RUSH: “Republicans…” It’s an analysis piece and it’s from ABC News. “Republican Strategists Say Democrats Virtually Certain to Win House in 2018.” (interruption) Oh, you’ve seen this, too? “Republican strategists have turned decidedly pessimistic about their prospects for the 2018 midterm elections. Prominent Republicans are now saying privately…” What do you mean “privately”? They “are now saying privately that Democrats are virtually certain to win control of the House of Representatives.

“As one senior Republican on Capitol Hill told ABC News, ‘If the election were held today, the House would be gone. Fortunately, the election is not today.’” The elections are not for about 10 months. “Another prominent Republican strategist working on the midterm elections went further, telling ABC News point-blank that Republicans will lose the House and that this prospect [is] unlikely to change.

“‘The only question is whether Democrats win narrowly by picking up 25 seats or whether it is a blowout of more than 35 seats,’ the strategist said” to whoever is the author of the story. “Allies of President Donald Trump are convinced the president will quickly face impeachment hearings if Democrats take control of the House.” Well, that’s true. That’s what Mueller’s doing. Mueller’s preparing the case right now. This investigation with Mueller is gonna go on and on all through the year, and if the Democrats win the House, within hours (chuckling) Mueller will present his findings, and the investigation will be announced as over.

“One Republican close to Trump predicted that not only will there be impeachment hearings but that the prospects” of a conviction in the Senate are quite likely. “‘Consider what happened with Bill Clinton,’ the Trump ally said. ‘Clinton was disciplined; he had a strategy and still he was impeached,'” but he wasn’t convicted. How many people do you think know that impeachment does not mean you get thrown out of office? What do you think the odds are that 80% of the American people think that if you impeach a president, you’ve gotten rid of him, that he’s gone?

Eighty percent. Well, I’m here to tell you… Impeachment’s not good, don’t misunderstand, but impeachment doesn’t mean the president’s gone. Impeachment means essentially that the House of Representatives has indicted the president for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” and that case has to be presented in a trial at the United States Senate. So the question would be, “Well, who runs the Senate?” If the Democrats run the Senate, they’re almost guaranteed to get a conviction.

If the Republicans win the Senate, well, depending on the majority they have and how many flaky Republicans there are, there still could be a conviction. But the bottom line is, it’s been standard operating procedure among the Drive-By Media that the Democrats have already won the House. How often have we discussed that on this program, folks? The Democrats are operating on the theory that they’ve already won. It’s just a matter of time. The same exact mind-set they had about Hillary winning in 2016.

“It’s just a matter of time. We just have to get to the election. It’s just gonna happen. It’s automatic.” Now they’re thinking the same thing. Why do they think this? The Republicans we can factor in a minute, but why do the Democrats think it? They believe all of this cockamamie BS they report. They believe there was Russian collusion. They believe Trump stole the election. They believe Trump obstructed justice by firing James Comey.

They believe the things in the Trump dossier. They believe that Trump is guilty of financial crimes that have yet to be uncovered. They believe that Trump is unqualified, unfit, and is borderline insane. They believe that they have convinced a majority of Americans to also agree with all of that. They believe that the vast majority of the country has become left-wing progressive and realizes the mistake they made reelected Trump and can’t wait to throw him out.

They would have to wait ’til 2020 to do it, but if they give the Senate and the House to Democrats, then the Democrats can get rid of Trump, and the media has told themselves that a majority of Americans want precisely that to happen. The Democrats… I held a story from yesterday about what do they have to run on? They don’t have anything to run on but what I just told you. They have nothing to run on. They’re gonna run in a boom economy.

And not a single Democrat is on record as having voted for the tax cut or anything else that led to the booming economy. People are earning more money, paying fewer taxes. Prosperity is on the rise, energy prices are coming down. They’re gonna be running in that climate on the basis that Trump is unsafe, is unqualified, is over his head, doesn’t know what he’s doing, and poses a dire threat to the safety and existence of the planet. And they think that that’s a slam-dunk winner.

Now, who are these Republican establishment guys? Who are these analysts? They’re not named in the story that I have. So I’m not gonna guess. I mean, I have my ideas. But if they are Republican establishment types, they, too, are engaging in wishful thinking. Why would they be telling ABC this? Why would they be out there whining and moaning and wringing their hands if they really think it’s true? They must want it to happen. These guys allowing themselves to be quoted are probably from the group that wants Trump to lose — or, rather, wants the Democrats to take back control of the House to get rid of Trump.

