RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, Obama sat for an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, and in this interview… I wasn’t gonna mention this until later in the program, but Cookie just sent me the sound bite. Obama “slow-jammed” on me and Grover Norquist. And we’ve got audiotape of Eric Bates, who is the executive editor of Rolling Stone. He was on CNN’s Newsroom this morning with the anchorette Kyra Phillips, who said, “He told you straight up, when you asked about Mitt Romney, he wasn’t gonna talk about Mitt Romney.
“But he did mention John Boehner. And he said, ‘Look, I got some great relationships with some Republicans, and I’m not gonna mention any names.'” This is Obama talking. “‘I’ve some great relationships with Republicans, but I’m not gonna tell you who. And I’m not gonna mention any names. They’re kind of staying low right now, these Republicans, considering the environment.’ Well, what was your take, Eric, from that moment, when Obama told you that, when he talked about Boehner and other Republicans?””
BATES: I think he was really trying to draw a line and distinguish the majority of Republicans from the Republican caucus in Congress that has sort of seized control and taken the party in a more extreme direction. He — he made several references to that during the course of the interview and basically said, “Look, I think there are Republicans in Congress who want work with me but they can’t in this kind of environment where Grover Norquist and Rush Limbaugh are setting the terms.”
RUSH: So Obama wants to work with Boehner. He wants to work with Paul Ryan. He wants to work with Eric Cantor. He wants to work with all these wonderful Republicans. Let me say this again and I’m gonna take the names out ’cause I don’t know who he’s talking about, so it’s not fair for me to mention the names. But I do want to translate this. Eric Bates says Obama feels, “I think there are Republicans in Congress who want to work with me, but they can’t in this kind of environment where Norquist and Limbaugh are setting the terms.”
What that means is, Obama has identified some Republicans who are more than willing to cave, but they won’t because of me and Grover Norquist. That’s what he’s saying. That’s what Obama is saying. That’s what Eric Bates is saying Obama said, that he’s identified Republicans who’ll cave. Why would Obama want to work with any Republicans if they’re not gonna cave? Obama’s not interested in compromising what he’s all about. So he’s telling this guy — and, by the way, this can all be BS, too.
It could be Obama just totally making it up.
But we’ll proceed under the assumption here that he’s being truthful.
And that there are some Republicans that are willing to work with him, willing to cave; Republicans willing to let Obama have what he wants, but Norquist and Limbaugh are standing in the way. It’s Rush’s fault! It’s Rush’s fault. Yep, Norquist has his no-tax pledge. They hate that. Republicans all signed a pledge not to raise taxes. And then there’s me. And I’m just, of course, omnipresent. Not just on taxes, but on everything. In fact, Cookie, I do not want the audio of this. I told her earlier I didn’t want it. On Fox this morning, Martha MacCallum had an all-female panel to discuss my contention yesterday on Sandra Fluke’s tweet on the student loan interest rate doubling, going up on July 1st.
Within minutes of Obama saying the same thing at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in his speech, I contended, “Hey, this isn’t coincidental,” and I mentioned that Sandra Fluke is being represented by Anita Dunn and her PR agency. Hilary Rosen and Anita Dunn, former White House employee. I mean, there’s coordination. There’s no doubt there’s coordination between the White House and Anita Dunn in how they’re using Sandra Fluke. So I mentioned that yesterday. That was the subject of the all-female discussion panel. And Judith Miller, who went to jail for not giving up a source (she used to be at the New York Times) said (impression), “Well, I just don’t believe this! I don’t think… I just — I — I just — I — I…
“Rush Limbaugh should never, after what happened, ever mention her name! He should never! She’s a 30-year-old college student! She’s articulate. She’s well-spoken. I can’t believe that Limbaugh! He had no business talking about her again.” I’m watching this, and Martha said, “He’s standing his ground. What the heck? He’s just telling anybody what he thinks.” Jedediah [Bila] was on, the conservative columnist, and she agreed with me. And then there was another woman who was the spokeswoman for the House Republican Conference who thought that I was overdoing it.
It wasn’t really planned because all of these kids and people are tweeting about this student loan thing and Obama’s talking about it. It was just a coincidence. But Judith Miller said I should never mention that name again. And I thought, “You know, a former New York Times reporter, former liberal, this is how they think: Don’t ever say anything!” I now don’t have the right to mention the name. That’s how they do their censorship. That’s how they try to intimidate you into shutting up.