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Dec. 15, 2011 - Rush Limbaugh Program
33:18
December 15, 2011, Thursday, Hour #3
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Hi folks and welcome back.
It's great to have you with us, the final hour of our big excursion into broadcast excellence today.
It's the always fastest three hours in media.
And as always, a thrill and delight to have you with us.
Telephone numbers 800 28282 and the email address lrushbo at eIB net.com.
What was the question you just asked me?
I didn't catch it over the right.
Okay.
Well, I'll try to answer this.
Snerdley just said to me that the last time he can remember Republicans doing what he wanted done.
The last time Republicans acting the way we wanted them to act after they were elected was when Gingrich was speaker.
That's your point.
So now, why is everybody hate Gingrich?
You know, the answers to that are as varied as the people who don't like him.
I think you probably have that many reasons.
Plus others.
At the top of the list.
At the top of the list is that the establishment, which spends a lot of time denying that they exist.
George Will, for example, says there is no Republican establishment.
But regardless, there is.
They've had their heart set on Romney for four years, ever since 2008.
Three years.
That's just that's who they've wanted.
It has always been Romney.
That's where the money has gone.
That's where the uh strategizing has focused.
But there's some people who served with Newt when he was speaker of the House who won't give specifics, but they'll tell you they hated him.
They hated his leadership, hated his ego.
They thought he was all about him at the expense of everything else.
That he did things that hurt conservatism by trying to build himself up.
I mean, I know people remember that magazine he uh that with Time or Newsweek he posed for a cover shot where he hadn't shaved.
All fill was that I can't tell you how that ticked me.
I cannot tell you how that ticked people.
Why would he do this?
Why give the media that kind of picture of you?
That's newsweek or time, whichever it was, that's their photo session.
He showed up that way.
It wasn't he was tricked into it.
Other people, I Tom Colburn, who is now senator, he was part of a freshman class in '94 in the House.
He won't say what his problem is.
He just said it's a leadership thing.
I don't think Newt's the right guy.
But he won't tell anybody why.
Vin Weber, who was also Republican leadership back in those days.
From 92 and 94 from Minnesota, he's now in bed with Romney.
Doesn't want any part of Gingrich.
Really won't say why.
You've heard the criticisms I've heard that he's disorganized, unorganized, has no organization, period, uh, is undisciplined, his ideas just shoot out over everywhere with with no rhyme or reason.
Others say he's not really conservative.
I mean, these criticisms run the uh run the gamut.
Now, what you're really asking me, and again, I'm gonna be at a loss to answer this for you.
Why do they hate him so much?
Why it's understandable they might oppose him.
What why the hate?
What is and I don't know that.
I really uh Snerdley in that business, it could be nothing other than the fact maybe he hadn't helped them raise money.
You know how important it is.
Maybe Newt would not help him fundraise.
there are grudges because of that.
Thank you.
But regardless, the um animosity toward the guy's real.
Well, if he wins, how's there going to be any peace?
Uh yeah, I don't know.
I If he wins, there will be a certain number of people who will do private Mayakulpas.
Try to get him again.
I don't know.
That's that'll all take care of itself.
Winners generally do.
We'll see.
I think you'll hear, just like we always do every Republican election.
If that Son of Gunn wins, I'm saying home.
I'm not going anywhere.
You hear that from voters, callers to the program.
You might hear some of the establishment say that about Newt.
If this guy gets a nomination, I've had I'm not.
So it's puzzling.
The main point that I've made about it last hour is that this is all giving rise to Ron Paul.
It's creating, you know, vacuum.
Newt's Newt's down ten points.
Iowa.
Ron Paul's up eight.
All of this bloodletting has a result.
Look at this.
This is uh Reuters hunger up in U.S. cities, more to come.
Mayors.
Survey of 29 U.S. cities shows that hunger has arisen in most of them in the last year, is largely expected to increase in 2012, said the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Thursday.
86% of the survey cities reported requests for emergency food aid had increased in the last year.
The study by the mayor's group said two cities said they had stayed the same.
Would you put this out in the middle of an election year?
Is this the kind of news that you would you do a study like this and then publish the result?
