RUSH: Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democrat National Committee, sees an upside to a government shutdown. He went and spoke to the National Journal Insiders Conference panel. The moderator was Major Garrett, who used to be a reporter at Fox, and he said to Howard Dean, “Do you think there’s anything to be said for a grand debate precipitated in part by a government shutdown?”
DEAN: From a partisan point of view I think it would be the best thing in the world to have a shutdown. All these Tea Party people are dependent on Social Security and Medicare and all these other things and when that — those checks start coming, believe me, their constituencies gonna go even lower than a fiasco in Wisconsin. If I was the head of the DNC I’d be quietly rooting for it!
AUDIENCE: (laughing)
DEAN: I know who’s gonna get blamed for it! We’ve been down this road before!
RUSH: “I know who’s gonna get blamed.” The Republicans will get blamed. The Tea Party will not get their Social Security checks. I don’t know where this guy’s been, but the government doesn’t really shut down. This is the dirty little secret. Everybody will get their Social Security checks, but this is exactly the thing. It’s talk like this that has our guys afraid of a government shutdown. They do think it’s still 1995. They do think they’ll get blamed for it. They do think that there is no win to it. And depending on which one of them you talk to in Washington, it isn’t gonna happen. They’re adamant. There will be no shutdown. But “best thing in the world to have a shutdown, all these Tea Party people dependent on Social Security and Medicare.” Howard, you don’t have the slightest idea who these Tea Party people are. No concept of who it is that’s working in this country, who it is that’s producing in this country.
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