Rick's Cringe-Worthy Team Player Moment

Rush Limbaugh. com ^ | February 23, 2012 | Rush Limbaugh

[Kaslin]

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Santorum is getting creamed. I cringed when I heard him say this. Santorum is getting creamed for the team player comment. Now, let me explain that to you, because I have on this program several times.

This is not a defense of Santorum. In fact, if you look at the first hour last night of that debate, all of that inside baseball talk about earmarks and Title X, I don't even know what title X is, folks, and I am an expert in this stuff, and I don't even know what Title X is. Then they start talking about Title XX, and I don't know what Title XX is. I had to go look this stuff up. So it's very inside baseball, but here's the thing. Of all of the things said in the first hour there's one guy that appeared as though he had nothing to do with Inside Washington stuff, and that's Romney. If you had just landed from Mars and you tune in that debate, and you are of the opinion that we need an outsider, Romney appeared to be the outsider. Romney appeared to be the guy that had no roots in Washington. In fact, Romney doesn't have a federal record. Everybody else does. Santorum does, Newt does, Paul does. Romney doesn't.

Romney is immune to any criticism. There isn't any. He hasn't done anything in the federal level. He is outside it. Santorum, Newt, Paul, all look like insiders. And, of course, in every primary season, base voters claim to want an outsider and you have all these people during the course of a campaign trying to make it sound like they are the outsiders. Even though they've lived there 30 years, they're the outsiders. Santorum looked like an insider. Newt did, too. Nothing they coulda done about it. This is not a criticism. This is an observation that redounds to Romney's favor, if anybody's watching it in that context.

Look at the questions that were not asked. There wasn't one single question about the gasoline price. And nobody brought it up. There wasn't one question asked about Obama's plans to reduce our nuclear arsenal by 80%. Some people tried to bring it up, but there wasn't a question about it. They're in Arizona. There wasn't one question about Fast and Furious. Joe Arpaio is in the audience, the sheriff of Maricopa County. Not one question. In fact, there wasn't one question to these guys about Obama. There might have been a couple of scattered, but the moderator, John King, did everything he could to keep this away from anything to do with Obama. There was not one question about No Child Left Behind and Obama's recent waivers, even though they're talking about No Child Left Behind and what kind of screw ups these Republicans had made with No Child Left Behind. There wasn't one question about Obama's waivers that he's been granting for it. Or the waivers for Obamacare, et al, in toto.

If you look back, there have been precious few questions about Obama. And what does that lead to? That leads to, psychologically, the assumption that our economic circumstances now are the norm, a new normal. And what are they? We have 13 million Americans unemployed. We have 46 million Americans on food stamps. We have nearly 30% of mortgage holders underwater. This is the new norm. It didn't get discussed much. Now, understand, this is the last debate, and this is when the guys hit each other with bare knuckles and fisticuffs. But back to Santorum and the team player business. I know what he was trying to say and I know what he's doing.

What he's trying to do is be brazenly, blatantly, up-front, honest as a means of distinguishing himself and his candidacy. What he meant by, "Look, I voted all these times. I was a team player," is: We had a Republican president, and all of us were practically forced to go along with all of his proposals and all of his spending; otherwise there would have been cracks in party unity; we would have had to deal with those allegations and charges. There was already enough criticism of Bush going on.

It wasn't, if you'll recall, until 2007 when the House Republicans finally stood up and said, "No more," to immigration. I remember on this program I'd get calls from people just ripping the House Republicans from one end of the room to the other for all the spending, and I said, "They're a little caught between a rock and a hard place here. Their president is the one proposing it!" Tom DeLay. To this day, if you run into Tom DeLay, he will tell you that the Medicare entitlement is the best thing that he did as a member of Congress. He will tell you that, and we don't do entitlements! The Republican Party doesn't do entitlements. But we did. Was that Medicare Part B, D, whatever, I forget. Title X, Title XX, title 69?

I don't know what they are. It was Medicare part something or another, the new entitlement, prescriptions or something. Anyway, the White House really wanted it, and if you talk to him -- even to this day -- DeLay will tell you, "No, no, it's good." He's argued with me about it when I mentioned it to him any number of times. "That contains private sector reforms. That is something that's gonna be great." To this day, they sing the praises of it. But there was pressure brought to bear from the highest levels of the White House to all these Republicans. Santorum finally gave up. You know, look, you're in close proximity. You are now the perceived front-runner. Everybody's aiming at you.

