RUSH: The Republican ruling class in the Senate doesn’t get it yet, either. Jim DeMint is fit to be tied. He says, ‘It was bad enough to watch my colleagues work to support Lisa Murkowski in the primary after she had built a record of betraying conservative principles, but watching them back her after she left the party and launched a campaign against the Republican nominee was more than I could bear.’
DeMint is also not happy with the fact that the Republican establishment in the Senate is leaving her in charge of her committees until the elections, until she is officially gone. ‘South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint is publicly criticizing his Senate GOP colleagues for allowing Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski to keep her ranking membership on a key committee less than a week after she announced a write-in campaign to try to retain her seat. In a revealing e-mail to his supporters, DeMint gives his account of Wednesday’s private Senate GOP caucus meeting, when he believed his colleagues would vote to strip Murkowski of her post on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee — but the caucus instead allowed her to keep her remain [sic] in the coveted role.
”It was bad enough to watch my colleagues work to support her in the primary after she had built a record of betraying conservatives principles,’ writes DeMint. ‘But watching them back her after she left the party and launched a campaign against the Republican nominee was more than I could bear.” Now, she’s a RINO, and the ruling class Republicans in the Senate still haven’t gotten the message — and they never will get the message. The ruling class is never, ever gonna get the message no matter what party they happen to be a member of. A RINO is a RINO, and a RINO is gonna stay loyal to a RINO no matter what. As far as I’m concerned, the country cannot continue and allow the ruling class to skim our money off the top for themselves, which is among many other things what they do.
If these people, if the Republicans in the Senate are not careful — and all these other RINOs, if they’re not careful — they are going to spawn a third party, and they’re gonna end up being the third party. They are gonna end up being the minority third party. If they continue to pretend that they don’t know what’s going on and if they continue to pretend that we don’t know what’s going behind their closed doors. Now, I think there are enough principled people in Washington to make life difficult for liberals in both parties. This country isn’t just a little bankrupt, folks. We aren’t just a little overtaxed. A little bit of a public option will bring down the entire private sector health care system. We don’t need RINOs cutting deals with Imam Obama.
The ruling class, they either know what’s going on and they’re steadfastly immune to it, opposing it, or just arrogantly ignoring it, or they really do have no idea what’s going on in the country. They have no idea of the staying power of the Tea Party movement. And if they don’t they’re going to learn the hard way, and that’s their business. Lisa Murkowski lost, and it’s obvious that ruling class Republicans are unhappy about it. We got Obama and Biden calling Mike Castle to commiserate with him. Now he’s thinking running as a third party. And for all I know, he’s being encouraged to do this by Obama. He’s being encouraged to do this by Harry Reid. I don’t know but I wouldn’t be surprised if in these closed-door phone calls this is what they’re encouraging Mike Castle to do.
Actually the RINOs have gotten the message; they just don’t like it. They are as resentful of it as the Democrats are, and DeMint ‘vowed yesterday…’ This is from the AP: ‘Sen. Jim DeMint vowed Thursday to stop Lisa Murkowski’s write-in candidacy ‘dead in its tracks’ as he expressed outrage at the GOP’s refusal to strip the senator of her leadership role on the energy committee. The South Carolina Republican supports Joe Miller, a conservative political upstart who upset Murkowski in last month’s GOP primary’ in Alaska. ‘DeMint said he believed Wednesday’s meeting of GOP senators was to choose a replacement for Murkowski, the ranking member on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
‘But ‘one senator after another stood up to argue in favor of protecting her place on the committee,’ he said — resulting in an outcome he said she’ll undoubtedly use in her campaign against Miller,’ which he’s no doubt right about. Murkowski in her write-in campaign is gonna go out there in Alaska and say that the Republican establishment in the Senate wanted her to stay there — and that’s not gonna help her. Not in Alaska. It’s not going to help her. This is where you… (sigh) I don’t know. Will he name names of the people sit on the committee? Maybe he will at some point. Now, here’s Murkowski.
