RUSH: Day three, the Drive-By Media focusing on me and McCain. Last night Larry King had a panel to discuss it. He spoke to former Clinton advisor The Forehead and Democrat strategerist Jamal Simmons. Wait a minute, he had a panel of two Democrats? No, there was a Republican there. We’ll get to him on the next bite. Here is Larry King saying to The Forehead, Forehead, ‘do you see the chance of a Joe Lieberman on that ticket?’
SIMMONS: But he can’t pick somebody like Tom Ridge, you got a Rush Limbaugh saying that he can’t do it.
RUSH: That’s Jamal Simmons, the Democrat strategerist. ‘He can’t pick Ridge, Rush Limbaugh says he can’t do it!’ Larry King then later talking to Republican strategist Kevin Madden.
KING: Does, uh, Rush Limbaugh affect who your party nominates?
MADDEN: No. Look, Rush Limbaugh is an echo chamber. Rush Limbaugh speaks for a lot of grassroots conservatives. There are people out there who feel very strongly about the direction of the party. They make their voices known, whether it’s on blogs, whether it’s on Internet, whether it’s on talk radio. Rush Limbaugh gives them a chance to make themselves heard, and I think this week when you saw a lot of the backlash against the idea of a pro-choice candidate being nominated as John McCain’s number two, they were using Rush Limbaugh as a vehicle to express their discontent.
RUSH: (laughs) All right. It’s close enough to what’s happened. I love King’s question, though. ‘Does Rush Limbaugh affect who your party nominates?’ Nobody was using me as ‘a vehicle to express their discontent,’ Kevin. I love you, but I was expressing my own discontent with either Ridge or Lieberman for the sake of the conservative movement in the Republican Party and for the sake of victory in November. If there was a groundswell protest from voters to McCain campaign headquarters offices, they did it on their own. I never take a poll of the audience, ‘Okay, what do you guys want me to say about this? I’ll say it.’ Other hosts may try to figure that out, but not me. Last night CNN’s Election Center fill-in host John King spoke to the Democrat strategerist Bob Shrum and they had this exchange.
REPORTER: Rush Limbaugh today (sic) said this on the radio, he said, ‘I really hope it’s Biden. We don’t want to say that too loud, but I really do hope that it’s Joe Biden because we’ve got a mountain of archival audio on Joe Biden, plus the arrogance factor times two, with Biden and The Messiah would just be delicious.’ Bob Shrum, just a rant from Rush Limbaugh or does he have a point?
SHRUM: It’s a rant from Rush Limbaugh. I think Joe Biden would be a terrific choice. His depth of knowledge on foreign policy, his capacity to go out there and campaign, to really go after the Republicans.
RUSH: Oh, gosh, folks! We don’t pray on this program much, but for this we might offer a prayer. Please let them listen to Shrum! (laughing) Please let them take Shrum’s advice. We’re hearing that it isn’t going to be Biden. We’re hearing that it isn’t going to be Bayh. Because I would love both of those guys, because, you know, Obama-Bayh,’ Obama-Biden. ‘Cause see, folks, if they keep listening to Shrum; the last guy to listen to Shrum was Kerry. The last guy to listen to Shrum before Kerry was Gore when they were running for president. Shrum has yet to engineer a successful Democrat presidential campaign. I hope that they keep listening to Shrum and give us Biden. It looks like this Chet Edwards guy is in the mix, but the Drive-Bys are out there, tongues on the pavement, panting away (panting) waiting for the choice ’cause they know he needs something to jump-start the campaign. He needs something. He cannot do this on his own anymore. The magic is gone, the lofty speeches saying nothing lofty are now recognized as just that, lofty speeches that say nothing. Plus, they’re old news. Drive-Bys are looking for a little more a week from last night, Invesco Field at Mile High. You know, I made a bet, a little wager here when we started the program that Obama would not make his announcement before three o’clock. I only have an hour and fifteen minutes to go to win the bet.