Rush Limbaugh, Trent Lott, Talk Radio

I RUN AMERICA!

Back From Golf Trip, Rush Feeling Powerful







After a week away, Rush Limbaugh clearly couldn't wait to return to the airwaves and resume running the country. For the occasion, his website was redesigned and new graphic images now proclaim the talk titan as our nation's leader.

But instead of merely joking about Senator Trent Lott's assertion that talk radio is calling the shots in America, Limbaugh tore into the Republican from Mississippi yesterday, accusing him of "trying to slither out of this" in a weekend news show appearance:

RUSH: All right, Trent Lott. He made this comment actually before last week, but only yesterday did he show up on Fox News Sunday to discuss this. What he said was talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem. It's about the immigration bill and how the people on talk radio got the immigration bill killed. And Lott thinks it's a problem. So he shows up on television yesterday with Chris Wallace and Senator Dianne Feinstein.


One of the questions that Wallace asked Trent Lott was this. "Let's start with the controversy over talk radio because Senator Lott you stirred up quite a hornet's nest this week when you said, 'Talk radio is running America, we have to deal with that problem.' Here was the reaction from a conservative talk show host."


RUSH ARCHIVE: Talk radio is the American voter. That's what bothers Trent Lott.


WALLACE: Senator, your response.

LOTT: One of the mistakes that we have made many times on legislation is it's introduced, it comes out of committee, we bring it to the floor, we never bother to explain what we're trying to do and what is in it. I think that was the mistake that was made with immigration. Talk radio defined it without us explaining that there were reasons for it and the good things that were in it. So the onus is not on them. It's on us to do a better job of communicating what we're trying to do.

RUSH: Trying to slither out of this.

LOTT: -- look, I've been defended by talk radio many times --

RUSH: Damn right.

LOTT: -- and I will support their right to tell their side of the story, right, left, or the middle, forever. I don't think in this Fairness Doctrine it would try to require that there be X-amount on both sides is fair. So, you know, it's caused quite a stir, but, you know, it goes with the territory.

RUSH: What a slither job that was. He slithered out of that. Well, I can't describe how things in my life have slithered out of my control and keep it family oriented, but I'm telling you, this is -- (laughing) -- he did not want to be held account to this. "Oh, that's not what I mean." So the next question, "Senator, I'm not going to let you off the hook quite that easily. You said this also last week. 'I'm sure senators on both sides of the aisle being pounded by these talk radio people don't even know what's in the bill.' Now, I talked to some of the talk radio people, and they say you make it sound like they're leading around their listeners like a bunch of sheep. They say, look, they know what's in the bill, the listeners know what's in the bill, and they don't like it."

LOTT: As a matter of fact, I do talk radio in my own state in particular, but others, and I'm sure Diane does, too. I was doing one interview, and the talk radio host said to his credit, "What are you trying to do here?" And I explained that we were trying to improve a bad situation. And that's a summation of it. And he said, "Well, tell me four things in this bill that you think are significantly better than the current law." So I ticked them all. He said, "That's in there?" I said, yeah. See, that's the point. It's not that they are maliciously trying to --

RUSH: Oh, here we go.

LOTT: -- distort it, and this is a complicated bill with a lot of moving parts. Some of it I don't like. You know, I'm not committed to voting for the final product. The wheels may come off. But I am committed to trying. That's what the United States Senate should be trying to do.

RUSH: Well, Senator Lott, ladies and gentlemen, has asked to say something to those of you in this audience as a result of this controversy. (Trent Lott message spoof.) You know what I thought about doing today? I ought to not tell you; I'll just do it one day. No, I'll tell you. I actually thought about showing up here today with a gag in my mouth and still talking to you. To speak as though I am being gagged, sort of like I used to put the condom on the microphone to illustrate safe talk or the absurdity of safe sex and to put the gag in my mouth and say, "Hi, folks, this is Rush Limbaugh, the man who is running America." And, by the way, when they say talk radio, they mean Rush Limbaugh.

Coming back from Vermont on, I guess Thursday afternoon after we played up there, we had Fox News on the airplane, and I'm watching, they're playing videotape of me in the studio doing the program and talking to somebody about this Think Progress report or this Center for American Progress, the John Podesta group that thinks that there's a big problem with talk radio, needs to be handled legislatively.

One of the gentlemen on the airplane, one of the guests said, "Why are you in this?" I said, "Because I am talk radio." He's a Connecticut guy, not sure what this was all about, reads the New York Times. I'm watching this, and it is kind of surreal. So I thought about showing up here with a gag in my mouth, as the man who runs America. But let me say this.

As the man who runs America, and Trent Lott I don't think successfully slithered out of that comment -- if I'm running America, here are my decisions today. I'm going to have more decisions for America tomorrow and maybe even some the day after that. I have decided today as the man who runs America to move Trent Lott from the Senate back to the House. I have decided that tax cuts are no longer temporary. They are permanent. I have decided that September will be American Excellence Month. I have decided that energy independence will be a reality and not a slogan. Therefore I am authorizing ANWR on a fast track and we're going to build ten new nuclear plants starting tomorrow. Number five, I pronounce speaker Nancy Pelosi a failed leader of the House.

To your Radio Equalizer, what was most alarming was the amount of agreement between Lott and Feinstein during their weekend interview. Is there any difference between the two parties at this point?


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