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March 16, 2016 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:28
March 16, 2016, Wednesday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
No, Obama doesn't even expect this judge to get a hearing.
He's too old, folks.
If Obama was serious about the pick, he'd have nominated somebody much younger that's going to be in the court.
I mean, decades.
Merrick Garland is 63.
Sounds like a nice guy.
And you know the fixes.
And when we've got people telling us, hey, you know what?
This guy could really satisfy a bunch of conservatives.
Come on, folks.
Could we get real?
You know, this is where it all starts to break down.
I actually have been watching conservatives on TV, some of them, not a lot, but some tell him, you know what?
Obama's made a genuine compromise pick here.
This is going to be really problematic for the Republicans because this is a guy that they can get behind.
This guy's closer to Scalia than he is farther from school.
I'm watching this with my mouth open.
I don't know how to react to this.
Who are we talking about here?
Mitch McConnell's already gone out there and said they're going to invoke the Biden rules, which means, sorry, nothing happening this year because it's a presidential year.
And they are the Biden rules because Biden set them.
No presidential confirmation hearings on Supreme Court nominees during the last year of a president's second term isn't happening.
And that's what they're going to rely on.
Now, we have to trust that they will not cave somewhere down the line.
And what are the odds of that?
Now, come on.
Intelligence guided by experience.
What you think?
You think the odds are better than normal that they will not cave in the Republican Senate.
Okay, we'll see.
Folks, it's great to have you.
Telephone numbers 800-282-2882.
The email address, ilrushmo at EIBnet.com.
Well, how did we open the program yesterday?
I'll tell you exactly how I opened the program.
It's almost exactly verbatim what I said.
I asked Snerdley, who's out there saying that the future of the Republican Party hangs on Ohio.
I was walking out of the studio on the way to other parts of the broadcast complex here about five minutes before the program began yesterday.
I looked up at CNN and I saw that headline.
And it says, conservative host, colon, future of the GOP hangs on Ohio.
So what in the name of Sam Hill is that and who said it?
So I immediately dispatched my research teams to try to find out who it was.
So we found it was Buck Sexton who had said it, who's a former guest host on this program.
And that led me to trying to sound the clarion call yesterday.
And lo and behold, I've got the audio soundbite roster here.
And you know who's in more soundbites than anybody else today?
John Kasich.
I am here to tell you, I know I've gotten into arguments with people who think that I am way off on this.
And I'll tell you what, of course, I'm saying.
But folks, do not doubt me on this.
I'm going to give you my explanation for it in a moment.
The Republican establishment, whoever you think they are, I mean, I'll tell you who they are.
I mean, the elected Republicans that are in the hierarchy, they are in K-Street.
They're lobbyists.
They are.
Oh, reminds me.
I got a note from somebody at Mitt Romney's staff.
And they say, hey, look, would you please say Romney has nothing to do with that ad with the women quoting things Trump has said about women that's been running out there.
You said it was a Romney Super PAC.
It's not a Romney Super PAC.
This person said it's a former staffer of Romney who started the Super PAC.
Well, I'm just telling you what they said.
We don't want you to be wrong.
Romney's got nothing to do with it.
It's a former staffer of Romney's Super PAC that's behind that ad.
Anyway, the K-Street lobbyists, the Republican consultants who are over.
I still don't think people have a grasp on what actually has happened here.
A political neophyte with no staff, no professionals, has run rings around career professionals in a business that is exclusionary.
They don't let outsiders in.
They don't want outsiders in.
They don't let outsiders in and let them prosper.
And Trump, he doesn't have a campaign consultant.
He doesn't have a whole bunch of data analytics people.
He's got a spokesman.
He's got a, I don't know what Lewandowski is.
I don't know what he does, but he does not have the traditional staff.
And these people are not just going to sit there and let this happen, folks.
I mean, the Republican establishment would consist of people like Boehner, who today endorsed Paul Ryan.
The Republican establishment would consist of every campaign consultant that you see on Fox or any other network from the Republican Party.
And they are not just going to sit by and lose this.
