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RUSH: I got an instant message this morning from a friend of mine who said, “Do you think the Republicans are gonna cave on gun control?” Now, I will be honest with you about what I wrote back, before knowing anything. I mean, I’m aware of the latest, the proposed filibuster and all the debate arguments pro and con. I know what the Democrats want. They want to get guns out of the hands of everybody that’s got them legally. I know the drill. You do, too. I don’t care what they say. I don’t care about their denials. They wish the Second Amendment wasn’t there.

They don’t care what polling data is; they just want control. So I wrote back, and I said, “Well, can you give me any evidence to suggest they won’t cave on gun control?”

The friend wrote back, said, “What do you mean?”

I said, “Well, pick an issue, budget issue — name one. Where have the Republicans, at the end of the day, if not caved, sacrificed greatly in order to forge an agreement?”

There is one instance. They didn’t buckle going into the sequester, and they’re being blamed for the sequester when it was Obama’s idea. So there is that. They did hold firm to that. I wrote back and I said, “The way I’m thinking right now, the Democrats want gun control. The media wants gun control. The Republicans want to be loved by the media, therefore we’re gonna get gun control.”

I think it’s shameless — shameful — this regime, the way they use victims, poor people, as props and pawns. I just saw that a parent of a child killed at Sandy Hook is gonna give the weekly presidential address on Saturday. It’s shameful. You know exactly what the purpose of it’s gonna be. “Well, aren’t you doing the same thing, Rush, you’re taking calls.” No, no, no, no. I’m not dragging people in. I’m not politicizing leukemia. I’m not using leukemia, the Cure-A-Thon here, to advance my political ideas.


I’m not exploiting people that have this disease for the advancement of anything I believe. We are self-contained here. Everything we’re doing in raising money to cure the blood cancers is just that: raise money to cure the blood cancers. I’m not trying to defeat some presidential bill at the same time. Or I’m not trying to advance some Republican idea. So I wouldn’t exploit people that way, and I wouldn’t exploit you. But that’s just me.

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RUSH: No, Obama asked this mother to do it. Obama asked this mother of a 6-year-old who was killed at Newtown to stand in for him and do the presidential address, the radio address, the Internet address on Saturday.

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RUSH: Roger in Bloomington, Illinois, I’m glad you waited. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Well, thank you very much, Rush, and mega dittos to you, and God bless you for what you’re doing.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: The Obama administration is bringing these parents in from Newtown, Connecticut, to lobby to congressman. Are they registered as lobbyists? And if not, wouldn’t that be considered kind of like a jackleg diplomacy?

RUSH: It’s not just that. These people are being shepherded. They’ve got handlers. They are being walked to offices, talking to senators. They’re being shepherded and guided by administration officials, and they are lobbying. You’re exactly right. But nobody’s gonna shut ’em down. They’re flying in on Air Force One. I mean, this is the full-court press. By the way, keep something in mind: While Obama is parading these people everywhere and urging them to speak to everybody, the victims from Benghazi are still being told to be quiet, to shut up, to not ask anymore questions.

When it comes to Benghazi, there aren’t gonna be any answers. When it comes to Benghazi, there aren’t gonna be any questions. Because there’s nothing politically there that Obama wants. But Obama wants gun control, he wants massive new gun control legislation, and so here come the parents from Newtown flying in on Air Force One, and you’re right: They’re lobbying senators.

CALLER: They shouldn’t be there unless they’re registered. Isn’t that some kind of a federal offense if you’re not registered as a lobbyist?

RUSH: Well, I hate to be cynical, but, “Yeah, but so what?” There’s all kinds of other laws that are being flouted here that no one’s enforcing.

CALLER: True, that’s true.

RUSH: I mean, where’s your heart, man? This is compassion! We’re trying to save the children.

CALLER: I feel for those parents. I would never want to lose my children that way or any other way, even to blood-borne diseases and stuff. I would never do that.

RUSH: Yeah, but look. You know, the hard work always falls to people like us. You have these people like the president and other liberals who engage in this emotional tug-of-war. They’re proposing legislation that would not have changed the outcome at Newtown. There’s nothing in any legislation that would change the outcome of what happened there. But they exploit the victims, they bring ’em forth, they make them into extensions of a political cause.