Even if Trump isn’t impeached, the thinking goes, that he’s effectively powerless. With the Democrats running the legislative branch, there is literally nothing Trump could do. And they will stop him on virtually everything. This assumes that every Trump voter — or enough Trump voters — will not show up in November. They’re relying on so many standard theories such as the party in power loses seats in midterm elections — and, on balance, that’s true. But there are recent exceptions. In 2002, the Democrats were behaving roughly the same as they are behaving today.

The Democrats lost seats in the 2002 midterms after the Wellstone Memorial, after thinking they had it all boxed up, after thinking they had convinced everybody that George W. Bush was fraudulent, didn’t really win. “The Supreme Court stopped the recount that would have given the election to Gore!” It’s almost a recap. In fact, I’m gonna make another prediction to you on the economy. How did it start out? We had the audio sound bite montage side by side yesterday. How did it start? It started out with everybody in the media claiming there’s no way that corporate tax cuts are gonna benefit average Americans, that corporations do not pass along their tax cuts, that they save them for themselves or their shareholders.

Everybody, every Drive-By Media person, except on Fox, and every one of their guests for weeks leading up to the vote on tax reform told their audiences that there is no way that you average Americans are gonna get anything out of this. This is not for you. You’re gonna get crumbs. Well, now we learn that 90% of the American people are going to benefit. Starting next month, they will have more take-home pay. Two hundred companies are offering bonuses. You know the drill.

Those bonuses are gonna be taxed less, so people are gonna have much more money every pay period starting in February. The Democrats are gonna have to change their approach. How long is it gonna be before they start calling Trump the president of greed? This is how they eventually attacked Reagan and the eighties, the decade of greed.

And what did that mean? It meant the average American benefited tremendously from Reagan’s tax cuts and ended up with much more take-home pay, and the media and the Democrat Party working together then began to label the eighties as the decade of greed, and there was something else, greed and (interruption) — no, it wasn’t greed and opulence. It was greed and some other horrible human characteristic.

Greed and selfishness, I think it was. Selfishness and greed. People only cared about themselves. They only cared about more money and the poor stayed poor and the homeless stayed homeless. That’s in their playbook. And we’ll see how long it takes for them to move off of the, “Nobody’s gonna benefit” to “we have become a nation of greed and selfishness,” led by Mr. Greed himself, Donald Trump.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here it is. “Democrats Search for Winning Playbook.” By the way, folks, there’s one other thing. Oh, try this headline: “Donald Trump’s Support Among Blacks Has Doubled Since 2016, Amid Racism Claims.” The same thing with Hispanics, not quite doubled. But his support among Hispanics and blacks is way, way up.

Meanwhile, there are stories all over the place — Snerdley, have you seen these, that this real wacko, that extreme partisan Perez, the guy running the Democrat National Committee, that it’s about to fall apart? Have you seen these stories, the DNC is about to collapse, and do you know why? Because of the ongoing enmity, anger, and rivalry between Bernie Sanders supporters and Hillary supporters.

The Democrat Party’s not unified. Now, they may be able to come together in anti-Trump hatred. We’re still way, way out. But the Democrat National Committee is about to collapse. And part of that is they can’t raise any money. And in spite of all of these problems, the Democrats are just gonna skate, it’s over. Why, they may win in a landslide in November in the House of Representatives. And, furthermore, this may be why the Democrats finally back out of trying to get anything done with the DREAMers or with DACA.

They might be saying, “You know what? We don’t have to make a deal with Trump right now because we’re gonna win the Senate, and we’re gonna win the House in November, and when that happens, we’ll just be able to write our own bill and Trump will have no choice but then to sign it. So we don’t even need to work with the guy now.”

If they really think they’re going to win the House in 2018, why make a single deal with Donald Trump this whole year? Unless Trump caves and gives ’em everything they want, but in this instance that’s not happening. It’s exact opposite. Trump has pulled the rug out from sandbagged old Dicky Durbin and Lindsey Grahamnesty. So we shall see, folks.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: “Democrats Search for Winning Playbook.” This is TheHill.com, and it’s written by somebody Amie Parnes. And it begins this way: “Democrats are feeling increasingly confident about their chances of winning back the House and Senate in the 2018 midterms. After a surprising victory in Alabama’s Senate election last month, the party felt like it had momentum.”

