way he did it if he had to do it again. Here’s what Chris Hughes, the editor of the New Republic, the guy who did the interview with Obama, said in answer to the question.

HUGHES: The president thinks that the American people are on his side when it comes to immigration, when it comes to gun control, when it comes to fiscal issues and he thinks the Republican Party is increasingly extreme. Another piece of the interview that I thought was really, really fascinating is we asked him about the new kind of politics, the Obama of 2008 and where that had gone, and mentioned two things that had been a real challenge. One was institutional reforms, specifically referencing the filibuster, and secondly, the media environment, the world in which we live where we only really listen to the people that we agree with.

RUSH: Only listen to people we agree with, and the only people that are in my way are Limbaugh and Fox News. Get rid of them, and then I’ve got a clean slate. Martha Raddatz then said, “Sarah Palin even said something this week. She did not specifically talk about Fox, but that we’re preaching to the choir, is what she said.”

HUGHES: There’s a growing sense that there’s a need for a media — for media outlets and media opportunities that are not necessarily centrist, but that have different perspectives and make it easy for us to hear people that we might disagree with and actually engage on the merits rather than just recycling old ideas.

RUSH: Do you realize, ladies and gentlemen, that I kind of am in this position not because of anything I do, really, it’s because the mainstream media has ceased doing what they are constitutionally charged with doing. Kirsten Powers, noted liberal commentator on Fox last week — I forget what the story was, but she was on with John Fund, and they were talking about the White House press corps, and she thought what Fund had said had been a little bit too easy on the media. Oh, it was on about Al Joker and all these people fawning over Obama, going gaga as though he’s the Celebrity of the United States during the inaugural parade, just going gaga. She said it’s embarrassing. The purpose of the media is to hold people in power accountable, and they’re not doing this. They’re swooning.

And she went on to say, “I would never swoon. I couldn’t do it.” She said it’s embarrassing to watch what the media are doing. And she’s exactly right. The only reason, folks, and I would love to take credit for this. I’d love to say that I find myself here because of a brilliantly conceived and flawlessly executed strategy, but one of the reasons that Fox News and I stand out like sore thumbs here is because the rest of the media is gone. The rest of the media is in the tank. The rest of the media has long ago ceased doing their job. They’re not reporting, they’re not curious, they’re not holding Obama accountable. They are on board. They are part of the agenda advancement team.

So Obama says, “The only thing standing in my way is Limbaugh and Fox.” What do the media do? They go after me and Fox. They’re not at all concerned about what’s happening here in the slightest. Let’s jump to sound bite five. Ben Shapiro, bright young conservative. He’s running Breitbart News now. He’s the editor at large at Breitbart.com. He was on Fox & Friends this morning with Steve Doocy reacting to this claim Obama made. Doocy said, “What do you think of the president’s quote there, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh?”

SHAPIRO: He has dictatorial tendencies. He talks about how the incentive structure needs to be changed. He’s talking about silencing members of the media that he doesn’t like, and he’s done this before. This idea that Fox News is some sort of evil force in the media. He’s gone after Rush Limbaugh. He’s attempted to start secondary boycotts of Rush Limbaugh. This is what he does. He’s a bully.

RUSH: And he’s gone after the NFL in the same way, and he’s going after anybody he disagrees with the same way. That’s Ben Shapiro, the editor at large at Breitbart.com. Obama has been part of the these secondary boycott attempts. There’s no question about it. That’s unprecedented for presidents. I mean, if Richard Nixon had endeavored to do 20% of what Obama’s doing, the roof would blow.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I want to build a little bit here on the president. He was quoted in this New Republic interview saying that Republicans want to get along with the Democrats in Washington. They want to be able to socialize. He said these things. They want to be able to socialize. They want to be able to participate in bipartisan legislation. They want their lives to have meaning. The Republicans want to feel like they’re making a difference. The Republicans don’t want to feel ostracized and so forth.

They’re just scared because the minute they do anything that makes it look like they’re gonna agree with Democrats, Limbaugh starts bashing ’em. They’re afraid of that. If you could just get Limbaugh to stop bashing ’em, they’d be a lot more fulfilled in Washington. They’d be a lot more socially acceptable. (I mean, these are not his words but they’re close and it’s what he said.) It’s as though Obama really cares about the Republicans. You know, he really wants ’em to do well.

