January 6, 2006

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RUSH: This story came out yesterday. "Senate Democrats are considering a plan that could delay a committee vote on Samuel Alito's Supreme Court nomination for at least a week." This is being called a soft filibuster, and it's nothing. They know they can't defeat Alito. The purpose here is to try to gin up more negative stories. They can't defeat him on the merits. It's a time-honored technique Dingy Harry has used several times. The point here is to slow down "what could have been a quick confirmation for President Bush's pick to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter had hoped to hold a committee vote on Alito's nomination Jan. 17, a little over a week from Monday's start of the federal appellate judge's confirmation hearings."

Now, I guess Arlen could always move the date up, but no, no, no, no, can't do that, we have to have comity with the Democrats on the committee. They want to delay it for a week? I had to laugh, late yesterday we hear all these people on C-SPAN talking about Jack Abramoff and the lobbyists, "The Democrats don't have any power. The American people are going to understand it, yeah, Abramoff might have given money to Democrats, but the American people are going to realize the Democrats don't have any power, they can't slow down the confirmation hearings of Sam Alito, they can't affect them at all." They have so little power, they can't do anything. We should have had these hearings last fall. Yeah, they don't have any power. "Senate leadership aides said Thursday that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid told Majority Leader Bill Frist that Democrats would invoke their right to hold over the Alito committee vote for one week. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because the move had not been announced. "

Well, that didn't sit well with Dingy Harry. If it already isn't taking place, there's a conference call scheduled today among Senate Democrats to discuss their Alito hearing strategery. Senate minority leader Dingy Harry is said by aides to be "livid" that staff went public yesterday with his party's plans for a one-week delay. That conference call was supposed to take place this morning and it might have already taken place, and if it has, it won't be long before the results or the contents of that meeting start being leaked. The one-week delay is one of several strategeries that Dingy Harry is considering deploying, talking to Howard Dean, an outside Democrat activist. They wanted to fight Dingy Harry's listing of the people that want to fight. Apparently they've raised more than $15 million to fight Supreme Court nominations, and they were ready to spend it over the next month, but if Dingy Harry didn't delay the hearings, they wouldn't be able to spend the money, and they want the fight. Well, bring it on. We'll be glad to debate whatever they want to debate with Alito, be glad to watch their commercials and their lying, stinking whatever.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

I want to give three audio sound bites here on this Alito business, because Dingy Harry is all upset now that his carefully crafted plans have been leaked by his own staff or judiciary committee staff before they were official. Dingy Harry wanted to be the one to go out there and get all the glory, and it was leaked by anonymous staffers before it was ready to be announced. One of the reasons is that Howard Dean and MoveOn.org and all these kook crackpot outfits on the left have told Dingy Harry, "Don't give up on this guy like you gave up on Roberts. We're bankrolling you. We are your prime contributors, and we want an action fight on this." So Dingy, "Okay, okay, we'll delay it for a week and you can run your ads and so forth," knowing full well it isn't going to matter. In fact, it's going to hurt because it's going to make these people even more obvious kooks, and it's going to give the opportunity for blabber mouths, people with utter diarrhea of the mouth like Chuck Schumer, more opportunity to poop verbally all over us, such as this.

SCHUMER: If Judge Alito stonewalls at the hearings, he could very well jeopardize his nomination.

RUSH: Ooh, I'm scared.

SCHUMER: His obligation to answer questions on these issues is certainly greater than John Roberts', because he's spoken out more on these issues.

RUSH: Wait a minute, stop, stop, stop. Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is why I say that the offering, the oral utterances of Senator Schumer are verbal poop, diarrhea. Wasn't it Chuck Schumer and his gang that said Roberts, because he hadn't written so much, because there wasn't much of a paper trail, because he's only been in the appellate circuit, appellate court for a year or two, well, we're not going to sit there and take no for an answer. He's got to really let fly. He's gotta answer these questions, he's gotta be thorough, he's gotta answer these questions more thoroughly than any nominee ever has because of his lack of a record. Now here comes Alito with a lifetime of a record, and the same guy, Chuck Schumer, says he's gotta answer more thoroughly than any previous nominee precisely because he's got such a big record. Why, it's rote. These guys are reading from a script. They will say whatever they say regardless of the circumstances. Here's the rest of the verbal poop from Senator Schumer.