After a while, you get sick and tired of defending yourself 'cause you know that doesn't sound good. You know that doesn't look good. And, by the way, let that be a lesson to you. People have called here and asked, "Rush, why don't you respond to all this stuff?" I said, "Once you start, you never stop. Once you start defending against all these charges, that's all you are is on defense and nobody ever won anything defending it," and I direct your attention to last night. Now, Santorum had very little he coulda done about it, other than stop talking about some of these things a little sooner than he did. But what he was trying to do here on the team player business was simply say, "Look, I was just being loyal to my president."

That's what the Specter endorsement was, and this is why people got so ticked off at politics in 2006. "Look, if you can't stand up for principle, if you gotta follow the party wherever it takes you, then what good is that?" But Santorum was simply being a good soldier. What's his name, Specter, was the incumbent and was from Santorum's state. The rule book says: "You endorse the incumbent. He's a Republican. It doesn't matter what else he is." That's the rule book. Santorum was simply trying to explain to people, "Look, I was a loyal foot soldier. I was a team player." It didn't go well with what he's trying to break out and become.

It was situation where he's between a rock and a hard place, and has everybody gunning at him. I think the "team player" thing probably is offered at that point in time where he just felt frustrated by it. "Okay, I was just being a team player, okay? Let's leave it at that." I heard it, I looked at Kathryn, and I said, "There's gonna be hell to pay for that one," 'cause I knew that Santorum opponents, both from the left and right, were gonna harp on it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: It's one of the problems, by the way, that senators and members of Congress who run for president have: They've got voting records. Romney does not have one. So Romney cannot be hit on his voting record. Romney cannot be criticized on anything that he's done in Washington 'cause he hasn't done anything in Washington, other than help design Obamacare, which... (laughing) I know, I know!

Romneycare was 70 pages, Obamacare is 2700 pages, but Romney's got his advisers out there saying that's what happened. I'm just having a little fun with you, folks. But by the same token, Santorum has got a record, and Newt's got a record. They voted for things. And as you heard last night... Did you hear Santorum trying to defend his votes? "Well, sometimes it's an appropriations bill and another thing has to pass, and you vote for it." It doesn't play well, but that's the way it goes. It doesn't sound good. It sounds like he's making an excuse. Here's a guy who's supposed to have courage, talk about his leadership, but he votes to go along with his party.

Members of Congress, how much stuff do they vote for they don't even read, as we learned about Obamacare? This is one of the inherent risks that you run. (interruption) Oh, I'm told I'm wrong here. It's not just voting records. It's when you're in Congress you have to work with the team, and this is what Santorum was trying to say, and just being blatantly honest. He's the whip in the Senate; he is supposed to round up the votes for his president. But when you get into this degree (even with me now) of trying to explain it, it sounds defensive. It sounds like you're making excuses. Even though you can adopt a tone that perhaps, at its optimum, is educational (Look, I've gotta teach you a little bit how things work...) it still sounds defensive no matter what.

No matter what you say, how you say it, at the end of the day when you are being criticized for the way you voted -- and the way you voted contradicts what you're saying on the trail -- and then you start to explain why, and he says, "Well, you know, I had to! I'm a team player. The president wanted this to pass." Where do you go with it? It's an unenviable position to be in. My only point is, Romney has an advantage in that nobody can go at him in that way because he's never been in the federal system. He does not have a voting record. And, to his credit, he made good use of the advantage last night. I mean, if you're a Romney fan, you gotta be saying that this alliance with Ron Paul is brilliant campaign strategery. I mean, it's a brilliant tactic. Go for it, bro! Best to you. People are gonna have opinions on this from all sides of it.

END TRANSCRIPT

[CainConservative]

Being the father of RomneyCare’s individual mandate trumps all.

Ask Missouri, Minnesota, Colorado, Iowa, and Michigan SO FAR.

[cotton1706]

Yup, Santorum fell for the establishment line that Specter must be protected, because Orrin Hatch or Jeff Sessions if chairman of the Judiciary Committee, would not be able to get Bush’s Supreme Court nominees through. And it was nonsense.

Specter did get Roberts and Alito through, but did everything possible to delay, and prevent lower conservative judges from getting through the committee the floor.

With Specter or Leahy, either way a liberal was in charge of the Judiciary Committe, and would thus thwart conservatives from getting on the bench.

And once Santorum was used to get Specter safely reelected, he was thrown to the wolves. None of the moderates came out to save him in 2006.

Romney was right. Specter was a turncoat who should have been gone. But Romney’s no better.

[no dems]

Last night, poor Rick Santorum was just not well-prepared. And his “take one for the team” comment almost made me change the channel; I was so embarrassed for the guy. He had a chance to break-away last night and didn’t. Hopefully, Newt will rise again.

