RUSH: Here’s Judy in… I guess it’s —
CALLER: Delaware.
RUSH: — somewhere in Delaware. How are you, Judy?
CALLER: It’s Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and I’m going to a tea party tomorrow in Georgetown, Delaware. Rush, I’ll get to my point. I’m very concerned with somebody trying to attach himself to these tea parties. If we’re not careful, we’re going to end up with our own ‘green’ candidate for president the next time. As you know, Newt very early on bought into man-made global warming, and he bounced on the couch with Nancy, and I’m concerned that if we’re not careful he’s going to become a spokesman for the Republican Party. He’s clearly —
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait a minute. Are you talking about Newt Gingrich?
CALLER: I am talking about none other than Newt Gingrich, and he is positioning himself to run for president the next time, and —
RUSH: He’s not the only one.
CALLER: I know he’s not, but he is an elitist, big spending, global warming, and he is doing a lot of things right now —
RUSH: I think it is a little irrational to buy into the left’s totally concocted hoax of global warming. I think that’s a little irrational. Anybody would say that’s not rational.
CALLER: He was very early, though. He jumped on board very early and bought into global warming. And he said, you know, the era of Reaganism is over. Then he runs out and he makes a film on Reagan. I just see that he is doing a lot of things, and it really troubled me when he saw that the tea parties were catching on, and then he very quickly attached himself to the tea parties.
RUSH: Well, again…
CALLER: I think it’s —
RUSH: Wait a second, wait a minute. He’s not the only one trying to co-opt the tea parties.
CALLER: Oh?
RUSH: There’s a whole bunch of people trying to go out there and say they are the impetus behind the tea parties. You have to expect this. This happens. I’m not approving it and I’m not condoning it, but you have to understand it. Here you have a genuine, grassroots, bubble-up movement. So you’ve got all kinds of people that want to claim they had a role in it even if they don’t want to claim they had a role in it. They just want to be part of the crowd because there will be a lot of attention focused on these things tomorrow. So that’s standard operating procedure for people who see events like this as an opportunity to further a political career or some other kind of career. It’s natural that that would happen.
CALLER: Well, I’m just also concerned — I’ve been concerned for a while — that we’re going to end up with a candidate just like last time, and I think Newt has been positioning himself for a while. I used to have tremendous respect for Newt Gingrich, and I don’t know at what point he kind of lost his way and got to be one of the inside-the-Beltway elitists, but I just don’t want to be in the same position as last time. I’d like to have a candidate next time that I could truly get behind.
RUSH: Well, you know, Newt… Newt is… He’s a fabulous idea guy. He’s got ideas that grow out of his head like weeds grow in your garden. They’re just constant, and some of them are good, and some of them are brilliant, and he never stops, you know, trying to put them into action. Newt’s… Newt’s… What did you say? He used to have tremendous respect but he’s lost his way?
CALLER: Well, yeah.
RUSH: I just think he thinks there’s a new way.
CALLER: Well, I think he thinks that as well.
RUSH: (sigh)
CALLER: And I couldn’t understand why he said the era of Reaganism was over. And then he turns around and he makes this film. Now, I have a suggestion. You know, I hate seeing you so upset. You need to take an afternoon off and go spend an afternoon at the Reagan Library
RUSH: What do you mean? What do you mean?
CALLER: (garbled) (laughing)
RUSH: What do you mean, you hate seeing me so upset?
CALLER: Well, you just been in a tremendously bad mood today, and I would like to see you —
RUSH: How do you know?
CALLER: I’m listening to your show.
RUSH: Yeah, I’ve said I’m in one, but it hasn’t sounded that way.
CALLER: No, but you’re clearly, clearly concerned about what’s happening. And I just spent an afternoon at the Reagan Library a couple weeks ago, and it does wonders for your spirit, Rush! Take a day off and go renew yourself.
RUSH: Ugh. Renew myself.
CALLER: (laughing) I say that —
RUSH: Renew myself! (laughing)
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: Renew myself? I feel like I’m plugging myself into something.
CALLER: No.
RUSH: Renew myself!
CALLER: No. Reagan was up against tremendous opposition and obstacles.
RUSH: Look, I understand all that. I have admitted I’m fed up, but I haven’t told you why. You’re just assuming so.
CALLER: Oh? When are you gonna let us know why?
RUSH: I’m not going to bleed on you. I’m not going to tell you what’s wrong. It’s enough to say I’m fed up, but I’m not going to sit here and whine and moan about it.
