Rush's Interview with Greta Van Susteren

GRETA: Tonight, Rush Limbaugh goes On the Record. In a rare interview, Rush tells us President Obama likes scandals. Now, our one-hour interview with Rush Limbaugh.

Talking about the scandals, President Obama says the scandals are phony. Why do you think he says they're phony? Because he believes it, or is there a strategy?

RUSH: No, there's a strategy. You know, I've been troubled by something with Obama. You know, I playfully call it the "Regime," 'cause I know it irritates 'em. But it is, it's like a regime. And I've been troubled, I've been amazed. Here is a man whose policies have done great damage to this country, policies that have done great damage to the economy, have done great damage to the American culture, to the American psyche. I mean, there is a malaise, there's a sense of hopelessness and depression out there and it's his policies that have done this, and what has always amazed me is how he's not attached to any of it.

He has an agenda, he's been implementing it, but the what I call the low-information voters who voted for him and other Democrats do not associate Obama's policies and agenda with the condition of the country, the economy or whatever. That's always befuddled me. I've never, never known a president to be immune from economic circumstances at an election as he was in 2012. It all became clear to me, there was a New York Times story, I think one of their blog posts on the Web back in February, and it basically said via poll data what I just said to you. It said most people disapprove of the Obama agenda. They don't like the direction the country's going. They like him and they think he's great for the country. And I said, "How can that be?"

Intellectually, how can a majority of people -- and you know they oppose Obamacare by 55, 60% in a number of polls. They are worried about jobs. How in the world can they like him, reelect him, and yet disapprove of everything he's doing? I call it the Limbaugh Theorem. And you hear other people talking about it in the sense that he's a bystander president or he's outside Washington. The way he does this, he never appears to be governing. That's why he's constantly campaigning. Why is there a campaign going on for Obamacare? It's already the law of the land. Why is he out campaigning for all this stuff that's already law? It's already gonna happen.

My theory is that Obama has positioned himself as an outsider not attached to anything that's happening. What he has made happen, he positions himself as opposed to it and against it, and fighting for everybody else to overcome what he has done. And that's one of the reasons why the constant campaign, so he doesn't appear to be governing, so he doesn't appear to be part of Washington, so he appears to have this mysterious powerful bunch of forces that are opposing him and stopping him from creating jobs, and stopping him from giving people proper health care, and stopping him from making their home values go up. He's constantly out there fighting that, and he does that by constantly campaigning and never seen to be governing.

So all of these scandals, he calls them, they're not a distraction; they're real. But he likes them because they detract from the absolute reality of what has happened to this country as the result of his policies. Now, let's take a look selling Obamacare. 'Cause I mentioned that moment ago. Why in the world are you on a campaign to sell Obamacare? I mean, it's the law. Yeah, you've got an effort by the Republicans, two or three of them, to defund it, but why the campaign? Very simple. You go back to 2010, the 2010 midterms, the Republicans, Tea Party created, cleaned the Democrats' clocks.

If you go back and look at the 2010 midterms that was one of the biggest shellackings the Democrat Party has had in a long time. The Republicans took back the House of Representatives, but the Democrats lost a total, nationwide, all the way down ballot of over 600 seats, and it was because of Obamacare and the rising debt and the fact that nobody was opposing it and nobody stopping it. Tea Party gets created, these people show up. Now, what Obama and the Democrats really want, what they're salivating about now is winning the House in 2014. If they get that, hold the Senate, there's no such thing as a lame duck second term. Don't even need a Congress. All they are is gonna be a rubber stamp; whatever Obama wants to do in the past two years, just signs it and does it, Congress rubber-stamps it, and we've got it going.

He can't be stopped. That's why they want it. But they remember 2010. So he's out there trying to change public opinion on health care so that it doesn't replicate in 2014 what happened in 2010, the midterms. He cannot afford for a bunch of Tea Party people, a bunch of anti-Obama voters to show up in 2010 voting against him and holding the House for the Republicans and maybe winning the Senate for the Republicans. That's one reason he's campaigning. The second reason he's out campaigning is simply to continue this notion that he's not of Washington that he's outside fighting against these powerful forces doing everything he can to stand up for the American people.

