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The GOP Dumps on Conservatives, Then Blames Us for Their Losses 

Transcript of "Rush", Wednesday, May 14, 2008

"Dear Rush:  Since Operation Chaos, the GOP has lost three congressional seats.  I'm a conservative.  I have nothing.  I have no candidate for president. I have no national party unit, and no Rush, who is consumed with Operation Chaos.  Enough is enough.  Sandy Bose."  I've been waiting for this. I've been waiting for somebody to try to blame me for the Republican Party's inability to win in a district that George Bush carried by 20 points in 2004, talking about northern Mississippi.  

Ladies and gentlemen, go ahead and attack me.  Don't attack the moderates in the party; don't attack the Republican establishment; don't attack the country club types who are in the process of destroying the Republican Party.  No, no, no, no, go right ahead and attack me.  Operation Chaos has nothing to do with voting against conservative candidates, nothing.  This thing down in Mississippi, the special election, regardless of party, conservatives could have voted for the Republican down there, doesn't matter.  In two of the three of these cases, in two of the three of these House Republican congressional losses, they have been beaten by conservative Democrats, big-time conservative, social conservative Democrats.  The Republican Party is ceding conservatism in the South to the Democrat Party.  You know, yesterday was a very frustrating day, as you know.  In fact, when I left here yesterday, I said the first thing I have to do when I get back to the Golden EIB Microphone tomorrow is apologize for what I thought was a subpar performance on my part on behalf of yesterday's program.  Ladies and gentlemen, I can't tell you, after hearing this McCain speech, we played sound bites of it, I was a combination of angry, not quite depressed, I don't get depressed, but I was just fit to be tied.  I was distracted, and I feel like I was not polite with a number of the callers.  

I was having trouble hearing them yesterday, but nevertheless, felt like I had to come in here and apologize because normally we're very ebullient here and we are of good cheer, optimism.  We try to enjoy life here at the EIB Network and spread that.  And yesterday, I was not enjoying what's going on here.  Well, today I'm going to expand on that, especially now, since some apparently think I, the leading conservative commentator voice in the country, am responsible for Republican Party losses in supposedly safe congressional districts?  One was Denny Hastert's outside Chicago.  Another was last night in Mississippi.  Do you realize if the Democrat Party -- I just want to put a thought in your head here before we go to the break -- if the Democrat Party were not so controlled by a bunch of radical leftists, do you realize the wide-open shot they have at taking over the Republican Party?  Nancy Pelosi, say what you want about her, but she knows what she wants.  She wants a bigger majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives.  She doesn't care who those Democrats are.  She just wants party ID to enable herself to solidify her leadership and expand her majority.  

So if she has run conservative Democrats in Tennessee, in North Carolina, in Mississippi, who are more conservative than Republican incumbents, if she has to do that and win, she will do it, and that's exactly what's happening.  Because the Republican Party, which has sold out to the pseudoconservatives of the New York Times and the DC-New York media establishment who think that Rockefeller Republicanism and country club Republicanism is the future of the party, Ms. Pelosi, "Okay, they're going to give that up, they're going to give up Reagan, fine, we'll go take over."  If she wanted to, she could take over the whole Republican Party this way.  But she's too far left and her party is too far left.  But if they really wanted a huge supermajority, it's waiting for them.  Meanwhile, the Republican Party is doing everything in the world that it can to try be 25%, 30%, 40% liberal or independent for some God-knows-who-can-explain-it reason.  A brief time-out.  Before we come back, let me put this thought in your head.  The Democrats are fighting to defeat us.  We, at the highest levels of our party, appear to be fighting to join them. 

RUSH:  I'm not ready to come back.  I'm still listening to the music I want to listen to.  Greetings and welcome back.  I'm here, ladies and gentlemen, El Rushbo, the all-knowing, all-caring, all-sensing, all-feeling, all-concerned Maha Rushie.  

From Marc Ambinder's blog at TheAtlantic.com: "A fairly remarkable statement from the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Tom Cole, about tonight's special election in Mississippi. He's warning his incumbents and challengers: Change or die. 'We are disappointed in tonight’s election results. Though the NRCC, RNC and Mississippi Republicans made a major effort to retain this seat, we came up short.'"  They did.  You know who went in there and campaigned for our guy, Greg Davis?  They sent Cheney in there. They sent Trent Lott in there. Haley Barbour, very popular governor, they sent him in there.  Now, the Democrats did what the Democrats always do, they tried to portray Greg Davis as having ties to the KKK after Davis in his campaign tried to use Jeremiah Wright.  But we know the Democrats are going to call Mississippi Republicans KKK members.  It's about damn time somebody came up with an answer to that.  

