RUSH: Here’s Don in Lake Ronkonkoma, Long Island. Great to have you on the program, sir. Welcome.

CALLER: Hey. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and I’m-glad-we-survived-the-Mayan-calendar dittos.

RUSH: Thank you very much, sir. I appreciate that.

CALLER: Listen, Rush, I had a quick question for you. Do you believe there’s gonna be a serious challenge to Speaker Boehner in the wake of the failure of Plan B after this disappointing performance negotiating with him behind closed doors and, you know, negotiating with himself, basically?

RUSH: I have, to be honest with you, no idea. I haven’t the slightest idea whether there’s gonna be a challenge, and if there is, I couldn’t tell you who it will be.

CALLER: I couldn’t tell you, either, but I just was wondering. Do you think there would be a challenger?

RUSH: No.

CALLER: I saw Louie Gohmert.

RUSH: Let me tell you something. (big sigh) Um, let’s put it this way. I’m not talking to anybody there about any of this.

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.

RUSH: I never do. Sometimes the phone rings and somebody there wants to talk to me about something, but never about this. So I’m not wired. I’m not connected. There may be a couple people I could call who might know if something’s going on, and maybe I should call but I haven’t.

CALLER: I wouldn’t expect you to, Rush. But, I mean, I’ve noticed that the left hasn’t even been attacking him like they would attack Palin or —

RUSH: Why would they?

CALLER: I know it! I know it. And it’s obvious to me and other conservatives.

RUSH: I mean, the coverage I’ve seen is, “Poor Boehner! His party’s abandoning him. His party’s a bunch of nuts.”

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: It’s, “Poor Boehner! He can’t unify these guys. Boehner’s giving it everything he’s got, but poor Boehner, these wackos that he leads, he just can’t corral ’em.”

CALLER: I’m so disappointed he didn’t take conservative discussions to talk radio and the audience he would get there. It just amazes me that he forgot us.

RUSH: What do you mean? What do you mean “take the conservative discussions to talk radio”? What do you mean?

CALLER: To your show, Rush.

RUSH: You mean call here and talk about what’s going on?

CALLER: Well, he couldn’t give all the details but at least he could give the Tea Party a —

RUSH: (big sigh) Ahhhh. Ahhhhhhhh. Well… Uhhhh. (groans)

CALLER: (laughing) I’m sorry to put you on the spot at Christmastime.

RUSH: No. No, no. (sigh) Let me go back to what I was gonna say here before you, as caller on Open Line Friday, interrupted me. (groans) There are maybe… I could count on one hand, and there may be more, but I could probably count on one hand the number of people who are really hot to trot to make a change in the speaker. I just think the Republican Party is so depressed. I think they’re so discombobulated now.

I think the attitude is, “Let’s just ride this out and pray for an event to save us.” I just don’t see any… (tapping desk) I have to be very careful because I could be dead wrong about this and I’m not trying to be critical. I’m just trying to be honest in an appraisal. I’m not trying to be critical here. I just don’t see a whole lot of energy to advance an agenda. What I see is the energy spent on defensive of things.

Like, “Gee, let’s act so that we don’t get the blame. Let’s do something so that we don’t get criticized.” I just think these guys are so beaten up. They’ve been beat up their entire careers. They’re sick and tired of it. They’re worn down and they are worn out, and I just don’t know how much fight there is at the leadership level for this bunch. I just don’t know. I could be dead wrong. There may be a lot. I just haven’t seen the signs of it.

Obama’s not even in his second term yet. We lost this election. Elections have consequences. And because we lost, I mean, that’s one of the reasons why we are where we are. Now, I’m not saying we are forever consigned to this position. But right now the Republicans in Washington do not have a lot going for ’em. And they don’t think so, either. They’re up against insurmountable odds in Obama, the Democrat Party and the media. I’m not sure they even want to be dealing with this cliff stuff.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, look, folks, there is talk that Congress could be called back into session next Thursday. You know, Boehner sent everybody home for Christmas, and that’s what they wanted. These guys wanted outta town. They got outta town. I still maintain it’s a good thing Plan B went down, but you understand that it was never close. It was never close, and no matter what comes out of there, the media and Obama are gonna blame the Republicans.

In that circumstance I always fall back on, “Just do the right thing.” Hang in on your identity, your principles and so forth, because you really can’t go wrong doing that. Whatever happens down the road, you’ve always got that to fall back on. If you compromise your principles, it’s tough to get your credibility back on that kind of thing. Now, if they’re called back on Thursday, that’s the second day of Kwanzaa.

Is nothing sacred?

You know, Nancy Pelosi has already talked about the fact that Kwanzaa shoppers are not acknowledged and don’t have enough of a… a… What did she say? They’re not afforded enough respect. We have Christmas shopping and all this, but Kwanzaa shoppers somehow get the short end of the stick. So here’s Boehner possibly calling Congress back into session on the second day of Kwanzaa, and you’re gonna have people saying, “Is nothing sacred?”

There are a number of things here to be considered.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: My gut is that there’s gonna be a deal.

There always is!

Now, if we go over the cliff I won’t be surprised because that’s what I think Obama wants, but I’m just telling you: I won’t be surprised if there’s last minute deal that’s pitched as the greatest thing since sliced bread and so forth. Then a couple days will go by and they’ll start reaming the Republicans for whatever. The only thing arguing against that, as far as I’m concerned, is I think from a purely — and I’m blue in the face saying this. I apologize for all the repetition.

But this going over the cliff?

You talk about Kwanzaa, Christmas and Hanukkah rolled into one for Obama?

Going over the cliff is ten Christmases rolled into one for him and the Democrats.