It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. I've never seen a president get away with four and a half years of not being seen as responsible for anything he's done when everything that's happened is because of him. He can't be stopped. The Republicans don't have any power. All they can do, maybe, if they get the cajones, is stop things, but they can't make anything happen. The Republicans are totally powerless in terms of legislation and Washington. They have the House, but nothing in the Senate.

They can't stop him anywhere. Yet he's out acting like he's gotta overcome all of this opposition and all of these mean people who want to prevent the American people from realizing their dreams, these dastardly Republicans. So the phony scandals, it's just another vehicle to continue the same modus operandi and, by the way, to continue to blame the Republicans being cold-hearted, mean-spirited, extremist racist, sexist homophobes, War on Women, all that stuff.

GRETA: Why do you think, though -- I mean, a lot of people are unhappy about the phony scandals, at least the Republicans, because a lot of people hate the IRS. In early May he says this is a serious problem. Now it's phony, and it's just a campaign tactic? Is that what you're saying?

RUSH: He's got a slavish media. He can say whatever he wants and he's not gonna be called on it by the media. He can do pretty much everything he wants. I should have added in my previous answer to your question that he couldn't get away with any of this without a slavish media. I mean, the media doesn't question him, and, in fact, is on board with his agenda and is trying to help him advance it. I've gotten to the point where what he says is irrelevant. I can give you quotes of what he said in 2002, 2005, 2007 about health care. I can give you quotes of what he said about global warming and all these things and they're irrelevant. What you have to do is watch what he does.

He's always going to tell you he's not doing what he's doing. He's always going to position himself as having nothing to do with what's happening. He's always gonna position himself as "it's the Republicans, they're constantly complaining, whining. I fixed the IRS. I fired whoever did this. It's reprehensible." All he's gotta do is talk about how reprehensible he thinks it is, the media reports: "Obama thinks IRS scandal is horrible," and that's it. The thing that you have to know is everybody says, "I wonder if there's a smoking gun, a memo, between Obama and the IRS?" There doesn't need to be one. He hires people, puts them in these places, he knows what they're gonna do. They're all miniature Obamas.

There won't be a smoking the gun. There doesn't have to be a memo. He doesn't have to give people that work for him instructions or a manual on how to screw the Republicans or stop conservatives. That's what they want to do themselves, plus they want to make him happy. So I think it's incredible what's happening. I think it's out-of-this-world incredible that we have somebody whose policies have led to the malaise and the destruction of the economy and the hijacking of the health care industry, and he's not held accountable for it. He tells people that health care premiums are gonna go down $2,500 and they think that's true 'cause he says it. The truth is never presented in the mainstream media where most of the low-information voters get what they think they know.

GRETA: Why does the media give him a pass on that, if it's as you say, why do they not hold him accountable for things he said before?

RUSH: They agree with him. They are him. I think they're all part of the elitist, New York-Washington-Boston media academic corridor. And they think they are Obama. They think they're the same education, same schools, same worldview. But there's also -- you know, I've been doing my radio show for 25 years and it's getting to the point now where things are starting to repeat. You start hearing the same things over and over about the same issues and you realize that not a whole lot really changes. And the interesting thing to me about Obama and the media, I think, Greta, the explanation -- the short answer to your question is, in 1988 you had CNN, the three networks, and the newspapers, and that was it. There was a media monopoly.

My radio show starts in 1988. Even by 1995 I was still the only conservative national media voice, other than some magazines, National Review and so forth. It wasn't until '96-'97 that Fox came along and other radio talk shows and the blogosphere as the Internet blossomed and so forth. And I think that the media is very aware they've lost their monopoly, and now they're in a competitive situation. And I think they get as big a thrill, just as all Democrats do, of defeating conservatives, as they do helping Obama.

I think we've never lived in a more partisan country, Civil War not included. That was bad. But maybe aside from that, I can't remember a time where it's been more partisan, more divisive, and getting worse, and being done on purpose. The division is happening on purpose. The media has aligned with Obama to defeat Republicans, to defeat conservatives, and Obama is all about that. That makes them his best friend and vice-versa.

RUSH: I have no idea. Because if you look at 2010, that massive turnout and the vote, there wasn't a Republican on the ballot. And there wasn't a singular Republican voice in electoral politics, I mean, that was articulating an agenda. There wasn't a potential presidential candidate that people were rallying around. That 2010 vote was all anti-Obama. It was all anti-debt. It was all anti-health care. It was all anti-the Democrat Party. That's what's got 'em so bugged about what happened, because the people weren't voting for anything in 2010, they were simply saying, "Ain't no way, no way, don't want any part of this." And so I expected that same turnout would happen in 2012, and it didn't.