It's they, in their world, in their minds, they come first.
They are preeminent and dominant.
They come before the party, saving themselves, protecting themselves, guaranteeing their futures, all of that comes before the party.
Their positions in the establishment, their rankings, everything that defines them, everything that provides for them their self-worth derives and descends from their membership in the establishment.
And that all of those accoutrements, the power and the money, the income, the influence, all of that only happens if there is a party that they run.
They enjoy all of those aspects whether the party wins or loses.
They enjoy their incomes.
They enjoy their influential lobbying positions on K-Street.
They have their consultancies.
They have their elected offices.
Whether the party wins or loses, they maintain everything they have.
They lose all of that if they lose control of the party.
They lose all of that.
The party winning, therefore, is not paramount.
Them maintaining what they have, like anybody else who would want to protect what they've got.
And so Kasich is the last best hope they've got.
And if you knew how to listen last night, you could have concluded this yourself.
No, Kasich should not get out.
Kasich can stay in.
Kasich's going to win in the Northeast.
Kasich is the exact kind of nominee this party could have used in the beginning.
It was incredible.
It was incredible.
I listened to this and I knew exactly my instincts when I saw that little headline on CNN yesterday.
Fate of GOP.
Future of GOP hangs on Ohio.
I know exactly what that means, and I know exactly what these people are prepared to do to hang on to what they've got.
I could draw any number of analogies for you to try to make the point, but I hope I don't even have to do that by the time I finish with this today, because it's, to me, it's not even arguable.
It is clear as a bell.
They don't want any part of Trump winning this thing.
They don't want any part of Ted Cruz winning this thing.
If they do, if either Cruz or Trump ends up being the nominee, or if there's some kind of alliance between the two at some point, they're facing the prospect of losing it all.
Their reputations, their influence, their what?
I mean, it's dire as far as they're concerned.
This is, imagine any other private club that you know.
And having, you know who the members of the private club are, and you know how they're very, their self-esteem is very high.
They run around feeling very full of themselves, very proud of themselves.
They're very special.
They're select few members of the club.
Imagine somebody coming in and taking over the club.
Somebody that's not a member, somebody that's never been there before, somebody that wants to totally shake it up, somebody thinks the club is the reason for all the things going wrong.
This is dire.
And Kasich is it.
Kasich is the last link they think they've got.
They've got to get to an open convention.
They've got to get to a convention that's contested.
They've got to see to it that neither Cruz nor Trump win this thing outright before the convention, and they've got to finagle away to make sure, let's say, the magic number is 1237.
And the speculation is, well, if Trump's at, say, 1150, they can't deny it to him.
There are too many people that have voted.
Folks, the people, the number of people who have voted is irrelevant to the people I'm talking about.
That doesn't matter a hill of beans.
They don't listen to you in the midterm elections.
Why should they listen to you during your primary season?
And it's not going to change now.
You voted for Trump.
You voted for Cruz.
It doesn't matter.
You voted the wrong way.
If they can make sure, if they can ensure that nobody that is currently running has a shot at the nomination prior to the convention, I'm telling you, do not think it's automatic that Trump or Cruz is going to get the nomination simply because they got close or what have you.
This is not what these people want.
It's their convention.
It's their party.
They wrote the rules.
Trump and Cruz are still outsiders.
You ever stop me?
Who's going to write the party platform here given what's happening now?
I mean, nominee normally has a fundamental major primary role in writing the party platform.
We don't know who that's going to be yet.
Not that the platform is ever consulted after it's written, but it is a power play process to get it written and who gets to participate in that.
It's all about that.
So I will even spell this out in greater detail as the program unfolds because I've got supporting sound bites coming up to illustrate my point.
As I say, I've mentioned this sort of last night and some other people, and you wouldn't believe the number of people, oh, Rush, no, no, no, you're just being a little dramatic.
That kind of thing's not going to happen.
They can see the handwriting on the wall.
This is Trump.
It's done.
It's over with.
It's just a mere formality.
No, it's not.