This is in The Hill: ‘Republican senators opted not to oust Sen. Lisa Murkowski from a top committee post because they believe she has a shot at winning reelection…’ That’s why they kept her in there. They think she has a chance to win this. ‘Murkowski said Republican senators ”recognize, ‘You know what? Lisa might be a risk-taker, but she’s got a real shot at coming back here, and it only makes good sense that we would not want to be so punitive that she would be discouraged by the actions of her colleagues,” she said in a Q-and-A with Time magazine published [today].’ GOP Senators think I have a shot at winning election as a write-in. So the out-of-touch bunch continues to revel in their out-of-touchness.
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If Republican establishment types are not careful — if this holds out, if the polling data is accurate and, if by the time we get to November, Miller wins big because he consolidated conservatives — Murkowski and McAdams split the independent and Democrat vote. That’s a harbinger of things to come for Republicans down the line. They are not going to split — a RINO Republican is not gonna split — the conservative vote with a conservative Tea Party-type nominee. It ain’t going to happen, and if they’re not careful, the Republicans are going to end up as a minority third party. They might actually — if this holds up, the RINOs, Murkowski and her bunch might actually — end up proving to be of use to conservatives after all. Well, I mean if Murkowski’s gonna run on a write-in candidate or ballot, and she splits the vote with the Democrat and the independent and Miller wins big, then of course a RINO Republican proves useful to our side.
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RUSH: Boca Raton and Victor. Welcome to the EIB Network. It’s great to have you here, sir.
CALLER: Great to talk to you again, Mr. Limbaugh. Mega dittos to you from true conservatives at the Free Republic.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: First, congratulations on your wedding, Mr. Limbaugh. I would have loved to have attended, but apparently my invitation got lost in the mail. (laughing)
RUSH: No, it didn’t.
CALLER: (laughing) Mr. Limbaugh, I would like to comment on the situation with Jim DeMint, and I cannot tell you how angry I am about what’s going on.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I know that they all listen to your show.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: Obviously, it’s an obligatory listening for everybody including the RINOs and the DINOs, and I want to send them a message that we will not get fooled again. We will not tolerate every one of these dinosaur RINOs.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: I call them DINO-RINOs. From Boehner to McConnell to Eric Cantor, every one of these people who is supporting Murkowski against a sterling candidate like Joe Miller —
RUSH: Well, now, wait a minute. I don’t know that Boehner and Eric Cantor are supporting Murkowski. They’re in the House. Of course, Murkowski is of the Senate.
CALLER: Yeah but I just think there’s still a little clique of these people who have learned nothing. When someone like Cantor can go outside and call himself a, whatever, young lion or new blood, the guy has been in the House for ten years and his reputation is very well known. But my main point is just I agree with you a hundred percent on this crazy situation about the third party. As much we talked about it — and of course it’s a losing proposition — but ultimately they are the ones are gonna become extinct if they don’t learn the lesson. And I’m really glad to hear you bring up this point because it really, really makes my blood boil at this point.
RUSH: Well, thank you very much, Victor. I appreciate it.
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RUSH: El Segundo, California, Rahm. It’s nice to have you on Open Line Friday. Hello, sir.
CALLER: Hello, sir, from Southern California at the Southern Command. I congratulate you belatedly on a happy birthday, a clean bill of health —
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: — and going from An Army of One to An Army of Two with your recent wedding bells. And thank you for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet, sir.
CALLER: I think Judith Miller is absolutely incorrect when she says the Republicans are destroying their party. It’s actually the Democrats who are destroying their party and that are desperate for some power or some energy.
RUSH: What she actually said was that she thought Obama was doing something very smart at his town hall meeting. When the opposing party is destroying itself, you sorta get out of the way and let it happen. She did say she thinks that that’s happening. You’re right. The Republican Party is together, but it does have its challenges.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: There’s a raging Tea Party movement that some elements of the Republican Party do not wish to embrace.
CALLER: And this Christine O’Donnell? I saw her on Hannity in the interview. She’s a fantastic speaker — to the point, doesn’t mince words — and if she defeats Coons, as I think she will, it will be a big blow to Krauthammer and Rove, and I thank you for taking my call once more. B’bye.
