{"id":28174,"date":"2008-01-21T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T04:20:31","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T04:20:31","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T04:20:31","slug":"why_should_we_shut_up2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2008\/01\/21\/why_should_we_shut_up2\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Should We Shut Up?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: One closing thought from the previous hour: I\u2019m noticing this in a lot of conservative media. Those of us who are opposing these McCain… Let me set this up a better way. When Huckabee was coming out of nowhere in Iowa, we had numerous pundits on the left who write their conservatism to be read by liberals, jumping on the Huckabee bandwagon. And then McCain came out of nowhere in New Hampshire, and then they jumped on the McCain bandwagon. Romney wins in Michigan, and they didn\u2019t jump on the Romney bandwagon. They stayed on the McCain bandwagon. Then we go to Wyoming, and Romney won all the delegates there, and they didn\u2019t jump on the Romney bandwagon. They stayed on the McCain bandwagon and hoped for Huckabee. And then we get to South Carolina and Nevada. In Nevada, Romney cleans up, and nobody talks about it. ‘Romney is nowhere. He\u2019s off the charts. He should quit. Thompson should quit. He should get out of the race!\u2019 They remain on the McCain bandwagon. Now the people on the McCain bandwagon are telling those of us who aren\u2019t on the McCain bandwagon, to shut up. Just be quiet. We are supposedly damaging the Republican Party. <\/p>\n

We are supposedly damaging the conservative movement. We should just shut up. Just sit by and watch all this stuff and let it happen and just be quiet. What is the point? By the way, it\u2019s aimed at people in talk radio. Why should we in talk radio ‘just shut up,\u2019 and start supporting the front-runner of the moment? Especially when you realize that\u2019s what the Drive-By Media wants! Why should we in talk radio sit here and take our marching orders from the Drive-By Media and others in our movement who write what they write, for liberals in the Drive-By Media. Why should we do that. McCain, frankly, has shown conservatives little but contempt over many years. We had a caller from South Carolina mad at me in the last hour. He said, ‘You know what? They\u2019re wrong in the Washington Post. They say you don\u2019t have any influence. You have all kinds of influence. You endorsed Thompson.\u2019 I didn\u2019t endorse Thompson, but he thought I did, in a de facto way, ‘and you\u2019re taking votes away from Huckabee.\u2019 He was obviously the Huckabee supporter. The point is, McCain got fewer votes — 42% in 2000; 33% of the vote Saturday night, 2008 — and he wasn\u2019t running against his two top challengers, once you get out of these states where independents can go in and vote in the Republican primary. <\/p>\n

He should have cleaned up. McCain should have gotten over 50% of the vote if this McCain movement is for real, but he got fewer votes and a much smaller percentage in 2008 than he did in 2000. Now, I also find it amazing — it\u2019s not amazing; it\u2019s humorous, interesting, and a little funny. Over the course of the past six months, I have been urged — and you\u2019ve heard it — by people calling this program to endorse somebody. ‘Come on, Rush. We know who you\u2019re supporting. We can hear it. Just endorse him.\u2019 I haven\u2019t endorsed anybody. But when the perception is that I have endorsed somebody, all hell breaks loose, like the guy from South Carolina. He thought I had gone go out and was sending this secret, subliminal message to vote Thompson. So I\u2019m in a no-win situation, it seems. I don\u2019t endorse, you get mad at that. I don\u2019t endorse but you think I do, but you get mad at the guy I endorse — when I haven\u2019t endorsed anybody. It\u2019s not my job to strategize for any candidate; it\u2019s not my job to tell \u2019em what to do right. <\/p>\n

I mean, if I endorse a candidate, I\u2019ll know when the time is. I know how to do it, and I will endorse a candidate when and if I choose to. I\u2019ve made no secret of my concern about this field of candidates from the get-go, and I have made no secret, here, of my intention to talk about their records. If a candidate is concealing their record, I don\u2019t have to go along with that. If a candidate has something to say that I think is great, I will mention it if I choose to. To state the purpose again here within the context of this particular campaign, my purpose is to see conservatism triumph, both in the primary and in the general election. We have callers here projecting their objectives and support for or against a particular candidate, onto me. For example, if Huckabee doesn\u2019t do well in South Carolina, it\u2019s gotta be my fault because I didn\u2019t come out for Huckabee and I was reporting stories about a possible Fred Thompson surge on Thursday and Friday. That\u2019s not how it happens. You know, people vote, and they vote their own minds. People in this audience are not mind-numbed robots. I think to the extent that we gave them something to think about about McCain, I actually think we did help take some support away from him, contrary to the thoughts that we were outnumbered and overwhelmed and defeated. <\/p>\n

