Rush whacks Newt: 'He wishes they were running TV ads against him'

Rush Limbaugh responded to Newt Gingrich's shot at him with a broadside at the former speaker on today's show.

"I'm frankly getting tired of talking about Newt. I mean, it's a pointless exercise," Limbaugh said of Gingrich's dismissal of him on "Meet the Press." "I'm surprised by nothing when I'm dealing with people in the media who think they're in politics. ... They are fly-by-night operators, and most of them stand for nothing until they see a poll about what the American people want, and then they go out and try to say one way or another what the American people want while trying to falsely hold onto an ideology at the same time — and you can't count on them. You can't depend on them. They will sell you out; they will throw you overboard to save themselves, faster than anything. And they'll use you on their way up as often as they can at the same time."

"I mean, next week Newt could come out and profess his total admiration and love for me if it would serve his purposes," he continued. "They're running TV ads against me. Newt Gingrich wishes they were running TV ads against him."

Transcript (which includes some of the quotes in the video) after the jump.

RUSH: This is Anna Lee in Grass Valley, California. Hi.

CALLER: Hi there. It's a pleasure to speak to you, Rush. I listened to your speech to the nation a couple of times, enjoyed every minute of it, and I'm really confused. I heard a blurb on Fox News last night that was Newt Gingrich, and I thought he was a friend of yours and in a very derogatory tone, he partially quoted you saying, "I want Obama to fail." Now, what's up with Newt?

RUSH: Um... You know, let's listen to the sound bites. You want to listen to the sound bites with me? There are two sound bites here.

CALLER: Yours or his?

RUSH: No, his.

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: His from Meet the Press.

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: Where he basically called me "irrational."

CALLER: I know!

RUSH: I didn't see this. I don't know if this was a roundtable or if he was a guest, but he had this exchange with the host, David Gregory.

GINGRICH: You're irrational if you don't want the new president to succeed, because if he doesn't succeed the country doesn't succeed. So, fifth -- I mean, that's -- that's not his --

GREGORY: Do you think Republicans are discordant on that point about whether they want him to fail or succeed?

GINGRICH: I -- I don't think anyone should want the president of the United States to fail. I want some of his policies to be stopped.

GREGORY: Right.

GINGRICH: But I don't want the president of the United States to fail. I want him to learn new policies.

RUSH: Uhhh.

CALLER: That's what I heard, yeah.

RUSH: Yeah. You know, I'm frankly getting tired of talking about Newt. I mean, it's a pointless exercise.

CALLER: So were you surprised also that he would...?

RUSH: No. Let me tell you something. I'm learning a lot here in the last three weeks. I'm surprised by nothing when I'm dealing with people in politics, absolutely nothing.

CALLER: Really?



RUSH: I'm surprised by nothing when I'm dealing with people in the media who think they're in politics. No, as has always been the case, Anna Lee, the strength and the courage, the energy that I get is from my audience. I wrote a book once, and one of the chapters is "My Success is Not Determined by Who Wins Elections," 'cause they come and go. They are fly-by-night operators, and most of them stand for nothing until they see a poll about what the American people want, and then they go out and try to say one way or another what the American people want while trying to falsely hold onto an ideology at the same time -- and you can't count on them. You can't depend on them. They will sell you out; they will throw you overboard to save themselves, faster than anything. And they'll use you on their way up as often as they can at the same time. So...

CALLER: Well, he ticked me off, I'll tell you.

RUSH: Well, it's not worth the energy. Here's the second bite, by the way. The question Gregory asked him was, "In this environment, is Rush Limbaugh helping or hurting the Republican Party?"

GINGRICH: Rush -- Rush Limbaugh is in the long run an interesting radio personality who -- it's like saying --

WOMAN: (giggling) You're being diplomatic.

GINGRICH: No, it's like saying, "Does Chris Matthews help or hurt the Democratic Party?" The fact is he has a large audience, the audience believes him, the audience calls their members, the audience has an effect. He's not the leader of the Republican Party.