At any rate, Mr. Cole continued.  "Tonight's election highlights two significant challenges Republicans must overcome this November. First, Republicans must be prepared to campaign against Democrat challengers who are running as conservatives, even as they try to join a liberal Democrat majority." Yeah, I just explained that. "Though the Democrats' task will be more difficult in a November election, the fact is they have pulled off two special election victories with this strategy, and it should be a concern to all Republicans."  Gee, they're just now getting it.  What took 'em so long?  Did you see what happened in 2006?  Folks, I am mad today.  Did you see what happened in 2006?  Did you see all the conservative Democrats Pelosi ran in the South then and skunked your incumbents?  With what?  Not McCainism.  These Democrats were not running as McCain.  They were running as Reagan conservatives, and that's how they won, in Reagan conservative districts.  The Republican Party couldn't bring itself to do that.  No.  Of course it couldn't.  I'll tell you why in just a second.  We're just getting started here, folks.  

"Second, the political environment is such that voters remain pessimistic about the direction of the country and the Republican Party in general. Therefore, Republicans must undertake bold efforts to define a forward looking agenda that offers the kind of positive change voters are looking for."  Well, Tom, I agree with you, but if you do that you're going to have to split from your presidential nominee, 'cause that's not what he's doing.  Senator McCain's not on that line.  He's not on that train track, positive change voters are looking for.  The next line from Tom Cole, "This is something we can do in cooperation with our Presidential nominee, but time is short."  Hey, Tom, let me ask you a question.  I say this with all due respect.  When's the National Republican Congressional Committee going to come out and endorse Democrats' version of manmade global warming?  When are you Republicans going to run for reelection in the House the same way McCain's running for the White House?  If you're going to be able to coordinate what you have to do here with the presidential nominee, you might be better off switching parties and trying to become more likable than the other Democrats.  

Mr. Cole says, "I encourage all Republican candidates, whether incumbents or challengers, to take stock of their campaigns and position themselves for challenging campaigns this fall by building the financial resources and grassroots networks that offer them the opportunity and ability to communicate, energize and turn out voters this election."  I feel sorry for Mr. Cole.  I know he wants to do the right thing, and I know he knows what the right thing is.  But his hands are tied, just like Denny Hastert's were and just like a lot of other Republicans' hands have been tied. When there's no top-down conservative leadership and all you have is Republican leadership, you can't really go against the top leadership, or be accused of being a heretic.  So their hands are tied.  See, Congressman Cole, the Republican Party is only as good as its leaders.  Its leaders lack the agenda you know it needs.  It lacks the agenda that the Democrats in the South are using against you.  Can somebody, can anybody at the Republican National Committee, in the McCain campaign or anywhere else, can somebody tell me what the consistent agenda is of the Republican Party?  No.  

The head of the party lacks a philosophy.  Can anybody tell me what Senator McCain's overall philosophy is?  Does anybody know?  I'm open to hearing it, if you know what it is: 800-282-2882.  Is there an appealing presence, is there a media personality presence, is there any excitement when a Republican shows up on television?  I can think of a couple.  No names here.  If we want to be honest about this, and that's what it's going to take, my friends, it's going to take honesty, and here you go.  We have to say that for eight years, the Republican Party was taken for granted.  There was no effort made to build it's conservative brand -- we've spoken about this -- an absence of conservative leadership.  It didn't come from the White House, did not come from Congress, either.  And those responsible, at least in large part for the current circumstances, are still running the show.  They're still dumping on Ronald Reagan; they're still dumping on conservatives.  They're still trying to appeal to the wrong voters and the special interests.  

Michael Gerson, who is now at the Washington Post, a couple other places, the columnist, was the chief speechwriter the first term for President Bush, wrote some of the finest, most soaring speeches a president's ever given.  He's out there just lambasting conservatives today for not having big enough hearts, not doing enough to help people with AIDS, not doing enough to help people who are suffering.  We are spending $3.1 trillion this year, and we're going broke.  It's one thing for liberal Democrats to accuse us of being heartless.  It's another thing for people who are in the position here of doing tremendous damage to the Republican Party to accuse us of being heartless.  We are taxed, and we pay it.  We are asked to donate charitably, and we do it.  We do our best to take care of those who cannot help themselves, but we draw the line at people who can take care of themselves 'cause we want those people to improve.  We don't want them to become wards of the state.  So the Republican Party is now out there appealing to the wrong voters, people in special interests, and that's just one thing.  On the other side of this, the Republican Party is attacking its own base in the process, and then wondering why they're losing safe seat special elections in Mississippi and Illinois.  

