RUSH: Here is George in Waynetown, Indiana. You’re next on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. How you doing?
RUSH: Very well, sir.
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: I say that’s a good campaign slogan for us.
RUSH: Party of hell, no, yeah.
CALLER: We are the party of no, and they’re the party of don’t know. And I think that would be a good thing to throw back in their face when they do that.
RUSH: Well, I understand what you’re saying. The problem is they do know what they’re doing. They’re doing it on purpose. But the party of don’t know conveys what you wanted to convey. Our guys don’t have the guts to be the party of, no, they’re very much afraid of being called the party of no, some of them are. By the way, you’ve reminded me here of the Politico story: ‘Top Democrats are growing markedly more pessimistic about holding the House, privately conceding that the summertime economic and political recovery they were banking on will not likely materialize by Election Day.’ If they really think that then they’re stupider than I thought. Did they really think there is going to be a Summer of Recovery just because Vice President Bite Me said so? They were banking on a summertime economic and political recovery?
‘In conversations with more than two dozen party insiders, most of whom requested anonymity to speak candidly about the state of play, Democrats in and out of Washington say they are increasingly alarmed about the economic and polling data they have seen in recent weeks. They no longer believe the jobs and housing markets will recover — or that anything resembling the White House’s promise of a ‘recovery summer’ is under way. They are even more concerned by indications that House Democrats once considered safe — such as Rep. Betty Sutton, who occupies an Ohio seat that President Barack Obama won with 57 percent of the vote in 2008 — are in real trouble. In two close races, endangered Democrats are even running ads touting how they oppose their leadership. ‘Democrats kept thinking: ‘We’re going to get better. We’re going to get well before the election,” said one of Washington’s best-connected Democrats. ‘But as of this week, you now have people saying that Republicans are going to win the House. And now it’s starting to look like the Senate is going to be a lot closer than people thought.”
I wonder how many of these Democrats remember the pep talks they got from Don Clinton. In the middle of the health care debate and right before the vote, Don Clinton gathered ’em all in a room, and he said, (imitating Clinton) ‘I just want to remind you people of something, you know, we lost the House in 1994, and everybody says we lost the House because we tried to get health care done and that’s not right. I want to tell you, we lost the House because we didn’t get it done. We lost the House in 1994 precisely because we didn’t pass health care. Now, I’m here to tell you the same thing is going to happen, you’re gonna lose, you’re gonna lose big time unless you pass health care. If you don’t vote for this you have no prayer of winning reelection 2010. Just isn’t going to happen.’ And so now all these people listen to Bill Clinton tell ’em they had to pass this or they were gonna lose and they passed it and now what? They’re not only gonna lose the House, they’re going to lose it big. They don’t have any idea how badly they’re gonna lose it. They are whistling Dixie if they think it’s going to be close. They have no idea the shellacking that’s coming.
Drudge has a story on his page, the Democrats are starting to joke that Pelosi’s going to be dead next year, there is a Democrat actually joking that Pelosi might die next year. It’s because they’re so afraid of what’s going to happen, they’re so afraid, they’re hoping Pelosi drops dead. One Democrat is making jokes about it. Now, if it were me or any of my colleagues out there joking about Pelosi dying, you know the excrement that would hit the fan. But a Democrat can go out and do it and all that happens is that they get very, very concerned that things are that bad. ‘A Democratic pollster working on several key races said, ‘The reality is that [the House majority] is probably gone.’ His data show the Democrats’ problems are only getting worse. ‘It’s spreading,’ the pollster said.’ They talk like they’ve got a deadly spreading disease, like they thought they would get well with the recovery summer, but it’s just spreading out there.
‘Chris Van Hollen, the chairman of the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee said, ‘We have been saying for the past 18 months this will be a politically challenging environment. That being said, we will retain the majority in the House. All of what you are hearing is the inside-the-Beltway chatter.’ A top House Democratic strategist who agrees with Van Hollen conceded pessimism is spreading rapidly — but mainly in Washington. This strategist said the mood among individual Democratic candidates, many of whom enjoy a considerable cash advantage, is more upbeat.’
It isn’t. It’s not upbeat anywhere on the Democrat side, nowhere. Even Rangel is starting to mouth off at Obama for that dignity remark, and the Russ Carnahan race, this is the funniest thing. He was at a town meeting or something, this is off the top of my head, they asked Carnahan about the mosque and he practically left his own meeting, you know, rather than answer. There was a firebombing or something in his campaign headquarters, they desperately wanted to pass it off as something a Republican did, and they dropped that story like a hot potato because they couldn’t find a Republican that had caused the damage. This guy Russ Carnahan, typifies this party, he’s a glittering jewel of colossal ignorance walking around out there. I mean if he holds a rally he sometimes can’t find out where it is. His own rally.
Jason in Syracuse in New York, it’s nice to have you on the Rush-Limbaugh program, hi.
CALLER: Hi. Nice to be here. Dittos, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: I just wanted to say that this whole Summer of Recovery rhetoric might not be all bad. I mean in people’s mind Obama’s recovered the economy then all the problems that come from here — because when it becomes clear to everybody that we’re still in trouble they’ll have no choice but to call it a new recession, and they won’t be able to blame that one on Bush without getting really creative.
RUSH: They are going to blame it on Bush. They’re gonna try to blame everything on Bush.
CALLER: They’ll try, but I mean at some point this has to become really obvious, I think.
RUSH: I think it already has. These guys are living an illusion if they thought there was going to be a recovery summer, and they’re living an illusion if they thought the recovery summer was gonna change their fortunes. Now, there are a couple of rumors as there always are about October Surprises, one of them is that Obama is going to surprise everybody and suggest extending the Bush tax cuts. There are a couple other things that are being rumored as potential October Surprises. And don’t discount them, by the way. They’ll try to pull something out. He’s not going to willingly concede this. You know, they want to keep blaming Bush for this, that’s all they’ve got. The guy that talked about Pelosi dying is from Alabama. His name is Bobby Bright. He’s a first-term Democrat, the ‘former mayor of Montgomery, was heard having a little fun at U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s expense.’ Yeah, heard having a little fun. Imagine if I were overheard thinking she’s gonna die, do you think it would be having a little fun at her expense? It happened ‘during his recent participation in the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce’s Eggs and Issues. Bright, who is facing a battle against Montgomery City Councilwoman Martha Roby this fall, joked that Pelosi might lose her own election, decide not to run for the speaker’s job or otherwise not be available. He suggested, jokingly’ jokingly, of course, ‘jokingly insisted to his audience, that Pelosi could fall ill and die in coming months. That remark drew laughter from the crowd.
He’s got a reputation as the second most independent member of Congress. He’s been routinely blasted for voting for Pelosi to be speaker. Bright, the first Democrat since the sixties to represent the conservative district which includes parts of Montgomery and southeast Alabama.’ Russ Carnahan — this guy’s a piece of work. He ran away from a question about ethics back in May. So this is his modus operandi to run — (interruption) I know Bush isn’t going to extend the Bush tax cuts, that would be giving the keys back to the Republicans, that would be admitting — anybody thinks this is going to happen, I mean that would be the act of desperation. If Bush tax cuts are extended, what’s Obama saying? That Bush policy is the only thing that can save the economy. There’s no way. Obama will let this economy totally implode before he will give Bush any credit for having any positive economic policy.