A Proper Understanding of PA-12 (RAT Critz ran on El Rushbo platform)

RUSH: Bill in southern West Virginia. It's great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hello. What I wanted to talk about was why the Democrats were marginally successful last weekend. And I think they were trying to do a game-changer. They were trying to put as much resources in as few races as possible just so they can say, "Hey, we won." It would be really interesting just to know how many union hours were spent in Arkansas and Pennsylvania, especially on the congressional election. Just up for your thoughts, you know? It really looked like the unions and the Democratic operatives were really busy.

RUSH: Nothing prohibits me from offering an opinion on Open Line Friday, either. And it's typical that a caller would call and want to call what I think on Open Line Friday. Everybody does. I think that you're right that they focused on two or three places with a lot of effort, lotta union people in Pennsylvania 12, residents there. Saw story today that the unions plan on spending $100 million nationwide on Democrat congressional races in November during the campaigns. But I want to focus on Pennsylvania 12 because there appears to be a growing body of thought on our side, including Newt Gingrich. Newt Gingrich said (summarized), "You know, I'm going to have to revise downward my predictions on Republican strength in November. If we didn't take advantage of all this to beat this guy in Pennsylvania 12, we're in trouble."

Paul Gigot, the Wall Street Journal, same thing. They're really bashing the Republicans for being lackadaisical, taking too much for granted, thinking it's going to be a sweep; they just gotta get out of the way and say, "We're not Democrats" and so forth. They're looking at Pennsylvania 12 and they're saying, "You know what...?" By the way, I have no brief for the Republicans here. Don't misunderstand. If you wanted to call here and tell me the Republicans are a bunch of incompetent cowards right now, you wouldn't get an argument from me. But the Republicans being cowardly or what have you had nothing to do with what happened in Pennsylvania 12.

What I want to know is: When did the new test for our strength in November become being able to win in 2-1 Democrat-to-Republican districts? When did that start? My friends, the dirty little secret is we don't have to win 2-1 Democrat districts in order to gain control of the House. I also want to know what we are supposed to do when the Democrat candidate, in a Democrat 2-1 district, runs against Obama and does so more effectively than our guy does. I want to know. The guy that did this, Mr. Critz, had a relationship, an association with Murtha -- who, whether you like it or not, was very popular there. He brought home a lot of bacon. This guy, Mr. Critz, ran against health care. He ran against cap and trade. He ran against a number of things.

The thing he said he was going to do was bring home the bacon. Now, I look at things from a conservative-versus-liberal point of view, not so much Republican versus Democrat. I know a lot of people do otherwise. The people analyzing this are no, obviously, looking at it as criticism versus liberalism. They're looking at it as Republican-versus-Democrat and the Republican lost. Well, what does it tell us -- and I'm asking you. What does it tell us when we lose to a Democrat who sounds more like me than the Republican does? And the Republican wasn't bad. He wasn't an incompetent candidate. What had to happen there and what obviously didn't happen is that the Republican candidate did not say what was going on.

He said, "Don't believe Mr. Critz. Mr. Critz is not telling you who he really is. Mr. Critz is not going to vote against Obama if he's elected to this seat. He's going to be voting with Obama. He's going to be voting with Pelosi." Now, maybe that's what everybody's upset about, that the Republicans didn't have the gonads or the intelligence to make that part of the campaign. But I really don't think we're falling off the cliff. I don't think the end of the day is near when a Democrat wins an election sounding like me. At the end of the day a Democrat won, and the Democrat is not going to vote like I would vote, and he's not going to oppose Obama. So he lied to his constituents. Apparently we didn't call him on the lie. But this was not a test of the Obama agenda versus the anti-Obama agenda. That test was not on the ballot in Pennsylvania 12. And our doomsayers are going to have to change their perspective on this a little bit 'cause they're missing the boat.

RUSH: Well, this Pennsylvania 12, the more I think about it, it is crucially important for you to understand what's going on. I have a foreboding here. I cannot believe how quick so many in the media on our side are to abandon the whole notion that we could have a big November, off of this one race. Now, I know that there are very few Republicans who are as oriented toward being on offense as I am. Perhaps if my business was to be elected as Republican I'd be running scared, too. But that's not my business. But I can't imagine myself running scared, period. It's not my nature. So in the days leading up to the election on Tuesday, we were having essentially a party. Everybody on our side says, "It's going to be big. The polling data in Pennsylvania 12, it's very neck and neck.