They have not accepted it yet.
They will not accept it.
They don't want to accept it.
They don't see any future for themselves in that arrangement.
And you wait.
I've got the sound bites coming up to prove it.
A couple of news stories out here as well that will buttress my point.
On the Democrat side, you know, one thing I need to say something here about Marco Rubio.
That speech last night.
Oh, before I, I need to tell, I got a fascinating email last night from a close friend.
I probably shouldn't even bring this up.
He's very intuitive when it comes to me and he's one of the few people who actually understands what I do and how.
He said, Are you worried you're getting to a point where you can't be honest with your audience and keep them?
And I read that email and I said, What's he talking about?
What in the world?
Because I said, Have you ever getting to the point where you fear you can't be honest with your audience and hold them?
And I figure he's, I wrote him back, haven't gotten a reply yet.
Must be something about, it's got to be some campaign.
I don't know what made me think of it here when I'm starting talking about Rubio, but I have to tell you something, folks.
That Rubio speech last night was the best speech I've heard in a year by anybody.
Hands down, you know, I guess it was a month ago or maybe six weeks ago, I happened to give Rubio a big plug on this program saying that I was getting worried.
I was seeing all these attacks on Rubio in any number of places from people attacking him as a fake and a phony and not a real conservative.
And I couldn't take it anymore.
I know the gang of eights lingering out there, and I know people think that the gang of eight was not a one-off with him, that that's who he really is, and that he's been lying to everybody since day one running for state office in Florida.
But I stressed, I made a huge point.
I just got off the phone with him the day before, talking to him.
He'd called here about campaign and some things.
Not about Gang of Eight that had come up.
It was just a general conversation of the status of things.
Didn't ask for anything.
It was just shooting the breeze, which happens with a number of them, by the way.
I just don't tell you each time it happens.
Not that often either, but it does happen.
And I just got tired.
I think the guy is the real deal conservative.
I think that he, and I happen to know, in fact, I got a story here.
Vox, that young wonder Ezra Klein used to be the Washington Post, went over to this Vox place.
Hillary Clinton had an amazing night, and not just because of her victories, the left, the happiest thing for them yesterday was Rubio losing because they really believed that Rubio was the one problem Hillary had.
I think they're wrong, but that's what they think.
They think Rubio would have given her the bigot because he's young, he's energetic, because he's got the policy down Pat.
He's the antithesis of her, and they're happy that Rubio's out.
But that speech he gave last night, anybody want to try to tell me that he's not a conservative?
I'm sorry you're talking to a brick wall in me because that just isn't the case.
And that speech last night was just, folks, I sat there watching that speech.
And it's not uncommon.
The exit speech is often the best speech of a candidate's campaign.
But this was better than even that.
This would have been a great introductory speech opening the campaign.
It was that good.
It was, I couldn't tell if it was on teleprompter or not.
Doesn't matter.
I know it came from his heart.
I know, what about gang eight?
Exactly right.
Exactly right.
If not for that, let me ask you a question.
The way he handled a gang eight, he botched out.
What if he would have just said, you know what, I'm sorry?
I was new in the Senate, and I, whatever he says, I got sucked in by these guys, or I thought I could really help or change them.
I thought I could guide them.
I really, really blew it.
I'm really, really sorry.
Instead of trying to make the case for it over and over the way he did, do you think an apology would have mollified some of the opposition to him?
Because I'm going to tell you what I think.
I got to take it for that.
Look at the clock.
Don't worry.
Not a tease.
Will not lose my thought.
In fact, my train of thought.
I think Chuck Schumer took Marco Rubio out years ago.
It didn't happen in his campaign.
Schumer and the Gang Eight Democrats took him out.
I know it's ultimately his responsibility.
Don't misunderstand, but that's where we trace this back.
Great to have you here on the EIB network.
El Rushbo behind the Golden EIB microphone.
Yeah, I think Senator Rubio, continuing to maintain that he did not regret his support for the Gang of Eight is the culprit here, which ultimately makes him the culprit.
