RUSH: Steve in Nogales, Arizona, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Mega Christmas dittos, Rush. Congratulations on the new product line, the wife, the whole nine yards.

RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.

CALLER: I’ve been listening since the eighties and I really appreciate it. At 54, because of your Hank Haney series, I took up the game of golf and so you’ve inspired me, Rush, but that’s how I —

RUSH: Oh, gee, can I tell you something? I’m sorry for you.

CALLER: (laughing)

RUSH: Do you realize the torment that you are now visiting upon yourself trying to learn the game at 54? It’s tough. I took it up at 46. If you don’t start playing this game in your teens or younger, the odds of getting really proficient at it are quite long. So, you just need an attitude of loving being out there and having the chance to smack the ball around.

CALLER: I actually enjoy it, as lousy as I am, I actually enjoy it.

RUSH: Good.

CALLER: But that’s not why I’m calling, Rush. I’m calling because I want to implore you, I want to beg you, and you had a caller similar to this weeks ago that begged you and implored you, you know, made it seem like that it was your duty and obligation to endorse a particular candidate. I’m not going there. I just want to implore you and beg you, Rush, to please consider getting on more TV shows than Greta Van Susteren. I know you turn ’em down all the time. Maybe you can do it from your studio, but, Rush, you’re the only one who can articulate the conservative positions. There is one candidate who can articulate his positions, and he’s really good at it but I’m not sure he’s my guy, and so, Rush, I’m just begging you as an American citizen to just please reconsider making your message broader through the television. I know the pain, I know that it increases all kinds of headaches for you but, Rush, your country needs you.

RUSH: You know, I must react to this honestly. Since this Greta appearance last week — I don’t mean to take away from what you said, but I’ve heard this from I can’t tell you how many people, that, “Gee, you know, you ought to do that more often. Gee, you were really good. You just look like a natural, you ought to do it more often.” That and the CPAC speech, but even this last Greta appearance, I’ve heard that more than ever before, even when I had my own TV show. Steve, why now, why do I need to do more of it? I mean there’s all kinds of people on television that —

CALLER: We’re at a tipping point, Rush, and you know that. We are at a tipping point where this country, if it doesn’t make a right turn, we are gonna go deep left, and you’ve seen that in the education process. This has been in the works by the left for years and years —

RUSH: Yeah, I know.

CALLER: — and years.

RUSH: I know.

CALLER: And they’ve got their guy in the White House now, and they’ve got the masses brainwashed, but the conservative position makes logical sense. And it’s very difficult to argue with truth. I think John Adams said, you know, facts are a stubborn thing to argue with. Rush, it is your time, and I’m just begging you as an American citizen, I don’t care about the candidates at this point. Let the process work its way through, but you’re the only one who can articulate the conservative position, and I know I’ve said that before, Rush, but I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I am begging you, sir, to get out there a little bit more —

RUSH: Now, wait a second.

CALLER: — because I know you turn down more offers than you take.

RUSH: You have no idea. I appreciate that, but do you really — there are all kinds — do you think I am articulating conservatism better or however you describe it than the presidential candidates are?

CALLER: Yes, sir. Only because of the KISS method of selling, and no offense to you, sir, but KISS — “keep it simple, Stupid” — you’re able to describe it so a working class guy like me can understand it and not only can I understand it but I can also reiterate it when I’m faced with various liberal challenges from various liberal mindless robots, and you have a way, it is a God-given talent, Rush, you have a way of making the complex understandable, and that, sir, is your gift, and that’s why for 20-plus years I’ve been listening to you, but I think it’s time, I think it’s time that you just at least allow your positions to get out there, because literally this country is on a tipping point, man, and if it wasn’t for guys like you, we’re gonna lose.

RUSH: Well, that’s pretty powerful. I mean that’s a lot of pressure. You’re putting a lot of pressure on me out there, Steve. I mean you’re basically telling me that possibly the fate of the country hinges on whether I do more TV.

CALLER: First off, you can handle it, and secondly, this just may be your higher calling from God.

RUSH: It’s not a question handling it. You shoulda seen what it took to do this, and this was simple. There was a crew in my studio for three hours setting that up. Then there was the makeup babe. I don’t know. The Haney show, that took ten hours per episode.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, maybe I ought to hire a couple black buses and do a mini tour using only the safest bridges and — he-he-he-he — by the way, I got a note from Greta Van Susteren last night telling me that they’re gonna rerun the interview. They edited a few things out to get it to fit in the previous airing last Wednesday, the day we did it. They’re gonna run a full hour on December 29th. That’s a Thursday. So seven or eight days from now, whatever it is, December 29, they’re gonna rerun the whole thing at ten o’clock. (interruption) Consideration of what? I’m not gonna commit to doing more television right now. I appreciate the guy’s call. I thank him very much. It’s not a Chris Christie answer.

I’m sitting here, I don’t know if I’m gonna do any more TV next year than I did this year so why should I sit there and commit myself to it if I don’t know? If I say, “Okay, folks, I’ll be happy to do more TV,” do you realize what’s gonna happen? In the first place, the phone won’t stop ringing. Every day we turn down every morning show. Every day. I think Stephanopoulos has stopped calling every day now. Is that right, H.R.? But for the longest time it was every day. There were no preconditions. Just show up. The whole half hour. (sigh) I’ll think about it. I will take it under advisement.