RUSH: No, Snerdley. Look, I’m going to get to it. I got an e-mail just in time ago, ‘Would you stop being mean to Snerdley?’ Hey, e-mailer! Snerdley should stop interrupting me. He’s not the host. I am. All I’ll tell you is that any organization that has a straw poll vote on who the party presidential candidate ought to be and comes up with Ron Paul is not an organization of conservatives. I just tell you. Something’s haywire there. I know the Ron Paul people go in there, but they had been attendees to get in there. Ron Paul winning a straw poll at a conservative conference?
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RUSH: Geraldo Rivera Saturday night. Every time I see Geraldo I think somebody died, when he shows up on Fox. They’re doing a show, Geraldo at Large on the Fox News Channel.
RIVERA: It turns out that last year’s CPAC keynote speaker, Rush Limbaugh, was ahead of the political curve when he dared to say then what other conservatives now openly embrace.
RUSH: That is failure, Obama failure. You know, Mitt Romney was talking about it. So there’s Geraldo saying I was a year ahead of the curve. The Grim Reaper! The Grim Reaper actually has me in my proper place: A year ahead of the curve. He’s Margaret Carlson. This is Friday night on Bloomberg’s Political Capital, Albert Hunt said, Margaret, ‘Were you excited by Marco Rubio?’
CARLSON: He was exciting everyone there. He was this year’s Rush Limbaugh. He’s the first candidate to tap into the tea party movement but still be a, you know, sensible kind of insider.
RUSH: And Saturday night on CNN’s Newsroom, the political editor Mark Preston said this about CPAC and me.
PRESTON: We saw Glenn Beck just speak behind us. Not quite the speech that Rush Limbaugh gave last year that a lot of people said really helped kick off conservatives. It really gave them a kick in the pants, so to speak, as they moved forward through the year.
RUSH: So I wanted to get those out of the way. I’ll talk about CPAC later in the program.
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RUSH: Okay, so I made my comment last hour that if the Conservative Political Action Conference that ends ups with a straw poll vote saying that Ron Paul is the nominee of the party for president, something’s gone haywire there. That’s not a conservative conference. People said, ‘What would you have said if you were there? What would you have said?’ Folks, that’s hard to know. I don’t know what I would have said. I didn’t know what I was gonna say last year ’til I was driving into town from the airport. I never plan these things. That’s why I don’t like ’em, because I’m afraid, ‘What if I don’t come up with something to talk about?’ You know, ‘What if I’m five minutes away and I still don’t know what I’m going to say?’ I mean, that’s sheer panic, ’cause I cannot write a speech, I just can’t. My brain stops working when I write. But since people have asked me, I have given it some thought, and I would have used CPAC this year for the incredible opportunity it was.
Last year I spoke there and I said, ‘I hope he fails,’ and I explained what that meant, and everybody knew, and everybody agreed. And I said, ‘Don’t be afraid to join me in hoping he fails, because we’re trying to save the country.’ I took some time to explain, during my First Televised Address to the Nation, who we conservatives are, how we have been aligned, what our wishes and desires are for the American people. We want everybody to succeed. We want everybody’s pursuit of happiness to have fruition. We want all of these things. One year later, the Democrat Party is on the run! One year later, the ship of the Democrat Party is about to run aground, and the rats are jumping off of it. One year later, the Republicans win the Ted Kennedy seat. In less than a year, the Republicans won governorships in New Jersey and in Virginia.
This would have been, in my estimation, an occasion to keep building these people up, to keep inspiring them, the people who are making this happen. Because the people who are making it happen are us, all of you: The average, ordinary people doing extraordinary things, finally refusing to put up with this. You have taken the lead. I would have simply urged you to keep going and do it with a big smile on your face because we can win this and we can stop this. You know, I always try to give uplifting speeches: Inspirational, uplifting, positive speeches. I tell people they’re capable of more than they think they are and praise them when they deserve it. This is a huge, huge ongoing effort to take back the country. Nobody thought we stood a chance a year ago. Less than a year or in a year, we’re having more success than anybody a year ago dreamed.
We thought by this time we’d have a health care bill. We would have socialized cap and trade. We would have all of this. We don’t have any of it yet! They can’t get anything done amongst themselves. The Republicans, whatever you think of them, up until middle January, did not have the votes anywhere to stop anything. It was the American people that stopped ’em. It was the American people that gave elected Republicans the confidence to go in there and oppose this and not ‘walk across the aisle,’ join John McCain, and be bipartisan with these people. It was the American people who gave elected Republicans a backbone. The era of McCain is over, or it was. I still think it is, and I seriously hope so. I would have acknowledged the people in the Republican Party who are fighting from within to take it back. I would have mentioned names.
