Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 Podcast.
Well, it's...
Isn't it shaping up to be somewhat interesting?
And the drive-bys don't even get it.
The drive-by's are clueless.
Greetings, my friends, and welcome.
Great to have you here, Rush Limbaugh behind the golden EIB microphone at the distinguished and prestigious Limbo Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
Political correctness does not exist here.
We are fearless.
Great to have you.
Telephone number 800 282-2882, if you want to be on the program.
Most of you do.
And the email address, Lrushbow at EIB net.com.
Okay.
Sometime in either this hour or in the next hour.
The House of So-Called Representatives.
That is kind of funny, isn't it?
The House of So-Called Representatives is supposed to hold a vote on the new speaker of the House.
Now, as recently as yesterday, most of the pundits, most of the drive-bys, and most of the inside the beltway establishment type seem to think that Boehner had it in the bag.
But this morning and now this afternoon, they don't seem to be quite as sure about this.
And there's a little nerve-wracking going on within the establishment, within the donor community, and in the drive-by media.
And that is all amplified by the fact that they really don't understand what is going on because they are so out of touch, believe me.
They really are.
Everybody inside the bell, I don't care where they work or what they do.
It is it is becoming increasingly difficult for people there to have anything in common with people like us who are not there.
And it requires effort on their part to understand what's going on outside their world.
And some make that effort to understand it, and some don't.
Exhibit A. I have here in my formerly nicotine stained fingers.
A story from the Hill.com.
Boehner no votes pile up and they don't understand it.
And even in this story, it is incredible.
They can't believe at the Hill.com that anybody would challenge Boehner.
And do you know why?
Do you know why they can't believe that?
Because if you read, you don't have to go very far.
Halfway into this story, you find out at the Hill.com, it is John Boehner who gets credit for all of the new House Republican seats.
I kid you not, it is the most amazing thing.
And these people think that they are a cut above.
They're smarter than everybody else.
This is their business, not ours.
They know it, we don't.
And they're sitting in there and they're writing, and the Hill.com is typical.
It's not an outlier.
They really think, why wouldn't why would these Tea Party types, why would these Republicans be upset with Boehner?
Why he just led to unprecedented victory for Republicans in the House.
They don't know that Boehner had nothing to do with it.
They don't know that the Republicans didn't even mount a campaign.
They don't know that it's the Tea Party that engineered this massive Republican majority in the Senate, as well as the House.
They really don't know this.
You might think they do and are trying to ignore it or taint it or whatever, but don't doubt me.
There are people at the highest levels of the establishment who believe the myth that they create.
And they really, some of them, when they write stories like this that they don't understand why they're so much upset with Boehner.
Look what he did.
My God, he's he's led the republic as the biggest house majority since Truman.
They really believe it, folks.
Now some of them don't, some of them know what's going on and is staging this for the uh the the basic brain dead status of most of their readers, which are also inside the beltway.
I mean it it it's just it's it's breathtaking.
You know, we've always thought, we've grown up thinking that the people that lead us are better than we are.
And I don't mean it in a in a in a DNA sense.
You know what I mean.
We look up to them.
We're inspired, but it's not the case anymore.
It's becoming increasingly clear we know more than they do.
Maybe not about the intricacies of their business, but we know more about the real world.
We know more about living in it because they don't and we do.
And it's becoming it's almost breathtaking to behold this.
Now, a third Republican has thrown his hat in a ring.
And the I guess the major importance of this is that it could fracture the votes of the Florida delegationist Daniel Webster, who is uh now the third Republican seeking Boehner's seat, alonger with uh along with the yeah, Ted uh YOLO, named after the famous YOLO.
Oh, it's Yoho.
I thought it was YOLO.
I thought it was named after the famous YOLO Causeway in in Sacramento.
Yoho.
What's the first name, Ted?
I knew all this.
I'm just checking to see what's nervous.
Ted Yoho and Louis Gomert now, Daniel Webster.
I really did.
Anyway, these people, can you believe it?
Really?
They can't understand.
And now they're getting nervous.
They're getting nervous.
The pundits really did think that Boehner had this thing locked up and in the bag, and this, and that right now they're they're beginning to doubt their own conventional wisdom.
Now they only need 14 more votes, according to reports.
