RUSH: Here is what I said the day after the health care bill passed in the House.
RUSH ARCHIVE: There’s a lot of anger at Bart Stupak today. Bart Stupak was always going to vote for this. The thing that Bart Stupak needs to be hounded out of office for is for misleading an entire nation and giving an entire nation a big fake, feint job that he and his cohorts were somehow going to do something to stop this on the basis of a false premise anyway.
RUSH: And so Stupak let it be known today that he is going to retire. He’s a big target of the tea party, but he says the tea party’s got nothing to do with it. He said he could win reelection. He’s been thinking about retiring for the last six years, the last three congressional cycles. He said (paraphrase), ‘The tea party didn’t run me out. If you know me and my personality, I would welcome the challenge.’ Well, then hang in there, Bart! We know your personality! You are willing to lie and mislead an entire nation. You were — this is a 50-50 district. This is a likely now Democrat loss. It was going to be a loss anyway, which is why Stupak’s getting out.
I don’t know what, if anything, they promised him job-wise. His wife’s out there saying — and this is becoming a common refrain — Stupak’s wife saying that he retired because of death threats. But Stupak himself says (paraphrase), ‘I’m not afraid of anything. You know me. Tea party didn’t run me out.’ Stupak has been threatened numerous times during the whole health care debate from people in his district. Most of them who called him are probably Democrats. We have the audio sound bite to replay for you and confirm that.
We got an obscene profit break coming up right now. Is that live? Yeah, there’s Stupak doing the dirty deed now, awaiting his retirement announcement. It’s all official as we speak.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Do you remember Obama was running around out there after the health care bill was signed into law, ‘Hey, the earth is not opening up, the birds are chirping, the sky’s blue.’ I think the earth just opened up and swallowed up Bart Stupak. I don’t care how they try to spin this, this is the guy perceived to have betrayed not just his district, but the way that whole thing played out, the entire country. And within not even a month the guy says he’s outta there, he says, ‘I feel like I could finally step away, I can be home more often with my wife.’ (laughing) Right. ‘I’m young enough to start a new career. I’m at peace and very comfortable with my decision.’ Yeah, because you were going to get shellacked. We don’t know what’s in store for him, what this new career is.
Now, Pelosi and Steny Hoyer apparently tried to get the guy to change his mind and stay in there. (interruption) Obama, too? Obama was in on that? From where, Prague? Obama called Stupak from Prague? (laughing) Look, Obama called Stupak a bunch of times before and Stupak folded. Obama calls Stupak now, Pelosi calls Stupak now, Hoyer calls Stupak now, and basically Stupak flipped ’em off so he can leave. So the earth has opened up. See, this is not the picture they wanted. There are not a lot of smiles out there. The poll numbers against Obamacare continue to rise. I think up to 56% in the Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll that came out yesterday. This is March 18th on MessNBC. The host, Savannah Guthrie, said, ‘Congressman Stupak, we noticed in your quote where you said that since you’ve come out and taken a stand like this, your life has been a living hell. What does that mean?’
STUPAK: What does it mean? It means that some people who disagree with me, they can’t have an honest discussion about it. You get cussed out wherever you go. Unfortunately for my wife, she’s gotta unplug her phone at night because you get the phone calls at two, three in the morning and they want to cuss you out. She can’t even do that. My staff is overwhelmed and we’re accosted, basically, wherever we go by people who disagree. We should have disagreements in this country. I, for one, stand on a principle that most Americans agree with. There’s no reason for that kind of language, abusive behavior to my family, my staff, or even myself.
RUSH: Okay. So March 18th is before they passed the bill. His position prior to passing the bill was he’s not gonna get the abortion language he wants, and therefore he’s not going to vote for it. So the people that would be calling Stupak would be pro-choice activist wacko leftists who would be angry at him because he was going to sabotage the bill. So all these hate calls to his wife at two or three in the morning could not possibly be coming from the tea party people, we were holding out hope that this guy would actually follow through on his principles and hold to them. So his life was made a living hell by people in his own party. And now they want us to believe it’s the tea party that giving him all this trouble and his wife, threatening his life and so forth. Speaking of Savannah Guthrie, we have a little clip from her today on Morning Joe with the correspondent Norah O’Donnell. This is about the Stupak retirement.
GUTHRIE: Getting death threats and nasty messages which his office released the audio of them, I mean it was painful to listen to. And of course members on all sides of this issue have received messages like that. So what do you make of it, Norah? Was it that he’s tired of the lack of civility or is it that he’s facing perhaps a tougher reelection because of his health care vote?
