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April 29, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh Program
32:26
April 29, 2009, Wednesday, Hour #3
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So I got a note when I, when I got home at I landed five, I walked in the walked in the house at 530 this morning and I vowed not to go to sleep.
So I went in and I'd been, I'd been checking email on the plane flight coming home but I had shut it down for I had 90 minutes of sleep.
So I came in, I fight him a computer and there's an email from a friend of mine in New York said, Rush, you haven't been talking much about the pig flu, but I'm really worried I'm, I'm worried I'm, I'm gonna I'm, I'm just getting.
This is getting bad.
I mean, they're getting ready to raise it to phase five.
You got the first victim in the United States, which actually is an immigrant, might have been able to stop this if it closed the borders.
Stop that, rush.
We're not supposed to talk that way.
By the way, welcome back.
800 282, 2882 2882 is the number if you want to be on the program.
And I looked at this email from this friend of mine from New York, worried about the pig flu, and I actually I wrote back.
I said you got to be kidding me.
You live in New York, it is a blue city, meaning it's a Democrat, liberal city.
You have a greater chance of dying going down to the bodega for an orange than you do of getting the pig flu.
More people die every day in blue cities from violent crime than are going to come down with the pig flu.
I'm sorry, we're not supposed to say pigs.
Now is the N1h1 virus.
And, by the way well, because I understand the point, it really is not from pigs it's, it's convoluted, but the uh it's hurting the pork uh industry.
Out there people, people don't want to eat pork or buy pork or whatever.
And the Russians now, this is great.
We're going to go talk.
The Russians are going to make them love us, the Russians.
Vladimir Putin.
Vladimir Putin just ordered Russia to boycott all American meat products.
Now Vladimir knows that you don't get the disease by eating the stuff.
This is not a foodborne flu, but nevertheless he's banned the import of American meat beef product, not just, not just uh, not just pork this um this oh oh folks, this is, this is, this is delicious.
I just got a note from a friend.
Steve Gilbert tells me I hope he's not joking me Greg Craig has been named the investigator to see how in the hell it could have possibly happened.
That Air Force One flew to New York for a photo op and buzzed Ground Zero at a thousand feet.
Greg Craig, this is the guy who represented the kid, like the guy from Cuba, the father of Elan Gonzalez.
Greg Craig, who was one of Clinton's impeachment lawyers.
He's in the Clinton.
He's in the uh Obama White House Legal Counsel Office.
Greg Craig, I mean this is unbelievable.
That uh oh, that's right.
That's the what?
Oh.
Glad you reminded me of that snurdle.
We'll have to um cookie will dig this out.
We may not be able to find it today from our archives, but back early on in the Bamster's first few days of his administration, when he was issuing all these executive orders he uh, he was signing these executive orders and he was starting telling people what they meant and he got lost.
He said, Greg what what, what's it, what's it?
And Greg Craig had to tell him what the hell the executive order was going to do wasn't on the prompter, there was no prompter that day.
But I mean, this is just, It's beyond laughable.
Greg Craig to investigate how Air Force One ended up at 1,000 feet over New York City in a photo op.
How stupid must they think we are?
Pretty damn stupid.
If I were Obama, I'd think the country's stupid.
I must admit, if I'm Obama, I got to be laughing every night at what I'm getting away with.
And I got to think the dumbest people in the country are the press corps.
Speaking of all of this and New York pig flu, Greta Van Sustran, I was watching Greta last night as we were flying home.
She was discussing this photo op that scared all the people in lower Manhattan.
You saw the video, people leaving their buildings, running away.
And she interviewed a lot of people, person after person interviewed, describing their total abject fear as a result of this little White House stunt that nobody can explain how it happened.
So it made me wonder as I'm watching this, these people in New York whose greatest fear is another plane hitting another building in Manhattan voted overwhelmingly for a guy who does not in any way share that fear.
What does it say about Obama voters and the cult that has sprung up around him?
And those very same people running for their lives in abject fear are the same people who think the last eight years were utter horrible disaster, unlike this country has ever seen before.
Well, I know they were told the war on terror was just a ruse.
But see, what that incident proved is they don't really believe that.
They know what 9-11 have.
They know what happened.
Didn't take much for them to think it was happening again.
And I'll tell you, folks, the irony is that for seven and a half years it didn't happen again within a hundred days of the Obama administration.
People in New York think it's happening again.
And 89, 90% of them voted for the guy.
And I'm sure they're all saying, he didn't know.
He didn't know.
That's right, Mr. Limbaugh.
