RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, Dingy Harry sat down with the editorial board of the Las Vegas Review Journal and said some very interesting things. According to Molly Ball in that newspaper, Dingy Harry ‘defended Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman on Wednesday after the former Democratic vice presidential nominee accepted a speaking slot at next month’s Republican convention in Minnesota. ‘He has a close personal relationship with John McCain. I don’t fully understand why he does,’ said Reid, who said Lieberman called Tuesday from the Republic of Georgia to alert him to the move. ‘I told him last night, ‘You know, Joe, I can’t stand John McCain.’ He said, ‘I know you feel that way,” Reid said. But Reid said he would continue to resist calls from the Democratic Party’s base to strip Lieberman, now an independent, of his Senate positions for his disloyalty.’ Listen to this. ”All my close votes, he’s always with me, whether it’s the budget or energy issues,’ Reid said. ‘No matter what it is, he’s always with us. He just does not vote right on Iraq. … Why would I want to throw away a good vote?”
Now, this is Dingy Harry who admits he hates McCain. He hates McCain through and through. What a bold statement, and nobody’s reacting. He honestly admits to hating McCain, but I mention this primarily to put in context that the talk is still out there about Lieberman being the vice presidential pick, the McCain camp still sampling people getting their ideas on this. Well, we may have killed it, but the RNC’s put out a statement, we shared that statement with you yesterday. There will not be a pro-choice vice presidential nominee. But I’m telling you, there are some people not getting the message inside the McCain campaign, the RINOs in his campaign, and they’re still putting it out there. I think it’s important to understand he’s good on a war and he’s a nice guy, he’s got a great temperament. Lieberman, there’s nothing wrong with him as a human being, but as a politician, he ain’t us. When you’ve got the Senate majority leader Dingy Harry, who is well known as probably the most partisan guy town praising Lieberman on everything but one issue, then you have to say, ‘What are we thinking about even putting Senator Lieberman on our ticket?’
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let’s go back to the audio sound bites, day two, Rush Limbaugh ‘threatening’ McCain, according to the Drive-By Media. Here is Seattle’s Fox TV affiliate, the correspondent there, Sabrina Fang.
FANG: Rush Limbaugh has threatened McCain saying that if he puts an abortion rights running mate on his ticket, the GOP base will revolt. A McCain official says that the presidential candidate is pro-life, has always been pro-life, his administration will be pro-life, and his vice president would have to respect that thought.
RUSH: Okay, so I’m ‘threatening’ McCain now, according to the Drive-By Media. I’m not threatening anybody. I’m just predicting what will happen, ’cause I know what will happen if the wrong choice is made. I’m not going to have to do anything to cause it. McCain, will have done it. There’s nothing I can do. We don’t do campaigns, other than Operation Chaos. The Drive-Bys all the way in China, covering the Olympics, are hoping McCain disses me. This morning on CNBC’s Squawk Box while reporting live from Beijing, correspondent Carl Quintanilla said this.
QUINTANILLA: It will be interesting, too, to see, does he go with a pro-choice VP pick, uh, and sort of diss, uh, what Rush has been saying on the air, Rush Limbaugh? How much pressure does he — does he give to Limbaugh and how much is he willing to be seen as a maverick if he goes against that? It’s very… There’s a lot of good narrative shaping up.
RUSH: (laughs) A good narrative shaping up! There’s no news here, but there’s he’s really got a ‘narrative’ shaping up. They’re even talking about him at the Olympics, ladies and gentlemen. CNBC’s financial reporters dragged into this story from Beijing — reporting on the story, by the way, from Beijing! That’s one hell of a remote to talk about McCain’s vice presidential choice. Of course, he could burnish his ‘maverick’ credentials even further by dissing me. Drive-Bys are so hoping — the Drive-Bys are SO hoping — that McCain does something that will allow them to say, ‘See? He just flipped off Rush Limbaugh! This is the McCain that we knew and loved.’ Good Morning America today. Here is Ron Claiborne and his report.
