RUSH: I want to give you a quote from Ronaldus Magnus. I’m still struck here by Nikki Haley and, again, just to preface: I’ve always liked her. I’ve never had a problem with Nikki Haley. I was a little — you know, silly me — surprised last night. I shouldn’t have been. I know she’s establishment. I know all of this. I’m just… Like I said yesterday, I’m an optimist. I always… I’m expecting the best, and I often get slapped upside the head many times in that position, and I did last night. Grab sound bite number one again.

This is so classic of a defeated mentality. This is so classic of a defeatist and defensive position, where you accept the definitions of who you are made by your opponents — dare I say, even enemies. But I’m trying to soften it by calling the Democrats “opponents.” So we let them pick our nominees, we let them define who we are, and then when we acknowledge that we’re doing that, somehow everybody thinks it’s just great days for America because we are finally demonstrating the American people that we’re not what they say when we actually are confirming what they say. But, here, this is fundamental. Listen to her little sound bite here again.

HALEY: We need to be honest with each other and with ourselves. While Democrats in Washington bear much responsibility for the problems facing America today, they do not bear it alone. There is more than enough blame to go around. We, as Republicans, need to own that truth. We need to recognize our contributions to the erosion of the public trust in America’s leadership. We need to accept that we’ve played a role in how and why our government is broken — and then, we need to fix it.

RUSH: (sigh) I’m sorry for the sighing. I know that that’s irritating out the wazoo. But I… Folks, look, I’ve already explained how it is that we are responsible for this, our contributions to the erosion of public trust. The Republican contribution is by not providing any political opposition. The reason people lost faith in government is that there’s nobody in government trying to stop the Democrat Party. Now, it’s quite natural that Republican supporters, Republican voters are going to think that the Republican Party’s part of the problem. Now, she doesn’t mean it that way.

What she’s trying to say is, “Yeah, we know you think Washington’s got a lot of problems, but it’s not just the Democrats! You know, we’ve played a role ourselves.” She doesn’t have the slightest idea how most people agree with her. But I want to give you a quote from Ronaldus Magnus. You know, for Republicans the era of Reagan is over, but the era of Goldwater is forever, and it’s frustrating as all get out. Now, Nikki Haley thinks that she’s being a big person, that she’s being magnanimous and honest.

She’s essentially saying, “Hey, you know, everybody is to blame to one degree or another. There’s no one party mostly responsible for bankrupting America! There’s not just one party responsible for destroying the health care system in America. There’s not just one party responsible for the lack of jobs. No. We have a role in this ourselves. We must admit that we have contributed to” whatever it is. I want to read to you just a quick little quote here from Ronaldus Magnus’s Evil Empire speech.

Quote: “I urge you to beware the temptation of pride, the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, so ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.” Don’t fall prey to the temptation that everybody’s to blame. Don’t fall prey to pride and think that it sounds wonderful and great to also blame yourself, especially when you don’t own any.

The only way the Republican Party can be blamed for what’s happening in America the last seven years is because they haven’t tried hard enough to stop it. Now, when it comes to Obamacare, they never had the votes to stop it in 2010. But the efforts that they have made to defund it, to repeal it since then have been phony and unreal. So, yes, you could make the claim that Republicans have a role in all this, but it’s because they’ve not stopped it. They’ve not tried. They’ve stood aside — or, in some cases, they have joined with the Democrats like they desperately want to on amnesty.

This inability — and this encapsulates it for me. This inability to point fingers at the people responsible for what’s happening in this country and say so is the singular problem of the Republican Party. And for Nikki Haley now not only to refuse to blame the people responsible, but now to accept some of the blame? To what end? Just how is that going to grab them more voters? How is it going to…? It isn’t. But that’s not what it’s intended to do. It’s intended to shore up Republican membership club.

Here’s the next Haley sound bite. This is where she zeros in on Trump.

HALEY: During anxious times it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation. No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love our traditions, should ever feel unwelcome in this country. There’s an important lesson in this. In many parts of society today, whether in popular culture, academia, the media, or politics, there’s a tendency to falsely equate noise with results. Some people think that you have to be the loudest voice in a room to make a difference. That’s just not true. Often the best thing we can do is turn down the volume.