RUSH: Well, that opens up a whole can of worms that I think is illustrative of the problem the Republican Party faces. The people that sat home, if you look at the polling data, it was mostly white Republican voters that stayed home. Mostly conservative, dissatisfied with the Republican Party's rejection of conservatism, another nominee that they weren't excited about. It's amazing, Greta, you look at what happened in 2010, the Republican Party didn't even make an effort to capitalize on that. Here you have a national uprising in opposition to Barack Obama, and the Republicans acted like they didn't want any part of the Tea Party, either.

The consultants and the powers that be did everything they could to diminish the Tea Party. If I were the Republican Party, I would have embraced those people. I woulda brought 'em into the fold and I would have done what I could to keep them, as donors, as voters. But the Republican Party had no desire. I think 2012 and the campaign, some of those Republican voters felt that and saw it and said, "Okay, well, if you're not interested in our assistance and if you're not interested in what we think and our view of the country, we'll sit home. Heck with it."

GRETA: Well, the Tea Party, if you actually talk to these Tea Party members, they're not kooks. I mean, they're airline pilots. They're shopkeepers. They're family members. I mean, these are people with regular jobs, and --

RUSH: Precisely. They're demonized because they don't understand politics and they're not of Washington and they can't be controlled. They can't be dominated by the party. Greta, there's a really unfortunate thing happening with the Republican Party, and, as a conservative, it appears to me the Republican Party is trying to push itself away from its conservative base on a number of issues. It's been a very eye-opening thing for me. I always thought that, as Republicans, we oppose Democrats, we wanted to beat them. I don't see that. I don't see any push-back against anything Obama wants to do. The push-back's against the Tea Party. The push-back is against conservatives. It's a stunning thing.

The Republican Party's decided that capitulation with the Democrats seems to be the ongoing strategy. And by capitulation, I had a guy call me yesterday talking about this ongoing fight to defund Obamacare, the continuing resolution fight and so forth, and this caller took the exact viewpoint of inside-the-Beltway Republicans, which is that might involve a government shutdown, and we can't shut down government because the country will hate us, and they cite 1995. And look what happened to Republicans after 1995. No, let's go ahead and let Obamacare be fully implemented, and it will implode on itself, and people will see how bad it is.

Well, that's not a strategy. That's capitulation. That's not even pushing back against it. Even if you don't have a chance to stop it, why not make a stand, tell people who you are, as Republicans, as conservatives? They've never had a greater chance to contrast who they are with liberal Democrats than what's happening now. And instead of doing that, the Republican Party establishment seems to be going along with them. Obamacare, immigration reform, amnesty, whatever it is, there's no disagreement, there's no push-back on it. I remember in 1992 people would tell me, "Rush, let Clinton win, let him win and people see how rotten the Democrats are." I'm hearing the same thing now with Obamacare, let this happen, the American people will see. We've never pulled an entitlement back once it's been implemented. Once it's there it's there, and this is a huge one.

This changes the relationship, Obamacare does, between citizen and government and state like nothing ever has. Once they have this, health care is the way that they'll have legitimate -- claim it's constitutional -- control over every aspect of everybody's life because everything you do in your life has health care costs related to it. They're gonna be able to dictate what you eat, how you eat, where you eat, and what kind of health care you get or don't get as a result, and that's the objective of it is control, the limitation of individual liberty and freedom. And there's no push-back on this, and I'm sitting here stunned. The government shutdown argument, too, 1995, classic point. The Republicans won two seats in the Senate after '95 budget shutdown and didn't lose that many seats in the House.

In addition, because of the shutdown, they were able to set the table for policy that was good that came later. Welfare reform that Clinton ultimately signed. The government shutdown was not a debacle for the Republicans in reality. Now, it was on TV. It was in the media. The Republicans were accused of starving children. Remember that? Little kids in New Orleans are writing letters to Republicans, "Please, don't cut the school lunch program. I can't study if I'm hungry." There were no cuts in the school lunch program. There were actual increases. They were just not gonna be increases as high so they called it a cut.

