Dick Armey: Rush Limbaugh Is Right About Obama

Dick Armey: Rush Limbaugh Is Right About Obama

Friday, March 6, 2009 1:36 PM

By: David A. Patten Article Font Size





Former House Majority leader Dick Armey told Newsmax in an exclusive interview Friday that he joins talk radio host Rush Limbaugh in hoping that President Obama’s efforts to impose a "nanny state" agenda on America will fail.

Asked if he agreed with Limbaugh’s controversial sentiments, Armey replied, "Well sure. I mean, who wants to see America [imitate] so many other nations that have gone down this primrose path of thinking government can be the nanny state and provider of all things?" [Editor's Note: See the Full Newsmax interview with Dick Armey - Go Here Now].

In fact, Armey said, "a great many Americans" agree with Limbaugh. But he went on to say that Limbaugh should have been "more circumspect and more judicious" in his choice of words, to avoid being misconstrued.

“A quick translation is: 'Rush says he wants the president to fail - Rush hates America,'" explained Armey, who was a chief architect of the Contract with America. "My only comment on Rush is, 'Rush, you know the rules of the game of political discourse well enough to have not walked yourself into that trap.' And by some inference, not to have walked some of us into that trap with him."

The 18-year House veteran also took strong exception to the anti-Limbaugh media campaign orchestrated in recent weeks out of the West Wing of the White House by Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Pundits have generally viewed that as a calculated effort to hurt Republican prospects with swing voters.

“Let’s say you’re the average American citizen," Armey told Newsmax. "The guy’s president of the United States. You’d say, 'I bet the guy has some real serious work to do.' But his chief of staff is what, operating as a political hack? Ronald Reagan did not let the political hacks in the White House. His point was very simple: ‘We’ve got serious work to do. People in this country who are good people have trusted us, and I’m not sitting here listening to a bunch of politics, let’s talk about policies.'"

For Obama to govern effectively on behalf of the people, Armey said, he needs to tell his staff: "'We don’t do politics here. This is where we do the nation’s work.’ And get the political hacks out of there. Bush had too many political hacks in the White House, and certainly Clinton politicized everything."

Armey tells Newsmax that he doesn’t expect that to happen because of what he calls two of the cardinal rules of politics: "Democrats perpetrate, and Democrats get away with it."

"So what you will see," Armey predicted, "is this president, to a greater degree [and] to a more harmful degree than the Clinton presidency, using the White House and the executive branch of government as a political instrument on behalf of his party. It will start with the next Census. It's already started. And the orthodox press will simply let them get away with it. They will broker no criticism of the man. It’s a fascinating thing."

Armey held out hope, however, that Republicans could return to power soon.

"I do believe the Democrats will overreach," he said, but added that Republicans must commit to an agenda that will benefit America, rather than just pursue a return to power for power's sake.

"My point to the Republicans is, I'm not interested in the Republicans having the majority to serve the purposes of the Republican Party. If you don't have a purpose for America I could care a less whether you get to be in the majority. And I believe the voters have the same attitude," Armey said.

Armey currently serves as co-chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based FreedomWorks organization, leading a grassroots effort to mobilize some 500,000 activists on behalf of lower taxes, limited government, and greater liberty. He has written four influential books: Price Theory: A Policy-Welfare Approach (1977); The Freedom Revolution (1995), The Flat Tax (1996), and Armey’s Axioms (2003).

The former House Majority Leader also told Newsmax that the Obama administration is basing its response to the nation's economic crisis on outdated economic theories.

"The more they do, the more we have the investor class sitting on the sidelines, people are holding back, they're not going be involved with this. So this thing is a wound that is open and infested," he said.

Although Armey expressed confidence that the nation's markets will eventually straighten themselves out he said Obama is "running around acting like he’s the newfound savior" based on erroneous economic theories. That, he said, "is not doing a bit of good. It’s actually just making the problem worse."