RUSH: From the New York Times: ‘New Forecast Shows Democrats Losing Six to Seven Senate Seats,’ and there’s a 20% chance of losing ten or more seats in the Senate. I think it’s going to be more six or seven.
I have had so many people ask me why the Republican Party is not so embracing of the tea party, and I’m glad I got the question because it’s a good way to be educational and informative to people about what we’re dealing with. The tea party is about overthrowing the establishment. The tea party… Folks, here’s the thing about the tea party. If we’re going to be consistent… and I must say this. A lot of us (and I’ll include myself in this) elect Republicans and they head to Washington and, in one way or another, they let us down. They join the ruling class or fail to govern as they promised they would when they campaigned. Their conservatism sort of fades away — and when this happens, we always say, ‘We’re not going to vote for these people again. We’re going to vote for real conservatives.’
What this has done with the combination of the tea party being created and evolving, is a lot of people who have no previous ties to politics and are not at all ‘sophisticated’ in the world of party politics have decided that it’s worth running for office and enduring the media anal exam and all of the insulting criticism they’re gonna get because they’ve heard the call. They themselves have complained about Republicans getting to Washington and failing to govern as they had promised and so they said, ‘Okay, I’m going to do it,’ and it’s at that point that they need to be supported — and especially because it’s at that point that the establishment, including the media, starts ripping these people as neophytes and inexperienced goombahs.
‘They have no clue what they’re doing,’ and so forth. They try to besmirch them. They try to make it embarrassing to publicly support these people, and unfortunately it works with some people who are embarrassed. What do you think the Palin business is? You know, Palin is a great example of what I’m talking about. They tried to embarrass as many Republicans as possible into not supporting Palin from the moment she was named the vice presidential running mate by McCain, and it continues to this day. They’re insulting her, attacking her, making it embarrassing to support her — and it works with people. I can’t tell you the number of Republicans who on the one hand complain, whine and moan to me about all the Republican sellouts in Washington and who then start complaining that Palin doesn’t have the smarts.
‘She doesn’t have the experience! She needs to go to policy school!’
I have lost my temper a couple of times with people in my own home, because I’m listening to people complain about Democrats, complain about Obama, complain about liberals — that they fully understand Obama is the worst thing that could happen to America in terms of our economy, traditions and so forth — and then Palin’s name comes up and they say, ‘Well! (snort) We can’t have her! She’s not smart enough, she’s not bright enough.’
I look at them and say, ‘Compared to WHO? Compared to Joe Biden? Compared to Harry Reid? Who’s she dumber than? Would you rather have Obama?’
‘Well, no, but I want somebody that can win.’
‘Well, tell me who it is. You tell me who packs arenas more than Palin does right now.’ At the time we’re having these discussions it’s last summer and after the Convention and so forth and after the election. ‘Who’s creating more excitement among Republicans, in an electoral sense, than Palin is?’
‘Well, she still embarrasses me.’
‘Well, who the hell are you? What do you know about ‘the Indian subcontinent’?’
‘Well, I just don’t think she’s…’
So the dichotomy is people want outsiders and they want challengers and they want people who have not been part of the system, and then when some people show up who are outsiders and not part of the system, some of our people that want that then say, ‘Weeeell, I don’t think they’re good. They’re not polished enough.’ What do you mean ‘not polished enough’? If we’re gonna fix this, it’s going to have to be made up of people who have enough passion and care enough to run the gauntlet of having their personal lives exposed, running the risk of having the political establishment — both Republican and Democrat in the media — destroy them and their lives, their families and so forth, with never-ending criticism publicly.
We can’t on the one hand sit here and ask, ‘Well, where are the good people? How come the same old people run?’ and then some new people pop up and then we start savaging ’em. I’m just saying this because it ought to come as no surprise that the Republican establishment is going to go out there and do whatever they can to protect Lisa Murkowski. She is an incumbent. They raised a lot of money on her behalf. Let it open your eyes if you are among those who don’t quite understand it. If you think that party loyalty is based on issues (snorts) don’t make that mistake. It is with a lot but not all. I remember getting mad. I got so mad that I had to apologize to once guy, ’cause I literally lost it. I’m listening to this guy who I don’t think he could find the Indian subcontinent on a map.
I don’t think he could have found half the stuff we talked about or knew about it, but he was convinced Palin was a dolt and would be an embarrassing thing for the Republican Party, and would be a guaranteed loser. I said, ‘What do you want? Do you want to win with somebody you’re gonna end up criticizing as being unfaithful and so forth?’ It’s something that if you really, really mean it that you want challengers from outside the system — true outsiders — when they show up, then you know what it takes. If you enter the political arena, and you’re not a liberal Democrat, you know that the moment you show any potential of rallying people or winning an election, they’re gonna come out and destroy you. Palin is a classic example of that. They’ll always tell us who they fear.
That’s another thing I said to this guy: ‘If they really thought Palin was the blithering idiot that they say she is, they wouldn’t be worried about her.’
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