Carville vs. Shrum on Elitist Democrats

RUSH: Bruce in Brooklyn, thank you, sir, for waiting, and welcome.

CALLER: Thanks very much, Rush, and greetings from the conservative insurgency and elitist (unintelligible) New York City.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: I want to first entirely agree with your point that what Limbaugh said in San Francisco was not a misstatement. I think that his rhetoric is finally catching up with his record.

RUSH: You mean what Obama said in San Francisco? Because I haven’t been there in a long time.

CALLER: Oh, I’m so sorry. I apologize. I’ve been on hold for a while and I’m a little scrambled.

RUSH: I understand, but we’ve gotta be careful of people trying to spin things into that I said it.

CALLER: No.

RUSH: And we can’t let that happen.

CALLER: Of course. I’m glad you corrected the record. As to Obama, I think there is a real and growing fissure within the Democratic Party, and what he said is evidence of that, and I point to yesterday’s Meet the Press, James Carville, perhaps in an unguarded moment, said the following, and I quote: ‘There’s a large segment of the Democratic Party that would like to win an election without these kind of white working class voters.’ He was talking to Bob Shrum. And from what I take from that what he’s trying to say is that there is a large segment of the Democratic Party that feels that working class, perhaps more culturally conservative Democrats are getting in the way of the liberal agenda and perhaps this election can be a water (unintelligible) for the liberals by getting someone like Obama in —

RUSH: Well, you know, that’s a good point because the Democrats right now have a governing majority in the House of Representatives ’cause conservative Democrats ran against RINO Republicans in some southern states, and these conservative Democrats are not proving to be a rubber stamp for Nancy Pelosi. See, they don’t like mavericks in their party, they want to run ’em out. And so the people you’re talking about, the Democrats look at them as little mavericks, these southern white hayseed hick Democrats who can’t be counted on to be good liberals on a consistent basis. I think Carville is exactly right. Was this in the context of Obama’s comments in San Francisco?

CALLER: It was precisely in that context. He was having a bit of an argument with Bob Shrum, another Democratic strategist, and —

RUSH: Let me ask you a question.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: I need to call Tim Russert and ask him a question. Bob Shrum is, what, 0-for-13?

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: All right. Would you have Marv Levy, great guy, nice guy, coach of the Buffalo Bills, lost four straight Super Bowls, would you put Marv Levy on a sports talk show to explain how to win a Super Bowl?

CALLER: No, and I’m originally from San Francisco so I’d rather have someone like Bill Walsh.

RUSH: Right. So what is this with Bob Shrum, who’s 0-for-13, putting him on television and he’s a smug, arrogant guy to begin with and he’s supposed to be advising Democrats how to win the White House?

CALLER: Right. And he seems to really be sympathizing with Obama anyway, and that’s why I was thrilled —

RUSH: Well, of course.

CALLER: — that Carville, as I say, perhaps in an unguarded moment, would pull back the curtain a bit on the Democratic Party and show the concern that they have between their more culturally conservative elements and the liberals who really want to win this November.

RUSH: Well, we have a couple sound bites here, and these might be the two in question from the Meet the Press yesterday. The roundtable, by the way, was Carville with Mary Matalin and, of course, Shrum and Mike Murphy was there. Russert says, ‘James Carville, is this ‘bitter’ remark of Obama’s a real issue?’

CARVILLE: Yeah, I think it is an issue. And the other thing is there’s just some slight historical inaccuracies here. The gun culture has been part of Pennsylvania forever, for a long, long time. I remember the Deer Hunter, which is one of the really great movies of 1978, I don’t think that Senator Obama really understands the relationship of Pennsylvanians and Midwesterners and Southerners and their guns. I mean, I have eight guns myself. I’m hardly bitter about things. Also, that the people have been going to church in Pennsylvania for a long time, a really long time. His cultural history is way, way off, way off.

RUSH: So it’s not the comment where he says some people would like to lose, or win without these clowns that Obama was insulting. (doing Carville impression) ‘But I have eight guns myself, I love going out and pulling the trigger, dude, and then go in there, have my gumbo.’ And people are going to church for a long time. (laughing) So Shrum, here’s Shrum’s reply. Russert says, ‘Bob Shrum, your response?’

SHRUM: He’s not running for sociologist-in-chief, he’s running for president, so I think he wishes he hadn’t said it quite this way. I think he wishes he said it the same way he did the second day around. Now, the truth is James and I started 25 years ago in focus groups in Pennsylvania, polling, et cetera, heard a lot of anger, a lot of frustration. So there’s an element of truth in what he said, but the underlying question here is whether McCain and Clinton can tag him with the term ‘elitist,’ which is what they want. I mean, here’s a guy who just finished paying his student loans, who was raised by a single mother and his grandparents who doesn’t know what it’s like to have $100 million.

RUSH: He just got through trashing that grandmother, too. He just got through throwing her under the bus and then he backed the bus over to make sure she’s dead. For crying out loud, Bob, just finished paying his student loans, doesn’t know what it’s like to have a hundred million dollars, he knows a guy that does, and the guy that does, Tony Rezko, helped him get his house. What do you mean, Bob? 0-for-13. Operation Chaos.