{"id":31694,"date":"2009-02-13T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:45:18","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T02:45:18","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:45:18","slug":"why_obama_loves_bob_michel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/13\/why_obama_loves_bob_michel\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Obama Loves Bob Michel"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: This is great. If you want to know how Obama defines bipartisanship, here it is.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: I want to thank, uh, Peoria\u2019s own Ray LaHood, who is doing outstanding work as my transportation secretary. You know, Ray comes from a long line of, uh, Republicans I love. <\/p>\n

AUDIENCE: (laughter)<\/p>\n

OBAMA: Uh, starting with, uh, Bob Michel, and, uhh, y-y-y-you know, I — I — I — I think there\u2019s a common sense, Midwestern, can-do, bipartisan attitude that Ray represents, and I am so pleased that he\u2019s in my cabinet.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. I think Obama, when he said he loved Bob Michel, that he got all confused and his speech started — okay, I\u2019ve lost my place, God, I shouldn\u2019t have said that, oh, God, so let\u2019s go back to LaHood. Bob Michel — I gotta take a break, but Bob Michel —<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

This is hilarious. He\u2019s out in Peoria, Illinois, yesterday, appearance at Caterpillar. You know the story. The Caterpillar CEO contradicted everything Obama said about the CEO hiring people back if the stimulus bill passes. The Caterpillar headquarters is in Peoria, and quite a few memorable Republicans have come from Peoria. Ray LaHood who is a former member of Congress, now is in Obama\u2019s cabinet as the transportation secretary, and Bob Michel, the former Republican leader in the House back when they had 120 seats, 130 seats, something like that, out of 435. And, you know, I was watching yesterday in the Capitol rotunda the ceremony honoring Abraham Lincoln at which, by the way, his history was once again besmirched and lied about, but as the camera panned those in the audience, I saw Bob Michel sitting there. I said, ‘What is Bob Michel doing there?\u2019 Bob Michel hasn\u2019t been in Congress I don\u2019t know how many years, what the hell is Bob Michel doing there? Now, he may still live there doing lobby work, I don\u2019t know. But what\u2019s he doing there? What possible tie does Bob Michel have to Obama? And then it hit me. No wonder Bob Michel is there because I betcha he\u2019s going to be on Air Force One with Obama as he flew out to Peoria to do the dog and pony show at Caterpillar. This is what Obama said, and as soon as he says here he loves Bob Michel you can hear him sort of lose his place here, ‘Gee, why did I just say that?\u2019 And then he goes back to LaHood and tries to gracefully get out of this. Listen. <\/p>\n

OBAMA: I want to thank Peoria\u2019s own Ray LaHood, who is doing outstanding work as my transportation secretary. Ray comes from a long line of Republicans I love, starting with Bob Michel, and — and —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Uh-oh.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — you know, they\u2019re just — I think there\u2019s a common sense —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Uh-oh.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — Midwestern can-do —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Uh-oh.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — bipartisan attitude that —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Uh-oh.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — Ray represents —<\/p>\n

RUSH: What about Bob?<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — and I am so pleased that he\u2019s in my cabinet.<\/p>\n

RUSH: What about Bob? What about Bob? Oh, come on, Bob, stand up, let \u2019em see you, Bob! (laughing) Some of you may be wondering why I\u2019m laughing. I\u2019m going to tell you why I\u2019m laughing. Here\u2019s a little passage from TIME Magazine on June 24th of 2001, about eight years ago. ‘When Newt Gingrich arrived in the House in 1979, he could see that the Republicans were a sorry lot, sorely in need of inspiration if they were ever to find their way out of the wilderness. The old minority leader, the sweetly irrelevant Bob Michel of Illinois would greet all the freshly elected Republican members with the revelation, ‘Every day I wake up, I look in the mirror, and I say to myself, ‘Today you\u2019re going to be a loser.\u2019 And after you\u2019re here awhile [freshmen], you\u2019ll start to feel the same way. But don\u2019t let it bother you. You\u2019ll get used to it.” No wonder Obama loves the guy! Gingrich, of course, ‘refused to get used to it, and instead spent ten years methodically recruiting and training his own private army,\u2019 and eventually brought the House under Republican control for the first time in 40 years. <\/p>\n

