RUSH: The Washington Post and every news outlet… I mean, it’s all over the place. There’s a special election in New York State to replace Kirsten Gillibrand, who’s the conservative Democrat who was named to — who? Replace who in the Senate? Hillary! Yeah. She was named to replace Hillary in the Senate. So her seat is up. It’s a conservative district, and the Republican candidate, Jim Tedesco, was way ahead. He was up by double digits, and then he goofed up, and he said Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant to me. Then he had to backtrack on that and say, ‘That’s not what I meant! I was talking…’
This is a local race and he said, and I’m tired of getting Limbaugh questions. So the Democrat has pulled even, and in the Washington Post: ‘Limbaugh an Issue in New York Special — Democrats are seeking to use … Rush Limbaugh to rally their base in advance of next week’s special election in New York’s 20th district. A new direct mail piece from businessman Scott Murphy’s campaign features an angry shot of Limbaugh over the words ‘I hope Obama fails.’ At the bottom of the piece in parentheses is written ‘Somebody wants you to stay home on March 31st….’ On the back of the mailer, an Obama drawing is featured with text superimposed over it that accuses Rush Limbaugh and his lackeys in Washington of trying to be a roadblock to change America desperately needs.’
My picture is all over campaign literature in New York’s 20th district. Not the picture of the candidate. Not the picture of the Republican candidate. In fact, I’ve got screen shots here of the photos. I can show you on the Dittocam, those of you watching on the Dittocam. You can’t read the text, but you can see there the literature. You see Obama, you see me and the so-called angry shot. What you do not see, what is not available in the e-mail or the campaign literature is anything the Democrat candidate stands for! The Democrat candidate doesn’t give you one reason to elect him! The Democrat candidate is running ads saying that this guy on the Republican side is linked to me, that Limbaugh and his — meaning Limbaugh and my — lackeys in Washington are trying to see to it that you don’t show up.
I have never in my life told voters of any kind not to vote! I may have told a couple people Election Day was not the day they thought it was. (laughing) Just kidding. I’ve never done that, either. I’ve never told people not to vote! Do you know what I think? I think this Democrat, Scott Murphy, is so lacking in character or qualifications that he has to use me as a diversion from his own incompetence. I’m going to tell you what, if I ever did run for office, and it’s a long shot, folks, but if I ever ran for office, I’d run for office on me and what I think this country needs is me and why it needs me and what I’m going to do for the country and therefore you — and this guy is running against me! And I’m not on the ballot. They’re trying to put me on the ballot, my picture’s all over. I’m flattered, don’t misunderstand. What I’m saying is, to those of you in New York’s 20th: You have a Democrat candidate who apparently cannot tell you why you should elect him! Of course, the Drive-Bys love all this. Chris Cillizza was on Chris Matthews last night on Hardball, and Matthews asks… It’s a convoluted question. Let me see… ‘Chris, you’ve just broken a story late this afternoon about the role being played, perhaps passively, if that’s possible, by Rush Limbaugh, to…’ I’m playing no role, Chris! I didn’t know this was happening until I saw it myself in the e-mail last night. Okay, Rush Limbaugh is playing a role to fill that House seat up in New York, who is now the Senator replacing Hillary. Here’s Cillizza with his breaking news.
CILLIZZA: There’s a piece of direct mail that’s gone out, uh, today, folks are receiving up in that district today from the Democratic candidate: A picture of Rush Limbaugh and a quote saying, ‘I want him to fail,’ about the president and saying Rush Limbaugh wants to keep you from voting on March 31st. This is aimed at trying to drive out their base, trying to make people turn out in a special election where they might not turn out otherwise. It’s an interesting move because I think they’re trying to turn Rush Limbaugh into the bogeyman that George W. Bush was for the party in 2006 and 2008. That person that people went to the ballot box — Democrats, I’m talking about — to vote against.
RUSH: You go right ahead. You go ahead and run against a radio talk show host. You just do it. You are going to be shocked to see what happens. This is a conservative district up there, and you people in New York’s 20th, what you have to remember, what you have to understand is you’ve got a Democrat who doesn’t have the guts to tell you who he is! He doesn’t have the guts to tell you what his positions are on issues. And finally listen to Evan Thomas. Evan Thomas is at Newsweek, he’s an executive at Newsweek, ad listen to this explanation here, how Rahm Emanuel suckered them into running that cover story on me.
THOMAS: It’s o-old tack and it’s not just upstate New York Democrats. Rahm Emanuel did this very thing, what, about a month ago when he said that Rush Limbaugh is the head of the Republican Party. That set up this fury on cable TV and the cover of Newsweek. He suckered us into it, too, by putting Rush, uh,on the cover of Newsweek. It was a clever political trick: make a villain out of, uh, Rush Limbaugh to rally the Democratic base.
