RUSH: What did I say yesterday about the Pledge? What did I predict? Let’s go listen to what I predicted yesterday on this program.
RUSH ARCHIVE: You watch. They are going to insist that this is not specific enough. ‘The Republicans need to get more specific in their presentation.’ Meanwhile, the Democrats are refusing to even present a budget! The House Democrats are not even going to present a budget prior to the election because they can’t afford for any of you to know exactly what their budget intentions are. So while their buddies in the press are going to run around and demand even more specificity and they’re going to accuse Paul Ryan and all these other Republicans of being suspects simply because of this Pledge and its contents, they’re going to demand even more specificity without demanding the same from the Democrats who will not even present a budget.
RUSH: All right. Now that’s what I said in the program yesterday. I also found a quote from Pelosi back in 2006, and she said, ‘We don’t have a plan. Why should we present a plan? We just want to stop George W. Bush,’ and I saw that yesterday. That’s a dead ringer for what I said yesterday. We don’t need a plan. It’s okay that we’ve got one, but we’ve gotta stop this. Exactly what Pelosi thought of George W. Bush. So the Democrats didn’t have a plan going into the election. Oh, well, they did. They said they’re going to ‘drain the swamp’ and have ‘the most ethical Congress’ and all that rotgut, but in terms of an agenda, I’m right. They won’t even have a budget, won’t even have budget debates, hearings or any of that or pass a budget and yet demand that we make more specificity. Do I know these people or do I know these people?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So yesterday I predict to you that the media and the Democrats are going to say that the Republican Pledge is not specific enough. Do I know these people or do I know these people?
BASH: We’re already hearing from some people that, you know what? Maybe (snickering) it’s not really specific enough.
MADDOW: They’re really not willing to spell out what that translates to in terms of specific policies.
DICKERSON: …not be too specific that you open yourself to attacks from Democrats.
ERICKSON: Pretty much anything goes as long as we don’t give you specifics.
VELSHI: …a longer and less specific version from 1994.
CHETRY: Is there specific legislation that has been drafted that you’re ready to go with?
ROBINSON: The specifics don’t add up.
RUSH: No specifics. We had 21 pages, 22 pages, no specifics. No specifics. I know exactly what they’re talking about. I read it. It’s specific enough for me. What do you mean there’s no legislation to go with it? We’re talking philosophical things, ideological things here. At any rate, John Boehner was caught up with by Dana Bash at CNN, and they had this exchange about the Republican Pledge.
BASH: You talk about the rebellion out there. Part of what those rebellious voters want to know is, they want you to be specific. Because, as you probably know– as you know — that (sic) maybe are — got enamored of the Democrats, but they don’t trust you as a Republican.
BOEHNER: That’s why we’ve outlined, clearly, in our Pledge what we would and would not do. And I think when it comes spending we’ve been very specific about commonsense steps that we can do to get government —
BASH: Give me one example!
BOEHNER: How about the unspent stimulus money? How about all the TARP funds? Nor more bailouts, and no more using this money for unintended purposes. There’s $700 billion right there.
RUSH: You know, this even happens to me. In recent days, recent weeks I have been interviewed by people, ‘What would you do?’
‘Here’s what I would do.’
‘No, I want you to be specific!’
‘I thought I was specific.’
So this is, I don’t know, a template, it’s a ruse, and it’s just illustrative of the fact that there’s no way we’re gonna win these people over, and it’s a mistake to even try. It’s a mistake to even try to explain it to them. It’s a mistake to have these people try to carry our message, to carry our water or what have you.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You know, I also have to laugh at this ongoing assault that the Pledge yesterday was not serious or specific enough. Now, remember, Pelosi told us, ‘We have to pass health care to find out what’s in it.’ Well, now we’re at the-six-month portion, we’re six months in, and Obamacare is even worse than critics thought. Wait ’til you hear. Well, you’ve heard it. We told you. You, the part of America who are informed, know full well what’s in this health care bill. We told you. You educated yourself, in fact, and found out about it. It’s a disaster. It’s a disaster. And when we demanded specificity on this, they told us to shut up. When we demanded specificity on the health care, when we demanded that they read it, they told us to shut up, that we didn’t know how they do business, that we should just sit back and be patient, wait for the bill to be passed, then we’ll find out what’s in it. Yet they have the audacity to say that our agenda, our philosophy, is not specific enough.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I want to go back to one of my all-time favorite sound bites. As the left and the Democrats are demanding ‘specificity’ from Boehner and the Republicans on the Pledge, October 30th, 2008, PBS, the Charlie Rose Show, Tom Brokaw and Rose talk about the Bamster.
ROSE: I don’t know what Barack Obama’s worldview is.
BROKAW: No, I don’t, either.
ROSE: I don’t know how he really sees where China is.
BROKAW: We don’t know a lot about Barack Obama and the universe of his thinking about foreign policy.
ROSE: I don’t really know. And do we know anything about the people who are advising him?
BROKAW: Yeah, it’s an interesting question.
ROSE: He is principally known through his autobiography and through very aspirational (sic) speeches.
BROKAW: Two of them! I don’t know what books he’s read.
ROSE: What do we know about the heroes of Barack Obama?
BROKAW: There’s a lot about him we don’t know.
RUSH: Uh, talk about specificity? ‘There’s a lot about him we don’t know.’ That’s right. We know more about what the Republican plan is than what Obama’s agenda was before he was elected! Pure and simple. They were purposely covering up the Obama agenda. They had to. He wouldn’t have gotten elected. So it’s just interesting to point these things out.