Posted on 07/28/2011 4:00:21 PM PDT by COBOL2Java
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Folks, the establishment GOP is saying this morning, "Hey, we have to be real. We're not going to really be able to make any substantive changes that endure until we control all three branches. We just can't. The president runs the show no matter what. Okay, yeah, we run the House, the Democrats run the Senate. So they have two-thirds of the government and the presidency is a powerful thing. And until we get that, really the best we can do is stop gap." So the establishment is ready to just get this done. In fact, grab audio sound bite number two just to show you where the Republican leadership is. This was this morning at the White House during a daily press briefing and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood spoke. Now Ray LaHood is a Republican in Illinois. He's a RINO. He's now the Transportation Secretary for Obama. During the Q&A, a reporter said, "Mr. Secretary, do you have any advice to your former House Republican colleagues on dealing with the debt ceiling?"
LAHOOD: I was chief of staff for Bob Michel who served during the time that Ronald Reagan was president, and Tip O'Neill was the Speaker of the House. During the time that Tom Foley was Speaker, Bob Michel was also the Republican leader; and during the time that President Clinton was president, Bob Michel was Republican leader. That whole period of time was a very rich history and legacy of compromise. This is a time that I think most of us that have watched politics have never seen before. This is about continuing to have a strong economy and continuing to compromise and take maybe a couple of chapters out of Tip O'Neill, Bob Michel, Ronald Reagan, President Clinton, people that have served in this town with distinction and gotten big things done through compromise.
RUSH: I know. I'm sitting here saying, "How dare he?" This is a total misrepresentation of who Bob Michel was and what he did. Bob Michel was the Republican leader in the House for a long time. Most of that time the Republicans had 120, 130 members. Most of that time, Tip O'Neill didn't even open committee meetings to the Republicans. The Republicans in the House were a joke during that time. It didn't even matter if they compromised, because they never had any power. Michel never compromised. The Republicans never even thought about it. They never, ever had the votes to stop or do anything back in Michel's day. The idea that Michel compromised? Michel was playing golf -- and to try to say that it was Bob Michel during the Clinton years that got things done?
Mr. LaHood, have you forgotten what happened in 1994? Bob Michel was swept away. Michel wasn't there during Clinton. That was Newt Gingrich and that crowd, but I guarantee you: This is exactly what inside the Beltway Washington wants of the Republican leaders. They want a Bob Michel: A guy who will simply keep the caucus in line and not make any waves as long as he gets to play golf with people now and then, who won't object to whatever is going on. Ray LaHood ought to be ashamed of himself for what he's doing. He ought not even call himself a Republican now. Chief of staff for Bob Michel, served during the time that Reagan was president?
My gosh, it was Reagan pulling by Bob Michel along! Bob Michel was scared to death when Reagan started doing stuff. Bob Michel had never been involved in those kinds of confrontations with the Democrats because it never mattered. There was never anything for the Republicans to win. That's how few members they had. So now we've got a Republican member of the Obama regime telling us that what we need is to go back to the days of Bob Michel, which is exactly what the inside the Beltway guys want. So here we have establishment Republicans telling us, "Look, we really can't fight these guys. The presidency's too powerful. Obama's too good. We can't really do anything until we win it all. This is the best we can do. We've got to realize this is the best we can do. We've got to do it now and try to save ourselves to come at them later."
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, it is not a joke to say that every day that when Bob Michel woke up and looked in the mirror, he saw a loser. That's what it was like to be a Republican in the House when he ran the show, and I'm not talking about loser as an individual. Alarm rings, Bob Michel pads into the bathroom to get ready for the day, sees himself in the mirror and says "every day I wake up and look in the mirror and say to myself, 'Today you're going to be a loser.'" He even said it! He was quoted in TIME Magazine saying it. Doubt me. Here it is. TIME Magazine quotes him: "Bob Michel of Illinois, would greet freshly elected GOP members with the revelation that 'every day I wake up and look in the mirror and say to myself, "Today you're going to be a loser." And after you're here a while, you'll start to feel the same way. But don't let it bother you. You'll get used to it.'"
That's what Bob Michel told Time Magazine about what it was like to be a Republican. It was Ray LaHood, a Republican, member of the Obama regime the Transportation Secretary said, "We need more Bob Michels!" So we need more Republican losers -- and the Beltway Republicans are essentially saying, "Hey, look, we really can't get any more than this. We gotta go along with whatever this is. This is the best we can do until we get a hold of everything," but that's not true.
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I remember him, he was a nice guy but a door mat. I’m sure the Democrats loved him.
He was a darn good caddy for Tip O’Neill. I understand Tip actually let Bob pick the golf balls.
He couldn’t wait to rollover for the democrats, very few dogs do it as well. Hope his retirement home is a travelling dog show where he can rollover forever.
Bob Michel was a nice guy and a good singer. He was in a men’s singing club with my Dad. He had so little power in Congress that he couldn’t even get an Interstate Highway built North South from Peoria to Chicago and St. Louis. Peoria was bypassed and was then the second largest city in IL. The Rats loved him because he caused them no problems and just..went along to get along. He is an absolute role model for why compromise has ruined our country..
They named a bridge for him in Peoria, Il - the district he was from.
We can be thankful though that there will never be a dam named for Chris Dodd. Can you imagine a "Dodd Dam"?
I remember Bobs “leadership”. Picking up the balls was the closest he got to actually having any.
Bob Michel turns 92 today.
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