RUSH: Can you believe this, Newsweek now saying they got suckered. Newsweek, Evan, you take dictation from Rahm Emanuel! He doesn’t ‘sucker’ you into it. Oh, we wouldn’t have done the Limbaugh cover if we haven’t gotten suckered into it by Rahm Emanuel? Come on, guys.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is Darlene who is calling from the 20th district in New York, where the Democrat candidate, Scott Murphy, is trying to make it appear he’s running against me. It is my picture in all of his literature, and he’s telling people that I want Obama to fail and that I don’t want people to show up and vote in the special election on March 31st. He is not telling anybody what he stands for or what he’s going to do. He’s running against me trying to tie his opponent, Jim Tedesco, to me. And Darlene is on the ground up there in New York 20. Hi.
CALLER: Hi. Thank you for taking my call.
RUSH: Yes, ma’am.
CALLER: I guess what I wanted was that I am a Republican, although I’m far more conservative than I am Republican. I will be voting for Jim Tedesco. I have received far more literature from Jim Tedesco, far more commercials. Jim Tedesco is linking Nancy Pelosi to Scott Murphy and the stimulus and a lot of Obama’s different liberal agenda to him, and I think he’s doing a very good job. Where Scott Murphy, he doesn’t seem to be able to run on any of his own merits and have not been able to pin anything on Jim Tedesco. And until yesterday, there hadn’t been any national attention to this race. But when I was on the Internet last night going through different news media, I finally saw that I guess Joe Biden had run an ad in the state and different Democrats. You know, Obama was gonna say something for him.
RUSH: Now, now, now, now, now. What made this a national campaign was Murphy using me.
CALLER: Mmmm.
RUSH: That’s what got the Drive-Bys all talking about it, is the fact that I’m all over his flyer and mailer with a so-called picture when I’m mean and angry. This was from a personal appearance I made for our buddies in Detroit at WJR some years ago. It’s actually not a bad picture, but they characterized the picture as ‘angry.’ I’m being emotive as I speak and making a speech. ‘He’s angry! He’s terribly angry, Rush Limbaugh!’ But they’re trying to make it look like they’re running against me. What they’re actually trying to do up there, Darlene, is they believe that I am so hated and reviled that the Democrat voting base in the 20th district will be so outraged that I am even involved in this race that they’ll show up just to vote against me. You’re right. Murphy is giving no voter one reason to vote for him. Now, that’s odd when you consider that Democrats run this country.
I know it’s a conservative district, but he could be associating himself with Obama. He could be associating himself with Biden. He could be associating himself with David Paterson, all the Democrats. Andrew Cuomo. He could be doing that, except it’s a conservative district, I know.
CALLER: I know.
RUSH: But he’s a Democrat. He’s a Democrat. He could be doing all of these wonderful things: ‘I want to join President Obama in destroying your liberty! Uh… I want to join President Obama in creating new jobs! I want to join President Obama as he turns us back into a third world country. Uh… I want to join President Obama as his half-brother still lives in a hut and his other half-brother now has cholera. I want to join with President Obama as we’re about to deport good old Aunt Zeituni back to the Third World after he got his $500,000 book advance five days before being inaugurated. I want to support President Obama in the notion that he does not have to redistribute his own wealth to his own family. Vote for me: Scott Murphy!’
CALLER: Mmmm.
RUSH: But he doesn’t do that, he’s running literature: ‘Rush Limbaugh is Satan and the devil! Vote for me.’
CALLER: Mmmm.
RUSH: ‘Mmmm,’ is right.
CALLER: (giggles) Well, at least in our town, all I see is Jim Tedesco signs out all over, and Scott Murphy just doesn’t seem to be making any ground or headway, and I really hope —
RUSH: Well…
CALLER: I hope —
RUSH: He is. According to Drive-By Media polls, Tedesco had like a double-digit lead like a couple weeks ago, now the Drive-By pollmeisters say it’s a dead heat and that’s when they pulled me out, and they’re claiming that Tedesco lost his lead because of his own campaign. I don’t know what he did. Other than he said that I was irrelevant to him, and then he backtracked on that, said that’s not what he meant. He’s constantly peppered by the press, ‘What do you think of Rush Limbaugh? What do you think of Rush Limbaugh.’ He doesn’t care. He’s got a local race up there in New York 20. Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant to this race is what he meant, but they ran with it. Oh! So then he backtracked. He did an apology. They ran another story: another gutless, wimp Republican, came apologizing to me. Which is not what he did. He didn’t apologize. I don’t care. It didn’t matter to me at all but he supposedly apologized. This is what we read here. We’re not there in the 20th as you are — with the great, I’m sure, local media that you have.
CALLER: Yes. Well, I’ll be out on Tuesday voting for Jim Tedesco, because I think your last caller is right. We need to get back the Senate and the House, and we’ve just gotta do this.
RUSH: ‘Kin’ A.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: ‘Kin’ A.
CALLER: We’ll be out, so thank you very much for taking my call.
RUSH: Darlene, it’s a pleasure to have you on the EIB Network. Thank you —
CALLER: Thank you. Good-bye.
RUSH: — very much.