I certainly would have mentioned Obama a lot. And I would have mentioned Harry Reid, and I would have mentioned Pelosi, and I would have mentioned the Kennedy seat being won, and I would mention the trouble that Barbara Boxer is in, and I would mention the trouble that the Democrat Party in general is in, and I would say that the Republicans have not joined the Democrats in any of this destruction. The Republican Party has — because of you, because you let them hear from you — not gone bipartisan. They have not joined this failure. In fact, there are people in the House (from John Boehner to Mike Pence, to Eric Cantor, to Paul Ryan) who are doing everything that they can. Jim DeMint over in the Senate, Tom Coburn over in the Senate, these people, especially now don’t deserve to be bashed or lumped in a generalized way with all the bad apples in Washington because all of them there are not bad apples.
These people really, I think, deserve some attaboys. I happen to think that. You know, these guys that I’ve just named, they’re really, really, really going against instinctive grain, operating the way they are. It’s so much easier for you if you just go along. Your life is so much more enjoyable there if you just go along. The media will like you, the Democrats will pretend they like you. Now, these guys are resisting all of that, and I’m going to call ’em out. I would have identified, by name, those who are undermining this country, and I would have held them to account for the radical policies that they are seeking to impose upon us, and I would have identified the source of those radical policies: And that’s Barack Obama and Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and whoever else you want to name on the White House staff or in the Democrat Party, or any union head. Because that’s who we’re up against. It was just, I thought, great opportunity to keep the momentum going rather than put the brakes on.
I would have tried making people laugh. I’m pretty good at that sometimes because I would have been having fun. I know I’d have been having fun. I’d have fed off the audience energy. Who knows what else I would have come up? I mean, I didn’t know what I was gonna say last year ’til I got up there and started speaking. I never know what I’m gonna say. Sometimes I go out with five or six little outlines, but other than that, I don’t know. This is the Conservative Political Action Committee. It’s not some group of Libertarians. I would have defended conservatism and I would have promoted conservatism and I would have reminded people conservatism is the solution. Conservatism is the answer for this country’s problems and challenges that we face. Nobody’s out there defending bad Republican policies.
The point at this stage is to support the conservatives in and outside public office. I certainly would not have ignored the other team on the field, the Democrats. They’re the only reason we’re in this mess. The Democrat Party is the only reason we are threatened with the things we’re threatened with. The Democrat Party. Solely. They own it. There’s no evidence I see of anybody colluding with the Democrats on this health care business. There’s not one Republican vote in the Senate for it. In the House there was one, I think, from the guy in Louisiana and he said he’s not going to do it a second time. I woulda had a real tough time not talking about cap and trade, Card Check, Miranda rights for terrorists, tax increases, breaking the bank of the American private sector. It would have been very difficult for me to be critical of Dick Cheney.
But to each his own. There are motivations for people who do what they do — and I, as a highly trained broadcast specialist, I think I know what’s going on and why various people are doing what they’re doing and taking positions that they’re taking. But the best way to insure that Obama succeeds is to think that we need a third party. All the momentum that we’ve got going right now is just going to hit a brick wall if a third party starts, particularly on the basis that there’s ‘no difference between the two parties.’ I guarantee you there’s not a Republican I know, elected or unelected, that would propose anything Obama has. They haven’t joined him. We are at this great crossroads in our history because of people who hold a particular ideological point of view. I don’t care what you want to call them. I call them liberals because that’s what they hate and that’s what they are and that’s what the American people reject.
I don’t like the liberals getting away with changing their titled or how they reference themselves or how they want us to reference them. The media will go along with that but to me they’re Liberals with capital Ls, and it is essentially a four-letter word in politics, and they know it. The word ‘liberal’ is like showing Dracula the cross. And there are many things that equate to that with liberals. There are a bunch of things you can say about them, do to them that make them react like Dracula at the sight of a cross. But the radical policies — and there’s no other way to describe them. The pure radical policies that they’re trying to impose on us need to be called out and as many people as possible made to understand them. I would figure, again, that people beyond being conservative would be watching this speech like was the case last year. That’s why I jokingly called it my ‘First Televised Address to the Nation,’ because there are people probably never listen to me on the radio watching it, channel surfing. You never know how many, but it was a significant number, I’m sure. So, I don’t know. I would have left no doubt that I had just spoken at a gathering of conservatives.