RUSH: Now, in the first place, Trump’s voice is not loud. Trump’s not a screamer. He’s not out there shouting. The thing that sets Trump apart is what he says and how he says it. But he’s not “noise.” He’s not shouting and yelling and drowning out everybody else. In fact, Trump, at a debate, is practically nonexistent. You watch. You go back and search your memory banks. Every one of these debates with all these Republican candidates up there, you don’t have Trump doing anything but speaking within his time frame.

He’s not shouting. He’s not stealing other people’s time. He’s not interrupting. What is she talking about here? Now, when he’s out on his own events, he doesn’t shout. He makes people laugh. He’s doing a routine; he’s doing a performance. He’s combining a lot of things into these things, but he’s not a shouter, and he’s not angry. So what is all this? Who is she really talking about? And, by the way, who among us…? Do you know anybody that wants to deny anybody legally to enter the country?

And do you know anybody who, after they’ve legally entered the country, wants to deny them opportunity? I don’t. I don’t know who she’s talking about here. But she’s trying to make it look like she agrees with the Democrats, that Trump wants to build a wall and keep everybody out and kick out those who were already here legally — and, furthermore, deny them the opportunity to get a job. Nobody’s saying that! I don’t know where they come up with this stuff. Well, she’s talking about Syrian refugees and just illegal immigration in general, the wall and all of this stuff.

“But no one who’s willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love our traditions should…” The problem is, that’s not what’s happening with immigration. She’s describing assimilation there, and what’s happening is we don’t have any. All anybody’s asking for is what we’ve always had with immigration, and that’s assimilation. These people come in here and they become Americans. They learn the American culture; they become part of it. The entrepreneurial spirit, innovation, whatever it is.

They have the freedom to do it, and they kick ass, and they run around and they make some of themselves. We applaud it, we celebrate it, and we encourage it. I don’t know who she’s talking about here. I don’t know anybody who’s opposed to that, except the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party does not want self-sufficiency. The Democrat Party does not want self-reliance. The Democrat Party is the ones who want total dependency. The Democrat Party is the one that wants the ill-educated, the uneducated, the unskilled.

They’re the ones who want people to come in the country can’t speak English and are not gonna have to learn. They’re the ones who want a permanent underclass in this country. They’re the ones who, by virtue of their very policies, deny opportunity and deny growth. The Democrat Party and liberal policies are the biggest obstacle to individual success going, because the Democrat Party doesn’t believe most people can do it. They want people bowing down to the government for everything they get in life.

I don’t know who she’s talking about. Now, everybody assumes it’s Trump here, and it probably is Trump. But Trump doesn’t stand for any of this, and neither do we. I don’t know anybody who does on our side. Well, that’s my opinon. She’s accepting the liberal narrative of Trump and of the Republican base, and that’s exactly right. Folks, I need to take you back to one hour ago. This needs to be repeated. Donald Trump… I don’t care what you think of Trump. I don’t care what you think of me regarding Trump. It’s not the point. Listen to me here.

Whatever you think of it, Donald Trump has put together a support group. His voters, his support coalition is made up of people the Republican Party claims they want to reach out to. He’s got Hispanics. Twenty percent of his support base if not more is blue-collar Democrats. Twenty percent of the Democrats surveyed recently said they would defect from the Democrat Party to vote for Trump. Well, is that not what the Republicans claim that they think and say they need to do? They need to peel off some Democrats, peel off some independents.

They need to get some Hispanics, need to go out there and get some women. Well, look at Trump’s group of people. That’s who he’s got. And they still reject it! So my point is it’s not just that the Republican establishment, leadership, whatever, is rejecting the conservative base. They’re rejecting anybody they consider to be an outsider, somebody who’s not a member of the club and they don’t want in the club no matter what he brings to the club!

These guys kind of remind me of the Cincinnati Bengals, in the sense that the last thing on their minds was winning the game. What people think of them on proving who they are or whatever is more important than actually winning the game. It’s mind-boggling to watch this. Here’s Nikki Haley. This is with Matt Lauer on the Today show today, and Matt Lauer said, “Governor Haley, when you were talking last night in response to the president about the loudest voices, those angriest voices, in that context, you were referring Donald Trump, right?

HALEY: He was one of them, yes. He was one. There’s other people in the media. There’s people in my state. I think we’re seeing it across the country. But, yes, Mr. Trump has definitely contributed to what I think is just irresponsible talk.

