RUSH: Justin in Puyallup, Washington. Nice to have you, sir. You are first up.
CALLER: Good morning, Mr. Limbaugh. Mega dittos from the home state of the most unintelligent member of the US Senate.
RUSH: That would be Patty Murray.
CALLER: Yes, sir, indeed.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I am a Rush Baby. I started listening to your show in 1994 at ‘Lunch With Rush,’ a restaurant I worked in in Wausau, Wisconsin.
RUSH: Well, I’m happy to hear that.
CALLER: I’ve been listening to you since, sir.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.
CALLER: My topic this morning is, I have heard the accounts of many of your colleagues meeting with the president Wednesday morning —
RUSH: Mmm-hmm?
CALLER: — and I was wondering why the man who is running America, ‘you know it and I know it,’ was not there.
RUSH: Because I went yesterday afternoon and last night.
CALLER: So that was your super-secret meeting?
RUSH: Super-secret meeting at a far-away place, yeah. The president and I, Ed Gillespie in the room who took over for Dan Bartlett. We had cigars and beverages for a couple hours in the Treaty Room up in the residence. It was so much fun.
CALLER: Was this meeting off the record as well?
RUSH: This one, yes. Even if they had not told me this was off the record, this one was off the record. I’m just guessing here, but I don’t think the things we discussed last night got discussed in these group things. I would be stunned if they did. Then I went in and had dinner with the president and Mrs. Bush and the first lady, but it was about two and a half hours in there, and it was cool. It was a tremendous amount of fun. I got up early. One reason I’m low on sleep, is I had to get up at 4:30 for breakfast in the White House mess today with Karl Rove and Pete Wehner.
CALLER: What a privilege for you, I’m sure.
RUSH: Well, it was a privilege for
CALLER: (Laughing.)
RUSH: You know, people have been asking me, ‘Well, what did the president tell you last night?’ That’s not it. ‘What did I tell the president?’ is the correct question.
CALLER: (Laughing.) So he also recognizes that you’re the man running the country?
RUSH: Well, who doesn’t? I mean there are certain things that don’t need to be said. Now, I’ll just tell you this. Well, this is nothing new. I tell people this every time that I have been with him. He is the most confident man. He is a barrel of laughs. He is at ease. He is unfazed by any of the criticism that he gets. He doesn’t care about it. One of the things he said to me is he was talking to a world leader. (It doesn’t matter which one. It was a European world leader). The leader said, ‘You know, you Americans, you’re the problem.’ Bush said, ‘We are not the problem. The United States of America is the solution, and the sooner you realize it and join it the better off you’re all going to be.’ He loves the country. He has great belief and devotion to what he’s doing.
It was an honor. It was a thrill to be there. This is the third time I’ve been up in the White House residence and the second time that I’ve had dinner, and the first time I’ve had cigars in the Treaty Room. The Treaty Room, by the way, is pretty close to the Lincoln Bedroom, and it’s the actual room where the treaty to end the Spanish-American War was signed, and the desk where the treaty was signed is actually in that room. I asked the president, ‘Cigars?’ We were originally going to go on Truman Balcony, but it’s hot out there. It’s hotter than it was down in Florida, in Washington these days, same thing in a lot of the Northeast. I said, ‘I thought this was a smoke-free zone.’ He said, ‘Well, I saw your spot on the 1/2 Hour News Hour and you said it’s not a smoke-free zone, so we’re gonna go smoke cigars in the Treaty Room. When you were playing the president, you declared this a smokeable zone now.’ He was up to speed and clever. I went in, I guess I got in there about three o’clock yesterday afternoon, and got up pretty late. So in dribbles and drabs, ladies and gentlemen, I will divulge certain things that happened, but a lot of it would love to tell you but even if I had permission, I wouldn’t.