When you, as I’m doing now, point all this out, I’m the bad guy. I’m the guy with no heart. “Where’s your compassion?” and so forth The root of this is that people are being used, take advantage of, exploited for the advancement of a political agenda I happen to disagree with, and the liberals do this all the time. I could give you names, Hollywood actor and actresses who have been utilized in TV commercials to advance a cause, and as far as I’m concerned…

See, this is the toughie. Correct me if I’m wrong. Let me ask the Official Program Observer. “Would it be safe to say that the Newtown parents have now been inserted into the political aspect of the issue?” (interruption) Okay. All right, the answer has been given: “Absolutely, 100%, without question.” So if the parents of Newtown have now been inserted into the political characteristics of the issue, is it fair game to discuss them in such terms? Well, yes, it is fair game.

But if you dare try it? I guarantee you, if I were to go full bore on this, the monsters of the media would be descending on me, and I would be portrayed out there as the biggest heartless boob you’ve ever seen. No matter that we are all engaged here in an effort to cure cancer, fighting the blood cancers. That wouldn’t matter. The fact that I would dare comment politically on the poor people and their saga, their story. “They lost their kids! How dare you, Mr. Limbaugh?” So that’s how they get away with it, folks.

It’s how they turn a political issue into nothing more than an emotional gut-wrench, and they stifle any opposition to it. So now anybody, anybody that seeks to opposite the Democrats’ gun control legislation is actually attacking these parents. That’s the way it would be portrayed if some Republican senator decided to deal with this head on. You could guarantee the response would be, “What is it, Senator, that you don’t get here? Do you have no compassion for these parents? None? Does everything be political, Senator?”

The senator would say, “I didn’t make this political. The president did.” This is how it’s done. You’re witnessing it. This is how all opposition is silenced. This is how it’s done. You can’t dare talk about the issue now because opposing Obama’s agenda is opposing these people, is opposing these parents, is having no heart. I guarantee you, most elected officials are gonna look at this and say, “It’s not worth it! It just isn’t worth it, so I’ll shut up. I’ll shut up, and the bill’s gonna pass.”

Do you think the Republicans are gonna cave? It’s not that the Republicans are gonna cave on the concept of gun control. That’s not what they’re doing. The Republicans are being silenced! All opposition is effectively being shut down here. All you gotta see is that picture of the Newtown parents getting off Air Force One — slowly, sadly walking down the steps — and then either video or still shots of them talking to the senators. Now I got a guy who calls me, “Rush, are they registered lobbyists?”

“Where’s your heart, sir? What do you mean? They’re not lobbying! They’re trying to save other people’s children.” So that’s how it works. It was the president who asked for this mother of a 6-year-old who died to do his speech. Senator Richard Blumenthal (Democrat-Connecticut) is using Sandy Hook to raise money in his e-mails. They’re trying to turn the Newtown parents into a dozen Sandy Sheehans in a way. It’s what the Democrats do, folks. They always try to hide their agendas behind women and children, and, most of all, victims. So the Newtown parents are human shields, in a sense.

The Newtown parents are out there to protect the Democrats from any criticism and to shut it down. Pure and simple.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: John in Mundelein, Illinois, am I pronouncing that right?

CALLER: It’s Mundelein, Illinois.

RUSH: Mundelein, Illinois. Great to have you here. Hi.

CALLER: Thank you for taking my call. I disagree with you, but I hope you’ll hear me out.

RUSH: I never talk to people who disagree with me. See you later.

CALLER: (laughing) I feel that a group of people, in this case the parents of the children slaughtered at that school in Newtown, if a group of people want to go to Washington ’cause they have an opinion about an issue, and I think that there’s no question that these people have a very serious opinion about the issue we’re talking about: guns. If they want to go and express themselves to elected officials, not only is that perfectly a legitimate thing for them to do, I think that to imply that they’ve somehow been manipulated into having a strong view on this issue or that there’s something illegitimate about them wanting to go speak to their elected officials on an issue that you may disagree with them on, but to imply that there’s something wrong or suspect or possibly illegal about them doing that is offensive. I think you should have enough respect for them to let them do what they want.