In an election year, you're going to put a hunger is up in U.S. cities, more to come.
Well, they're doing it.
Hunger up in U.S. cities, more to come.
Now, I know Obama is trying to create the illusion he was just inaugurated last month.
I know he's trying with all of his political statements, his appearances and so forth, trying to make it sound like none of this that's going on the last three years happened while he was doing anything about it.
He was not around.
Well, I know it's Thanksgiving.
They got to do stories about hunger, but just like Christmas is the stories about hunger like they do at Thanksgiving, but still, my theory is that this is all purposeful.
This is what this is this is the people Obama is going to be gunning for.
First, you tell them that there's a lot of hunger out there, and then you set yourself up as the solution.
So it I it dovetails exactly with the story we one out of two Americans is in poverty now.
And now we get hunger up in U.S. cities.
More to come.
Who puts this kind of stuff out?
Well, the people who think they're going to benefit from it.
So I guarantee you nobody's putting this thing out to hurt them.
There's not a bunch of Republicans putting this stuff out.
I guarantee you of that.
This is the Democrats doing what they can.
They think it's going to help them.
So the audio sound bites we go.
Yesterday, Mitt Romney referred to Newt Gingrich as Zany, to talk radio at Zany, certain elements of the media as zany.
So we have here a montage of the drive-by media reacting to this.
Mitt Romney calling Newt Gingrich, quote, zany.
A word that has not been used non-ironically since 1958.
What decade is Zany from?
I thought it was a silly word.
It just shows Mid is sort of stuck in the 50s.
Zany, what does that mean?
An odd line of attack.
I think you ought to throw it away.
He called Gangrich Zany.
That's very unusual.
Zany.
What does he mean by that?
And that doesn't sound too good to me from Romney's perspective, attacking Gingrich.
When a candidate refers to his opponent as Zany, you know he's in trouble.
A barrage of criticism of Newt Gingrich, including suggesting he's been zany.
Zany, his word, Mitt Romney.
Okay, so the drive-by's don't know what it means.
It's a it's a word, as far as they're concerned, comes out of the 50s.
I think it makes Newt look like uh uh Ozzie Nelson or Ward Cleaver.
They're just beside themselves.
This is absolute ludicrous.
I mean, Newt is not being harmed by this.
It's Romney making himself look bad by using the word zany.
Who uses the word zany anymore?
So the drive-bys are telling us they have an approved usage of that word.
Newt then responded to it yesterday afternoon in Iowa City.
During a QA, CNN correspondent Jim Acosta said that your chief rival Mitt Romney said to the New York Times, quote, Zany is not what we need in the president.
He was talking about you calling you zany.
Comes just a little more than a day after your plea for a positive campaign.
So what's your response to being called zany?
My response is I think a brain science initiative is a way of helping human beings.
I'll let him decide with the zaney.
I understand what all the consultants are doing.
That's fine.
They should run their campaign the way they want to.
I'm going to run my campaign the way I want to.
And my campaign is going to focus on positive ideas and positive solutions.
And I'm frankly taking the gamble that the American people care about actually solving our country's problems, not just watching politicians beat each other up.
Okay, so Newt didn't want to go there and describe or define Zaney is going to take the high road.
Uh and he's uh stop all this uh beating up of Romney and self-immolation and stuff not helpful.
So they got Rudy Giuliani in on this.
He was on Fox News Fox and Friends this morning.
And the co-hostette, Margaret Carlson.
No, no, no, no, no.
Margaret Carn no.
What's her name?
Uh uh Gretchen Carlson, Gretchen Gretchen Carlson, said, What's missing in your comments about Mitt Romney?
First of all, right now, getting so darn negative.
I was really offended by his comment that uh Newt Gingrich is zany.
That isn't the kind of language that should be coming from a candidate.
I think this could be hurting him.
This is after all a Republican primary.
They don't want to see a Republican savaging another Republican.
And it's not just Mitt.
Mitt's got uh Governor Sununu out there, uh basically saying that uh uh Newt just doesn't have the right ideas, but somehow Newt is trying to create the impression that he's crazy, zany.
Yeah.
