RUSH: Here it is, not a surprise, but it’s documented. This is Breitbart.com: “Mitch McConnell Caves.” He walks around with a white flag sticking out of the beanie that he wears on his head. That’s not me. That’s what people on Capitol Hill are saying. That’s not me, folks. Here’s the full headline: “McConnell Caves, but Harry Reid Wants a Full Surrender from Boehner as Well.”
You would have thought that there wasn’t an election last November, and then you would have thought that the election that was last November was not won in a landslide by Republicans. If you just landed here from Mars and were looking at politics in Washington, you would have assumed that maybe there isn’t a Republican Party, when in fact the Republican Party won a landslide last November. But you can’t discern that from anything happening in Washington.
The Republicans are caving on amnesty. They’re caving on the whole Department of Homeland Security thing, which is a separate thing from amnesty in part, and they’re all ready to cave on net neutrality. They’re caving on everything. The excuse that we’re given is, in an indirect way, “Well, this is what the donors want.” And to a certain extent that’s true, but come on. Is the donor class of the Republican Party actually attempting to achieve the erasure of the Republican Party?
Am I being a bit too extreme here, Mr. Snerdley? It just doesn’t appear that we have any opposition to the Democrat Party in Washington. We got plenty opposition to the Democrat Party out in the states, and among some of our presidential contenders, but even some of those, you ask yourself, why are they running as Republicans? I don’t have to name names. Everybody knows who I’m talking about. So let’s just get to this.
“Republican leadership in the Senate is fully caving to the demands of Democratic lawmakers calling for a so-called ‘clean’ Department of Homeland Security funding bill that leaves President ObamaÂ’s executive amnesty intact, but Democrats are still balking at the plan.” Even though the Republicans have totally caved, the Democrats are still saying, “Wait, nope, nope, nope, you’re not caving enough.”
Mitch McConnell said, “I’ve indicated to the Democrat leader” — that would be Dingy Harry — “that IÂ’d be happy to have his cooperation to advance consideration of a clean DHS bill, which would carry us through September 30,” the end of the fiscal year. “With Democratic cooperation on a position they have been advocating for the last two months, we could have that vote very quickly.”
A Republican senator unhappy with McConnell’s plan said, “This is a total victory for the Obama position. The House hasnÂ’t passed it yet, so they might could come up with something. But thatÂ’s a grim prospect.”
But then Dingy Harry, he now looking like a member of the Blues Brothers, balked at the offer saying Democrats would continue to filibuster the bill until Boehner indicated that he was willing to also pass it through the House. You see, the House already passed a bill that includes the funding of the Department of Homeland Security except for three small areas of it that are needed to fund Obama’s executives amnesty. Those three small areas the Republican bill does not fund.
It is the power of the purse. It’s the lone remaining weapon, apparently, the Republicans have to use to stop Obama. Well, McConnell said he couldn’t get that House bill through the Senate, couldn’t get enough Democrat support for it, and so instead totally caved and gave the Democrats in the Senate what they want, a clean bill that has no carve-outs, no nothing, it’s just straight out full funding for the department including whatever Obama wants to do on amnesty. And Harry Reid says it’s not enough. We still have that House bill out there. You may think you’ve caved, but you haven’t finished caving. And you’re not gonna get a total cave, and you’re not gonna get our total love, and you’re not gonna get our total respect, Dingy Harry is saying, until Boehner caves.
This is incredible! The people that lost the election — now, they still have the White House, I understand that. But we have three separate coequal branches here, and one of them is just caving. The legislative branch is just caving. It began that process long before today, but Dingy Harry is out there saying (imitating Reid), “Okay, fine, fine, the Senate, okay, we’ll take it, but we’re not moving this, we’re not moving this until Boehner caves. You’re not gonna get our love, you’re not gonna get our respect because everybody knows this is what the Republicans want.”
