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Jan. 11, 2012 - Rush Limbaugh Program
31:25
January 11, 2012, Wednesday, Hour #3
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Okay, the sound bites uh featuring me, discussion of me, what happened on his program yesterday on cable news last night are upcoming.
It's a couple of things to do first, very briefly, and then as promised, about 40 minutes ago, we'll get to it.
Rush Limbaugh back at it, EIB Network, Limbaugh Institute, Advanced Conservative Studies.
800-282-2882, if you want to be on the big show.
Now, just want to go to the end, the conclusion of Jonah Goldberg's piece here.
The most persuasive case for Romney has always been that if he's the nominee, the election will be a referendum on Obama.
That's why we couldn't have Newt because an election would be about him.
And we couldn't have it about Centorum because it'd be about abortion.
We couldn't have it about a conservative because it'd be about conservatism and abortion and Christians and so forth.
So you'd have Romney, that'll make the election about Obama.
But writes Jonah Goldberg, that calculation has always assumed that rank and file Republicans would vote for their nominee in huge numbers, no matter what.
That may well still be the case, but it feels less guaranteed every day.
Well, what a hell of a day to start feeling that.
This is my point.
Here in the establishment, there are now qualms.
Up until today, they've been telling us we only have a chance with Romney.
The only way we can win.
The only guy who can win is Romney.
Today, well, that's if all the Republicans show up.
That may not happen.
When did that realization hit?
Even John Pedoritz, the affectionately known J-Pod, uh who writes in the New York Post, has been big on Romney throughout this entire process.
Romney's to lose, Romney's it, Romney's the guy.
He's got a piece in New York Post today, never has a winner look so beaten.
So I'm telling you, I've just the establishment's now saying, oh, wait a minute, what have we done?
Now, when when Jonah Goldberg says, oh, calculation always assumed the rank and file Republicans would vote for their nominee in huge numbers no matter what, that may well be the case, but it feels less guaranteed every day.
And J Pod says, never has a winner look so beaten.
It says perplexing, but true.
Mitt Romney is on the glide path to the most easily secured nomination.
A Republican presidential candidate's ever had, while being one of the weakest major candidates either party's ever seen.
Sorry, I'm not trying to stir anything up here, but this has been the model candidate.
This is the guy they've all been pushing.
And now all of a sudden, he's what does this mean?
Why are they saying this?
I'll tell you what is one word that explains this.
It's passion.
There just doesn't seem to be any.
There doesn't seem to be.
For example, there's passion for Tim Tebow.
They're just what these two guys are saying.
They're out there on the stump.
They're watching this, they're going to these rallies, and the rallies are filled with people, but they're just there's something missing.
And they're trying to put their fingers on it.
You know, the nominee they've all been pushing, and this is the guy the only can win.
And they get close to it, they sense something not right about it.
And what they're sensing, I'm believing is lack of passion.
And that lack of passion is what explains the desire for a non-mitt.
Ron Paul's got passion.
His supporters are damn well passionate.
They may be lunatics, but they are passionate.
And Sarah Palin supporters were passionate.
And I think these two guys are sensing that there's not any of that.
My guess.
Now, the final example is Bill Crystal at the Weekly Standard.
And says that there's a lot of silliness on all sides of the Bain Capitol debate.
On the one hand, Newt's attacks on Mitt's career at Bane have been unfair over the top, and for that matter, all over the place.
Gingrich, Perry Huntsman deserve much of the criticism they've received.
On the other, Mitt Romney's claim throughout his campaign that his private sector experience almost uniquely qualifies him to be president's also silly.
Well, now's the time to tell us.
Uh goes on to raise questions about Bain and a little silly here.
This is closes this way.
Bain capital shouldn't be demonized.
It may not even deserve to be criticized.
But in laying out a way forward, conservatives might remember that Bain Capital isn't capitalism, that capitalism by itself isn't freedom, and that there are more things in heaven and earth that are dreamt of in the gospel of wealth.
So essentially, all the reasons that Romney was the only guy electable are now, oh, wait a minute, that may not be the case.
Just point I, by the way, I just want to, for the record, say it again, the gospel of wealth, as referred to here by Bill Kristol, I think it is everything inside the Beltway.
I think the gospel of wealth is as equal to ideas and perhaps even more important to more people than you would believe.
Everything, practically everyone who works in Washington, the gospel of wealth is why they are there.
