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Jan. 2, 2008 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:23
January 2, 2008, Wednesday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
And greetings to you, music lovers, thrill seekers, and conversationalists all across the fruited plane, the award-winning thrill packed, ever exciting, increasingly popular.
Growing by leaps and bounds.
And even more important than ever, Rush Limbaugh program back as we kick off 2008 here on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network and directly from the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies, a brand new episode today.
Telephone number if you want to be on the program is 800-282-2882.
The email address L Rushbow at EIBNet.com.
Just another sign of global warming, ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow morning, every state in the continental United States will have areas where the temperature is 20 degrees or colder at 7 a.m.
Even here in Lovely, South Florida, it is going to be below freezing.
There is a crop and uh and a citrus warning out for tonight and tomorrow morning.
Now we're where we are here on the extreme uh east coast, uh, we're gonna be above freezing because of the warm temperatures of the ocean.
But you people inland uh in such places as Wellington and uh such places are gonna get close to uh freezing and up north uh will be in the twenties in New Hampshire.
Uh today's snowstorm, this is uh this is from New Year's Eve.
Today's snowstorm made this month the snowiest December in New Hampshire in more than 100 years.
Global warming.
Snow flurries are possible in Central Florida tonight and tomorrow morning at Daytona Beach during a hard freeze.
Uh what's happening is this weather pattern is going to cause, if you look at the right kind of map, and Dr. Roy Spencer, our official climatologist here, has sent me this map.
If you look at the right kind of map, you will see rivers of cold air in the Gulf of Mexico and on the uh on the east coast of Florida, the same kind of rivers of air that produce lace lake effect snow, say in Cleveland and Buffalo, uh, will be affecting Daytona Beach and Central Florida.
It's just gonna be flurries, but it will be cold enough for snow in the midst of global warming.
Now they're saying, by the way, climate change uh and uh climate change, of course, is meant to accommodate all of these extremes, you see.
Uh they've they've they very occasionally have gotten rid of uh of global warm.
No, Snerdley, this is really funny.
Uh Snerdley has a little bit of laryngitis.
You're not screening today, right?
Snerdley is not screening.
H.R. Kit Carson, trusted chief of staff, will be doing the official screening today on the program, but Snerdley's still rasping at me here.
What about Huckabee?
What about Huckabee?
We're gonna get to Huckabee.
I just got the soundbite roster from Cookie.
And I folks, I gotta tell you, when I was gone, I mean, I did some work, as I always do every day, but I did not watch television.
I did not watch news television, I didn't at night.
I I never do when I'm away.
It is amazing uh how much uh my mental health uh improved.
So I'm looking at these audio soundbite rosters, uh, the the the roster that Cookie uh has uh prepared for me, and it just it never stops.
All the I had no idea that this was being discussed.
You know, when we were last together uh on Friday, I sort of responded finally to this blogger at the Atlantic Monthly who quoted some Huckabee DC supporter or campaign advisor who had said some things about me.
I just uh it couldn't be some a Republican, this kind of thing that McCain says or Democrats say.
Um and so uh over that weekend, uh, you know, Huckabee had said some things.
I love Rush, oh I can't and they got hold of me from the politico, and they said, uh Huckabee wants to call you, but he doesn't know how to reach you.
Are you gonna call him back?
So I wrote them a reply on Sunday.
This will be December 23rd, I guess, uh, and uh I'll read that to you.
We put it on my website as well uh at Rush Limbaugh.com.
But that's we'll start in with this.
But I was just gonna say that one to the first, the first nine, the the first nine, the first ten, the first ten sound bites here are what was said about me and the fight with Huckabee all last week on cable news networks.
While I was out.
But we're gonna get to that.
I just don't want to lead with it today.
There are other things.
The Iowa caucus, of course, tomorrow.
It's very fascinating to watch.
Democrats are spending about 200 a vote in the Iowa caucus.
Do you know that less than 3%, less than 5% of Iowans actually participate in this?
And the uh uh the it's you generally the extremes of both parties who uh who show up at these caucus.
Um 125,000 people tops, maybe 150.
If it's above 150, no, wait a minute, if it's above 150,000 that participate, the conventional wisdom is that Obama's gonna run away with it because he's bringing a bunch of independents in.