RUSH: It's a typical -- baseline budget cut. But point is the media portrayed this as a debacle and absolute disaster for Republicans and Clinton cleaned Gingrich's clock. But, in reality, the Republicans won two seats, set the stage for some pretty good things that happened policy-wise after that. It's not a debacle to shut down the government. But here's the point. A majority of people oppose Obamacare. Whatever poll you look at, why does not the Republican Party want to embrace that.

I mean, the Republican Party's got a problem, right? They haven't won elections lately. The majority of the American people don't want this. Why doesn't the Republican Party embrace 'em, bring 'em in and try to grow and at least come up with a way to reach out and attach themselves to these people, a majority of voters. Instead, they're capitulating with what the Democrats want, and not just on this, but on immigration, amnesty, whatever you want to call it. I swear, for the longest time I didn't understand it because I was looking at it the wrong way.

GRETA: And straight ahead, Rush Limbaugh has much more to say. And why is Rush dead set against compromise in Washington? And does he have a better idea to fix the country? Rush will tell you, and also guess who Rush admires in the Republican Party? You have to hear his answer. Our sit-down interview with Rush Limbaugh continues next.

GRETA: Why does Rush Limbaugh say he gets so much grief even from Republicans? Once again, here's Rush Limbaugh.

RUSH: The Republican Party wants a new base. They just... The Republican leadership isn't conservative. They're not particularly crazy about conservatives. I mean, I'm a fairly prominent media conservative. I get more grief than the Taliban gets. I get more grief than Al-Qaeda gets. And all conservatives do because we do constitute a threat to the way Washington views the country. And I don't think it's so much conservative versus liberal, although it is. But it's Washington versus the rest of the country, is what's really transpiring now, and Washington has a mind-set and a desire for the country that doesn't dovetail with a majority of American people.

RUSH: I really don't know because politics is too unpredictable. There is anything that we're not even conceiving as possible -- a scandal or some such thing -- a that could happen which could cause people to start voting against Democrats in droves, regardless what the Republicans do. So it's dangerous to start predicting the demise of political parties and so forth, and I'm not doing that. I just sharing with you the sense I get, as a conservative after 25 years of doing this, on this show, and watching it all, and so much of it on the surface intellectually doesn't make any sense. There has to be a reason. These Republicans are not stupid. They have to know that agreeing with the Democrats on issue after issue after issue is gonna equal Democrat victory after victory after victory. So why are they doing it?

GRETA: Is there no room for negotiations, bipartisanship? I mean, is it just opposition?

GRETA: Between the two parties? I mean -- I mean, should there...? Are you suggesting Republicans shouldn't negotiate and have a bipartisan approach with Democrats?

RUSH: Well, yeah, pretty much, because I don't think we have anything in common with 'em. I mean, where's the commonality? I don't have anything in common with Obama policy-wise. Zilch, zero, nada. You know, compromise is portrayed as this wonderfully erudite and elite, superior form of existence. And too often what it means in Washington is that conservatives have to compromise their core in order to be considered nice people or what have you. I'm about defeating them, Greta, not compromising with them. They don't... Compromise is a one-way street. Why don't you...? Not you. Why doesn't the press ever ask Obama or any Democrats, "Well, why don't you compromise? Are you willing to compromise? What are you willing to give up?" It's always a one-way street: "What do the Republicans have to do to make something work? What do the Republicans have to change to make something work?" And the reason it works on the Republicans is they're shell-shocked. I mean the Republicans, you know, the image of racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe has taken hold. They think that's what people think of them. I think they've lost their confidence. I think they're nervous, I think they're scared, like everybody else: They want to be loved, and they have bought into this notion of why they're hated and disliked, they're trying to change that rather than defeat the people responsible for it all. I'm about defeating them, within the political arena of ideas. I'm not talking about anything of a deleterious nature. Just defeat them in the arena of ideas. I think our ideas will trump Obama's ideas every day, but he doesn't want our ideas on the table. He's not about ideas. He's brute force. Obama's about eliminating opposition, not working with it. So why should we help him? I think the Democrats are the people that need to be defeated. There's nothing about what they believe that I want to compromise with. I want to defeat it. Look, the country's hanging by a thread here, as founded. It's hanging by a thread. We're about to lose it.