CLAIBORNE: Anti-abortion Republicans are in an uproar over reports that McCain is considering picking Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman or former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, both abortion rights supporters. McCain is anti-abortion.
RUSH ARCHIVE: He’s going to hurt himself by putting a liberal or a liberal Republican on this ticket, particularly pro-choice.
CLAIBORNE: A pro-abortion rights running mate could help McCain with moderate, independent, and female voters, but the risks are enormous. A top McCain supporter asked some Christian conservatives in Michigan recently whether they would rather McCain run with a pro-abortion rights running mate and win or run with an anti-abortion running mate and lose, many of them told him they would rather he lose.
RUSH: I tell you, even when they hear this, they still don’t get it — and they don’t understand what this is about. This is not about just abortion. This is about consistency. This is about McCain letting people know that when he says something, he means it. If he picks somebody pro-choice then everything he said out there with Rick Warren is just thrown out the window. And there’s another thing about this, too, and I keep pounding this point. The Drive-Bys keep hoping that McCain — hope — they keep hoping McCain will pick one of these pro-choice Democrats as a vice president, ’cause they know it’s going to kill his candidacy. They know it will ensure defeat. Besides that, McCain’s already accomplished the task going across the aisle and attracting moderates and independents and disaffected, unhappy Democrats. We don’t need two people on the ticket to do that. The top-of-the-ticket guy, McCain, has nailed that down. If what McCain has done is not enough to attract moderates and independents, then it can’t be done. Not with two of them on the ticket, if McCain can’t. The bottom of the ticket, as far as McCain camp has got to know is to get that conservative base staying with him. The bottom of this ticket, the number two, is all about keeping the conservative base aligned on Election Day with the McCain campaign. Now, this is Chris Matthews. This is Drive-Bys on me, Day Two. This is last night on Hardball, and this little exchange took place.
MATTHEWS: Rush Limbaugh rang the conservative four-alarm fire bell on word that John McCain might pick for VP Tom Ridge or Joe Lieberman. People who don’t really support — or do support abortion rights. Listen to Rush Limbaugh warning about this.
RUSH ARCHIVE: If he picks a pro-choice running mate, it’s not going to be pretty. If the McCain camp does that, they will have effectively destroyed the Republican Party and pushed the conservative movement into the bleachers.
MATTHEWS: The bleachers? Anyway, when’s the last time you sat in the cheap seats, Rush?
RUSH: It’s been a long time Chris, and I don’t damn well want to go back to them! That’s what this is all about.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I want to listen to this audio sound bite again here from Ron Claiborne of ABC’s Good Morning America this morning. What’s happening here, too, two things are going on. The Drive-Bys are trying to goad McCain. That’s why this is day two of Limbaugh versus McCain, and the Drive-Bys are essentially challenging McCain, ‘You’re not going to let Limbaugh determine your pick, are you? You got more guts than that, don’t you? You’re the maverick. You’re not going to respond to this guy.’ That’s what they’re trying to create. And then they’re trying to cement the notion in people’s minds that McCain will lose if the nominee is a pro-lifer. Listen to this Claiborne clown again.
CLAIBORNE: Anti-abortion Republicans are in an uproar over reports that McCain is considering picking Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman or former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, both abortion rights supporters. McCain is anti-abortion.
RUSH ARCHIVE: He’s going to hurt himself by putting a liberal or a liberal Republican on this ticket, particularly pro-choice.
CLAIBORNE: A pro-abortion rights running mate could help McCain with moderate, independent, and female voters, but the risks are enormous. A top McCain supporter asked some Christian conservatives in Michigan recently whether they would rather McCain ran with a pro-abortion rights running mate and win or run with an anti-abortion running mate and lose, many of them told him they would rather he lose.
