{"id":6293,"date":"2015-05-21T18:55:25","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T18:55:25","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2015-05-21T18:55:25","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T18:55:25","slug":"christie_vs_cruz_on_tone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2015\/05\/21\/christie_vs_cruz_on_tone\/","title":{"rendered":"Christie vs. Cruz on “Tone”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Audio sound bite time. Chris Christie. This is on CNBC Squawk Box today. I don\u2019t need to set this up. This will speak for itself. He\u2019s talking to the host, Joe Kernen, who says, “Why not be inclusive? Why not focus solely on the economy? Is there a Republican candidate that will see that and say, ‘Look, I want everybody to be happy. We include everyone! I don\u2019t care what your personal preference is anymore\u2019?”<\/p>\n

So the question is to Chris Christie is: “Why don\u2019t you Republicans…? Why don\u2019t you become nice people? Why are you so be on obsessed with who sleeps with who? Why are you so obsessed with who loves who? Why are you so obsessed with this or that? Why don\u2019t you just get together with us? We all come together and kumbaya and fix the economy and be inclusive and everybody love everybody? Why won\u2019t you Republicans do that?”<\/p>\n

CHRISTIE: It\u2019s your tone and how you talk about it. If you talk about these issues in a way that you are absolutely critical of a person who has a different view than you and dismissive of them, well, then they\u2019re gonna be dismissive of you as a candidate. If you are talking to a person who\u2019s pro-choice on abortion and you\u2019re pro-life and you say to them, like, “Listen, I\u2019m pro-life, and that means I\u2019m going to heaven, and you\u2019re pro-choice and you\u2019re going to hell.” Well, you know, if that\u2019s your tone, they don\u2019t care what you have to say about pro-growth policies; they don\u2019t care what you have to say about any of that stuff. They care that you seem intolerant to them. That\u2019s tone. That\u2019s not position.<\/line><\/p>\n

RUSH: So this, ladies and gentlemen, is an example of the establishment Republican view of how to get elected. Never mind that this technique has not worked. It\u2019s still the way to go. You can believe what you want to believe, but you don\u2019t criticize anybody and you don\u2019t insult anybody and you don\u2019t put anybody off. You must be inclusive. You must never tell anybody they\u2019re going to hell. <\/p>\n

Who does this anyway? <\/p>\n

I imagine it happens in some areas, but… (sigh) Again, that\u2019s sort of a straw man argument. The Republican\/conservative\/whatever view on pro-life is not, “You\u2019re going to hell.” It\u2019s rooted in the value of life. It\u2019s not rooted in the punishment of anyone. Anyway, so here\u2019s Governor Christie explaining that the Republican problem is one of “tone,” you see? Say anything we want to say, but we must inclusive and not insulting and not exclusionary. And he wrapped it up with this.<\/p>\n

CHRISTIE: We\u2019re getting back to tone and his question was about electability. It\u2019s how you present yourself. I feel very strongly about the things I feel strongly about. Part of our problem has been tone over time, and I think if the Republican candidate for president\u2019s tone is better and more inclusive, then you can get to a lot of the other issues that the media doesn\u2019t want you to get to.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Look, I… (sigh) I don\u00c2\u2019t have an intellectual problem with the answer here. My problem is, why is it only us? Why is it only we be concerned about tone. The meanest, most extreme people in American politics are members of the Democrat Party and the American left. Tone? These are the people rooting for people to die on Twitter! These are the people rooting for people to get cancer on Twitter. <\/p>\n

These are the people who are intolerant, mean-spirited. They\u2019re the bullies, and they don\u2019t care one bit about their tone, and they don\u2019t get punished for it. Yet we come along and we\u2019re the ones that have to make sure that we\u2019re not seen as mean-spirited and bullyish and only one way of looking at anything. (sigh) This whole notion of “tone,” I totally understand the art of the persuasion here and I understand where tone can come into it.<\/p>\n

But the problem I have is that all of these rules that end up shackling people, all these rules that end up causing people to be not who they are on our side, are never applied to people on the left. Look what these people say about — take your pick. What they say about anything. George W. Bush. Sarah Palin. Take your pick of any Republican anywhere, and what they say about them, and they\u2019re never punished for it. Nobody ever goes to them and says, “Your tone needs to be moderated a little bit here, Mr. Hoyer. Your tone needs to moderated a little, Ms. Pelosi.” Dingy Harry? For crying out! Tone? <\/p>\n

Anyway, we\u2019ll take a break here, come back, and listen to how Ted Cruz deals with this. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. Yesterday, day before, this week earlier Jeb Bush was somewhere in Nevada and some 19-year-old college kid<\/a>, talking about the Iraq war and questions that the Republicans have been getting about it, “knowing what you know now.” I made the theory that the Republican establishment has this belief, like Christie said, we\u2019ve gotta be nice, we\u2019ve gotta be respectful, partisan, cooperative, and all of that. We\u2019ll show the Democrats that we don\u2019t hate them and they have no reason dislike us and we can work together and get things done and make Washington work, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. <\/p>\n

In the midst of all this here comes this 19-year-old smart ass college co-ed who asks Jeb a setup question about ISIS and Iraq, and Jeb starts giving the typical Republican establishment answer, “Well, I think that (muttering).” Nothing one way or the other. She says (imitating girl), “You\u2019re wrong, your brother created ISIS! Your brother, by going into Iraq, your brother gave us ISIS.” <\/p>\n

“What just happened? I did everything they told me to do, and she still hates me.” And my point is this business of tone and all that, just let it rock, folks, if you just let it rock, you know, it\u2019s not about tone. It\u2019s about substance. It\u2019s about issues. It\u2019s about the Democrats are destroying the country and people need to be told this. Now, if you need to whisper it to \u2019em, fine, I don\u2019t know, but don\u2019t shirk from the substance. <\/p>\n