[CAJ: Look out, Rhode Island. One of your senators is talking through his extremely partisan point of view once again. ]
by Rush Limbaugh
December 11, 2009
…RUSH: Yeah, okay, so he’s [Sen. Harry Reid] upset about that. He’s embarrassed about the fundraiser. McConnell embarrassed him with the fundraiser. He wanted a weekend off to go to the fundraiser after saying we’re going to work, work, work, get this thing done. He thinks McConnell would not grant him the weekend off because I jumped on McConnell. So Sheldon Whitehouse bemoans the obstructionist Republican Party which is prodded by me to make sure the president fails. Last night in Washington, DC, Senate floor, Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island.
WHITEHOUSE: This is about creating a political defeat for the president of the United States on their side, nothing to do with health care, entirely about creating a defeat for this new president, when in the face of all the obstruction that the distinguished Senator from Michigan described so eloquently, this record-breaking, unprecedented in the history of the Senate obstruction that we’re seeing, the person who I think right now seems to characterize the leadership of the radicalized right wing that is running the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, is telling the other side that they haven’t been obstructive enough.
RUSH: That’s true. He’s exactly right about that. Damn right. But only one correction, Senator Whitehouse. It is necessary to create a political defeat for the president. I don’t deny that we’re after that, but it’s necessary to save the country, sir. It is necessary to save the United States of America as it was founded. It’s necessary to defeat the president politically and this bill, ’cause this bill isn’t about health care, Senator. What must it be like to be one of a hundred people in the most amazing deliberative body in the world and have the people who elect them be 25 times as smart and informed as they are on this? What an idiot.
RUSH: All right, so Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat, Rhode Island, the American people, in his view, the vast majority of them oppose government-run health care, not because they oppose what the plan would do to them, no, no, no, no, we oppose it because we want Obama to lose. So Sheldon Whitehouse says that I am leading a conspiracy with the public against Obama. See, this is how these fools think. It’s all about Obama. Not the people, but Obama and the Democrats and their power. It’s not about you. It’s not about us. It’s about Obama and whether he’s going to get a win here. Hopefully he won’t.
RUSH: Sheldon Whitehouse, here, play number eight again because we’ve got this and then two more to go with this. This is Sheldon Whitehouse on the Senate floor. Dingy Harry yesterday afternoon had denigrated me, blamed me for getting tough on Mitch McConnell, which made McConnell say no to Dingy Harry’s request for the weekend off to go to a fundraiser. Sheldon Whitehouse then got up there, Democrat from Rhode Island, he said this.
WHITEHOUSE: This is about creating a political defeat for the president of the United States on their side, nothing to do with health care, entirely about creating a defeat for this new president, when in the face of all the obstruction that the distinguished Senator from Michigan described so eloquently, this record-breaking, unprecedented in the history of the Senate obstruction that we’re seeing, the person who I think right now seems to characterize the leadership of the radicalized right wing that is running the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, is telling the other side that they haven’t been obstructive enough.
RUSH: Well, here’s Sheldon Whitehouse. Notice that we just want to politically defeat “this new president.” I don’t care if he’s new; I don’t care if he’s old; I don’t care if he’s black, I don’t care. All I care about is what he’s trying to do to this country and stopping it. So, Senator, you are exactly right. But I’m not alone, Senator, do you realize that support for this bill in the Senate is plummeting, it is cratering? You’re down into the low forties and high thirties in some polls, Senator, of people who approve of this. The vast majority do not want this thing to pass, and are you telling the world, Senator, that the American people, the vast majority of whom oppose government-run health care do so not because of what the plan would do to them but because they want Obama to lose? Are you saying the entire American population opposing this is only interested in Obama losing? So I’m part of a conspiracy here with the public against this new president, Obama? This is how these fools think, folks. It’s all about Obama. It’s not about the people. It’s all about Obama and the Democrats and their power.
