RUSH: Okay, folks, what we have here is a fascinating object lesson. What we have here is a golden opportunity. What is happening in the aftermath of the Rand Paul filibuster is very useful. This is extremely eye opening. The filibuster itself was eye opening and has its own educational aspects. But what’s happening in the aftermath is almost as intriguing to me. The way I would put it is, the establishment decided to go out to dinner last night. Obama took McCain and Lindsey Graham and some others, went out to dinner.

By the way, Obama’s motorcade — I want you to keep this in mind when you realize that they shut down White House tours. All of these children, who for years have been saying, “Mommy, mommy, I want to go see where the president lives. I want to go see the White House, mommy. Can I see the White House during spring break?” Kids these days get everything they want, so mom said, “Sure,” and they set it up, called their local congressman, set it up, and when it was their turn to go the White House tours are shut down because of the sequester. Seven people who work in the White House tour department or tour office, laid off, furloughed.

These White House tours are like a lot of museum tours. You walk in, you get a pair of headphones, a CD or some audio source, and you walk around and you’re told in your headphones what you’re looking at. There are people to shepherd you and make sure you don’t walk in on, oh, like the president and a girl in a restroom. They keep you in the right place. They’re basically self-guided tours. Anyway, these things have been shut down. The president goes out to dinner last night. The establishment, the parents, went out to dinner. Obama, McCain, Lindsey Grahamnesty, went out to dinner.

Obama, a 20-vehicle motorcade to go to a restaurant for dinner. A 20-vehicle motorcade to go to a restaurant while the White House tours are shut down because of the sequester. Anyway, that’s just a side point. The establishment goes out, when they got back home they found all the furniture out on the front porch. The kids had gone crazy. The kids had thrown a giant party while the establishment was out doing whatever they were doing. While the old guard of the Republican Party was out playing footsie with the president, the new kids in town were talking to the American people about liberty.

The new kids in down captivated the nation talking to them about freedom. The new kids in town were, for the first time in I don’t know how long, actually taking it to Barack Obama and showing how easily it’s done and showing that you live the next day and demonstrating you have tons and tons of support the next day. Not only that, you have tons and tons of support while you’re doing it. Rand Paul starts his filibuster. He just wanted Obama to acknowledge in a letter that Obama will not kill Americans sitting in a cafe minding their own business with a drone. And the regime wouldn’t respond.

Now, Eric Holder did, and we had the sound bites for you. Finally, after four or five tries from Ted Cruz, Holder finally admitted that such a thing would be unconstitutional. Now, at that point Rand Paul coulda quit the filibuster. But there was something larger going on. As the filibuster went on, Ted Cruz showed up, pointed out it’s the 177th anniversary of the Alamo. Marco Rubio showed up. Senator Turban, some Democrats that wanted to get in on this. Dingy Harry showed up, tried to shut it down. Meanwhile, meanwhile, the Republican establishment is out playing footsie with Obama at a restaurant.

Senator McCain just went to the floor of the Senate and blasted Senator Paul saying the filibuster was not helpful. Senator McCain, and I tell you, this illustrates the contrast between the new stars of the Republican Party and yesterday’s mashed potatoes. McCain said that Paul’s filibuster (imitating McCain), “Let me tell you what’s wrong with it, Limbaugh. It’s gonna give ammo to those who think the rules of the Senate have been abused.” Senator McCain, there’s not a person in the world who cares about the rules of the Senate right now. And if the rules of the Senate were abused last night for the American people to hear the truth, then so be it.

The rules of the Senate? People are gonna think the rules of the Senate were abused? What are we all members of the ruling class here? No siree bobkins, folks, you and I, we are part of the country class. I said part. I popped the P. I’m a highly trained broadcast specialist. I know when you say “part” you pop that P. We are part of the country class. You talk about being out of touch. The low-information voters who need to be our targets are gonna be concerned about the rules of the Senate? They don’t even think there are any. I would bet you that more people watched Rand Paul’s filibuster last night than watched any of the Senate’s televised proceedings in years. And more importantly, a lot of people may have actually been inspired by what Rand Paul did.

And, you know what? He didn’t need the media. As long as he stayed on his feet he had the floor. And he could turn it over, he could yield to whoever he wanted. But as long as he stayed on his feet and as long as he stayed on the Senate floor, no computers are allowed in there, no phones are allowed in there, he could not sit down. So he’s eating candy bars and water for sustenance. And the questions, if you notice, the people that were helping Rand Paul along, sometimes the questions would go ten minutes just to give him a break, all by design. But he had access to the American people. News spread like wildfire. It’s the headline on Drudge.

I’m sitting at home. See, I know what’s going on, so I’m not watching it. I know what it’s all about. I don’t have to watch it. I’m old enough, I know enough that I know what’s happening without watching it. But I got people sending me e-mail last night: “What the hell is this all about?” Who had no idea it was happening, but then they did, then they heard about it. So I had a stock e-mail reply prepared, and I just hit command-V for pasting it, sent it back whenever somebody wanted to know what was going on. And what was going on was, for the first time this president being challenged on something he wants to do that is unconstitutional. And it’s not the first time that he’s trying to do something unconstitutional.