Senator McCain\u2019s domestic record is not conservative, and we\u2019re being lectured by the media — some who are hostile to conservatism, some who wear the conservative label — to be quiet, to not be too hard on him, or whatever. Those of us who have been here since the beginning of the program in 1988, you know we deal here in ideas. Why should I be quiet about my ideas? Why should I be quiet, or anybody else on the radio who happens to espouse what I believe? Why should we be quiet? The primary is precisely the time to speak! That\u2019s when this stuff gets aired and sorted out. Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve noted. Governor Huckabee has reversed course on taxes, on illegal immigration. He has reversed course on law and order. Why shouldn\u2019t we discuss this? I mean, he made a major, major flip-flop on immigration. It didn\u2019t help him in South Carolina, and look what happened when he did that. Many of you think Governor Huckabee is very conservative. Put when he did this flip-flop on immigration, what direction did he move? He moved right. His previous position was: tuition, illegals, kids stay, blah, blah, blah. He vowed to send \u2019em all home, right before the South Carolina primary. Huge, huge flip-flop. Why should we be quiet about that? <\/p>\n

Because the media likes the guy and is pulling for him? Is that a reason to be quiet about it? If I think any one or few of these guys might ultimately damage the Republican Party or the conservative movement, should I not talk about that, either? You know, a month ago we had a caller who demanded that I address these issues more aggressively. Now we have a caller who says I should just go along. Now we have the Drive-By Media that says I should just go along. I have even pundits on supposedly my own side of the aisle saying, ‘Just be quiet! You\u2019re causing problems. Just let it go! There\u2019s going to be a rift. Just be quiet.\u2019 Could it have anything to do with the fact that their guy happens to be winning in their minds right now, even though he\u2019s not? Why don\u2019t all of these people be quiet? You know what? Why does it not occur to me to tell these people it to be quiet, and yet it occurs to them to tell us on the radio to be quiet? I would never say to David Brooks, ‘You need to stop writing. You\u2019re damaging things. You\u2019re very harmful to what\u2019s happening. You\u2019re harming me; you are harming our movement. You\u2019re supporting the wrong guy. You should stop writing.\u2019 It would never even occur to me to suggest that. <\/p>\n

What occurs to me is to engage him and discuss what he says and try to prove him wrong. It\u2019s the same thing with whoever it is — Bill Kristol is one — who\u2019s now on the McCain bandwagon. He\u2019s been on the McCain bandwagon since 2000. By the way, McCain wants people to shut up. That\u2019s called McCain-Feingold. McCain passed the first successful, major shut-up bill in the history of the country. McCain-Feingold was an abridgement of free speech. McCain wants people to shut up. Why should we shut up? Why don\u2019t they shut up? It would never occur to me to say to Senator McCain, ‘Shut up about what you\u2019re saying on the campaign trail. It\u2019s not accurate. You\u2019re not being truthful about your past positions on issues.\u2019 It would never occur to me tell them to shut up. It occurs to liberals to tell people that they disagree with to shut up, but it doesn\u2019t occur to me. I\u2019m not afraid. This notion that we should shut up is insulting and offensive. If it\u2019s such a great idea, they should shut up, too. They all like McCain and Huckabee, so they just want these guys to sail through here without any opposition. Why doesn\u2019t Brokaw shut up? They like McCain and Huckabee, too: Why didn\u2019t MSNBC just shut down and shut up? <\/p>\n

Why didn\u2019t CBS just shut down and shut up? Why doesn\u2019t the New York Times just stop publishing for the rest of the primary? Washington Post? Go dark. Save some money. Recoup for the general. Don\u2019t print anything about the election through the primary. Just shut up. You notice only one segment of the political spectrum is being asked — or told — to shut up, and that is me and my brethren and sisteren here in talk radio. Well, I\u2019m not going to shut up. I\u2019m even losing my voice and I\u2019m not going to shut up. And, by the way, what kind of audience does these people who are telling me to shut up have? Zilch, zero, nada, compared to this one. How come there isn\u2019t any…? How come when the Washington Post does a story, ‘McCain Defeats Limbaugh in South Carolina,\u2019 we never get stories on ‘X Defeats the Weekly Standard,\u2019 or ‘X Defeats some minor national or local talk show?\u2019 Because their audience is not significant enough that anybody thinks they have the power to beat anybody, so how can they be a factor? It is precisely because of the size of this audience and the impact of you people in this audience, that makes it a target. Why do we get no analysis of the impact of the Weekly Standard or the New York Times op-ed page on conservatives and Republicans? Because there isn\u2019t any to speak of. <\/p>\n