RUSH: Some details about the situation in Mississippi, both parties carpet bombed ads for each of these guys, both the Democrat and the Republican.  The Democrat was -- this guy's name is Childers, I've still not heard his name pronounced so I don't know how it's pronounced, I'm not trying to be disrespectful.  He was billed as a pro-life pro-gun Baptist who would never raise taxes.  Well, guess what?  Guess who used to own all that?  The Republicans.  The Republicans.  Except this guy, Childers, has never been in an office that would allow him to raise taxes, so we don't know what he's going to do.  I easily could have answered this guy.  We're gonna get to the Democrats here in just a second, folks.  Don't sweat it, and when we get to the Democrats, you're going to like it.  Just sit tight.  We're talking here what's happening to the Republican Party.  I am stunned it has taken these people three special elections, starting late last year, to figure out what the hell's going on here.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: No, my friends, the lesson in these Republican losses is that conservatives are fed up with the Republican Party and are fed up with the direction the Republican Party has taken.  They have no real option in this election, so they are not voting, or in some cases they may be protesting voting against the Republican Party regardless of the candidate.  And who do we have to thank for this? 

The list is too long for me to go through here.  But you can guess who the usual suspects are: all of the moderates, all of the mavericks, all of the independents, so-called, who have decided that their own political careers are more important than building a party and a movement that advances the principles that are critical to the well-being of this nation.  Another word I'm tired of hearing is "maverick," "independent," when describing a Republican.  So from now on when you hear the word maverick Republican or independent Republican, I want you to think of one word: selfish.  Because that is who and that is what these people are.  They are pandering to the elements in our society who wish the Republican Party and the conservative movement ill.  They are pandering to people in the media and the Democrat Party who have not given up their task of politically decimating the Republican Party.  They are joining them, whether by accident or by design.  And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we conservatives are in a very difficult state right now.  We can't vote for socialists.  We can't go out there and vote for socialists like Obama or Clinton. 

But, hell's bells, the Republican Party's nominated a candidate who spent decades pandering to these very people and these very elements and is still doing it as our nominee!  He spent decades undermining our party.  McCain-Feingold, amnesty, McCain-Kennedy.  And this is the movement he now claims to be part of and whose support he seeks?  Let me add a final point.  McCain and his advisors and his plants, his sycophants, in the New York, Boston, conservative so-called media axis in the New York Times, see the loss, and folks, this is profound.  If you've heard nothing I've said, and I know that's not possible, you've heard everything I said and you're marveling at it, and you should be.  I am myself.  These moderate Republicans and McCain and his advisors, they're looking at these three losses, these so-called safe Republican seats that have been lost, and you know what they see?  They don't see trouble, a problem.  They see an opportunity.  This, my friends, is so important you've got to understand this.  It's not that I don't think you're capable of it, I just want to say it, I may repeat it a couple of times to get it through.  From McCain on down to his sycophants at the New York Times, and wherever you find these moderates, these independents in the Republican Party, they don't look at what happened in Mississippi last night as a problem.  They don't look at what happened in Denny Hastert's district as a problem. 

They see the loss of these three seats as evidence that their Big Government conservatism is the only way to win elections, that if the Republicans had run somebody like McCain, if the Republicans' candidate down there had been pro-global warming as the Democrats wanted, and for a compassionate, active government that grows larger, then they would have won.  That is the way they're going to take this.  That's the way they're going to spin it at the RNC on down.  They see the destruction and the mayhem they've unleashed in the Republican Party as justification for more of the same.  They blame conservatism where conservatism has been abandoned.  There isn't any conservatism in the Republican Party except in a couple of individual cases.  They're still out blaming conservatism for these losses and they're going to look at these losses, they see conservatism is not the way to go, despite the fact that the winners outdid Republicans in espousing conservatism.  So they're going to blame Reaganism, or Reaganism has been abandoned.  We've lost a lot of ground after a decade.  Nonconservative activism, trying things their way, they have learned nothing from it.  They are too vain; they are too delusional to see that their way will destroy what's left of the Republican Party brand.    

RUSH:  And we're back, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee.  Anyway, the media take on what happened in Mississippi last night, Jonathan Martin, our old buddy at Politico.com:  "Republicans have now failed twice this month to win by using Obama against Democratic congressional candidates in the Deep South.  In both a Baton Rouge-area seat ten days ago and tonight in northern Mississippi, GOP candidates aired ads tying their conservative Democratic opponents to Obama," and Reverend Wright.  And of course now the media says, "It doesn't work, you Republicans think that you can defeat Obama or Democrats by tying them to --" Jonathan, with all due respect, it has nothing to do with why the Republicans lost last night.  I haven't seen the exit polls.  I'd like to know how many Republicans crossed over and voted for the more conservative Democrat, acted like McCain joining the Democrat Party. I wonder how many Republican mavericks there were in Mississippi. (doing McCain impression) "That's a good thing to ask, Limbaugh, because I'm the only one allowed to do that.  You have to stay in the party, but I know what I'm doing, and you don't, so I can go join the Democrats whenever I want, but you can't!  I'm the only maverick."  No, we're all mavericks now.   