SCHUMER: Not be able to use as a mantra the excuse that the issue might come before him on the court. These issues have already come before him. He has a record on them.

RUSH: He'll be able to dance rings around these guys. You know, in fact Hollywood, if you need to make more gay movies how about Dances With Men, Alito dancing around the Democrats on the judiciary committee. Throw Feinstein out of there, Dances With Men, not Dances With Wolves. (interruption) I'm not talking about manliness, Mr. Snerdley, I'm just talking about gender, Dances With Men, Alito running rings around these guys. Here's one more from Chucky, this is from -- what is this, a press conference he gave? Yeah.

SCHUMER: Does he believe in any checks of presidential power?

RUSH: Oh, come on.

SCHUMER: Does he believe that warrantless wiretapping of Americans is constitutional?

RUSH: Come on!

SCHUMER: If so, when? Does he believe the FTC should not exist? We deserve straight and direct answers at our hearings. And these issues, I might add, have never been more important, in light of recent revelations about administrative actions in regard to warrantless wiretaps.

RUSH: It has nothing to do with it. He's got literally nothing to do with it and he's on the FISA -- he's not on the FISA court. I'll get to the Andy McCarthy piece on that here in just a second, but -- why don't you just ask -- Senator Schumer, look it, just cut to the chase here. It's real simple. "Judge Alito, are you a socialist, or do you believe in freedom? Because if you believe in freedom, you're not wanted by us on the Supreme Court. Do you believe in socialism and big government? Do you believe that socialism should treat everybody as an incompetent fool and do the best to help everybody even if the sum total of the help is not much? We're interested in the motives that you carry into the job. Do you care about people enough, or do you believe in freedom? Because if you believe in freedom, if you believe in the Constitution, we Democrats have no use for you." Just say it, Senator Schumer. Just say it. Don't give us all this ring-around-the-rosy verbal poop.

Just say what you mean. If Senator Schumer wants to come up and say he's out of the big, wide mainstream, why don't you define the mainstream for us, Senator. Partial-birth abortion, full-term abortion, all the way abortion, half abortion, abortion any time, anywhere, that's mainstream? You guys haven't gotten more than 50%, you haven't even gotten up to 50% of the popular vote, Democrat Party, in a presidential race since 1976. You have no claim, sir, on the great, what does he call it, the great -- great -- I'm having a mental block here because I'm sick. I just used the phrase. I can't think of the phrase. Mainstream. To say these guys are part of the great mainstream is one of the biggest hoax. Here's the MoveOn.org ad. Same old playbook, anti-Alito ad. He's against abortion, wants to keep blacks out of college, and he's a liar. Here's the setting. The video is a guy that looks like Alito who's sitting in a makeup chair. The chair says "Alito" on it. He's getting his makeup done while a woman is prepping him on his answers for the hearings, telling him what to say. Here's the audio.

VOICE: Looking good. Now let's tackle a few problem areas. Yes, you wrote on a job application that a woman has no constitutional right to an abortion, but your excuse is brilliant. You only did it to get the job. You broke your promise not to rule on cases involving that company you invested with. Stick to your answer, computer glitch. Oh, the group you belong to that wanted to restrict African-American admissions to your college, you've been saying "I don't recall." Love it.

VOICE: Sam Alito is no moderate but he plays one on TV. MoveOn.org Political Action is responsible for the content of this advertisement.