RUSH: Wow. So she’s admitting, “There’s other people in the media.” I wonder who that could be. Hmm. And then “people in my state.” Who would that be? Who would be the people in her state that are behaving in ways that she doesn’t approve of? “I think we’re seeing it across the country.” Loud voices. “But, yes, Trump has contributed to what I think is irresponsible talk.” But it’s not just Trump; it’s the media and all these other people.

So she’s out there; she’s accepting accolades from the left wing, the Democrat media today, and making it clear, “Hey, you can love me even more because I wasn’t just talking about Trump! I was talking about the same people in the media that you don’t like, either.” CBS, Norah O’Donnell said to Nikki Haley, “You said last night your party has to resist the temptation to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. Why did you want to land that criticism of Trump?”

HALEY: The angriest voices was actually referred to a lot of things. I mean, certainly some of the things that Mr. Trump has said, but it’s been to other things as well. Mr. Trump is not exempt from being one of those angriest voices, and all I’m saying is we’ve got a responsibility, and the way we handle issues and the way we talk about issues should be toward solution, not towards division. And so I say that in reference to a lot of things. What it was, was calling out my party. I mean, that was very true. I called out Republicans and I called out Democrats because I think it’s important. If the country’s gonna move forward, we all need to look in the mirror. We all need to realize that we’ve all had something to do with this, because once you do that, you can regroup and — and build the country back up.

RUSH: I just… Look, time is really… There’s a bite that I’ve gotta play. I just don’t have to time. It backs up to this really well. Do not forget what she just said.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Last night’s CBS coverage of the State of the Union, they had Michael Gerson. We’ve mentioned him in the past couple of days on this program. He’s a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, now a Washington Post columnist and a card-carrying member of the Republican establishment elite. Scott Pelley said, “Michael Gerson, you’ve written a few of these State of the Union speeches. What did you make of the Obama speech?”

GERSON: The theme of optimism was a powerful, FDR-like theme, and it works because of the contrast with the Republican Party. The language of the party now is so apocalyptic and so negative, I think that that worked. You know, I… So I don’t think Republicans heard much that was an invitation to bipartisanship.

RUSH: The Republican establishment so despises Trump and Cruz that they actually go out there and praise Obama, who delivered one lie and misstatement after another. And now we actually have to hear from somebody ostensibly on our side how we are apocalyptic? This dovetails with Nikki Haley, the same thing: Criticize our side and get great credit for it throughout the media, and then build up Obama!

“Yeah, it’s very FDR! Optimistic and positive! And, you know, the Republican Party? The language of the party is so apocalyptic and so negative.” Man, are these guys out of stuff. I they do not understand upbeat, positive when they see it, when they’re surrounded by it. They don’t understand what… “Apocalyptic” defines the Democrat Party. “Apocalyptic” defines liberalism. One crisis after another! Something’s gonna kill you three or four different ways, three or four times a day.

Have you heard the latest on global warming? Look at this from the UK Daily Mail: “Global Warming Could Cause Humans to Develop Webbed Feet, Cat’s Eyes, and Gills.” There’s gonna be so much flooding that the only way we can survive as human beings is if evolution kicks in in time to give us webbed hands and feet so that we can swim in the water, and gills so that we can breathe in the water, and cat’s eyes so that we can open our eyes under the water. And if evolution doesn’t make all that happen to humanity, then we’re toast, folks. We’re done. And there’s Obama out touting all of this and climate change last night.

And the Republicans don’t see that for what it is?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Right here it is, TheHill.com: “White House Heaps Praise on Haley After SOTU Response.” Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff — who, by the way, was having a little meeting with the press yesterday before Obama did his state of Obama speech last night, and apparently the press was asking, “So what are you gonna do? I mean, this is the last year. You got basically 12 months to go here, and it’s gonna be less than that because once the primaries start, everybody’s gonna be focusing on presidential race.”

This McDonough, the chief of staff, said (summarized), “We are going to do executive orders and executive actions the likes of which nobody has ever seen. We are gonna stay relevant. We’re gonna continue with our transformative change — and if it requires executive orders all over the place, then that’s what we’re gonna do,” and I totally believe him. But I want to ask what do you think the attraction to this is wherever the Republican establishment is headquartered, and whoever those people are?