He didn't know.
He's conducting an investigation and he will find who's responsible, unlike Dorothy Borth, who would have covered it up.
That's the voice of the new castrati, by the way, the average liberal.
Joe Lieberman was asked on MSNBC yesterday about my comments regarding the departure of Arlen Specter from the Republican Party to the Democrat Party.
Nora O'Donnell said to Senator Lieberman, Rush Limbaugh said today of Specter leaving the party, a lot of people are saying, Specter, take McCain with you and his daughter.
Now, Senator McCain is your good friend, Senator Lieberman.
There were people saying that to me.
Getting in the email, hey, Senator Specter, if you're leaving, take McCain with you and his daughter.
I repeated that.
So they asked Lieberman yesterday, look, McCain's your good friend.
Any chance McCain will leave the Republican Party?
No, I don't think so at all.
And look, this is the problem.
It's good for the Democratic Party, bad for the Republican Party that Arlen Specter left them and joined the Democratic caucus.
But overall, it's not great for American politics because both parties should have moderate or centrist wings in them.
That modifies the parties and creates more opportunity for common ground and less partisanship.
So respectfully, I disagree with Rush.
Well, respectfully, I disagree with Senator Lieberman on this notion that parties need moderating influences.
I'd like to know where the hell they are in the Democrat Party.
You do have some conservative Democrats from the South that are over in the House.
But I mean, they get squished like mosquitoes by Nancy Poults.
Where are these moderating influences?
See, here's one of the things that's wrong with this.
There's so many cliches and templates that are wrong with this.
I keep hearing, for example, that the Republican Party is monolithic in its views.
And the monolithic views of the Republican Party are just right-wing, ultra-right-wing.
But what?
The Democrat Party is open to diverse ideas?
Really?
They keep saying the Senate is filibuster-proof?
Well, if the Senate is filibuster-proof, it must mean the Democrats are not diverse at all.
Mustn't it mean that?
Where are the conservative Democrats, Senator Lieberman, who will not vote to block filibusters?
Where are the conservative Democrats in the Senate who voted against the stimulus package?
Where are they?
Who are they?
I get so sick and tired of hearing how monolithic the Republican Party is.
I get so sick and tired of hearing how far right the Republican Party has moved.
The Republican Party is moving left, and that is why it is in trouble.
And there is certainly a greater diversity of viewpoint in the Republican Party than there is for crying out loud.
I guarantee you the Democrat Party would never ever nominate their equivalent of John McCain.
The Democrat Party would never ever nominate somebody who rips and has made his name by ripping and criticizing his own party and his own presidents.
That would never happen.
Democrats throw those people out of the party or they bury them.
We nominated a guy whose claim to fame is criticizing his own president and criticizing his own party.
And they say we're monolithic.
The monolith is the Democrat Party.
Again, I ask.
They say it's now filibuster proof.
Oops, they got their 60 votes, 59 votes, right?
Well, that's the bare minimum you need for cloture.
Where's the diversity?
If all 60 of them, all 59 of them, are going to vote identically.
Where's the diversity?
Yeah, conservatives had the maverick the last week.
We never hear about a Democrat maverick.
You know, all of this is just, it's, it's.
I told you yesterday this is what the template was going to be.
I told you yesterday is how the press was going to play this.
The Republican Party is dead because it loses Arlen Specter.
Arlen Specter, who voted for one of the most horrendous pieces of legislation in our lifetime, this stupid, worthless stimulus bill.
He joined with the far left of the Democrat Party voting for that, and somehow him leaving the Republican Party hurts the Republican Party.
Just the opposite.
Last night on Fox on the record, Greta Van Susteren talking to Lindsey Gramnesty about this.
And she said, how did you first hear about Senator Specter defecting to the Democrats?
Here's the challenge for the Republican Party.
Can the person that running now win in Pennsylvania?
I can't win in Pennsylvania.
Rush Limbaugh can't win in Pennsylvania.
If you're worried about giving the country over to the Democratic Party and not being a vibrant, relevant Republican Party, we need to find somebody that can win in Pennsylvania.
Does this make sense to anybody?
Parties stand for something.
You are not building the party.
Senator Graham, you're not expanding the party.
You're not broadening it by caving on the things that identify the party.
And to have somebody in the party who's not a Republican in terms of beliefs, principles, what the party stands for, you lose by having people like that in the party.
That's what was wrong with the McCain candidacy.
The McCain candidacy was going to try to go get liberals and Democrats to join our party as liberals and Democrats.
But voters are smarter than that.
