RUSH: Here’s Harwood on Squawk Box on CNBC today, Becky Quick is speaking with Harwood (imitating Quick), “Hey, John, do you have a reaction to last night’s debate, John, you know, the one you and I moderated, do you have a reaction?” Like she hasn’t spoken to him all day or night about it. “Hey, John, you know, you and I hosted, moderated the debate last night. Do you have a reaction to any of it, John, about what happened? I guess all’s fair in love and war, as they say?”

HARWOOD: I understand that. The mainstream media’s not very popular in the Republican Party. The intensity that you saw on that stage last night — and we were part of it — is a reflection of the conflict within the Republican Party, uh, over how you govern and what approach you can take to the economy. And, remember, before the debate, Becky, Governor Kasich gave a speech in Ohio in which he said, “We’ve got people who are running in this race who are preparing things that are crazy. What’s happening to our party?” We teased out that last night, and that produced some of the emotion that you’ve seen —

RUSH: Ohhhhh, is that it?

HARWOOD: — from, uhhh, Republicans on stage about us as well as in the audience.

RUSH: That’s the excuse? Kasich made you do it, Mr. Harwood? Is that right? So now we know why you decided to go be so unfair, because Kasich said there’s a bunch of crazies in his party. That must mean you think Kasich is brilliant. So Kasich is the guy who led CNBC’s coverage, eh, ’cause he said there’s some crazies. “What’s happened to our party?” By the way, you may have missed this, but Kasich was on CNN this morning, and he praised the moderators. He thought the moderators did a great job last night. (interruption)

No, I’m not kidding. Kasich thought the moderators were great. He didn’t think the problem last night was the moderators. The problem last night was Carson and Trump. He didn’t mention names again, but Carson and Trump and the things they’re proposing. It’s crazy; it’s stupid. You know, John Kasich, you people forget, Kasich was part of the freshman class ’94. He was part of that bunch that came in with Newt. And he did.

He ran the budget committee, and he was there when they first balanced the budget. John Kasich used to be more conservative than I am, and he’s not now. And it’s been… It’s actually been kind of fascinating to chart it, the change that’s taken place.