{"id":18984,"date":"2011-05-16T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-07-20T00:20:05","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-07-20T00:20:05","modified_gmt":"2011-07-20T00:20:05","slug":"ruling_class_attacks_bachmann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2011\/05\/16\/ruling_class_attacks_bachmann\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruling Class Attacks Bachmann"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Let\u2019s move to this whole notion here of what\u2019s happening inside the Republican field and the fact that opposition research is now being conducted on Michele Bachmann. There is a little game — I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve noticed this, but if you haven\u2019t noticed it, don\u2019t doubt me. Part of my job is to notice things before you do, and then tell you. It\u2019s called the cutting edge. I\u2019m on it. I own it. There\u2019s a little game being played by the established Republican commentariate, what I call the inside-the-Beltway conservative intelligentsia, the Republican intellectual elite. It is aimed at muddling conservatism and discrediting, taking down, if you will, conservative Tea Party candidates in the Republican presidential primary process. The way to do it, by the way, is a page right out of the Democrat left\u2019s playbook. <\/p>\n

Now, last week I mentioned and discussed at some length the argument that some were making that if conservatives demand candidates who are too pure, they can\u2019t win. I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve seen that, but it is effervescing out there. And it always does. We can\u2019t win with a conservative that\u2019s too pure, that\u2019s too rock-ribbed, that\u2019s too rigid. We need a conservative who understands that raising taxes now and then is a reasonable and sometimes intelligent thing to do. We don\u2019t want the kind of purity that says never raise taxes. We don\u2019t want the kind of purity that gives us the social issues. We need Republicans who aren\u2019t as pure, who will realize that sometimes you just have to stop talking about guns and abortion for the larger good of public policy. Well, today in the Daily Caller — that\u2019s Chatsworth Osborne Jr.\u2019s website, right? Tucker Carlson. There\u2019s a guy named Matt Lewis, and it\u2019s a takedown of Michele Bachmann in the Daily Caller. <\/p>\n

In this case it\u2019s not because she\u2019s too pure. In her case it\u2019s because she is too impure. In other words, let\u2019s not support candidates who are unabashedly conservative because they can\u2019t win. That\u2019s the advice. Michele can\u2019t win because she\u2019s too unabashedly conservative. Palin can\u2019t win because she\u2019s too unabashedly conservative. On the other hand, there are no unabashedly conservative candidates in the field, when you get right down to it. This is what happens when you try to analyze politics and write about it, when you don\u2019t really understand conservatism and the Tea Party movement, and instead you get swept up in the Washington way and the mentality of “gotcha.” <\/p>\n

See, this whole notion of purity, the assault on purity is just another way of attacking mainstream conservatives. But conservatism — I would say, speaking for myself — conservatism is not about purity. It\u2019s about a philosophy. People get sidetracked, purity and all these other aspects, but conservatism is a philosophy. And all conservatives do not agree on all things when it comes to every issue or policy. However, there are fundamental and defining principles and views on life that do define and unite conservatives. <\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s look at Bachmann, just a quick peek here at Michele Bachmann. She is a favored target of establishment Washington. Now, that doesn\u2019t come as a surprise to you, does it? I mean you know that she\u2019s a target, you\u2019ve seen it. It might perplex you as to why at this stage of the game. Look, I know we are in the Republican primaries and the battle is between ourselves now. It\u2019s understandable. But in establishment Washington Bachmann is a favorite target, and even to the point of talking about she\u2019s too short or she\u2019s radical or what have you. But in this case, in the Daily Caller piece, the attack on her is that she supported earmarks and ethanol. So the argument here, this is the reverse purity argument. The argument here is that she\u2019s not pure, and therefore not pure enough for Tea Party activists. <\/p>\n

This is an attempt to alert the Tea Party that Michele Bachmann\u2019s a fraud, that she\u2019s really not one of you. She\u2019s out there trying to create support, command support from all you Tea Party people, but she\u2019s not one of you, she\u2019s not pure, she\u2019s voted for earmarks and ethanol. Okay, what else? Michele Bachmann has been a leading advocate for stripping $105 billion from Obamacare so that it cannot be implemented. Michele Bachmann was one of the early conservative leaders, along with Steve King from Iowa, trying to make sure that Obamacare was defunded. She heard the Tea Party, she heard everybody was taking it very seriously. We must not allow the thing to become law, or we must repeal it or defund it. Okay, here\u2019s $105 billion put in there, stealth way by Pelosi. She identified it. She wanted to strip it out of there. <\/p>\n

She\u2019s a leading opponent of the continuing resolution theory of funding government. She steadfastly stood up and opposed the House leadership on funding the government two weeks at a time. She\u2019s a leading opponent of amnesty for illegal immigrants. She\u2019s a solid conservative on national security and defense. She\u2019s a leading activist for the Tea Party, and she\u2019s a major speaker at numerous Tea Party events. Now, all of that distinguishes her quite a lot from most of the candidates who are seeking the Republican nomination for president, or planning to. However, because she supported some earmarks and ethanol, she is said now by nonconservatives not to be pure enough for conservatives who are demanding purity and in another piece they\u2019ll say, demanding purity is a bad thing. But right now, she\u2019s not pure enough. Nobody can be everything to everybody. <\/p>\n