Now, I don't doubt that Schumer and his gang wanted the bill passed, and I have no doubt that they thought Rubio would help them get it passed and so forth.
But man, you stop and think, if not for that, Rubio's story, his campaign, everything would be tremendously different.
Don't know, impossible to know what differences would manifest themselves.
But he never had a prayer.
I mean, you look, you want to find out how important that issue is to people.
You want to find out how important the perception that Washington betrays Republican voters.
You want to find out how solid and sticky that is.
You look at what happened to Marco Rubio.
I don't know that if he could have extricated himself, even if he had apologized for it, it's that big a deal.
And that one thing, if not for that.
So it's sad because that speech that he gave last night, I think, gave us a great idea who he actually really is.
Before we get hot and heavy into the analysis of what happened yesterday and last night, and believe me, it's not what you think it is.
I got a news story here.
I've got a slew of things that have nothing to do with politics, but this one, this one I have to share with you because, oh, and I've got an idea on his Supreme Court nomination.
I've got an idea, Snurdy.
I think Mitch McConnell maybe offer a deal to Obama.
I'll give you your nominee if you'll have the DOJ indict Hillary.
You're thinking, hmm, they might do that, and we don't want the guy on the court.
Would Obama throw a nominee, would Obama throw Hillary overboard to get his Supreme Court pick for life?
Except, this is not the guy he wants.
The guy's too old.
Whatever else about this guy, he's 63.
Obama's going to put somebody, if this were something other than a sacrificial pick, if this were a legacy pick, he'd find somebody in his 50s, late 40s, maybe.
Somebody be there forever.
This poor guy has to know.
And he had, I think he probably had to agree, going in, look, you know, you're not going to get a hearing.
So we're going to do the greatest ceremony in the world for you.
And we're going to tell the world what a great jurist you are.
And we're going to get your family up.
They're going to give you the White House moment everybody dreams of.
But that's it.
Nothing more.
You understand that, Merrick?
It had to go something like that.
I had to double-check this story, folks, to make sure this was not from a satire website.
I've done everything I can to satisfy myself this is a real story.
It's from a website called The Daily Wire.
It's out of Miami-Dade, Florida.
Headline, relatives of killed 17-year-old home invader.
How else is he going to get his money?
Relatives of a teenaged home invader who was killed by a homeowner while seemingly exiting the home he had broken into.
The relatives are asking observers to consider the mentality of children raised in the hood.
17-year-old Trayvon Johnson.
You can see why I was suspicious of this piece.
Part of me still is.
When you hear this, 17-year-old Trayvon Johnson was shot and killed after the 54-year-old woman homeowner was alerted to his crime via a home surveillance system.
After arriving at her home, she witnessed 17-year-old Trayvon Johnson exiting a window of her house.
There was then a confrontation in which Trayvon Johnson was shot once.
Center Mass.
54-year-old woman.
Police arrived on the scene within seconds and applied CPR.
After being rushed to the hospital, Trayvon Johnson was pronounced dead.
Seemingly justifying her relatives' commission of burglary, Trayvon Johnson's cousin, Nautika Harris, suggested it was the only way through which he could obtain money.
Nautika Harris, cousin, Trayvon Johnson, said, quote, you have to understand, you have to look at it from a child's point of view.
It was raised in the hood.
How he going to get his money to have clothes to go to school?
She asked.
I don't care if she have her gun license, her rights, or any of that, said Nautika Harris.
That's way beyond the law, way beyond the law.
Speaking of what she described as Johnson's bright future, the 17-year-old victim here, Nautika Harris said that her cousin loved education and loved learning.
Quote, he was not supposed to die like this.
He had a future ahead of him.
Trayvon had goals.
He was very big on education.
He loved going to school.
He loved learning.
Rejecting the police's characterization of the use of lethal force as having been lawfully applied in this case, Nautika Harris said the 54-year-old female homeowner should have allowed her cousin to flee.
It's no reason she should have waited until after he walked out the yard before she came home.
And then there's a picture of 17-year-old Trayvon Johnson here.
