RUSH: Now, ladies and gentlemen, in the span of less than a half hour, I, your host, have gone from just being an entertainer who’s worth a couple of yuks to now once again being the titular head of the Republican Party. Here is Chuck-U Schumer on Capitol Hill, Democrat House and Senate leadership, press conference, talking about the Senate having passed immigration reform one year ago that didn’t go anywhere. It was a joint press conference to call on the House to pass immigration reform this year. This is what Chuck Schumer said.
SCHUMER: The leaders of the House know that they’re coming up to the edge of a demographic cliff, and immigration reform is the only thing that can keep them from falling off of it. They all know, but it’s a small sliver of a minority of America which has disproportionate weight, the Tea Party, that prevents them from moving forward. They’re afraid of the Tea Party. They’re afraid of the word amnesty, even though our bill is not amnesty at all, but Rush Limbaugh says it enough, and they’re afraid that their primary voters, who skew far right, believe it.
RUSH: So we started the program and I was just an entertainer worth being yukked up and laughed at, but now I am the reason, I call it amnesty, and the House Republicans quiver in fear. There’s very few people that can do this, folks. Very few people in the span of a half hour can go from just an entertainer to the titular head and primary fear agent of the Republican Party.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me ask you a question. If we had an issue that was going in our favor, and we thought that we had the Democrats on the verge of going over the cliff, would we try to save ’em, or would we get out of the way and let ’em take the fall? See, that’s the thing. Chuck, it’s a nice try, but we’re not buying the notion that you’re really trying to help us out here. We’re not buying the idea, Chuck, that you actually want us to win elections. It just doesn’t make any sense, Chuck, that you’re trying to save our bacon on immigration reform.
Here’s what’s happening. Folks, it is crystal clear what is happening with this massive influx now of unaccompanied children, combined with the daily influx of illegal immigrants. The Democrat Party needs its permanent underclass. Do you know why? A permanent underclass of poor people and poorly educated people become people that automatically depend forever on government. They’re automatic Democrat voters. This is a massive Democrat voter registration drive. And you see the pressure being brought to bear on the Republicans.
Go back to the Peter Beinart piece in Atlantic Monthly last week that I really highlighted a number of days because he talked about this demographic shift that is occurring in this country that’s leaving the Republicans out, and it’s all because of the Tea Party. You people and me, we’re all the only reason why the Republicans are not getting up to speed and getting in gear, because we want to hold onto an America that isn’t anymore. You see, America is transforming, America is changing, and America’s becoming a land now of social justice and — what was the other term? Social justice and tolerance. Yes. Tolerance and social justice.
What that means is, we are going to become a country that is forever feeling guilty and sympathy for the poor and minorities, and we are going to bend over backwards. We’re gonna strip power from the people who’ve had it since the days of the founding. They have unfairly held it for too long. They have monopolized it, manipulated it, they’ve stolen from everybody and now it’s time for the victims to be given what has been theirs all along that has been stolen and denied them.
And the theory is that this demographic shift is happening, immigration proves it. There’s nothing the Republicans can do to stop it, and the only way they’re gonna remain viable is to join the Democrats and adopt their policies and their viewpoints on all this. And then these people will love the Republicans as they love the Democrats, and they might get some of these people’s votes down the road. This is what Schumer was essentially saying. Same thing that Peter Beinart said in his piece.
“The leaders of the House know they’re coming up to the edge of a demographic cliff and immigration reform’s the only thing that’s going to keep ’em from falling off,” as though he wants to keep us from falling off. He wants to help us, prevent us from going over the cliff. So there’s a new age approaching, a new era, one of tolerance and social justice. And the Tea Party is the only thing standing in the way. And, by the way, there’s an addendum. The more you and I oppose this, the faster we hasten it. And you know why? Because the more we oppose it, the more firmly committed to making it happen, become the Democrats and these minorities and illegal immigrants.
The more opposition they see to their arrival, the more firm in their desire to come and change this country. So if we would just shut up and back off and go away, might not happen as fast. It’s still gonna happen, but if we get on board with it, we might be saved as a political party and a political movement. We might get some votes down the road, but if we don’t we’re gonna go over the cliff and Chuck Schumer doesn’t want to go over the cliff and the only way is to get people to stop believing me when I call what they want to do amnesty, ’cause it isn’t. And this is what I mean. I opened the program today saying everything I’m hearing, I’m hearing. Otherwise you would think intelligent people say some of the stupidest things.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Tony in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Hi, Tony. I’m glad you waited. I want to get a phone call in this hour, and you are it. Hello.
CALLER: Hello. I am honored. Thank you, Rush. How are you today?
RUSH: Very well. Thank you.
CALLER: The problem here is that the Tea Party has become a negative dog whistle that can be used at any time by the GOP establishment or the Democrats to conjure up race, anti-Americanism or anything else they need at the time, and the Tea Party made the mistake by embracing the GOP to begin with. And what it is, is really the People’s Party. It’s time to drop the Tea Party, adopt a new moniker, and attract the Reagan Democrats, the constitutional conservatives from both sides, and put this ruling class in Washington to bed once and for all.
RUSH: I understand where you’re coming from. The whole notion of branding. Whatever it’s called, Tony, the same things are going to be said of it. If it even could be done, using your example, if the Tea Party could all of a sudden be broomed and all of a sudden be called the People’s Party, they’d pick up on that and they’d start trashing that. It’s a really frustrating thing, I know. I mean, I personally have 25 years of experience with this. I can’t change my name, nor do I want to. I’m proud of it. I’m not afraid of it. That’s the difference, I think.