[livius]

Poor Baby Tim. I’m embarrassed for conservatives every time he opens his mouth.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

He vass just following zee orders.

[anglian]

"No matter what you say, how you say it, at the end of the day when you are being criticized for the way you voted -- and the way you voted contradicts what you're saying on the trail -- and then you start to explain why, and he says, "Well, you know, I had to! I'm a team player."

Santorum's plans on his website.

Enforcing immigration and labor laws including through employer verification including an E-Verify system that is simple, reliable, and protects businesses.

_____________

His record from NumbersUSA: In his answers to all the immigration questions this past year, we cannot find any record of Santorum showing support for E-Verify. Santorum’s Senate record shows lack of support for E-Verify. And he has failed in all debate opportunities to show a changed position.

[anglian]

I saw he was asked a question about the Syrian rebels?, yet his all about Iran.

[anglian]

I saw he was asked a question about the Syrian rebels?, yet his ‘answer’ was all about Iran.

[no dems]

Poor Baby Tim. I’m embarrassed for conservatives every time he opens his mouth.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Who is Tim?

[xzins]

The whole omnibus bill thing is the problem.

And Santorum got caught right in the middle of it. To his credit, he simply acknowledged it without trying to dodge his vote. To his detriment, it did include the funding for Planned Parenthood.

But, an omnibus bill must pass both the House and the Senate. It’s not just Senators who vote yes on these things. There are plenty of votes from those in the House, too.

Since there are 2 house members running, Gingrich and Paul, they have confronted omnibus bills in the past, too. Wonder if they voted against all of them?

Paul might have but only after he loaded them with pork knowing that they were going to pass despite his lonely nay vote.

Gingrich also must have voted for these things from time to time. It is inevitable with divided government, and especially with the Senate requiring a 60 vote majority to lock out the opposition party.

[Graewoulf]

Politicians judge themselves by what they say, and voters judge politicians by what they do. (Should have thought of that before you filed for Office, Rick).

BTW, not to change the subject, but what has Romney EVER actually done that is even “slightly” Conservative?

BTW, BTW, are the training wheels starting to come off the RINO twins?

BTW, BTW, BTW Newt: git y’ur spurs ON!

[Crucial]

Tim is time. Just ask Jim.

[Crucial]

Tim is Tim. Just ask Jim.

[Graewoulf]

Rush: “ - - - Romney cannot be criticized on anything that he’s done in Washington ‘cause he hasn’t done anything in Washington - - - - “

Wrong again, Rush. Romney tipped his hand last night when he said that he would “examine every program - - - and send IN A BLOCK GRANT back to the States - - - programs such as Medicare - - “.

In other words Rush, Romney is not going to reduce anything, but just send the programs and the Federal, (read my Grandchildrens), money to the States. That is what Romney is going to do in Washington.

More of the same times 50, with Romney in charge of 50 Nanny States, plus the District of Corruption.

BTW Rush, your job IS to criticize, so listen and learn.

[Bailee]

“What he meant by, “Look, I voted all these times. I was a team player,” is: We had a Republican president, and all of us were practically forced to go along with all of his proposals and all of his spending; otherwise there would have been cracks in party unity; we would have had to deal with those allegations and charges. There was already enough criticism of Bush going on”

BTW did GWB ever veto a spending bill before Nancy Pelosi became speaker of the house. If he did I am missing it.

I think this was the moment Santorum completely lost me.

I am not looking for a team player in the next President we absolutely have to get job creation, Immigration and spending under control no matter which party he has to piss off. Had Sainty been as determined about Economical responsibility as he is on the Rape Pregnancy abortion Issue I would be switching my vote to Santorum.

Regrettably he did not, therefore of the Four still running it is Newt as president for me or I sit home.

With Rick Perry for VP possibly but no Sainty.

Okay Flame away. I am tired of trying to be PC the candidates either need to step up to the plate and be presidential or stay home and quit making excuses.

[Steelfish]

Newt will rise again? But the polls tell a different story that his prospects were cremated after he could not shake off the $1.6m Fannie Mae albatross hanging around his neck and the idea of permanent moon-based colonies. Trailing Obama by 15 points in Gallup, losing the female vote by over 20-points, and with unfavorability ratings falling through the cellar, I think, like it or not, this is realistically a two-man race for the Republican nomination. Rush knows it, Mark Levin knows it, and primary voters know it.

[bigdirty]

How Romney gets a pass for Romneycare is insane. So big government is ok at the state level? Come on, really? 50 states with each their own Romneycare is basically Obamacare.

[Darth Reardon]

There are some who call me... 'Tim'?

[Buckeye McFrog]

so you’d rather nominate a guy like Brady Quinn?