RUSH: Folks, they’re unhinged. I don’t know another word. “Unhinged” is the best word, other than saying “insane.” “Deluded.” Here. Grab audio sound bite number four. This is the Senate Finance Committee, and the confirmation hearings for Trump’s Treasury secretary are underway there. Steve Mnuchin is his name, and Pat Roberts, Republican from Kansas, the chairman of the committee. He’s having an exchange here with Senator Sherrod Brown. Is it Sher-Rod or Sher-ed? How does he pronounce it, do you know?
It’s got two R’s in there so I would think it’s Sher-Rod. If it was one R, you’d say Sher-ed, but, hell, who knows how he pronounces it. I got in trouble once commenting about this guy and his name so I’m just gonna leave it at trying to pronounce it both ways. (interruption) You do remember that? (laughing) You know, Snerdley is really egging me on here to get to these Frontline sound bites. He’s saying, “Look, if you don’t play ’em all…” There are 11. “If you don’t play ’em all, can you post them at RushLimbaugh.com?”
I think we can do that. Not all of them are… I mean, they’re good, but not all of them are top drawer. But they all make the point. We’ll get to some of them here in a minute. I really have this Politico story that I want to share. I think this… It’s the only honest assessment of the Democrats I’ve seen anywhere. But the point about it is, if this story is accurate about the Democrats being quoted, they know the deep doo-doo they’re in, which makes their behavior even more suspect, if they know what kind of trouble they’re in.
I mean, in the future, electoral trouble. They don’t have numbers, they don’t have a bench, they don’t have… They have lost; they’re not even a national party. They’re looking at two generations of being in the minority, and two generations of not being able to name a Supreme Court justice. And they know it! Which makes all this behavior of theirs even more profound because it means it’s on purpose!
They’re acting childish and insane on purpose because they know that’s what they have to do to fundraise and to maintain connection with their base. And I will… Look, I will acknowledge that many of them don’t have to act and many of them are generally Looney Tunes anyway. I mean, they know that they’re in a Road Runner cartoon and that they are Wile E. Coyote. But here. Just listen. This is a classic. This is a back-and-forth between Pat Roberts and Sherrod/Sherrod Brown, Democrat, Ohio. And Orrin Hatch will pop in here, too.
ROBERTS: I just have an observation. Senator Wyden, I’ve got a Valium pill here that you might want to take before the second round. Just a suggestion, sir.
BROWN: Mr. Chairman, I hope that that comment about Valium doesn’t set the tone for the 2017 in this committee. I like Senator Roberts, but I just can’t quite believe that he would say that to a distinguished Senator from Oregon.
ROBERTS: I said that to the president of the United States at one.
BROWN: Perhaps you did.
ROBERTS: Yeah.
BROWN: But I would hope that that doesn’t set the tone for the session.
ROBERTS: I have the time.
HATCH: Order!
BROWN: The relationship we’re building is so different from this.
HATCH: Order in the committee!
ROBERTS: I have the time, please.
BROWN: This is just outrageous!
ROBERTS: I don’t know about outrageous but I think just a little pinprick of humor might help this committee from time to time, which I engage in. I’m sorry if I have, you know, incurred your wrath, sir.
RUSH: Pat Roberts says, “Take a Valium, you people on the other side. Take a Valium.” “I really hope that doesn’t set the tone for this coming 2017 session.” That was Sherrod/Sherrod Brown who was reacting that way. So there, folks. It’s just delectable. Let’s go back to sound bite two and three. I mentioned we had Sean Spicer. He’s the new White House press secretary. I’ll give you a chance to hear him in action. This was this morning. And in this bite, the Drive-Bys are outraged there’s not a Hispanic in Trump’s cabinet.
The question is from NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker. “The list of cabinet picks is the first since 1988 that doesn’t include any Hispanics. What do you say to Hispanic groups who are concerned about that, and more broadly, about the criticism that this undercuts President-Elect Trump’s argument that he’s here to serve all Americans?” This is the kind of mealy mouth, inconsequential irrelevance that they’re known for. This identity politics crap. (impression) “Well, he doesn’t have an Hispanic in the cabinet. Why? What does that mean for Trump’s message that he’s for everybody?”
Well, anyway, here’s how Spicer answered the question…
SPICER: The number one thing that I think Americans should focus on is: Is he hiring the best and the brightest? Is he hiring people who are committed to enacting real change, respecting taxpayers, bringing about an agenda that will create jobs, lift up wages. And I think that what you’re seeing and you’re going to be continue to see — not just through the cabinet but through the entire thing — is diversity in gender and with diversity in thinking and a diversity of ideology.
RUSH: Wow. You mean so diversity’s not just skin color?
Cool!
You mean diversity is not just surface things?
You mean diversity’s not just ethnicity or race?
Yeah, diversity also includes gender, thinking, ideology. What difference does it make? This is the kind of thing that’s really kept this country back, this kind of political correctness. What difference does it make? The idea that somehow Hispanics are gonna be slighted because there’s not one in the cabinet? It’s absurd. But this is the kind of politically correct thinking that the Democrats have successfully foisted on this country and have people distracted and have taken us away from the whole concept of merit-based achievement.