There is among the intellectual class and the media class in the Beltway and in New York, the famous DC-New York corridor Huckabee\u2019s talking about, but not outside that. Do you think the New York Times is a major factor among Republicans and conservatives, regardless who writes for it? Do you think the roundtable on a Sunday network show influences Republican and conservative votes? Why no discussion about how irrelevant the liberal media are to this process, on our side? Why shouldn\u2019t they be made to just shut up en masse? Instead the Washington Post does a story on how conservatives are irrelevant to conservatives, twisting figures, twisting arguments. How about a story on how irrelevant the editorial page endorsements of the Washington Post and the New York Times have been the last two presidential elections when their guy lost? I don\u2019t think anybody\u2019s talked about that, either. So let\u2019s talk about who has influence and who doesn\u2019t — with real people, not a cadre of elites inside a beltway or inside a corridor in the Northeast. We know the Drive-Bys are backing McCain. Why is that? Only last week the New York Times conservatives were backing Huckabee and talking about a major realignment among conservatives. The guy won the caucuses in Iowa (hasn\u2019t won since), and yet they were holding him out as some great new realignment. Now they\u2019re back to McCain, homers, front-runners. They want us to shut up. It ain\u2019t going to happen.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let me give you a quote, ladies and gentlemen, from the great Ronaldus Magnus, especially since the Drive-Bys and even some pundits on our side continue to hate hearing references to Reagan. ‘A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.\u2019 Let me translate. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply doing anything to win. And that, I fear, is what\u2019s happening to the Republican Party. Bring in anybody you think can beat Hillary. That\u2019s really what this boils down to. I told you that the argument I had with the woman in New York at dinner on Thursday night was all about beating Hillary. Jeffrey Toobin, the legal beagle at CNN Late Edition said this about Senator McCain and me.<\/p>\n

TOOBIN: Remember, this is a candidate, John McCain, whom Rush Limbaugh, a very important person in the Republican Party, calls unacceptable. So he\u2019s got a problem.<\/p>\n

RUSH: The lone voice (laughing). There\u2019s one guy in the media who thinks McCain\u2019s got problems because of me, and it\u2019s Jeffrey Toobin. Here is a little excerpt from the PBS show that airs inside the beltway. I think it\u2019s in their network, too, at PBS, Gordon Peterson, Inside Washington, talking to Washington Post columnist Colbert King about the Republican primary elections and Rush Limbaugh.<\/p>\n

PETERSON: Radio talker Rush Limbaugh said this week that if either McCain or Huckabee won the South Carolina primary, it would destroy the Republican Party. Is he right about that?<\/p>\n

KING: He\u2019s absolutely wrong. I mean, the Republican Party will survive whatever happens, they will survive him as well. But the key is that Romney, if McCain wins, he will have the Republican Party behind him if he gets the nomination, there\u2019s no question about it.<\/p>\n

RUSH: And once again, we are being asked to listen to liberals who work at the Washington Post to tell us what our party will be and what it can\u2019t be and what won\u2019t happen to us, and we are supposed to listen to these people. By the way, I never said that if McCain or Huckabee won the South Carolina primary, it would destroy the Republican Party. Never said that. It\u2019s worse than that. I said if they get the nomination. How could the party be destroyed on one primary? I didn\u2019t say that. That had to be a slip of the tongue or a fact checker that gave Gordon Peterson the quote and got it wrong, but I didn\u2019t say whoever won the South Carolina primary, McCain or Huckabee, would destroy the Republican Party. I said if they get the nomination. I said, to be factually correct, the Republican Party won\u2019t be destroyed, it\u2019s always going to survive, but it\u2019s not going to be anything like it looks today, and it will not be the primary residence of conservatives. That\u2019s my great fear. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: One more sound bite, then back to the phones. This is Margaret Carlson, and she was also on Inside Washington on Saturday night. Host Gordon Peterson says, ‘All right now, Margaret. Tom DeLay, former House majority leader,\u2019 The Hammer, ‘We remember him.\u2019 (snorts) Thanks, Gordon. I\u2019m sure he remembers you, too. ‘…said that McCain had done more to hurt the Republican Party than any elected official he could think of. Why do the party regulars hate John McCain so much?\u2019<\/p>\n

CARLSON: Let me count the ways. He\u2019s violated all ten commandments, uh, of the Republican Party by being against Bush\u2019s tax cuts. Uh, he\u2019s wrong on immigration as far as the base is concerned, although he\u2019s modified his position to be in — in favor of, uh, strong border control first. Uhhhh, and we like him. The press likes John McCain, and that really ticks off the Republican Party.<\/p>\n