RUSH: Uh, nor... (laughs) There isn't a leader of the Republican Party, Newt, and there won't be --

CALLER: Well, it's not gonna be him.

RUSH: -- until we have a presidential nominee in 2012.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: Now, anyway, what you have to do is you have to learn long ago like I did, not to take this stuff personally. Because if you take it personally, it can disappoint you.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: It's just part of the territory. I mean, next week Newt could come out and profess his total admiration and love for me --

CALLER: Which he used to do.

RUSH: -- if it would serve his purposes.

CALLER: Yeah. Yeah.

RUSH: So anyway, look, Anna Lee, I appreciate the call. Anything else you wanted to add?

CALLER: No, that was it. Love ya!

RUSH: I appreciate it. Thanks much. (interruption) Snerdley... (sigh) Snerdley. Snerdley is asking me if it's part of territory, why don't I take him out? Do you really want me to answer that question? You're making this far more personal, Mr. Snerdley, than I understand. Okay. Here's my attitude on this. I am at the top of the mountain of what I do. Everybody underneath it wants what I've got. That's great. That's human nature. As such, they'll do what they can to take me down or to criticize me or what have you. It is beneath my dignity to be critical of those beneath me. It's just a waste of time. All this is such human nature. I know that Newt would give his whatever to have what I've got. So would any of these other critics of mine.

They'd love to have it, and they've taken their best shot. But for me to get... This is what's silly about Obama talking about me. You know, he's the president of the United States! The fact that he's got time to dispatch his people out to do this means something. It means we're effective. It means we pose a problem. If we weren't effective on this program doing what we're doing, none of this would be happening. No assaults, no attacks, no attempts to discredit, 'cause we would be irrelevant. So the question you have to ask yourself then Mr. Snerdley is, "Okay, why am I relevant. Why are we relevant here?" 'Cause this guy was hoping for a highway with no cars coming the other way, and he's got a caravan of cars heading the other way trying to stop it from going from where we he's going, led by me.

This guy can't speak off of a teleprompter. They can't send him out on ad-lib missions. They can't send him out. He can debate other Democrats because they don't disagree about anything, but you can't go and debate others in public off the prompter. He just can't do it. So you have to ask, "Is he really the leader of the Democrat Party?" They're talking about who's the leader of the Republican Party. Is it me? No. There isn't a leader of the Republican Party, as it should be. What's going on right now is a bunch of people trying to become the leader setting themselves up to either be anointed or to self-anoint themselves in that position.

It's not even one that I want. Remember: "My Success is not Determined by Who Wins Elections." The fact that Obama's coming after me and has got all these media minions coming after me? To me, again, it's human nature. I must present a problem, must present an obstacle. If I had no impact, if I had no influence, if I was such an extremist appealing to such a small number of people, why, what they'd be doing is laughing, or ignoring. But they're running TV ads against me. Newt Gingrich wishes they were running TV ads against him. But they're running TV ads against me. So I love it. I'm up for it. I raise my hand. I'm the Last Man Standing. I'm not going to back down. I'm not going to stop saying what I say or what I believe, 'cause I'm an American.

I'm a citizen, and I happen to have the good fortune of having a microphone to blare what I believe, and I happen to have the opportunity to be able to do it very well, talent on loan from God. And I know if we just keep plugging away hard enough, we're going to break through. That, combined with the fact that the Obama administration is over reaching... Let me give you a football analogy. Here we are in the midst of a recession that people are claiming is going to be a depression. We're doing everything theoretically wrong to get out of it. We're compounding it. Yet Obama is not doing anything to really get out of it. He's starting to ad all these dream liberal ideas to the mix because "a crisis is a terrible thing to waste." Obama is essentially trying to run three plays on first down. Now, you people that played football understand: that's total chaos and distortion. Three plays on first down!