RUSH: (heavy sigh) I admire any who are bold enough and brave enough to speak about what they truly believe. Ted Cruz is one. Sarah Palin is another. You know, any of them who are fearless and have the courage of their convictions and have no compunction about saying it. They're not embarrassed of themselves. They're not insecure. They firmly believe what has to be done and they're willing to stand behind it. Those are the people I admire.

RUSH: What are the chances those people would ever get a nomination in the Republican Party? Probably not big.

GRETA: Because they're outside the mainstream of Republican politics as you outlined it.

RUSH: Well, I don't think mainstream Republican politics can't be beat. I mean, there's a battle for the party going on. And, sure, it'd be a tough battle. But there's no other option. You don't want to go third party. That just ensures the Democrats are a majority party forever. You don't want to do that so you have to do what you can to work within the Republican Party to take it over. I think the right conservative candidate could score. Reagan did it. I know a lot of people say, "Will you stop talking about Reagan?" Reagan, there's only one of him. But Reagan is a real-life example of what could be done, and what happens when a prominent conservative triumphs. The country and the Democrat Party set out trying to revise history about him and destroy his reputation and image, and so forth. It's a never-ending battle. Greta, a lot of people are probably saying, "Why? Why are Republicans and conservatives so," for lack of a better word, "disliked?" The real battle, folks, that I think is going on is, on the one hand, the country is founded with liberty and freedom and the government as a servant, versus another view which says the government is all powerful and all everything, and it's the people who are servants. That's what the battle is right now. You know, I'll tell you an interesting little story, if I have time.

RUSH: I have time? A media person wrote a story on me about how I am losing. I am failing. Obama's been elected twice. My radio audience wouldn't crack the top 10 of TV shows and so forth. I said, "Look at how I'm being measured. I'm a guy on the radio. I'm being measured against people who can give people health care, who can give people tax cuts, who can give people food stamps, who can give people cell phones." I can't give anybody anything! I can't give 'em food; I can't give 'em cell phones; I can't give 'em a tax break. I can't do anything for anybody like Obama can. The Democrats can buy as many votes as they want, and Republicans who want to get in on that game can, too. I can't. Why am I being measured against politicians who have real power? I don't have any power. I'm a zilch, zero, nada guy on the radio. I'm in the arena of ideas, and I try to do as entertaining a show as I can. But this writer was gonna portray it as I failed. I've bombed out. I have seen my better days. Obama's beating me left and right. It's not... I'm a guy on the radio! But why are they putting me in this arena? Why is a guy on the radio being measured against people who have their hands on a budget of $3 trillion? The reason is, I happen to be an articulate spokesman of the opposing point of view, and whenever there's an articulate spokesman of the opposing point of view -- which is government first, last, and always -- that spokesman's gotta be discredited, taken down. It's a massive fight. The forces that believe government should be the center of everybody's universe are massive and big. The Democrat Party wants government to use it as a weapon against their enemies. I mean, the idea they want to use it to help people? Look at the people they've been "helping" for 50 years, 30 years, they're in no better shape that when the Democrats first took 'em under their wing. But under Reagan and conservative governors and so forth, people prospered economically. They triumph and they overcome odds because they're turned loose and they're not shackled by government laws, power, government, controls and of what have you. But the forces of government control are massive and large and they can buy votes and they can buy goodies and they can play Santa Claus. I can't.

GRETA: In the arena of ideas, what would you do to solve a problem like Detroit, or even something bigger, like the incredible growing class of poor people?

RUSH: Okay, Detroit. The first thing you gotta do is analyze what really happened there. Why did it go wrong? Now, there are some obvious things. The city has been run by Democrats unchecked since... I think the last Republican mayor was 1957, okay? That town has been a Petri dish of everything the Democrat Party stands for, everything the Democrat Party loves: Massive unions, massive pensions, pay people pensions and health care long after they've stopped working. The math doesn't add up. You have massive warfare states where citizens are given things left and right in order to buy their votes. You had no opposition whatsoever. Then in the case of Detroit, you throw race into the mix, and you bring on Mayor Coleman Young, who causes riots in 1967 in Detroit. Mayor Young caused a "white flight" to suburbia and Detroit is left with nothing but liberal Democrats running it. It is what it is, and anyplace in this country that has similar circumstances, the same fate is gonna happen to 'em. Now, what was your other thing about poverty, how to bring people out?