It’s like this immigration. (Yes, we’re gonna get to this, folks.) The Democrats, don’t you know, are so eager to share some of their voters with the Republicans. That’s why the Democrats are urging the Republicans, “Look, you guys, we love you, and we really want to go to parties with you, and we really want you to join us when it comes to legislation, and we want you guys to have meaningful lives here in Washington. We want you to be happy. That’s why you’re gonna have to relax some of your positions on immigration.

“You’re going to have to agree with us on amnesty and the border.” Because we all know, folks, that the Democrats want to share some of their voters with the Republicans. The Democrats, they don’t want all the Hispanic voters. I mean, they’re willing to share some. They know it’s not fair if every Hispanic votes Democrat. So they want the Republicans to do the right thing. They want Republicans to join them when it comes to amnesty so that they get some Hispanic votes. You know, it’s the same thing on abortion.

The Democrats, they don’t want all the women voters, particularly the Lena Dunham-type women, the 18 to 24ers. They want to share the women that are voting for them. If the Republicans would just relax their position on abortion, Roe v. Wade, then the Democrats would like them. They’d be socially acceptable and be able to go to parties, and the Democrats are more than willing to share some of their voters. Isn’t that right? Yeah. Well, isn’t it? When the Democrats say that the Republicans are having trouble…

By the way, the Republicans agree. Republicans are out there saying, “The reason we lost the election is Hispanics don’t like us and the women don’t like us. So we’re gonna have to moderate our position here and we’re gonna have to take positions that send the message that we don’t dislike Hispanics.” And the Democrats are saying, “Yeah, you’re gonna have to do that and you’re gonna have to come out for amnesty and all kinds of things. Agree with us on this, and, if you do that, we’ll give you some of our voters.”

I guess there are some Republicans who really believe this.

I guess there are some Republicans who really believe that the Democrats are willing to giving up some of their voting advantage, because they’re eager to do what the Democrats want on these issues. Here’s Obama now talking about how he understands that the Republicans want to be able to socialize and have lives that have meaning. They want to be able to feel fulfillment at the end of the busy legislative day by participating in legislation, and Obama knows the only way to do that is if the Republicans change their opinions and agree with Democrats.

Do that, and everything will be hunky-dory.

As though he really cares about the Republicans. That would be the same guy, Barack Obama, who sat by while his campaign called Mitt Romney a felon and essentially a murderer. That’s how much they like Republicans. Oh, yeah! The Democrats really respect and like the Republicans. That’s why they smeared Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. These are the same people that routinely accuse the Republicans of wanting to starve kids and the elderly and declare war on women.

These are the same Democrats who accuse the Republicans of wanting to poison the air and the water, the same Democrats who accuse the Republicans of being racist. How many times a day does that happen? These are the guys that really care about our well-being. These are the people, from the president on down, these Democrats, who really want Republicans to be part of the mix. They really want Republicans to do the right thing on immigration.

They’ll even give ’em some of their voters!

They want them to do the right thing on women’s issues. These are the same people — with all this caring and compassion — who call Republicans racists, sexist, bigots, and homophobes. They called Romney a felon. They called Romney a liar. They said Romney didn’t care about his dog. Romney wasn’t paying enough taxes. “Romney’s a rich guy; you can’t trust him. He had all his money invested overseas!” They really like Republicans. The Republicans just don’t understand it, and they’re gonna have to compromise on all these issues.

No, I’m being a little bit facetious.

The way I think, the way I’m looking at it, is I look at Barack Obama as attempting to eliminate any viable opposition. I look at Obama trying to wipe out any opposition. See, I’m sincere, and I’ve mastered sincerity, and I’m trustworthy. If sometimes you don’t get the sarcasm, you might misunderstand, but my real point is: The Democrats are not interested in having the Republicans get any Hispanic votes. The Democrats are not interested in the Republicans getting any women votes. My point is, the Democrats know that if they can convince the Republicans to go along with them on amnesty that they are losing their base.

They might pick up some Hispanic votes, but that’s even doubtful.