If you can vote for a genuine liberal and a genuine Democrat, you know, why vote for the generic?
Why vote for the fake?
To what benefit is the Republican Party?
Where is the benefit?
To having somebody who's not a Republican in it.
We have more of this, plus your phone calls, and we will take a, that's actually a good idea.
Lindsey Gramnesty says, I can't win Pennsylvania, although I'm not running.
He said he couldn't win in Pennsylvania.
Only Arlen Specter can win in Pennsylvania.
Pat Toomey can't win.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to know what the conventional wisdom is in Washington, D.C., you go out and find wherever David Rodham Gergen is, and you listen to him.
Last night he was on CNN's Larry King Alive.
And Larry King said to David Rodham Gergen, according to Rush Limbaugh, a lot of Republicans wished that Senator Specter would take McCain and his daughter Megan with him as he exits the GOP.
Do you think that more defections are coming?
Do you think Olympia Snow might go or Susan Collins?
That kind of Rush Limbaugh response, Mr. Steele's response, indicates the sort of the bitterness among some conservatives.
And yet one has to remember that when Ronald Reagan tried to build a majority party, he erected a big tent.
He welcomed into the party people who did not agree with him on all his conservative positions.
And the Democrats did go into eclipse.
But what the Democrats did was they started going out.
Rahm Emanuel is at the leadership of this, trying to recruit moderates in the South and elsewhere to run as Democrats.
And it helped to build up this majority.
The conservatives, by contrast, the Club of Growth and others have said, if you're not pure enough, if you're too moderate, we're going to run somebody against you in a Republican primary, and we're going to take you down.
I just, this is 180 degrees wrong.
It is the Democrat Party that demands 100% fealty and purity, or you don't matter.
You will not be allowed to count.
But I have to tell you, this business, this Ronald Reagan business, he erected a big tent.
He had all kinds of people who didn't believe his conservative issues, all of his conservative issues.
That's another why.
I don't know how he passed them, if he didn't, if they didn't believe in him, but I'm going to tell you a story last night when the green room, before we went out to start the debate at the Milken Institute Global Forum, we were talking about this very subject.
What do the Republicans have to do to come back?
And somebody said that they had gone to a reception the night before, big-time Hollywood reception, Beverly Hills reception.
And there were a lot of Republicans there, I was told.
A lot of Republicans.
And they all said, you're just going to have to get rid of the pro-life position.
The Republicans are just going to have to become pro-choice.
It's the only way the party can grow.
To which I said, yeah, I remember Ronald Reagan being big time pro-choice.
Won two landslides.
I said it very sarcastically.
Ronald Reagan was pro-life, won two landslides.
You know what the response was?
From, it was one of the Democrats.
Well, Reagan is pro-life, but he never made a big deal about it.
Didn't make a big deal about it.
Pat Robertson up there every other day on the big pro-life day every January.
Reagan's there making phone calls and so forth.
Didn't make a big deal out of it.
But let's accept the premise.
Reagan didn't make a big deal out of it.
The one thing Reagan was not was pro-choice.
I get so sick and tired of hearing this.
The only way, I heard it back in the 90s out in the Hamptons.
I hear it every now and I heard it again last night.
Only way Republicans can ever come back and win is if they become pro-choice and get rid of the pro-life Christians.
Just get rid of them.
And yet there's the blueprint.
Ronald Reagan, two landslides with a pro-life candidacy.
George Bush, twice.
Pro-life.
Republican Party can't win with pro-life.
God help us.
Okay, we're back.
El Rushbow having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have on this Reagan business.
I don't mind reminding you that I made this point during the whole campaign.
Reagan did attract moderates, but he did it by attracting them to him.
They came in as conservatives.
Reagan did not change who he was to go get them.
Reagan ran against Gerald Ford.
He ran against the GOP establishment.
He ran as a conservative.
Moderates came to Ronald Reagan, like Gergen.
Gergen was slumming around with Reagan for a long while, glommed on to him as best he could.
Typical celebrity worshiper.
That's what a lot of these guys are now.
They just go where the bright light is.
Gerald Ford was pro-choice.
He lost.
You talk to people who campaigned for Reagan in 1976, and I have, and you will, they'll tell you they don't remember Gergen or Duberstein or Colin Powell and these people being around.
All these great moderates were not part of the Reagan campaign in 1976.
And when Reagan won in 1980, the moderates came out of the woodwork all claiming to be Reagan supporters, but they're just celebrity worshipers.
But you want to hear something funny.
