Rush Limbaugh: “I can see possibly not supporting a Republican nominee”

Good for you Rush. I know a TRUE conservative when I see one. This is EXACTLY my sediment. Good-bye Republican Party, Hello 3rd Party. Or I can’t wait to see the complete dismantle of the GOP, from the ground up. I’m gonna love watching all these wishy-washy RINOs get whacked.

Fully agree – can’t stand McCain. Don’t care too much for Huck either, but I do prefer him to the Dems. It sickens me to think that McCain could be the nominee – after his Liberal candidacy in 2000, his opposition to tax cuts, Gang of 14, opposition to Gitmo and backbiting Rumsfeld since Afghanistan, not Iraq, immigration et al. If he was the president, more than half of what the Dems want, they’d get: you’d have Feingold, Kennedy, Feinstein, Dodd, Biden et al all ruling the roost. Yeah, he supports the surge, but that’s because we’re already in the war. But if the question came up on Iran, do you think he’d agree to take out their science project?

Transcript of what Rush said today:

RUSH: Jim in Kansas City, Missouri, I’m glad you called, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thanks for taking my call.

RUSH: Yes, sir.

CALLER: Earlier you had mentioned that when the time comes, you’re going to announce or get behind somebody, and I’m just wondering, what’s your selection criteria for picking a candidate, and two, how do you decide when that time is that you’re going to announce? I’m more interested in how you pick a candidate. Because especially this year with — there’s really not a true conservative. How do you narrow it down?

RUSH: That’s an excellent point. I don’t have a time frame, just to address that first. I don’t have a time frame.

CALLER: All right.

RUSH: And I also, I can see possibly not supporting a Republican nominee.

CALLER: Hm-hm.

RUSH: And I never thought that I would say that in my life.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: “But, Rush, but, Rush, what about Hillary?” (sigh) By the way, the sigh is not aimed at you Jim.

CALLER: Oh, I know.

RUSH: This stuff is very tough.

CALLER: Well, maybe open it up two different years, where we do have — say you have two good conservatives, how would you go through a selection process? I know a lot of people, they say, well, if he’s pro-abortion and if he’s this and this. I was just wondering what your kind of selection criteria –

RUSH: I went through this in great detail mere moments ago.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: In a situation like this, where you don’t have a genuine, down the list conservative, you have to look at variables. It’s easier for me to support a Romney than a McCain, for example, because I believe his conversion is genuine and he’s not lying about past positions. He’s not trying to tell people that they’re wrong when they assess his past positions. He explains why he changed his mind and what it was that caused him to change his mind. And so I don’t want to go through that whole list again, but that’s pretty much how I would do it. If you’re a subscriber to my website it will be up when we update the site this afternoon to reflect the contents of the program. But this is really difficult. But depending — there are a couple people — I can’t take these endorsement calls, because I’m just —

CALLER: No, I don’t want you to endorse them. I was just wondering how you go about and decide. I mean, do you look at, you know, are they willing to cut taxes only, I mean is that your top — what’s your top five things that you look at in a candidate for choosing them.

RUSH: Okay, top five right off the top of my head, not in any particular order: limited government. Get government out of people’s way. Number two, belief in the system that it’s people who make the country work, not government. Number three, don’t give me a laundry list of policies without a philosophical underpinning that explains the policies. Number four, don’t tell me that government is the agent of change and that you are going to lead the government. My brand of conservatism is based on individual entrepreneurism, rugged self-individualism, telling people that they’re the ones who make the country work. I think this is born out by history and people respond to it. And then, fifth, after all of those things that I would define as conservative, which includes the belief that people can triumph over the obstacles in their lives, that they’re not incompetent, they’re not incapable, and they’re not stupid, the fifth thing is, is there any leadership on any of this?

CALLER: No.

