RUSH: I want to give a lot of attaboys to the Republicans in the California assembly. I don’t know if you know what’s going on out there, but the Democrats are veritably holding the Republicans hostage. They are one vote short in the California assembly of being able to raise taxes, and the Republicans are holding firm out there. They are putting up with insults, all kinds of efforts to keep ’em in the assembly without letting ’em get outta there. The Associated Press has a story today in the Washington Post. ‘After a frustrating holiday weekend that failed to yield the one vote needed to end California’s budget stalemate, the state is poised to begin layoff proceedings Tuesday for 20,000 government workers.’ The Senate leader, the pro tem leader is Darrell Steinberg, he’s from Sacramento. He warned lawmakers, bring their toothbrushes. They’re not going to leave until that one vote is secured.
One member, he said, ”One more member to put the interest of the state ahead of ideology and ahead of any parochial concern.’ Like other states, California faces plunging tax revenue that has imperiled state services. The proposal put before lawmakers this weekend was negotiated by Schwarzenegger and the four legislative leaders and appeared to have support of the required two-thirds majority in the state Assembly. However, it was falling one Republican vote short in the Senate, a situation that had not changed throughout a weekend marked by long hours and uncertainty over the state’s future. The plan includes $15.1 billion in program cuts, $14.4 billion in temporary tax increases,’ which are never temporary, ‘and $11.4 billion in borrowing.’ And Darrell Steinberg says, you clowns are not leaving here ’til I get that one vote. I don’t care what. Bring your toothbrushes, but we’re not getting outta here until we get that one vote. You gotta drop your ideology for mine.
There’s a great column today. James Morone writing in the New York Times, here’s a great definition of bipartisanship: ‘Roosevelt and Reagan reveal the dirty rotten secret of bipartisanship. It happens only when one side is cowed, beaten or frightened. More competitive elections mean more ardent debates.’ And there’s a perfect definition of bipartisanship. The Democrat version: ‘We’re gonna beat you down, we’re gonna make you bring your toothbrush in here and you’re going to go along with us because we’re going to frighten you, we’re going to cow you and we’re going to make you think it is hopeless,’ and that’s bipartisanship. Bipartisanship only happens when one side caves in, and that’s why we here at the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies despise bipartisanship because it involves quitting, and of course, Winston Churchill, whose statue, whose bust was sent packing by Obama, one of his favorite quotes, ‘Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.’
I myself have received a Churchill Award from the Claremont Institute and also from Hillsdale College, and I didn’t get these awards because I surrendered. Yes, Churchill was married, and even despite that, he had that philosophy. But that is a philosophy for outside the home and in matters of state. ‘Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small.’ The home, well, that’s a different matter. I talked to Charlton Heston once. When I learned he’d be married 50 years, I said, ‘How did you do this?’ He said, ‘I learned three words, and they never failed me. ‘Honey, I was wrong.” Well, if you have a never give in, never, ever, ever give in strategery you certainly never say, ‘Honey, I was wrong.’ So Churchill’s philosophy was certainly outside the home. The Republicans in the California Senate are not giving in, and they need to be supported. I tell you what they need to do. This session starts in 40 minutes at ten o’clock out on the Left Coast. That’s when they gotta bring their toothbrushes. The Democrats are going to offer ’em a bunch of bribes or they’re just going to browbeat that one Republican ’til he caves in.
The Republican position ought to be, they ought to counter. They ought to counter, not just sit here and resist it, counter it. Force the Democrats to adopt a majority vote to raise taxes. A majority vote. Now, that would probably be declared unconstitutional by the California courts, but at least it could kick the can down the road, move this down the road a little bit and delay it a little bit. But I enjoy seeing this, and when I saw this — I’ve been keeping up with it over the weekend — I wanted to take some time here to applaud them. It’s not easy being a Republican in California. It’s especially not easy being a Republican in the legislature out there, and they’re holding fast. That state, look at the tax increases they’re planning, and how about Kansas? Suspending tax refund checks. California has also done that. California has issued IOUs.