Mitt, Please Flip-Flop on Your Pledge to Compromise with DemocratsJanuary 09, 2012
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RUSH: Mitt Romney -- (sigh) -- "Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney says that he will be able work with Democrats as president --" This comes two days, maybe three days after McCain endorses Romney. Romney goes out and says in the Sunday debate, pointing to his time as governor of Massachusetts as proof that he will be able to compromise with people in the other party. Were the 2010 midterm elections about compromising with the other party? Where does this come from?
Who in the world is out talking about compromising with the other party? In fact, I don't even hear Democrat critics bringing this up. This comes out of the blue. Now, there may be a reason for it. 'Cause I'm holding here, ladies and gentlemen, in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers a Gallup poll that's out today. I don't believe it. This is what it says. "Record-High 40% of Americans Identify as Independents in '11." But that's not the best of it. Forty percent of Americans identify as independents, and then more Americans, according to Gallup, identify themselves as Democrats than Republicans. Thirty-one percent identify themselves as Democrats; 27% as Republicans.
What we're looking at here if we're to believe Gallup, 40% of the electorate is independent, 31% Democrat, 27% Republican. Does anybody believe, after the 2010 midterm elections, that only 27% of Americans identify themselves as Republicans? I will tell you my guess is that the Republican establishment sees this and believes it. And Gallup, you couldn't have timed this better. You put out this notion that 40% of the American people claim to be independents, it's a stampede now on the part of the Republicans trying to get in front of this with Romney suggesting that, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll be able to work with the Democrats." I don't know where this comes from. And I'm hoping that Romney will flip-flop on this at some point. But how will we know? How will we know?
I mean this is right out of the McCain campaign. (imitating McCain) "I'm the guy, that's right, I'm the guy that can cross the aisle. I've been crossing the aisle my whole life. I'm the guy that can do it. I'm the guy that's gonna make your side tolerate our wackos and our extremists."
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RUSH: It came from the debate on Sunday with a Democrat Party hack, David Gregory, disguised as an NBC moderator. And so I've got the sound bite here on this. To set this up, what had happened was, and this makes this even better, Dingy Harry -- you know, folks, I know I talk until I'm blue in the face, and you're probably sick and tired of hearing it. I'm sorry, I can't let it go, I can't say it enough. We've got this Gallup poll out today that 40%, record high 40% of Americans say that they were independents in 2011. Now you know as well as I know that the Republicans fall for this stupid notion that any criticism of Obama will not be tolerated by the independents.
Any criticism of Obama, any bickering at all, any partnership at all, these independents are gonna say, "To hell with you," and they're gonna make tracks back to the Democrat Party. And so the Republicans put out warnings to their candidates, "Do not attack Obama, only attack Obama's policies. Do not be critical of Obama, he is personally loved and popular," and so forth and so on. Okay, so what we have at the end of all this, we put ourselves in a straitjacket. The media, the Democrats tell us, tell our Republican elites, "If you criticize Obama, if you get personal, if you start getting partisan, these independents, they want us to get along, they want us to work together. And if you make it sound like the only thing you want to do is beat Obama, the independents are gonna go running right back to them."
Never mind what the independents did in the 2010 midterms and never mind this, that the prelude to Gregory's question was a quote from Dingy Harry saying whoever the Republicans nominate, if he happens to win he's gonna be a one-termer, there's no way I'm working with him. Harry Reid said, not only am I not gonna work with the Republican president, I'm gonna be working against him. Okay? That's the premise in the question that the Democrat Party hack David Gregory asked Romney and all the other Republicans at the debate on Sunday morning on Meet the Depressed. So here you have -- I can't contrast this enough -- the Democrat majority leader in the Senate apparently not worried that the independents will go running back to the Republicans.
When he says he doesn't want to work together, Dingy Harry not only does he not say that he wants to work together, he says I'm gonna work against the Republican president if there is one. And the independents apparently applaud that. But when our candidate makes sounds like, "No, I don't want to work together with these guys," the independents run to the Democrats. So where are we? David Gregory says to the panel at the debate yesterday morning, "Anybody have a point of view here about how you actually work with the other side when the other side is committed to working against you?" So Gregory is telling all the Republican nominees, "Look, Harry Reid says he's going to work against you, has no desire to work with you. So how are you actually gonna work with the other side when they have no interest in working with you, Governor?" he asked of Romney and here's Romney's answer.
ROMNEY: My legislature was 85% Democrat and I went around at the very beginning of having been elected and met with the Speaker of the House and the Senate president. We got to know each other personally. We developed a relationship of respect and rapport, even though we disagreed on a lot of issues. We can work together, Republicans and Democrats are able to go across the aisle because we really do have areas of common interest. I have proven in a state that is very Democrat that I'm able to work with people, 19 tax cuts, protected charter schools, drove our schools to be number one in the nation, kept them there, rather, that record can work with Republicans and Democrats who are willing to work together.
RUSH: Little dead air there. Never hurt anybody. I was gonna say, do you see why this just irritates me to no end? Of course you do, it irritates you, too. Where does that answer come from? In this campaign where has it been written that the American people, the voters, Republican voters -- this is a primary, folks -- where has it been established that Republican voters seek a nominee who can work with the other side? This is what leads the Republican Party to continue to nominate people that lose. This is not what the people of this country want. The people of this country and a majority of them look at the Democrats, i.e., those on the other side, as people who have destroyed this economy.
This is the most profound such statement so far in this campaign. This was a 35 second answer on how I worked with the other side in Massachusetts and how we can get along and how we should get along and how I'm the guy to do it. And don't forget the premise of the question is, how are you gonna work with the other side when they have committed to working against you? Now, another question is when Harry Reid says, (paraphrasing) "I don't want to work with these guys, the Republicans, I'm gonna be working against them," how come nobody jumps on his case? How come nobody gets on his case for not being cooperative, for not being bipartisan? Why isn't he criticized? I cannot believe how predictably and easily Republicans fall for this. And I know why. They are obsessed with the media, folks. Republican elite, establishment, whatever you want to call 'em, are obsessed with favorable coverage from the media. They are obsessed with, at the end of this debate, having the media praise them. Yeah, Harry Reid sounds like he's hell-bent on making sure the Republican nominee failed. How about that?
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