There are, by the way, a lot of significant Republican retirements. Some of these Republican retirements are committee chairmen. Darrell Issa is quitting. Ed Royce is retiring. I think there’s seven of ’em now. And the media is saying, “Well, that’s all we need. I mean, these guys are expecting to lose. That’s why they quit.” In fact, folks, to be boldly, brazenly honest, they may have a point. If you go back to 1995 and ’96 and ’97, how many Democrats retired from the House after Newt and the boys won control of it for the first time in 40 years?

There were so many Democrats that they were switching parties, joining the Republican Party. Some were resigning, some were retiring, because it wasn’t gonna be any fun to not be in the majority. And there were a huge number of retirements. And there were a few people, a few Democrats that switched parties in the Senate too. So this is why all of these Republican retirements are being portrayed as a harbinger, that it’s time for the noose, for the Republican control of the House. That these guys know what’s up, they know what’s coming, they know they’re gonna get shellacked.

And they said, these Republicans, like Issa and Ed Royce, it’s not even guaranteed the Republicans are gonna hold those seats. After all, we’re talking about California. So the Republicans might lose those two seats, in addition to whatever else. So this is why the conventional wisdom is all over the idea that the Democrats have already won it. But if you read the story, what you find out here is the Democrats don’t have an agenda.

What can they run on? What do the Democrats believe? I mean, this is gonna be up to the RNC and whoever Trump has running the show. The Republicans are gonna have to have a wily and crafty advertising campaign exposing the Democrats. What do the Democrats support? There’s not a single one of them that voted for the tax cut.

So you could run an ad, “Democrats don’t want you keeping more of your own money.”

“Democrats want continued illegal immigration from S-hole countries all over the world.”

“The Democrats do not want to stop illegal immigration.”

“The Democrats have no problem with massive drug traffic across our borders.”

“The Democrat Party wants to give sanctuary to criminals and thugs from all over Central America in major American cities.”

“The Democrat Party stands for and supports more crime.”

“The Democrat Party is in favor of high taxes and ending your tax cut.”

“The Democrat Party wants to reinstitute Obamacare and recreate the British health care system.”

“The Democrat Party believes in lower paychecks.”

“The Democrat Party believes in depleting your 401(k) again.”

“The Democrat Party thinks that it was unfair that some Americans got a bonus and others didn’t. That money belongs to the government for increased and continuing government services.”

“The Democrats believe in higher unemployment for African-Americans.”

However you word this, to me, this doesn’t seem very difficult to do. If the Republicans can outmaneuver Democrats on these issues — and I have been straight up and down accurate on the Democrats’ positions on all these issues. The Democrat Party needs its butt kicked. The Democrat Party needs to be stopped. This country cannot afford the Democrat Party returning to the majority and remain the America it’s always been.

The RNC’s been raising a lot of money. The DNC can’t raise any and they’re in serious danger of collapse. And they had better be preparing these ad campaigns right now. And that money that they have raised is because of Donald Trump. And they had better stop acting embarrassed of Trump if there are any of them who still are. And they’d better get started on this campaign now, because the Drive-By Media is never going to characterize the Democrat Party as I just did.

The Democrat Party is never gonna be characterized in a truthful way by the Drive-By Media, which who knows how much free media they’re gonna get. There needs to be a marketing and branding campaign beginning right now, with the Democrat Party as the target. It’s gonna be needed to combat the 99% negative coverage the Republicans are gonna get and Trump is gonna get. The Democrats can search for a winning playbook, but the only one they really have is, “We hate Trump.”

And they’re gonna try to parlay that into a majority of Americans hating Trump and Republicans and sending Democrats back to office simply to get rid of the hate or to mobilize the hate for Trump. We’ll see. We’re gonna see just how much the Democrats really believe all of this by watching how they behave when Trump and the Republicans propose legislation.

Because if they really think they’re gonna win in 2018, they shouldn’t agree to anything. They should not make one agreement on any legislative proposal unless they get everything in it they want. If they really think they’re gonna win, both houses or even just the House in November, there’s no reason to do anything, just wait until they run the show and then get everything they want. We’ll see if they do.