RUSH: We’ll start with Janet in Shiloh, Illinois. You’re up!
CALLER: Happy New Year, Last Man Standing! How are you?
RUSH: I’m great. I’m fabulous. Thank you.
CALLER: Okay, and just one thing. The call the other day from a seven-year-old girl?
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: Use that! That is the cutest call in 20 years of Rush Limbaugh —
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: — and it will get the women. Okay, back to Chris Christie. (grunt-groan)
RUSH: What was…?
CALLER: The lane closure, Rush.
RUSH: Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. What was that?
CALLER: (giggles)
RUSH: You have to remember my hearing.
CALLER: No, no, no! Stop!
RUSH: Hang on a minute, now. You have to remember my hearing. Here’s what I heard. “Now, to Chris Christie. Uuuuuuuuuuuuuughoah!”
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: What was that?
CALLER: I don’t know. My dog. Okay, Rush? Rush, the lane closure? This will make Chris Christie the next president unless you toss a wrench into it, and you can do this.
RUSH: Okay, hang on just a second. I’d planned on taking your call off, but you’ve got me intrigued here. So this is gonna make Christie president unless I throw a wrench into it?
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: How is this go…? Before we get into me and the wrench, how does this make him president?
CALLER: (whispering) Because there’s an appetite among Republicans for a no-nonsense… Mitt Romney was seen as a weak man, ultimately.
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: He couldn’t play tough. He was too nice.
RUSH: Are you telling me that there are Republicans out there who are secretly applauding Christie for closing the lanes on the bridge?
CALLER: No.
RUSH: Are you telling me telling me that there are —
CALLER: Perhaps, perhaps.
RUSH: — people who are applauding Christie because of the way he handled the media in the press conference?
CALLER: Yeeeeeeeeeees. You are so smart. (giggling)
RUSH: Yeah, my last wild guess I stumbled on it.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Okay, so —
CALLER: He’s threading the Reagan needle, but it’s not the Reagan needle, and you notice better than anyone. Okay? There are… Yes, there are Republicans applauding the lane closures, but we don’t need to talk about that. Christie… Okay, going back to one of Rush Limbaugh’s first principles: A tiger is a tiger.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: Chris Christie is lane closure. Ronald Reagan never tried to harm the people. He cared and he valued and uplifted the people. This is just disgusting.
RUSH: Well, now, wait a minute.
CALLER: Yes?
RUSH: Christie denied any involvement whatsoever. He said he lost sleep. I don’t know if people heard this.
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: I’m gonna let you hear it. You want the wrench? Here’s a wrench.
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: Here’s a wrench.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: Christie said in his press conference that he has not been able to sleep for two nights, but he only learned of the e-mails yesterday.
CALLER: Oh, I’m sure.
RUSH: So why can’t he sleep two nights ago if he only learned about this one day ago?
CALLER: I love you. (laughing) I just love you. You’re so much fun. (laughing)
RUSH: But Christie —
CALLER: Read the e-mail, read the e-mail. Time for some lane closures? I read that, and I said, “How does that mean anything?” But it’s the follow-up. “Got it.” There’s adultery, there’s the tone.
RUSH: Yeah, but Christie denied being involved in it, Janet. He denied it.
CALLER: I know that! So what? What’s a denial in politics? What we have to say is now he’s shown up. He’s shown up at his two-hour press conference, he’s says, “I knew nothing, and he fire these people,” and he fired a woman! (giggling) Whoa ho! He’s really gunning for the White House, okay? (giggling) He’s gunning for it, and you can just see the lemmings. You can feel them right now on the East Coast and DC just being pulled to his magnetism, his animal magnetism. “He’s so strong. He’s so (unintelligible). He’s gonna go to Washington. He’ll get rid of Sebelius!” No, he won’t. Oh, my gosh, this is the guy that played footsie with Obamacare. He is one of the guys. He’s one of the reasons why we have it. This guy, you know him better than anyone, Rush, and you’re the one —
RUSH: Hang on. Hold that thought. Hold on, Janet. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll track you down if you hang up.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Back to Janet in Shiloh, Illinois. Okay, so you have explained… You’re still there, right?
CALLER: Yes. Hi.
RUSH: So you have explained why you think this could launch Christie to at least the Republican nomination.
CALLER: Yes. Yes.
RUSH: Now, you then said this is going to happen unless I throw a wrench.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Well, what do you mean? What kind wrench? What are you talking about?
CALLER: What you need to orchestrate… Okay right now —
RUSH: By the way, Janet —
CALLER: I’m backing up. I’m backing.
RUSH: Wait a second, Janet. I want you to be fully informed before you answer.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: The New York Times just tweeted the following.
CALLER: Oh, cool.