RUSH: Well, wait. Are you upset with the previous caller who tried to refer to them as lobbyists?

CALLER: I did. He suggested it might be illegal for them to be doing what they’re doing and you seemed to agree with that.

RUSH: No, anybody can go talk to the congressman all day long if you can get in.

CALLER: Okay, then why did you agree with him when he said —

RUSH: Well, because I know what he’s talking about. I know what he meant. The reason he said lobbyist is because these people are being set up. They’re being orchestrated, it’s being planned, and the taxpayers are paying for this. They’re being put on Air Force One and they’re being sent up there by the president and his people to go talk to these Democrats, to put pressure on ’em. That was his way of him saying that he thinks this is being orchestrated.

CALLER: Are you implying that they don’t want to go and speak to members of Congress? Are you saying that somehow —

RUSH: I don’t know.

CALLER: — that’s not what they want to be doing?

RUSH: No, I’m not saying anything. I’m trying to tell you what this guy — empathy is one of the things I try to use here —

CALLER: You don’t think they’re being set up. You think your caller thought that?

RUSH: Do I think they’re being set up?

CALLER: Yeah, the parents, do you think they’re somehow being set up or used?

RUSH: I think that there are two things happening. I’m not gonna be critical of these people, for crying out loud. But I do think that their pain is being exploited for the advancement of a political agenda that the Democrat Party wants. There’s no question about that.

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RUSH: Now, folks I knew this was gonna happen. We talked about the situation involving the parents of Sandy Hook, and all it took was two minutes for me to offer a point of view about it, and here came a phone call. “How dare you!” essentially. “How dare you call them lobbyists! How dare you do this? How dare you that?” This is how they’ve made this a political issue. The parents are now involved in a political issue, but you can’t treat them that way. You may as well call it the genius of the Democrats.

It’s how they shut down any opposition to what they want to do, but I want to walk you through some things. Is there anything…? I’m gonna hit you with some logic here which is, admittedly for the emotional left, impossible for them to grasp. Is there anything Adam Lanza did at Newtown that was not already highly illegal? The answer is no. Not one thing he did isn’t already covered by the law. Everything he did broke an existing law. So how many more laws would have stopped him?

He stole the guns that he used from his mother. He broke into the Sandy Hook school. He carried guns into a gun-free zone. Liberals love those! (You may as well beg for somebody to come in with a gun when you say, “There aren’t any guns here.”) He murdered kids. Aren’t all of these things already illegal? Yes. What more is needed to stop him? What more can be done with the law, with gun control, that would have stopped Adam Lanza?

Meanwhile, when it comes to the victims and families in Benghazi, everybody’s being told to shut up. They’re not getting driven ran around on Air Force One. They’re not being flown around on Air Force One. They’re not being escorted by lobbyists to talk to senators — and that is happening. A Democrat lobbyist has set up more than 25 meetings on Capitol Hill for Newtown family members this week alone. So you can call here and you can say you’re offended at having these parents whose kids were shot called lobbyists.

But just one Democrat lobbyist has set up more than 25 meetings for these people. That’s just one lobbyist. One of the, quote, unquote, “strategists” for the families is Ricki Seidman, who ran the Clinton-Gore 1992 campaign war room. One of the strategists for the families… Now, anybody can go to Washington and talk to their senator. Anybody can go to Washington and talk to their member of Congress. How many of you call the White House say, “I want to fly to Washington on Air Force One to see my senator”?

How many of you could call and say, “Mr. President, I want to do the Saturday radio address for you”? “Mr. President, I want you to set me up with 25 members of Congress, not just my own.” You can’t do any of that on your own. This whole issue is being politicized. I know with certain people I’m losing points here, but I can’t help that. Folks, I oppose what Obama wants to do with gun control laws. I oppose what the Democrat Party wants to do. I’m sorry, “opposing it” means opposing it! No matter what.