Facebook said, I'm still.
I'm still wary of this.
We have a story.
17-year-old Perp breaks into a house, steals some things.
Homeowner alerted to it, comes home, fires one shot, 17-year-old dead.
Cousin says, hey, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
You don't understand what it's like in the hood.
How else is this young man who totally is devoted to education going to get any money for food and clothes?
Therefore, robbery is justified.
If you come from the hood, how else are you going to get your money?
You realize now, I guess these people have just decided they don't even want to wait for the welfare system here.
They just want neighbors to open their doors and let people rush in and take what they want without waiting for taxes to be confiscated to pay for it.
She should have waited until he was gone to come home.
You've got to understand, folks, I don't know.
There's a part of me that believes this is entirely the thought process.
And there's another part of me that does not want to believe that this is some kind of a hoax.
But I know it's in the Washington Post.
I know I'm saying it's not the onion.
It's a real story.
Yeah, he had a prior arrest, but it doesn't matter.
He comes from the hood, and he loved education.
He was really into education.
He had plans.
He loved going to school.
He loved learning.
Well, where did he learn to do this?
Spike Jones movie or Spike Lee movie?
Where did he learn to do this kind of thing?
But then to have it justified.
Well, there's one other thing not related to the campaign that I do want to share.
How many of you watch the Academy Awards?
Chris Rock, do you remember the bit?
You didn't see it?
Okay, well, you know, at the Academy Awards every year, they have this, they bring the accountants out in Price Waterhouse to validate the results.
These are the suits.
These are the honchos that counted the ballots and have guarded the results in an hermetically sealed suitcase or whatever since they've been counted.
It's all legit.
And they bring these guys out and it's their payment.
Price Waterhouse does it gratis in exchange for being given stage time.
Well, Chris Rock did a bit on this and brought out three young men, Asian young men.
Well, they're kids, seven, eight years old.
And he said their names were Ming Zhu, Bao Ling, and David Moskowitz.
And they were all dressed in tuxedos, and he was making a mockery of the whole price.
Well, anyway, what's happened now is that the Academy has thrown Chris Rock overboard here because a number of Asians have objected to this as tasteless and offensive.
Let's see.
Spike Lee, Angri, George Takai, Sandra, O, 23 others have signed this letter, and the Academy has apologized deeply, and they've thrown Chris Rock overboard.
But the point is, they rehearsed it.
Everybody signed off on it.
Everybody said they were okay with it.
Everybody involved in the show said they were okay with it.
Then it happens.
Then somebody gets nervous.
And Chris Rock gets thrown overboard.
In an Oscars where there was already controversy over the fact there were no African-American nominees.
Leave it to Libs and Hollywood.
Okay, quick timeout.
Those two things out of the way.
We come back and resume our deep analysis of the events that transpired yesterday and last night.
Hey, we're back.
Rush Libo, the cutting edge of societal evolution.
From the politico, advisors to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz say that there is no way they will allow John Kasich to even compete at a contested national convention, let alone prevail.
Trump and Cruz are betting that their dual dominance in the delegate hunt will permanently box out Kasich, who has no mathematical path to the nomination and is openly pursuing a floor flight at the convention in Cleveland.
The aides to Trump and Cruz say that Kasich won't even make it to the floor.
Saul and Nusis, a former Michigan Republican National Committeeman advising Cruz on convention strategery, said there's virtually zero chance Kasich can even be nominated.
It's a two-man race.
This is what everybody thinks.
You know, I'm watching Fox last night.
And look, I know this is the common sense play.
The analysis is it's Trump more than likely next Cruz.
But outside of that, there's nobody that has a prayer.
Right now, here's the conventional wisdom.
Conventional wisdom is the Republican race is over.
We know it's either going to be Cruz or it's going to be Trump.
Nobody else has a chance.
Nobody else has a prayer.
You cannot take the votes away from Trump.
You can't deny him the nomination.
If he shows up, however short, if it's 75 delegates short, 50 delegates, 150, you can't take it away from him.