Here’s a question. I have a question for Sheldon Whitehouse and his master, Harry Reid. Why do you reject what the people are telling you? Why do you hate the American people? Why do you hold the American people in contempt? Why do you insist on enslaving us in some kind of government-run health system, when they are telling you loudly and repeatedly they do not want this? Why don’t you believe in the public’s will? Why don’t you understand that they understand what you’re doing? Why don’t you believe in representative government? Why don’t you believe in the limits placed on you in the Constitution? What do you think your role is, to flood the zone with so much confusing rhetoric and stuff that you’re just going to swamp people? What is your role here? Are you mini-little dictators talking about wanting Obama to fail? You want Obama to succeed regardless what it is he’s trying to do?
Tell me, Senator Whitehouse, why haven’t you supported an amendment that would apply the same government health care you would impose on the rest of us on you and your own family? Why are you such a self-serving hack, Senator Whitehouse? If this is so wondrous, if this health care bill is so miraculously needed and wonderful, why don’t you sign onto it? Tell me, Senator Whitehouse, who died and named you chief of doctors? Who died, Senator Whitehouse, and named you chief of nurses and hospitals and nursing homes? Tell me, Senator Whitehouse, who gave you the power over our health decisions? Tell me, Senator Whitehouse, who are you? Who appointed you? Who appointed you to suggest that we follow your mandates on any aspect of our health care? Who are you? Where’s the resume? I want to see it. Well, this continued. He then asked, with Debbie Stabenow, what Rush Limbaugh would say if the Democrats tried to work with Republicans.
WHITEHOUSE: Do you think there’s any likelihood that people on the other side would suddenly want to cooperate with the president and not — President Obama and not hand him a defeat? Do you think suddenly if we did that, Rush Limbaugh would say, “Okay, Republicans in the Senate, go ahead, work with the Democrats now, don’t just be the party of obstruction and delay, but try to work cooperatively for the American people.”
RUSH: Before commenting on that, this is what Stabenow said.
STABENOW: I can’t imagine. Frankly, I think it’s unfortunately they view it as in their self-interest, whether it’s a business decision, as a radio host, whether it’s a decision of the other party. I appreciate the fact that it’s hard to lose elections. We’ve all been in those situations. I appreciate the fact that folks don’t want to be in the minority and most of us have been in that situation. I appreciate that. But I think all of us were really hoping that this year, with two wars, with the deficit we have, with the challenge on health care, with the need to create jobs, with the financial crisis that we have, that this year, somehow, it would be different for a while.
RUSH: Play me the violins. Let’s get the piano from Love Story, “Where do I begin?” Back to Sheldon Whitehouse, “Any likelihood that people on the other side would suddenly want to cooperate with President Obama and not hand him a defeat?” See, even it’s about Obama. It’s Obama that’s not talking to Republicans, Senator Whitehouse, it’s Obama that’s not accepting any alternative ideas, it’s Obama this, it’s Obama that. And, by the way, why do you need Republicans, you have 60 votes there. Why do you need the Republicans? Obviously you’re worried, you don’t have 60 votes; you don’t have 60 Democrats so you dump on me? You blame me because you don’t have any Republican support? You ever stop and think that maybe there are people that genuinely don’t like this bill? I listen to these people in absolute awe. I am overawed by these people and not in a positive way.
RUSH: Hi. Welcome back. Senator Whitehouse, tell me one more thing. Who is it who is meeting in secret? Who is it who cut out Republicans? Who is it who keeps these bills from the American people? Who is it who promised transparency and negotiations aired on C-SPAN but lied about it? Who? It was President Obama. You guys, you Democrats are the ones doing this in secret…
…But there’s a huge groundswell because just like the Sheldon Whitehouse guy, he’s blaming every American who opposes this of simply wanting to defeat Obama, not that they don’t want the bill, not because they don’t like what the bill is gonna do to them and their doctor-patient relationship. So Sheldon Whitehouse is not listening to his e-mails, he’s not listening to his phone calls. He’s in Rhode Island. I don’t even know what the polling on this health care is in Rhode Island. They don’t poll much there. So, anyway, people are fried on this, they’re fit to be tied. Because they believe that this is a representative republic and that elected officials serve constituents, and they’re learning that these people serve Obama…
Read the entire transcript or listen to audio at Limbaugh’s website.