At some point the defense — I remember, I got so mad, and I’ve told you the story. I got so mad at a dinner party in my own house. I had some guys I had not met, they were friends of friends, that had shown up. And they were saying, “We gotta get rid of Sarah Palin.”
I said, “Why?”
“The media hates her. We’re never gonna get anywhere. The media’s destroyed her. We gotta throw her out.”
“Do you realize what you’re telling me? You’re telling me that essentially the media can pick and choose anybody we want until we come up with somebody they supposedly like, like McCain, that we can’t get behind ’em?”
“She lost, Rush. She may be fine, she may be smart, don’t care, but the media hates her, they’ve destroyed her, we’ve gotta throw her away.”
I’m thinking, “With people like this…” Ideas didn’t even matter to ’em. The idea of defending her and standing up for her and putting mindless people attacking her in their place didn’t even occur to these people. They just wanted to cave and kowtow to the critics of Sarah Palin, the media. So nevertheless, I understand the frustration. But at some point you gotta realize they call Republicans the same thing as the Tea Party. The Republicans are just getting a bit of a respite from it now because the Tea Party poses the bigger threat. This is the dirty little secret. If you listen to this stuff properly, the media, the Democrats will always tell you, they’ll always tell us, what they fear.
They fear the Tea Party. They don’t fear anybody in the Republican establishment, in the House or the Senate. They fear the Tea Party. And I think that that offers an opportunity. But if you don’t hear it the right way, if you simply chalk it up to, “Well, they’ve tarnished and feathered us again. They’ve destroyed that brand. We gotta come up with a new one,” they’re gonna keep doing that. Yet the Tea Party, on balance, keeps winning a majority of Republican votes in these primaries. How can that happen if we’ve been tarred and feathered?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Chuck-U Schumer yesterday at the Wall Street Journal breakfast, whatever that was. Senator McCain, Senator Schumer spoke, and there was a Q&A. Jerry Seib, Wall Street Journal bureau chief in Washington was the moderator. He said, “Senator McCain, is the conventional wisdom in Washington right? Is immigration reform dead?”
MCCAIN: Well, I hope it’s wrong. I don’t think that it was helpful that Eric Cantor’s defeat. We can’t give up trying because of the absolute importance it is in my case, not only the country, but to the Republican Party.
RUSH: All right. Now, we just played a sound bite of Chuck-U Schumer moments ago. In fact, go back and get it. Grab sound bite number 22. We’re gonna do a side-by-side A-B comparison. This Chuck Schumer today in Washington. This is about 20 minutes after Donna Brazile had said (imitating Brazile), “Limbaugh is just an entertainer, and it’s funny, I mean, I’ll laugh at it, the Uncle Toms for Thad line, it is pretty good, but he’s just an entertainer.” Then Chuck Schumer, at a joint House-Senate leadership press conference, said…
SCHUMER: The leaders of the House know that they’re coming up to the edge of a demographic cliff.
RUSH: Right.
SCHUMER: And immigration reform is the only thing that can keep them from falling off of it.
RUSH: Exactly right.
SCHUMER: They all know, but it’s a small sliver of a minority of America which has disproportionate weight, the Tea Party —
RUSH: Right, right, right.
SCHUMER: — that prevents them from moving forward. They’re afraid of the Tea Party. They’re afraid of the word amnesty even though our bill is not amnesty at all, but Rush Limbaugh says it enough, and they’re afraid that their primary voters, who skew far right, believe it.
RUSH: Right. Right. Here’s a guy, normally he loves every minority he encounters. I mean, minorities, they’re the biggest victims, they’re put upon, they need the defense and protection of the Democrat Party. Here’s a small sliver of a small minority and we’ve gotta take ’em out, we gotta destroy ’em. Limbaugh’s lying. It isn’t amnesty. So here’s Schumer, after that, actually this was yesterday at the Wall Street Journal breakfast, after McCain said that immigration reform is important to the Republican Party and hopes that Cantor’s defeat doesn’t mean it’s dead, Schumer weighs in.
SCHUMER: You have the Republican leadership. They know that they should do immigration reform. They know they have to do it now. I think if they don’t do it we will win the presidency, the House, and the Senate. We received some degree of help with the Cochran election and with the general trend that the Tea Party doesn’t always win, because that’s what’s holding this back.
RUSH: (laughing) Holy cow, folks! You don’t need any more evidence than what I supplied you today to know that the Tea Party is winning and driving these people crazy. You are seen as the primary obstacles to them getting what they want. Do you believe him when he says, “You know, they should do immigration reform. They know they have to do it now. I think if they don’t do it, we’ll win the presidency, the House and the Senate.” As though he doesn’t want to? What does this mean: “I think if the Republicans don’t do it, we’re gonna win the presidency, the House and the Senate.”
Chuck, that’s exactly what you want to happen. You want to win the House, the Senate, and the White House forever. The Republicans are doing exactly what you want them to do, apparently. So why do you want the Republicans to change what they’re doing and do what you want them to do if it’s gonna help them win? That doesn’t make any sense, Chuck. Got some degree of help with the Cochran election, the general trend the Tea Party doesn’t always win.
The Tea Party did win. The Tea Party got more votes than the Republican Party got in the primary and the runoff. Anyway, I just think it’s stunning to listen to Chuck Schumer sit here and talk about how much he cares about us winning the White House and the only way we can do it is to start sounding exactly like he does.
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