Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
I know.
Snerdley, you are exactly right.
No matter what happens tonight, in a Hawkeye caucus, I, El Rushbaugh, will be blamed.
No question.
I mean, if Huckabee loses, I get blamed.
If Romney wins, I get blamed.
If Fred Thompson shows better than expected, I get blamed.
If Hillary comes in third, I get blamed.
The only scenario in which I don't get blamed is if Obama comes in big time number one, and then they'll say not even Limbaugh could hurt him.
Greetings, my friends, and welcome.
But they'll blame me for Hillary.
Welcome, my friends.
Here we are.
We have an abbreviated week here on the EIB network.
It feels like Tuesday to me, but it's already Thursday here on the Fastest Week in Media.
Rush Limbaugh behind the golden EIB microphone.
Available to you at 800-282-2882.
The email address is LRushbow at EIBNet.com to show you, ladies and gentlemen, the power and the influence of this program.
I am now watching.
Various television commercials running and aired by Mrs. Clinton.
And she, I mean, the Vaseline on the lens that they use to film this commercial.
In fact, Mike, I want to go to audio soundbite.
Let's see what it is.
Number 17.
I told the broadcast engineer we're going to start at the top of the audio soundbite roster, but I just now decided, since this show has no writers, we can be spontaneous and do what we want to do when we want to do it.
Here is Hardball with Chris Matthews last night about Mrs. Clinton's latest television ad.
The key light has gotten her so whited out.
You know, she looks like the man from GLAD, except she's incredibly good looking.
Is that the Hillary Clinton we're going to get if we elect her?
I know her in person.
She's wonderful in person.
But that charming, delightful, soft, mellifluous presence there.
That's not what we get in person is what he meant to say.
We get this on, is this what we're going to see?
And of course, this goes back, ladies and gentlemen, to my simply brilliant monologue of a few weeks ago after seeing this picture of Mrs. Clinton asking Americans want to watch the female present age daily before their eyes, given that this is a society that's obsessed with perfection when it comes to looks.
And so that monologue still resonating in the drive-by, still resonating in the Clinton campaign, still resonating in the way.
The power and influence of this program is profound.
Let's go to the audio soundbites at the top.
Yesterday afternoon, PMSNBC, Chris Jansen, the anchorette infobabe, speaking to Fred Thompson, Deputy Communications Director Karen Henry, who is from Sacramento.
And this is what she said about Fred and me.
Fred is running strong.
Rush Limbaugh was on the radio today, said Mike Huckabee is no conservative.
And I happen to agree with him.
Last night on Hardball, PMSNBC, Mitt Romney's domestic policy chairman, Jim Talent.
As Rush Limbaugh was saying today, outside of the family issues, Mike Huckabee is more liberal than not.
And a person like that can't unite the Republican Party and can't win the election.
So what happens on this program continues to reverberate throughout the Hawkeye Caucasi and into New Hampshire next Tuesday.
It's fun, folks.
I'm just a little guy from Missouri here on the radio telling people what I think about things.
Here's the latest polling data.
This is Reuters Zagby.
Obama surges to four-point lead over Edwards.
Clinton fades to third.
Robert Novak yesterday following up today predicts Hillary coming in third and says that an Obama win in Iowa tonight could be fatal for Hillary Clinton.
Dick Morris disagrees with this.
Susan Estrich.
In fact, let's go to audio soundbite number two because I want to set up Susan Estrich.
She was on Greta Van Sustran's Fox show last night called On the Record.
I'm going to take you back to December 3rd on this program, and we are together going to listen to me.
I actually like going back and listening to audio soundbites of myself because I am the only person in America that does not get to listen to the most popular radio program in the country because I'm doing it.
You people have something I can never have, and that is the chance to listen to this program other than when I play various clips of myself.
So we'll do that here.
Going back to December 3rd, you might say, why is the drive-bys, why are they pushing Huckabee?
Because they think that Huckabee is a nut.
They think that Huckabee is a Bible-thumping preacher that's going to be marching into every woman's home and telling her, no, you must not and cannot have an abortion.
And then they think he's going to hijack the Constitution and write Roe versus Wade out of it without even going to the Supreme Court.
And then he thinks he's going to make every liberal kid go to Sunday school.
This is what they think of him.