O’DONNELL: I believe that Palin has spoken out publicly about him, Bachmann has as well. I mean his wife got some very threatening phone calls. They had to turn off their phone, change their number.
RUSH: That was before the pill was passed, you ditzy broads. Everything is a template, everything is a narrative. These people live in the most narrow little cocoon world. Turning off the phone happened before they passed the bill when he was still assumed to be pro-life and was going to vote against the bill. So he’s now getting out, his wife said death threats, Savannah Guthrie or Norah O’Donnell said he just doesn’t like the lack of civility anymore in Congress. And Stupak himself says, ‘I’m not scared, not at all. I just want to be home more often with my wife.’ That’s a new one. I mean usually it’s ‘spend time with my family.’ But you don’t hear guys of Stupak’s age say they want to spend more time with the wife. You just don’t hear that. I’m not passing judgment on it. I’m just saying you just don’t hear it. ‘I’m young enough to start a new career. I’m at peace and very comfortable with my decision.’ I’ll bet this is the last thing he wanted to do. I think he probably wanted to stay in Congress. He just doesn’t want to get shellacked running for reelection. I guarantee you they got polls, focus groups. Folks, it’s going to be a bloodbath.
By the way, about this guy, the judge thinks he’s bipolar and he doesn’t have medication. This guy was calling a church in San Francisco and reading them the riot act. It’s a Baptist church. So I looked it up, you’d have to say this a very conservative church and congregation. So this clown doesn’t discriminate when he gets kooky. He called Pelosi. His mother blames it on Fox News, the radical information available on Fox News. Well, the thing that was on Fox News about health care happened to be the truth, on talk radio happened to be the truth, was the only place that you could get it. So anyway, it’s going to be an electoral bloodbath for the Democrats in November. And everybody says, ‘Well, that fever pitch emotion, Rush, that can’t last. I mean, you’ve said it yourself, Rush, reservoirs of emotion are not that large or deep.’ They’re not going to need reservoirs because every day you wake up, this regime is doing something that either scares you to death or makes you angry to the boiling point. They’re not letting up. They’re going to cram as much stuff as they can down our throats before these elections in November.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I listened in quickly to some of Stupak’s retirement speech here, and he’s said something incredible. He said how health care reform was the single most important cause of his life. Now, that tells me, ladies and gentlemen, that he’s trying to get the pro-choice people to call off their dogs and stop these threats. He’s obviously out there placating, ‘Oh, yeah, I always wanted this, the most important thing I have ever done in my career.’ And up to four hours prior he was gonna vote against it. If Stupak and his wife were worried about threats from the tea party, wouldn’t he be trying to placate them a little bit in this speech? Maybe he will. I can’t listen to the whole thing here and host the program at the same time. And if I had my choice I would host and not listen to any of that. And I can’t even read the closed-caption nor do I wish to do that. I pay people to listen to schlubs like this and then tell me what’s interesting that they might have said.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Bart Stupak, we finally have a couple sound bites from Stupak’s no mas, no mas press conference today, and he made it sound like health care has been his lifelong mission.
STUPAK: Last month, we finally accomplished what I set out to do 18 years ago. We passed comprehensive national health care reform. Throughout the past year I’ve worked alongside my colleagues to achieve health care reform, and I’m proud to have helped bring it across the finish line. As a result of that work, today we’re on the path to provide health insurance for 32 million more Americans, including 38,000 people living here in northern Michigan.
RUSH: I don’t believe a word of this. It’s been his lifelong mission, 18 years ago, finally accomplished what I set out to do. Here was a guy threatening to vote ‘no’ on it and kill it up to four hours before the vote. In the end he sold out because he’s a Democrat first rather than a pro-lifer first. He promised allegiance to the Democrats, and this is the sound bite where he said he wants to spend time with his wife.
STUPAK: Last night and early this morning I informed Democratic leaders and key supporters that I would not seek reelection to the Congress. I’m committed to helping the Democrats retain this seat, as I believe we must continue to fight for our working families and small businesses. Now it’s time to spend a little more time with my wife Laurie, who we’ve been married for 36 years and whose love and commitment has sustained me through the years, with our son Ken and his family and my extended family and friends.
RUSH: Well, that’s a new one. I want to spend more time with the family, but I’ve never heard anybody say I want to spend more time with the wife. Nothing against wanting to do that, don’t misunderstand here, folks, I just have never heard it but when he says here, ‘We gotta continue to fight for our working families and small business,’ Mr. Stupak, your president and your vote are killing small business and the little guy. You’re wiping everybody out.