Wrong, he actually said that Fred was the only conservative in the race.
Here's the transcript. It was a long discussion, I'm just lifting the parts that show he included Thompson in his list:
RUSH: Enough said. Wherever you go here in this roster of candidates, you're going to be able to point out "not conservative, what he did there is not conservative." The one guy that has the least of that is Fred Thompson, that's what I've said, but Fred Thompson was right in there supporting McCain on McCain-Feingold. That's a red flag. I make my living with my mouth and what comes out of it, and that was a direct assault on what comes out of certain people's mouths around election times.And Here is the part of the show where he made the exact quote being used:...
"Well, you tell me what's conservative about Romney? What is his record?" and, of course, I've not said Romney... She accused me of saying Romney is the only true conservative in the race. I haven't said that because there isn't one. But there are some in the race who are trying to destroy conservative while saying they're conservative, and they're trying to redefine it. I'm telling you, I'm not going to sit by and just shut up while that happens. There are other people who are not conservative down the line, but they're not trying to destroy conservatism and they're certainly not trying to redefine it totally to fit them, but there are those in the race who are. So let me speak generally, here. In order to have a change of heart on issues or a real conversion -- because every one of these guys has had a liberal position or more at some point in their past, and they're all out there saying they've changed their minds. Romney's changed his mind. McCain says (impression), "Well, I get it now, Limbaugh. I get it! I gotta do enforcement! (grumbling) I gotta do the borders, and then we'll make 'em legal. How's that?" And then, of course, Huckabee wanted to bring 'em all in and give them health care and welfare and Medicare, and now he wants to kick 'em all out.
In a situation like this, where you don't have a genuine, down-the-list conservative, you have to look at variables. It's easier for me to support a Romney than a McCain, for example, because I believe his conversion is genuine and he's not lying about past positions. He's not trying to tell people that they're wrong when they assess his past positions. He explains why he changed his mind and what it was that caused him to change his mind. And so I don't want to go through that whole list again, but that's pretty much how I would do it. It will be up when we update my website this afternoon to reflect the contents of the program. But this is really difficult. But depending -- there are a couple people -- I can't take these endorsement calls, because I'm just --It is clear from the transcript of the show on Monday that Rush did not consider ANY candidate, and that included Thompson, as a true conservative. He wasn't praising Romney on Monday, or anybody else -- he was dissappointed in all of them....
Right now the front-runners want it because it's their turn. We tried that in 1996 with Bob Dole, and now they're running the same scenario with McCain. You know what recommends McCain is so many people saying, "He got cheated, Rush, in 2000. He was cheated and we owe him! It was unfair." We've been down this road of owing people. We've been down this road, it's their turn. That's not what does it for me.
But when he talked about not voting, he was talking about McCain. When he talked about entitlement, he talked about McCain.
He spent several segments on the show explaining why he found Romney acceptable, when he found McCain unacceptable. Some are above, and here are links to other transcript sections I posted in the long thread on this that we just had a couple days ago.
Here's a post where I put up a part of the transcript
Here's a post where I put up another part of his monday transcript
BTW, he also said on an earlier day that there were three "true conservatives" in the race. true conservatives -- Fred, Rudy, Mitt:
RUSH: Let me just tell you what's happening. It is absurd and you're going to have to really gut it up here because the Drive-By Media is doing everything it can to disqualify the true conservatives on the Republican side. They're saying, "Romney, he can't win. If he loses Michigan, he's done." They said that about Romney in Iowa, they said that about Romney in New Hampshire. Now Fred Thompson apparently scored. Did you watch it last night, Mr. Snerdley? Fred Thompson was just fabulous, and people said, "Where has this been? All of this time, where's this been?" And I can't answer that, but now the Drive-Bys are saying, "Well, yeah, he was pretty good last night, but it's too late." We've had two states! It's too late for Fred Thompson? And, of course, "Rudy, why, he's lost all of his momentum, Rudy's out of it."So while you think Rush has said Fred is the only conservative in the race, he has clearly said that Fred is not a down-the-list conservative, and he said that there were three "true conservatives" in the race, and listed Romney in that group.
There is no reason why you have to agree with Rush. But you should have the respect to let him hold his own positions. It's too easy to pull up the transcripts.