"November is just looming, and Obama keeps screwing up, and the poll numbers keep plunging for Obama." Then this one race comes and so many people start saying, "Oh, I have to revise downward my predictions. I don't think we can win the House. If we can't win this race..." I'm asking myself: Did these people pay any attention to this race? This is important so let me walk you through this again. The Democrat candidate, the foreman Murtha associate is a guy named Critz. He tried to out-conservative the Republican, Tim Burns. He succeeded in "out-conservating" Tim Burns. He even accused Tim Burns of not wanting to cut taxes enough. The Democrat accused Burns of not wanting to cut taxes enough! It's mind-boggling here. The vote proved one thing to the Democrats, and that is the power of unions, which means that they are simply going to kowtow to them even more if that's possible.

Now, the union spending in this district (and throughout the races) just shows why it's so important to get around this recent Supreme Court ruling which allows corporations to donate to candidates. And of course Obama's proposed legislation wants to roll that back. Now if the Democrat in Pennsylvania 12 had to run as a conservative in a district that is 2-1 Democrat, it should tell us all we need to know about November. Let's put it this way. If you look at this district, Pennsylvania 12, Murtha voted for the Obama agenda. He voted for every single item in the Obama agenda. His replacement, Mr. Critz, said he would vote against it all. He opposed health care, oppose cap and trade, but he said he would bring home the bacon. That's all the people of that district care about.

That area is dependent on the federal government for its existence. The left has those people right where they want them. Now, this guy obviously was lying through his teeth. This guy's going to get to Washington if he wins -- well, he did win. He's gonna have to run again in November. This is a special election. He's going to vote for Obama. He's going to vote for everything on the Obama agenda. He's going to vote right along with Pelosi. He's not going to become a DINO, a Democrat in Name Only. If this guy were genuine, we'd have to have a new term for these kinds of people, a Red Dog Democrat, not Blue Dog Democrat.

But for all of you who are worried about this race and for all of you in the media on our side worried about this race, please understand the Obama agenda wasn't on the ballot. The Democrat Party agenda wasn't on the ballot. The Pelosi and Reid agenda was not part of the campaign. The Democrat ran to the right of Tim Burns. He out-conservatived the conservative candidate in a district that depends on the federal government for its existence. It's a 2-1 Democrat district. Where is it written that the only way we can take back the House is winning in 2-1 Democrat districts where the Democrat candidate sounds like me? My point is this: You Democrats run on Obama's agenda, run on the Pelosi agenda.

You run on it. You run on high taxes, you run on 10% unemployment, you are an on the results of the first year and a half of this presidency. You run on the Arizona immigration law. You run on open borders. You run on wanting amnesty for illegals. You run on that and let's see what happens in even a 2-1 Democrat district. But for the life of me, folks, I don't understand why the people on our side are turning tail and running here and predicting doom now when the people in Pennsylvania 12 didn't even vote on the Obama agenda. You'd have to say, by analyzing the results, that the people that voted in that election voted against the Obama agenda. Therefore, how can that be bad? Well, it's bad if you look at it as Republican versus Democrat. If you look at it as conservative versus liberal, you might have a different attitude about it.

Its not the entire kettle of fish.

The Demrat in Republican clothing, friend of Jack Murtha and the Republican Chairman of the State believe it or not, was key in Critz win.

That is just what he wanted.

He split the conservative Republican vote by hijacking the Russell campaigns nationwide supporters and almost literally appointing his own candidate through behind the scenes skullduggery.

Russell predicted that Critz would win the special and that he would become the incombant and thus Tim Burns would fail in November.

I do not have the numbers right now, but you can check it out if you like.
A significant number of folks who voted for Burns in the special didn’t even bother to vote for him in the primary. Thousands did this, in a painfully low turn out election.

Critz will win in November
Burns will be screwed and he can join the people of PA.
Sheeple.

Rush is correct about how the Dem ran against his own President. Of course, he'll turn around and screw the people gullible enough to believe him by voting with Nancy Pelosi.

The other factor people are ignoring is the Democrat state government scheduled the PA 12 special to take place at the same time as the Senate primary. The Dems had a hotly contested primary but the Republicans did not. Plus, Pennsylvania has closed primaries. So, that depressed indy and pubbie turnout.

And I think there is something to the charge of Republican complacency. After willing all the special elections people thought this would be easy. It won't.

but the GOP's record in special elections in recent times is not very good, and might well be indicative of bigger problems within the party.

Don't over-estimate the opposition.

It's rarely remarked upon, but remember the unique circumstances of this particular special election: The special election was held on the same day and in the same locations as the statewide Democrat primary.

In other words, it was optimum conditions for getting Democrats to the polls.

Great, he ran away from the Obama agenda, terrific. You know what, as soon as he gets to DC he will run right back to it and vote lockstep with San Fran Nan. What Republicans should be doing right now is figuring out how NOT to let these jerks run away from Obama and Nan during the elections. They need to figure out pronto how to drive the message home to the American People that there is NO SUCH THING as a moderate democrat. If a “D” is by the name, Obama’s agenda is the game.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.