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RUSH: It’s been suggested to me, ladies and gentlemen, that we go back and play some excerpts of my CPAC speech from last year to illustrate just where we’ve come from. It was one year ago, almost, a little over a year ago, and the contrast of where we thought we all were — do you realize the gloom a year ago, we had Newt Gingrich talking: ‘We can’t criticize the president, we’ve gotta work with him.’ Every Republican in the world was out there was doing this. And I thought, ‘This is the end of the country if this happens.’ These people do not realize we’re dealing with a radical. This is not the normal ebb and flow of political parties changing power or trading power: we get the White House eight years, you get it for the next eight. This is not that. This is a bunch of sixties radicals grown up with their representative here, Barack Obama, with a chance to finally get a stranglehold on this country and fix it because of the things that they don’t like. So we’ll do that. Cookie will dig ’em out of the archives out there.
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RUSH: Ken in Detroit, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Yeah, Rush. I think it’s important that we take a look at what is the true motive behind Barack Obama, as well as his fellow Democrats, for promoting this national health care program, a program that the overwhelming majority of American people have rejected, a program that will not save money, a program that will not provide better access to treatment.
RUSH: A program that is not designed to do any of that, by the way, either.
CALLER: I know. And I think what we should look at is that the true motive is to hand over more power, more control, over the lives of the American people to the federal government. That is exactly what they want. That’s why they don’t care. They know that, come Election Day, that politically there will be a massacre when it comes to the votes against anyone that supports this bill. But since it accomplishes their goal of continuing to hand over more power to the federal government, more control, like I said, of the American people’s lives to the federal government, that’s why Barack Obama will continue to promote this health care bill.
RUSH: Yeah. You’re right. There are a lot of other reasons why they’re doing this, and they don’t care that the vast majority of the American people don’t want it. They don’t care. They have been governing against the will of the American people since they were elected.
CALLER: Well, Rush, one thing I see is that they are transforming and they will continue to do so unless we resist them. Currently we have a country made up of citizens protected by the Constitution, a country of individuals. They are trying to transform us into a country of servants, a country of subjects, to transform us into a country similar to Cuba. And the American people need to wake up —
RUSH: Wait. I knew you were going to go there, Ken, and I would not have said that had I been at CPAC, just to revisit this. The American people have awakened. The American people are why they’re stuck in the mud and the mire and everything else that’s got ’em dead in the water. The American people want no part of this, and the American people will not put up with it. I don’t care what Obama does, I don’t care if the Democrats change their rules or break their rules to get this thing passed, the tipping point is coming, and the American people will just say: ‘Sorry, we’re not participating. You can put us in jail; you can come get us; we’re not doing this.’ These are the American people we are talking about. We now know the American people have not been transformed to a Western European socialist type behavior or attitude. We know that the vast majority of Americans are still Americans as this nation defines Americans, as this nation was founded. The American people aren’t going to put up with it.
No matter what these people do, no matter what Obama does, the American people are awake. The American people are more awake now than I have ever seen them, more awake than they were back in 1994, more awake than they were back in the late eighties during the House bank and the House post office. And every time Obama keeps coming back with this and every time Harry Reid goes on television or Pelosi and they talk about changing the rules and every time they keep telling lies about this, that it’s not going to add to the deficit, that it’s not going to add to the debt, that it’s going to lower health care costs, that it’s not going to raise anybody’s taxes except the rich, that it’s going to get everybody covered, everybody knows none of that is true, and they’re not going to be patient and put up with being lied to again and again and again.
If Mr. Obama hasn’t noticed, his approval numbers are in a free fall. He doesn’t care, because you’re right, they want to ram this thing through, and they think that when they do, they will have put enough roadblocks in our way of freedom that we won’t be able to stop it. Don’t forget this doesn’t get implemented ’til 2014. The tax increases will go into effect immediately if this happens. But the American people are not going to sit idly by. They’re not being fooled by a guy who says I’m laser like focused on jobs. I gotta have a commission to study why we’re in so much debt. This guy is no longer fooling anybody.
