RUSH: Craig in Richmond, Virginia, welcome to the program.
CALLER: (Unintelligible)
RUSH: What?
CALLER: Hello?
RUSH: What? Yes? What did you say? Tomato?
CALLER: No! No! I said, ‘Rushbo.’
RUSH: Rushbo.
CALLER: Rushbo.
RUSH: Thank you very much, sir, great to have you with us.
CALLER: Yes. Black conservative dittos to you, my friend. You’re a real inspiration and it is a real honor to speak to you.
RUSH: Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
CALLER: My comment is: no more nice guys in the White House. I voted for President Bush. I respect President Bush.
RUSH: I have a question.
CALLER: I respect the entire Bush family.
RUSH: I have a question.
CALLER: Shoot.
RUSH: Before you finish your point here, because I’m a student of voices and dialects, accents, are you a Katrina refugee?
CALLER: Oh! (Laughing.) No. No.
RUSH: Are you from New Orleans or Louisiana?
CALLER: No. Lifetime Richmond, Virginia, resident.
RUSH: Wow. Okay. Well, I didn’t mean anything insulting by it. It was just asking.
CALLER: Well, I’ve been told I have a southern accent.
RUSH: Well, I can’t imagine why they would say that.
CALLER: They tell me I need to get rid of the accent.
RUSH: No! It’s who you are. Don’t get rid of it! Don’t let ’em talk you out of that.
CALLER: Well…yeah. Well, I’m making my own movie this summer and I’m going to have a little clip of you. It’s about me, but I’m going to have something inspirational that you are saying.
RUSH: Everybody wants to get in on the act.
CALLER: (Laughs.)
RUSH: Okay, no more Mr. Nice guys as president. That’s what you’re saying, huh?
CALLER: Well, listen. The Fort Dix thing, that was Clinton being a nice guy, and I mean, hey, a nice guy can marry my daughter. A nice guy can live next door to me. But when it comes to commander-in-chief, come on, Rush! I mean, we help these people out over there, and they come here. The Fort Dix thing. We bring them into Fort Dix to get them acclimated to their new home. How do they repay us, Rush? Bush wants to do this with the — well, President Bush, let me be respectful. He wants to do this 45,000 Iraqi refugees. They want to bring them here! Why so much nice guy.
RUSH: Well, you have a point, particularly in dealing with the enemy.
CALLER: Yes!
RUSH: You actually do have a point, but the country wants nice guys. The country wants nice, touchy-feely people.
CALLER: But if you take the attributes of a president and you categorize them in numerical order, I want ‘nice guy’ to be in the mix but I don’t want it to be one, two, or three. My goodness! I want it to be eight, nine, or ten.
RUSH: I hear ya. I hear ya. Right on. Right on. Right on.
CALLER: (Laughing.) Can you imagine how Harry Truman would go over today with his salty language and his take-no-prisoners attitude about things? Look, on the other side, Ronald Reagan was — for all intents and purposes, outward appearances — a nice guy, but he was tough as nails behind closed doors, in dealing with Gorbachev and others. That’s a good point, sir. I appreciate the call. Thanks so much.