RUSH: “Despite Christie’s…” You’re gonna love this. The New York Times just tweeted, “Despite Christie’s contrite apology, does the bridge scandal mean the end of his career?”
CALLER: No.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: Not at all. New York Times says it. So, the New York Times is not letting go of the notion that Christie has destroyed his political career here.
CALLER: Well, of course, why would they? This is the game they understand. I mean, this is what they understand. Christie’s true ultimate success to the White House comes from peeling off votes from Hillary, okay? But he has to get the Republican nomination, if he stays a Republican, okay? And that will depend upon those people pleading the fifth, all right? Let’s not jump there. He has to get the Republican nomination. The way that he’s been playing it is he’s got one foot in the East Coast corridor, Northeast politics, Democrat, prosecutor — that whole world — and he’s been really saying he’s Reaganesque, and he was selected to speak at something on Reagan’s behalf. I can’t remember what that was.
RUSH: Well, no. He was asked to speak at the Reagan library.
CALLER: Okay. Well, so they gave him gravitas, how is that?
RUSH: And the —
CALLER: Yeah!
RUSH: — thing that happened in that speech, the Q&A was all, “Why aren’t you running? Why won’t you run for president?”
CALLER: There you go. See, there’s such a hunger. There is such a real hunger for real leadership.
RUSH: Well, then why do you oppose the guy? You’re making the case for him.
CALLER: Why do I oppose the guy?
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: ‘Cause I have a brain.
RUSH: Okay. So you don’t oppose him. Okay. Then I understand. So now you think it’s up to me now to throw a wrench into this.
CALLER: Yes. And it’s really simple. It’s not hard. It’s just gotta… You know, if you had been in the NFL, Rush, you would have been one of the greatest quarterbacks of all times. You would have threaded the needle. The players would have been there usually, and at the appointed moment you would have probably gone to the Super Bow and probably won probably four times successfully. Hey, I just accept that about you. So let’s do that with Chris Christie, okay? (giggling) No, Chris Christie, being a Republican, he has now stood up and said, “Hey, this is not me. I’m not some,” what did you say, “air blown dry candidate. I couldn’t sleep for two days.” Oh, my gosh, that’s red meat to these hungry people looking for leadership. I mean, I’m expecting Dr. Krauthammer to just be just beside himself this afternoon. He’s gonna love this, okay?
RUSH: Well, now, that’s interesting. Hang on here just a second. That almost raced by me and I just caught that. So you fully expect Dr. Krauthammer to praise Christie to the hilt later today?
CALLER: Yes, because he’s a head shrink, and an apology is someone taking control of the situation.
RUSH: Well, Janet? Janet, wait a minute. I’m sorry to keep the interrupting you, but if Dr. Krauthammer —
CALLER: Yes?
RUSH: If you’re right, if Dr. Krauthammer comes out this afternoon and praises Governor Christie to the hilt, then why in the world would anybody oppose Christie?
CALLER: Why would anyone in the world oppose Christie?
RUSH: If Dr. Krauthammer comes out and effectively —
CALLER: Well, remember Dr. Krauthammer has already admitted he didn’t know who Obama was until five weeks into his presidencies? So why should we listen to Dr. Krauthammer?
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: I don’t listen to Dr. Krauthammer.
RUSH: Well, because everybody does.
CALLER: I know, like those people at National Review. And, see, you are the one that actually carries on conservatism. You’re the one that’s standing up for something screaming “stop,” and that’s what you’ve got to do today and tomorrow, because this is gonna be huge.
RUSH: Well, you don’t think it’s a little early?
CALLER: No. It’s never early. You’re running up it is flagpole and you’ve got your chance. Okay, Rush. You’ve got to look at this, and you’re hitting it. It’s the tone. It’s the tone in those e-mails. It’s harming the people. Obamacare. What’s Obamacare doing? Harming the people. How many…?
RUSH: Wait.
CALLER: There’s a story in October-November about the number of insurance policies cancelled in New Jersey. It’s like 800,000. Chris Christie should have been out there in front screaming about the raised prices, screaming about the people that don’t have insurance.
RUSH: Well, now, wait a minute. I don’t think Christie was not that opposed to Obamacare.
CALLER: A-ha! Okay, now you’re cluing in. Okay. I knew you’re smart. I knew it. you’re cluing in. This is why he’s not Reagan. We’re talking about… Christie still is pretending he’s Reagan. He’s not Reagan. Reagan would have been out in front March 23rd, 2010, saying, “No way is this going to happen.” Okay? But with Chris Christie’s been playing every angle, okay? And people fall for it ’cause they’re so hungry for leadership, and they want corruption stopped. What have we learned under Obama? That Washington is corruption. I mean, those are our worst fears.