If it's less than 150, it means Mrs. Clinton's gonna do lousy.
And so the forecast right now is 125,000.
Bob Novak is saying that Mrs. Clinton is going to come in third in the uh in the Hawkeye cockeye.
And so what that means is the drive-by media.
Oh, and by the way, this is happening too.
The drive-by's are sensing Huckabee's slide, and now they're back to building up McCain.
And I told you this was going to happen.
They can't wait to build McCain back up in New Hampshire.
So we've got a lot to talk about on the program today, and keep just keep it here for three hours, because there's no way I can do all of this in the first hour or even the uh the first couple of segments.
Did you get that email by the way on the HR 21s?
Well, you said you were gonna get the email at noon on the HR 21s.
It's a distraction I need to get rid of.
What's that, Snertly?
Just tell me.
Oh, that's right, he can't speak.
He's sending me little notes here.
Uh we'll get it we'll get to Benazir Bhutto.
We're gonna get to Benazir Bhutto in the Hillary Clinton stack.
Uh just making a mess of this.
She is just literally making she's out there saying things, criticizing Pervez Musharraf for saying that she ought to cancel the elections.
Uh you ought to cancel the elections because there's not going to be anybody on the ballot but him.
He's not on the ballot.
Pervez Musharraf was elected in October.
He's not on the Pakistan election ballot.
These are parliamentary elections.
This is a woman claiming she's got all this experience.
She doesn't even know what's going on in Pakistan.
And then she says that she was so close to Benazir Bhutto and so forth.
I I just it all of this, well I'm telling you, Sturdley, I can't get to all of this.
I've got 10 days here that I gotta try to sandwich into one, maybe two days here.
So just sit tight in there.
Um but I predict that if Hillary does come in third in Hawkeye Cockye, what we're going to then hear from the drive-bys and other places this.
Stories on Friday, probably in the process of being written right now.
Does Iowa really mean anything anymore?
Wait.
You does Iowa really mean anything?
At any rate, um, the primary season about to get real here, folks.
And I think it's time for me, your host, to be more forthcoming.
Uh I know many of you have been eagerly awaiting an endorsement from me, and I'm not going to make one in a direct fashion.
Uh it's not who I endorse or who I don't endorse.
What I'd rather discuss today as we move into the real primary season, with votes, first votes of the primaries to be cast in the cockeye uh tomorrow night.
I want to discuss with you my qualifications.
The qualifications that I possess that suggest that it is I, L. Rushbow, who can lead you through this difficult period.
Let me tell you, I want to give you a list of my qualifications and my experience.
I mean, everybody's talking about Leno and Letterman coming back tonight.
Big whoop.
The story ought to be Rush Limbaugh back today.
For eight years, folks, for eight years, from 1993 through the end of the year 2000, I was there with Bill Clinton every day.
I advised Clinton on every key issue.
I was working behind the scenes to run the country and Add to his legacy.
I'm not saying he listened to me, but I was there.
As were you.
Now, I doubt that there was any positive that came out of the eight years of Clinton that I didn't actually include my input on.
Remember welfare reform?
You think welfare reform would have happened, ladies and gentlemen, without me on this program advising Bill Clinton in my own way.
He listened to his wife twice, the woman who claims to have all the experience and vetoed welfare reform.
It's just a couple examples here.
But the third time when he signed it, who do you think was his advisor?
Not in the White House, not on his staff, who do you think put Bill Clinton over the top on welfare reform?
What about NAFTA?
When Bill Clinton signed NAFTA and his wife Hillary was against it?
Somebody changed his mind.
Who do you think did that?
Remember Al Gore in the debate with Ross Perot, cited me as a distinguished American in favor of NAFTA.
And I'm saying to you, ladies and gentlemen, that because of this experience, I am more qualified to advise you on this election than any political commentator or social commentator in history.
As a matter of fact, I am experienced enough, should I choose to lead the country from day one in the White House?
You doubt me, Mr. Snerdley, with the records are there.
All we need is a nod from Bill Clinton to release them.
They are no doubt tucked away in the Clinton Library and Massage Parlor.
He and Hillary discussing this and that and his advisors discussing this and that.
We know they listen to this program each and every day.