There are at least 15 House Republicans who've committed to vote against Boehner, and it'll only take a total of 29 to force a second ballot.
So we're looking first here at a essentially a veto vote of Boehner, and then maybe following that the votes that would constitute the election if there is to be a new speaker, who that would be.
And the second ballot, not the one that's happening right now or within the next two hours, but the second ballot uh would cause the House Republicans to turn to somebody besides Boehner if the first vote results in a Boehner veto.
Now, if there is a second round of voting, it'd be pretty much unprecedented.
The last time that there needed to be a second round of voting for the House Speaker was back in 1923, which was way before we started doing this program here on the EIB network.
Not much much before, but but clearly uh before 1923.
This is this is how rare a second vote is.
So 29 votes.
If they get 29 votes, that essentially vetoes Maynard, then we're on to the second vote.
We haven't had one of these since 1923.
When you think about it, the Republican leadership's attitude toward its own base is pretty much unprecedented.
The Democrat Party never, never, at least publicly, rejects its base or impugns its base, or makes fun of its base, or wishes its base didn't exist.
The Democrat Party never, ever publicly does anything to diminish the image of their base, the reality of the existence of their base.
They never do anything to humiliate them, and the Republican Party thrives on it.
The Republican Party is doing everything it can to dismantle its own base, as identified by the Tea Party.
It's doing everything it can to impugn them to join the Democrats in mocking and making fun, and to render their base, their own base infinite, which is why I spent so much time yesterday explaining the modern composition of the current establishment inside the uh the beltway.
Anyway, it it's fascinating to watch all this take place, and you all are flooding the zone in Washington.
Phone calls and emails, texts, and Twitter messages, hashtags, they're being inundated in the Capitol City by all of or many of you who are simply fed up at the fact that they don't get it and are not listening, and are openly.
I mean, this really, I can't emphasize how how really unprecedented this situation is.
For the Republican Party, leadership, its attitude toward its own base.
Can anybody name a time when the party's own leaders turned on its base?
The way the GOP leadership is turned on the Republican base.
Can you think of a time when the Democrats have turned on their base like this?
And that base deserves to be turned on.
If there's ever a base that deserves to be ignored and apologized for, it's the Democrat base.
They have turned those people literally insane and yet they still embrace them.
Well, but that's not the same thing.
Democrats turning on the Republican establishment during Vietnam, that's nothing compared.
This is really unprecedented, not in my lifetime.
You might.
During the Reagan nomination battles of 1976 and 1980, the Republican leadership was very much aligned against the base of the party at that time, which was becoming Reagan-esque.
And certainly did succeed in becoming the base of the party by 1980, but that was in the confines of an election.
It was in the confines of a primary race wherever you would expect these.
Here we've just given the House Republicans the biggest majority in both houses they've ever seen, and they're out actively attempting to impugn, destroy, mock, make fun of the people that gave it to them.
Their own voters.
It's a stunning thing to behold.
Now, yesterday, as you know, ladies and gentlemen, I peppered you with headlines from a lot of things that we didn't get to.
And I told you, and no matter how long it took, if for the rest of the week I would get to those things, and I'm going to do that.
And one of the things we didn't get to at all yesterday, except for a couple exceptions, was sound bites.
And they had a whole roster of them.
So today we're going to take a break and we're going to come back and start with some sound bites all related to this stuff.
But if if you heard something tantalizing from yesterday and you've tuned in today to hear it, just hang in there and be tough, because it's going to happen.
We're going to get there.
But as I suspected would be the case, that stuff from yesterday didn't just sit there by itself.
That stack has grown with events that took place since we were last here twenty one hours ago.
So that stack has been added too, and it's got some goodies in it too.
I mean, so it's worth hanging in there.
It's worth being tough.
Just sit tight.
Your dreams will come true here on the EIB network.
Don't go away.
Welcome back, Rush Limbaugh Cutting Edge of Societal Evolution.
Many people think the Republican Party needs new leadership.
Many people it couldn't be more clear.
Republicans across this country spoke.
And have been speaking, but they spoke most recently in November elections.
But it's not just elections.
Landslide elections to recent polling.
Demonstrate overwhelming no confidence in current leadership.
I don't think there is any mistaking the direction Republican voters seek.
I don't think there's anything ambivalent about any of this.