This is what they think of any God-fearing pastor or conservative religious person.
And as such, they think that would be easy to beat.
Do you think that I know what I'm talking about?
Do I know these libs?
Susan Estrich last night on Fox.
Huckabee.
Huckabee could win tomorrow here in Iowa.
Huckabee is a Democrat's dream.
Now, he's the kind of candidate who can do very well in the Iowa caucus because he taps into something.
But if the Republicans nominate Huckabee, honey, I'm dancing at the inaugural ball.
Susan Estrich, well-known Democrat strategist, ran the losers campaign in 1988.
That would be Michael Beatle Bailey Dukakis.
So she's, that was not Carol Channing, by the way.
That was indeed Susan Estrich on Greta Van Sustran's program last night on the record, salivating at the possibility that Mike Huckabee might end up as the Republican nominee.
Let's go on and prove some other contentions that I made.
As you know, I predicted yesterday that if Hillary loses, the spin in the drive-bys will be, does Iowa really mean anything anymore?
This is what I said.
I predict if Hillary does come in third in the Hawkeye Caucasus, what we're going to then hear from the drive-bys and other places this.
Stories on Friday, probably in the process of being written right now.
Does Iowa really mean anything anymore?
Wait.
Hannity and Colms last night, Terry McAuliffe, Hillary's campaign chairman.
Alan Colms says, Terry, does Hillary have to win or come in second?
We don't have to win any specific race.
We're up in all these polls.
We've raised over $100 million.
We have the money to take us through February 5th.
I remind everybody, they forget that Bill Clinton didn't even win a race until Georgia.
We're great in the February 5th states, but I think we're in great shape here.
We are in great shape in New Hampshire.
We're up 25 points in Nevada.
We've got South Carolina.
We're just starting.
So his voice is a little hoarse out there.
He's been out there on the campaign trail.
Now, here's the way the cauckey work tonight.
They basically start 6.30 Central Time, 7.30 in the real world.
Just kidding.
Just kidding.
No East Coast bias here.
6.30 Central Time for the Hawkeye Caucus.
Now, the Republicans are going to finish early.
I think we might know by 7.15 or 7.30 Central Time, 8.30 Eastern Time, because the Republicans just go in there and vote.
The Democrats are going to be a little bit later, 10:15, 10:30 Eastern Time, 9:15, 9:30 Central, because the Democrats go in there and they talk and they sit around and then they go vote their second choice and they look for consensus.
And of course, then they jawbone each other and try to talk each other out of their choices and so forth.
And, you know, all kinds of crazy things can go on when that starts happening.
So we'll know the Democrats a little later.
We'll know the Republicans first tonight.
I'm going to be switching back between that and the Orange Bowl, which is taking place down in Miami tonight.
Let's see.
What do I think about the Hawkeye Coke?
Oh, what's missing?
What is missing from the Hawkeye Caucasi?
There is something profoundly absent this year that we had in 2004.
An American tradition is missing.
The night before the cauckey, back in 2004, who galloped in with a major endorsement?
It was Al Gore.
Remember, Al Gore maybe not have been the day before the cauckey, but shortly before the cauckey, Al Gore came in putting all of his weight behind a particular candidate, that candidate being Howard Dean.
That happened just hours before Dean went El Tanko.
We don't know who Al Gore is endorsing this year, and it's important.
After all, Al Gore is the man who reinvented government, invented the internet, is perpetuating a global warming hoax.
This is something that's sadly missing here.
I was been hoping that Al Gore would come in and endorse, but the fact that he hasn't, if you read the certain and correct Democrat blogs, you'll see that they think he hasn't because he's biding his time.
He's waiting to see what happens in the primaries before deciding to get in the race.
Lots still ahead.
Be patient.
We're coming right back.
Forecast for where we live last night was to get down to 38 degrees.
I checked this morning when I got up.
It was 41.
So we didn't get as cold as we thought.
But it did snow in Daytona Beach, Florida last night, early this morning.
People worried about the orange crop, the citrus crop.
They're competing stories, and it didn't get as cold as it was thought to get.
It wasn't any damage.
Others people saying, yeah, there might have been some damage.
So orange futures, orange juice futures are up 2% on the commodities market today.
You know, we down here, ladies and gentlemen, have these little geckos all over the place.
They're little buddies.
