RUSH: A special welcome to those of you watching at the Dittocam at the newly revamped RushLimbaugh.com. For those of you watching, I want to show you something. I’m holding here between my formerly nicotine-stained fingers an official Arnold Schwarzenegger cigar. I received today, via overnight courier, an official humidor from Governor Schwarzenegger complete with the Seal of the Governor of the State of California. He autographed it inside.
He wrote me a nice little note saying how much he enjoyed being on the radio program and wants to do it more often. So during the course of the next break, I will light the Arnold Schwarzenegger cigar. It’s actually got his own band and the wrapper. The cellophane wrapper has his signature on it in gold — which, of course, I appreciate. I’ll report back on the quality of cigar as the program unfolds today.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: CNN couldn’t let go of the Arnold Schwarzenegger (What would we call it? It’s not a ‘feud.’) calling me ‘irrelevant.’ Schwarzenegger called me Tuesday afternoon and asked to be on the program yesterday, (Call it a misunderstanding.), said, ‘Vee have no vight.’ I understood what he said. There was no fight with me. In fact, the first words out of his mouth were thanks for getting me off the hook. Now, a lot of people have said, by the way, ‘Rush, you let
I didn’t expect him to. People like this don’t apologize. You don’t do that.
Folks, you gotta understand, this is the big leagues. He called here and said, (paraphrasing), ‘Thanks for getting me off the hook,’ meaning, ‘Thanks for putting what I said in perspective because you understood that I wasn’t calling you ‘irrelevant’ in terms of being a powerful American media figure or anything like that. I just meant that what anybody thinks of what I’m doing in California is irrelevant to me. I listen to myself.’
That’s all he was saying. It was everybody else that regarded it as something personal. Well, I didn’t expect him to apologize, and that’s not what he said he was going to do. At any rate, CNN and Carol Costello — renowned, because of us, info babe and reporter — just couldn’t let go of this. Wolf Blitzer, who we like here at the EIB Network, we have one minute and 17 seconds of him — like we did yesterday. They promoted this ‘feud,’ or whatever they were calling it, all afternoon on Tuesday leading up to Carol Costello’s report. They did it again yesterday. We have here a little montage of every promo that Wolf Blitzer aired on CNN yesterday afternoon.
WOLF BLITZER: It’s round two for Republican icons as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rush Limbaugh take their war of words to the air waves. WOLF BLITZER: There are new developments unfolding in that very public war of words between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rush Limbaugh.
WOLF BLITZER: Up ahead, a possible truce in their very public feud. Arnold Schwarzenegger, going on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show.
WOLF BLITZER: Round two, between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rush Limbaugh.
WOLF BLITZER: Are they calling a cease-fire in their war of words? Rush hosted Arnold Schwarzenegger today on his radio show. We’re going to update you on what emerged.
WOLF BLITZER: Are Rush and Arnold ready to bury the hatchet? We’re going to show you what happened today.
WOLF BLITZER: New developments, by the way, in that very public war of words between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rush Limbaugh. The California governor was a guest today on the program. Did they call a truce?
WOLF BLITZER: That very public war of words between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rush Limbaugh continues. Did they call a truce?
WOLF BLITZER: Arnold Schwarzenegger on the Rush Limbaugh Show. Are they calling a cease-fire in their war of words?
WOLF BLITZER: …and still ahead tonight Arnold Schwarzenegger on the Rush Limbaugh Show. New developments tonight in that very public war of words between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rush Limbaugh.
WOLF BLITZER: A day after the terminator calls Rush Limbaugh ‘irrelevant,’ now Rush tells Arnold he’s ‘selling out.’
RUSH: (Laughing.) A minute and 17 seconds of this! We didn’t repeat one thing there. That’s how they promoted it yesterday afternoon, leading up to this report from info babe and reporterette extraordinaire Carol Costello. You’ll hear an expert in this report, the University of Virginia’s political science expert, Larry Sabato.
COSTELLO: It’s a beautiful thing, Republican reaching out to conservative talk show guy. But instead of showing the love, the two showed the split in the Republican Party. Call it round two in the battle between Arnold and Rush. This time, gentle jabs were thrown on Limbaugh’s radio show.
RUSH ARCHIVE: You probably get a little flustered. Every time you go on these shows they throw my name up at you.
COSTELLO: Was Hollywood movie star, governor Arnold flustered?
SCHWARZENEGGER: Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant.
COSTELLO: It was a shot aimed at Limbaugh’s loaded term for Schwarzenegger: a closet liberal. But if Schwarzenegger was flustered that first time, he isn’t now. Some political observers say the conversation between these two very different Republicans is a beautiful metaphor for the state of the party.
SABATO: The Republicans are divided. They’re polarized into two factions that can’t agree even on the basics, and it’s going to mean that it’s much more difficult for Republicans to get elected to the presidency in 2008.
COSTELLO: By the time the conversation ended, both had promised to ‘smoke a stogie,’ together. But Limbaugh couldn’t resist one last jab, aimed at Schwarzenegger’s famously Democratic wife.
RUSH ARCHIVE: I also want to apologize to Governor Schwarzenegger. After this interview, I’m not sure Maria gets a word in edgewise in their house.
COSTELLO: And that is how the battle ends…for now. It’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it? You could look at it like this: this is the year of the pragmatic conservative. You want to win or you want to be right?
BLITZER: We invited Rush Limbaugh to join us.
COSTELLO: That would be excellent.
RUSH: (Laughing.) I had so many invitations, I couldn’t accept one without angering a bunch of others so I took the usual route and politely declined them all. So you see how this is being played in the Drive-By Media. Arnold is now the ‘pragmatic Republican’ showing how to win. I show my people how to lose. Yet they still want ‘the irrelevant Rush Limbaugh’ on CNN. ‘That would be excellent,’ said the info babe and anchorette, reporterette (Well, she also does some anchoring), Carol Costello. For those of you just joining us and watching on the Dittocam at RushLimbaugh.com I’m holding here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers a cigar sent to me by Governor Schwarzenegger. It arrived via overnight courier today, and it is one of his own personal cigars, complete with his own band.
The humidor in which this cigar came, I’m now holding up also in my hands — which contain my formerly nicotine-stained fingers. The top of the humidor has the Seal of the Governor of the State of California, and this is it right here. I have to have both hands on this so I can’t zoom in for you people. Let me open it up, and you will see that Governor Schwarzenegger has autographed it inside on the upper left-hand corner of the inside of this very, very nice humidor — and to read the inscription to you, it says, ‘To Rush, best wishes. Arnold Schwarzenegger.’ So ‘truce,’ whatever you want to call it. There was never a contretemps.