If Dingy Harry wanted to get this done he could simply say, “Look, I’ll make you a promise. I’ll make sure the media doesn’t rip you for three months in a row if you’ll give me a clean bill out of the House.” Think they’d do it? (interruption) If Harry Reid would call the House leadership and say, “Okay, look, we got McConnell. Everybody knows what happened here, we got the bill we want here in the Senate. Now we need you, Speaker Boehner. I know you’re reluctant, you’ve got your base out there, and you’ve got the election and so forth, but here’s what I’ll do. I’ll call everybody I know in the media, ’cause I run them anyway, and I’ll tell ’em to lay off you for three months.
“You’ve never known what’s that like. Three months of no media trashing? Would that be worth it to you to give me what I want over here in the Senate? I can do it, Speaker Boehner, I can call the media. I run ’em! I’ll call the president, whoever necessary, to get the media to lay off you. I’m not gonna get ’em to lay off anybody else, I can’t do that, but I can get ’em to lay off you. They gotta pick up the slack somewhere, Mr. Boehner, if the media lays off you, they gotta double down on somebody else. Who do you want the media to hit wheel they’re laying off you? Is there somebody in the Republican primary field you don’t like? ‘Cause I’ll get the media to take ’em out for you. Just name it. You do that and I’ll make sure, you give me that bill –“
Isn’t this what the Republicans seem to want? Love, respect, from the media? Yes, I know, folks, it’s comedy. It’s the stuff that wins awards when liberals do it. But I’m telling you, this is what everybody thinks, the Republicans are just craving media respect and media acceptance. So if Dingy Harry really wants his bill clean from the House, just promise Boehner that the media will lay off him for three months, maybe one month, maybe two months, whatever Dingy Harry thinks he can get.
Not forever. He’s never gonna get the media to lay off Boehner forever, but, I mean, he might be able to get ’em to lay off Boehner for a couple months and instead go out and hit somebody else. If there’s somebody in the House leadership Boehner doesn’t really like being there, wants to take out, have the media send out after them. Dingy Harry, we’ll see. I mean, you never know what goes on behind closed doors. But that’s the bottom line. The Democrats are running the show. They’re waiting here for a clean bill.
Now, here’s the Speaker. We got two sound bites this morning on Capitol Hill, a leadership press conference. In a Q&A a reporter said to the Speaker, “Are you concerned that if you do bring up a clean bill to fund the Homeland Security department, like McConnell says he’s done in the Senate, that it will be the end of your Speakership?”
BOEHNER: I’m waiting for the Senate to act. The House has done its job to fund the Department of Homeland Security and to stop the president’s overreach on immigration. And we’re waiting for the Senate to do their job. Senate Democrats have stood in the way now for three weeks over a bill that should have been debated and passed. So until the Senate does something, we’re in a wait-and-see mode.
RUSH: They keep asking him the same question and he keeps repeating the same answer. Another reporter: “But you know the way your caucus feels, Mr. Speaker. Are you concerned about a rebellion if you give ’em a clean bill?” If you give Harry Reid what he wants and if you duplicate what McConnell’s done, are you worried there’s gonna be a revolt among your wacko freaky conservatives in the House to throw you overboard?
RUSH: He’s waiting for the Senate to act. That’s good. In and of itself, you put that inside some boundaries and that’s awesome. Don’t misunderstand me. The Senate has acted. Well, I wouldn’t call it acted. They’ve caved. There is action required to cave, and they did it. But a second story, the National Journal: “With the Homeland Security Department set to shut down on Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday offered Senate Democrats everything they wanted. And then … they asked for some more.”
Even the National Journal — let me read this as it actually is written. “With the Homeland Security Department set to shut down on Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday offered Senate Democrats everything they wanted. And then, as with mice and cookies, they asked for some more.” So the media knows the game. The Democrats lay out what it’s gonna take to get a deal, Mitch McConnell caves, and Harry Reid (imitating Reid), “No, no, no, ho, no ho-ho-ho no. We haven’t even gotten close yet. This isn’t a cave. We still got Boehner over there acting out. You gotta do something about Boehner or else.”
