RUSH: I was watching CNN and MSNBC last night and when Brown was going on and on with his speech, they cut out of it, they went to Haiti, they gave up. CNN gave up even before Brown spoke. They cut out of election coverage and headed straight to Haiti. Oh, it was funny. It was hilarious.
Now, I think the defining issue in the Democrat Party right now is busing. Stick with me on this, folks. The defining issue, yes, is busing. Here we are in the morning after. The Democrats are already splitting the not-liberal moderate Democrats. There really are no moderate Democrats anymore, let’s get that out of the way. Here’s the split. It’s between the Harry Reids, who would throw swing state members under the bus in order to pass health care and people like Jim Webb who would throw leadership and health care under the bus to save their own seats. So it’s about busing. It’s about who’s going to get thrown off the bus. Jim Webb is trying to throw the leadership off the bus and Harry Reid is trying to throw these other guys off the bus, so busing has come back to rear its ugly head and poison the Democrat process. We of good cheer, ladies and gentlemen, should offer our friends on the other side of the aisle some good advice today: don’t change a thing, not one thing. You keep doing what you are doing, Senator Reid and Madam Pelosi, follow the lead of the president of the United States, support the strategery of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. That’s what the unions want you to do. We urge you to do the same thing.
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RUSH: Jim Webb: ‘In many ways the campaign in Massachusetts became a referendum not only on health care reform but also on the openness and integrity of our government process. It is vital that we restore the respect of the American people in our system of government and in our leaders. To that end, I believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated.’
God Lord, my friends, from a Democrat, ‘A referendum not only on health care reform,’ which means health care reform was rejected, ‘but also on the openness and integrity of our government progress.’ From a Democrat! That means Obama’s government has been neither open, transparent, nor has it acted with integrity. Jim Webb did a hard pivot. President Obama has just been thrown under the Jim Webb bus. The message for the Democrats today is busing. Everybody is throwing everybody else off the bus, or trying to. As I said in the first hour I really believe, ladies and gentlemen, that a lot of Democrats in the Senate had been scared to death this was going to happen, they were afraid to buck Dingy Harry, they were afraid to vote ‘no’ on this, for whatever reason they got bought off or whatever, I tell you, I really believe if they had that vote today, at least five Democrats would vote ‘no.’ Lincoln, Landrieu, Nelson, Webb — regardless, there are some people doing huge sighs of relief that this has happened, Democrats, I’m telling you. The pressure was brought to bear, ‘We’ve got to do this for Obama.’ And now they’re realizing Obama doesn’t care about their futures.
After Webb breathed his sigh of relief and blasted Obama, Barney Frank’s also out trying to play the role of the reasonable man. It’s too late for Barney. We know where they stand and it is not with us. Here is what Barney Frank said: ‘I have two reactions to the election in Massachusetts. One, I am disappointed. Two, I feel strongly that the Democratic majority in Congress must respect the process and make no effort to bypass the electoral results. If Martha Coakley had won, I believe we could have worked out a reasonable compromise between the House and Senate health care bills. But since Scott Brown has won and the Republicans now have 41 votes in the Senate, that approach is no longer appropriate. I am hopeful that some Republican Senators will be willing to discuss a revised version of health care reform because I do not think that the country would be well-served by the health care status quo. But our respect for democratic procedures must rule out any effort to pass a health care bill as if the Massachusetts election had not happened. Going forward, I hope there will be a serious effort to change the Senate rule which means that 59 votes are not enough to pass major legislation, but those are the rules by which the health care bill was considered, and it would be wrong to change them in the middle of the process.’
It’s tempting to give Barney the benefit of the doubt here but I think this is a wheelbarrow full of manure. As much as Jim Webb’s smack down of the president was spot on, these cowards didn’t say any of this last week. Where was all this statesmanship last week? Frank was beating up the Washington Times last week for talking about how there would be delays in seating Brown. Where was all this statesmanship last week? Where was all this concern for the Democrat process all of last year? Where is the concern for it this year? All of a sudden now, in the aftermath of a shellacking defeat, there’s this concern for the Democrat process? They waited to say the right thing when their own careers are threatened? And after last night, every Democrat seat is in play. This is what they know. After last night, every Democrat seat is in play. These people are using Coakley’s loss as an excuse to walk back off the plank. Barney’s district did go for Scott Brown. Ted Kennedy’s hometown, Hyannis Port, Cape Cod, went for Brown. Barney Frank’s district went for Scott Brown. There is not a single Democrat seat that’s safe. That’s what they know.
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RUSH: It’s Claire McCaskill. She’s the fifth senator that would vote ‘no’ if the health care legislation was up for a vote in the Senate today. She ‘has joined Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) in warning leaders not to try to push a revised health care reform bill through the Senate before newly elected Republican Scott Brown arrives. McCaskill said Wednesday morning that the agenda is ‘going too far, too fast’ and that it would be a ‘huge mistake’ for Democrats to force a vote on a new bill in the Senate before the new senator from Massachusetts’ gets there. As I said, they want this ‘no’ vote. They want the ‘no’ vote! McCaskill, Webb, even Barney Frank. No doubt Blanche Lincoln and Ben Nelson. They want this ‘no’ vote. They want it. ”As I said to somebody last night, everybody needs to get the Washington wax out of their ears and listen and pay attention that people out there believe that we are going too far, too fast,’ McCaskill told POLITICO. …
”You take the big things we had to do, as related to the economy, and you combine that with the frustration of the American people and a big health care bill that frankly, because it was big and complicated, it lent itself to this almost virulent misinformation that got out there,’ McCaskill said.’ We just barely get any information. What do you mean? We know what’s in it: The whole thing is a public option. Make no mistake. There’s one element of this: They’ve got a public option. By the way, folks, do not discount how ticked off people are about closing Gitmo and this Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial. Make no mistake that’s part of the rage and anger.
