Westchester-Putnam Council of the Boy Scouts of America up in New York<\/a>, and Roger was their annual award winner. In addition to the roster of speakers, somebody from the Boy Scout Council reached out to me and asked if I would come up and make some remarks, and I was flattered and honored to do so. And I want to play it. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever played the speech.<\/p>\nI\u2019m not gonna play the entire length of the remarks I made, but I\u2019m gonna play more than we have played in the past on the program here. Because what I would like for people know is the Roger Ailes that I know, the Roger Ailes that I knew: The brilliant, inspiring, motivating, compassionate, funny — the most naturally funny human being I have ever met. I\u2019ve never encountered Roger Ailes in despair. He wouldn\u2019t allow himself to be. I\u2019ve never been around him when he was fatalistic or even depressed. Quite the opposite. He had virtually every characteristic of great leadership.<\/p>\n
And he knew it, and he was aware of it, and he used to it as best he could to try to get the best out of everybody that worked for him and worked with him. You\u2019ll read all the things about how he got started on the Mike Douglas Show, essentially, in the mail room; ended up producing the program. You\u2019ll read about the stories of him taking over the campaign successfully of Richard Nixon and George Bush. And I have my own stories of Roger Ailes and American presidential politics, such as: It\u2019s 1992, the first year of the Rush Limbaugh television show that Roger Ailes executive produced for four years.<\/p>\n
The television show had not yet begun. It was slated for fall production. That would have been in September. This happened to be in June. So I get a call; Roger says, “Hey, we\u2019re going to Washington. Pack a bag. We\u2019re staying overnight.” And I said, “Wuh wuh wuh wuh what\u2019s going on?” He said, “We\u2019re going to the White House. What?” “Yeah, we\u2019re going to the White House. The president wants to talk to you.” What?” “President Bush wants to talk to you! Pack a bag and meet me at so and so.” So we flew to Washington. We were to have dinner at the White House with president and Mrs. Bush. When we arrived, we arrived early on purpose and we went to the Old Ebbitt Grill, which is a restaurant just across the street from the White House.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/AilesHWBush.jpg\")
I said, “What are we doing here? We\u2019re having dinner over there.” “No. They don\u2019t eat. They eat like birds. If you want dinner tonight, we\u2019re gonna eat here and then go over there.” That\u2019s what we did. We had dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill, chowed down, went over to the White House, and he was right: President and Mrs. Bush ate very sparingly. In fact, they served finger bowls after dinner for washing your hands — and I looked at it, I was kind of perplexed, and I didn\u2019t quite know what to do. Mrs. Bush looked at me with wide eyes afraid that I was gonna think it was soup.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s looking at me like, “Please, don\u2019t, don\u2019t, don\u2019t, don\u2019t…” I could just see it in her eyes so I just sort of faked picking up a spoon. “No, no, no, no, no! It\u2019s a finger bowl.” I said, “I knew. I knew. I\u2019m just trying to lightening things up.” After dinner we piled in a limousine; we went over to the Kennedy Center where the president attended a performance of something or other. When the president arrived, everything is stopped and he\u2019s introduced. So was I. I\u2019m so embarrassed, I can\u2019t begin to tell you. Roger is off outside the spotlight. Roger is nowhere to be seen. He\u2019s there, he\u2019s in the same row, but he\u2019s off out of the spotlight.<\/p>\n
The crowd\u2019s looking up (chuckling) with the same opinion I had: “What am I doing there?” We go backstage, meet the cast and the crew of the production, head back to the White House after it\u2019s over in the presidential limousine and discussed the presidential campaign of 1992. It was really at the peak moment of Perot. I slept that night in the Lincoln Bedroom. Ailes slept across the hall in the Queen\u2019s Bedroom. I got a total history lesson of the White House, the residence, the Lincoln Bedroom. Such as: It was never his bedroom.<\/p>\n
It was always his office in the Civil War. There was no West Wing. Lincoln never slept in this room, but they carry forward a tradition. They call it the Lincoln Bedroom, but it\u2019s only a bedroom for guests now. I didn\u2019t go to bed that night. I didn\u2019t want to lose consciousness while there. So we left the next morning, hopped a plane, shuttled back up to New York. I did the radio show and talked about it. Roger Ailes made that happen. Roger was able to open doors for people and willingly and happily did so, and it was never for his benefit.<\/p>\n
Not directly. It was always in furtherment of a cause or helping somebody else. But what I want to play for you — and I\u2019ve got countless stories like that, that I could share with you. But I think I\u2019d rather play for you a portion of the tribute that I delivered back on the 11th of November of 2009. This is shortly after Obama has just been elected, by the way, and it\u2019s, again, the Westchester-Putnam Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Roger Ailes the 2009 Good Scout Award ceremony. Here\u2019s a portion of what I said…<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/650-051817-Ailes.jpg\")
There is, as we speak — and there has been for the past year — a barrage of slander and libel aimed at Roger by pissants, who will never accomplish even 5% of what he did. These are people that did not know him, that prejudged him, that were jealous. People who were envious, and people who felt the need to take down a serious enemy who threatened what they consider to be to be their rightful hold on the media, on America, or what have you. Some of the things being said just today about Roger Ailes are absolutely untrue.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/RogerBeth-205x300.jpg\")
Roger Ailes was not suicidal. Roger Ailes was not defeated. Roger Ailes was not destroyed. And Roger Ailes and his courageous and lovely wife, Beth, were not separated. These are things people wish that they had made happen. These are things that people wish they had caused. They wish they had destroyed Roger Ailes. They wish they had created marital strife. They wish they could have caused him to become suicidal. But he was not any of those things. I knew Roger Ailes. I\u2019ve known Roger Ailes, as I say, from about 1990, and I could sit here and recount stories for you and give a eulogy of sorts — which I\u2019m more than prepared to do.<\/p>\n