Posted on 11/10/2001 6:05:37 AM PST by carlo3b
Rush Limbaugh has single-handedly brought us to a stage in our politics that we have the luxury to complain about how conservative this or that jerk Republican is, in what power position of control within our government. Rush is my hero, and always will be, and if you are over 50 and can remember where we Republicans came from, it will remind you what he did for all of us, that lived and suffered through it while sober.
It must have been 1988 or early '89, I was driving the interstate in Houston, when I switched radio channels and heard Rush the very first time. These were difficult times politically, the media had a full court press on, to soften the newly elected Bush Sr for the political slaughter that would mark the entire 4 years of his administration. It was obvious from the beginning, that the dignified President G H Bush, and his experienced adult and truly exceptional advisors were no match for the political task that lay ahead. The left, had endured Reagan, and his fatal near charm for 8 long years, and that was just about all they could handle.
Every TV and radio news station, every newspaper, each and every commentator in the public arena of political, academic, financial and entertainment life, was working off the same script... "this is the worse economy, worse indicators, worse direction our national health, and poor homeless citizenry have ever endured ...Blah blah blah" ...HUH .....WHAT??? WHERE??? WHO????
Didn't anyone remember THE "Double Digit" CARTER, or THE "Double Crossing" JOHNSON, or THE "Duel Devils" KENNEDY, administrations??? Apparently not on the nation scene, with the exception of few intellectual writers, a couple of obscure and totally despised and dismissed former Republican politicians, only one moderate voice, Paul Harvey, no one was speaking out for me .....until ... MR. RUSH LIMBAUGH.
When I heard him say, "It's lies, all lies, damned lies, and we didn't have to sit quietly and listen to it without saying so!!!!!!.." Whoa!!! YES!!! Who was this guy?? How could he say these things, and get away with it?? How long before someone in a position of power hears him, and shuts him down.. HA! In the interim, I'm going to do everything I can to encourage him, amplify his words, promote his station, and get as many others as I can to do the same. I think I opened the very first Houston "RUSH ROOM", a lunchtime, radios blasting Rush showcase.
At first, the culture shock and my blatant bias worked to the detriment of my own business. However, within 3 months we were packed again, only with a different mix of people ..these were for the most part ...LOL.. the new choir. When it started, people would look around and wonder what was happening. Arguments broke out spontaneously, and people listened intently, and commented across tables, and between strangers, among the classes and cultures ..it was a nervous, high five, laughing, red-faced, shouting mix of radicals. To say the least, not everyone agreed with my change of atmosphere, I was screamed at, and scolded, and cursed, and applauded, and yes ...thanked!
Rush, you may not be able to hear me, but thank GOD, I can still hear you. You are and always will be an inspiration to hard core conservatives, and clear thinking people of the world. Just thought someone should say so...
God Bless you Rush, I love you my friend!
No, he never bought into supporting the truths that the Clintons are true killers of their enemies.
How could he? Without the "proof" - he could not do so.
But Rush did enough castigating and humiliating of the Clinton crowd without buying into the worst of the Clinton deeds. (He did once say that if only the true reason for Vince Foster's death could be revealed - that everything "Clinton" would unravel....)
Anyway - I am with you Carlo = I have been a Rush fan since he first came on the air in our area and still am.
His personal struggle right now with his deafness / disability will only help his legend grow and endure. His detractors cannot understand the impact. What a great man, with a great heart, and great courage - especially now.
Rush - I salute you!
I started listening to Rush 10 years ago. My babies learned to dance to his opening music.
When the Scumbag Occupancy Years began, Rush kept my family and me sane through his laughter and satire.
His good cheer through his present difficulties is inspiring to me.
Rush is outrageous. It works!
There are many things he is not; like all of us ... and Rush is GREAT
Long may he reign!
Hope Rush sees this thread. It is full of genuine praise nd heartfelt good wishes.
Thank you, you big, harmless, loveable fuzzball.
Anyone who refuses to allow a serious medical condition to change his life has my complete respect.
My prayers are with you El Rushbo!
"Who IS this guy?", I wondered.
So I listened as long as I could hold the station. Some caller said something hysterically funny about the Bush-Dukakis debate of the night before, and this guy was making so much sense, I just had to know who he was.
But I was frustrated, because the reception wasn't great, and I just heard something like "Rush Limbaugh," and I knew that couldn't be a real name.
But then I caught him again, and when I moved to Sacramento in '89 started listening daily, which I have done ever since to the degree I'm able. (My son Matthew tapes him for me now.)
I remember in those early days wondering how he could say what he did about Ted Kennedy without being sued or something.
But my closest to bonding with Rush, as I've shared here several times, came the day after Clinton's first election.
I was lower than snake piss, I must say. Truly. The night before, a good man named Bruce Herschensohn had lost to a very evil-minded, phenomenally stupid woman named Barbara Boxer; other elections had gone wrong, and on top of it, Bush had conceded early -- because it wasn't even close.
My wife and I held each other and wept. We knew what this said about the country. We knew that the very worst elements in America would be strengthened and affirmed by this election. We had some idea of what was coming (though who could have known ALL of what was coming?).
And Rush had predicted like a one-point Bush victory.
So I tuned into Rush, very low and blue and dejected. And he pulled me out of it. (That takes some doing, too.) He was human, encouraging, heartening; heck, at that moment, he was just a really good, smart friend.
That happened a lot through the Clinton years. I heard my thoughts coming out of Rush's mouth. What I wanted to say to the nation, he often said. I remember once he had been playing a clip of some of Clinton's hot, steaming BS, and he started to talk while Clinton was still talking, and he said to Clinton, with real contempt, "Oh, would you just stuff it!" I roared; oh, to be able to say that to the worst man ever to occupy the Oval Office!
Anyway, I've rambled, and could ramble more. Yes, I disagree with Rush on points; yes, he's exasperated me; yes, I'm to the right of him.
But no one does what he does as well as he does it. He is irreplaceable. That jovial voice has changed, but he still says a lot of what has to be said, and he says it like no one else is saying it.
A fellow once told me that his office's attitude was that, if you put your finger in a glass of water and then pulled it out, and it left a hole, you were indispensable.
Rush would leave a hole.
Dan
PS-- thanks to the Rush-bashers for letting this thread be!
5.56mm
i hafta admit that i started listening to rush again. i got p*ssed when he said that hillary was not running for the u.s. senate and quit him.
but yes, i remember back to 1989 or more probably 1990 when i first heard him. there was someone that i usually agreed with who was taking on the liberal establishment.
Indeed it works, when he aired his parodies about the Dems, and it came out over the loud speakers throughout the bar and restaurant, the laughter and applause was unanimous and wild. The station that brought us the Rush Show, had a new station owner, Dan Patrick, a young feisty Irishman, and former Houston sportscaster. At the time he signed up Rush, he was a pathfinder, and gutsy. Whenever I would announce that we wanted to say thanks to him and his station for the show, they received a standing ovation by 95% of the guests ...Oh man, those were the days!!
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