Now, for those of you new to the program and don\u2019t know Bob Michel, let me give you an idea how it worked when Bob Michel was the Republican leader in the House. One hundred twenty, 130 seats, sometimes get up as high as 150, out of 435. They had no prayer and the Democrats would say, ‘Hey, Bob, you know what, we\u2019re going to have some committee hearings today, we\u2019re not going to let you guys in, you don\u2019t need to be here.\u2019 And Bob would say, ‘That\u2019s cool, that\u2019s cool, we\u2019ll just go out and play golf,\u2019 and the Democrats would set up a golf game at congressional and Bob would take his Republican Republicans out there, maybe some lobbyists and go play golf. He was the most compliant loser on the face of the earth. He knew that there was no way he was ever gonna win anything, so he never even tried. He just accepted the role of minority, and they loved it, but Democrats loved this guy, he never opposed them, he never said a word. By the way, when we hear about civility in politics, that\u2019s what the Democrats mean. We\u2019ve lost the civility, we\u2019ve lost the days of good old Bob Michel who\u2019d go to dinner with us, and he\u2019d never demand to know what we were going to do in legislation. Maybe put up some token fights now and then just to make an appearance, but he knew he couldn\u2019t stop anything, and there weren\u2019t any arguments, and he didn\u2019t try to come up with any tricks in the Ways and Means Committee when tax law was being rewritten and hashed out, and those were the days of civility when the Republican leader — (laughing) yes. Yes. <\/p>\n

Quintessential civility and bipartisanship, where the Republican leader greets the arriving freshmen, ‘Look, I get up every day, and I look in the mirror and I say to myself, ‘You\u2019re going to be a loser today,\u2019 and it\u2019s going to happen to you, but don\u2019t worry, you\u2019ll get used to it, it\u2019s not that bad.\u2019 The real question is how many freshmen were there every year, because what was the point of running? What was the point of winning when you were going to be part of a constantly losing minority, yet there were Republicans that did run. So Obama puts Bob Michel on the plane from Washington to Peoria, singles him out here as a Republican he loves. That\u2019s right. Civility, bipartisanship, eager loser, willing, eager, happy loser. Now, nobody spoke of Bob Michel this way until we came along in 1988. Not in the media. I mean you had some Republicans back in 1988 in the House and on through \u201992, \u201993, starting to get frustrated. But I remember once the show started and I started poking fun here at Congressman Michel, I remember he was finally asked about it at a couple places in Peoria, and he got mad, he thought he was doing the best he could. He thought he was doing the best with what he had to work with. Telling the incoming recruits, ‘You\u2019re going to feel just like I do every day, you\u2019re gonna feel like you\u2019re going to be a loser every day, but you\u2019ll get used to it. It\u2019s not that bad.\u2019 No wonder the Democrats have been PO\u2019d ever since 1994, and they are never, ever going to let that happen again and that\u2019s what this stimulus, Porkulus package is all about. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: I want to go back and play two sound bites. First, number 12, I want to play it over again, because there\u2019s another funny aspect to this. <\/p>\n

OBAMA: I want to thank, uh, Peoria\u2019s own Ray LaHood, who is doing outstanding work as my transportation secretary. You know, Ray comes from a long line of, uh, Republicans I love. <\/p>\n

AUDIENCE: (laughter)<\/p>\n

OBAMA: Uh, starting with, uh, Bob Michel, and, uhh, y-y-y-you know, I — I — I — I think there\u2019s a common sense —<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right, that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — Midwestern, can-do —<\/p>\n

RUSH: That\u2019s it. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — bipartisan attitude —<\/p>\n

RUSH: That\u2019s it!<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — that Ray represents, and I am so pleased that he\u2019s in my cabinet.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Ray LaHood is doing outstanding work. He comes from a long line of Republicans I love, starting with Bob Michel, and, you know… Well, I can\u2019t think of any other Republicans I love so let\u2019s go back to Ray LaHood. What a great job he\u2019s doing in my cabinet! (laughing) He couldn\u2019t think of any other Republicans he loves. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: This is great. If you want to know how Obama defines bipartisanship, here it is. OBAMA: I want to thank, uh, Peoria\u2019s own Ray LaHood, who is doing outstanding work as my transportation secretary. You know, Ray comes from a long line of, uh, Republicans I love. 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