RUSH: The Tea Party is Far from Dead -- in North Carolina or Anywhere Else

www.RushLimbaugh.com ^ | May 08, 2014 | Rush Limbaugh

[Yosemitest]

The Tea Party is Far from Dead --
in North Carolina or Anywhere Else
May 08, 2014

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Some election news out of North Carolina.
You know I don't get involved in primaries.
I never have gotten involved in primaries.
From my standpoint, it's always been a -- not losing proposition.
It's just policy-wise, basically driven by my instincts,
stay away from primaries.
So I didn't talk much about what was going on in North Carolina,
and there was a lot going on in North Carolina.

North Carolina is thought to hold the key election determining who will control the Senate, the Republicans or the Democrats, particularly the Kay Hagan race.
So there was a big election this past Tuesday, and there was a Tea Party candidate that a lot of people supported
who got handily defeated by what is considered to be an establishment toady.
And that may not be quite an accurate representation.

I know some Tea Party people.
The Tea Party, by the way, is not a party. It's a name.
The Tea Party is a coalition of grassroots activists that have just come together.
There is no official Tea Party.
They're idea people and they're not totally unified on everything,
but they're identifiable as people who are fed up with the establishment of both parties, including the Republican Party.

They're fed up with the spending.
They're fed up with out of-control-Washington.
They're fed up with growth of government.
They're fed up with that.
This Senate race in North Carolina, I talked to a lot of people who would call themselves Tea Party people or sympathizers
who were not particularly in favor of the supposed Tea Party candidate there.
But that's not the race in North Carolina that's really explanatory.

The media is taking that Senate race in North Carolina and, predictably, they're running with the news
that the Tea Party's dead,
that it doesn't exist,
that all these powerful people came out and endorsed this candidate,
and they went down in flames.

It's the end of Ted Cruz.
It's the end of Mike Lee.
You Tea Party people may as well just give up and either join the Republican Party establishmentor

shut up and go home.
I mean, that's the tenor of the coverage, and it's actually quite different.

There happened to be another election in North Carolina on Tuesday that is far more representative than the Senate race was.
And that was North Carolina Third District, where the incumbent is a Republican, Walter Jones.
The Democrats and the establishment types in the Republican Party went in there,
there was a combined one million dollars spent on a single district race
to get rid of the 20-year incumbent, Walter Jones,
and they failed.
And that is the true indicator of the strength of the Tea Party
and of, I would say, the weakness of the establishment.

The Republican establishment wanted to get rid of Walter Jones
because he went against the leadership on the debt limit vote
and a couple of other really defining things.
So the leadership, quite naturally, was out to get him.
The Democrats piled on, they wanted his seat, and it went up in flames.
Walter Jones held on.
Let me read you an account.

"In a race that saw big outside money spent by 'independent groups,' the Washington establishment suffered a defeat.
I am not talking about the GOP primary for the US Senate race to face Sen. Kay Hagan,
which, by the end, was not really competitive."

This is Francis De Luca, by the way, writing the piece here in Civitas.

"I am talking about the 3rd Congressional District in eastern North Carolina.
The incumbent, Rep. Walter Jones Jr., defeated challenger Taylor Griffin in a race that saw Griffin’s D.C. and New York allies independently spend more than a million dollars to defeat Jones.


This does not count the money Griffin was able to raise for his campaign from the same well-connected crowd of insiders, enabling him to out raise Jones in the final reporting period.
By the way, a million dollars goes a long way
in the Eastern North Carolina media market."

That's a lot of money for one district.
And I'll guarantee you Walter Jones was supported by Tea Party voters, and he won.


"Proportionally, more money was spent in the 3rd District primary than was spent on the US Senate primary
when compared to candidate spending.
The disparity is even greater when you factor in the cost of the 3rd District media market versus the cost of statewide media buys.
This is not an indictment of independent expenditures or of more money in campaigns.
In fact, campaign spending of all types is good -- it drives turnout.
In the 3rd District, the turnout was up over 60 percent from the primary in 2010.
That meant voters learned more about both candidates,
and they preferred the incumbent to the Washington insider."

The incumbent, again, had fallen out with the Republican leadership, Walter Jones.
"Why did this race attract such big money in a primary?"
when everybody was focused on the Senate race?
By the way, Kay Hagan doesn't have a prayer, I don't think. But it's early.
Too much of anything can happen, but as I say, this November is gonna be huge.
If just half of the lies of Obamacare had been known, this wouldn't be a wave election.
We'd be talking about the Democrat Party funeral.
It's one of the up sides there is in all of this.

"Why did this race attract such big money in a primary?
Walter Jones is a 20-year incumbent, first getting elected to Congress in 1994 after having served multiple terms in the state legislature.Jones has had a record that can best be described as independent.
He is solidly conservative on social issues."
A social issues conservative WON !
They tell you that can't be done, either.
"He has opposed increasing the debt limit and the bailouts Congress passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis."