I love these things.
They're all over the place.
And they're cute.
They're afraid of you, but they're smart.
They are smart and they can see like crazy.
But they're cold-blooded.
And a night like last night, you know, they live in trees.
They live in the branches.
They send them burrow holes or not burrows.
They find holes in the barks of trees.
You walk out this morning, there's a bunch of them that have fallen out of the trees because it got so cold.
The poor things are cold-blooded.
And they just lay out till it warms up till the sun hits them and their blood warms.
They so-called come back to life.
In Miami, it's even worse than that.
There are iguanas falling out of the trees.
They've got an iguana problem.
We don't have too many iguanas up here in the Palm Beach, West Palm Beach area.
We just have these little geckos.
But I've got, these things are smart.
I should post these pictures on the website.
I don't think I have them here.
I've got them at home.
But, you know, you can get fairly close to them.
I've got the greatest picture of lizard love you have ever seen.
I got two lizards, and they are oblivious to my standing there taking their picture.
a third one came up and warned them that the enemy, of course I'm not the enemy, but to them, look at how big we human beings are, they're scared to death, they were totally oblivious to me.
And then the third one comes up and starts literally nudging them and tapping them and so forth.
And they've just, they all three skedaddled.
But not before I got the photo, right outside the sliding glass doors on the back deck.
Also, Punkin, little cat, you know, she loves going outside.
I don't let her outside much.
She wanted to go outside last.
I said, okay, I'm going to teach her a lesson.
She doesn't know this kind of cold.
So open a slider, let Punkin go out.
She stood there for maybe 10 seconds, sniffing, looking around, looked at me like, what is this?
Just like your dog.
And bam, bolted right back inside.
I don't know how long it'll be before she wants to go out.
It really, really was chilly last night in the midst of all of this global warming.
Try this.
A happy heart just might be a healthier one as well, according to new research.
In a study of nearly 3,000 healthy British adults, led by Dr. Andrew Steptole of University College London found that those who reported upbeat moods had lower levels of cortisol.
That's a stress hormone that, when chronically elevated, may contribute to high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, and dampened immune function, among other problems.
They did research to prove what is obvious.
Happiness may be good for your health is the headline.
Really?
And yet so many people remain pessimistic.
Oil price talked about it yesterday.
Remember, Mrs. Clinton said over the Christmas break when she's elected president, the day she's inaugurated, and oil prices are going to immediately fall because oil producers are going to be quaking in their boots that finally a woman with a testicle lockbox is going to be dealing with the OPEC producing countries.
And nobody had the proper reaction, at least in the drive-by media.
But it was an idiotic, asinine statement that producers don't control the price of oil.
They'd love to be able to do that, but they don't.
It's not possible for the producers to control the price of oil.
Mrs. Clinton, with a typically populism-type statement designed to appeal to the ignorant in our society, and there's way too much ignorance.
I'm not talking stupidity.
There's just way too much ignorance.
As I keep saying, the most expensive thing we pay for in this country is ignorance.
And the Democrats are capitalizing on it left and right.
Well, the point behind my bringing this up again is a single trader on the commodities market, a single trader, bid up the price of oil per barrel by buying a little bit and then selling it immediately at a loss.
The New York Mercantile Exchange confirmed that U.S. crude oil futures traded just once in triple figures, but prices have since remained low, below that historic level, and market analysts questioned the validity of the trade.
Stephen Shork, a former floor trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the editor of an oil market newsletter, said that one floor trader bought 1,000 barrels, the smallest amount permitted, sold it immediately at $99.40 at a $600 loss.
He was seeking bragging rights in a moment of fame.
And see, this, he got the price of a barrel of oil up to $100 for a few minutes on the commodities market.
The producers had nothing to do with it.
And he was just playing a game.
So there is, after all, ladies and gentlemen, we have learned.
Just like liberal Democrats, there is one guy who can, well, the libs say there's one guy who controls the price of gasoline.
This was a guy who controlled the price of oil.
Folks, yesterday told you drive-by is sargasmic, ecstatic over the resurgence of Senator McCain.
Here is a montage of various drive-by media types in last night and this morning.
John McCain of Arizona has risen like a phoenix.
John McCain's dramatic comeback in the national polls.
John McCain appears to be on track to become perhaps the next comeback kid.