If Cruz pulls off a major upset and happens to win over 60% of the remaining delegates and happens to best Trump, you can't take it away from Crew, but neither of them get to 1273.
You can't take it away from him.
It's over.
That was the conventional wisdom.
But there were those who didn't accept it.
There were those on TV last night.
Well, you can't leave Kasich out of this.
Kasich is going to go and compete in the Northeast.
Kasich could take some delegates away from Cruz.
Kasich takes some delegates away from Trump.
Kasich could do well in Michigan.
We had Republican establishment types promoting John Kasich on CNN and on Fox last night because John Kasich represents the last stand, the last chance they've got.
Here it is.
Let me synthesize this.
The wise men and the smart money say that there is no way that the powers that be will deny Trump or Cruz once we get to Cleveland.
They just won't do it.
It can't happen.
It won't happen.
Too many people will have voted.
And I'm sorry, folks.
I don't think that's automatic because of the way I know the people in the Republican establishment that we are all talking about here.
This crowd is very stubborn.
They have not come to grips with what's happened to them here.
They by no means have accepted that the top two delegate getters are outsiders and are not part of the Republican Party ranking establishment in any way.
They have not come to grips with that.
And the reason they haven't come to grips with it is that they don't want to.
This operation is theirs.
It has been their life.
They trained for it in college.
They trained for it with family connections.
They trained for it and they got involved in it and they climbed the ladder within it from the moment of young adulthood.
Those that wanted to be in it that early.
Some have been recruited, of course, over the years because they've recently acquired a lot of money and therefore have influence.
But for the most part, these are lifers.
They fear losing their virtual professional existence.
They fear losing their self-worth.
The thing that gives them swagger, the thing that validates their success is their position in this club, the establishment, the Republican Party, and in fact, the entire Washington establishment.
And they're not just going to let some outsiders come in and take it.
It just isn't going to happen.
The thing to keep in mind here: these people about whom I'm referring, to whom I'm referring, they have all of this, whether the party wins or loses elections.
That's the key.
They have all of the perks and the power, the lifestyles, the connections, even if they lose elections.
As long as they run the party, as long as they run their part of the quote-unquote establishment, they fear losing their standing in this club more than they fear the party losing the presidency or any other election.
And let's talk about other members of the establishment.
Let's talk about conservative media types.
How about the people who, and this is not personal, but how about the people whose very lives are devoted to the intellectual pursuit of conservatism, supposedly.
They may have magazines.
They may be at think tanks.
They may be policy aides.
They might be legislative aides.
They might be any.
But their existence is to continue to write about the superiority and the preferability of conservatism.
That's the role they play in this whole arrangement.
That's the reason for their existence.
That's what gives them their swagger.
They are considered leading opinion makers and opinion leaders.
They are considered superior intellects when it comes to the intellectual pursuits of conservatism.
What is the reason for their existence if Trump wins the White House?
The think tank people, what will be the point?
Trump has not welcomed them.
They haven't welcomed Trump.
Trump is not going to be identified as a movement conservative who is going to be seeking the advice of these people.
You think they're not paranoid?
Their whole lives have been rooted and based on that identity.
They're the go-to guys to explain the conservative view of the Middle East.
They're the go-to guys to explain the conservative view of Putin and the Ukraine and China and whatever.
And now they're on the outs because nobody will be interested.
Theoretically, now they could make a move here and try to sidle up to Trump if and when the day comes, but they don't want that to happen.
They're scared.
I mean, this is their identity is their self-worth.
So they're just not going to peacefully let all this happen.
And that's why John Kasich, that headline yesterday, I think it happened to be right.
The fate of the GOP hangs on what happens in Ohio.
Kasich hanging on.
By the way, he is one of those people.
Got to take a break.
Sit tight.
Back with much more after this.
So the gauntlet's been thrown down.
Trump and Cruz are vowing to barricade Kasich from the convention.
They know what's going on here.
They know what's lurking.
They know what's being conceived and strategized.
They know the sinister desires of those who are soon to be on the outs here if things continue to play out.
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