PETERSON: Why do we like him so much? <\/p>\n

CARLSON: Actually he does — he does talk straight. He told people in Michigan, the jobs aren\u2019t coming back.<\/p>\n

REPORTER: Yeah, and it cost him.<\/p>\n

CARLSON: It cost him, but, you know, that\u2019s why we like him, because he actually says an honest word.<\/p>\n

RUSH: There we go. Look, you don\u2019t need to hear from me on McCain; you just need to hear the liberals describe him. Well, he\u2019s opposed to Bush tax cuts, he\u2019s wrong on immigration — even though he\u2019s tried to flip-flop on that. ‘We like him in the press. He tells the truth: The jobs aren\u2019t coming back.\u2019 That\u2019s not the truth! Nobody knows, but what McCain essentially said to the people of Michigan was, ‘I\u2019m not going to try to get the jobs back.\u2019 When he says the jobs aren\u2019t coming back, it means, ‘I\u2019m not going to try to get \u2019em back.\u2019 By the way, we\u2019re talking about jobs, not certain types of jobs. What Michigan needs is employment, and if certain types of jobs are out the window… I mean, they no longer have people that manufacture the horse and buggy or the buggy whip. But there\u2019s still people getting jobs as the economy grows. McCain sent the message he wasn\u2019t even going to try — and the press, the Drive-Bys, love a message of doom and gloom and can\u2019t-doism! That\u2019s what they consider ‘straight talk.\u2019 When they consider straight talk is anything they agree with. And the first item on the things they agree with is: ‘Bush sucks,\u2019 and that\u2019s what they have heard McCain say. That\u2019s what has garnered him the ‘maverick\u2019 label. Of course they love him! Folks, this is profound. Florida liberal newspapers endorsing McCain? (sigh) Oh, well, look, it\u2019s up to you, and you know it. <\/p>\n

RUSH: Eleanor in Arlington, Virginia, I\u2019m glad you waited. Welcome to the program.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Thank you. I\u2019ve gotten nervous waiting. So I hope I express myself well.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You sound better than I do.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, thank you. I just wanted to tell you that I think you have one mad Huckabee person on the phone, and I\u2019m a recovering liberal, and 98% of my ethnic group votes Democratic. So obviously I think, you know, I think with my own mind. I have an elephant\u2019s memory regarding John McCain. I know his record. I know what he\u2019s done with the Gang of 14, taxes, et cetera, et cetera. What he says regarding his record is not always what the reality is.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I want you to shut up. We\u2019re not supposed to talk about those things anymore, Eleanor, don\u2019t you know? You haven\u2019t gotten the message.<\/p>\n

CALLER: (laughter) I\u2019m not shutting up, and I will never vote for him, and that is the bottom line. As far as Huckabee is concerned, they like Huckabee because he called the president\u2019s policy ‘arrogant,\u2019 whatever, and he\u2019s a Democrat, actually, in Republican clothing.<\/p>\n

RUSH: More than that, though.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah, that\u2019s right. He has a little problem with the truth, which —<\/p>\n

RUSH: But it\u2019s more than that.<\/p>\n

CALLER: What is that?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, if Huckabee were the nominee —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.<\/p>\n

RUSH: — the Drive-Bys and the Democrats would salivate. They\u2019re licking their chops.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, yeah. They want him.<\/p>\n

RUSH: They think they could win the White House —<\/p>\n

CALLER: With Huckabee.<\/p>\n

RUSH: — with Daffy Duck is the Democrat nominee against Huckabee.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right, exactly.<\/p>\n

RUSH: And they think so because, see, they despise the Christian right.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: They hate it. They hate the evangelicals. They have wanted to neutralize the influence of evangelicals in presidential politics since the eighties.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: And they think they could take Huckabee out easily — <\/p>\n

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.<\/p>\n

RUSH: — and, with him, the evangelical right, and they think further they could separate the evangelical right from the Republican Party, because the Republican Party would be so embarrassed and so teed off at the landslide defeat, that they would basically disown the evangelicals, and the evangelicals would have to form their own party, while the Republicans went on and told them to go to hell, just like liberals. That\u2019s what the Democrats think would happen with Huckabee as the nominee.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right. Exactly. They and —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Do you think the Democrats are right?<\/p>\n

CALLER: What? Do I think they\u2019re right about what?<\/p>\n

RUSH: What I just said, that if Huckabee gets the nomination —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah?<\/p>\n

RUSH: — the Democrats think they would defeat him and evangelicals at the same time in landslide proportions, and that the Republican Party would tell the evangelicals, ‘We\u2019re through with you. You caused us a loss that\u2019s worse than Goldwater in \u201964. We don\u2019t want you in our party anymore. Look at what you did to us.\u2019 (bullet sound)<\/p>\n