Dick Morris has told me so.
What's Limbaugh saying about this today?
One thing we ought to do welfare reform.
We don't want Limbaugh in our case every day.
Can't handle that.
This is that you got a Lewinsky out there, it's a big enough pro The influence this program exerted on Bill Clinton.
Should I have chosen to run for president would qualify me more than his wife, ladies and gentlemen.
But when those records are released, you will see how much of a factor I was in the Clinton White House, and how successful I was as the real co-president.
In the Hawkeye Cockye, uh the uh the news coming out of Iowa, you know, and I guess if you take a rolling average of all the polls, is that it's just too close to call on the Democrat side.
Uh Democrats uh are so close here.
They I mean a couple of polls Obama is pulling away, uh, which is, you know, the Clinton camp will set up if they lose.
Well, what's his old Iowa important anymore anyway?
But uh in some of the other polls, that's it's it's very close.
All three Democrats you got Mr. and Mrs. Clinton are trailing Mr. and Mrs. Obama with Mr. and Mrs. Edwards a close third uh in the Hawkeye Cawkay.
And so now that the headlines over the weekend were what if no one loses?
I mean, what if no one wins?
Their headlines are what if no one wins?
And what they really mean is what if no one loses?
Uh and all the pundits are playing their guessing games.
Uh who will win?
Uh but the question really should be asked, will anybody lose?
Even if Mrs. Clinton loses, will the B media be permitted to call it a loss when her husband will explain it as a win.
Well, now look, I mean, Hillary's, I mean, all these polls going into this, Limbaugh, she says she's coming in third place and end up in a dead hate.
Well, I think that's a big win for Hillary, because she wasn't even worried that much about don't give me that, you're spending $200 a vote there.
So the latest poll on the Democrat side has Mr. and Mrs. Clinton uh trailing Mr. and Mrs. Obama with Mr. and Mrs. Edwards a close third, and we are told by um the smartest pundits that the Democrat race in Iowa is so close because the three leading candidates are so strong.
Well, somebody has to ask, and it's always left to me to ask the right question.
Could it be so close because they're so weak?
Could it be so close because none of them are inspiring any of the voters for a big front runner lead?
I mean, look at they've got the money.
Mrs. Clinton and both Obama have raised over a hundred million dollars.
They've got the media behind them.
They have the quote enthusiasm, but not one of them has a solid majority.
Uh, how long was I away from you and the golden EIB microphone, a little over a week, right?
Seven uh working days.
And in that period of time, since I, ladies and gentlemen, have been away, Mrs. Clinton went from Hillary the experienced and Bill Clinton's wife, to Hillary the Likable and Bill Clinton's wife, to Hillary the agent of change and Bill Clinton's wife.
And then back to Hillary the experienced and Bill Clinton's wife.
At least the Breck girl has been consistent.
He started out as a depression era populist and he's ending as one.
This campaign of his, he's out there.
He is filled with hate.
He is filled with absolute rage.
And of course, those kinds of extremists are the people that show up in the Hawkeye Cooker on both sides.
And what uh what did Obama do the week plus that I was away?
Well, uh the best we can say about Obama is that he gained another week of needed experience in government.
He also said, by the way, Obama said he can't reach me.
I mean, he's not he's trying to be the big agent of change, but he can't reach people like me.
He yeah, he used to be in radio, but he can't reach me, meaning he's not going to change my vote.
I he says Rush and Ball never going to vote for me, so why I have that story too coming up uh in the uh in the stack.
Oh, yeah, we're loaded.
Uh uh he brought it up himself.
If you just wait patiently, Mr. Snerdley, I will get to it.
In in uh in broadcasting, what I just did was a tease.
Just sit tight, folks, and all will be revealed in due course.
Rick in Charlotte, North Carolina.
I want to grab a phone call quickly.
Great to have you with us, sir.
Hello.
Oh, my friend Rush, my friend Rush.
You have uh really picked a pretty interesting way to fight this situation regarding uh Huckabee.
It's about two weeks ago, the week will starting on the Monday that you left.
Mike Huckabee has been subjected to the biggest anal reaming job you could imagine among all of these candidates, among Republicans.