CALLER: Well…
RUSH: Other people would do that. I’m not going to. I’m just fed up. I’m just in a foul, rotten humor. That’s all.
CALLER: Well, we love ya. (laughs)
RUSH: These things happen. You know, even I am human.
CALLER: I know you are. And we appreciate all that you do for all of us out there every day.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. You’re most kind. You really are. And, you know, I renew myself a lot.
CALLER: Well…
RUSH: Every time I go out to renew myself I’m greeted by a bunch of e-mails, ‘Screw you! Cancel my subscription! You’re never there.’
CALLER: Well…
RUSH: So, ‘Cancel your own subscription,’ like William Buckley said one day. So…
CALLER: Well, I just don’t want to have someone get out front too quickly and become the spokesman for the party and I don’t know. I don’t think… I think Newt’s trying to be all things to all people, and I’m not sure that that’s good for the conservative movement right now.
RUSH: Look, I don’t think you have anything to worry about, there are so many on our side who already think they’re the spokesman for either the Republican Party or the conservative movement or the conservative intelligentsia movement. Don’t sweat it, ’cause Newt has got a lot of competition out there, from people who think they’re going to be or should be or are already the spokesman for the party. But leadership has a way of surfacing, and it surfaces in its own time. It’s just a little soon right now for it to manifest itself, but it’ll happen. I don’t know who, and I don’t know that you’re going to dig it, but there will be somebody surface. If it doesn’t, if we end up like last year’s primaries… (laughs)
CALLER: Yeah, yeah.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: That’s true, and —
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: — it could very easily could happen. Well, I’m going to wear my Operation Chaos hat to the tea party tomorrow, until you come up with a better —
RUSH: Congratulations. I hope you have a great time out there.
CALLER: (laughing) Okay. We’ll be thinking you.
RUSH: Okay. That’s a right-wing extremist from Delaware. That’s Judy. Well, according to the Department of Homeland Security, that woman is a right-wing extremist. She’s going to tea parties. She is a right-wing extremist.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: In Pittsburgh, this is Rob. Great to have you, sir. Nice to have you, how are you?
CALLER: Thank you, Rush. It’s certainly an honor and a privilege to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Getting right to the point, as Bo suggested, you know, I guess I’m a right-wing activist as well, and I listen to the tea parties, I listen to all the things that are the grassroots efforts that are going on right now. And I certainly applaud those efforts. I think it’s great that we are starting to get conservatives that are willing to step forward. But at the same time, I feel like we’re a minor league baseball team taking on the majors. You are a machine. You have knowledge, you have insight, you have the ability to help this woman that you spoke to earlier from Florida to understand a broader sense of what’s actually happening. These tea parties and things I think are going to be a success and a failure. I think that the left has an incredible machine. I think that they are going to infiltrate these tea parties, they’re going to have racist signs, they’re going to have all sorts of different things out there, they’re going to turn this positive energy that we have against us and use it against us. And unfortunately, while we’re motivated, we don’t have the structure, we don’t have the 20 years of training to actually understand how the left machine works, and we don’t want to emulate it because it goes against our core. And I’m greatly concerned of our ability to actually make a positive change. I think we’re gonna actually get slaughtered in this process.
RUSH: You think it’s just feel-good basically; it’s not going to accomplish anything?
CALLER: No, I think it is. I’ve tried to involve myself in a couple of things, I’ve talked to a number of my friends and others that are involved in this, and they do feel good about getting together, they feel good about the concept of, you know, throwing some tea bags. But when it comes to the rolling up your sleeves and doing the hard work that has to happen to actually impact change, that goes a little bit too far for them.
RUSH: Well, throughout the 20 years, it’s actually been longer than that that you’re talking about, we don’t have the training, every time the left gins up a protest, large or small, I get calls from people, ‘Why don’t we ever do anything like that?’ Because we’re working. Well, now we’re doing it. As your call indicates, even now that we’re doing it, some people are still not happy about it. We still assume that the left is going to co-opt and take over and so forth. I think the tea parties have a lot of value ’cause they have genuinely bubbled up from real people. This is not something that some media figure or politician started. You could say that Rick Santelli of CNBC gave the idea, but he’s not allowed to participate in these things, from what I know. But let the left try to co-opt it. Let ’em try. Everybody knows they’re going to try and we’ll see what happens. The organizers of these events think that they’re going to be so big the left is not going to be able to disrupt them. As to whether or not it’s going to make any difference, you’ve gotta start somewhere, and this is just an indication that there’s no leadership out there that these people can rally around, so they’re taking it to themselves. And I don’t blame ’em.