RUSH: Dave in Concord, North Carolina, you're next.  Hello, sir.  Great to have you here.

CALLER:  Well, it's a pleasure to speak with you, Rush.  I've been listening for a long time, and this is the first time I've ever tried to call.

RUSH:  I'm glad you made it through.

CALLER:  I hope I am, too.  I was wondering, I was referring to your last hour about your comments about Nancy Pelosi and trying to run conservative Democrats and take -- you know, broaden her base in the Democratic Party.  And I was wondering if the Democrats in Mississippi were more conservative than the Republicans, why wouldn't you be pleased about that as a conservative?

RUSH:  Well, in a certain context I would, but Pelosi is not trying to broaden her base.  I didn't say that.  She's trying to entrench her leadership.  Once these conservative Democrats get to Washington, they're going to be brought to Pelosi's office and they're going to be asked, "Do you like it here?  Do you want to stay here?  Do you want to rise in the ranks in the leadership?  Do you want to get on a committee that matters to you?  Do you want to get some campaign contributions that come from outside your district?"  They're all going to say, "Yeah."  "Okay, fine, then you do what the leadership says.  We'll give you as many chances as possible to vote along with your district, but on crucial issues you're voting with us."  

You think I ought to be happy that there's conservatism out there.  I'm not happy my own party wants to get rid of it.  I'm mad that my own party wants to cast conservatism aside.  I know there's plenty of conservatism out there.  That's the source of the frustration.  But conservatism by itself cannot move things.  It needs a political party.  In our political structure, it is parties that get things done.  The Republican Party was the home of conservatism, and it still is.  But the people that run the Republican Party right now are trying to get rid of it.  And it's a death wish.  It is an absolute death wish.  And I'll tell you, if they happen to win, if the Republicans happen to win in November -- 'cause, look, as I said earlier, we're not going to vote for socialist Obama.  He's a full-blown ignoramus, embarrassingly uninformed about crucial things.  We're not going to vote for this guy.  We're not going to vote for Hillary.  We wouldn't vote for Algore.  For some of us the question is, are we going to vote at all?  But it's entirely possible, this newly constituted Republican Party which stands for nothing but liberalism lite might end up winning because a lot of the country might look at this socialist bunch the Democrats are offering and say pooey, and want no part of it, and then where are we?  

Then we have an elected Republican Party holding the White House, who is going to say, "See, this is how you do it.  You go out and you get moderates and independents and you have Big-Government aspirations with compassion, and that's how we become a majority party, not Reaganism and not conservatism."  But you can look to the future, you can look through the crystal ball, and you can see disaster regardless of any electoral outcome.  You can see it.  Now, some people say to me, "But, Rush, but, Rush, but, Rush, hang on.  I know McCain bothers you on his environmental policies and so forth.  But come on.  Wouldn't his stand on tax cuts and judges and the war on terror, wouldn't that sort of ameliorate some of this stuff?"  I said, "Talk to me when it happens."  We'll find out what the majority of Democrats in the House and Senate are that Senator McCain is going to have to work with, and if the Democrats in the Senate have 57 votes plus three liberal Republicans -- and believe me, they're there -- and they effectively have 60 votes, McCain could nominate Jesus Christ and the Democrats could stop him.  McCain could propose a tax rate cut to 10%, and the Democrats would stop him.  

So, you know, all these, "But, Rush, but, Rush, but Rush."  Yeah, you can cite me these specifics, and, yeah, this is what we have to deal with.  But do you realize, folks, do you realize what a bunch of sitting ducks the Democrats are this year?  I don't care if it's Obama, I don't care if it's Hillary, half the country already hates Hillary, and by the time we're through more and more people are going to be aware that Obama is not a messiah and doesn't know half what he thinks he knows.  By the way, look at the Democrat turnout, I don't care where you go, white people vote for Hillary, black people vote for Obama.  This party is so racially divided, gender divided, this party is nowhere near unity.  Obama doesn't have the ability to unify 'em, period.  This party is a sitting duck!  This is a recipe for a landslide a la 1980.  And we're not taking advantage of it.  We're out there trying to compete for the same lug heads that the Democrats are trying to compete for.  Don't ask me to explain why.  Well, I think there's a lot of people in the Republican Party who would be just punchy pleased if they could deemphasize conservatives in that party once and for all, and I frankly think that's what McCain-Feingold was in part about.