Yesterday afternoon in Washington, you know, one of the things that really upset Arlen Spector was when Lincoln Chafee was defeated as a Republican in his re-election bid in Rhode Island, because if Lincoln Chafee had won, Specter thinks he would have become the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
But Lincoln Chafee was unpredictable.
There was no guarantee he was going to stay a Republican after he won.
But here, nevertheless, this is Senator Specter at his press conference yesterday afternoon.
The Club for Growth challenged Link Chafee.
Remember Link Chaffee?
They made him spend all his money in the primary and he lost the general.
They don't make any bones about their willingness to lose the general election if they can purify the party.
I don't understand it, but that's what they say.
And for the people who are Republicans to sit by and allow them to continue to dominate the party after they beat Schafe, cost us Republican control of the Senate, and cost us 34 federal judges, there ought to be a rebellion.
There ought to be an uprising.
Of who?
Moderates?
I'd love to see that.
With George Washington commanding a bunch of moderates as they rode across the Delaware?
Can you, by definition, an uprising of moderates is not possible.
There ought to be a rebellion.
There ought to be an uprising of rebellions of moderates.
And by the way, the club for growth is being besmirched today all across the conservative spectrum.
There are some so-called conservatives who think the club for growth is ruining the Republican Party because of demand for purity.
All the club for growth is, I mean, Pat Toomey was heading up.
Steve Moore, great guy used to head it up.
Pat Toomey heads it up.
He's running in the primary against Specter.
He comes out of the Club for Growth.
They just believe in private sector capitalism, which is what the Republican Party used to believe in.
It's not demanding purity.
It's remaining true to principles.
Go to their website.
Check them out.
Club for Growth.
They're you.
They're just a great bunch of guys.
All right, folks, since Senator Specter, since Senator Specter wants an uprising, he wants a rebellion of moderates.
We have a great theme song, the moderate theme song, just for you right now.
Who is it?
Dave Mason?
Dave Mason.
Moderate theme song.
Listen to the word Conflict Resolution 101.
Moderate theme song.
It's only you and me.
We just disagree.
No good guy, no bad guy.
We're all just wonderful people.
I'm going to see Obama singing this to Mahmoud Ahmadinezad.
Or Hugo Chavez.
Oh, there you have it.
That's it.
That's it.
Dave Mason.
And we just disagree.
The moderate theme song that will provide the impetus for the moderate uprising, moderate rebellion so desired by Senator Specter.
So, you know, this, I'll go back to the Club for Growth business again, because even among conservatives now, there's this rebellion against conservatives who don't even control the party.
The conservatives don't control the party.
The party's not going right-wing.
So the Club for Growth, the Club for Growth is now the problem.
Not the union pacts, not the unions, not the feminism packs, not all of the other left-wing far-left groups that spend a fortune in primaries.
Acorn.
Oh, no, Acorn's not a problem.
George Soros is not a problem.
Club for growth is a problem.
A club for growth.
Realize how insane this is?
There are Republicans saying this.
And I'll tell you what, I'm to the point, if they all want to leave, let them leave.
This thing's going to have to be rebuilt anyway.
Conservative movement, Republican Party, going to have to be rebuilt anyway.
Let them go.
I mean, there's a perfect place for these people who want to blame their own side for things.
There's already a chorus blaming the Republicans for all this mess when, in fact, the Republicans can't stop it.
Republicans can't prevent any of what Obama's going to do because it's the Democrats who are monolithic.
Now, folks, Mother's Day.
Mother's Day is coming up.
I have to share you a little story.
I always felt guilty getting flowers.
And by the way, if you're married and if you don't have kids, you better get your wife flowers for Mother's Day.
It's not just you just do it.
Here's the thing I found.
I always thought that giving flowers was a cop-out.
I thought flowers was what you gave if you couldn't think of anything else.
Well, flowers was a phone call away.
With FTD and all that, you didn't even have to go to the store.
You just call them up, call somebody.
And I always thought I was going to get reamed for it.
But they work magic every time you give flowers.
You should try it, sternly.
It works every time, whether there's an occasion or not.
Both, whether it's your mother or non-mothers, whether it's your mother or your wife, significant other.
It works.
It's amazing how it works.
It works.
It's just amazing how it works.
And so, Mother's Day coming up, or you don't even need an occasion.
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It's a tongue twister if you're not a highly trained broadcast specialist like I am.
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And as usual, offer code Rush.
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So go rushproflowers.com or 800PRO flowers, but this is a great deal.
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Get them here every day.
