RUSH: This is Vince in Titusville, Florida. Welcome, sir, to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Merry Christmas, Rush. What an honor to be talking to the smartest and most qualified man that walks into any room in Washington, DC.
RUSH: Thank you, sir. (laughing)
CALLER: Great, great.
RUSH: Very much.
CALLER: Two things. I have a question about the results of the takeover here by the Republicans again. In ’94 we had a lot of Democrats, if I remember, decide they didn’t want to be part of the game when they weren’t, you know, in charge of things, and we picked up some after the fact. Is that likely, do you think, to happen in this round, and maybe even enough to, if not take over the Senate, which Mr. Snerdley and I don’t think will happen, could it be a game-changer? And then I have a little information I’d like to pass on to you if you have time.
RUSH: Well, I don’t know. The thing that happened in 1994 was the first time in 40 years. These people that had been in the Democrat House, many of them had been there for decades, and the notion of being in the minority just was unacceptable to them. They just couldn’t stomach it, so they either retired and some of them switched parties. I don’t know that that sentiment is gonna remain the same this time around because it’s a big difference being there ten, 12 years in the majority — actually, they’ve only been in the majority here since 2007. Well, some of them were in the majority before they lost in ’94, the holdovers, Pelosi and so forth. I don’t know. I think a lot of it’s gonna depend on what happens next year, how bleak does it look as the year unfolds next year. Some did retire before the elections, and Pelosi, by the way, has kept a lot of the losers and the retirees out of town during this lame duck. She didn’t even want ’em there.
So look, it’s entirely possible that there could be a spate of these things. I do think that significant numbers of retirements or party switches, you’re seeing a lot of that, by the way, at state levels. Don’t forget, this election, not just in the House of Representatives, and not just in the governors chairs, but in state legislatures, and you even get into county and so forth, the Democrats just got shellacked. People have really forgotten the depth of this defeat. It was and is overwhelming, far, far greater, far more in depth than 1994 was. So a lot of it’s gonna depend on how much Obama can rally these people and re-inspire confidence that they’re all gonna be back in power relatively soon, a couple of election cycles or what have you. But I think it’s possible you haven’t seen the end of the party switchers.