RUSH: To Matthews, North Carolina. This is Neil. Great to have you, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, how you doing?
RUSH: Very well, sir. Thank you.
CALLER: Hey, I’ve listened to you for about 20 years. I don’t play or watch golf, but after watching you on The Haney Project just two times, two half an hour shows, I’ve learned more about you as a person than I have in all my 20 years of listening to you.
RUSH: Oh, really?
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Really? Now, wait just a second. You actually said you listened to the program for 20 years but after watching two 30-minute episodes of The Haney Project you’ve learned more about me on those shows than 20 years on the radio?
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: I’ll bite. Like what?
CALLER: Well, you’re a regular guy. You’ve got vulnerabilities like the rest of us. You just want to live your life as a regular person, and it just makes you more real to me.
RUSH: That’s fascinating. I’m not being critical here. Do not be intimidated by anything I’m saying here.
CALLER: All right.
RUSH: I’m just reacting here, stream of consciousness. You only learned on The Haney Project, or had it confirmed for you that I’m a real guy?
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: That I have vulnerabilities?
CALLER: Yes, especially the vulnerability part.
RUSH: You don’t hear any vulnerabilities on the radio show?
CALLER: Well, when you have sayings like, ‘Don’t doubt me,’ I mean you even have that on your golf ball.
RUSH: (laughing) I do. ‘Don’t doubt me’ is on the golf ball.
CALLER: Yeah. Yeah. My wife watched it with me, and she was fascinated. She’s listened to you on and off, and she just had a hoot watching you last night for the first time. She especially liked those shorts that you’re wearing.
RUSH: Oh yeah, those are the Loudmouth shorts.
CALLER: Yeah.
CALLER: She had a good idea about those. You know, you’ve got the EIB Network, why don’t you start a brand of shorts and call ’em the Excellence in Bermudas?
RUSH: Well, that’s already a pretty well established brand to have to compete with. You can tell your wife, most people ask me — you want vulnerability, here’s vulnerability — why do you wear those shorts? I always tell ’em, ‘If you have the face I have, you would wear anything to distract people’s attention away from it.’ That’s vulnerability for you.
CALLER: Yeah. Well, I just think —
RUSH: Wendy is in here nodding her head, by the way, in agreement with that.
CALLER: I think the show is just absolutely phenomenal. I’m fascinated by it. You come across when you’re talking to Haney, you know, totally different than when you’re on the radio.
RUSH: Now that’s fascinating ’cause I checked e-mail this morning, and I found — most of it’s at home, I didn’t transfer it here — I found one e-mail about The Haney Project show last night, and it was from somebody who said, ‘I just don’t believe how arrogant you are, telling your coach what you will and won’t do on this show. You can’t be serious about wanting to learn the game telling your coach what you won’t do.’ This person obviously has no sense of humor.
CALLER: Well, I could tell you were just being — you know, another thing that struck me about you is how honest you are.
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: You are just so blatantly honest. I mean he wanted you to go to the range, and you said, ‘I don’t go to the range. I don’t do this for a living.’ And you know, I mean, most other people woulda said, ‘Yeah, gotta go to the range,’ or whatever to try to play along, but you’re totally honest with the guy.
RUSH: Well, I did. I told him I can play on the range. I don’t need any help there. I need to learn how to play on the golf course.
CALLER: Yeah, I had the same problem you did. I would go to the range and hit a bunch of great balls, and this is 25 years ago when I quit playing, and then I’d go play nine holes or 18 holes with a buddy, and the longer I played, the worse I got. And if I didn’t go to the range I played better on the course.
RUSH: See? See? It’s the amateur’s lament.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: It’s absolutely true. Well, look, I appreciate your comments.
CALLER: Well, it’s a great show and, you know, I just want to encourage everybody to watch it. They’re gonna get a whole different take on Rush Limbaugh.
RUSH: Hmm. Interesting. Well, if my wife tells me she’s learned things about me on that show that she didn’t know, then I’ll think you’ve got something.
CALLER: Okay, Rush.
RUSH: All right. Thanks, Neil, very much.