And I don't think there's any room for misunderstanding.
And you can do all the Google analytics you want, but I don't think there's any level, any reason.
There's not even any room for misinterpretation here.
This is perfectly clear what has happened.
As far as Republican voters are concerned, from amnesty to Obamacare to spending to the budget, there is no uncertainty.
They want Obama stopped.
They don't want bipartisanship.
They don't want cooperation.
They don't want Washington to work, and they don't want to hear people brag about the definition of Washington working, equaling how many bills have been passed.
How many bills have been passed is where the problems begin.
Because every time a bill has been passed, some kind of freedom has been lost.
In some cases, a lot of it.
From separation of powers to borders, there isn't any gray area.
Republican voters are stand out clear about their desires.
And the demarcation lines are very simple.
A Republican Party leadership can either follow the Chamber of Commerce and the donor class, or they can follow their voters.
They've thrown in with the donor class.
Now, the former speaker of whatever it was, the legislature, I think it was the speaker, some big mucketymuck out in California by the name of Jesse Unruh, or UNRWA, as Willie Brown pronounced it, is the author of the phrase, money is the mother's milk of politics.
And that's undeniable.
The Chamber of Commerce and the donor class, that's the source of big bundled bucks.
The kind of big bundled bucks that demand policy consideration in exchange for the big bundled bucks.
Now, those of you who are individual donors, when added together, yours are big bucks too, but individually, you don't have the power that the head haunted of the Chamber of Commerce does.
At least with this current Republican leadership.
And it isn't just the chamber, it's certain people of Wall Street, certain people in finance.
But that's pretty much the line of demarcation.
And the Republican leadership, I mean, I don't think there's any gray area about this.
The Republican leadership seems to have thrown in with the chamber and the donor class, rather than follow its voters, which if they did, they would thrive.
It's exactly as I stated yesterday.
I think if the Republican Party would get rid of this absolute inane fear they have, if they could somehow be lobotomized to take the name Goldwater out of their brains, if they just simply got rid of this silly notion that their route to success is a Northeastern liberal to moderate Republican that can work with the Democrats or whatever, and finally nominate a conservative, I don't I don't think they have any idea.
The ground swell of support that would descend upon them from all corners of this country.
Unfortunately, the people running the party don't like those who comprise the party.
The Tea Party, the base.
Let's face it.
They think the Tea Party is a bunch of kooks.
They think the Tea Party is a bunch of maybe some of them think they're decent people.
They just don't get it.
How Washington works.
They're rubs, and they just don't.
The typical way Democrats have always looked at people.
Democrats hold average Americans in contempt by definition.
Democrats look at individuals and see helplessness and hopelessness, and the Democrats believe that everybody needs to be safe from themselves because nobody has the guts or the ability to take care of themselves.
The Republicans are quickly morphing into the same attitude.
Not about dependence, but almost with an air of superiority.
Look at the body politic and say, yeah, they don't have any don't understand.
They don't have the ability to understand what we do.
They don't have the ability to understand how laws are made, blah, blah, blah.
And so Republican Party, which used to have a real connection with the people who make this country work.
Republican leadership's in the process of losing that connection, losing their audience is the term if this were media.
It isn't media, it's politics.
They're losing their base.
They're losing the connection they have with their voters who are the ones who really make this country work.
And those people, people who make this country work in increasing numbers, don't trust Boehner, and others in the Republican leadership, and they don't trust Washington as a whole.
They trust in God.
That's another story from yesterday we're going to get to.
The fact that American exceptionalism is actually rooted in Christianity.
And it's a Wall Street Journal story of December 30th about how many people in this country actually are Christian.
It will stun you.
The Republican base trusts in God, trusts in families, free markets, Constitution.
And they're sick of the BS.
Sick of being told what to eat, sick of being told what to drive, sick of being told how to keep warm, sick of being told it's cold in Chicago in December and January when it's supposed to be, they already know it's cold.
And they're sick of being told how to stay warm when it gets cold.
They're sick of being insulted.
Back in a minute.
Time for some fun with the audio sound bites here, my friends.
We'll start with me, in fact.
I just want you to hear, just to be reminded, this was me back on June 17th of last year.
Last year sounds like a long time ago, but wasn't really just six months ago.
