RUSH: Let’s go to the audio sound bites. I tasked Cookie with getting some audio sound bites of Jon Huntsman Jr. My e-mail is overrun with people who want to know: “Who is this guy, the ambassador to China? Who is he?” Because of course the mainstream, the Drive-Bys have thrown him now in the top three Republican presidential candidates. (interruption) I have not played golf with Jon Huntsman Jr., no. Nor have I played golf with Jon Huntsman Sr. I haven’t played golf with anybody. No. (interruption) No, I have not smoked cigars with Jon Huntsman Jr., but the Republican intelligentsia put him out there as soon as Mitch Daniels got out. I picked this, too, Mitch Daniels got out, bam! Huntsman’s in — and he had lunch with George H. W. Bush and Barbara, late last week or this week (I forget, the days are running together) in Kennebunkport.
So I told Cookie, “Go out there,” ’cause I knew the audio exists. “Go out there and get it. So, if you want to know what Huntsman is, we’ll go back three years to October 16th, 2008. In Salt Lake City on the radio, during a gubernatorial debate between governor Jon Huntsman (Republican-Utah) and his challenger, Bob Springmeyer, the Democrat. The Moderator said, “Governor, to the dismay of conservatives in the state legislature you recently signed Utah on to the Western Climate Initiative. Now, eventually this will include a carbon emission cap-and-trade program some legislators believe could lead to higher utility costs and stifle business growth. How do you balance protection of the environment with protection of the economy, especially in these hard economic times?”
RUSH: So there’s Jon Huntsman Jr., the Governor of Utah, affirming his support for a cap-and-trade system. Now, this is an issue that Tim Pawlenty is abandoning, has abandoned, and is apologizing for having gotten it wrong in the first place. You wanted to know who Huntsman is. Better you can hear him in his own words. October 1st of 2008 on television in Salt Lake City, gubernatorial debate. The moderator Doug Fabrizio said, “Let’s talk about health care. I have an e-mail message from Annie, who writes: ‘Where do you stand on this argument? I think, Governor, this is a critical question for some: The argument that decent, quality, affordable health care is not a right, but a privilege. Is health care a right?'”
HUNTSMAN: I think health care is a right, and I think we’re not doing enough in terms of providing that which our citizens need. We’ve had problems with the insurance sector. I mean, why is it that the insurance sector will not provide affordable health care policies? I’ve called them in. I have asked them. I have humiliated them publicly!
RUSH: Okay. … Jon Huntsman Jr. now said to be in the top three of Republican presidential nominees — in the top three, the top tier — now believes health care is a right and is proudly bashing the insurance companies. “Health care is a right.” Now, you know what Rand Paul said about this. Rand Paul said (paraphrased), “It’s not. If it’s a right, that means you have the right to come to my house at midnight and knock on my door and make me treat you! I am your slave, if this is a right. If this is something you can’t be denied.” You know, a right is something that can’t be granted and can’t be taken away. That’s what a right is, i.e., they come from God-d; they come from Creation.
So Mr. Huntsman, cap and trade and health care. So he’s a moderate Republican. (interruption) He’s not a Democrat, Snerdley, but he’s a moderate Republican. Those are the positions that he took in a gubernatorial campaign in 2008. Obama did choose him to be ambassador to the ChiComs, which he served as for a while. Now, I don’t know if Governor Huntsman ever complained to d’ChiComs about building five new coal burning power plants a week. They were. The ChiComs need electricity. The ChiComs, their population is advancing. Their population is demanding a lot of power. The ChiComs need it to support their economic growth. They need electricity. And the ChiComs, they were building five coal-burning power plants a week. That’s a lot of carbon out there. That’s a lot of carbon pollution that’s taking place.
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RUSH: Nick, Fort Worth, Texas, welcome to the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Texas-sized dittos to you, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.
CALLER: Thank you so much for cutting through the bovine shenanigans that are going on with the skill of a brain surgeon, ’cause we’re not getting it anywhere else.
RUSH: What are you talking about, sir? What are you talking about specifically?
CALLER: Well, I mean, for example, Jon Huntsman Jr. Trough family and stuff, I’ve known him for quite some time, and he is a lot of things, but a conservative he is not.
RUSH: Oh, you’re thanking me for playing the sound bites.
CALLER: Oh, thank you.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Because in his own words, I mean you didn’t have to say another thing. You laid the case out there of who he is and why he does what he does.
RUSH: Yeah. He’s free to be who he is. The thing about Jon Huntsman, he can be who he wants, folks, I have no problem, but understand what he said in these bites is being embraced by the elite Republicans. Cap and trade is being embraced by the elite Republicans. Nick, I appreciate it out there.
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