I mean, when I say, “Republican establishment,” I have a group of people in mind that are basically faceless. Primarily when I think of the Republican establishment, I think Chamber of Commerce. I think donors. I think elected Republicans who receive that money. Not necessarily the RNC, but maybe they’re part of it. Okay, so Obama goes out there, he sends his chief of staff out there, McDonough, who says, “I have a lot of admiration for the governor. I think some of the things she has done over the last year are remarkable.” He thinks the speech that she gave last night “during anxious times,” things like this, and calling out these “loud voices,” it was just great.

What do you think the Republican establishment reaction to that is? I will tell you what it is. They’re happy. They consider it progress. And they think the American are gonna see it as progress. They’re gonna see it as the Republicans demonstrating that they can cooperate, the Republicans demonstrating that they can work with the Democrats, the Republicans demonstrating that they can be bipartisan and have things in common and get things done for America and make Washington work. That’s what they’re gonna see.

Meanwhile — while they see that and think that, and while they think the American voters are gonna think that — the Republican primary is being conducted, and the people leading that Republican primary have a singular message, and that is: “We have got to stop letting the establishment in Washington run this country and run the show, and we have got to distance ourselves from it.” I mean, the message of the Republican primary is, the people running the country right now are the problem.

The message in the Republican primary right now is that Democrat Party and Barack Obama are the problem. The Republican Party sends Nikki Haley out in answer to Obama. It gets universally praised by the Drive-By Media, so-called conservative media some quarters. And now the White House — and I guarantee you the Republican establishment thinks that a majority of the American voters are gonna think this is the greatest thing, and they’re gonna think great things about Republicans and Nikki Haley because we’ve demonstrated this ability to be bipartisan and cooperate.

By the same token, by definition of that, the Republican establishment is going to have to think that what’s happening in the Republican primary race is tiny and small and represents a minority of thinking in the country. They have to, if they are… There’s a caveat here. I’m assuming, we all are assuming that they are ecstatic with the White House praise of Nikki Haley. If they are, then, by definition, folks, it follows that they have to think what’s happening in the Republican primary is insignificant and not representative of a majority of thought in the country and is almost irrelevant.

If all of that is true, it is a microcosm of why and how they are in trouble and actually don’t seem to have the slightest idea why.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Andrea Mitchell (NBC News, Washington) was over the moon, just could not contain herself, so excited over Nikki Haley’s response last night.

MITCHELL: I think she killed it! A very effective Republican response. She called out Republicans for being partly responsible for the broken system, the lack of trust in government. Also took a real shot at Donald Trump when saying that the loudest voice in the room… duh, being loud and being noisy doesn’t mean that what we have to (stammers) —

TODD: But… but wait!

MITCHELL: — perform in politics.

RUSH: D-d-d-d-did you hear that? (laughing) “Oh, I thought she killed it! I thought it was great! She blamed the Republicans for everything.” Exactly. Why wouldn’t you think this was great if you’re a Democrat, if you’re in the media? She doing your job for you. Andrea Mitchel (NBC News, Washington) taking the day off today because of Nikki Haley doing it for me last night. She didn’t have to work today. She went out there and she did Andrea Mitchell’s job.

No wonder Andrea Mitchell likes it! “[S]he killed it! A very effective Republican response. She called out Republicans for being partly responsible…” She did. There wasn’t anything anti-Obama in this speech or very little. And here is David Brooks. He of the smart crease in the slacks qualifying Obama to be president. This was on PBS special coverage, the Republican response last night…

BROOKS: It was an excellent, uh, response to the Trump campaign. She did sort of mention Barack Obama in passing, but it was mostly a response to Trump. Ah, it was response to some of his xenophobia and most of his style, the loud voices. (snicker) If you want the Republican establishment fighting back on Trump, there you just saw. I thought she hit one of the high-water marks.

RUSH: “Oh, it was great. It was an excellent response Trump campaign! She sort of mentioned Obama in passing, and of course that makes it even better. She didn’t mention Obama. We love Obama. We here PBS, the Republicans, we love Obama. She didn’t hit Obama at all. It was a response to xenophobia, loud voices, Limbaugh, Trump, you name it. She went after ’em all. We love it. Kick ass.” That’s what they think, and these are Republicans! Brooks is supposedly the Republican establishment.