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RUSH: Yeah, it was Snerdley’s idea. Go back and play some excerpts of your CPAC speech from last year. As you listen to these — I’ve got four of them here — as you listen to these, stop and think where we were a year ago. We were in the middle of 80% approval numbers, everybody in love, Republicans everywhere saying we gotta work with this guy, this is a new day, blah, blah, blah. All of this stuff, you talk about hopeless, everybody felt hopeless a year ago and look how far we’ve come. This is February 28th, in fact not quite a year ago, February 28th at the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference.
RUSH ARCHIVE: We want every American to be the best he or she chooses to be. We recognize that we are all individuals. We love and revere our founding documents, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. (cheers and applause) We believe that the preamble to the Constitution contains an inarguable truth, that we are all endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life — (cheers and applause) — liberty, freedom — (cheers and applause) — and the pursuit of happiness. (cheers and applause) Now, those of you watching at home may wonder why this is being applauded. We conservatives think all three are under assault. (applause)
RUSH: Awe, damn it, she edited out the applause. I wanted to hear the applause. I’m kidding. It never ended. Here’s the next bite.
RUSH ARCHIVE: President Obama is so busy trying to foment and create anger in a created atmosphere of crisis. He is so busy fueling the emotions of class envy that he has forgotten it’s not his money he’s spending. (applause) In fact, the money he’s spending is not ours. He’s spending wealth that has yet to be created, and that is not sustainable. It will not work. This has been tried around the world, and every time it’s been tried it’s a failed disaster.
RUSH: Right on, right on. Didn’t have any applause after that. And you know, ladies and gentlemen, don’t forget, it was Geraldo Rivera, Geraldo on Saturday night who said that I was a year ahead of the curve with this speech talking about failure and how it was necessary. Here’s the next bite.
RUSH ARCHIVE: The future is not big government, self-serving politicians, powerful bureaucrats. This has been tried, tested throughout history. The result has always been disaster. President Obama, your agenda is not new, it’s not change, and it’s not hope. (applause) Spending a nation into generational debt is not an act of compassion. All politicians, including President Obama, are temporary stewards of this nation. It is not their task to remake the founding of this country. It is not their task to tear it apart and rebuild it in their image. (applause) (Crowd chanting USA, USA)
RUSH: And here’s where I explained again and did again and again and again ad infinitum my hope that Obama would fail.
RUSH ARCHIVE: This notion that I want the president to fail? This shows you a sign of the problem we’ve got. That’s nothing more than common sense and to not be able to say it? Why in the world do I want what we just described: rampant government growth, indebtedness, wealth that’s not even been created yet is being spent, what is in this, what possibly is in this that any of us want to succeed? Ladies and gentlemen, the United States, the Democrat Party has actively not just sought the failure of Republican presidents and policies and now wars for the first time, the Democrat party doesn’t stop at failure. Talk to Judge Robert Bork. Talk to Justice Clarence Thomas about how they try to destroy lives, reputations, and character. (cheers and applause) And I’m supposed to say I don’t want the president to fail?
RUSH: That’s how CPAC ended last year and that’s just four short bites. This thing went on. I was supposed to go a half hour, and I started at five. I was supposed to go a half hour and when I got to 5:30 David Keene said: ‘Could you kinda keep going?’ Okay. So I’ll just make it up on the fly here. But it wasn’t hard because, you know, we conservatives don’t need prompters. It’s in our heart. It’s in our hearts, in our minds. We’ve refined it over years and years and years of our lives. When you’re speaking before an electrified audience like that, that’s also inspiring. The audience feeds off the speaker and vice-versa. So, we’re doing this because one year ago, not even one year ago, I want people to remember just where we were and what the outlook was a year ago. This man looked unstoppable. He had the Senate. We were just waiting for Franken to be stolen, that election to be stolen by the Franken people to give them their 60 votes. They had the House by an overwhelming majority.
The Republicans were entirely dispirited and they were afraid to say anything that was remotely critical of Obama or the Democrat Party because they thought there was such love for Obama and the Democrat Party by the American people. They were afraid. I mean it was hunker down and folks were believing that America as we knew it was over. And this CPAC conference last year, that’s the kick in the seat that got everything else going. And from that, the tea parties — I don’t mean me, I mean the whole conference, the whole three to four days. Town halls popped up. The American people stopped the Obama agenda and they will continue to. And they need to be praised and encouraged, motivated, and inspired to keep it up.
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RUSH: One year after the inauguration of Barack Obama there is a conservative ascendancy within the Republican Party, and it needs to be encouraged, not beaten down. It needs to be inspired. We need to thank them and join them.