The gospel of wealth is why they want to get the Senate.
And the committee chairmanships, they want to be in charge of the money.
The gospel of wealth does not just include personal wealth.
Although, when you're not subject to insider trading laws, and you write that you're not, and you're the Congress of rights of laws, what are you hoping to get?
Rich.
And we know that a lot of these guys show up as paupers and retire multimillionaires on salaries of a hundred plus thousand dollars a year.
Don't tell me that there's no gospel of wealth here.
I think the um this newfound concern for Romney that you can spot if you know how to read the stitches on the fastball as I do.
I think this newfound concern for Romney is rooted in the ultimate dissatisfaction they are feeling at having vanquished a conservative alternative.
That's what's motivated them for all these months.
Don't doubt me on this.
Talking about establishment, Northeast Corridor inside of Beltway types, you know it, I know it.
It's what motivated them all these months, and now they think they've done it.
Now they think they've made sure that uh not possible for a conservative to get the nomination.
Now the reality of that is setting in, and they are facing the possibility that Romney could lose.
And with that, possible defeat of Romney, the missed opportunity to get hold of the gospel of wealth.
It's a factor.
Cannot be denied.
I don't mean to be simplistic about this, but I have learned over the course of my life.
Where money and wealth are involved, practically no one who pursues it is honest about it.
The last thing people will tell you they are interested in is earning a lot of money, when in fact it's the first thing.
And a lot of people don't care if they earn it.
They can just find a way to finagle it.
And when you live and work in the town that has the biggest dump of dollars in the world, just there for the taking.
However, you can manage it, it's a prime folks, I'm telling you, you uh it is it's the single the two things that make the world go round.
Two things that make the world go round.
Money and lust.
The thing you feel when you Think you're in love.
At first.
There those two things.
There may be others, but those two things have the power to make you behave in ways you otherwise wouldn't.
And both of those things are inexorably tied together in Washington.
And somewhere in that mix is ideas.
But it's not as high atop the list as you and I would hope.
One more thing before I get to the audio sound, but just one more thing.
It is it is I forgot to read the last paragraph of Jonah Goldberg's piece because it illustrates something else going on out there that you may not know about, or you may know about it, and you may hope it yourself.
Mr. Goldberg concludes his LA Times column nationally syndicated thus.
Every four years, pundits and activists talk about how cool it would be to have a brokered convention if no candidate has 50% of the delegates by convention time.
This is the first time I've heard people saying it might be necessary.
Now where was this three months ago?
Where were the this this uneasiness about Romney?
Look, I can understand this if this stuff were coming from um oh, I don't know.
Me or the American spectators, but I this is um it's interesting to me.
It really is.
All right, let's go.
The audio soundbikes, as promised.
As you know, I I just don't like opening a show with this stuff uh because there are things far more important than what was said about me on TV the night before.
But here we go.
First up is a montage, revved up by what I said yesterday about Newt, not you know, really wanting to take Romney out like Perot wanted to take Bush out.
Rush Limbaugh today was down Gingrich's smokestack on this, likening it to his attacks to those coming from Occupy Wall Street.
You have people like Rush Limbaugh who are attacking people like Newt.
Newt Gingrich came under attack by Rush Limbaugh.
There's a lot of backlash today from Republicans from Rush Limbaugh.
Rush Limbaugh went on the attack.
I'm quoting the Limbaugh using the language of the left.
Zing.
That's a tough criticism from Rush Limbaugh.
Rush Limbaugh condemned Newt Gingrich.
Rush Limbaugh cut through all of it and about sliced into pieces today.
Rush Limbaugh.
I mean, that is an amazing thing for Romney to get.
Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry are driving Rush Limbaugh into the arms of Mitt Romney.
So there you have that's that's just a montage.
That's all of that's every network that you can think of.
Here is Steve Schmidt specifically.
Schmidt ran McCain's campaign.
Schmidt once a week on these shows.
Not even asked, just volunteers.
I don't change the way people vote.
He points out that you know I didn't want McCain in 2008, and we ended up with McCain.
Talks at least once a week.
He was on uh MSNBC's primary coverage last night for the uh the New Hampshire primary.
And Lawrence O'Donnell said, Look, there are uh decisions that people make about how they will not make their money.
Um I don't think Mitt Romney ever made a decision based on what we know of his economic history so far that even though that's legal, I don't want to make my money that way.