RUSH: Good, I'm glad. You know, keep running these things because these are the same ads that they've been running against Republican judicial nominees for all of my adult life. Never changes. It's sort of like you know why the Democrats now can't bank on a majority of the seasoned citizen vote? Because for 30 years they've been telling seasoned citizens that if Republicans get elected, they're either going to get kicked out of their homes or their checks are going to be cut or Social Security is going to be taken away from them or what have you, or they're going to be eating Alpo and what have you. None of it's ever happened. After 30 years, people, "Wait a minute, all of these catastrophes are right around the corner, but they never happen." So nobody believes this stuff anymore. And Alito, if you're going to make charges about somebody like this, there better be something out there of the guy saying or doing something that would lend some credence. There's no connectivity. They make these charges about Alito, but American people have seen no evidence of any such thing. And these people no longer have the credibility to just make these charges and get them to stick.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Ed in Milford, Connecticut. You're next, great to have you with us, sir.

CALLER: Rush. I gotta vent a little bit. This Chuck Schumer guy is really ticking me off. Years now he's been in the Senate. I gotta watch him on these Sunday shows, holding his hands, talking arrogantly down to me, and I started wondering to myself, "Where did this guy come from? What gives him the credit to be able to be in the position that he's in?" So I start looking him up. I'm looking at his bio and, you know, he really doesn't look like much to me, like most senators I suppose you can make that argument, and I'm thinking, what was this guy, a janitor or something before he got here, what gives this guy the credit?

RUSH: No, it's not that at all. He's a senator on the judiciary committee and he's a liberal and so he's a magnet for the camera. He's one of these Democrats, and there are a couple of people in the Democratic Party. If there's a camera between and you Schumer, get out of the way because you're going to get run over by Schumer on his way to find the camera. But it's like Bush right now, Bush is delivering a speech on the economy, and I've seen a couple stories, Associated Press stories, Bush to tout economy today. You cannot find -- and let me see if I can find it real quick, I put it near the top of the stack. It is a story that does not once mention any good economic statistic; doesn't talk about unemployment now being below 5%; it doesn't talk about all the jobs being created. It just says Bush is going to go out and tout the economy, as though it may not be true but Bush is going to go say it.

Well, if this were the economy of the nineties and if Clinton were president, Clinton wouldn't have to go out there because Bill Schneider and everybody else in cable news would be doing seminars all day long on how great the economy is, and how it was all due to Bill Clinton and his great policies. So the House Republicans had a little meeting to tout their achievements, to tout the deficit reduction bill they passed, to tout the economy. And, of course, they have to do this. It's a shame that they have to do this to get the message out, but that's the only way it can get out because the media is not going to report it. You have your reaction to Schumer. I have your reaction to something else. We have a list today, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, whoever, put out the list of witnesses they're going to call to testify against Alito. I said, “Why do we care who these people are? Why is this a news story?” We haven't gotten any lists from the Republicans on who they're going to call in support of Alito. Maybe they've put it out, it just hasn't been covered. Democratic members of Senate judiciary committee announce witness list for hearings on Supreme Court nominee -- Who cares? Whatever the Democrats do, it's earth-shattering news, it's breaking news. Don't forget, folks, the template is, "What do the Democrats have to do to get back in power," and that's been the template since 2001. Judge Susan Hoerchner from the Clarence -- no, she's not in the list, but guess who is? There's some guy on this list named Stephen Dujack. Would you like to hear about Stephen Dujack?

Let me tell you about Stephen Dujack. He's on the list for like the third or fourth day of witnesses. Senate Democrats have announced their witness list, Stephen Dujack, the press release naming him as a witness describes him as an editor of an environmental magazine in Washington and a freelance writer, but it doesn't say that he's editor of the Environmental Forum, magazine of the DC-based Environmental Law Institute. He's also the author of these lines which appeared in the Los Angeles Times April 21, 2003. Quote, "Like the victims of the Holocaust, animals are rounded up, trucked hundreds of miles to the kill floor and slaughtered. Comparisons to the Holocaust are not only appropriate but inescapable because, whether we wish to admit it or not, cows, chickens, pigs and turkeys are as capable of feeling loneliness, fear, pain, joy and affection as we are. To those who defend the modern-day holocaust on animals by saying that animals are slaughtered for food and give us sustenance, I ask: If the victims of the Holocaust had been eaten, would that have justified the abuse and murder? Did the fact that lampshades, soaps and other 'useful' products were made from their bodies excuse the Holocaust? No. Pain is pain."