RUSH: Well, if somebody starts exuding leadership, I’m going to tell you, the race would be over. Nobody’s exuding any leadership in this primary right now at all. What we’re getting is a recitation of policies, we’re getting a defense of past positions which aren’t conservative, that run from, (Doing McCain impression) “You’re misunderstanding me, I never said it, it wasn’t amnesty!” to people who were pro-choice, changed their mind to pro-life. We have people that said they’re now for FairTax and net tax increase. If somebody starts exhibiting leadership, if there were, even with this roster, if one of them had any kind of leadership persona, the race would already be more defined than it is now. I think the one thing that’s absent in all of this is take-charge leadership born of confidence and desire to lead the country forward according to the vision the candidate has. Right now the front-runners want it because it’s their turn. We tried that in 1996 with Bob Dole, and now they’re running the same scenario with McCain. You know what recommends McCain is so many people saying, “He got cheated, Rush, in 2000. He was cheated and we owe him! It was unfair.” We’ve been down this road of owing people. We’ve been down this road, it’s their turn. That’s not what does it for me. So I guess in speaking aloud here and answering your question, the answer is show me some leadership here and you’re going to go a long way to impressing me.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: My friends, I’m going to repeat this one more time. I’ve said this countless times, but people are wondering when, how, who I am going to endorse. Please get away from that. That is accepting the notion that whoever I endorse is put over the top. You guys are demonstrating out there that you’re going to make up your own minds — and I, frankly, like that. I participate here in, hopefully, informing and educating, and you do back and forth. We do together. But you’re not mind-numbed robots. This endorsement business? Can I be bluntly honest? If I had this magical power to get everybody I supported elected, we wouldn’t have had Clinton. You know, people like me who do what I do, we’ve gotta realistic about what this is. It’s a radio show that has an identity and a mission and a purpose, but it’s not to get people elected. It’s an ancillary thing, but that’s not why I’m doing this. If I really want to get one guy over another elected, I’d quit this then I’d become the guy’s operative and dirty tricks guy and whatever else it took to win. I’m not trying to diminish my role, don’t misunderstand.

I’m the one has this in perspective. Now, you ask, on the one hand, you want me to endorse somebody, and I say no. Then you think I have, when I haven’t, and I get hell on the phones from people who think I’ve endorsed somebody. I haven’t. Now, you want to know why I haven’t endorsed anybody? Screw the word endorsement. You know why I’m not coming out and saying, “I support this guy more than the other” in those exact words? It’s because I can’t control these people. Let me give you a hypothetical. Let’s say that long ago I said, “Folks, I have surveyed the scene, and there’s only one guy in this race that’s worth supporting, and that man is Fred Thompson.” All right. So I say, and Fred runs along with his current position in the polls, and then decides to get out. What if Fred decides to endorse McCain, or throw his support to him? It’s entirely possible. Where does that leave me? I’m not going to put myself in this position. Tie your life to a politician, or link yourself to a politician? If you endorse one, you gotta defend everything they say, otherwise you gotta cancel the endorsement. Then, what the hell? When you have a roster where there’s no genuine conservative… It’s like I’ve been telling you.

Like I’m telling you: this is going to come down to who we dislike the least. It’s what it’s going to boil down to. That’s not necessarily good, but it is what it is. I can’t say, “I support Candidate X” weeks out, and the campaign unfolds and have these guys put me in a bad situation. Because I guarantee you, if I were to say, say, “Candidate X! You know what, folks? I’ve decided today I support Candidate X,” Candidate X is not going to call me and say, “What do I need to keep doing to keep your support?” Candidate X is going to assume I will maintain support whatever he does because he’s just gotten it publicly. I’m not going to put myself in that position. So if I can’t come to you and honestly say I support one of these guys over the other, I’m not going to do it. Now, I can come to you and say, “I see real red flags with this guy, real red flags with that guy.” I’ll tell you that, but always up front and honestly. Based on what? Conservatism! Because it wins. Anyway, I’ll squeeze in one more call here before we have to go. Who is it? Mike in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. Hi.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, thanks for taking the call. Some hot tea and rye whisky in the same cup will help your throat. In the meantime, I wanted to weigh in on the issue you spoke of a little bit ago about the evangelical influence in the Republican Party. In my opinion we need to excise the evangelicals from the Republican Party, because I really do believe that they are hurting the cause. And this is — and this is where my thought process is, that the Republican core value is to empower the individual and that the evangelicals, you know, with their social agenda seem to me to be empowering government just as much as the far left on the Democrat. They’re are all for — for –

RUSH: Okay.

