RUSH: Last night on CNN’s Larry King Alive, the guest was General Powell. And Larry King said, ‘I think any American would agree that Colin Powell is a great American, a former secretary of state, moderate Republican. What is a moderate Republican?’ And this is why I’m playing this for you. We all are now going to be treated to the ultimate definition of moderate Republican. If you’ve wondered just what that is, here it is from General Powell himself.
POWELL: Someone who believes in a strong national security and defense policy, who believes in low taxes, who believes in keeping government as small as necessary but making sure it’s a government that performs the functions that the American people want. But a moderate Republican in my judgment is also someone who is quite sympathetic to the social needs of our citizens, who is open toward immigration. Immigration is keeping this country thriving. And the issue of civil rights and the issue of taking care of those in our society who are not doing as well as the rest of us, I think that should be a part of the Republican mantra, too.
RUSH: So a moderate Republican is essentially a conservative who’s also down for the struggle. So that’s your definition — basically big government, open borders, believe in the social welfare role of the federal government. In other words, a liberal. A moderate Republican is essentially, you just heard it here from General Powell, in his judgment — that’s, by the way, elite-speak. Let me give you a little heads-up. If you’re listening to people interviewed, like Chris Dodd’s famous ‘in my view, Larry, in my judgment, Larry, in my view,’ these are code words for ‘I know what I’m talking about. I’m one of the club.’ You hear people using phrases like that. And there are many such phrases that these people use. ‘Clearly’ is another. ‘Clearly, Larry,’ blah, blah, blah, blah. If you hear those terms, you know you’re listening to somebody who thinks that they are in the ruling class. But General Powell has just done the service here, defining for us, a moderate Republican equals liberal. Except low taxes. How do you believe in low taxes and vote Obama? But he did. Next Larry King says, ‘You recently suggested that the Tea Party movement might well be a fad unless it converts itself into something that’s a real political organization. That’s a quote from your appearance on Meet the Press two months ago.’
POWELL: I thought it would just be a passing fad. Well, it turned out to be something much more than that, and I hope that all of our political leaders in Washington, whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, moderate, conservative, or liberal, reflect on the fact that this is a movement of Americans who are concerned about the future of our country and don’t dismiss them as a fad.
RUSH: Meaning we got a problem and we’re gonna figure out a way to deal with these people. We thought they were a fad, but they’re not, they’re serious, they do pose a genuine threat to us in the ruling class, and we’ve gotta take ’em seriously. I think General Powell probably had advance notice that there was a poll to be published today in The Politico which indicates that the DC elites — they’re self-identified this way in the poll — that Washington elites have a totally different view of the Tea Party and the country than anybody else. ‘The midterms not only dealt a big shock to Democrats but also sent a message to President Barack Obama. According to the new POLITICO Power and the People poll, only 26 percent of the public believes he will be reelected as president in 2012.’ And the other aspect of this is ‘Washington elites have little faith that tea party candidates will be able to bring change and say grass-roots conservatives have been the most negative in spreading their message, according to a new POLITICO poll released Tuesday. Washingtonians involved in the political or policy process believe overwhelmingly that tea party candidates will not ‘be able to bring change to Washington.’ Only 11 percent of D.C. insiders polled said they thought the tea party could bring change, compared with 77 percent who did not.’
Now, they asked Doug Schoen about this. Let’s go to audio sound bite number 11. This was this morning on Fox, Martha MacCallum was speaking to him. And she said, ‘Doug, any surprises out there? Basically the content of this survey shows that Washington elites don’t think much of the midterm elections, the Tea Party, or Sarah Palin.’
SCHOEN: This is proof positive that Washington elites are absolutely out of touch because the midterm elections were a repudiation of the Democratic Party and the administration. They were a ratification of much, if not all of what the Tea Party movement was saying, and if Sarah Palin had any impact or result on the election, it was to see her stature enhanced, given the success of the candidates she endorsed around the country.
RUSH: You’re listening to a Clinton pollster here, and he’s analyzing this Politico poll. He says the Democrat Party is out of touch, absolutely, the DC elites outta touch. General Powell, I am certain, before going on Larry King Alive last night, knew of this poll, and that’s why he said, (imitating Powell) ‘These Tea Party people are not a fad. We’re gonna have to deal with these people. We gotta take ’em seriously before we knock ’em off.’ Larry King said, ‘What about the stories, though, that the central aspect of the Republican Party doesn’t even like the Tea Party people? In a sense it’s going to affect them?’
POWELL: Some of the things that the Tea Party movement is asking for are unachievable, and I’m not sure it’s right. It’s not doable to say we want to cut spending, we want to reduce the deficit, but we don’t want to increase revenue. This algebraic equation will not work. Don’t tell me you’re gonna freeze spending. Tell me what you’re gonna cut. What service are you not gonna provide to the American people that they now are expecting? The only way to reduce the size of government is to cut things, not freeze things and not pretend that we’re only gonna give it a certain percentage of increase. You’ve gotta eliminate things.
RUSH: Yeah. Totally right. But he’s saying you can’t do it. The American people won’t put up with it. A 10% across the board budget cut, you could do it, and you could show you could do it, 10% across the board. But see, this is the straw dog. Powell joining the Democrats, (imitating Powell) ‘Okay, Democrats, what would you cut? What would you cut? You tell us what you would cut. You want to cut Social Security? You want to kick old people out of their houses? Do you want to deny them food? What do you want to cut?’ That’s the straw dog that they create, and thus the Tea Party can’t succeed. And, by the way, a freeze, even factoring for inflation would be huge in terms of reducing the debt and spending because of baseline budgeting, because of baseline bulletining a freeze would be a genuine cut, compared to the baseline. Why is it impossible to cut spending without increasing revenue? That’s another misnomer when he says you can’t cut spending without increasing revenue. No. You gotta cut spending because we don’t have the revenue, pure and simple. Anyway, that’s moderate Republican. That’s what you need to be if that’s what you want to be.