He's gonna go in bloody beaten, brutalized, and hobble because you and other guys in your big pulp pit here over the microphone have been just running him through the meal.
Rick, be very careful here.
Uh do not rewrite history to the man with the perfect memory.
Me.
All right.
I was sitting here minding my own business, bothering nobody, not endorsing anyone, when somebody on Huckabee's staff lashed out in such a way that I was unable to ignore it and avoid it because it had seminal meeting as to who Cuckaby is and who his campaign is, and what did they what they are.
And so I simply responded to it.
Well, if you responded, that's okay.
I can understand you defending yourself, and they have to defend themselves too.
But what I'm trying to say is that he's been held up to a standard that no other Republican candidate has been subjected to.
Namely his words have been parsed.
Just you're if you remember, of course, with your Donovan McNabb that they tried to they parsed your words and wrongly did you, and same thing with uh Michael J. Michael J. It's the it's the big it's the big leagues, but you I don't I don't know who you're talking about parsing Huckabee's words.
While he was in the lead, the drive-by media were promoting this guy left and right.
Uh now they've moved off of Huckabee.
They wanted Huckabee to win Iowa.
They want Huckabee or wanted Huckabee to get the nomination for reasons not in any way related to the fact that they love Huckabee.
Uh the reason that the drive-by's and Democrats are so excited about Huckabee is because and he now I'm I'm telling you this from their perspective, folks.
I'm not this is not my opinion.
It is my opinion of what liberals think and the drive-by media, but they hate the religious right.
They despise activist evangelical Christians because activist evangelical Christians frighten the bejesus out of liberals.
And of course, there's no bejesus in liberals, and so they're empty after they're frightened.
So here comes Huckabee.
And they've been looking for ways, folks, to get rid of the influence of the Christian right for years in the Democrat Party and in the drive-by media.
So here comes Huckabee.
And he's he's running as an evangelical.
He is running using identity politics.
Identity politics is vote for me, I'm an evangelical.
Forget everything else you know about me.
Forget what my issue stands are, forget my record, forget my p I'm a Christian.
That's identity politics, and usually the left does that.
Vote for me, I'm the black guy.
Vote for me, I'm the gay guy.
Vote for me, I'm the lesbo.
Vote for me, I'm the woman.
Mrs. Clinton has tried identity politics in playing the gender card, for example.
Now we Republicans and conservatives generally don't do that, but Huckabee did.
And so the drive-by is in the media said, whoa, here's a chance.
We build this guy up, we get him the nomination, and then in the general election, we destroy him.
And in the process of destroying Huckabee, see, they were not parsing his words, they were ignoring his words, Rick.
They weren't paying attention to his record or anything.
They were helping him along with the identity politics business.
Their intention was to destroy him and in their minds, the entire Christian right once and for all if they could get him the nomination.
Now they're promoting McCain back in a second.
Not only the most influential, the most important, the most accurate and the most correct.
Rush Limboa, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have here on the EIB network.
Tremendous.
Actually, it's great to be back with all of you.
I have uh I spent an amazing uh week, and I'm going to be very, very honest about this.
I I needed to recharge.
I needed to chill out.
Because by the way, folks, I want to let you know.
I have canceled both of my scheduled appearances in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, scheduled for this month, and in the AT uh national pro am in February, because of the presidential primaries and the election season.
Uh it's too important.
Uh I I uh I'm not gonna be gone during those periods.
Uh, you know, February 5th is the uh is the huge super Tuesday.
That is the week that the ATT starts.
It's actually the following weekend.
The Super Bowl is on February 3rd.
Uh the Bob Hope is January 15th.
I had committed to both, and I cancel over the weekend, over the uh over the Christmas break, I uh I cancel them both uh simply because of the importance of this year.
I went to Missouri for Christmas.
Uh I left on uh on Christmas Eve morning.
I got back on Christmas night on the 25th.
Uh so that was that's a week ago yesterday.
I did not leave the house from Christmas night, other than a couple of golf games.
I did not leave the house from Christmas night until yesterday morning for another golf game.
I didn't speak to anybody.
I emailed.
I chatted that sort of stuff.
Just me and pumpkin.
Well, it's a people get this had some people called invite themselves over for New Year's Eve dinner, so I set one of those up.