CALLER: — you know, no. Letting your kids get abortions without letting the parents know.

RUSH: Time-out, time-out, time-out. I’ve got a minute. I can’t speak very fast. You’re raising a good point. I want to address it. I’ve heard this lament, “Social conservatives believe in big government as much as liberals do, Limbaugh. You know it. They want the government to stop abortions!” In the first place, the Republican Party would be nowhere without them. That’s why I hate to see what’s going on here in the current field. But number two: the founding documents. The Declaration of Independence: “We’re all endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them, LIFE, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” When a political party is doing its best to see to it that every abortion possible happens, there’s only one agency empowered by our founding documents to stand up for life. That’s the government. That’s considered a proper use of the government, to stand for life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That’s not oppression, sir.

END TRANSCRIPT

infidelpride on January 21, 2008 at 8:39 PM

Another Rush transcript

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Ann in Carrollton, Virginia. Hi, Ann, welcome to the EIB Network.

CALLER: Yes, thank you for taking my call. For weeks you’ve been telling us why we should not vote for McCain because he’s not a true conservative, or Huckabee because he’s not a true conservative, and you base that on their records as senator and governor. What I’d like to hear is why you feel that Romney is a true conservative, because I honestly don’t know a lot of about him. But I base –

RUSH: Before I answer the question, who are you for?

CALLER: Well, to tell you the truth, I’m not totally convinced about any of them. I really have not made up my mind. Honestly I haven’t. But my problem is, when I think of Romney, I think of someone who was elected governor, as he says in the bluest of the blue states, so to me that doesn’t equate with a conservative, and also he forces people to get health insurance, which doesn’t sound like a conservative. When he campaigns in Michigan, he says that when he becomes president, he’s going to pass governor mandates to help the auto industry, and that doesn’t sound like a conservative. So what I’d like to know is if you can tell us a few things he did as governor to show that he is a true conservative.

RUSH: In the first place, I have never said that he is the one true conservative in the race.

CALLER: Hm-hm.

RUSH: I haven’t. And, in fact, I recoiled when I heard his $20 billion annual subsidy to the auto industry in Detroit and I said, “Jeez, that’s just flat-out pandering.” My point on all this, Ann, from the get-go, and I even mentioned it today, and it’s an unfortunate position, but not one of these people totally fills the bill.

CALLER: No. Well, that’s one of Romney’s problems, is really we don’t know what did he do as governor to show us that he’s a conservative? You know, we never hear it. So is there anything that you can tell me that he did as governor to show me he’s a conservative? Honestly I’d really like to know.

RUSH: There are a couple things, and it depends on the credibility of somebody that, you know, what was their record prior to doing that, what is their record in the real world, as an entrepreneur and a businessman, what occasions are there from that record that you can draw conclusions. He cut taxes in Massachusetts, and he was amazingly able to get that done. He tried fighting this court business where they mandated gay marriage from the Supreme Court without going through the legislature. But, look, what you’re illustrating here is that nobody on our side fits the pure bill. But there are lessers. In fact, one of the lines I used earlier, not on today’s program, but in previous weeks, is this whole Republican primary is going to boil down to who we dislike the least.

CALLER: Hm-hm.

RUSH: And that’s sad.

CALLER: So why do you feel that he’s more of a conservative than McCain, based on the record?

RUSH: Oh, that isn’t hard.

CALLER: What record would you have for Romney to show us that? Because I tell you, truthfully I’m not a McCain supporter. So I’m not saying –

RUSH: Of course not, probably a Huckabee supporter.

CALLER: (laughter) Well, to tell you the truth I’d like to know more about Ron Paul, because I’m for as little government intervention as we can have.

RUSH: Enough said. Wherever you go here in this roster of candidates, you’re going to be able to point out “not conservative, what he did there is not conservative.” The one guy that has the least of that is Fred Thompson, that’s what I’ve said, but Fred Thompson was right in there supporting McCain on McCain-Feingold. That’s a red flag. I make my living with my mouth and what comes out of it, and that was a direct assault on what comes out of certain people’s mouths around election times. Once you chip away successfully the First Amendment, it’s easy to do it the next time, second time, third time, fourth time, and 50th time.