There wasn’t any shouting and there wasn’t any yelling and there wasn’t any name-calling and there wasn’t any of this. If you went to Twitter, which is dominated by the left, the interesting thing about this, a lot of libs on Twitter, libs, if you get them in a sterile environment, you know, they are obsessed with people dying. That’s why they worry about global warming. It’s why they worry about whether or not you eat oat bran or not. They’re obsessed with people dying. Well, being hit by a drone while you’re in a cafe, smoking the weed, drinking some Starbucks, that ain’t cool. And even libs can relate to that. So even the libs on Twitter were very alarmed when they heard what could be possible someday in this country if it’s not stopped.

By the way, it’s another opportunity. You know, we conservatives, what are we really all about? When you boil us down, what are we all about? Freedom, liberty. And yet we are judged by many on the left to be people that want to put other people in prison and so forth. The reason for that, of course, is that we also concern ourselves with morality. We love freedom and liberty, but we have guardrails.

The left doesn’t. That’s why they look at us as jailers. Well, they do. I mean, they win the White House and they run around singing songs, “We have overcome!” It’s like they’ve just been let out of jail. It’s like the Civil War ended every time they win an election. So there were a lot of things going on in this filibuster last night, and a lot of lessons. A big lesson (and this is something for the old guard to learn) is the Constitution of the United States was being defended and protected last night.

The freedom and liberty of the people of the United States was being defended against potential assault by the president of the United States, and the people of this country rallied like crazy. They did not get mad at Rand Paul. They loved him. They did not call Rand Paul a racist. They loved him. They did not call him an extremist. They loved him. There are all of these fears that the old guard ruling class has and the Republican consultancy class has: “Don’t attack Obama! Don’t criticize Obama! You’re gonna anger the independents, women and such.”

None of that happened. We didn’t need Sawyer there or Dan Rather or some media people there. We didn’t need a moderator for this thing. We didn’t need Martha Raddatz there asking questions for any of it. We just had a guy speaking from the heart with some of his friends that showed up, while across town Obama used a 20-car motorcade to go out and get dinner. By the way, I got a note about that. Somebody wants me to make a big deal out of the fact that he paid for it out of his own pocket.

Big whoop!

He doesn’t have any money in his pocket that isn’t ours first. What is…? Well, I take it back. He did pawn a couple of books off on people. But I doubt that he’s spending that money. He’s spending the money we pay him.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We’re gonna have Rand Paul on the program the top of the next hour. I’m gonna ask him about this. He is being criticized by Republican establishment types. Get this criticism. Are you ready for this one? “He knows nobody’s gonna ever launch a drone on Americans. He wasn’t trying to stop Brennan. This guy’s actually trying to stop drones. He’s just like his dad! He’s just trying to get the US military shut out from using drones, period, especially on Muslims.”

So that criticism of Rand Paul is out there. (interruption) I know it’s absurd, but it’s out there from Republican establishment types. So, anyway, after McCain went to the floor of the Senate and said that Paul’s concerns were totally unfounded and (impression), “He did a disservice, a disservice to a lot of Americans to make — make them fear they’re in danger from their government. They’re not! They’re not!” McCain said, quote, “American citizens have nothing to fear from their government.”

You know, I’m thinking Obama’s kicking himself for not inviting McCain to dinner earlier. This McCain guy could come in really handy for Obama. I think Obama figured this out last night. McCain went to the floor of the Senate to actually say that Rand Paul’s concerns were unfounded. This is what we’re up against. This is the Republican reaction to Rand Paul. Violated Senate rules! Wrong impression! The American people aren’t threatened! It’s just not right. It’s getting people all concerned over nothing.

Senator Graham also was on Fox News this morning, and this was what he said…

GRAHAM: The drone program he has utilized overseas, I think, has made us safer. This idea that we’re gonna use a drone to attack an American citizen in a cafe in America is ridiculous.

RUSH: So it’s the rules of the Senate versus the rule of law and due process, and what wins with the old guard establishment? The rules of the Senate. Now, let’s not forget here, Senator McCain loudly and constantly condemned the use of enhanced interrogation on terrorists, too. I guess he has no problem with the president using a drone. He doesn’t think it’s gonna happen. So, anyway, now Obama wants to have Paul Ryan over for lunch since this thing worked out so well last night with the old guard that he wants to spread it around.

I hope it was worth it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, I’ll tell you what’s happening here, folks, among many other things. McCain and some of these old guard guys are jealous. The Senate… Remember, politics is showbiz for the ugly. It is showbiz. It is about getting on television. It’s about getting rave reviews in the media. It is every bit about photo-ops and all that stuff as Hollywood people are as focused on it. Well, right now, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have captivated everybody, and these old guard guys — these old bulls — are getting jealous. It’s a little bit more complicated than that, but I think that’s fundamentally one of the things happening here.