We’ll go to the phones. Dave, we’ll start with you in Springfield, Massachusetts. It’s nice to have you on the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hi. Mega dittos, Rush. I’ve been a lifelong Democrat until this year, and I became a Republican.
RUSH: Welcome home, sir.
CALLER: Well, between you and Fox News, I was saved. But basically the reason I did turn Republican was because of cap and trade and the health care bill. And we have much more work to do here, especially in Massachusetts.
RUSH: Such as? What kind of work? Not that I disagree with you, but what kind of work?
CALLER: We have a congressman here in Springfield that needs to be replaced. He’s a progressive, and every time you call his office with concerns, you never get any response.
RUSH: Well, that could be all of them. When your talking about? Barney? Who?
CALLER: Richie Neal.
RUSH: Richie Neal, okay.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Because you could be talking any of them. All of them are progressive.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: There’s not one moderate Democrat in Congress anywhere.
CALLER: And we have governor that has to go.
RUSH: Yeah. I guarantee you they’re all quaking in their boots.
CALLER: And I just do not want the people to get fooled by what the Democrats are saying today.
RUSH: No. We’re not going to let that happen.
CALLER: This is my hope.
RUSH: It’s not going to happen. The intensity is not going to lessen. People realize this is step five. This is the fifth thing that’s happened that’s a total rebuke of Obama. Three of them elections, one the Olympics, and the global climate thing being proved as a hoax — and they are going to continue. Wait ’til you see November of this year. I’m telling you if anybody wants to listen: The mood in the country is far, far more intense and anti-Democrat today than it was in even 1994 when the Republicans won the House. From the Politico today, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, ‘Dazed Democrats Rethink Entire Strategy.’ They’ve got segments here broken down by subheadlines. Really all you have to do is read the subheadlines they used here.
‘Scott Brown has turned this town upside down. [N]one of that counters the stunning reality of an election where breathtaking results more than justify breathless analysis. Here’s why: The lock is broken. There is no way for Democrats to spin an upside to losing their 60th vote in the Senate. The fear is unleashed. Any Democrat with even the faintest fear of a tough race in 2010 is rattled. It was easy for some to rationalize the defeats in New Jersey and Virginia last year — and even the flood of polls showing bad news since then. They are in denial no more: If Democrats can lose in Massachusetts, they can lose anywhere.’ Every seat is vulnerable.
The next subhead: ‘The leaders are rattled. It has been an ugly 24 hours of blame-casting for Democrats. In fact, it’s the first time in the Obama era that so many Democrats aired their private grievances in such a public way. The White House blamed Martha Coakley’s campaign. Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed to fault Senate Democrats. Senate Democrats, in turn, put the blame back on Coakley, who had campaign officials thrashing the White House and Senate leaders by mid-day Tuesday — hours before the polls closed.’ It is a circular firing squad. ‘Chalk this up to frayed nerves. But the Democratic unity that brought health care to the brink of passage will be tested like never before in coming days.’ Next headline: ‘The angry independent wins. Ideologues and hardcore partisans dominate the leadership of both parties and the cable TV debates.
‘But it’s the independents who are the deciders in most elections. This voting bloc has swung decisively against Democrats…’ Next headline: ‘Grand Old Possibility. Democrats are right that polls show the vast majority of the public holds Republicans in even lower esteem’ than Democrats. ‘But that might not matter because they blew the last two elections — and no longer own what Washington does.’ None of it can be tied to the Republicans. ‘House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and others are bragging that they have a real shot at winning back the House. They would need to net 40 seats to do so.’ The final subhead: ‘The Obama magic has vanished. Think back a year ago and imagine someone saying Obama would throw his support behind Democrats in New Jersey, Virginia and Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts — and lose all of them.
‘Think back a year ago and imagine someone saying he would celebrate his first anniversary without having gotten health care, financial regulation or energy legislation signed into law. And that less than 50 percent of the public would hold a favorable view of his presidency.’ I’ll raise my hand. Mr. VandeHei and Mr. Allen, it was I, El Rushbo, who foretold all of this as Rushtradamus. ‘This is not the way Obama — or many of the people watching him at his [immaculation] address a year ago — expected that he would mark his first anniversary.’ You remember July 17th, 2009? Also in The Politico: ‘I can almost guarantee you this thing won’t pass before August,’ said Jim DeMint, Senator, South Carolina.
‘If we can hold it back until we go home for a month’s break in August members will hear from outraged constituents. Senators and congressmen will come back in September afraid to vote against the American people,’ DeMint predicted, adding, ‘This health care issue is D-Day for freedom in America,’ and DeMint famously said (and was raked across the coals for this) on July 17th, 2009: ‘If we are able to stop Obama on this, on health care, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.’ Mike Pence was also on the call, the Congressman from Indiana. He said, ‘The tide is turning,’ and so it has happened. It will be very interesting. Obama is nationalizing the student loan program; saying publicly that he’s gonna work even harder, double down now to get health care passed. But it is clear members of Congress, the House and Senate on the Democrat side, are frightened to go forward and pass the legislation.