This is one of the Democrats' star witnesses who's going to come up and tell everybody why Sam Alito is not qualified to sit on the Supreme Court. This lunatic, this kook who wants to compare the slaughter of animals to the Holocaust. He defends his idea by pointing to its origins in the thinkings of his grandfather, who was the Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer. In a short story of his called The Letter Writer, the main character writes about his pet mouse. I don't have time to -- well -- yeah, writes about his pet mouse. His pet mouse is smarter than all the people in the house where the mouse lives in. Nuts. I have to believe that every witness on this list has been vetted, has been called for a reason. So I'm wondering, are they going to hit Alito on some aspect of the Holocaust and ask him what he thinks about the wanton slaughter of animals? Bring it on, folks, why should we fear these literal, literal lunatics.

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Read the Background Material...

October 26, 2005

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RUSH: People have been speculating if somebody high up like a Rove or a Libby, whoever is indicted, what should Bush do? I have the answer, but that answer is derived from putting myself in Bush's shoes. See, I would be livid. I would be livid no matter what I've said about the dignified way the investigation has taken place. I would be livid and I'd say: Okay, you're going to try to get my guys outta here? You obviously think these guys have been making all the decisions, fine. Here. You're going to get what you want. Every decision from now on out is mine, and here's what I'm going to do.

First thing I'm going to do is pull Harriet Miers, and I'm going to give the most conservative nominee to the Supreme Court I can, and it's going to be Michael Luttig; it's going to be Janice Rogers Brown. I don't care. It's going to somebody you people are going to hate, and I'm going to fight, and I'm going to get this person confirmed. Next thing I'm going to do is bomb Syria. I'm through messing around with the war on terror. Now we've got the Iranians, and they're sitting there saying Israel needs to be "wiped off the map." Nothing's changed. I'm going to take care of them, too. I'm going to create so many damn news stories for you people in the media that you won't know what cover first, and I'm going to make so many damn much bigger news stories than this stupid CIA story that I'm going to have you people spinning for the last two years of my administration, because the last two years of my administration I'm making the decisions and I'm going to make sure everything I want happens, and I'm going to stop trying to send out this little hand of friendship with you people. I've tried working with you, and I've found out that it can't be done, so barrels are going to be loaded and aimed right at you, and we're going to be pedal-to-the-metal conservative through and through, and this is what I'm going to give you, and if you don't like it then go try to put me in jail next time.

I would flood the media with so many stories, they wouldn't know what to cover -- stories that they hated, actions that they despised! I'd rewrite the education bill. I'd put a stop on this illegal immigration. I would do all of these things. I would have real budget cuts -- and I mean cuts. I would propose them and I'd bring the Republicans up to the White House and say, "Okay, you cowards, we're going to stand together now. They're trying to take us out, and here's what we're going to do. We got two years, and we're going to reshape this country like we've been trying to do for the previous six, and here's how we're going to do it, A, B, C, D and E."

"But what about the press?"

"Screw the press! I don't care about the press. I care about the people of this country. This is what I'm going to do." Bam! "Get started! I want reports on my desk tomorrow morning. Tell me how you're doing -- and if I'm not satisfied, I'll get somebody else to do it. They don't think I'm making my own decisions? Fine. Every decision from this point on is mine personally." That's what I would do. I would get in there, and I'd bring Big Oil in and say, "What can we do to help you out? We've got people trying to put you out of business, what can we do to help you out and get supply up and price down? What can I do to help you out?"