The aroma, the scent to die for back in a second.
Back to the phones we go to Bakersfield, California.
This is Herb.
Thank you for waiting, Herb.
It's your turn.
Hello.
Very good.
First of all, thank you.
And just comment, maybe a question.
I've been traveling the last few days, and it seems like every paper I pick up is page 16 in Nevada is worst death toll in Iraq in over a year.
And then, of course, I come back home to California and Clinton ready to lead climate pact.
So, I don't know.
Is there a newspaper in the United States that is any different?
Uh, you mean in, in...
Just in a liberal term, I'm...
You mean counting Iraq deaths?
Every newspaper you pick up, it just, everything is, it's just like the main media, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, the reason that there are not the daily body counts from Iraq As there were during the Bush administration, is that the media is not trying to secure defeat in Iraq for President Obama.
There will be no bad news of any kind reported that can be directly attributed to President Obama.
Ken in Livonia, Michigan.
Nice to have you, sir.
You're next in the EIB network.
Hello.
Yeah, Rush, I thought I'd call in and give Obama his grade for his 100 days.
I think he deserves a strong F- And now you can't.
You can't.
You can't give him an F.
Well, let me explain.
I'm a baker by trade.
Baker or banker?
Baker.
Baker.
As in Pillsbury Doughboy, Baker.
Exactly.
Yeah, okay.
I was employed before Obama.
Now I'm unemployed.
Just so your listeners understand, the federal government is paying farmers money to grow corn for ethanol.
This has caused the wheat shortage, which has caused a major increase in food costs.
The federal government.
I know, you know, in addition to the swine flu in Mexico, you've seen the price of tortillas.
Yes.
It's bad down there.
It's hurting them really bad.
And what I wanted your listeners to understand is the federal government is destroying the food industry.
They're destroying restaurants, bakeries, donut shops.
And while Obama talks about all these jobs that he's going to create, he forgets to talk about the millions of jobs that he's destroying.
No, He does.
He's telling us that it's going to get worse.
He does tell us it's going to get worse before it gets better.
But when it gets better, it's going to be utopia.
But no, he's continuing.
He's not being inspirational at all.
He's helping to spread this kind of fear and chaos.
And his administration is predicting 10% unemployment before it gets better, 10% unemployment by the end of the year.
But you can't grade him an F.
I was asked this last night on the panel in Beverly Hills that I appeared.
I gave him a D because you've got to allow room for more failure.
If you give him an F now, you're saying he can't get any worse.
And believe me, it can be.
And it will.
So you've got to leave room for failure here.
Here's Dan in Letits, Pennsylvania.
Great to have you here, sir.
Hello.
That's Letit's Rush.
PA is a Democratic state.
It's got Philly, Pittsburgh, and retirees from New York who didn't want to move to Philadelphia.
It's unionized in the Ralph Rust Belt, which has an influence there, and it has strong Catholic influence.
But PA can be won by a pro-life Republican.
Casey beat Centorum because he was pro-life.
So that ruled that out, so the state went to the Democratic candidate.
Best thing that could happen is Ginsburg could leave the Supreme Court and force the pro-life Dems to take a stand.
Best thing is Ginsburg could leave the Supreme Court and force Casey and the other pro-life Dems to take a stand.
And then we'd see whether Casey would fall in line with the Democratic Party where he had the wherewithal to take a pro-life stand, which is why the people of Pennsylvania elected him.
Well, I think they elected him.
He's pro-life, plus he's a Democrat.
He's a Democrat state, there's no question, because Santorum's pro-life, too.
That's exactly it.
PA is a Democratic state, but it will, because of its Catholic influence in the Rust Belt of Pennsylvania, it will go pro-life, Republican, if a pro-life candidate from the Republican side is pro-life.
No, no, wait, wait, I'm not quite getting it.
Santorum was that, and he was elected once.
He did not get re-elected.
And there may be extenuating circumstances.
I agree with you.
A Republican can win in Pennsylvania.
It's been done.
Conservatism wins everywhere.
It's boldly tried.
But pro-life Catholics, I mean, I've been wondering about this for a long time.
The situation here at Notre Dame, I mean, if they're willing to cast aside one of their principles in order to give Obama, who's not pro-life, an honorary degree, you wonder just how hard and true that aspect of voting remains among Catholics.
We'll soon find out.
I got to take a break.
We'll be back after this thing.
Well, if you're on hold, we're not going to get to you today.
I apologize for that, but there's always tomorrow.
And tomorrow's just 21 hours away, at least tomorrow in this show.
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