Evangelical Christians have things that they will not do for money that are legal, uh, including casino involvement.
So I I do think that this something that is going to be a problem haunting Romney for the way he's talking about the way he earned his money.
The attacks on Mitt Romney or grotesque distortions of what his record is.
It will be interesting to see, I think, in the next two contests whether the Republican candidates who are making that line of attack back off on it.
There's huge pushback in the party, huge pushback in the talk radio world.
Rush Limbaugh condemned Newt Gingrich condemned Rick Perry today.
So it will be very interesting to see how this plays out in a contest that in a lot of ways fundamentally is shaped up as a litmus test as to what is and what is not conservative.
Now, again, this is Schmidt who ran uh McCain's campaign and his uh establishment in all the way for for Romney.
So now I'm a good guy.
At least uh for for last night.
Johnson Nunu.
George H.W. Bush's chief of staff from the first term.
This was on uh Boston TV, WCVB.
Coverage of the New Hampshire primary.
And one of the uh one of the anchors said, You've known Newt Gingrich for a very long time.
What's your message to Newt in light of the fact that he's gonna go after Mitt Romney?
You know, I don't have to say anything.
Even Rush Limbaugh and the Club for Growth, they're all chastising Newt Gingrich for being against free enterprise.
Newt's got a problem now, not Governor Romney.
Uh he's not as bright as he thinks he is.
And uh frankly, it's not the new newt, it's the old new all over again.
You can see that in establishment Republican circles, they do not like Newt at all.
And I'm telling you, it's rooted in the fact that Newt is conservative.
There are other reasons, but the fact that Newt's conservative is one of the reasons there is such victory all.
This morning on the Daily Rundown, PMS NBC, F. Chuck Todd had a big panel out there, including former White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton.
And uh what F. Chuck Todd played the bite where I said that Newt, you know, I played the bite with saying I close it up by saying that uh uh I suggested that they rerun the ad and tag it with I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message.
Because it was the same line of attack that Obama's gonna take against Romney.
And I said, Well, Newt, just put that on there.
And then F. Chuck said to Bill Burton and some of the others on the panel, is Rush right about this?
I tell you what, I think that Mitt Romney is vulnerable on this, but mostly because he has such a hard time explaining what it was he was doing when he was in private.
Newt Gingrich using the language you would approve of?
I think he's actually going after him in a way that is going to be effective with conservatives.
And if you look at the polls, this is something that is resonant even with Republicans, which goes to show why it's going to be so resonant in the general election.
Conservatives don't want a war on free enterprise.
Rush Limbaugh does.
Yeah, so see, this is uh people are mad at me.
You're giving the left all this ammo.
The left is not quoting you.
Hey, I didn't do this.
I'm not the one running this line of attack.
I'm not the one assaulting capitalism.
I'm not the one using the language of the left.
Um what I am is pushback.
Pure and simple.
Here's here's uh is uh no, there's not.
There's not enough time.
But up next is Perry.
Rick Perry was on uh Fox and Friends this morning.
And Brian Kilmead uh said to him, people like Rush Limbaugh who said uh you're really going in a place that Republicans usually don't go.
So Perry was hit with okay, Limbaugh's even ripping you.
What do you say to that?
So we'll have that answer from Governor Perry when we come back.
But there's one.
I don't know, maybe just there's a couple more of these things, sort of, but that's that's about it.
You can see this is this is why I didn't lead off the program.
It's not that big a deal.
Okay, welcome back.
Great to have you, Rush Limbaugh, the cutting edge of societal evolution.
Documented to be almost always right 99.6% of the time.
So here we go.
This is uh Brian Kilmead to uh Rick Perry this morning on the Fox and Friends show.
People like uh Rush Limbaugh, who said that you're really going at a place that Republicans usually don't go as you start ripping into Romney and Bain Capitol.
I disagree because I do understand what venture capitalism about.
We do need to go is talk about an individual like Governor Romney and Bain Capitol, who have used what I consider to be some pretty harsh tactics from the standpoint of, you know, I don't believe that capitalism is making a buck under uh any circumstances.
The Tea Party individual in South Carolina, they're not interested in all these stories about people making literally tens of millions of dollars on the back of working people.
Venture capital is about creating jobs, and this vulture capitalism is about you know making money regardless of whether people lose their jobs or not.