So he's conservative on the financial side as well.
This last, by the way, is why the leadership is unhappy with him.
"What appears to be his biggest flaw to his colleagues in D.C. (but not his voters) was his falling out with the House leadership.
This resulted in his being removed from his seat on the Financial Services Committee.
He was one of several GOP members removed from committee assignments immediately after the 2012 elections,"
'cause he was considered to be -- well, not traitorous,
but he had strayed from the shackles of the leadership.

"The 2014 campaign against Jones looks like an attempt to send a message to other potential House GOP --"
this is what's key about it.
We're told that the Tea Party House Republicans don't have a prayer because of what happened in this Senate race.
We're told the media's got the Tea Party buried
and these Tea Party House freshmen and other young Turks that are Tea Party,
"You guys, your days are gone, the Tea Party's finished."
And the point here is
that this campaign against Walter Jones looked like an attempt to send a message to other potential Republican renegades,
that the leadership and the D.C. establishment could come after you
and beat you,
and they did,
but they didn't.

They came after Walter Jones with big money, and they failed.
And I think that race is a little bit more indicative,
A, of the strength of the Tea Party,
B, public moods and attitudes, and a predictor of future elections in North Carolina
than what happened in that Senate primary.
The establishment's guy in North Carolina,
Tillis I think was his name,
he didn't even get 50%, with all the backing that the D.C. establishment and the consultant class,
he didn't even get 50%.
It was pretty split.

"The other interesting story in this election battle was the fascination of the media and lobbyists in D.C. with this race.
This probably is a direct result of Griffin’s having operated in the bureaucratic, media and communications circles in D.C."
So don't allow yourself to be deflated by whatever the media coverage is out of North Carolina.
It's not all bad.
And, in fact, there are a whole lot of positives to take from it, if you are inclined to want to take a positive.
Some people think that's missing reality and so forth.
But I'm telling you, they came after Walter Jones BIG TIME
'cause he just angered the leadership,
and they threw a DC establishment inside-the-Beltway guy at him,
and the Republican establishment was aligned WITH the Democrats trying to get rid of Walter Jones,
and THEY BOTH FAILED,
with a million dollars, in a SINGLE congressional race.


Walter Jones,
known for bucking the leadership on the debt limit.
Known to be a prominent social conservative.
Violated every tenet.
There's no way this guy should have won.
If America has become what they want you to believe it has, there was no way Walter Jones wins, and he did.

END TRANSCRIPT

Related Links


• Civitas: DC GOP Establishment Flops in NC - Francis De Luca
  
  
• CBS: Tillis Wins GOP Nod To Challenge Democrat Hagen For Senate Seat
  
  

[Yosemitest]

BRAVO, Rush!
VERY WELL SAID !
God Bless You and yours.

"Establishment Republicans", stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
We're getting you OUT of D.C., no matter how much you spend.

[weezel]

I’m in NC, and I couldn’t tell that the Tea Party didn’t want Tillis. The ONLY ads I saw against him were the idiotic ones run by dim-0s about.................Thom Tillis shared an apartment with an aide and the aide was having an affair!!!!!!!!!

[C. Edmund Wright]

RUSH is partly wrong on this…Walter Jones is hardly Tea Party - less Tea Party than his opponent Taylor Griffin - who had the local TP endorsements in this race. His research here just totally wrong.

The Jones race is not classic estab v tea Party. Neither candidate fits the entire mold, but Jones is more liberal on more issues than Griffin by far. Sarah Palin and the local Tea Parties agree. Rush stepped in deep do do on this one.

His bigger point, that the TP isn’t dead, I agree with….but NC 3 does not prove it at all.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Well, let’s not forget that Hagan groups ran ads almost blaming Tillis for Obama Care - which is ironic.

Fact is, Tillis had a lot of money, and he’s not been that bad of a Speaker. Brannon was by far the best man for the job, but his campaign had some problems - and Tillis ran a very good organized campaign.

[C. Edmund Wright]

In fact, the more I think about this, the more irritated and disappointed in Rush I am.

Jones is a 9-11 Truther…..he’s in favor of raising the minimum wage…..his rankings on all the conservative rating groups has been going down down down over the past decade. He is certainly the most liberal Republican in the House from the South. He’s just awful. The local Tea Party groups know it, and so did Palin, who endorsed Griffin. SHAME on Rush for this mistake.

As an aside, I know enough about show prep to know how this kind of mistake could have been made.

[PeteB570]

Even with the big push from the GOP-e Tillis only got 45% of the primary vote. That means 55% voted against him.

Jones won his primary even with the big push from the GOP-e to get him out.

So I’d say Tea Party ideals are still kicking the GOP-e’s shins around here.