GRETA: Poverty, yeah, because LBJ said the War on Poverty, we're gonna have legislation to try to eradicate it. Poverty's growing. It's not getting better. There are a lot of people suffering.

RUSH: Yeah, imagine that. And it's been the number-one issue of the Democrat Party out of their mouths for... Well, since 1964, when LBJ first started to care about poverty. Percentage-wise, there are the same number of people. In fact, under Obama, it's gotten worse. Four out of five American families are experiencing poverty. Nine million jobs have been lost since Obama took office. Nine million! They're just gone.

RUSH: Because of his policies. Well, the arena of ideas? This is where the Republican Party's understand standing up. They're not pushing back. They're not articulating what is the opposite to this. One of the things... You can point to successful people all over the country. No matter how successful, there are different levels of it. You point to 'em. How'd they do it? That's all you have to look at: How did they do it? Well, there are recipes. They cared. They worked hard. They had ambition. They learned what they had to learn. Some of them might have had connections here and there, nobody does everything by themselves. But you're certainly not gonna eradicate poverty by creating dependency! Santa Claus is not a cure for poverty. It isn't gonna happen. All it is, is a way to buy votes. That's why the Democrats want amnesty. See, the Democrat Party needs a permanent underclass. They need a certain level of poverty. They need a certain level of uneducated, hopeless, unskilled people to vote for them. That's their base! In a normal economy, as those people escape the bonds of poverty and rise to the middle class and become more self-reliant, they don't need Santa Claus. They don't need the Democrats. So they start voting other ways. Hello, amnesty! We've got 11 million illegals here, and by polling data alone, eight million of 'em are gonna vote Democrat the minute they're given the chance. That's why all this talk about solidarity with Hispanics and compassion and the wonders and beauties of immigration, it's all BS. The Democrat Party needs a permanent underclass. They're salivating at all those eight million, or more, votes.

Now, you might say, "But, Rush, the immigration bill that's being debated doesn't grant them the right to vote for 14 years." You know what's gonna happen if this thing becomes law, amnesty, whatever it is, "pathway to citizenship" we "bring them out of the shadows." About five hours after that happens, Chuck Schumer's gonna go to the nearest camera and talk about how unfortunate and unfair and how lacking in compassion it is, that we have just told these people they're on the "pathway to citizenship," but they can't vote. "And we've gotta do something about that," and they're be gonna be able to vote within six months after this thing, because that's what is cared about. On the Republican side, unfortunately, there is this thinking that there's certain work that people simply won't do that needs to be done. The American people, Democrat voters have become conditioned to not working. Look at poverty. You brought it up. Look at poverty in this country. Everybody out of work is eating. They got big-screen TVs, probably have a car, probably have a cell phone that they're using, and they got a place to live. Being out of work is not poverty. The Democrats have taken care of that. And so there is a complacency among a lot of the unemployed, and Republicans will tell you, "Hey, we need an influx of potential laborers because the American people are being conditioned more and more not to work." I think it's a bit of an extreme analysis, but it is true that the unemployed are eating for 99-plus weeks and they're watching big-screen TV or some kind of TV.

GRETA: Straight ahead, the Q&A you would never expect. What did we ask Rush Limbaugh about President Obama and what did Rush say? You have to hear this next.

GRETA: I see the education system in this country as on such a downward spiral, and I see poverty growing.

GRETA: And I know from my own experience that, you know, these families in these terrible urban areas want their children to grow up and have a lot of chance, and it looks grim, it looks horrible, and I'm trying to think, "How do we get ourselves out of it?" It's getting worse, not better.

RUSH: Well, the first thing that has to happen -- you know, rather than prejudge my answer -- you've got to stop electing Democrats. The Democrat Party is responsible for this. This is what the Democrat Party derives its power from. This is what it feeds off of. They run the education system. You just described it, and you're exactly right. You just described it. They're not teaching. They're indoctrinating. They're turning little, young skulls full of mush into loyal, rabid liberal Democrats who are being trained to also hate and despise conservatives and Republicans. It's all part of the mix.