The media would say, "What do you mean? You are Big Oil? That's why you went to Iraq."

I'd make 'em all have heart attacks with apoplexy. I'd just send them like lemmings running over the cliff not knowing which story to cover first. I'd have them calling Judy Miller, "Judy, what should we do? You're tight with these people, what should we do? Which story is more important here?" Meanwhile, all they do is follow this investigation to see if Rove and Libby are going to go to jail.

That's what I would do.

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Read the Articles...

March 2, 2009

May 29, 2009

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  "All right, it's time to put a stop to this, ladies and gentlemen.  I appear to have become America's piñata, a national piñata. Everybody is beating up on me. Everybody.  So it's time to leak some acid on them.  Greetings, great to have you here.  Rush Limbaugh on Friday.  Let's go.

JOHNNY DONOVAN:  Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida via New York City, it's Open Line Friday!

RUSH:  And you know the rules on Friday.  When we go to the phones the program is all yours.  Monday through Thursday we only talk about things I care about, but on Friday we broom that and when we go to the phones the show is all yours. Talk about anything.  If I don't like it, I'll fake it.  Here's the number.  800-282-2882.  And the e-mail address,

.  

We are going to start today with the discussion topic being the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor by President Obama to become an associate justice of the US Supreme Court.  I am your host, Rush Limbaugh, leading this discussion.  I am now the new passkey for RINO Republicans.  I am the passkey that opens the door for them to get unchallenged media coverage from the left.  The new game in the Beltway is no longer "Hush, Rush."  The new game in the Beltway is "Bash Rush," and the way this is all happening, I doubt that Obama is even interested in the Fairness Doctrine anymore because the Bash Rush -- I'm sure he looks at it from the White House -- and there are two things they're seeing in the White House.

They love seeing Republicans bash me but at the same time they know I'm telling the truth and at some point they know that all that I'm saying is going to be proven right.  And, see, that is the bottom line. But the Bash Rush is the passkey for RINO Republicans to get glowing media treatment. It worked for Colin Powell, it worked for Tom Ridge, and it's now working for John Cornyn.  A person from... I'm probably going to embarrass him by saying this, but I was asked by friends to do a fundraiser for Senator Cornyn when he was running, and I did. I flew to Texas and did it.  Yesterday on NPR, John Cornyn was asked this question: "We've heard Rush Limbaugh, we've heard the former House speaker Newt Gingrich calling Sonia Sotomayor a racist, saying that she should withdraw."  I didn't say that, Newt did, but that's the question.  "What do you make of the rhetoric that's tumbling out of these people these days, Senator Cornyn?"

CORNYN:  I think it's terrible.  This is not the kind of tone that any of us want to set when it comes to performing our constitutional responsibilities of advice and consent.  Neither one of these, uh, men (chuckles) are elected Republican officials.  I just don't think it's appropriate. I certainly don't endorse it. I -- I think it's wrong.

May 29, 2009

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RUSH: This is Moscow Mills, Missouri, and Rich.  Hello and thanks for calling.

CALLER:  Hey, Rush, great to get through and talk to you.  I've been enjoying the show more so than ever with everything that's going on.

RUSH:  Thank you very much.

CALLER:  The reason I'm calling is, you know, this Senator Cornyn's comment. You know, I understand the truth.  Us folks out here in flyover country, we get the truth, we understand the truth when we hear it.  And I think that's why the mainstream media, with very little truth telling, is losing popularity every time.  I'm sure you're doing pretty good by telling the truth.  I saw Dick Cheney's polls go up eight points by coming out and telling people the facts.  All we need is politicians to state the truth, to talk to us honestly.  Now, what we have is a lot country club-type, I guess, limp wrists. I don't know. I always thought Cornyn was pretty strong conservative, but evidently it offends their sensibilities to talk about race, racism -- or if it's not racism, abortion.  You know, they want us to go away because even though it's true what we're saying, it offends them.