RUSH: You bet. I think she’s got a good chance to win. You know, from the beginning when the establishment types said, ‘We need Castle ’cause we need 51 seats. We could really take back the Senate with 51 seats,’ well, the first thing that struck me about that is: You need 60 seats in the Senate all voting the same way to have a true legislative majority. ‘Cause you need 60%, 60 voters for cloture to stop debate and go ahead and vote on any piece of legislation. ‘Cause it’s Senate rule. Fifty-one is not 60. And if you have a majority of 51 and four or five of them are Mike Castle, Susan Collins, John McCain, Olympia Snowes, you don’t have a minority. You’ve still got a fractured Republican caucus in the Senate. But what you do have with 51 seats is your chairmanships. (Gasp!)
Yes, and that’s what this was all about. Fifty-one seats gives you your chairmanships, and that’s power. And then Christine O’Donnell wins, and I said, ‘Well, okay, how come the desire for 51 seats goes away? Why does that just fly out the window? Why not get behind Christine O’Donnell and get your 51st seat that way? Why does the 51st seat have to be Castle?’ Did you ever ask yourself that question? ‘Why does the 51st seat have to be a RINO?’ Okay, so she was down 25 points. Now she’s down 16. She’s gonna continue to make ground on this Coons guy. She’s gonna get within the margin of error and she’s going to have a chance to win this thing. Why not get behind her and try to make it a victory?
Well, because RINOs stick together.
A lot of people look at the Republican Party as the repository of conservatism and that’s what we’re trying to make it, but it isn’t yet. It’s not that now. She can win. There’s no question she can win. Look, I went on a little bit of a tirade yesterday when I started talking about the relative merits of Sarah Palin and Christine O’Donnell versus Obama. What are we really talking about here? We’re at a genuine crossroads that we’ve never faced in this country in terms of the country’s future and what kind of country we’re going to have. And whether we’re going to have a traditional America as founded, with American exceptionalism as the foundation, with what we all know the world is envious of — endless opportunity, both economic, educational, and whatever. Freedom.
Or are we gonna wipe out the private sector and the aspects of America that make all those things possible? That’s where we are. We face that. Now, if Mickey Mouse could get on the ballot and would vote against the Obama agenda, I would support Mickey Mouse. I don’t know how else to explain where we are. This is not nuance time. I don’t think it is. I don’t think we have the time here to worry about nuance and whether we’re electing somebody with the right kind of IQ, approved IQ or approved and sanctioned pedigree. What we need are people who are going to stop the Democrat-Obama agenda. Hell, if we could find a rat that could get elected, I’d support the rat, if it promised to vote against Obama and the Democrat agenda. What are we really talking about here? That’s it to me.
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RUSH: You know, speaking of Lisa Murkowski, where are the conservative pundits? Where are the Jonah Goldbergs, the Krauthammers, the Karl Roves and the Bill Kristols of the world? Where are they telling Lisa Murkowski to drop this write-in bid? Where is the pressure on Rick Lazio to drop out of the New York governor’s race now that he’s lost the primary? Can we get consistent here? Where is the pressure for these people to stop dividing the Republican Party after the voters have spoken? Hmm?
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RUSH: Here’s Roger in Alexandria, Louisiana. It’s great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Good afternoon, Rush! Rush, I have a little concern with this pattern of Republicans not accepting what the majority has voted on in the primaries and doing this write-in policy. It bothers me that it may become a larger problem, especially if one of them happens to get elected. And it’s also causing a rift in our party. For example, DeMint ripping the Republicans for allowing Murkowski to keep her seat on certain committees.
RUSH: Yep.
CALLER: And I just wonder your thoughts, if you think this is just a couple of isolated cases, or could this turn into being a real big problem?
RUSH: I think it is a big problem. Right now it’s both. It’s just a couple of cases. But it illustrates the problem. It illustrates the ruling class mentality versus the un-cool class, the country class; and the ruling class exists in all political parties. Republican Party, Democrat Party. The Tea Party is persona non grata to a lot of Republicans. They don’t want the Tea Party to win. They don’t want the Tea Party to become dominant. It’s no different — you know, I told the story I don’t know how many times of being ripped to shreds by Northeast liberal Republicans about Christians in the Republican Party. They thought it was my job to go talk to the Christians and get ’em to stop worrying about abortion because it was embarrassing the rest of these Northeastern Republicans. They didn’t like going to conventions with these Southerners. They didn’t like their friends on the liberal Democrat side making fun of them because who was in their party. So this is really nothing new. What’s causing it to now be seen by all of us is the success of the Tea Party.