That Sununu thing, that's another thing.
Uh Sanunu gave us David Suter.
Got Bush to David Suter.
Uh said he's a shortest of this, rock solid conservative.
He turned out to be very liberal on the uh on the court.
So here we go next.
Now, this is this is um this is Mitt attacking Romney.
Uh Myth attacking Newt, sorry, for being too rich.
I think Speaker Gingrich has lived in Washington for the last 30 years.
Uh he went to Washington to do good, and he stayed to do well.
He's a wealthy man, a very wealthy man.
Uh, if you have a half a million dollar uh purchase from Tiffany's, uh, you're not a middle class American.
Okay, so Newt's out there.
That's that's uh thing he bought for Callista.
Half million, you got a half million dollar line of credit or half million dollar bill at Tiffany.
You're you're you're uh you're not a middle class American.
And now I remember though that uh Romney's responding, in fact, that Newt went out there and said that basically Romney at Bain Capitol takes over these companies, puts them out of business, and fires people.
Which is, I mean, that's a verbatim quote, anti-capitalist song from the left.
And so Newt adopted the language of the left, and that ticked off Romney.
So Romney's, hey, wait a minute, you're the guy who goes to Tiffany.
You can't find any Tiffany's bills in my stack of bills.
Yeah, you what are you getting on me here?
You're the guy that's rich in this campaign.
That's what he's saying.
Last night, MSNBC, Steve Schmidt, back on television, was asked, am I wrong that there's panic in the establishment over Newt Gingrich's prospects?
I think there's a lot of panic in the establishment about his prospects.
I mean, one of the things, Rachel, is there are 31 house freshmen in districts that uh President Obama won in 2008.
And the notion that Newt Gingrich could be at the top of the ticket, I think is petrifying to them.
You look at the dissatisfaction over the economy over the president's handling of the economy.
This is an election that Republicans should be able to win.
But people are deeply worried that we may be about to put someone into the nominating convention who is, you know, deeply deeply flawed.
All right, Steve Schmidt, this guy ran McCain's campaign, and he basically just said what I have been attempting to say in recent months, that the establishment really not convinced Obama can be beat.
But they think that Romney will at least help them hold the house and maybe win the Senate, which is what they want.
That's where their sights are set.
The Republican but the RNC, the GOP, the inside of beltway, ruling class, whatever you want to call them, political class.
They want the Senate back.
They think here this guy just said it.
Schmidt just said Newt's a nominee, oh my God, we're gonna lose everything.
Newt's hated.
Newt is perceived as a conservative.
That's what they Newt is perceived as a conservative, and they think everybody hates conservatives.
Only nutcases are conservatives.
Oh no, here we are.
We got a chance to win the Senate.
Oh no!
Only Romney can do that in their mind.
That's what they think.
Um don't doubt me on this.
He just said it.
He just said it.
I know Obama won against the same kind of guy they want to nominate now.
This is the whole point.
That we we these guys keep nominating losers.
They keep nominating people who are destined to lose using the same worn-out formula that these guys are gonna go get independents and moderates.
I know, that's what I've been trying to say.
I know, that's what I've been trying to say.
Back to the phones.
Carol in Milford, Delaware.
Great to have you on the EIB network.
Hi.
How are you doing, Rush?
Good, thank you.
I just I I wanted to see where you stand on this unemployment extension.
I I have worked since I was fourteen years old.
I'm forty-two, and I was recently um became unemployed in July of this year, and I have not I'm a worker.
Lots of, I've been out looking for jobs everywhere and I cannot find anything.
Apparently my unemployment ends at the end of this month.
And if the extension does not go through, I don't know what...
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
In July, July first of this year.
Uh, you're in Delaware.
Now Well they told me that there's been people on unemployment since 2008.
Well, there have been because it's gonna be me.
It's 99 weeks that you are eligible now for unemployment compensation.
Well, that's what I thought, but they're telling me that you know there's not going to be any extensions, you know, unless Congress pushes it through.
Um, no no, that's just for the peop no.
You're you've only been on this six months.
Your unemployment's nowhere near expiring.
That extension is not relative to you.
That's people up there coming up on their ninety-nine weeks.