RUSH:  Senator Cornyn is up for reelection I believe this year, is he not, Mr. Snerdley?  He's up next year, 2010? And I think one thing I must say in defense, in slight defense of politicians: getting votes is a far different thing than acquiring an audience.  Politicians really don't think that they can survive with voters hating them.  I, of course, have proven that you can prosper when people hate you.  But I'm not a politician.  By the same token, I don't have the power they do.  So when Senator Cornyn sees the need, as he did on NPR yesterday, to distance himself from me -- or Newt Gingrich, or Tom Tancredo -- I guarantee you it's the result of polling in Texas over this issue of Sotomayor and the Hispanic vote.  

And the Hispanic vote is something the Republican Party is as frightened of as they are of conservative Christians.  The Republican Party desperately wants the Hispanic vote, I think, to replace conservative Christians in their coalition 'cause they're embarrassed by them.  I want to tell you something, Rich.  I was in Texas last night.  I was in Houston.  I flew in for a fundraiser for a member of Congress named Michael McCaul, and I met a lot of people there last night.  Louie Gohmert, who is a member of Congress, who's fabulous, Senator David Vitter from New Orleans flew over for this.  Tom DeLay was there.  There were about 200 or 250 people at this fundraiser -- and I must tell you, every one of them was a conservative Republican.  There wasn't a moderate in the bunch.  

I talked to them all because there were photo sessions and so forth and so on and when I made my remarks I could see the applause.  I didn't get booed. Nobody came up to me and said, "Shut up, you're hurting the party." It was the exact opposite.  Now, you might want to call Texas flyover country. Some people might, and it's hard to extrapolate from audience of 200 people.  But I will tell you that I bet you if I went to every state in the country and did a fundraiser for a Republican candidate, I could give the same remarks I made last night and get standing ovations.  It's the same thing I say on the radio each and every day.  There's nothing earth-shattering there.

But my point is that it's all of the Republicans in Washington and conservative media people in Washington who have this fear of moderates and Republican voters going away in droves if the rhetoric is too strident.  And they define rhetoric as too strident as simply being truthful.  Words mean things.  I mean, if you want to communicate properly you use the right words to communicate the thought.  Except we can't do that because it's going to offend somebody. It's going to offend Hispanics or it's going to offend someone. We can't do this.  I want to stipulate and remind everybody again: my analysis of Judge Sotomayor is not aimed at keeping her off the court.  There's no way, realistically, that can happen.  The Republicans don't have the votes and they're not interested in keeping her off the court.

But there is an opportunity here to tell the country who Obama is by telling the country who she is.  This reluctance that our party has to contrast itself with its enemies is dumbfounding to me.  I understand it.  I understand why.  I don't agree with it, but it nevertheless is dumbfounding how this is happening. It's almost like the Republican Party today and some in the Republican media are content to share power as losers, to be in the club but be losers.  The club in Washington.  The people that elect 'em don't want 'em to be in the club as losers.  The people elect 'em because they want winners.  And the party's not acting like it's interested in winning.

Nobody wins playing defense.  Nobody wins worrying about what everybody else thinks about you.  Nobody wins who doesn't tell them what they stand for.  That's where we are here.  So I'm just telling you, the people... Whenever I travel this country, and whenever I happen to make political remarks, I don't have people boo me. I don't have people run away. I don't have people say, "You know, you need to tone this down 'cause it's really hurting."  I only hear this from so-called conservative people on television, so-called conservative people in media -- and not all of them, just some.  So I have become America's piñata.  