There isn't a Democrat versus Republican mindset in Washington anymore, ladies and gentlemen.
There is an election, presidential election, there's a pretense of it.
But in truth, the only real enemy of Washington today is the Tea Party.
The Republican and Democrat establishments.
The Chamber of Commerce, the whole way Washington is working, the only enemy is people who want to reintroduce free markets, get rid of crony capitalism, blow up the relationships that exist between Washington and individual businesses or business at large, Wall Street firms.
You people in the Tea Party, believe Liberty, Freedom, free markets, you represent the problem.
To John Boehner, to the Republican establishment to the Republican consultants, Obama's not the problem.
Anybody opposed to the way Washington does business today is the problem, and that would be you and me.
And that's from last June.
And it's, I think, only intensified.
It has to have intensified.
But since then, we had this landslide, and you look at it two ways.
Landslide election victory for the Republicans without a mandate.
I mean, well, they didn't campaign another year.
They have a mandate, it's called stop Obama.
They don't want it.
They don't want touch that.
They don't want any part of stopping Obama.
That's stopping Washington.
And that's just that's not the rule of day.
The other aspect is a landslide loss for the Democrats.
Huge.
And the second midterm landslide defeat in a row for the Democrats, they've lost a lot of seats.
Nationally and at the state level.
They're ripe, sitting ducks, and they're not the enemy.
They really aren't, as far as the Republican Party is concerned.
Here's some evidence.
Yesterday in Washington at the Washington Center and Bipartisan Policy Center.
Well, that's a great place, isn't it?
Washington bipartisan policy center.
Former Senator Robert Bennett of Utah spoke.
And he was talking about the Republican Party.
And this is just a portion of what he said.
Just as they people on under McGovern went too far in that direction.
In the Tea Party thing, they have gone too far, slipped off the edge of the menu completely into uh Alice in Limbaughland.
And as a result, they've made themselves irrelevant to the governing process.
And I've said to some of my Democratic friends, if we Republicans can't contain that, the Democrats are going to win five out of the next six presidential elections just the way the Republicans did.
Did you hear all that forget the Allison Limbaugh land bit, which is what makes the soundbite fun and is one of the reasons why I played it.
But you hear this guy's not talking to Democrats about you.
Complaining about you to the Democrats.
Do you think a Democrat's ever gone to Robert Bennett started complaining about Bill Maher?
Or John Stewart?
Oh man, we gotta, you know, if we don't get rid of these guys that are making us look like nuts and communists here, we're never gonna win the presidency.
You ever hear the Democrats talking to Republicans?
Here's Robert Bennett.
He's proud.
Former, former Senator Mutah.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, this Tea Party thing, they've gone too far, slipped off the edge of the menu completely into Allison Limbaugh.
The Tea Party is the heart, the backbone of this country.
The Tea Party is the people who make this country work.
The Tea Party is the natural Republican base.
But that's not how they see it.
You know how they see the Tea Party?
You know, when you say Tea Party, what do you think they see?
Well, it's a it's a tie, but but they probably see Christine O'Donnell and Sarah Palin and maybe Sharon Angle.
Or who knows whoever, but that's who they see.
And they they they they they think that everybody in the Tea Party is there is when you compare the two bases, and I I consider the Tea Party to be the Republican base, when you Republican base and the Democrat base, and you think it's the Tea Party that's off the edge of sanity.
What in the world else must you think?
That to me is just a striking, striking soundbite.
These guys probably agree with De Blasio that the cops are the problem in New York City.
It really is amazing.
But I wanted you to hear it.
And I kind of like this Allison Limbaugh land.
They obviously think of me when they think of the Tea Party.
And frankly, other than supporting it, I've got nothing to do with the Tea Party.
And neither does anybody else really.
The Tea Party came into existence out of thin air, essentially.
And what I mean by that is the Tea Party doesn't have a leader.
The Tea Party just came into existence because of the shock and awe at what was happening to America by Obama.
Average Americans who had never been in politics before, and that's the rub.
They've never been in politics before.
And they can't be controlled.
They can't be buttoned up and they can't be set aside.
They can't be utilized as normal political groups are.
You're never going to be able to get rid of the Tea Party.
This is the thing that Republicans don't understand.
You're never going to be able to get rid of the Tea Party because the Tea Party is made up of average Americans who happen to be the ones still making this country work.
