RUSH: Lindsey Grahamnesty was on the Today show today. Meredith Vieira interviewed him. She said, ‘When you went home recently, you were at a GOP meeting, you got booed over immigration. A lot of people in a lot of states, conservatives who think this bill is bad and they see it as a litmus test.’
GRAHAMNESTY: Here’s what I believe. This is a bill is a million percent better than the current system. I mentioned working with Ted Kennedy, and I got booed. I’m a Republican conservative who believes my country is at risk by not solving immigration. I’m a member of the United States Senate who believes it’s my job to work with Democrats to do hard things. This is no longer about immigration. Can your Congress, can your Senate come together to do things that one party can’t do by itself? I think the answer is yes — and if we fail here, Meredith, on immigration, good luck with doing Social Security.
RUSH: Oh, please!
GRAHAMNESTY: And if Congress punts and we don’t have the political will to get this done —
RUSH: Please. Please. Save it.
GRAHAMNESTY: — local and state government will act. There’s over 1100 local laws being proposed now that would be a hodgepodge of immigration laws that would really bring this economy to our knees.
RUSH: Good Lord, what happened to this guy? He’s gone from being one of the House managers in the impeachment of Slick Willie, to this! Do you think Ted Kennedy worries…? Ted Kennedy loves snookering people like Lindsey Grahamnesty. Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid love pulling the wool over their eyes, and Lindsey Grahamnesty, apparently… That’s why I was saying to you new-toners, you think this is the way to get things done? What if Kennedy’s bill is bad, Senator Grahamnesty? What if it’s an absolute abomination? What if it’s going to do more harm to the country than not doing anything right now? This idea that we don’t do anything, all is lost? You had six years to do something. Why now? Why all of a sudden now? This is pure politics. We have an ’08 election coming up. Both parties think that if they do the ‘right thing’ here they’re going to get these Hispanic voters. The Democrats know they’re going to get ’em. The Republicans pray they can get ’em by pandering to them by being like Democrats. This is exactly what I was talking about. Democrats don’t care about getting along with Senator Grahamnesty. I guarantee you, Democrats that heard Senator Grahamnesty to Today show today are licking their chops and they’re rubbing their hands together and they are thinking, ‘Okay, that’s one guy we’ve taken out.’ His job is to go to Washington, and work with Democrats? That’s even more important than the immigration bill? I always thought that you went into politics because of conviction, principle, driven by desire to see that your vision for your country was enacted, not to get along and work with Democrats — and this is one of the problems that we on our side have, this perpetual self-identification of being the minority and on the defensive all the time.
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RUSH: Let me just ask you a question, my friends. Do you think Chuck Schumer is interested in his objective being a United States Senator is to work with Republicans and people like Lindsey Grahamnesty?
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RUSH: Still here, ladies and gentlemen, considering the comments made by South Carolina Senator Lindsey Grahamnesty saying his job is to go to Washington, go to the Senate to work with Ted Kennedy, to work with Democrats to get hard things done. So if Lindsey Grahamnesty’s job is to work with Democrats, and Chuck Schumer’s job is to work with Democrats (because I don’t think Schumer and Kennedy think their job is to work hard with Republicans), so if you’ve got Schumer working for Democrats and Lindsey Grahamnesty working with Democrats, who’s working with us? All right, me, exactly. And I’m unelected.