Will he be the comeback kid of 2008?
The new comeback kid, John McCain.
The McCain comeback.
The McCain comeback.
That McCain comeback.
McCain has made an astonishing comeback.
If McCain can win enough voters in Iowa, he can win in New Hampshire and then perhaps go all the way.
He hasn't come back at anything yet.
He's up on the polls.
The drive-by is excited.
They just can't wait.
Predicted this to you.
McCain on the wild side.
Rushland Boy and the Excellence in Broadcasting Network on the day of the Hawkeye Cauckey.
Now, wait a second.
Something's not right here with the programming format.
The break ought to be starting now.
Oh, it's an hour three only.
Well, see, I didn't get the memo.
Nobody tells me anything.
Here I am listening to the cowsils, the rain in the park, and other things.
Everybody's waving at me, and there's time to go.
I'm here.
Welcome back, Rushlin Boy, the EIB Network, at 800-282-2882.
Let's go to the Fawns people patiently waiting.
We start in Peoria today with Andrew.
I'm glad you called, sir.
Hi, Rush.
How are you?
Fine, very well.
Well, I've been listening.
I'm a 24-7 subscriber and everything.
But I'm also a big Huckabee fan.
I think you've been unfair, and I think Club for Growth has been unfair.
Ronald Reagan had the same problems as what Huckabee had in his budget went up double tax taxes went up saying it's because of the format of the format of the government.
You know, you have to have a balanced budget as the governor.
Let me understand this because we had a call yesterday that made the, or tried to make the same point.
You are equating Mike Huckabee with Ronald Reagan, and you are saying that Mike Huckabee is Reagan-esque, and we can expect Reagan II with Huckabee simply because you can cite similar records when both were governors in terms of raising taxes.
Now, that's not the only thing.
You mean there are other comparisons of Huckabee to Reagan?
One of them is that he's not the establishment candidate.
That was something in the 75, 76 when he ran, and they almost got the nomination there because of the support of evangelicals in the South.
Can you tell me?
I mean, I understand the technique here, and I, because I've been, I've been, this is the second or third attempt on the part of Huckabee supporters, who, by the way, you know, I think he's a fine man.
He's just not a conservative.
And this is what, to be quite honest with you, offends me greatly with this attempt to compare him to Ronald Reagan.
You have to go back and cite their records as governors, some sort of not an establishment candidate and so forth.
Could you tell me something about Huckabee rather than trying to compare him to Ronald Reagan, a comparison which I will blow out of the water in mere moments?
Well, the fair tax is a conservative view.
But, of course, he's got all the social issues.
No, he doesn't.
What else is there?
Such as.
Well, you know, this is really not.
It's not comfortable for me.
This is not easy.
You know, I swore a vow of neutrality during these primaries, and I'm sitting here and I'm minding my own business, and I'm remaining faithful to my vows for one of the few times in my life.
Just kidding about that, referring to my multiple divorce records.
I'm just referring to my multiple divorce record.
Don't make anything more of it than that.
Snirdly, would you close your eyes?
You're sitting there looking wide-eyed like all of a sudden.
I'm sitting minding my own business, remaining faithful to my vows for what is a very common thing for me to do, to remain faithful to my vows.
That matter.
And all of a sudden, I got to start getting attacked by the Huckabee campaign.
And so I had a choice.
Do I sit back and just ignore this, or do I deal with it?
So I dealt with it, and now what we're getting is an onslaught of Huckabee supporters, which I totally understand, attempting to do damage control, fearing that what I have been saying about their candidate will be harmful tonight in the Hawkeye Caucy and in future primary elections.
The latest gambit has been for Huckabee supporters to claim that, hey, he's just Ronald Reagan.
Reagan raised taxes when he was governor.
Huckabee raised taxes when he was governor.
Here's my problem with this.
And I say this with all compassion, and I say this with love and respect for all of you who support Huckabee.
But how dare you compare Mike Huckabee to Ronald Reagan?
That is simply intellectually vapid, and it's grasping at straws.
Ronald Reagan not only served as a governor, but he wrote and spoke for years about conservatism.
Ronald Reagan was there at the beginning in 1964 about conservatism.
I said yesterday, I have not spent a lifetime advocating conservative principles only to throw them away to embrace a particular candidate.