There's no way to get rid of them.
They live and breathe.
And they happen to be people who just came into existence because they were outraged at what they saw happening to their government, their country, and they wanted it stopped.
And don't you love it?
All these people talking about how the Tea Party, yeah, it's faded away.
Yeah, the Tea Party, not a problem anymore.
Tea Party, it's had its shot its wide.
Tea Party exists anymore.
And then every election, people become shocked and dismayed that the Tea Party is still there and still a factor, and they start ripping into it again, just as former Senator Bennett did here, Eric Cantor, who was defeated.
Remember, he was in line to be Speaker.
Second in command of Republican leadership.
He went down to defeat in Virginia.
And so now he's uh he's working at Wall Street somewhere at a financial institution.
Anyway, he was on CNBC, which has lost all of its audience.
Did you know that?
CNBC and CNN are competing for the number of people you can put in a thimble.
And it's amazing what has happened to CNBC.
It's MSNBC ditto.
Anyway, Cantor showed up over there last night, actually this morning on their program Squawkbox.
And the co-host with Joe Kernan.
He said to Eric Cantor, is the is the president going to be willing to alienate the far left with some of these things like tax reform or trade.
You know, I I can comment on that question, but I'm not going because I want to get to the here's what Cantor said.
This is the question.
The question is, will the next two years be spent relitigating the differences that have been well defined over the last six years, right?
I mean, we know that Republicans don't agree with Obama on environmental reform or his health care bill or his unilateral moves on immigration.
We also know that Democrats don't agree with Republicans on tax reform and title reform and the rest.
So are we going to be spending the next two years and see Congress relitigating that, or are we going to get something done?
Here we go again.
Here we go with this magic.
Are we going to get something done?
Is just getting something done all there is?
What if the something that gets done adds up to being more and more destruction?
And if it's what Obama wants, that's what it's going to be.
What is wrong with relitigating or to continue to live?
What was this election if the election was about stopping any more of this?
He couldn't be any more clear.
And yet here's another former Capitol F, another former Republican, advising us on how we need to be here.
We need to stop talking about the last six years.
We need to start working together and getting something done.
What does Cantor want to get done?
Does he want amnesty?
What does he want?
Does he want Obamacare fully implemented so it's no longer an issue?
I mean, that's been the Republican modus emperandi.
Just agree with the Democrats whatever they want every 90 days and then tell us, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry.
We had to give them this.
Get this issue off table.
We're losing this issue.
But we'll kick their butt the next time.
And it just keeps playing itself out like Grand Hog Day.
So what do they want to get done?
Amnesty.
What do they want to get done?
Fully implement, paid for Obamacare.
What do they want to get done?
Got to take a timeout, folks.
Sit tight, back with much more after this.
So I have to tell you a little funny story here, folks.
Last night, I was sitting at home, uh minding my own business, not bothering anybody.
And I got an email from a friend who was forwarding an email from his friend, who it was quite a funny email about Chris Christie and his uh adventures with uh Jared Jones and the Dallas Cowboys Sunday for the game with the uh with the Lions.
And the opinion expressed in both emails in these guys was that uh Chris Christie was well, let's put it this way there were two things that Christie looked really out of place.
It just it was sad.
Here's the guy in his red sweater, he just looks like he doesn't belong with these sports guys, and they were kind of making fun of him in these emails to me, and they were mocking him, and they were saying he just he just he just looks like a groupie sitting in there, and he doesn't he just doesn't look like he uh doesn't look like he belongs.
And they both said, you know, I tell you this guy, he's he's forcing his way in there, he's calling Jerry Jones.
Jerry Jones looks very nervous, he doesn't want Christie in there, but when the governor calls you, you gotta put him in there.
And then I was treated to their version of political analysis, which that Christie was forcing his way into the cowboys owner's box to be seen on TV to try to gin up support from Texas conservatives for a future Christie presidential run.
Uh and at the same time to put pressure on on Rick Perry.
And I'm always fascinated by the way people think.
I really am.
Uh I I looked at these emails and I digested them.
And they conflicted greatly with things that I know.
So I thought about how to reply diplomatically.
And I explained to you yesterday how it works at uh at ATT Stadium, Texas Stadium.
