The Sound of Rush “Shutting Up”

RUSH: Last night CNBC, they have a show called CNBC Reports, the co-host, Dennis Kneale, said this…

KNEALE: This, uh, Republican attack machine in full force once again. Outspoken Republican brass like Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh weighing in. Newt said President Obama’s ‘stimulus has already failed.’ Rush Limbaugh is comparing the president to Mikhail Gorbachev — and he means that in a negative way. So they’re mounting a vigorous and informed opposition. Now, I think that’s part of democracy. That’s great. But where do you draw the line between that and cynical, negative nattering that seeks not to change or reform, but simply to damage the other side? Is it time for Rush Limbaugh to shut up?

RUSH: (laughing) Who is this guy? I never heard of Dennis Kneale. Dennis, let me clue you in here. It was Gorbachev who compared himself to Obama! It was Gorbachev who ripped an American economy which made CNBC possible. It was Gorbachev who said the United States in the Twentieth Century was evil and guilty and it was time to change like he did to bring glasnost and perestroika, and he praised what Obama is doing. I simply brought it to everybody’s attention. I did it humorously in the form of a Gorbasm. By the way, Dennis Kneale this is like the sound of me shutting up: ‘Screw you!’ He had somebody else on this show: Joe Watkins, a rare Republican not intimidated by the State-Run Media. After the cohost spoke about me, he then said to Joe Watkins, ‘Aren’t you even a little bit uncomfortable with the rancor of some of the criticism from the right?’

WATKINS: Criticism is good. It’s what makes America a great country. I mean, speaking truth to power is what makes us great, and certainly the Obama administration, like past administrations, could stand some constructive criticism.

RUSH: A rare Republican who didn’t cave under pressure on national media.