RUSH: This morning on Morning Joe, PMSNBC, the guest is Charlie Cook, Editor and Publisher of the Cook Political Report. Joe Scarborough says, ‘What’s your number right now? Are there more seats actually in play in the House now than at any time since you’ve been doing this?’
COOK: We’ve got about a hundred seats in play.
SCARBOROUGH: Wow.
COOK: There were some times back in the early nineties when it got up a little higher than that, but it’s been a long time since we had anything like this happening. We’re looking at — you know, our sort of official range is somewhere between Republican gain of 48 to 60. My hunch is this is around the size of 1994 when it was eight and 52, but it could go higher than that.
RUSH: Eight and 52, that’s the Senate was eight, the House was 52. What’s your prediction, Snerdley? Do you have a prediction on this? What’s your prediction, give me House and Senate. Okay, 11 Senate seat pick up in the Senate. What about the House? Okay, so Snerdley: 55 House, 11 Senate. I like the number 69. So I’m gonna say 60 House, nine Senate. And it could be, as Charlie Cook says, it could be higher. I mean you got a hundred seats in play, you got a hundred seats… I shoulda printed this out and I didn’t. But I did commit some of it to memory. I don’t know the guy’s name, but there is a district, North Carolina 4. This district has been gerrymandered specifically to be a Democrat district in perpetuity. It includes Chapel Hill; it includes Durham. This race has been moved into the ‘in play’ column by Charlie Cook, from ‘safe’ to ‘in play.’ There are eight of these that are supposedly Democrat locks forever, have been moved to ‘in play.’ Peter DeFazio is in the news for proposing something. I was reading it last night, and I thought I printed it out. I may be having printing problems. DeFazio just proposed something, but I’ll remember what it is, but it’s clearly oriented toward the election. It’s absurd what he’s proposing. Democrats would like it but it will never happen. So Scarborough said, ‘What are the chances on the other side that the Democrats hold onto the House by one or two seats? Is there any chance of that?’
COOK: To be honest I think the odds are higher that it’s over 60 than it’s under 40. There’s always a chance. We’re talking about human nature. I’ll be sacking groceries if that’s happening.
RUSH: So here’s Scarborough, I don’t know what he’s doing asking Charlie Cook, (panting) ‘Is it possible Democrats could hold on by a couple seats, is it possible, Charlie?’ And Charlie says, ‘To be honest, I think the odds are higher that it’s over 60 than it’s under 40. I’ll be sacking groceries if your scenario happens, Joe.’ Okay, and then Obama. This is yesterday on the Al Sharpton radio show called Keeping It Real. Obama was the guest. Sharpton’s question, ‘Even though your name isn’t on the ballot, this is about your agenda, about the progress we’ve seen you begin to make over the past 20-odd months.’
OBAMA: A lot of your listeners may live in places where there’s early voting, and if you got early vote, take advantage of it now. The key is to make sure everybody understands this election is — is important. My name may not be on the ballot, but our agenda for moving forward is on the ballot, and I need everybody to turn out.
RUSH: His agenda is on the ballot. Absolutely. He is happy to note that his agenda is on the ballot. David Price, North Carolina 4. Now, I want you to stop and think of something, and I am dead serious about this. It may sound funny to you; it may sound like I’m trying to be my usual sarcastic funny. I’m not. I’m dead serious about this. Think how far, think how low the office of the presidency has declined if Obama is happy to appear on a program hosted by such a race-baiter, Al Sharpton, self-appointed reverend. Think of how low. It used to be presidents wouldn’t deign to do Sunday shows. That was beneath them. Clinton changed all that by playing the saxophone with Johnny Carson. Oh, it was Arsenio Hall, that’s right, Arsenio. Yeah. Carson wouldn’t even go that low for his own show, have Clinton on.
Peter DeFazio wants to impeach John Roberts for perjury during his confirmation hearings. It’s over this Citizens United case. This case, Citizens United, which simply affirms the constitutionality of people who work at corporations to be able to make political donations. The left is fit to be tied over this. They just can’t abide this. Corporations are evil, and they think that Roberts just lied through his teeth during his confirmation hearings. So Peter DeFazio wants to impeach Justice Roberts. Now, I know where I saw this. I saw it at National Review Online. There was an intellectual response to this, and I thought it was a brilliant intellectual response, but an intellectual response is not what’s called for here. An intellectual response is taking DeFazio’s premise seriously. So who is DeFazio? Big whoop, member of Congress wants to impeach John Roberts. So we get into gear with an intellectual reply. No. The response needs to be political and ideological. It’s insane. It is pure politics. There’s nothing about law, there’s nothing about the Constitution that is at the root of DeFazio’s desire to impeach John Roberts.