I don't support open borders and amnesty.
I don't support the release of hundreds of criminals.
McCain supports open borders and amnesty.
Huckabee released hundreds of criminals.
I don't support repeated increases in taxes.
I don't support national health care, whether you call it a children's program or whatever it is.
I don't support anti-war rhetoric.
I don't support Republican candidates trashing the war at Iraq when we're winning it.
I don't support Republican candidates claiming the president doesn't read the national intelligence estimates as an excuse for him not knowing what the hell's in one.
And that's Governor Huckabee.
Governor Huckabee has no similar intellectual or conservative movement record to fall back on.
And I'll tell you, if those of you, and I say this with all respect, and I say this with the love that I have for everybody in this audience, those of you who support Huckabee, but the idea that you want to claim Mike Huckabee as Ronald Reagan II based on tax increases, based on tax increases while governor,
is just, it's an insult to me.
That's not who Ronald Reagan was.
We all know it.
Ronald Reagan came in and said, I'm going to cut taxes.
I'm going to defeat the Soviets.
They're going to win the Cold War, and I'm going to rebuild the U.S. military.
Mike Huckabee has come in and said, well, yeah, I raised taxes when I had to, but I support this fair tax thing, which doesn't stand a chance in hell.
Seriously, folks, got to be honest about these things.
Second thing is, Mike Huckabee wants to treat the modern-day equivalent of the Soviet Union with the golden rule.
It's not how Reagan did it.
You could argue that Huckabee's approach is worthwhile this time.
I'm not going to argue with you about that.
If you want, say that, but don't tell me he's Ronald Reagan.
Don't tell me that any of these people on the Republican side are Ronald Reagan because they are not.
This is what I feared from the get-go with this roster of candidates.
That not just conservatism is going to get redefined to fit the mold of whoever these candidates are and whichever one wins, but that Reaganism was going to be redefined.
Now, if candidates want to go out and claim they're Ronald Reagan II, fine and dandy, then go do it.
Go be it.
Don't try to say that what you are is Reagan-esque when it isn't.
You want to be Reagan II?
Be it.
But don't be a phony baloney plastic banana, good time rock and roller and say you're Reagan when you're not trying to implement and emulate what Reagan did.
It's just that simple.
As recently as last year, Governor Huckabee, and I wasn't going to say, folks, I had decided I want to take the day off on Huckabee.
But here I got the first call out of the box.
Thank you, Mr. Snerdley.
Huckabee supported as recently as last year the phony amnesty bill.
He believes illegal aliens should receive Social Security.
He believes they ought to receive driver's licenses.
He thinks their kids ought to get tuition breaks.
Now, you might say, well, hey, Rush, Reagan supported the 86 amnesty bill that was Simpson-Mazzoli.
Yeah, but not because he supported these things.
Reagan didn't support these things.
He supported amnesty for a few million illegals in exchange for securing the border.
Congress never secured the border.
Reagan was motivated by conferring benefits and rights, was not motivated, I should say, by conferring benefits and rights on illegal aliens as Governor Huckabee is, and as Senator McCain was, and probably still is.
And who knows who else in this Republican field?
Reagan was a huge law and order governor as well.
He put down the riots on college Camp I from 66 to 74.
He didn't release hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of criminals.
If you want to compare him to a California governor on that stand, comparing to Governor Schwarzenegger, who's preparing to release a bunch of criminals on the basis of budget cuts, I'll tell you a little Reagan story.
During these college riots, free speech movement and all this, a bunch of kids demanded to see Reagan in his gubernatorial office in Sacramento.
And, of course, security said, you can't go in there and see him.
Reagan's let him come in here.
I'll be glad to see him.
So these college punks, these students, about five or six of them, were granted permission to come in and talk to Reagan.
And they just railed against, who are you, old man?
Who are you to tell us what we can and can't do?
Who are you to tell us how to live?
Who are you to be governor of this state?
Look at how old you are.
I mean, when you were born, there weren't airplanes.
When you were born, there were barely telephones.
When you were born, there wasn't even air conditioning.
You don't have any idea what life's like for us.
And Reagan just looked at him and he said, you're right.
Me and my generation didn't have those things.
We built them for you.
Your guiding light, Rush Limbaugh, doing a tough duty today, doing the hard work, not shirking it.
