Limbaugh: Republican Establishment Takes Conservatives for Granted

Conservatives are getting forgotten amid the Republican Party’s effort to draw independent voters to presidential nominee Mitt Romney, says conservative talk radio king Rush Limbaugh.

“The Republican Party wants moderation, walking across the aisle, working together, to be the reason the party wins elections,” Limbaugh said on the air Wednesday.

“That's what they want everybody to understand. You know it, and I know it. There's not a whole lot of love for conservatives in the Republican Party. Except now, where the party will take anything they can get to win. They always tell us it's the independents.”

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Republicans conduct their quest for moderate independent voters differently than Democrats, Limbaugh said. “The Democrats are not embarrassed of their base. The Republicans, in large part, are. Except around election time, when they'll take it.”

That creates some internal tension in the GOP. “We've got our own little internecine battle going on in the Republican Party,” Limbaugh says. “The Republican Party does not want conservatism credited for success.”

To be sure, if independents indeed decide the election, that’s to Romney’s advantage, Limbaugh said, citing a Rasmussen Reports poll showing Romney ahead by 12 percentage points among independents.