RUSH: Let me tell you something. Janet, I will grant you that in the early days of Christie, there was just a swarming of support because of two things.
CALLER: What?
RUSH: The guy didn’t take any guff from the media. He talked back.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: And the unions, he just let the unions — verbally — ended up working with them, but I mean he was voicing things that conservative Republican voters have been dying to hear from Republicans for years.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: But then came the walk with Obama on the boardwalk, and do you think that the same level of enthusiasm prior to that for Christie exists today?
CALLER: Well, remember I said his strategy, his ultimate success lies in peeling off votes from Hillary, and I think it was yesterday, somewhere there’s a story about all the —
RUSH: Wait a minute. Republican voters are tired of hearing Republicans say they can cross the aisle, they can work with the other side, we can cooperate. And that’s what he’s talking about.
CALLER: Do you really think that? Do you honestly think that? Because we seem to gravitate at every national election to that kind of person. I mean, you and I might —
RUSH: I’m talking about Republican primary voters here. You’re talking about getting a nomination here.
CALLER: Right. Right. But Republicans right now, Republican primary voters, not conservative, but Republican, okay —
RUSH: Well, Janet, closing moments here, I still happen to believe, and more than ever, by the way, and especially now, that if a conservative Republican ran for office making the case that we’ve worked with ’em too long, it’s time to defeat them. We’ve got five years of disastrous experience. We don’t want to work any longer with this. We don’t want to help with immigration. We don’t want to help with Obamacare. We want something entirely different. And that involves defeating these people.
The Democrats never say they want to work with us. The Democrats never talk about bipartisanship. They demand it from us, but they never promise that that’s what they’re gonna do. They’re out there demanding bipartisanship from our candidates, and so our candidates, our moderates dutifully reply, “Okay I’ll work with you, I’ll cross the aisle.” That’s not what our voters want. Our voters want somebody that’s gonna kick butt and not take names, especially now after five years. We’ve got an economic disaster; we got a debt disaster. The health care system is being destroyed.
We’ve got 91 million Americans not working. We’ve got a welfare state out of control. We’re about to open the borders. I think if the right candidate came along and said, “Enough of this. It’s time to stop this and roll this back and start defeating this,” is the answer. The Republicans lose every time they try this strategy of working together, bipartisan, cooperation. It doesn’t win them anything. It might win primaries here and there, but those are a different ball of wax.
I think there is a general discontent that’s effervescing all over this country, and I think more and more people are fed up. They’re just afraid to say so. It’s like this guy on C-SPAN today who called, who was asked, “Do you think what Limbaugh said is right?” “Yeah, I wouldn’t go that far, but I’m glad he said it.” I’m telling you, you still have people afraid of telling you what they really think because they’re afraid of being called racists or bigots or what have you, but I think that there is an effervescing degree — look at Obama’s approval numbers. Look at congressional approval numbers.
People are fed up. And once the story gets out that this New Jersey lane closure thing was not payback for a politician, it may have been intended, but who got harmed? Who got harmed with Obama’s IRS? The people are being harmed by politicians of both parties left and right whenever they engage in whatever business they’re engaging in, political payback, advancing their own agendas, who’s paying the price for this? Citizens are. Citizens are losing their income, they’re losing job opportunities. The private sector’s shrinking. They are losing their futures. They’re losing their jobs. They’re fed up with it.
I think there’s a great sense of discontent out there, contrary to what the media would like you to believe. And I know there’s a bunch of low-information voters and there’s a bunch of ’em who fall for all the stuff in the media and on the left. But I have not given up on the vast majority of people in this country being fed up. They just don’t have anybody speaking for them. And the reason Christie at one time was so overwhelming popular is because he was doing exactly what I just described, or at least that’s what people thought he was doing. He was talking back to ’em. He was not taking their BS, and he was not taking names. Both the media and the unions.
He’s destroyed that to a degree, or damaged it greatly with the boardwalk arm-in-arm embrace of Obama and some of these other things. The bloom is off that rose now. And not because of the bridge thing. I don’t know what the lasting impact of that’s gonna be. But, Janet, it’s been a delight. I’m glad you called, and where is Shiloh, Illinois, by the way?
CALLER: Are you talking to me?
RUSH: Yeah. (laughing)
CALLER: Rush, you just threw the wrench. I love you. I adore you. You’re brilliant. That’s the wrench. Keep throwing it.
RUSH: Okay, I just threw the wrench.
CALLER: Keep throwing it.
RUSH: Right on.
CALLER: Okay. And where’s Shiloh, Illinois? Well, gosh, well, Obama probably knows where I live, don’t you think, NSA is on to me? Yeah, 18 miles from St. Louis.
RUSH: Oh, okay, 18 miles from St. Louis. I should know that and I don’t know that. Shiloh, Illinois.