Here on the EIB network, 800-282-2882, if you want to be on the program.
Now, let me just say a couple more things here about this Reagan-Huckabee comparison, because I know that others are going to attempt to call and improve on others' failed attempts to persuade me that Huckabee is Reagan.
Conservatism is a set of principles and ideals.
And kind of like Constitution, they don't float and they don't bend.
They don't shape.
You don't rewrite them to fit the social mores or depravity of the day or what have you.
Conservatism is what it is.
Conservatism seeks to balance the budget not by raising taxes, but by cutting government and reducing the size of government.
Now, true, in anticipation, because so far, the two callers we've had on this have focused on gubernatorial records of Governor Huckabee and Governor Reagan and tax increases.
And I just want to let you know, if you're dialing in, hey, Rush, hey, Rush, Reagan raised taxes as president.
What about that?
Yes, he did.
It was called TEFRA.
The tax equity and fair, whatever it was.
It was a Bob Dole-sponsored deal.
And it had a component promised by Congress.
I forget the precise specifics, but it was for every dollar in tax increase, there'd be $2 in spending cuts.
Therefore, Reagan's tax increase that he went along with in the federal government did not abandon conservative principles.
Conservatism guided Reagan every time he opened his mouth, every time he signed a pen or signed a bill, every time he made a speech.
The only thing that went wrong in TEFRA is that those spending cuts never happened.
And so that's why they're able to label Reagan a tax raiser as president.
But he cut the marginal rate.
When he took office, the top marginal rate 70%.
That's 1981.
When he left office in 1989, the top marginal rate was 28%.
Nobody had done that prior to Reagan.
Governor Huckabee didn't do it.
If you want to start talking about tax increases as governor, which I don't, but if you insist, I have three pages, sorry, two pages of Governor Huckabee tax increases as governor of Arkansas.
Governor Huckabee raised more taxes in 10 years in office as governor than Bill Clinton did in his 12 years of taxes as governor.
So just, you know, I really want you all to understand here that you can try to sell me on Huckabee in a number of ways, but don't.
Don't tell me that he's Reagan.
And don't tell me that Mitt Romney is Reagan.
And don't tell me that John McCain's Reagan.
Don't tell me that Rudy Giuliani is Reagan.
Don't tell me that Fred Thompson's Reagan.
And don't tell me that Ron Paul is Reagan because they aren't.
It's just now you might be saying, well, then, Rush, what are you going to do?
There's no Reagan out there.
One of the things that amazes, I'm watching our conservative media buddies in the print area and other places all over the country.
I don't want to mention any names here, but magazines and blogs and newspapers and so forth.
And here we have this roster of candidates and people who have all along claimed to be full-fledged, staunch conservatives have chosen their candidate.
I don't care who it is.
Some have chosen Mitt, some have chosen Fred, some have chosen Giuliani, some have chosen McCain.
And then they've immediately embarked on this quest to convince us that their guy is more Reagan-esque than anybody else in the race.
In the old days, when conservatism was just being given birth as a major faction in this country, the people behind it held out for what was as close as they could get to what conservatism was.
Why do you think Bill Buckley, one of my idols, started the magazine National Review?
Not just because there's so much liberalism all over the place, but because he understood and hoped for a genuine conservative presidential candidate someway down the road.
And his purpose in founding National Review was to influence people in political life to go in that direction.
That's what the purpose of National Review was.
And look at where it led us.
It led us to Goldwater, and then it eventually gave us Reagan.
Today, what we have are not people in the conservative media establishment, or the so-called conservative movement.
Not a whole lot of them are insisting on conservatism.
We've got a roster of candidates.
They're looking, like that guy, and they start making the case for the candidate that they like.
And their theory is, hey, look, it's the best we got.
We've got to make do with what we got.
We can't pretend that what we want's out there and so forth.
But the idea that you take any of these candidates on the Republican side and just assume they're who they are and then start trying to plug them into various holes that fit the Reagan-esque mold or the so-called conservative mold, however you want to label it, to me is a bit disappointing.
A real full-fledged, thriving conservative movement would do its best to get all these candidates moving in that direction on the basis that it wins.
I'll extrapolate more when I come back and have more times.
All right, for you, Huckabee supporters and Romney supporters, whoever, it's one thing to try and call and fool me.