RUSH: Yeah, hey, Ron, you know, you need to go back and look at some recent electoral history. Ron Claiborne, here’s an assignment for you, buddy. Go out and find for me the last pro-life Republican presidential candidate who lost. Go find for me a pro-life Republican presidential candidate with a pro-choice vice presidential candidate who won. You can’t find it, buddy. You might want to say George H. W. Bush back in the early Reagan days might have gone both ways on this. Doesn’t matter, Reagan was such a dominate force at the top of the ticket, there was no question about the base not being unified, no question that Reagan defined the party. That’s not the case now. McCain does not define the party. That’s why this pick is so important. But you see, this is classic. Okay, so you want to pick a pro-choice guy and win, huh, huh, huh, or do you want to pick a pro-lifer and lose? Well, pro-life Republicans don’t lose, Ron. You keep this up, Ron, and you are going to be qualified to work at MSNBC.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let’s go back to the audio sound bites. Last night on Dan Abrams on DNCTV, once again, if you haven’t heard this and you probably haven’t if you weren’t listening yesterday, Dan Abrams is out at DNCTV, nine p.m. show. He’s being replaced by a failed liberal radio talk show host named Rachel Maddow, who’s never attracted an audience or a dollar’s worth of earnings. She still has her radio show, it’s failing. Where can you hear it? At any rate, it doesn’t matter. It’s typical. She has a perfect resume for MSNBC, but poor old Dan, I mean at one time he was general manager of this network, then he had a show at six o’clock, then they put him at nine o’clock. He’s been the butt boy all over this network, and it hasn’t worked and now the ultimate insult, Dan Abrams replaced by a person who has more testosterone than he does. It’s just unkind. You know, we offer again our condolences to Dan Abrams at DNCTV. He had Pat Buchanan on last night. They had this exchange about me and McCain’s potential running mate.
ABRAMS: Pat, let me ask you a separate question. How much do the movers and the shakers on the right listen to Rush, like take advice from Rush?
BUCHANAN: I think it’s something else. I think they fundamentally agree with Rush. Look, if he picks Joe Lieberman, Joe Lieberman is almost on the far left of his party.
ABRAMS: Come on.
BUCHANAN: Except for the war, except for the war. I mean, he’s pro-choice, pro partial-birth abortion, gun control, you name it. To pick him like that, the Republican Party will say, ‘We’ve got no soul, we really don’t believe anything, we want to win so desperately, we’re going to turn the nomination of the Republican Party, the number two slot, potential president over to an individual we denounced and rejected in 2000 when he was running as a Democrat.’ It would say the Republican Party has no soul.
RUSH: That’s a pretty good summation of what the message would be. I wanted to go back to this topic because now we’ve got the audio of Obama supporting the killing of babies who survive abortions. It’s as stark a contrast as the energy issue is. It’s another golden opportunity here for Senator McCain and his campaign to draw a sharp distinction, which is important in these presidential races, between himself and the Democrat candidate, Barack Obama, the Lord Messiah, Most Merciful and all that. They’re going to blow it sky-high by putting a pro-choicer on the ticket.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, let’s go to McCain, McCain was in Las Cruces, New Mexico, at a town hall meting. Here is an exchange between an unidentified member and Senator McCain.
WOMAN: I heard a rumor that you’re going to pick a pro-life VP. Is that true?
MCCAIN: Thank you. We’re going through the process. I said on Saturday night that I have a proud pro-life record in Congress, and I am proud of that. I respect the views of others, but I also happen to believe that the noblest words ever written in history were those that said: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all of us are created equal and endowed by Our Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit happiness.’ I believe that life applies to those that are not born as well as those that are born.
RUSH: Right on, right on, right on. The crowd applauded. Now, how do you put a VP on your ticket who is pro-choice after you say that and after what you said Saturday night at the Saddleback Church, how do you put a pro-choice candidate on the ticket? You just can’t, can you? This bunch can, but they won’t, they’re not going to do that. Here is another exchange.