I am the passkey.  You bash Rush, and the media gives you a free pass.  John Cornyn can be loved by NPR.  All he's gotta do, bash me and Newt.  Same thing if any Republican wants to be invited on any of the Sunday shows, get an interview in the Style section of the Washington Post (if anybody still reads it) or be profiled on one of the nightly newscasts or show up on a cable show. All they gotta do is bash Rush, bash America's piñata and, they get a free pass! They're loved.  That's how easy it is -- and that's, sadly, what some of them seem to want, especially if it's reelection time.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  All right.  John Cornyn. I've gotta retract what I said, giving him a little slack.  He's not up for reelection in 2010.  He was reelected in '08, so he's not up 'til 2014.  He was just elected last year.  So he's not running for reelection any time soon.  So polling data in Texas is not the reason why he is trying to distance himself from critics of Judge Sotomayor.  Now, I am told -- and I'm going to have to fact check this because lately I've been misled by a whole bunch of contributors.  Well, one of my contributors the other day told me it was 40 days until Obama's birthday, and it's not. It's like 85 or 90.  I am told that there is a reason judges wear black robes, and it's to hide them.  

It's to hide any bias, to essentially present the image of fairness.  A black robe hides whatever bias, whatever economic circumstances there are. Whatever there is to know about the judge that is not supposed to be known is hidden because of the black robe.  In this case, if that's true, then the robe that Sonia Sotomayor will wear on the Supreme Court is transparent.  Because we have already seen who she is.  She has told us that she will make policy, she will legislate from the bench.

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

• Austin American-Statesman: Cornyn: Limbaugh, Gingrich Attacks on Sotomayor 'Terrible'

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/somosaustin/entries/2009/05/29/texas_sen_john_cornyn_is.html

• WP: A Republican Response to Sonia Sotomayor: Criticize, Then Confirm - Charles Krauthammer

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/28/AR2009052803613.html

• FOXNews: Republicans Divided Over How to Attack Sotomayor

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/29/republicans-battle-attack-sotomayor/

May 28, 2009

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: "Audio sound bites, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who Pravda says his political career is being destroyed by homosexuals in California, Pravda said that, Pravda, English language Pravda was on CNN last night, had a question.  "What do you think the future of the Republican Party is?  Who's in charge?  Do you think Rush Limbaugh's the leader of the Republican Party these days, Governor Schwarzenegger?"

SCHWARZENEGGER:  They say that Rush Limbaugh is the 800-pound gorilla in the Republican Party.  But I think that's mean-spirited to say that, because I think he's down to 650 pounds, so I think one should be fair to him about this whole thing.  No, I think that, in all seriousness, the key thing is to keep that large tent --

RUSH:  That's pretty lame.

SCHWARZENEGGER:  -- and have the right wing, which has, you know, a very, very strong place in the Republican Party, but we also need to create a center of the Republican Party, and I think the bigger our tent is, the better it is.  And I think that we just have to be always in tune of what the people want, that sometimes changes, but I think that it is a great party and it has, you know, a great future.

RUSH:  There's this big tent business again.  What is that because somebody give me the policies associated with a big freaking tent.  I know we're looking at it, California.  We got a Republican governor, right, we got a really vibrant Republican Party out there, right?  We have a really huge tent in California, right?  I mean Schwarzenegger describing how to put the Republican Party together after helping destroy the state, and, you know, how he helped destroy the state?  'Cause he fell for his own talk about big tents.  If he would have just stayed the course that he was talking about when he announced his candidacy on Leno and when he had all these people out there to start his administration, when he was on the conservative path, he coulda taken this by the gangbusters and maybe gotten the Supreme Court to change the Constitution so that foreigners could run for president.  He had that opportunity, and he blew it big time going moderate.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I know the Supreme Court doesn't change the Constitution.  All I'm saying is, for Arnold Schwarzenegger to be talking about a big tent and how the Republican Party has to put that up, I want to know what policies create a big tent.  I mean, he heads the Republican Party California.  It's really doing great guns out there, isn't it?  State's bankrupt to boot.  Let's go to another big tent guy.  I talked about this guy yesterday, Mark McKinnon..."