RUSH: To the audio sound bites we go. This morning on CNN’s newsroom, anchor John Berman spoke with the Christian Broadcasting Network chief political correspondent David Brody about Ted Cruz and the government shutdown. The CNN anchor said, “You heard Van Jones from Crossfire asking if Ted Cruz would apologize to the Republican Party for his role in the shutdown. Now, I don’t suspect he will be apologizing to this crowd at the Values Voters Summit going on in Washington. So what message do you think Ted Cruz will send?”

See, Van Jones on CNN, who is Van Jones but a quasi wannabe communist who was drummed out of the regime. So Van Jones goes on CNN, said, “Ted Cruz should apologize to the Republicans.” so the rest of CNN, “Van Jones said last night that Ted Cruz should apologize.” They’re asking all their guests, “Do you think Ted Cruz should apologize? If he doesn’t apologize, what will Ted Cruz do?” And here is what David Brody of the Christian Broadcast Network said in response so that inane question.

BRODY: I’ve got to tell you, I’ve been traveling around the country. What they are telling me on the ground is that Ted Cruz is not only the real deal, but Ted Cruz is the one guy, they call him Robo Candidate. If they could manufacture a candidate in a lab somewhere, Ted Cruz is the guy. What’s gonna drive liberals nuts here is that he’s a guy that is a world class debate champion. He’s got all of the Ivy League street cred as well. So he’s not one of those Tea Party folks that you can kind of dismiss.

RUSH: That’s why they hate him, one of the many reasons. He’s one of them. He’s an Ivy League grad, debate champion at Harvard. That’s not cool. Harvard’s not supposed to produce people like Ted Cruz. This is an embarrassment to these people. So then the CNN anchor John Berman said to the Christian Broadcast Network chief political correspondent David Brody: “Well, the polls that we’ve been showing this morning show a majority of Republicans are blaming Republicans for the shutdown.”

Yeah, how about that? They do. They’ve got poll that a majority of Republicans are blaming Republicans for the shutdown. What Republicans would those be, do you think? The McCain type Republicans? The establishment Republicans blaming other Republicans for the shutdown? Berman said, “I don’t suspect it’s the same sentiment at the Value Voters convention where you are right now. It’s probably vastly different, and that is the audience that these candidates are going to be speaking to.”

BRODY: A lot of folks are missing the endgame here. A lot of people think the endgame is the Gallup poll numbers or what the Republican Party’s going to do in 2014. What we are seeing right now is a transformation, or at least what the Tea Party hopes to be a transformation into a constitutional conservative Republican Party. Is that going to take years in the making? Absolutely. Will it take decades? Possibly, for sure. This is kind of like an intervention. You know when you have an alcoholic and family members need to get involved, there has to be an intervention. That’s what the Tea Party is trying to do here with the Republican Party.

RUSH: You know that’s right, folks. I can’t tell you the number of people that I’ve said to over the years that have wanted to go third party, for example. No, no, no, the objective is to retake the Republican Party. That’s what the Tea Party, that’s what people are attempting to do, and they are in it for the long game. And it isn’t just about 2014. And it isn’t just about Obama. But those things, of course, become tools.

These Tea Party people are dead serious. They’re not all political novices now. They are dead set committed into turning the Republican Party into a constitutional conservative party. It is happening, and it’s happening not in Washington. It’s happening in the grassroots. And that’s why the “inside the Beltway” news apparatus, or whatever they are, don’t get it. They don’t see it. Even if they were to be told, they wouldn’t get it. They get it in their heads that a bunch of people are racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe, kook, extremist, and that’s it. That’s all they can see.

They have no legitimacy to them whatsoever and so whatever they are engaged in is also illegitimate. They are not interested. They are the most closed minded bunch of people. They are not worth listening to. They are not worth investing all that trust. They really aren’t. They’re not even media. I got a note the other day: “You know what, Rush? We’re the mainstream. We need to call them the legacy news.” I said, “How old is this?” This is from a person who thought they wrote something brand new, a Republican, 30 years behind the times. They’re not media. They’re disguised in camouflage. Well, I mean, they’re media. They’re not news.

Scott Walker in Wisconsin, does anybody remember? We were told Walker had no prayer. We were told Scott Walker was going to be given his walking papers. The unions were going to destroy Scott Walker! There was no way Scott Walker was going to be able to reform Wisconsin. “There’s no way he will be able to fire people, no way he’s going to be able to cut the budget, no way he’s going to do anything,” and guess what?