Well, that's what I thought.
I don't understand.
That doesn't make it.
I don't either.
There's no way you should be getting cut off.
You're you you you you should be uh I mean, even if there's been some change in the ninety-nine, I don't think there has, you still are easily qualified for a full year.
You're you're you're running out after twenty-six weeks.
That doesn't um I mean states give twenty-six weeks.
That's that's good, but the feds pick that up.
The rest is federal.
You've got to find a way to go register for the federal side of this that's still out there still eligible for you.
Okay, so there is still well I don't understand why they're telling me that it ends because they're you're you're probably talking to people at the state.
Okay.
Okay, so if I do apply for the extension, I should be able to get it extended, and I don't know.
No, I don't take this the wrong way, but I don't know how you do this.
Okay.
Well, I don't either.
I don't I've I've never been in a situation like this before.
I can't believe that I'm in a situation like this.
And I understand, but I I'm I I'm not look at like I said, I don't know how this works, but I I somebody's telling you that you're gonna be cut off.
Yes, that my that it's gonna end at the end of this month.
Well, that means what they or the state, but the rest should be picked up automatically.
You're you're not um shouldn't just end, basically, is what you're saying.
Not be not not with the regulations that are that are on the books, No.
No.
Okay.
All right.
Well, gosh, you just gave me a bit of peace.
I'm gonna make a phone call and see if you know I don't have to worry about it because they're they're telling you right.
I've delaware does expire.
State unemployment runs out in twenty-six weeks.
Okay.
But federal unemployment, which is what they're debating now in Congress.
Those they're talking about extending people to running out after their ninety-nine weeks.
You're nowhere near ninety-nine weeks.
Okay, well, I didn't think so, but I thought, you know, I I and I I'm interested to hear about what you think about that.
Well, no, you're not.
You really don't want to hear that.
You don't want to.
Well, no, I do.
I I've got to tell you that I've not I've never really been a big fan of yours, but here lately I am being converted.
Um I appreciate your views.
Well here's what it's come to in America.
Here's what it's come to.
People like you, real people are calling me Rush Limbaugh, the real Rush Limbaugh, to see if I will agree that you need more unemployment benefits.
This is Obama.
You're you're you what you really want to know is how I feel about what you're going to do.
You want to know it's almost like you want my stamp of approval that you're gonna go out and get more unemployment benefits.
No, I don't want that.
I'm I I want your honest opinion.
I'm I'm right on the fence.
I don't I've never been one to take anything from I've never needed anything like this before.
I've I've worked my butt off and this is all new to me.
Yeah.
And how people can get into a rut.
You know, I I have worked so hard to find it.
Let me tell you something.
Carol, hang on.
I uh I can't answer you here in uh in five seconds.
So hang on through the break, and we will continue this.
We'll be right back.
And welcome back to Obamaville.
I'm the mayor Rush Limbaugh.
We are at 800 282 2882.
And we go back now to Carol in Milford, Delaware.
Carol, I did some research for you.
Okay.
During the break.
Before we before I answer your question, I just want to give you a little uh peace of mind here.
Okay.
This is from the State of Delaware's website.
The Mac do you have a computer, by the way?
Yes, sir.
Okay.
Well, you'll be able to I'm gonna give you uh I the website's too long to spell out, but there's a website that's gonna explain to you what to do here.
It the the Delaware website, the maximum number of weeks of unemployment insurance benefits that'll be available will be decreased by six weeks from ninety-nine to ninety-three weeks.
So in Delaware, right now you should be eligible for ninety-three weeks, not twenty-six.
Now there's a state of Delaware Department of Labor website.
Let me the the the root website, if you just go to DelawareWorks.com slash news.
Okay.
Uh just Delaware Works.com and and from there navigate.
The rest of this website, I d uh the you I don't if you're not writing it down, it's too much.
Yeah, I'll I d I I got you.
Delaware works.com go there and all of this should be explained to you.
Okay.
I wanted to I wanted to tell you, Rush, that I don't feel I don't I'm I don't know where your view is on this yet, but I don't feel comfortable being on unemployment because I don't want to be I d I I don't know how to explain it.
