RUSH: Eric in Wilmington, Delaware, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello, sir.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. I have to take you to task about Newt Gingrich and how excited you are about his language. You sound like an Obama zombie. You don’t listen to the words that Newt was saying. I’ll give you an example. When he’s talking about firing a janitor because he thinks he makes too much money, and hiring 31 kids, he can call that the Janitorial Juvenile Corps. And also, he can fire librarians, they might make too much money and have the —
RUSH: Wait a minute, now.
CALLER: — Librarian Corps.
RUSH: Hold it.
CALLER: He sounds like FDR.
RUSH: Wait a second. I’m having a problem with the premise of your call. I’m excited about Newt’s language?
CALLER: Yes, you are excited about his language. And if you really listen to what he’s saying, he’s a big government FDR guy, because he said FDR was the greatest president of the twentieth century, and he likes his programs.
RUSH: Which I pointed out Monday is a liability that he’s eventually going to be called on. Which I pointed out is a sign that Newt is vulnerable to the charge that he’s not Mr. Conservative, and that was one of about eight things that I referenced.
CALLER: And then he says —
RUSH: Wait, no, no, no, no, no. I just refuted your premise. You don’t just then get to go on as though nothing happened here.
CALLER: No, you said, you were so excited, for one whole day all you did was run Newt Gingrich’s words —
RUSH: That was because of the way he was dealing with the media in the debates in South Carolina, not because of the FDR stuff. You’re doing what the media does. You’re taking something I said about one thing, attaching it to something else that is a pet peeve of yours, and then pronouncing me guilty. It’s like I’m an energy efficient window or something.
CALLER: No, I’m not. I’m just saying that you — I don’t know if it’s because of your friendship with Newt or what, but you seem to support Newt for president.
RUSH: If you ask Newt, I don’t think that you would get that reaction from him. Even when praising Newt on Monday I said that the base is reacting not so much to Newt, but to the message he’s sending the Republican Party establishment, that he’s the vessel.
CALLER: But the whole crowd erupted when he talked about the having the kid get the job, and then is it gonna be like Bain Capital where the kid makes too much money when he owns the company?
RUSH: This janitor business, my comment on that was he was asked by Juan Williams, (paraphrasing) “Does it not bother you that that could send the wrong signal, make some black people nervous?” He said, “No, I don’t see that.” That’s the exact thing to say because whatever Newt’s saying there, there’s nothing racial about it.
CALLER: No, I’m not saying there’s a racial component to it.
RUSH: That’s the only comment I’ve made about the janitor stuff.
CALLER: The efficiency of 31 kids, firing a janitor that has a family, is ridiculous. It sounds like a union job or a government job.
RUSH: Well, no. In New York, a janitor job is — I mean they have yachts. They have boats in New York. 60 Minutes has done stories on it. The custodial union, the Service Employees International Union got started representing such people. That’s how that union got started. They make over six figures. The janitor job’s a union job already. Newt was illustrating, “Here’s the money we’re paying these janitors, let’s take one of them and hire 31 kids and teach them the concept of work and getting paid for it.”
CALLER: We do not need the government to teach the ethic of work. My kids work during the summer at a summer camp. They work about 80 hour’s a week. They live at the camp, and they’re not working for some government agency. We do not need another program. We had that in the seventies with Jimmy Carter, programs like that, to teach people to work or stay on the job.
RUSH: I agree. However, it is the government which has destroyed the work ethic.
CALLER: I agree with you a hundred percent.
RUSH: All right. Okay. All the government in this plan would do would secure employment for people. After that, they have to work to earn the money.
CALLER: Well, what about the person they fired to get 31 people a job, doesn’t he have a family?
RUSH: He takes early retirement. He takes the boat over to the Bahamas.
CALLER: So you’re having government pick winners and losers now.
RUSH: No, I’m not. I understand your problem with that example. I’m not being literal with that. What I focus on in that whole scenario is not a janitor getting canned; I focus on the concept here of taking kids and teaching them to work at an early age ’cause it’s good.
CALLER: But that should be up to the parents, not the government. I know the government has —
RUSH: It wouldn’t be done —
CALLER: — gone in there and messed it up.
RUSH: No, no. I don’t think this would happen without the parents approving of the kids doing it. Nobody’s talking about going into some home and saying, “Okay, kid, you’re a janitor, come with me.” That’s not what this is about.
CALLER: No, it’s about Newt Gingrich —
RUSH: Okay, all right, let’s cut to the chase. Who do you support?
CALLER: Who do I support? I support Romney or Santorum.
RUSH: Okay. Fine. That’s what this is about. Okay, good.
CALLER: And Newt is a big government person.
RUSH: Fine.
CALLER: He’s not what he says he is.
RUSH: Now tell me, what do you like about Romney.
CALLER: What do I like about Romney? He’s a very successful businessman.
RUSH: He’s big in the private sector?
CALLER: Yes, and Newt is —
RUSH: If he keeps saying that —
CALLER: — (garbled) just like Obama.
RUSH: He needs to stop saying… When I heard him say it the last debate Monday night, “I’ve got experience in the private sector.” That “private sector” is gonna become one of these terms nobody’s gonna want to hear in very short order simply because he keeps using it.
CALLER: Newt’s not helping the matter.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: Like attacking him as a “vulture capitalist.”
RUSH: Okay. All right. Newt sucks! And I criticized him for that, too. I really ripped him. Newt… On this call, Newt sucks! Now, what do you like about Santorum?
CALLER: Santorum, I like his conservatism. I like his family values. And another thing about Newt, you’re discounting his three divorces.
RUSH: (stifling laughter)
CALLER: When Clinton ran in ’92, you and everybody else said that is character and it matters. Now it doesn’t matter.
RUSH: I’m not —
CALLER: I don’t get it.
RUSH: I’m not discounting it! You are not listening. My gosh, I have pointed out how the culture as changed to where character and value voters back then cared, but now they’re willing to shuck that all aside because of the precarious balance of the nation and the message they want to send to the Republican establishment. Nobody’s excusing it. I chronicle it! In fact, Newt… (laughing) I kinda made fun of him today. I don’t know why you’re calling! I made fun of Newt today for saying, “Hey, it wasn’t the sex in the Lewinsky thing that bothered me. It was the lying under oath!” (laughing) “It wasn’t the sex. Hell, I’m all for that! No. It was the lying under oath.” What else do you not like about me?
CALLER: I mean, Rush, we have defined morals down. Now it’s okay to be divorced, three times cheat on your wife, and be president and be trustworthy. When Clinton, it was not all right.
RUSH: Well, if I had endorsed Newt, you could accuse me of that, but I have not done that.
CALLER: My standards do not change so…
RUSH: Mine either.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: Mine either. I’m right in there with you, buddy.
CALLER: All right. Well, you have a good day. Thank you for taking my call.
RUSH: (interruption) You really…? (interruption) Sir, I’ve got something Snerdley wants to know. You still there?
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: Snerdley wants to know what’s gonna happen if Newt’s the nominee?
CALLER: If Newt’s the nominee?
RUSH: Yeah, where are you moving?
CALLER: I’m not voting.
RUSH: Well, that’s helpful. That’s real helpful.