RUSH: Open Line Friday to Seattle we go. Peter, thank you for calling, sir. Great to have you with us.
CALLER: Great to be with you, Rush. Happy birthday to the Surgeon General of Democracy.
RUSH: Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
CALLER: They don’t hate you ’cause you’re on the right; they hate you because you’re correct.
RUSH: Effective, yeah. That’s sadly the case. Every time you see me ripped to shreds in the media, folks, understand I’ve just been effective, and that’s why I’m being ripped. Or anybody else on the right. Same theory applies.
CALLER: Absolutely. Couldn’t agree more. But I just had to put a call in and thank the voters of California for passing Proposition 30, the soak-the-rich tax amendment and helping move the Sacramento Kings to Seattle. It looks like they’re going to be making 13% more on their $60 million payroll, and that would more than cover their losses last year.
CALLER: No, it’s not a done deal.
RUSH: Because there are local groups in Sacramento that want to buy that team, right?
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: They can get it for cheaper than what the Seattle group can. The Seattle group’s gonna have to pay, what, $125 million more than a local group would have to pay simply for relocation fees, actual moving expenses, a number of other things. Of course, the owners of the team, the Maloofs, are aloof. Nobody knows what they’re gonna do.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: They change their minds on a dime. I guess for you guys Prop 30 is a factor, there’s no question. But it also depends on how active the local Sacramento groups, how desirous they are keeping a team there.
CALLER: Very true. But I think the main thing is you talk about the moderate Republicans are going to soon be talking about guns as an issue that they need to compromise on.
RUSH: It’s already happened. Some Republican from Georgia — I’m having a mental block on his name. I don’t know. I shouldn’t say a name because I don’t know. I don’t remember. But some moderate Republican from Georgia has already made my prediction come true yesterday, that we need to “get serious” about gun control.
CALLER: Well, I think the thing they could say any time they want to say something like is say, “They’ve tried it already in California.” California right now has an assault weapon ban. They have a ban on ten-round magazines.
RUSH: With all due respect, I’ve been doing this 25 years. One thing I’ve learned that does not win these arguments or debates with people is logic. Facts and logic don’t win. Real world examples are irrelevant. Because we’re dealing here with pure, unadulterated emotion. On the Republican side: Fear. The Republicans who gonna buckle on this are the same moderate Republicans…
They’re largely from the Northeast, but not all, but they are largely moderate Republicans, they’re the same Republicans who think that abortion is killing the party, that immigration stance is killing the party, that pro-lifers are killing the party. Now they’re gonna think that this gun business is killing the party.
“We’re gonna have to moderate on this. We gotta distance ourselves from the NRA because the NRA is a bunch of wild-eyed freaks and kooks and hayseeds.” I made this prediction. Actually a lot of people think this is gonna be the case. Some Republican in Georgia, I think, already crossed the line. I wish I could remember who it was. Maybe I can find it during the break. But pointing out how this doesn’t work is not gonna matter a hill of beans, because it’s not about policy that works.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Right here it is, folks. It was Phil Gingrey, the Republican from Marietta, Georgia. He was speaking at the Smyrna area council of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce breakfast. It took place yesterday at the Smyrna Community Center. Phil Gingrey, said, “There are some problems, and maybe these huge magazines even for someone who says, ‘Look, I just use an AR-15 for target practice.’ But do you really need to be standing there shooting at a silhouette a shot a second or even quicker with that kind of weapon? For what purpose?” Gingrey asked. “I would be willing to listen to the possibility of the capacity of a magazine.” Meaning being limited.
It was only yesterday. I did not know he said this at breakfast, so he had already said this by the time we offered the postulation yesterday afternoon, but I didn’t know that. I’d heard rumblings. Erick Erickson at Red State sent a note, said, “You mark my words, the Republicans are gonna start fading on this just like they have on abortion and immigration.” And, by the way, just for what it’s worth, Gingrey, after saying he’s open to discussion on the limits of the capacity of a magazine, went on to say that Todd Akin was partly right on what he said about rape. He’ll be forgiven for that since he had the right position on magazine capacity. If Gingrey had just gone out and said, you know, Todd Akin is partly right, today he would have been taken out. But since he got it right as far as the media and the left is concerned on magazine capacity, he’s reported objectively and fairly, ostensibly, in the various places he’s been reporting.
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