Well, here's the theory on employment for a certain number of the weeks that you receive benefits, theoretically that is money you've earned.
You just haven't seen it.
It has right.
Okay.
But after a certain number of weeks go by, then it isn't your money anymore.
It's all of your neighbors and everybody else's.
Now there will be, because this is an election year, there's going to be an extension of unemployment benefits at the federal level that will not turn that down.
There will be an extension.
Every piece of legislation currently pending that has to do with budgetary matters has an extension in it.
The argument that they're having is how to pretend that they're paying for it.
But there will be an extension.
Now here's here's the vicious cycle.
At that point, I don't know when it is, but at that point in the weekly unemployment cycle where you are no longer receiving back what's been deducted when you were working.
The employer is paying it, which just it it takes away from the employer's ability to hire anybody new when he has to keep deducting for people who are on unemployment.
And I'll tell you this this is human nature.
It's undeniable, it's been studied.
The longer anybody is on unemployment, the less inclined they are.
Because it's it's I mean it's not a a full blown lifestyle, but you can get by on it as an individual.
You can't do a family floor on it.
But with a family you can't.
That's why I was but it helps.
But it it it's a tremendous disincentive to work.
And then it's a vicious cycle because the longer you're not working, the the the less qualified you're becoming.
The less the less talent you're using, the less experience you're recruiting, the less you're going to have to offer somebody when you do go try to find a job.
It's a vicious, vicious cycle.
And human nature being what it is, there are people in this country who have decided to stay on unemployment as long as they can because it's so much.
In some people's cases, it's $500 a week.
I don't know how I I thought it would the max was like $300 a week.
Depends on where you live, and it depends on how much you earned, it depends on the state.
Uh some places it can be $500 a week, and there are some people who go only part-time work, so they can still get portion partial unemployment.
The whole thing when when you when you it's it's this human nature.
Carol, when you pay people not to work, there are a certain percentage of them are going to take the deal.
Wow.
Oh man.
I guess there's a lot of people out there like that.
I just cannot.
I definitely will not be one of them.
Well, I hope not.
I hope you don't lose your incentive to find a job.
I will not.
I you know, I I've worked since I was fourteen.
My parents instilled in me to to work, not to sit.
And I this has just been devastating.
You know, I've got a family, I've got a mortgage, I've got a car, you know.
I hear all that.
I I I'm I've been out of work seven times in my life, fired seven times, so I know.
Uh it.
But no, I only went on unemployment once.
Uh uh and that.
No, no, I tried no.
I was the whole time I was trying to find a job as quick as I could.
Back then, this was a seven, it was a stigma.
Um it we it was a it was a real stigma.
I I didn't want to be on unemployment.
I didn't want anybody to know I was there.
There was a stigma to that kind of thing that was not.
Yeah, you had to go to the office, you had a document you were looking for work, you had to prove it.
I mean, it was it was not just send in a form or go on the net and say, okay, a week's gone by, send me my check.
You had to go into the office, you had to talk to them, you had to go on job interviews, you had to prove that you had done this.
Uh it was a far different thing.
This this would have been 1970, what would it have been?
Five, six, I forget when I know it was in um in Kansas City.
Look at Carol, all I'm gonna tell you is I hope that you do not lose your incentive and your desire um for work.
I hope that you don't lose it.
I hope you realize there's something better for you out there and you keep trying to find it.
And I thank you so much for the call.
I really did.
Hey, Snerdley, do me a favor, find me a WIC client.
Somebody wants to know about WIC benefits, uh, women, infant, and children.
Find me one of those.
And then after that, get me an AFDC uh recipient.
Now, see, who else?
Um uh uh America's a Disability Act.
Well, not all people need my help on food stamps.
That's they're advertising food stamps.
School dinner, no, we just tell them to go to Memphis.
Uh that's easy.
No, but the other stuff is pretty complicated.
AFDC WIC, uh I'm sure I can help.
So if you if you find one, just send them through.
I mean, obviously the real America calling me, find out what to do about this.
And welcome back.
Great to have you.
El Rushbow here on the cutting edge.
