RUSH: I was minding my own business last night, actually taking a break from show prep, catching up on a couple of television shows that I watch that I haven’t seen recent episodes. And I get an e-mail that says, “James Carville was just on Ted O’Baxter’s show and said you came out for impeachment today. I missed that,” and the reason the e-mailer missed it is because I didn’t come out for it, impeachment.
Carville was on O’Baxter show saying I came out for impeachment, and the e-mailer said, “Gee, I missed that,” because I didn’t say it. I never have called for the impeachment of Obama. All I’ve said is that I think it’s a mistake to take the option off the table, to take the ammo out of your arsenal. But I’ve never said, “Pull the trigger on it.” The political will isn’t there. It’s a political act, not legal. Here’s the audio sound bite how it happened.
Clearly, Carville didn’t listen to the program. So it’s obviously his Media Matters buddies telling him, and they’re lying through their teeth. This is another thing, with all due deference to the Republicans. Their heads are swimming. No matter what they do, they’re lied about. No matter what they do! There are another couple of examples in the Stack of Stuff here, of wealthy Republicans donating to causes that liberals hold dear.
I don’t know anybody. I don’t know the PR campaign that has the answer to that. Here’s how it sounded. O’Reilly did his Talking Points Memo and as he always does, he asked his guests where he went wrong — and, of course, the guest never says that he went wrong. “Oh, it’s the smartest thing I’ve ever heard,” and it was Carville’s turn last night and this is what he said.
CARVILLE: You can say Republicans don’t like Obama. Yes, 55% of Republicans want to impeach Obama. Rush Limbaugh callin’ for impeachment today, just like he impeached President Clinton.
WOMAN: (cackles)
CARVILLE: President Obama won re-election in 2012! (snickering) Get over it.
RUSH: (impression) “Get over it! Rush Limbo callin’ fo’ impeachment out there! Huh huh!” I didn’t. In fact, yesterday if you were listening to the point, you remember me making the very point that I was not and have not — and don’t worry. I’m not denying this because I’m trying to get on the side that says never do it.
A lot of Republicans are doing that. They’re being lied about like I was last night and they say, “No, no, no! I would never want to impeach! No, no, no! Don’t confuse me with them!” It’s all a trick. It’s a trick designed to get people nervous and defensive and publicly say, “Never impeach him!” I said, “I’ve never called for it. I have not done it,” and the thing is, these people know it. I think Carville knows it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is Charlene in Prescott, Arizona. Great to have you, thank you very much for waiting. Hello.
CALLER: Thanks, Rush. I have to say that I’m ready to impeach Obama. I know you never said it first, but I’m saying it. I think it’s the smart… It’s not necessarily the smart thing to do, but it’s the right thing to do, and I’d like to see Boehner do one thing right. It would just really please me. Here’s my thinking: The president holds the Congress and the people of the United States hostage with threats of more illegal aliens, more amnesties, and more wasted billions unless everyone concedes to immigration Obama-style. And it must be Obama-style!
RUSH: But you don’t impeach him for that.
CALLER: Well —
RUSH: See, this whole impeachment… I understand what you want to do. You’re looking for a way to stand up for what’s right regardless for the fallout because right is right, and everybody should know, and we can’t keep putting off what is destroying the country. We’ve got to stop it, blah, blah. I understand that. But there’s an old saw here.
You know, impeachment in the Constitution is written about and discussed as a legal thing, but it’s a purely a political event. It’s like a lawyer granting immunity to a witness. You never do that without knowing what the witness is going to say. You just don’t do it. In this case, you don’t do this unless you know you’re going to win it. It’s a political thing, and they haven’t built a political case for it, and the Republicans in office today are not going to do that.
CALLER: (crosstalk)
RUSH: And the reason they’re not going to do it is because they think, “There’s no way we’re ever going to get a conviction in the Senate with Harry Reid leading it. We’re just not going to do it.” Now you mentioned the results: Illegal immigration, all that. All of those things are the result of Obama’s lawlessness. He has proven that he can’t be trusted with the power of the office. That has to be the basis on which he would be impeached, and that case would have to be made. Nobody’s making that case.
CALLER: But somebody needs to stand up and make it!
RUSH: Well, I don’t disagree with that. I’m telling you that the players that we have now are not the ones who are going to do it. I’m telling you, there’s one thing I want to be very clear on here. The inside-the-Beltway cognoscenti, the best and the brightest, those of the conventional wisdom, all say that there is no way the Republicans can do anything but destroy themselves if they do this, and I do not agree with that.
I think it’s a mistake to assume that if the Republicans were to embark on the right course, that it would be harmful. Everybody inside the Beltway is telling Republicans, “If you want to wipe your own selves out — if you want to take yourselves to the bare bones of irrelevance — you do it. It’s a losing proposition.” Obama thinks this. Obama’s trying to goad them into doing it. Obama can’t run on any policy.
But if the Republicans are out to get the first black president, he thinks his base will just rise up in indignant outrage, show up in droves and reelect Democrats in November.and another Democrat in 2016, just to show the Republicans up! That’s the conventional wisdom of the politics of this. I don’t happen to agree. I don’t think that it has to be an automatic losing proposition for the Republicans, and you probably agree with me on that. But with the current climate, you and I are the only ones outside the Beltway that think that.
CALLER: It’s just so sad and pitiful. It’s watching my country turn into a Third World country where I have no say, where my neighbors are placed here by Obama. (cell drops) I think Obama should leave the country after he retires.
RUSH: “See, you’re just a bigot and a racist. What’s wrong with other people? Why don’t you want to live with these poor people from Honduras? What have you got against them, Charlene? What makes you so much better than them?” That’s what people will say to you.
CALLER: I know. I know. They called me a racist on CNN because I didn’t agree with Obama. They called me a racist for an entire year. That’s why I don’t watch CNN anymore.
RUSH: CNN called you a racist?
CALLER: Yes, they have. Well, not personally.
RUSH: Oh.
CALLER: But they called everyone who did not agree with Obama a racist. They always had a speaker on there, “Racist, racist, racist!” That’s all we heard for a year.
RUSH: Look at this now. Obama is now saying, “House Republicans are blocking global diplomat.” It just never ends. It just never ends. He’s talking about Washington gridlock now. “The American people demand and deserve…” So he’s ramping up the pressure. He’s trying to make them so mad that they will initiate, when they’re not prepared to do it the right way, impeachment proceedings.
Anyway, Charlene, look, I know it’s hard. I’m like you and lot of people. This stuff is ripping me apart, and I’m frustrated what to do about it, and I don’t have anything for you other than that I believe myself, and I just have a faith. I cannot do any better than that. But I think all this is going to be overcome. I don’t know when, but I think there’s going to be some point when it’s going to bottom out.
Related Links