Jerry Jones has two locations for himself and fans and friends and family at Stadium for Games.
He's got his box, it holds about 10 or 12 people, and it's the football people, and it's all business.
There's no party in there.
I mean, it's catered, but it's all business.
Where the people that show up at a football game to be entertained, have fun and have a party and eat, drink, and be merry, are seated in a huge suite that holds hundreds one floor below.
And Jerry doesn't go there because this is a work day for him.
It's a business, it's his team.
He's the general manager, he owns it.
And these days, Sundays are not party days, and he only puts real football people in there.
And I told these guys, I responded in an email.
I said, I don't think Chris Christie forced his way in there.
I don't think that the only way Chris Christie's in Jerry Jones box is that Jerry Jones invited him.
And therefore, the theory that Christie's in there for political considerations to take on Rick Perry or to take a get favorable reaction from Texas conservatives is respectfully.
I don't think that's what this is about.
I think if you want to know what really happened, you've got to answer one question.
Why does Jerry Jones want Chris Christie in there?
The question is not why does Christie want to be there?
Because that's easy.
Christie loves stars.
Remember Bruce Springsteen, remember Christie cried.
He told people he cried when he finally got on the phone with Bruce Springsteen the first time.
He said, Obama, remember after they walked arm in arm, side hugged and all that after Hurricane Sandy, one week before the 2012 election.
And Christie caught a lot of grief for doing that because it undercut Romney and it promoted Obama, and Christie said, Hey, my state got beat up with a hurricane here.
I need federal help.
And Obama's my buddy at the point.
Pardon parcel of that was that Obama put Springsteen on the phone with Christie's been a lifelong fan, and Christie told everybody he said he cried.
He was so excited.
And then, you know what happens next.
Springsteen goes on Jimmy Fallon or some other late night TV show and makes fun of Christie over Bridgegate in a specially written song.
Now we don't know, but I guarantee that probably had to really hurt Christie's feelings.
He thought he had just become big buds with the boss.
It's a big deal.
Christie is a huge cowboy fan, and to be invited to that suite, I mean, this is Nirvana for him.
But the real question is, how does Jerry Jones benefit from having Christie there?
If you're really curious about this.
And then lo and behold, the news hits today that indeed old L. Rushbow, right again, simply following my instincts.
It turns out that Jerry Jones had not only invited Chris Christie, but flew him to Dallas on the Cowboys private jet.
And would have done so the first time, except Christie was already in Texas.
I guess he was already taking on Rick Perry and trying to gin up favor among Texas conservatives.
was down there and he was already in Texas, so Jerry Jones invited him.
But this time, Christy was back in New Jersey, got invited, and he went.
Wife, kids, family, and all that.
But you'll notice that Christy's wife was downstairs.
She wasn't in that business-only football suite where Jerry Jones was.
And then if you read further, you find out that there is an observation deck on top of the Freedom Tower.
Freedom Tower.
And did you know who owns or who has invested in that observation deck?
Why, none other than Jira Jones of the Dallas Cowboys.
And that observation deck is essentially a concession place that is expected to generate what did I read today?
$815 million or $850 million in profits over whatever number of fears in the future.
And then you find out that the Port Authority of New Jersey and New York and whatever runs the damn thing or regulates it.
Well, then, and you find out that Christie is a major part of that.
I mean, if Christie can close bridge lanes, he has influence on this concession here at the top of the Freedom Tower.
So it all finally comes together.
And it still doesn't take away from the fact their characterization of the way, you know.
I mean, I don't want to read the emails I got verbatim, but they were hilarious in their characterizations of what was uh what was going on.
And it furthermore, all kinds of people who started talking about, well, you know what?
Christie's really Stepped in it now.
This probably proves he doesn't want to be president because these are major ethics violations.
No, they're not.
Because there used to be a governor before Christie's name with Jim McGreevy, and he was a real odd duck.
But one thing McGreevy did, there is no ethical problem with it.
It's perfectly legal for a governor to accept trips on somebody, private jet, friend, or what have you.
There's no ethics problem here whatsoever in terms of the law.
Voters, their perception, that may be another thing.
Well, the vote is underway.
The first vote, Speaker of the House.
They need 29 votes against Boehner to essentially veto his election, and then if there's a second vote, then we're off to the races.