So I I take it back.
It was it was it was Monday night.
That was Monday night's New Year's Eve, right?
But it was so blissful.
It was so I I figured out something while I was gone.
I've been in radio, and this is, by the way, this is not unique to me.
I think a lot of people's lives are lived under the pressure of the precision of time.
Uh I've been doing broadcasting since I was sixteen.
And it was I didn't even figure this out until uh I emailed somebody about, you know, what are you doing?
I haven't heard.
I'm just sitting here vegging.
I didn't worry about what time I went to bed.
I didn't go to bed till I got tired.
A couple days it's five o'clock in the morning.
I didn't worry about what time I got up.
And that was what was bliss.
No schedule.
No obligations.
No having to be on.
No having to even shave.
No having to even get dressed if I didn't want to.
Because what is pumpkin care?
So it was just, it was just blissful.
But since I was uh sixteen, yes, so that's 40 years.
In radio, everything is precision timing.
Commercial breaks, gotta be here at the precise time.
There's no such thing as even being seconds late.
Uh and and and television when it did that, it was even more so.
Uh and and all other aspects of life, and I'm sure yours you have to be at work at a certain time, but unlike me, you can probably get away with staying at Starbucks for five or six minutes and lingering and walk in and blame it on the traffic.
I can't.
Um a vet, you can blame it on the kid, you can blame it.
I can't.
Uh, and so my ideal, if I really want to recharge, if I really want to get real focused, I don't do anything until I feel like doing it.
And if I feel like doing nothing, I do nothing.
And so I'm back, folks.
I am ready.
I am rested.
And so that's that's what I did.
And I I think it it's something normally when I go on a vacation somewhere, there's still time pressures and time constraints.
If you're playing golf early in the morning in the golf, so I'm not complaining.
The golf is fun and all that sort of stuff, but it's not really relaxing in the sense that I don't get a break from the things that really stress me.
And yes, even I, ladies and gentlemen, encounter stress.
And most of my stress is oriented around time.
And so when I can get rid of any time constraints or requirements in my life, then I do it.
And I did it.
And I couldn't have done it were I married.
See, that's the key.
Are you gonna sit in here for three days in a row and not come out?
Dawn, don't give me that smirk.
I'm not criticizing anybody.
I'm just telling you who I am.
And so there you have it.
Back to the phones.
Uh Katie in uh Winona, Iowa.
Nice to have you with us on the EIB network.
Hello.
Hey Rush, it's Minona with an M. But everybody.
What did I what did I say?
You said Winona.
Oh, well, I got my glass we got this.
You know, the computer monitor, I have to say this, Katie.
The computer the computer monitor, actually, the program, our call screener program dates back to the eighties.
It looks like your old DOS computer with the green and so forth.
And so a W looks like an M without my glasses on or glasses on.
It's a little M. That's okay.
You look wonderful.
I'm watching you on the ditto cam.
I can see that you're rested.
Thank you.
I'm glad you're back.
And I we missed you terribly.
But while you were gone, what I was doing was calling people on the telephone, fellow Republicans, please, to remind them to go to caucus.
Are you part of the party apparatus?
Yes, I am.
Okay.
I have been hung up on, sworn at, uh Rush, you can't believe.
I got to the point where I would rather be waterboarded than make another call.
And then I got one of your people.
And I could immediately I immediately knew this was a rush listener, so I included that as my question.
Are you by any chance a rush listener?
And this woman said to me every single day.
So I added that in my on my uh on my script.
And when I came to somebody that was kind, intelligent, informed, pleasant, and willing to chat, I found out.
I asked the question, do you listen to Rush?
And the answer every time was yes.
And I was right every single time.
You people are they're so obvious.
You know who they are.
That's just you know that I I am.
That that just that's that's encouraging.
That is so great that you can tell simply by their level of intelligence, their d their degree to which they were informed, and their manner, their politeness, their deportment, that they were rush listeners.
Yes.
The dead giveaway, a dead giveaway.
They use words like I mean, somebody even mentioned the Constitution.
Um I heard uh the phrase stuck on stupid.
Um I knew who they were.
Stuck on stuff.
They're wonderful.
Now but but but uh uh now if if I were not inclined to be the optimist that I am, uh huh.
