RUSH: Grab nine and 10. These fascinate me. This is Frank Rich, ex- of the New York Times. By the way do you know…? You may not know. Frank Rich. In order to relate and understand, he left his family for a year and lived with a gay couple, in order to be able to more accurately understand and write about that condition. Now, he didn’t marry a lesbian, but he lived with a gay couple, I think for a year. (interruption) Yeah? When I say he lived with ’em… (interruption)

No, I don’t… (interruption) No, no! He just was in residence. He just lived with ’em. That’s where he lived. he left his family, his wife and his kids, and he moved in with a gay couple. (interruption) I don’t know what else happened. That’s not the point. It’s just a little aside as to who the guy is. That’s all. He’s a New York Times columnist. He’s left there, he now works at either New York or The New Yorker or the Cosmopolitan, some such place.

I don’t know where he writes now. He started out as their theater critic, and then they made him an opinion columnist. Anyway, he was on Piers Morgan Live last night. It’s New York Magazine’s where he is. He’s an at-large writer there, and Piers Morgan said, “You wrote a fascinating piece today, and the headline was, ‘Cuccinelli’s Near Win Says More Than Christie’s Landslide.’ What do you mean by that?

RICH: He had almost everything, according to conventional wisdom, going against him, but he came within three points of Terry McAuliffe, who had the Clintons campaigning for him, he had President Obama campaigning for him, he had a ton of money, and he had a government shutdown to beat over Cuccinelli’s head because northern Virginian government workers were affected by it and, you know, Cuccinelli is part of the right wing that supported the shutdown. This guy did as well as he could and might have won, frankly, if it hadn’t been for a third-party Libertarian candidate. I think [that] does not look great for Democrats, and also does not look great for moderate Republicans who take such heart in Chris Christie’s victory in New Jersey because I think the Tea Party is alive and well.

RUSH: You know, the reason I wanted you to hear this is because that’s now three different Democrat liberal analysts who I think have got this right. I think Stephanie Cutter was right in her analysis of the Christie win, and I think Big Ed over at MSNBC had a point (although he may not have known it), and Rich, Frank Rich is right here in the way he’s analyzing this. The Cuccinelli loss means far more to the Republicans, and the Democrats, than Christie’s win.

Because in New Jersey, everybody knew he’d win. There really wasn’t an election there. But in addition to that, the exit polls in New Jersey all show Hillary cleaning up in a presidential race in that state, and believe me: These people live and die by exit polls. Or any poll. That is public opinion to them. So Piers Morgan, after hearing this, was shocked. He said (impression), “Well, let’s come to Chris Christie, because he’s a hugely popular figure, popular governor, reelected with a thumping margin.”

RICH: Contrary to what a lot of people in the pundit profession think, I think Christie’s victory is meaningless in terms of the national Republican Party. This is not an acceptable candidate for the Republicans who are gonna vote in presidential primaries. Christie is popular in New Jersey, there’s no question about it. But even in New Jersey, in the exit polls that CNN showed, he lost in a matchup with Hillary Clinton. He’s a New Jersey phenomenon. Is he a national phenomenon? Only if they cancel all the Republican primaries.

RUSH: Ooh, man! That “only if they cancel the Republican primaries,” meaning in Richie’s view Christie’s gonna have a tough time in the primaries against whoever else might seek the nomination, i.e., conservatives. But again I want to tell you just so you know: The RNC and the Republican establishment doesn’t believe any of this. They are thrilled because Christie won a majority of Hispanics. Right now, that is all that matters. Well, maybe not all, but that’s huge.

You know, the GOP is big on amnesty. They believe this notion that if they don’t do amnesty they’re never gonna win anything ’cause they’re never gonna win the Hispanics, and if you don’t win the Hispanics, you’re not gonna win anything, and Christie did. But then, of course, he’s not gonna win the Hispanics in a presidential race; the Democrats are. And especially if the Republicans throw it all away and go amnesty, because that would be the official separation of the Republicans and their base, and it seems to be where the Republicans are headed.