The mainstream media love it when Republicans cave and then the Democrats demand even more caving. (laughing) The media, I mean, they’re playing with ’em, folks, they’re just toying with them. “McConnell told reporters Tuesday that after two months of begging, he would finally agree to give Democrats a clean vote to fund DHS through the end of the fiscal year. The funding, based on an agreement between Democratic and Republican appropriators last year, would come with no strings attached.”
So just to be clear, McConnell is completely throwing in the towel, even though the House could still try to come up with another bill that would defund Obama’s illegal executive amnesty. And you heard Boehner. Boehner sounds like he’s more than willing to keep holding out here. Even they could do a short continuing resolution that fully funds DHS, but McConnell has just cut everybody off at the knees. Am I missing something here? Is there some deep, dark secret maneuvering and strategy going on that not even I have recognized here? McConnell’s not running a rope-a-dope here.
Anyway, who didn’t see this coming? You know, even yesterday when we had some news on the program yesterday that even I said the news portended good results, but it was about the House, and it was about the Democrats falling out. Yesterday the story was the Democrats in the Senate were not happy, they were falling out. “A-ha.” And then today, a total cave. And even yesterday after I mentioned the Democrats, led by Joe Manchin, there were eight of them yesterday that didn’t want any part of this.
We know where this is going because we know what the Republican donors want. That’s what everybody has to remember. They call it the donor class now. We got the elite class, the political class, the donor class, the hayseed class, the talk radio class. The donor class, the big money guys, Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street Journal editorial page, Jeb Bush, they want this. So it’s not unexpected. It’s nevertheless just as frustrating, but it’s not unexpected. The House could still try to come up with another bill to fund Obama’s illegal executive action.
The only real question is what did that election mean in November? What did it mean? I had a guy send me a note the other day, he said: “You know what , Rush? I’m starting to ask, why vote for Republicans? They’re just the middlemen now. Just cut ’em out. Just vote straight Democrat ticket and get what we want right off the bat instead of going through the motions here.” I kind of understood what he meant. I mean, it was a flippant, sarcastic comment.
Anyway, Jeff Sessions, one quick bite here before we hit the break. Jeff Sessions is the lone voice in the Senate, and I’m not trying to be disrespectful of other Republicans in the Senate, but he has spoken up loudly and consistently, fearlessly about the lawlessness of this Regime, and he continues to be the only one that does. There may be other Republican Senators in there who agree with him to a degree or another, but they haven’t been nearly as up front and present as Sessions. This is a portion of a speech that he made on the floor. We have two sound bites of the Senate yesterday afternoon.
SESSIONS: There are some, even on the Republican side, that say, “Oh, gosh, you know, the president will blame us even if it’s not our fault, and we might as well cave in and give him what he wants.” Well, what he wants is something he can’t be given. What he wants is Congress to capitulate and erode its powers and responsibility. He wants Congress to violate its duty to fund something that is illegal and contrary to Congress’ wishes.
RUSH: This is a key element of this, too, this next bite, he issues a warning, and I’m telling you, this is something the Republicans in the Senate are trying to hide behind.
SESSIONS: We’ve been hearing it said that, well, we can fully fund Homeland Security without any restrictions, allowing the president to do this because the courts stopped — we don’t know what the courts are going to do, and this Congress has its duty, and this Congress has a duty to fund only things that it believes are appropriate and lawful, and so Congress shouldn’t fund it on that basis, period.
RUSH: What he’s saying is Republicans, this Texas judge, hey, hey, we put the skids on it, we’re safe. They’re just scared to death of a shutdown. They just scared to death. Harry Reid, if he really wants Boehner, call him, say, I’ll make sure you don’t get blamed for any shutdown for like a month. How’s that? Is that good?
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