DeFazio wants to get rid of a conservative on the court, pure and simple, without cause and for no justification whatsoever. Anyway, his district has been moved from ‘safe’ to ‘toss-up.’ David Price is North Carolina 4, which includes Chapel Hill and Durham. So it’s an amazing thing to sit here and look at all of this. Here’s DeFazio, ‘get rid of John Roberts’ and Obama appearing on the Al Sharpton show in an effort to get out the vote. Stunning, but true. Let’s move to audio sound bite number 13. This is the White House, the press briefing, Robert ‘Fibbs’ during the Q&A, a reporter said, ‘When then-senator Obama was advocating for Senator Kerry for president prominently, isn’t what he was trying to do is to make sure that President Bush was a one-term president?’
GIBBS: There’s a difference — look, again there will be time for an active presidential campaign, okay? And maybe Senator McConnell’s interested in running for president. There’s time for a presidential campaign. There will be time for a political campaign. But members of the Senate are elected and hired by the people of the United States to get stuff done for the people of the United States, not to posture and play political games, gum up the system.
RUSH: Now, what’s Fibbs talking about here? You want to know what Fibbs is talking about? Fibbs is talking about something McConnell said. McConnell said — and I know he means this — the number one objective of the Republican Party in the US Senate will be to prevent Obama’s reelection in 2012. That’s his number one objective. So they asked Fibbs about it, and Fibbs gives a derailed, off-the-rails response, and the reporter said, ‘Well, wait a minute, I mean you guys, Obama was talking about making sure that Bush was a one-termer, that Kerry got elected.’ ‘Well that was different.’ Why was it different? ‘Well, it was different because Obama’s Obama and McConnell’s McConnell.’ Clearly irritated, clearly bugged.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Many people are wondering what the Republicans ought to do when it comes to Obamacare. There’s an excuse being floated. ‘Weeell, you know, Rush, they can’t really override a presidential veto. There’s really not much they can do.’ A lot of Republicans are looking for a pass. So during the Heritage Foundation’s Weekly Bloggers Briefing, a conference call with a conservative blogger, Senator Tom Coburn spoke. And during the Q&A he was asked, ‘What do you think is the practical way forward in the next Congress for dealing with Obamacare as passed?’
COBURN: I think the best strategy is to offer a repeal bill and try to pass that bill, and if you can’t pass it the first time, then offer it again the next month and offer it again the next month. I think the strategy is you offer repeal bills and then you offer limiting amendments on appropriation bills, and make the president veto ’em. Ultimately the way you repeal this thing is to change the president in 2012.
RUSH: But, I like the idea. Try to repeal it monthly. Offer a repeal bill monthly. Hell, offer one daily! (New Castrati impression) ‘But Mr. Limbaugh! Mr. Limbaugh! Don’t you really that your party will end up looking like a joke?’ I’m hearing a lot of people say, ‘Rush, we’ll look like a joke if that’s all we do.’ No, that’s not going to be all they do but offering repeal bill every month. Folks, there’s one or two, three, four good reasons why there’s going to be a Republican sweep, and one of them is not to go there and wait until 2012 for hopefully a Republican to win the White House. Nobody is going to the polls Tuesday to elect Republicans to go to Washington and wait for 2012 to try to make something happen. You can attach repeal measures in the always-existing omnibus appropriation bill. You can defund it. You can offer all kinds of amendments.
You can play legislative tricks here. You can put it in a piece of legislation Obama has to sign. That’s what the Democrats always did with Bush! I’m going to tell you Republicans: If you think there’s going to be patience to wait to do anything about this until 2012 when we might win the White House, you are sadly mistaken. You may not be there in 2012. Nobody is voting Tuesday to send anybody to Washington to wait. (New Castrati impression) ‘But Mr. Limbaugh! Mr. Limbaugh! What can they do? They’re not going to have the votes to be able to beat the president.’ You continue the education, Mr. New Castrati. You continue to point out where this man’s agenda will take the country. You make every effort to stop it because you love the country. You make every effort to stop it because you disagree on principle and in kind with the president’s agenda. This is not hard. By that I mean the strategy here is not hard. The idea is not hard. The work is, of course. It’s not hard to figure out what to do. I’ll say it one more time: Republicans are not being sent to Washington on Tuesday to sit around for two years and wait for a Republican to maybe win the White House in 2012.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: A closing thought. A lot of people — and you know who you are — sat out 2006 and 2008. You were so mad at the Republicans and you wanted to let the Democrats win just to show everybody how bad it could be. All right, we see how bad it can be and how much worse it can get. So don’t sit this one out if you care at all about the future of this country.