RUSH: Let’s go to the audio sound bites, ladies and gentlemen. Yesterday on NPR’s Fresh Air, here is a portion of linguist Geoff Nunberg’s report about his annual word of the year. This guy I guess does a special report on NPR at the end of the year on the annual word of the year, and, according to this guy at NPR, this year’s word is ‘no.’
NUNBERG: After some early defensiveness, a lot of Republicans embrace the label, and even ratcheted it up a notch. ‘We’re not just the party of ‘no,” Rush Limbaugh said, ‘we’re the party of ‘hell, no,” and Republican leaders quickly adopted the line. That extra word shifted the meaning of the phrase. It no longer suggested just opposition to particular bills and programs, but unapologetic and resolute defiance. That stance clearly resonated with a lot of voters.
RUSH: Does that not just sound like an NPR report, to do an in-depth report on the word of the year, ‘no.’ And then last night on Fox News Channel Special Report during the all-star panel, the host, Bret Baier, spoke with the associate editor of The Hill, A. B. Stoddard. It’s weird when women call themselves by their first two initials. You know, that’s generally for fat cat business guys or pseudo-intellectual writers. She calls herself A. B. Stoddard. Her first name is Amy [sic]. But the A. B. business is obviously marketing to stand out. Anyway, she was talking about the tax rate compromise and me, and Baier said, ‘So blow it up, let the tax increase happen on January 1st?’
STODDARD: I’m fascinated that when you have Congressman Paul Ryan, Newt Gingrich, Bill Kristol, Grover Norquist, the entire Republican leadership up against Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, the question of who is more conservative on this is making the leaders nervous.
RUSH: What should make Republican leaders nervous is going against what the people voted for in November. This is not about personalities. ‘You have Congressman Paul Ryan, Newt Gingrich, Bill Kristol, Grover Norquist, the entire Republican leadership up against –‘ wait a minute, I thought I was the Republican leadership because NPR just said that I said ‘hell, no’ and the Republican Party fell in line. Now, A. B. Stoddard says that I’m not in the leadership, that it’s Paul Ryan, Newt Gingrich, Bill Kristol, Grover Norquist up against me, Sarah Palin, and Mitt Romney.
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RUSH: By the way, a minor correction. I had a little case of verbal dyslexia. A. B. Stoddard’s first name not Amy, it’s Alexandra. She is the daughter of Brandon Stoddard. Longtime inside media people recognize Brandon Stoddard who was a big ABC executive.