RUSH: There’s this ongoing battle about me being too conservative for the Republican Party and too powerful, and the Republican Party is scared of me, and nobody will stand up to me, and they’re not gonna get anywhere until they have the guts to stand up to me because I’m too conservative and they need to be more moderate. They need to move to the center, but I won’t let them. But really, how powerful am I? How good am I? And then people are out there saying, “Look at Limbaugh’s track record in presidential races. He’s 1-for-6.”
In the first place I’m 3-for-6, but the whole premise is flawed because I don’t pick a single candidate. I am not in charge of any candidate anywhere and his campaign. I don’t choose the consultants. I don’t choose the ad people. I’ve got nothing to do — and never have had anything to do — with one election in this country. Zilch, zero, nada. So this is the kind of thing I’m talking about. This is the kind of stuff that is just infantile, and it’s insulting, and it’s insulting to everybody’s intelligence, like this whole debate on the sequester.
We’re all being played for fools here.
Once again, they’re throwing the fearmongering and crisis cards at us. It’s embarrassing, and it’s embarrassing anymore to get caught up in it and play in the game. Now, all these people not in the Republican Party say, “It needs a big tent.” No, that’s not what they mean. They mean a smaller tent. They want the party to be nothing but moderates. They want to get rid of the conservatives and they put out this nonsense that the conservatives are the reason that we lose. We haven’t nominated any conservatives!
We don’t know if conservatives would win or lose because the party hasn’t nominated any. Not for president, anyway. But, my friends, let me tell you: It’s just another testament to my overall, powerful impact and effectiveness that somehow the Republican Party is discredited by the fact that I am 1-for-6 in presidential races, or that the party is too afraid of me and as long as they remain too afraid of me, they’re never gonna go anywhere. They say that the Republican Party…
Notice it’s always media people — with whom I am in competition, by the way. At least that’s how they view it. I don’t think I have any, but they view it as competition. They stand up and say, “Yeah, ’til the Republican Party ditches Limbaugh, why, they’re never gonna go anywhere!” I’m not in charge of the Republican Party. I don’t have anything to do with what decisions that they make. I’ve never even met the chairman of the Republican National Committee. I don’t even know how to pronounce his name! I wouldn’t know where to call him if I wanted to talk to him, and yet it’s all on me.
It’s all my fault.
This is what media people say who, if they had their druthers, would just have me swept out of the way.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: St. Joseph, Michigan. This is Robert. Thank you for waiting, sir. Great to have you here.
CALLER: Professor Limbaugh, loyal student since 1988 with a near perfect attendance record.
RUSH: Wow. I appreciate that. Thank you.
CALLER: I’d like to tell you my theory as to why the Democrats and liberals circle wagons while the Republicans throw people overboard so quickly. The liberals are all about the big picture. They’re all about the greater good, you know, reaching utopia is the most important thing and nothing else matters. So little things like scandals and lies and facts, those aren’t important because getting to the big picture, the greater good, that beats all else. Republicans and conservatives, on the other hand, are completely driven by their ideology, by truth, by the message, by character. And when somebody comes along who steps outside of the rules, the laws, the message, they have to distance themselves from them because the press knows this about conservatives and are always waiting to pounce —
RUSH: Robert, a lot of what you say is true, but there’s some key things in that that I disagree with a bit, and they may be small things, and they may just be semantic.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: I know what you mean, the liberals, it is their ideology that they are being loyal to. Liberalism must never suffer slings and arrows. Liberalism cannot be seen as the reason for anything going wrong. Liberalism can’t be seen as a failure. Dan Rather, as a liberal, cannot be seen as forging documents and running a phony story. That cannot be allowed to taint liberalism. They are protecting liberalism. It is the ideology. It is the road map. It’s how they want to get to this place you describe, which is total power.
On the Republican side, it’s not just truth. Sarah Palin wasn’t wrong about anything. She didn’t lie about anything. Sarah Palin embarrassed some people. So they had to get rid of her. The point is, the Republicans will not circle the wagons and defend very many. Conservatives will not circle the wagons and defend. Now, I defended Clarence Thomas not even knowing who he was ’cause I knew what happened. I knew the libs were lying about him because I know the libs.
There are some conservatives today, if Clarence Thomas was accused today about Anita Hill, would throw him overboard. Not because she was maybe lying or telling the truth, but because he would be tainted. They would throw him overboard, and they wouldn’t even bother to defend him ’cause he’s making them look bad, by supporting him. It’s a far different thing. The number of conservatives when they pop up and defend each other, doesn’t happen. We’re quick to throw everybody because we don’t want the media saying bad things about the rest of us. It’s really a big difference. The left will circle the wagons and protect their reprobates and they promote them. They promote their failures. It’s a huge, huge difference. But I know what you’re trying to say and your instincts are right on the money with it.