Everything they’re doing to advance it is political. I do not have any animus whatsoever for these parents. Quite the opposite. My heart breaks for ’em! I just wouldn’t do what’s being done to them. I just wouldn’t. I wouldn’t exploit it like this. I wouldn’t look at every tragedy that happens in this country and say, “Man, how can I turn this into something I want?” I just don’t think that way and I’m offended by people that do.

It repulses me that genuine, real human tragedy is seen as a political opportunity by people. I just… Now, admittedly, I’m not a politician; they are. But I don’t care how they sell it. I’m opposed to Obama’s immigration law, I’m opposed to Obama’s gun control law, I’m opposed to Obama’s budget. I don’t care how he sells it. Am I not entitled to be opposed to Obama’s proposals? I am opposed to Obama’s efforts to destroy the American economy. I’m opposed to Obama’s efforts to so-called fix the health care system. I’m opposed to the way Obama wants to go about fixing unemployment.

I’m opposed to all of this. Am I supposed to shut up simply because of the techniques he uses to get what he wants? Yes, we are. We are supposed to shut up. That’s exactly right. And if we don’t shut up, we are heartless. If we don’t shut up, we have no heart, we have no compassion. So in this context if somebody says, “Do you think the Republicans are gonna cave on gun control?” Hell, yes. Everybody else is. You don’t think they are? Well, maybe not in the House. Senate, who knows.

My point is that everything Adam Lanza did is already illegal and, by the way, none of what is in Obama’s new proposals would have stopped him. There is no new law that is proposed that would have stopped him. Do you know The Politico’s even calling the families lobbyists? From The Politico: “Newtown Families: Victims Turn Lobbyists.” It’s an article by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen. The Politico says that the victims have turned lobbyists. Now, who turned ’em into lobbyists? How many of you get to have 25 different meetings with congressmen in just one week? How many of you get handled by powerful lobbyists and shepherded around by the most powerful party strategists? I don’t think very many.

Have you seen the video, Joe Biden was on the Morning Joe show today on MSNBC with Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. He’s on CNN thanking MSNBC and CNN for all the two networks have done in getting out their message for gun control. Both Biden and Senator Manchin said, in effect, they couldn’t have done it without MSNBC and CNN. So the networks are lobbyists, too. Now, imagine you’re sitting there at CNN and you think you’re a journalist and here comes the vice president and the senator congratulating you for your efforts in getting the message out.

In the old days, that would have embarrassed the hell out of Walter Cronkite, publicly. He would have died in his chair if somebody said that about him publicly. Privately, toast him, he’ll take it, but publicly, to be thanked for helping get out an administration’s message like Biden and Manchin did for MSNBC and CNN? Don’t tell me there isn’t any lobbying going on here. Maybe we need to point out again that the only thing that stopped Adam Lanza, do you know what it was? Have you remembered what stopped him? That’s exactly right, Mr. Snerdley. Armed men, armed human beings. Adam Lanza heard the cops coming, and he killed himself. Armed men, guns, the only things that stop serial killers. He chose that school for a host of reasons, but at the top of the list was he knew nobody there had a gun.


This guy calls up, “You can’t call ’em lobbyists. How dare you. These poor people.” I just wanted to take the time to illustrate it because it just goes to show how they shut down any opposition, which is what they are about. They don’t want to have a legitimate debate on gun control. They don’t want any opposition. Now, that’s the name of the game in politics, to get what you want. I’m just trying to help people become informed and learn exactly how this process is taking place.

(interruption)

No, but all I do remember is that if you happen to be involved in Benghazi you’re supposed to shut up and you’re not supposed to ask for any information and you’re not gonna be given any information. And none of what happened to you is gonna be used to change anything politically. You just shut up. The video is still responsible for that.

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RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, my memory is profound and my memory is long, and I want to share with you something from my memory. Do you remember when George W. Bush released a photo of himself looking out the window of Air Force One flying over 9/11, flying over New York, remember how the left had a meltdown that he was taking political advantage of a tragedy? Do you remember all the allegations of Bush, all the charges of how Bush was trying to politicize that? I do. It’s a one-way street for these people.

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