RUSH: This is Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and we move on to Governor Huckabee now. He held a press conference, unidentified reporter said, ‘Governor Huckabee, why are these conservative leaders going to Governor Romney’s camp and not Senator McCain’s?’
HUCKABEE: Some suggest that the fact that Bain Capital owns a major stake in Clear Channel and is on Sean’s network, that maybe there’s a correlation. I don’t know.
RUSH: Whew. Now, I happen to know something about this. This is just embarrassing. (laughing) It’s shocking. There’s so much ignorance, or if he knows that he’s not telling the truth here, it’s bold. But he was asked by an unidentified reporter why conservative leaders are going to Romney and not Senator McCain.
HUCKABEE: Some suggest that the fact that Bain Capital owns a major stake in Clear Channel and is on Sean’s network, that maybe there’s a correlation. I don’t know.
RUSH: Bain Capital is the group, the financial group partially cofounded by Mitt Romney. He has had to divest himself from Bain Capital. Bain Capital does not own a major stake in Clear Channel, not yet. Bain Capital and Thomas Lee Partners have entered into a deal to purchase Clear Channel and take it private, but it hasn’t been approved. It requires a bunch of approval. It hasn’t been done. And furthermore, Sean Hannity is not a contractual partner with Clear Channel anyway. Clear Channel, some of their stations carry Sean’s show. There’s nothing accurate about this. This is a left-wing conspiracy. Huckabee has picked this up from a left-wing — if you go to the right left-wing kook websites, they’re trying to trash Romney by saying he’s secretly buying Clear Channel, and Clear Channel is the partner of Rush Limbaugh, and that means that there’s an unholy alliance between Romney and Rush Limbaugh. Well, Romney’s not with Bain Capital, Bain Capital does not own Clear Channel yet, has nothing to say about how Clear Channel is running itself, and Hannity is nowhere to be found in the equation in any which way, matter, or form, other than his show is carried on some Clear Channel radio stations. (interruption) It’s totally believable, Snerdley. What do you mean, unbelievable? It’s totally believable.
This is what’s bugging me. We have candidates on our side who are adopting liberalism; they’re adopting liberal conspiracy theories and spreading them around as Republican candidates. They’re adopting liberal ideas and saying, ‘Hey, all the great ideas the Democrats are polling greater.’ This is what’s so irritating to me. And then with all of that — don’t forget, Huckabee was David Brooks’ guy when he was winning out of Iowa, and Bill Kristol’s guy, and now all of a sudden they’re for McCain. But people on our side are adopting all of this, ‘Pay no attention to it, Rush, ignore it. It’s irrelevant. We gotta win. We gotta win.’ It’s not irrelevant when we have our candidates spreading liberal conspiracy theories which have no basis in fact whatsoever, zilch, zero, nada. And then, other candidates are out there espousing Democrat ideas and liberal ideas because they’re polling better. We’re told to shut up and get back on the reservation and understand what’s necessary here. CNN’s American Morning. Cohost John Roberts interviewing Governor Huckabee. Roberts says, ‘You have conservatives like Rush Limbaugh saying things like, ‘If Mike Huckabee becomes the nominee, he’ll destroy the Republican Party.’ How do you explain that disconnect?’
HUCKABEE: A lot of the Wall Street Republicans who don’t really like the Wal-Mart Republicans, and that’s who I represent. I represent rank-and-file people that aren’t the powerful. They may not be the swells that go to the nice cocktail parties, but there are a whole lot of people in this party that if they get abandoned and they get left out, it’s going to be real hard for Republicans to win this fall. And I think people ought to be thinking very seriously about dumping a lot of the folks that gave the Republicans their victories, that people who hammer in the yard signs, the people who go out there and work for the candidates. They may not write the biggest checks, but they have in many ways the biggest role to play because they’re the foot soldiers in this whole process.
RUSH: All right, here comes the class envy and the populism again, and Governor Huckabee has it 180 degrees out of phase. It is those very people he’s talking about who are being told by the powers that be, call them the Wall Street crowd or whatever, we don’t want you in our party anymore. You embarrass us, and we don’t want you there. That’s what they’re saying of the social conservatives: We don’t want you there, we’re embarrassed to have you here. The idea that Huckabee represents them is what’s crazy. He’s not getting enough of a percentage here to propel himself to victory. By the way, a lot of people are saying, ‘Mike, get out of the race. You have no chance of winning and all you’re doing is splitting up the vote.’ Huckabee came back and said, ‘I think Mitt should get out of the race.’ (laughing) ‘I think Romney should get out of the race.’