CALLER: Hm-hm. Well, maybe, when you get a chance, you could inform us a little more about Romney’s record.

RUSH: Well, sure, I’d be happy to. People have been asking me to go down every one of these guy’s records and do A-B — that’s not what I do here. I don’t have Romney’s record in front of me. Let me give you this. You mentioned McCain. I don’t see the left-wing media propping up Romney like they are propping up McCain. I don’t see them calling Romney a maverick, and the definition of a maverick is one who constantly goes against his party. McCain is a maverick, and he is loved and adored for that and he gets away with the straight talk stuff because, to them, the straight talk is ripping his own party, and ripping his own president, and it got him fawning press coverage. I haven’t seen any of that said about any of these people. Well, maybe Huckabee to a certain extent but the press and the Drive-Bys are trying to destroy Romney; they’re trying to destroy Fred Thompson; they’re trying to destroy Rudy. If you look at who they’re propping up, absent a list or a record of these guys, there are certain indications that you can get. The press is ignoring Ron Paul. That should also tell you something; they don’t consider him to be a serious contender for the ultimate prize.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let me speak generally here. She wanted to know, “Well, you tell me what’s conservative about Romney? What is his record?” and, of course, I’ve not said Romney… She accused me of saying Romney is the only true conservative in the race. I haven’t said that because there isn’t one. But there are some in the race who are trying to destroy conservative while saying they’re conservative, and they’re trying to redefine it. I’m telling you, I’m not going to sit by and just shut up while that happens. There are other people who are not conservative down the line, but they’re not trying to destroy conservatism and they’re certainly not trying to redefine it totally to fit them, but there are those in the race who are. So let me speak generally, here. In order to have a change of heart on issues or a real conversion — because every one of these guys has had a liberal position or more at some point in their past, and they’re all out there saying they’ve changed their minds. Romney’s changed his mind. McCain says (impression), “Well, I get it now, Limbaugh. I get it! I gotta do enforcement! (grumbling) I gotta do the borders, and then we’ll make ‘em legal. How’s that?” And then, of course, Huckabee wanted to bring ‘em all in and give them health care and welfare and Medicare, and now he wants to kick ‘em all out.

So in order to have a genuine change of heart, a genuine conversion, you have to admit — at least I think you do — that you were wrong about your prior view. If you lead the effort — if you LEAD it, if you lead the effort — to grant amnesty to illegal aliens and now claim that you didn’t, how can you be believed when you say that you now believe in securing the border first? You gotta go back and remember. I understand a lot of people that I’ve talked to are McCain supporters and don’t care about that. They want to beat Hillary, or it’s the war on terror, or what have you. All this stuff is irrelevant to them. But if you lead the effort — and you not only lead the effort, you lead the effort to keep it quiet; you lead the effort to make sure nobody knows what’s going on in the amnesty bill — and then when you say that the amnesty bill wasn’t amnesty because we’re going to collect the $5,000 fine from these people and we’re going to try to register them all in one day? This is a bunch that couldn’t even get Katrina right in five months, and we’re going to rectangle all the illegals in one day? This is poppycock, balderdash, folderol! It’s flummery. How am I supposed to sit here and accept that a real conversion has taken place, if you lead the effort to grant amnesty to illegal aliens, and now claim that you didn’t do that.

Also, if you claim to be for the FairTax today but you were a net tax increaser in the past, how can you be believed as actually wanting to eliminate the income tax and replace it with a national sales tax? If you can’t admit what your record was as governor, if you have to say in answer to the question, “Were you a net tax increaser?” “We built roads,” it’s a deflection. Look, I say this because the best we can do here, folks, is to try to measure the candidate’s record and recent comments, and you have to judge whether what they’re saying today is expedient or serious. Let’s take abortion, for example, shall we? Romney was pro-abortion. He now says he was wrong. Says he was for it when he ran for governor. But he talks about the moment he changed his mind and why he changed his mind. He doesn’t claim to have been “misunderstood.” He doesn’t claim to say that he was pro-life. He doesn’t say, “Well, I never was pro-choice. I have always been pro-life.” He doesn’t try to obfuscate or cloud his record. He comes out and apologizes. You have to judge whether that’s a real conversion. It’s up to you as a voter, but it’s far easier to make that judgment when he says, “I made a mistake. I was wrong. Here’s why and how and when I changed my mind,” and when he doesn’t say, “Look, you’re misunderstanding me.” He’s not saying that.