If I were not inclined to be pessimistic, you know what my reaction to this call would be?
What?
Well, I don't understand this.
Every Republican you're calling ought to be a rush listener.
That's why I called.
They and not only that, every Republican that I called should have acted like a rush listener.
They should have treated me kindly, you know.
Uh um they should be.
Well, I am sure that it a majority of the Republicans you called were in fact rush listeners, correct?
I quite a few, yes, quite a few.
Yeah.
And that's the way I I could keep going.
Well, I mean, well, uh I'd like the people in Iowa to get up off their butts on tomorrow night and go to caucus, you know.
Show those people around.
Well, you know, wait a second now.
I understand what you're saying, but I kind of like the fact that people don't care, don't go.
The last thing in the world we need is a busload of people that don't care going in because they've been paid to go or show up because they've been told what to do.
Well I'd say that if you people in Iowa don't care, stay home.
Don't go.
The orange balls on tomorrow night.
Have fun.
If you don't care, maybe they'd learn something if they'd go.
Well no.
No, you don't think so, huh?
No.
Well, anyway, you saved me.
I couldn't have gotten through those phone calls without you.
Well, I appreciate Katie.
Katie, thank you so much for the call.
You're so welcome.
I appreciate one thing about the Hawkeye Cawkeye, you gotta understand what it is.
And for those of you in Iowa, I'm not being critical here, but it's not like an all-day thing where you have some free time and you can go vote.
The Hawkeye Cockey start at 6 30.
So if you work the night shift at McDonald's or the night shift anywhere else, you can't go.
Uh if you're if you work in a hospital, if your job has you at work at 6 30, you cannot go.
Uh and I uh so it's it's it's not like open ballot elections or or ballot uh voting place elections where you you know take five or six minutes if you have them and go.
Uh it starts at 6 30, goes at least an hour, sometimes two, and you can't just walk in a half hour, an hour into the thing.
You gotta be there when they start.
And if um if you're out of town, there's no absentees or any of that.
I I I didn't mean to leave you hanging about the Huckabes.
Let me take a break.
We'll come back and do the Huckabee stuff after this.
Don't go away, folks.
Hi, welcome back, Rush Limbaugh and the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies talent on loan from God.
Let me deal with the latest here involving Governor Huckabee that happened uh on the break.
When we were last together on Friday, December, whatever it was, uh I had I had finally decided to react to uh a statement made by a an alleged Huckabee campaign advisor in Washington.
Uh, don't even remember the exact words, but but mischaracterized me in this program the way Democrats do.
Just an entertainer, part of the Washington New York media axis, uh whatever the RNC talking points are, that's what you'll hear from Limbaugh.
We don't begrudge him, he made a lot of money.
He's a great entertainer, but uh blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And as you know, this is really strange because this is the kind of thing Democrats have been saying, but no Republican campaign strategist worth his salt and been around for 19 years, would have that kind of misunderstanding about what happens on this program, nor would they attempt to uh pass it off to other Republicans as as accurate.
Uh and so I made comments about this on Friday for the first 45 minutes of the program.
When that ended, the program ended that day.
Apparently the drive-by media in Iowa sought out Governor Huckabee.
And they asked Governor Huckabee, what is this?
With you and Limbaugh.
And on Monday, December 24th, well, actually, this we the audio soundbite I have is uh Monday December.
Let me tell you some things before I play the soundbite.
On um on Sunday, uh already into my veg routine, because they got to leave the next day for Missouri for Christmas.
So I'm just watching the football games and monitoring the computer, and I get an email note from a drive-by blogger asking me, it was uh I think Jonathan Martin at the Politico, asking me, okay, the Huck says he's trying to reach you, but he doesn't know how to get hold of you.
Which Huckabee did say and said, Well, I would love to talk to Rush, but I don't know how to get hold of him.
I don't know what to have his number.
And he asked the blogger Jonathan Martin from the political, do you have Rush's number?
Well, Martin didn't.
So he asked me, Do you have a reply?
So on Sunday afternoon, I replied with a press statement of Jonathan Martin Politico and also put the following at Rush Limbaugh.com.
Here's what I said.
I don't need to speak to Governor Huckabee.