On the big stuff, Michele Bachmann has flying colors when it comes to being defined as a conservative. It would be an incredible stretch to try to say that she\u2019s not a conservative. I think we\u2019ve talked about earmarks, ethanol, those two things, considering everything else we face, that\u2019s chump change, but if you want to focus on those two things trying to say she\u2019s impure, that\u2019s what\u2019s underway, people on our side.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay, let me finish with this Bachmann business here, and I want to get to your phone calls. So now she\u2019s not pure enough in the Daily Caller today because she has supported earmarks, and she\u2019s supported ethanol. So you Tea Party people are supposed to think from that she\u2019s not qualified; she\u2019s not pure; she strays from the course. Virtually all the other candidates who are running or who are planning on running, and who have served in public office have supported ethanol and earmarks — whether at the federal, state, or local levels of government. In fact, some say you can\u2019t win in Iowa unless you do support ethanol. (For example.) I\u2019ve had my own run-in with people on earmarks. <\/p>\n

I have never been one to base my entire view of a politician on whether or not they supported earmarks, \u2019cause it\u2019s not that much money. I understand the moral aspect and I understand that earmarks open up the opportunity for blackmail and this kind of thing. I understand all the arguments about them. You know, McCain hardly a purist, made earmarks the centerpiece of a failed presidential campaign. It just ain\u2019t that big a deal! It certainly is not enough to disqualify somebody from being pure. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, one of the leading conservatives in the Senate, insists that earmarks are actually a more responsive way to reach the voters — respond to the voters, the will of the people — than leaving such decisions to unelected bureaucrats. He wants to spend the money.<\/p>\n

He says (paraphrased): “Look, this earmark money is going to be spent. I\u2019d rather the elected representatives of the people do it than some faceless bureaucrat at some agency or some president.” That\u2019s his view. My point is not to defend earmarks. As is the case with everything else, put everything in perspective. We are sinking in red ink — most of it to do with entitlements, much of it to do with Obama\u2019s massive spending on domestic programs — earmarks in that scene play a minor role in the big scheme of things, just in terms of dollar amounts. The point is: Michele Bachmann fights the big budget items more relentlessly than most people do, which is why she\u2019s being attacked. Michele Bachmann focuses on the stuff that really matters in terms of dollars and cents and that\u2019s why he\u2019s under assault now. Now, ethanol? It\u2019s just a subsidy. I oppose all these subsidies where the government\u2019s trying to set national policy in one industry or another, and I think conservatives have something to explain when they support it and so forth, I really do. But it doesn\u2019t mean that Bachmann is not pure enough to be a good conservative, which is what they\u2019re trying to say about her now.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, I\u2019m just using today\u2019s attack on Bachmann — and it is an attack. It\u2019s in the Daily Caller. I\u2019m just using today\u2019s attack on Bachmann as an example of the way the game is played in Washington: Tear down conservatives for the kind of superficial approach to governing and philosophy that too many people have. These are dangerous times for the country. People ask me all the time, “Rush, how can there be such divisions within the Republican Party over this?” and I think I\u2019ve got the appearance. You know, you and I, folks — let\u2019s be honest — we look at Obamaism and we see a threat to the nation. <\/p>\n

We see this indebtedness, the uncontrolled spending. We know what it means for liberty and freedom, children and grandchildren. We are really afraid that the very structure of the country is under a purposeful assault. I don\u2019t think that many of the inside the inside-the-Beltway Republicans — the Republican establishment people — think that\u2019s the case at all. I think that\u2019s the reason for the big divide. It\u2019s no different than, “Okay, LBJ was president. He gave us the Great Society and a whole bunch of spending. We took over and we spent some, too, but not nearly as much,” and it\u2019s just the normal cycle of things. Democrats run the show right now, and the objective is to get back in charge of spending the money. <\/p>\n

I think that\u2019s where the establishment Republicans are. They\u2019re trying to get back in charge of spending the money. They don\u2019t see the threat. They don\u2019t believe the country is threatened, as founded. They drive around and go to Denver. They don\u2019t see the strip mall that\u2019s there ceasing to exist. They don\u2019t see the destruction of the country taking place. They just don\u2019t see it. They don\u2019t think anything is that bad. It\u2019s nowhere near that dire. “Yeah, we gotta get a handle on our spending. It\u2019s a little out of control. We gotta do something here on the debt. Yeah, we gotta solve health care but, no, no, no, no, this is not about turning this place into the Soviet Union or any of that,” and I think that\u2019s the divide. That\u2019s my guess, anyway, and that\u2019s what it is: A guess.<\/p>\n

END TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

*Note: Links to content outside RushLimbaugh.com usually become inactive over time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Let\u2019s move to this whole notion here of what\u2019s happening inside the Republican field and the fact that opposition research is now being conducted on Michele Bachmann. There is a little game — I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve noticed this, but if you haven\u2019t noticed it, don\u2019t doubt me. Part of my job is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nRuling Class Attacks Bachmann - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2011\/05\/16\/ruling_class_attacks_bachmann\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Ruling Class Attacks Bachmann - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: Let\u2019s move to this whole notion here of what\u2019s happening inside the Republican field and the fact that opposition research is now being conducted on Michele Bachmann. 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