The other candidates are saying (McCain impression), “You misunderstood. It wasn’t amnesty. It’s different with amnesty! Quit lying about it.” Or: What about the fact you’re a net tax increaser? “We built roads. We built schools.” You try to make the best judgment you can. Here’s the thing: All of us who are steadfastly trying to maintain a conservative, genuine conservative identity of the Republican Party, we’ve been lectured to forget about Ronald Reagan, and we have been lectured to forget about conservatism. We’re told it’s time to rewrite things, to adopt some new, revolutionary, adaptive thinking that takes those principles and applies them to the issues of today. Now all of what we’re told — lectured to forget about Reagan, forget about conservatism, understand it’s a new day and there’s a new role for government, new issues, all of this — is intended to ease the way for a McCain or a Huckabee. Romney, Rudy, Thompson supporters don’t talk this way for the most part. Romney, Rudy, and Thompson people are not telling us to shut up. They’re not telling us that we’re causing problems. They try to argue that their guy is the best when comparing their records and speeches to a true conservative template.

Whether they’re convincing or not is another thing, but that’s what’s going on. Rudy, McCain, and Thompson are trying to say, “We are going to continue the conservative tradition.” The other two guys are saying, “We need to rewrite it. It’s old hat. We need to let go of it. We got new issues.” Another example: Rudy does not claim to have been anything about pro-abortion. He’s not saying, “Well, yeah, I was pro-abortion, but I was a liberal in New York. I had to be to get elected.” He’s not even saying that. He doesn’t even run around making excuses for it. There’s something admirable about that. We got other guys making excuses for their positions or telling us that we’re misunderstanding their positions, or that they never were what we think they are. Rudy is not doing that. But he says that he will appoint conservative judges to deal with the issue. Agree or not, that’s what he says. We do the best we can here, folks. There’s no litmus test here can get applied, because none of these people would fit it all. So we do the best we can in figuring it out. Then you have to ask yourself, “What can the president really do about abortion? He can lead, change minds and hearts, try and reduce the number that would take place.”

By the way, that’s happening. But legally, in terms of Roe vs. Wade there’s only one thing a president can do, and that’s appointment to the Supreme Court, and Rudy says he’s going to appoint guys that would do it. McCain… Now, this is really a stark contrast, and I want you to listen to this. McCain says (impression), “Look Limbaugh, I’m pro-life! I’ve always been pro-life. You can’t say that’s not true. That’s always been the case. I’ve always been pro-life!” Well, what did he do to advance his pro-life belief? He joined liberal Democrats in filing a brief in the Supreme Court against the ability of the Wisconsin Right to Life committee to run ads about life and abortion prior to an election. This is above and beyond McCain-Feingold! He actually filed his own brief in the Supreme Court against the ability of Wisconsin Right to Life committee to run ads about life and abortion prior to an election.

“I’ve always been pro-life, though, Limbaugh! You can’t say that’s not true!”

I’m not saying it’s not true. Where’s the leadership on it? It’s one thing to say it, then you stand in the way of pro-life people trying to get their truth out in an election? And then you tell us you’re going to appoint judges that will take care of it? We do the best we can, folks. We look at what they say versus what they do, what they say they’ve said versus what they are saying. We do the best we can. That’s not to get into the Gang of 14. That’s another story in itself. Senator McCain wants it both ways on pro-life. Rudy doesn’t. Rudy’s not denying highs pro-choice. But he also says he hates abortion, and will do what he can to stop it appointing judges. McCain says he’s pro-life, and stands in the way of people who are pro-life, trying to impact an election. He wants it both ways. Why did he file that brief? Maybe it’s to be consistent with McCain-Feingold. Who knows? Why did he do it? We do the best we can in sorting this stuff out.

END TRANSCRIPT

infidelpride on January 21, 2008 at 9:01 PM