I saw his comments talking about how much he respects me and the program and all of that.
I saw his comments and I accept them as honest and sincere and genuine.
What was somewhat stunning about all this is that no one in the GOP field, including advisors and staff, could possibly misread my 19-plus year career the way Governor Huckabee's DC supporter did.
Whoever said those things was essentially repeating the Democrat mantra of all these years that I'm just an entertainer, not an independent thinker, part of the Wall Street D.C. Axis.
If it was someone on Governor Huckabee's staff or support team, it was just silly.
It was uninformed and thus curious.
Governor Huckabee's campaign is engaged in identity politics at this moment, So I understand his advisor or supporters' intent to put the focus on me rather than the substance of my commentary.
As for the governor not knowing how to reach me, I said, there are people on his Arkansas staff who know full well how to reach me and have known for months how to reach me.
And they have not.
But that's not necessary to me.
We're not playing in a kindergarten sandbox here.
We are still presumably adults.
So that went up on Sunday afternoon at the Politico and on my website.
That night or the next morning, I forget which, I heard from Governor Huckabee in an email, via my email address.
Because they know, I can't tell you how, but his campaign people in Arkansas know full well how to reach me.
They have access to office phone numbers, they've got access to my email address, they've got all of that.
And Governor Huckabee was out saying, I would love to talk to Rush, but I can't reach him.
I I don't know how to reach him.
He's asking news people if they have my phone number.
Many of the people he asked had my email address, by the way.
So he um he said, look, in his, I'm paraphrasing, I don't have his reply right in front of me, but Governor Huckabee said to me, uh, look, the last thing I want to do is pick a fight with you.
I've what I said is true.
I've loved your show ever since I first heard it.
Uh you're you're responsible for much of the success of our party, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And then he said something very curious.
He said, I can't respond to what that supporter of mine said, because A, I don't know who said it, and B, I don't know what was said.
Now, this was three days after, or maybe even four, four days after what appeared on the Atlantic.com blog, in which the Huckabee advisor had said that I was just an entertainer, not an independent thinker, part of the D.C. Washington Axis, and he was telling me in his email to me that he could not respond, that he would love to.
But he didn't know what was said.
And he didn't know who said it.
Now he might not know who said it, but it was hard for me to believe by, you know, four days after the fact he didn't know what was said.
I don't, folks, then none of this is personal to me.
I'm I'm looking at this in a you know, a much different way.
How can you not know what was said and yet reach out to me and say I'm sorry, or we did he actually didn't apologize, but he wanted to set the record straight, but to not be able to respond because he didn't know what was said.
Then on Christmas Eve, and by the way, I did not reply to Governor Huckabee's email.
I thought long and hard about it, and I'll tell you why I didn't reply.
I didn't reply because I wanted to avoid the possibility that any little phrase that I used in the email, because I'm a polite, nice person, could be taken out of context and waved around by the governor or somebody in his staff and say, okay, it's over, we've made peace with limbo.
Uh when there was no need to make peace, which was my first point.
I don't need to talk to Governor Huckabee.
This is not beanbag here.
This is the big leagues, he doesn't need to, I don't need to talk to him, my feelings are not hurt, that I'm not taking in this personally.
Uh so I wanted to avoid any chance the campaign could wave some piece of paper around claiming it was an email from me that he had said, say, I've made peace with limbo, everything's cool now.
But there was no need to make peace because there was nothing specific uh here that required peace.
That was not my point.
I was not demanding anybody apologize to me.
I'm a child about this kind of stuff.
Um so I did re I did not reply to a Governor Huckabee's letter.
Uh see, now look at I've talked, I don't got this sound bite, but I don't have time to play it before we go to the commercial break because it's about 20 seconds longer than we have to.
But yeah, it is um it is Governor Huckabee claiming not to have a full-time employee in Washington and asking the press, who said this?
I don't know who said this about Limbaugh so forth.
So anyway, that's coming up as the program continues to unfold before your very eyes and ears stay with us.
We'll be right back.
If someone told you that a conservative was someone who supported amnesty for illegals, who supported limiting free speech, who embraced the ACLU's brief for terrorist detainees, and who opposed tax cuts during the Bush administration, what would you say?
Say they're not conservative, right?
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