RUSH: I have no idea. I don't know him. I've never spoken to him. I don't know how to read those kind of tea leaves just watching him. All I can do is read what other people have written about he doesn't show up early or whatever. I've read people say that the job's beneath him. "He really needs to be running the world, to be challenged, to be invigorated. The United States is chump change. He needs the United Nations. He needs to be running the whole shebang." I don't know what's true. I don't know whether he likes his job or not. I think he does and is relishing the opportunity to put into play what leftists have only dreamed about in faculty lounges for 50 to 75 years. I think he's thrilled with the opportunity he has to transform America and move it away from this unjust, immoral way it was founded and make it fair for everybody. I mean, whatever he's trying to do to it, I do think he's probably obsessed and very absorbed with that. Whether he likes getting up and going to work every day and dealing? I don't think he likes having opposition, because it's beneath him. He doesn't want to negotiate with Republicans, wipe 'em out -- in the political sense. Just get rid of 'em. That's his modus operandi. So I don't think he likes the process, like Dukakis did.

GRETA: We asked Rush Limbaugh what he thinks about the acquittal of George Zimmerman.

RUSH: I was shocked, to tell you the truth. I was surprised by it. I thought the makeup of the jury and the condition of American pop culture and the fear of civil unrest would cause the jury to say, "You know what? Let's come up with some form of guilty and get outta here." I was really proud. They looked at the evidence and said this case has been overcharged and the prosecution didn't prove anything. The defense ended up proving it. So I was happy about it, but I was prepared for a verdict that had nothing to do with the law simply because of the forces, the pervasive forces out there have been trying to gin people up, and the sheriff's office running PSAs, "Please don't riot!" That's like saying, "Please don't think pink." What are you thinking? There were people who were subtly, in a subconscious way, encouraging civil unrest, and I thought the jury would be aware of that. It's a small town. Sanford is a small town. Who wants to live in that kind of circumstance? I thought they'd just say, "The simplest way to get rid of this is come up with a little bit... What's one guy?" But they didn't. So it was really, I think, uplifting.

GRETA: Who do you admire in Republican politics, and why?

RUSH: (heavy sigh) I admire any who are bold enough and brave enough to speak about what they truly believe. Ted Cruz is one. Sarah Palin is another. You know, any of them who are fearless and have the courage of their convictions and have no compunction about saying it. They’re not embarrassed of themselves. They’re not insecure. They firmly believe what has to be done and they’re willing to stand behind it. Those are the people I admire.

[Article, quoting Rush]
The Republican Party's decided that capitulation with the Democrats seems to be the ongoing strategy. And by capitulation, I had a guy call me yesterday talking about this ongoing fight to defund Obamacare, the continuing resolution fight and so forth, and this caller took the exact viewpoint of inside-the-Beltway Republicans, which is that might involve a government shutdown, and we can't shut down government because the country will hate us, and they cite 1995. And look what happened to Republicans after 1995. No, let's go ahead and let Obamacare be fully implemented, and it will implode on itself, and people will see how bad it is.

The money quote.

I would not be surprised to learn the caller was a GOP-E plant, spreading their line around -- but their line isn't why they're doing this stuff.

I think the GOP-E's goal is to preserve Obamacare because it offers, strategically (see Howard Raines, Oct. 2008 Conde Nast Portfolio), the chance for the Fortune 500 companies to dump employer-paid health care forever, put the People on their own resources, and flow those monies to their own (bonusable) bottom line. That's their goal, to which end it can no longer be said that the idea that they would deliberately throw two national elections is ridiculous.

I think that that agenda is the talisman that unlocks the riddle of GOP-E behavior that Rush is talking about.

The GOP-E doesn't care about whether Obamacare works, or implodes, or flies to the moon. What they care about is getting rid of private employee health care for good, and sauve qui peut.

For all the site Rush haters who claim that he's part of GOP system and hated the "Tea Party":

The consultants and the powers that be did everything they could to diminish the Tea Party. If I were the Republican Party, I would have embraced those people.

For all the Rush haters who claim that Rush is nothing but a shill for the GOP blue bloods:

Why doesn't the Republican Party embrace 'em,(the Tea Party members) bring 'em in and try to grow and at least come up with a way to reach out and attach themselves to these people, a majority of voters. The Republican leadership isn't conservative. They're not particularly crazy about conservatives.

Most of the BS comments from the Rush bashers are those who don't listen to him, as evidenced by their comments "I stopped listening to him ......yada, yada yada."

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.