Scott Walker yesterday called for a $100 million tax cut because the State of Wisconsin’s running a surplus, and the same people saying Cruz is a wacko lunatic, idiot, extremist ought to go — the same people saying that about Mike Lee — tried to destroy Scott Walker in Wisconsin, too, the Republican governor. I know it’s hard. You have to find all these things yourself, and then you have to believe them, and you don’t get any reinforcement.

You don’t get any gratification because you don’t hear any of this in the media. It’s like outdoor billboard advertising. I’ve always had a theory about it. Outdoor billboard advertising is not really designed to attract new customers. You know what the purpose of it is? Big billboards, the fact that they are big billboards, if they advertise something you use, it validates your opinion. You look at that billboard with pride. “Yeah, I buy that. Yeah, I use that. Yeah, they’re big. Oh, they advertise.”

It’s a reinforcement.

There isn’t any of that on the Republican side other than maybe here and other conservative talk shows. But in the mainstream media, where everybody seems to want to get it, you’re never going to get it there. There isn’t any of that reinforcement. All there is is mockery, and it’s worse than that. There’s destruction. They’re actually trying to destroy the things that you believe in. Now let’s go to the Value Voters Summit. Mike Lee spoke.

He’s one of the targets, along with Ted Cruz. He’s one of the people said to be responsible for the shutdown, responsible for the Republicans losing so badly in the polls. None of that is true, but nevertheless, Mike Lee and Cruz remain targets, and here’s Mike Lee. We have a couple sound bites from his remarks. You may not like everything he’s doing, you may disagree with some of it, but he’s out fighting for you, or what he believes. He’s out pushing back. He’s not caving to any of this. Here, listen…

LEE: The very best argument against Obamacare is the president’s conduct during the first ten days of this shutdown. I mean, look what’s happened. The president is using the vast, immense power of the federal government to hurt the American people. Why? In order to win a political argument. What happens then when we turn over some of the most private, intimate decisions in our lives — our health care system — to the government? When will that be used as a tool against us? We must stop it. We must defund it. We cannot accept it.

(applause)

LEE: Ted Cruz and I have been roundly criticized for our actions in the attempt to defund Obamacare. We make no apologies. We stand with you. We stand with the people.

(applause)

RUSH: We edited the applause. Here’s more…

LEE: Throughout our party’s history, the bigger our ideas, the more we’ve succeeded. Ronald Reagan’s conservative revolution, the 1994 Contract with America, George W. Bush’s compassionate conservatism. They all showed, in their times, that it’s the ideas and the principles rather than the personalities or the discrete interest groups that unify the Republican Party and propel it both to electoral success and to governing success. Lately, it seems we haven’t had nearly enough of either.

RUSH: That’s right, because there’s been too much focus on this policy and that policy, and conservatism isn’t a set of policies. Conservatism is the way you live your life. If you are responsible, if you try to follow the rules and the law, and you do your best on the moral side, you’re a conservative. If you take care of yourself, you’re self-reliant, you teach that to your kids, you’re conservative. That’s how you live.

That’s what conservatism is.

It’s not tax policy. It’s not all of this entitlement policy. It’s what informs the policy. Tax policy, conservative tax ideas come from conservatism. It’s not tax policy that defines a conservative, or creates a conservative. Now, Ted Cruz was at the Value Voters Summit today in Washington, and he got heckled. Obama sent the rent-a-mobs out to heckle Ted Cruz, and I want you to hear how Ted Cruz dealt with them.

But I’m going to take a timeout first so I don’t feel so pressured and hurried here on the commentary side. So you sit tight. We’ll come back and get to that right after this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So we are supposed to respect the Congressional Black Caucus. I call them the “Congressional Black Caucasians.” We’re supposed to respect the Hispanic Caucus, right? Why not the Tea Party caucus? Why aren’t we supposed to accord them any respect? Well, we know the answer. I’m just pointing out things. Here’s Ted Cruz, the Values Voters Summit, getting heckled.

CRUZ: It seems that President Obama’s paid political operatives are out in force today.

(applause)

CRUZ: And you know why? And you know why? Because the men and women in this room scare the living daylights out of them!

(Cheers and applause)

CRUZ: How scared is the president? What a statement of fear! What a statement of fear!

(applause)

CRUZ: Oh, they don’t want the truth to be heard. The left will always, always, always tell you who they fear — and they fear you. They fear the American people.

RUSH: I’m telling you that is so right on, and they fear Ted Cruz right now. That is the sole reason why they get so worked up at people. If Cruz paled in these people’s minds, if they were the bumbling idiots that the left and the media tell us, that they don’t have a prayer of winning? If you’re so stupid, what’s the old rule? Get out of the way and let your opponent drown or destroy himself or make a fool of himself, whatever. But no!

