TODD: Just this past weekend a regular listener to my Seattle show sent me from Rush\u2019s archives something he found about Rush explaining Lysenkoism, which a dynamic named after Joseph Stalin\u2019s house biologist whereby so-called scientific research was twisted in order to have a political outcome.<\/p>\n
And this was when the Democrats were talking about being poor changes your DNA so that you are then genetically poor, was the point they were making. And Rush, of course, took that on in a fashion that only Rush could. And people that didn\u2019t listen to Rush never understood the intellectual appeal of Rush\u2019s show.<\/p>\n
Which is why I\u2019ve said to folks in terms of introducing people to Rush, use The Limbaugh Letter<\/a>, because people will read that in a way that they can\u2019t consume the radio show because their defenses will be up. “I don\u2019t want to be drawn by this guy.”<\/p>\n So when you talk about the most influential figures in the intellectual American conservatism, it\u2019s Buckley, people who understood Reagan, it\u2019s Reagan, and it\u2019s Rush Limbaugh. And Rush discussed his relationship with Mr. Buckley on many occasions. Here\u2019s the first time he visited Buckley\u2019s home in Manhattan.<\/p>\n RUSH: I entered what I thought was a shrine. To my left was a harpsichord. He played the harpsichord. He wasn\u2019t playing it at this point of time, but he played it. He was playing it when I walked in some time later as his guest on Firing Line<\/a>, taped in his living room, which is where I was escorted when I arrived. Folks, I can\u2019t describe how nervous I was while at the same time trying not to be and just relax and be myself.<\/p>\n I was escorted in. The room was full. I was one of the last to arrive because I\u2019d driven around the block four times, trying to get the courage up to go in. He was the first to stand up and greet me, that charismatic, just love-of-life smile. He welcomed me into that room as though I belonged there as much as any other guest did. He asked me what I wanted to drink. I said, “I\u2019d like a Diet Coke,” and sat down.<\/p>\n