CALLER: I’ll agree. And you notice only two people that have decided to do this are people that have held office for a long time and do not want to give it up.
RUSH: Exactly. And will do what they have to do to subvert their own party, in a way, to win.
CALLER: I agree. Thank you, Rush.
RUSH: All right. Right now it’s only these two, it’s Murkowski and Castle, and we’re not sure what Castle’s going to do. He’s just toying with the idea of third party. We do know that Obama and Biden called Mike Castle to commiserate with him, but I’ll tell you this. One thing, Roger, to keep in mind: The polling data out in Alaska right now shows that Murkowski, as a write-in candidate, is not taking any votes from the Republican. Well, not enough to matter. The Republican nominee is the Tea Party guy, Joe Miller. The Democrat out there and the — and the independent votes, that’s the vote being split. Murkowski is essentially taking votes away from the Democrat candidate out there in the polling right now.
So the warning for the Republicans is that if this continues to happen and if it expands, the likelihood is that if there is a third party that results from this, the third party could end up being the current Republican Party. They could end up being the minority party in all of this if this is not contained. ‘Cause I don’t think the Democrats or the Republicans understand yet the full wave of energy and motion that is propelling the anti-ruling class, anti-Washington sentiment out there — the Tea Party sentiment, if you will. I think the Democrats have a better idea of it than the Republicans do. I think Democrats… I mean, they can see these poll numbers. They can talk all they want about how they’ve got polls that show themselves not doing as bad, but they can see Obama at 42% CNN, and they can see their own states. They do local polls.
It was not that long ago that certain Democrat state organizations were asking this outfit in North Carolina, Public Policy Polling, not to report results of congressional and Senate races in the states ’cause they were so bad for incumbent Democrats. Now, it’s early. It’s still the middle of September here. The election’s not until — well, just a little over 40 days. It’s never wise to count something as over, particularly in politics, long before it is. So the conventional wisdom is the Senate is still a long shot. About the Senate, let me just again say: Yeah, it would be great to have a majority in the Senate, but you really need 60 votes — and, look, the Democrats had 60 and they still couldn’t get all of what Obama wanted.
They had a supermajority in the House, they had 60 seats in the Senate ’til Scott Brown won, and they still were having trouble getting things done. It’s not automatic. For the Republicans to get 60, how many of them are going to be Mike Castle types? If you have a majority 51 to 52 but four or five of them are RINOs, then do you really have a voting party majority on issue? You don’t. You do have enough for chairmanships, which is a big deal, but at 51 to 52, here’s something to think about: Fifty-one to 52 seats… Let’s keep it at 51 because that seems to be the apple of these Republican consultants’ eyes. With 51 seats in the Senate, boy, that would be nirvana — and let’s say we take the House.
You still have Obama. You don’t have enough of a majority anywhere to override a veto. You have just enough votes in the Senate to get blamed for whatever happens — and don’t discount that Obama is looking forward to a Republican controlled House. Obama is running for reelection in two years. He cannot, he does not want to run against his own party. He doesn’t care how many Democrats get shellacked. I’m convinced of it. He cares about him — and if the Democrats lose the House, that’s fine. He could blame the Republicans for whatever does or doesn’t get done the next two years. He’ll have the media backing him up and we’ll be back to the same old thing. This is why the Republicans are going to have put on a different cap and be able to deal with this.
Because we’re gonna get the same old, ‘Gridlock, gridlock, gridlock! Party of no! Republicans standing in the way and poor old Obama can’t get anything done.’ That’s what’s going to happen. Gridlock would be the best thing that could happen to this country!
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RUSH: And here’s another thing to think about here. Fifty-one seats, 52 seats with people like Castle and Murkowski, Snowe and Collins? That’s enough to give Obama ‘bipartisan support.’ That’s the last thing we need is Republicans voting for the Obama agenda and have the press be able to say, ‘Bipartisan! The Republicans helped pass’ whatever abomination Obama comes up with. These people are being defeated for a reason. They really are.
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