MAN: Are you going to pick a vice president that conservatives can actually rally around in the future, or are you going to give us someone who will cause us to want to stay home perhaps? Thank you.
MCCAIN: Well, sir, may I say at least according to the polling data we have we are doing very well with our base. We have a lot more work to do to energize our base. We also have to energize our base who cares a lot about our lack of fiscal responsibility who are very angry. (applause) We’re also going to have to energize our base that cares about this nation’s security, which is probably — and when we look at the many challenges we face, are probably very significant. I will choose a president — I will nominate a person to be vice president, my running mate, who shares my principles, my values, and my priorities.
RUSH: Okay. (clearing throat)
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is Roger in San Diego. Roger, thanks for waiting. You’re next on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. Mucho dittos from America’s finest sanctuary city.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much. You sound very proud.
CALLER: I am very proud. Say, Rush, I was thinking to myself, you and I are the same age and I’ve been watching all the Democratic and Republican conventions for all these years. Back in 1964, weren’t the Democrats promising to get us out of all these horrible problems and haven’t the promises continued for the last 44 years? Well, how come we’re not in better shape today than we should be?
RUSH: Well, see, actually we are. This is the point. You’re sounding like Obama.
CALLER: Well, I —
RUSH: I agree with you. They haven’t fixed anything. We’ve had to overcome their efforts. We’ve had to overcome their efforts to fix things. They have made things worse for certain people.
CALLER: Oh, I agree, Rush.
RUSH: They’ve made things worse for their own voters. By definition, that’s what Democrats do, is make things worse for their own voters, and then blame Republicans for it.
CALLER: Uh-huh. Well, I don’t know what we can do this time except vote our conscience.
RUSH: Well, it’s not that hard, Roger. It really isn’t. We cannot let Obama and the people on his team anywhere near the Oval Office. We just can’t have that happen. Appreciate the call. Thanks much. This is Patrick in Nashville. You’re next, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. John McCain will pick a pro-life VP. He will not disrespect you, and I can tell you why. You remember back in February when you, Hannity, and Levin so thoroughly got your C.O. Jones handed to you on a platter by McCain and he made all three of you out to be the biggest boobs on the radio, he wants to throw you a little bone now and kind of make up for that.
RUSH: Uh, I don’t remember McCain doing this back in February.
CALLER: Well, you don’t remember all — all of conservative talk radio ganging up on him, trash talking him, trying to bring him down, and despite all of that, he’s the nominee of the party.
RUSH: I thought you said that he trashed us. I misunderstood you.
CALLER: (silence)
RUSH: I’m not even sure I understand the point of this.
CALLER: Well, I just — I think he kind of — kind of wants to make up for castrating all of conservative talk radio back then, the way he did.
RUSH: What do you mean, ‘castrating all of conservative talk radio’? We’re still here.
CALLER: Oh, come on!
RUSH: He didn’t castrate anybody. Don’t give me this. He didn’t castrate us. Why are you using that kind of language anyway? Do you think this is the Democrat convention?
CALLER: You were trying your best to bring him down, and despite all of that, he’s the nominee, and he made you, Hannity, Levin, Beck, and Ann Coulter, made all of you out to be the biggest boobs on the radio.
RUSH: Oh, I see what you’re saying. You need to harness communication. What you’re saying is that despite our best efforts to castrate McCain, he castrated us and showed us to be a bunch of boobs (he didn’t say we were a bunch of boobs, but he illustrated it) and now the magnanimous McCain is going to throw us a bone by picking a pro-life running mate. Your characterization of what happened last February is off the charts. There was nothing personal ever about any of this. This ain’t beanbag. It’s political. You forget that McCain and Huckabee were teaming up as often as they could to try to sandbag Mitt Romney. So these are the things that happen in American politics. You’re finding some oddballs today, I’m telling you. I have to be honest with you, Snerdley. You find some real oddballs. I needed an IQ of half what I have to be able to follow that. Don’t give me any excuses! Just don’t give me those lug heads anymore.