[gusty]

I could be wrong, but wasn’t Walter Jones one of the few GOP reps who joined the Democrat surrender crowd in regards to Iraq back during the Bush administration.

[Theophilus]

I've always seen the Tea Party as an event, a protest, a convulsion, maybe a national death throe but never an institution that can be co-opted by politicians, the media, Rush or anyone else.

But if Matt Bevin does not defeat McConnell in KY, the Republican Party, for all intents and purposes, will be dead to me and my voter registration will reflect that the day after.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Yes, Jones is frankly an erratic idiot….. Idoubt his IQ is over 85, literally.

He’s all over the place. Boehner doesn’t like him, but neither do any Tea Party conservatives who know what he’s about.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Well you have the right to make your own choices, but since you admit that the Tea Party cannot be co opted by any one person or group of persons, why don’t you apply thgat logic to the GOP and not let McConnell or Rove or Barbour run you out of the party of Palin, Limbaugh, Cruz, Levin?

Apply your lesson BOTH WAYS. You will be forced to submit to the socialist if they get theri way….just sayin…..

[C. Edmund Wright]

I said I agree with the bigger point Rush was making, but this is my territory, I know the players, and the following are facts:

There was no big GOP e push to get Jones out. There was some, but not big. Don’t believe Jone’s ad material.

Jones is the most liberal Republican from the south, period. The TP and Palin opposed him. That’s why he only won 51%. He lost every county but his hometown county.

Tillis was pushed to the right by Brannon, and frankly, Tillis is not as bad as some of the folks who supported him, like Rove. The NC House under his speakership has been good, not great, but good. They have pushed Gov MCCrory to the right.

Just some thoughts here.

[ExCTCitizen]

Tellis will be better than Kay Hagan, so let’s united behind him.

[Buckeye McFrog]

All Tuesday proves is that the GOPe has successfully jiggered the election process in a number of states.

[Biggirl]

Good news, “Operation American Spring” is coming to D.C. a week from today!

[Biggirl]

Thank-you Rush!

[deport]

US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DISTRICT 03 - REP (VOTE FOR 1)
Precincts Reported: 241 of 241

NAME ON BALLOT	PARTY	BALLOT COUNT	PERCENT
Walter Jones	REP	22,534	50.91 %
Taylor Griffin	REP	19,937	45.05 %
Al (Big Al) Novinec	REP	1,788	4.04 %

[Servant of the Cross]

In fact, the more I think about this, the more irritated and disappointed in Rush I am.

You have a first hand perspective on both this N.C. 3 congressional race AND show prep. I trust your sense of this.

However, at least Rush does have the BIG point right - the Tea Party MOVEMENT is alive!

... The Tea Party, a movement, a name, a coalition of grassroots activists that have just come together, no official Tea Party ... they're idea people and they're not totally unified on everything, but they're identifiable as people who are fed up with the establishment of both parties, including the Republican Party.

And due to this somewhat subjective definition, WHO is a Tea Party movement candidate is a very elusive thing. A lot of times and races no candidate fits the perfect mold. Some candidates may be embraced by both the establishment and the TP, correctly or not so. And a wide variety of candidates will get "defined" as Tea Party, rightly or wrongly too. So informed candidates and voters need to pay clear attention to a candidate's record and what they stand for. For example, Todd Akin was NOT the Tea Party candidate although that lie, spoken by the establishment and liberals, has circled the world numeral times now.

And as you point out, Walter Jones is not TP. And identifying Jones' record should have been very easy for Rush's show prep. Evidently, the desire to find an example of a TP win was just too great that he settled for such a poor example.

[C. Edmund Wright]

And as you point out, Walter Jones is not TP. And identifying Jones' record should have been very easy for Rush's show prep. Evidently, the desire to find an example of a TP win was just too great that he settled for such a poor example.

Yes, well SOTC, we both know of a former key member of show prep who no longer does it, and that person would have certainly caught this. The better example would be that the actual TP backed candidate almost beat Jones, a 22 year incumbent, to make Rush' point - or that Tillis was moved way right by Brannon in order to win, as a show of TP strength at least philosophically.

As to your other point, there's a misguided effort on the part of some, Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter, somewhat Rush and others - to now define TP as simply a pro deport them all now organization - and to characterize anyone who is NOT deport them all now as "pro amnesty." That's absurd of course.

That's not the case. Rural Tea Party groups dependent on migrant workers are not this way at all. Rush knows, and has stated many times on air, that mass deportation is simply not possible. Why he then byes into the Ingraham/coulter line of thinking on this is just beyond me. He needs that other filter….

[Yosemitest]

I'm confused.

"SOTC" equals "Slightly Off Topic Comment" ? ? ?

Or did you mean something else ?

And "byes" equals "buys" ?

[PeteB570]

NC is my territory also.