CALLER: I could see that happening.<\/p>\n

RUSH: That\u2019s what the Democrats think would happen with Huckabee as the nominee.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I tell you, because I listen to the press all the time, and I\u2019ve watched the comments. Anybody the press is for usually I\u2019m against because I know they have their — about the agenda. I\u2019ve watched them downplay Thompson. I\u2019ve heard from liberals, some liberals that I know that Thompson is of major concern to them against Hillary. <\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, I don\u2019t know that they think that, but they don\u2019t want to take any chances. What you have noticed and I will articulate — and this is nothing new — I just think people don\u2019t understand the depth and breadth of this, but if you look at who the Drive-Bys are out propping up versus who they\u2019re trying to destroy, they despise us, folks. It\u2019s precisely because of the reason a previous caller in the last hour gave us: They despise conservatives. They want to take out any conservative. They took out George Allen. Macaca. They\u2019ll take out any conservative they can. They try and take me out. I don\u2019t mean this in a martyred sense, but all these stories about how McCain beat me in the Washington Post, they would love for me to stop having influence. They don\u2019t understand that the influence that exists here results from you. You people are independent thinkers, and that\u2019s what they don\u2019t like about conservatives. Conservatives are thinkers, and they\u2019re not fooled. Conservatives don\u2019t buy into liberalism on the touchy-feely emotional side, but if there\u2019s nobody for conservatives to vote for, then that\u2019s fine. So take out Thompson. Take out Rudy. Leave us with McCain and Huckabee, and they think conservatives will stay home — and then the Republican Party will face a realignment. <\/p>\n

What the Drive-Bys and the Democrats desperately want is for there to be no conservative influence in the Republican Party at all, because they know that if that happens, the Republican Party will never beat them. Without conservatism in the Republican Party, the Republican Party is finished in terms of having chances, viable chances to win elections — if the conservative base is driven out of it. You can drive the conservative base out of the Republican Party by making sure that none of its candidates get nominated, that none of its candidates win primaries, or if they do win primaries, that big pieces designed to destroy them show up in the Drive-By Media. (whispering) You don\u2019t understand how we are hated as conservatives by the media and by Democrats. They don\u2019t look at us as opponents they don\u2019t have to defeat. They look at us as however they wish to describe us. You shouldn\u2019t be around. Debate us? That\u2019s beneath them! We\u2019re like Chihuahuas, except the Chihuahuas that were yapping at their heels are up to their throats now, and they want us finished. So when they start touting all these candidates that are not us, and that\u2019s why we get concerned here, and that\u2019s why we\u2019re not going to shut up, ladies and gentlemen.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: One other thing, ladies and gentlemen, about this shut up business. Have you noticed that the people out there — and let\u2019s keep this discussion to those of us on the right. Let\u2019s forget the liberals for a second, the Drive-Bys and Democrats. We just discussed them. But have you noticed that the people who are advocating that opponents of Senator McCain just shut up, have you noticed that Rudy\u2019s supporters, Romney\u2019s supporters, Thompson\u2019s supporters, they\u2019re not telling their critics to shut up. This is awfully thin-skinned of these people on the McCain side of the aisle, just telling us now that they think he\u2019s the front-runner, even though he hasn\u2019t gotten the most delegates yet, he doesn\u2019t lead in total vote count. We\u2019re just now supposed to shut up? Have we heard any of the other candidates or their supporters saying to the rest of us to shut up, from Thompson, Rudy, Romney? Do we get editorials and opinion pieces and other lectures telling us, ‘Hey, stop talking about Thompson, stop talking about Rudy, stop talking about Romney,\u2019 in ways that might hurt their campaigns? But the McCain people are awfully thin-skinned out there. When you have thin skin, there\u2019s a reason. Thin skin is easily pricked. It\u2019s also sometimes transparent, can be seen through. Don\u2019t get too close. You might see the truth, what\u2019s underneath. So shut up. You guys are just going to blow everything, just stop this. You\u2019re destroying and you\u2019re hurting. None of the other candidates have this thin skin. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: One closing thought from the previous hour: I\u2019m noticing this in a lot of conservative media. Those of us who are opposing these McCain… Let me set this up a better way. When Huckabee was coming out of nowhere in Iowa, we had numerous pundits on the left who write their conservatism to be […]<\/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":"\nWhy Should We Shut Up? - 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:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2008\/01\/21\/why_should_we_shut_up2\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Why Should We Shut Up? - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: One closing thought from the previous hour: I\u2019m noticing this in a lot of conservative media. Those of us who are opposing these McCain… Let me set this up a better way. 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