I'm sorry, sorry, folks.
I that is indefensible.
There's there's no way you can try to dress that up.
Uh I don't understand it.
Well, politically I understand it, but that that's that's just it's absurd.
It's sad because I really, really, really like Rick Perry.
I really I had such hopes.
I did.
I'll tell you.
I did, but you know, all of this talk about corporate raiders, and as I listen to politicians start talking about capitalism, you know, lights are going off in my.
Maybe they don't really know what it is.
Maybe they're under some misconception about what capitalism is, or else they've they because this this characterization of it.
The distinction between venture capitalism and vulture capitalism.
I don't I don't this bite from Perry is it doesn't it doesn't compute.
So now we've got all this talk about corporate raiders, vulture capitalists, plundering companies and greed.
All this talk about sucking the blood out of companies and leaving corpses, limiting how much somebody can make in profits.
This is the language of leftists.
Michael Stone and uh Michael Moore and Ryan and uh uh Oliver Stone popularized this.
This is the way Fidel Castro thinks, or says he thinks.
You know, today, more than at any time in recent history, capitalism, which is nothing more than economic liberty.
That's all it is.
Capitalism, economic liberty is being assaulted on every front.
The current occupant of the White House is a sworn enemy of capitalism.
It's abundantly clear that that Obama intends to run for re-election by running against capitalism.
He's already on that path.
Barack Obama's running against economic freedom.
That's what capitalism is.
Nothing more, nothing less.
And our so-called conservative standard bearers ought to be the last people on earth making these kind of charges and attacks.
They're giving aid and comfort to the worst enemies of our country and our liberty and our economic freedom.
They are using the language of people who believe like Barack Obama said, this country has always been wrong.
Fully said an ocewatomy can't always have been wrong from the days of its founding.
I just think that this is over the top, and I don't I'm I'm beginning to wonder.
I know what the politics of it are.
The front runner, you take him out any way you can, but for crying out loud, this sounds like people who don't understand it.
Maybe it's time to ask just how much can lifetime politicians understand economic liberty.
A lifetime politician is still somebody who uses government to achieve their aims.
And I just I'm appalled by this.
It's like cartoons.
There must be plenty of other things to go after Romney over.
Instead of picking on the one thing he's actually pretty clearly conservative about is private sector business experience.
For me, uh, ladies and gentlemen, capitalism freedom too important.
And don't think that it's something that's so secure we can't lose it.
As we speak, we're losing it.
It's being chipped away every day.
Wait till you wait, wait till Obamacare is implemented.
Economic liberty?
Wow, Uh health, liberty, and freedom.
All under assault.
This is a kind of thinking.
What we just heard from Perry and what Nota said.
This is the kind of thinking it gave us Dodd Frank.
And all of the other economy-killing regulations of the Democrats in Congress and from the Obama regime.
Sarbanes Oxley and all these new accounting rules designed to stop Enron like companies.
We stopped Enron.
Enron's not every American corporation.
The Democrat Party has has made a lifetime career out of bashing every successful corporate entity in this country.
Big oil, big drug, big pharmaceutical, big Walmart, big retail, big whatever.
Look at their enemies list.
And we join them.
Thank you.
This is not what this is not conservatism.
It's a polar opposite of conservatism.
It's a language used to take away economic freedom.
Vulture capitalism bleeding companies dry.
This is not what happens.
And don't stay, I mean, I'm all for going after Romney or any other candidate.
And candidates going after each other.
And I I understand that there is, although I don't feel all that confident about it, but there is something to be said here for this providing an opportunity for Romney to learn how to defend himself against these kind of charges when they come from Obama, because they will.
They try to find a rainbow at the end of every pot.
It's their duty to go after each other.
Candidates, I mean.
I'm all for vetting candidates.
I'm all for finding out just exactly who they are.
And I'm all for finding out if they can defend themselves.
But I don't think you tear down the engine of freedom or any other conservative principle in the process of doing all this.
And that, I fear, is what's happening at Capitalism is already under enough of an assault.
It already has too few defenders.
It already has too few people are willing to stand up for it and tell people that all it is is economic liberty.
All capitalism is the American dream for crying out without capitalism, there is no American dream.
There cannot be an American dream to pursue without capitalism.
How hard is it to say that and how hard it is to explain that?
We're here ripping it apart to shreds like this.
Isn't cool, ladies and gentlemen.