Having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
This is Ruthie in Brooklyn.
Great to have you on the program.
Hi.
Hey, Rush, how are you?
Very well, thank you.
I just have to tell you, first of all, my husband and I went to your show and we had a great time in Manhattan.
Um, you mean at the uh at the town hall.
Yeah, it was great.
We had a great time.
Thank you very much.
What I wanted to tell you was, over the years, I'm listening to you for many, many years, and I've learned a lot of things from you.
One of the most important things that I've learned from you is to question everything the media says.
Yep.
And when they don't make a big deal about something, talk about the mainstream media, not like you were talking before about the Republican establishment.
Right.
The question why they're not making a big deal.
And I noticed that in terms of Newt, they're really not making a big deal.
Which makes me kind of, I don't know, a little skeptical.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Who's what what media is not making a big deal out of Newt?
I don't I don't hear the mainstream media making a very big deal, like they return, let's say.
Um and on the same lines, let's like you always say, don't let them pick our candidate.
And I feel like we're we're gonna get into that same trap of them picking our candidate, and we have to make sure that they don't.
And and what I think, because you were talking yesterday about the ingenuity of the American people just with your truth by tea ads.
I really feel like we should, you know, as all those people are making that are making these amazing ads for year two of my Tame people can, you know, we can all work together to come to make some amazing.
I actually asking for your help or to figure out a way for the American people to pick our candidate, the Republican, the conservative to pick our candidate.
Well, I look I th this is a this is that has to happen with voters and cauc eye attendees in the in the primaries.
Now, when we discuss the media picking the candidate, well what we mean is the media will decide who they don't want and they'll take out, like Herman Cain or whoever.
They'll try to take them out with uh you know rotten stories and uendo hit pieces, you name it, before anybody's had a chance to vote.
And it's happening.
This stuff largely happens before anybody has a chance to vote.
Media picking the candidate.
Uh right now, you you say that the mainstream media is not doing much on Newt.
Newt is down ten points in Iowa in a matter of three days.
Somebody's getting the word out.
Now we we know that the Republican establishment, and by the way, the Republican establishment likes to deny that they exist.
They like to say that there really isn't a Republican establishment.
The Republican establishment is the permanent political class in the beltway with offshoot groups in New York.
Now the permanent political class will include media people who are there regardless who wins elections.
Uh donors, big donors are part of the political class, and certain elected officials.
And after they lose an election, they still remain in the ruling class, either by becoming a lobbyist or finding some related job.
They're not necessarily the smartest by definition.
Uh but but they are admitted or they are members because they uh ascribed the groupthink.
And that's the qualification.
Isn't money so much?
It isn't pedigree of school so much, although that is a factor uh more than other things, but largely it's groupthink.
And it's uh it's a permanent group of people with underlings, small fry, and young up-and-coming So-called superstars trying to get into it.
And that's the bunch that's been dumping all over Newt.
The permanent political class.
It's been dumping all over it.
And they say they've got their reasons.
The mainstream media is reporting that too.
Mainstream media is reporting what's going on within the Republican political class.
And it is working.
And it's the bad thing is it's elevating Ron Paul in both the Hawkeye Cawkeye and the New Hampshire primary.
Anyway, Ruthie, thanks for the call.
I appreciate it.
I'm glad you enjoyed the Rush to Excellence tour at the town hall.
The mainstream media is an echo chamber for the permanent political class.
Think of the mainstream media as the elves in Santa's workshop.
And Santa's workshop's the federal government.
Mainstream media is the elves.
And they're stenographers, they're note takers, and they get it done.
Now, you know, the letting the candidates pick, or the media pick the candidates, yeah, it's a problem.
But you can overcome it.
In Iowa, you go to the cockeye.
In New Hampshire, you go to the primaries and you vote, and you just don't let the media choose.
You don't let yourself be affected by what they say about people.
One quick thing.
Some emails asking if a promo code is necessary for the latest two if by tea sweepstakes.
No.
No promo code.
You don't have to remember a promo code.
It's real simple.
You go there and you buy at reduced prices with no promo code necessary.
Two if by tea.com.
Folks, open line Friday tomorrow.
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