What they would say… You know what they would say to me? “Well, then, Mr. Limbaugh, are you saying that in order to get the best and brightest, he couldn’t have a Hispanic?” No, I’m not saying that at all. I’m just saying because he doesn’t have one doesn’t make him anything of a racist or a reprobate, doesn’t make him a discrimination expert, doesn’t make him a discriminator, nothing. It doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t like Hispanics. It doesn’t mean anything at all.
There are gonna be Hispanics throughout his administration. But this is how they try to frame things, establish narratives, portray Republicans as bigots. And I actually think, you know, this behavior… I had somebody say to me that this back and forth between Pat Roberts and Sherrod/Sherrod Brown over taking a Valium, a person sent me an email, “They’re just making fools of themselves.” You know my instinctive reaction was? “Yeah, that doesn’t matter. They get away with it.” But they don’t, really.
This is the great reality of the 2016 election. All these past eight years and maybe even longer, I’ll admit, I’ve been under the impression — and I’m sure many of you have, too — that whatever imbalanced, unhinged, deranged, mean-spirited, whatever oddball behavior by the Democrats, they got away with it. They were never held accountable, never called on the carpet for it. They were never, ever penalized by their hypocrisy. What we didn’t know was that all of these years a majority of the American people have been paying attention, having disapproving of it.
And given the first chance to actually vote for somebody that had no part of it, they did. So I’m of the opinion that if people see now, for example, a videotape of this back and forth — and not just this confirmation hearing. But these Democrats are being childish and immature and whiny and babyish in every one of these confirmation hearings. Now, in the past, I’ve always assumed that low-information voters just let Democrats have a pass, because they had been so programmed to believe that Republicans and conservatives are mean and extremists and racist, bigot, sexists, that the Democrats would get away with anything.
It obviously is not the case.
But the knee-jerk reaction is still to think the Democrats get away with it. But I think when they engage in activity that makes them look silly, it’s not just me now thinking so and realizing it. I think all across America they are making themselves look ridiculous. And I welcome it. I think it’s finally… It’s good that these people are… They’re decomposing and they’re falling party right in front of everybody’s eyes. I don’t have to tell people who the Democrats are. They are demonstrating it. They are demonstrating their closed-mindedness, their unfairness, their unwillingness, their lack of devotion to democratic ideals.
They’re demonstrating all of this by refusing to show up at the inauguration. Same thing with all these musicians and performers. They think they’re scoring points by not doing this? They’re not. They’re not helping themselves. All these years we thought these people were actually helping themselves do, but they’re not. They’re making fools of themselves, and in the case of the majority of Americans, that is the conclusion. Otherwise, Trump wouldn’t have won, folks. So let ’em keep behaving this way. I’m gonna have fun continuing to categorize them, but let ’em keep going… (interruption)
The press was just kicked out of Trump’s luncheon? Really? Well, now, I’m watching. I haven’t seen that on the TV. Of course, I’ve been in the midst of this prime monologue. (interruption) Well, did something happen to cause Trump to kick ’em out or did they just…? (interruption) What coverage? (interruption) That’s the point, I didn’t see any coverage! What network? What network…? (interruption) What? (interruption) I have… (interruption) Well, Fox doesn’t say that. CNN doesn’t say that.
They’re still talking about Mnuchin up there. Anyway, we’ll follow up on this. I’ll find out. Apparently, Trump has just kicked the press out of whatever luncheon he was having today. I don’t know if they did something to cause Trump to do that that or if he just didn’t want them in there to begin with. But at any rate here, now, this whole idea about Hispanics in the cabinet. I think in the old days they could harm Romney with a question like this and they could harm George W. Bush and they could make Bush and Romney and other the Republicans go on out and do this kind of window dressing stuff. But it wouldn’t make the press like them anymore, wouldn’t make the press respect them anymore. It never did work out that way.
Trump’s continuing to be in their face.
Here’s the next Spicer sound bite. He continued that answer with this…
SPICER: What’s a shame right now is to see some of those individuals who we would call consequences candidates — people like Secretary Elaine Chao, Ben Carson, Nikki Haley — suddenly not be part of Senator Schumer’s list that he work with us to get done on Day One. It’s disappointing. This was not the precedent that was set by Senate Republicans when they worked with the Obama administration in 2008 to ensure that President Obama, despite political differences, got the cabinet of his choosing because they were qualified individuals.
RUSH: Do you know that seven of Obama’s cabinet picks were chosen the first day? They were confirmed the first day. Seven. The Republicans were so eager to show their ability to cooperate with the first black president, and they made sure that nobody saw them as agents of opposition. Spicer is exactly right here. It is a shame to see the Democrats hold up all of these confirmation hearings simply for the politics of it, when they don’t have the numbers to defeat any of these people. Here’s Elaine Chao. She minority, ethnic. Here’s Ben Carson. He’s African-American. Nikki Haley, she’s…
In the liberal world, all of these people are ethnic minorities.
We don’t look at ’em that way, but they do, and here are the Democrats standing in the way, providing obstacle after obstacle to their confirmation. There’s nothing wrong with these people. They’re doing it just because they can’t handle what happened to them, and Spicer is correctly pointing out that Schumer said that he was gonna work with Senate Republicans to get all these people confirmed because that’s what the Republicans did for Obama. Anyway, there’s no changing who the Democrats are. There’s no altering their behavior. They have charted their course and they’re on the boat to nowhere.