Philip in Belleville, Illinois.
I'm glad you waited.
Welcome to the EIB Network.
Hey, Rush, long time listener, first time caller.
Thank you, sir.
It's funny about that uh last montage you did about uh everybody uh talking about vulture capitalism and everything when uh our own current politicians are doing insider trading.
But anyway, um my point is is that um when President Obama was first elected, and basically the point is is that you had come out and said that you hope that his policies fail.
Right.
Now they've now look where the both the uh Republican and Democratic establishment are both jumping on that particular bandwagon, especially the Republicans, and and using that those particular uh aspects of what you said.
And oh, yeah, they're all now talking about how it's a failed president.
No, it's not, uh, by the way, but they're all now very comfortable using the word failure in conjunction with Barack Obama.
But yeah, I was a viper back then when I said that.
Oh, absolutely.
Maybe what they should do, or maybe what you should do is run a montage of all the current politicians doing uh, you know, the number of times that they said failed policies.
Oh, I could take a whole hour.
But that's a good idea.
You know, I I like that there's a lot of work for cookie uh and uh and the boys up there, but yeah, that would be all the people that's a failed presidency, failed this, failed that, um, maybe Even interspersed with people who were criticizing me for saying I hope he fails.
That's a little harsh.
We don't want to speak that way of the president.
We all hope the president succeeds.
I got so sick and tired of hearing that.
People are, no, we hope the president succeeds.
No, we don't.
Hope the president succeeds.
This president is not America succeeding when he succeeds.
I wonder how many people still haven't figured that out on our side, by the way.
I know.
He's just in over his head.
Just a little bit over his head.
Doesn't quite understand it.
Doesn't quite get it.
A little naive.
By the way, ladies and gentlemen.
I have just been informed here.
Breaking news that Newt Gingrich is retracting his attack on Bain Capitol.
Newt Gingrich signaled today that he believes his criticism of Romney's record at Bain Capitol is a mistake, and that he's created an impression that he was echoing Democrat rhetoric.
He conceded the problem was pressed by a Santorum supporter at a book signing in South Carolina today.
I think you missed the target on the way you're addressing Romney's weaknesses.
I want to beg you to redirect and go after his obvious disingenuousness about his conservatism, but lay off this corporatist versus the free market stuff.
Dean Glossip, Army reservist inman, South Carolina, said, I agree with him.
Gingrich said, I agree with you.
What I just read was from that Army reservist.
Gingrich said it's impossible.
I think that's politico.
Um political Newt Gingrich, I crossed the line.
So apparently an Army reservist approached Newt today to book signing and said, I don't like what you're doing here.
And Newt has retracted it.
Political quotes Newt is saying I agree with you.
It's an impossible theme to talk about with Obama in the background.
Obama just makes it impossible to talk rationally in that area because he's so deeply into class warfare and automatically you get an echo effect.
I agree with you entirely.
The Army reservist Dean Glossop described himself as delighted at the response during an interview after Gingrich spoke and said that he hopes Gingrich and his allies will not continue to hammer that theme.
So it's out there.
That Newt has retracted.
Oh, Newt, we have to give his Newton.
No, no.
Well, no, no, no, no.
I suspect no, I suspect Newt will change the tone of his advertising.
But if he cancels, yeah, we'll give him the money back.
We're not spoilers in that way.
We're not vulture capitals.
We don't take payment for services not rendered.
If you just see that attack being mounted against us.
Anyway, this again, this is this is what Dean Glossop, it's G-L-O-S-S-O-P.
So it could be pronounced Glossop, I don't know, but looks like glossop, Army Reservist Inman, South Carolina.
I want to beg you to redirect and go after Romney's obvious disingenuousness about his conservatism.
Is what Newt was told by the guy that showed up, I guess as a book signing or just maybe some personal appearance of Newtons in South Carolina.
I have lots of stuff from the stacks of stuff that I didn't get to.
I'll save it for tomorrow.
Among them, among them is this.
From the French news agency, owning a car and a television set is linked to heart attacks.
Car owners who watch TV are 27% more likely to suffer heart attacks than people who have neither a car nor a TV.
This, according to a global study on physical exercise and heart disease.
And don't forget, everybody, every 100% of people who have eaten carrots have had diarrhoea within two months.
Everybody who has eaten carrots has been involved in a traffic accident since the beginning of time.
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