Obama had to send in some website staffers. There’s not much going on over at HealthCare.gov, so he sends some over to the Values Voters Summit to heckle Cruz. Here’s another sound bite.

CRUZ: This afternoon, President Obama has invited the Senate Republicans to the White House. So after leaving here, I’m going to be going to the White House.

(cheers and applause)

CRUZ: I will make a request: If I’m never seen again, please send a search and rescue team.

(laughter and applause)

CRUZ: I very much hope tomorrow morning I don’t wake up amidst the Syrian rebels.

RUSH: I like that, a sense of humor out there. There’s old Ted Cruz laughing about what might happen to him at the hands of the regime if he dares go over to the White House. Look, I’m going to get to your phone calls quick. I know you’ve been waiting patiently. I’ve got one more here. This is Ted Cruz basically laying out, in brief fashion, what it’s going to take to win.

CRUZ: What does it take to win this fight? It takes the men and women in this room. Each of you is called to be here. Much like Esther, you were called for a time such as this.

(cheers and applause)

CRUZ: For 400 years every generation of Americans has given to their kids and grandkids greater opportunity, greater prosperity, a greater future. If we keep going down this road, we will become the first generation not to do that — and every man and woman in this room believes in your heart, in your gut, in your soul that is utterly and completely unacceptable!

RUSH: Now, a lot of people say that Cruz is really exposing people, using them, setting them up for a massive disappointment. “Cruz is promising them things that can’t happen! Obamacare’s not gonna be defunded. Obamacare’s not gonna be delayed. Cruz knows it, but he’s making these people think that that can happen and they are going to be sadly disappointed.” I think everybody involved here knows exactly what’s going on and why they’re in that room and why they’re fighting this. They’re not being fooled.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I have another question. You know they run around… The Republicans, conservative think tankers and others are running around ripping into Ted Cruz because he is setting people up for major disappointment and he is misleading them. “Yes, he is. Ted Cruz is making people think that they can actually support and make happen the defunding of Obamacare, and it can’t happen. There aren’t the votes.

“He’s using people, and he’s setting people up for a major, major disappointment. It’s going to fail. It’s so mean. And then Ted Cruz is making people think that if they support him and sign his petition,” he’s not asking for money, by the way, “that they can delay Obamacare. And they can’t, and it won’t happen. He’s just using people, and he’s setting people up for major, major disappointment. It’s not nice and it’s very selfish.”

Well, my question is, “Why isn’t that said about Obama?” You want to talk about misleading people and setting them up for major disappointment and shock? How about a guy who’s promised people will “get to keep their doctor,” and they don’t. How about a guy who’s promised that their premiums come down $2500, and they won’t? How about all the promises Obama’s made with his stimulus and all the shovel-ready jobs?

None of it’s happened. How come the same standard is not applied to Barry? How come it’s not said of Barry that, “Oh, God, what a mean guy! He’s really using us. He’s setting people up. He’s promising all these wonderful things that are not possible really, and they’re going to be so disappointed.” Why is that not said, folks? I think it’s a perfectly legitimate question. Obama is misleading people.

Ted Cruz really isn’t. Ted Cruz hasn’t promised one damn thing. He’s expressed a goal that a lot of people would like to work really hard to make happen. Ted Cruz in one sense and Mike Lee, and these actually are giving people some hope. But not unrealistically so. Here’s Kent, Ohio, as we get to Mike. Welcome, sir. It’s great to have you at the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. General Ohio Portage County Tea Party. Of all the people who are scared the sky is falling, the sky is falling on us conservatives and the Republican Party, look at one thing. I live in Realville like you. Look at the rating of all these medias and their newspapers. They’re in the tank. No one’s buyin’ their lyin’. If everybody believed it, they’d have ratings through the roof. They don’t.

RUSH: Another excellent point. The New York Times is losing ad pages, ad revenue obviously. The Drive-Bys are losing their audience. That’s actually an excellent point.

CALLER: Right. We don’t have to argue it. It’s in their ratings.

RUSH: No, I know. See, the problem here, Mike, is people who are not able to overcome their fear. They really fear that the media is persuading everybody, except them. They’re smart enough to see through it, but they worry that everybody else is being fooled, and they’re not. But they are good at manufacturing propaganda. There’s no question about it. Nevertheless, I like your common sense, logical analysis. I appreciate the call very much.