RUSH: I’m being asked, “What about Christie at CPAC?” That’s another thing about the media. I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention. It’s one of the biggest comebacks in the history of politics. Chris Christie is back. Chris Christie is the front-runner. Chris Christie hit a home run, grand-slam home run at CPAC yesterday. Wherever you look in the Drive-By Media: CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Washington Post, New York Times, you name it, Chris Christie nailed it.

Chris Christie is back. Chris Christie on top of the GOP field. Chris Christie has put Bridgegate behind him. Chris Christie told Republicans what they needed to hear. It’s time to start focusing on winning elections. Chris Christie told CPAC what they needed to hear. It’s time to stop saying just what we’re against and what we’re for. It’s one of the most amazing turnarounds. Why, if I didn’t know better, I would think that all these Drive-By outlets want Christie to be the nominee. Wouldn’t you?

And then, after I figured that out, I would then say they must really want us to win. The Drive-By Media must really want the Republicans to win, right? And they must really want Christie to be the next president, because that’s the way they’re portraying the guy. He kicked it. He got back on top. He Bridgegated it back into oblivion, and he made mincemeat of every other potential candidate at CPAC yesterday. So the media is making it look like Christie is the guy to beat and we know the Democrats want our guys to win, right? We know that. We know that the Drive-By Media is really eager for our side to win the White House. So what does this total reversal and almost slavish support for Christie, what does it tell us? I will let you figure it out.

I want to go to some audio sound bites backing up to the Issa thing. Well, I mentioned the Christie business because somebody shouted at me, “What about Christie and CPAC?”

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RUSH: Here’s Dan in Indianapolis. Welcome to the EIB Network. Great to have you here. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I just wanted to let you know, after watching a little bit of CPAC yesterday and the Christie push, I called a local supposedly conservative station here in Indianapolis this morning on a talk show. I basically said, “I don’t know what somebody that is against the Second Amendment and is pushing illegal amnesty, is doing out in front of CPAC, and I didn’t appreciate Rubio pulling for amnesty, either.” Well, they berated me on air for that, and then I called them back and I told ’em I didn’t appreciate that. So for the next two hours on that show, all the callers, with the exception of one, was in favor of what I was in favor of. I want a real conservative ahead of the party or else.

RUSH: I was just reading — just before the program started, and forgive me because I did not print it. I was harried and distracted and trying to do 20 things at once five minutes before the program started. I saw a story, I think it was MRC-TV, Brent Bozell, Media Research, I’m not sure what it was. I just barely scanned the headline, the first two paragraphs, and it was about a conservative group accusing what you’re saying, essentially, that CPAC is gone. CPAC is not conservative.

You can’t have a Conservative Political Action Committee conference with somebody like Governor Christie and John Cornyn there, those were the two names mentioned in this piece, and so there’s a satellite group that is, I guess, meeting there or just publishing their opinion of what’s going on at CPAC, and it dovetails with your point. And I’m not surprised that you got beat up by the hosts but then the callers, the listeners would be sympathetic to you.

Grab sound bite — let’s see, let’s see. Where do I want to start? Let’s start with number eight. I mentioned earlier that no matter where you go in the Drive-Bys today, Chris Christie’s back. Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, LA Times, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, you name it, they are just back in love with Governor Christie. They are singing his praises. They are saying he knocked it out of the park and he got a much bigger standing O than Ted Cruz. They are saying he was much more popular than Ted Cruz, and he was much more appreciated. He was much more listened to. He made much more sense than Ted Cruz, and he had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand. He was really, really, really good. He’s put Bridgegate behind him. He’s back on top the conservative Republican presidential sweepstakes, so forth.

It was amazing, if you just Stack headlines on top of each other, one on top of each other, ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, it’s just in unison again. Every mainstream Drive-By outlet is now back to anointing Christie as the Republican to beat. And, as I said, we all know that those people in the media want Christie to be the president, right? They don’t want Hillary. They don’t want Biden. They don’t want whoever else might seek it on the Democrat side. No, no, no, no. The New York Times, you know darn well they want Christie to be president, right? And the same thing with ABC and CBS. Yes. Yes, I’m being facetious, of course. Let’s listen. We have a montage of various media types hailing the Christie comeback, and we even have some Fox people in here.

HEATHER CHILDERS: Governor Chris Christie back on the world stage getting a standing ovation and stealing the show.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Chris Christie, coming back.

MEGYN KELLY: The start of the Christie comeback.

JONATHAN KARL: Day one looked a lot like a beginning of a comeback for Chris Christie.

PENNY LEE: Very shrewd and deliberate in making his comeback.

CONNELL McSHANE: Governor Christie back on the national stage.

SEAN HANNITY: Today marked the beginning of Christie’s comeback.

ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Will this put the New Jersey Governor back in the race?

RUSH: It’s all there, folks, I mean, isn’t it amazing how that happens? He spoke for — clocked it myself, 25 minutes. He said two memorable things that I heard. I’m not saying that he didn’t say more. I didn’t see the whole thing, but two memorable things: “We’ve got to start saying what we’re for; not just what we’re against.” The media loved that. Why did the media love that? Because the media thinks that the Tea Party and conservatives are nothing but a bunch of little Chihuahuas yapping at the ankles of Obama and every Democrat, and all we’re doing is whining and moaning and criticizing. We’re never offering solutions. We never speak positively.

Governor Christie came along and basically what he did with that comment was slap the Tea Party upside the head. The media loved that. And the second thing he said (paraphrasing), “Let’s leave this conference remembering that before we can govern we’ve got to win elections, so let’s focus on winning again.” And of course the implication or the inference that we’re to draw there is that Republicans don’t care about winning elections anymore. All they want to do is complain. All the Republicans want to do is complain and beat up our beloved president. All the Republicans want to do is whine and moan. And Governor Christie came and told ’em what-for. Governor Christie came in and he told those young kid conservatives, “You better start being for things.” And media, “Oh, this is wonderful.”

And now it’s in unison, and it is a chorus. The media making you think that they’re really so excited Governor Christie’s back. Why, they might even vote for him for president. George Will last night on Special Report with Bret Baier. “George, what are your thoughts on Chris Christie at CPAC today?”

WILL: MSNBC has been a great benefit to Christie. I mean, MSNBC has at most a one-track mind, and it has been just obsessed with him, and my enemy’s enemy is my friend, so a lot of people there were warming up to him.

RUSH: So the theory there is MSNBC would not let go of Bridgegate. In fact, it might be one of the reasons Alec Baldwin quit MSNBC because he was so fed up that all they were doing, morning to night, was talking about Christie and Bridgegate. And George Will said all of that has created massive new amounts of sympathy for Governor Christie. Doesn’t matter.

The bottom line is, no matter where you go where in the media, Governor Christie is back. He is on top. Bridgegate is history. He cleaned Ted Cruz’s clock. He cleaned Marco Rubio’s clock. He cleaned everybody’s clock, and he lectured those conservatives, and he told ’em you can’t just run around complaining and whining. You better be for something. So, interesting to note.