RUSH: Let’s go to Terry in Albany, Georgia to start the phone rotation today. Hi, Terry, great to have you with us.
CALLER: Dr. Limbaugh.
RUSH: Yes?
CALLER: (silence)
RUSH: Yes?
CALLER: How are you?
RUSH: Hello?
CALLER: Mr. Limbaugh, good morning.
RUSH: (sigh) She can’t hear me. Terry, are you there?
CALLER: It’s an honor to speak to you.
RUSH: Do you hear me?
CALLER: Yes, sir, I hear you now.
RUSH: Okay, it only took four times. It reminds me when I was married. (Ahem.) Please.
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: Well, what I wanted to ask you today: Did you really think that Rosie is leaving the View because of a contract dispute or —
RUSH: No. No.
CALLER: — that the network and the Imus movement has had something to do about it?
RUSH: I don’t think the Imus movement has anything to do with it. You know, I told you back when that happened, it was never about Imus. It’s about much more than that. But Rosie would not be victimized by the so-called Imus movement. She’s a lib! How do you think she survived this long? What happened was, last week, maybe it was yesterday, when you miss a day, the days run together, but some awards down there at the Waldorf Hysteria that Rosie emceed, the Matrix Awards. It’s an award presentation for young girls, and she’s up there shouting obscenities left and right, insulting people, and dropping the F-bomb, and Barbara Walters is on the dais and she’s covering her eyes and bowing her head. I think it just got to be too much to try to prop up and support. You know, the problem for ABC was that the ratings on that program had improved, and so that became the question, that became their dilemma. But no, the contract issue is — and you’ll be hearing that — that Rosie, that she couldn’t come to a deal. I’m telling you the deal is about the dog biscuits that they gave her on the floor in the dressing room. They were just the wrong flavor. They couldn’t come to an agreement on the flavor of Ken-L Ration that she eats. So, um… (Laughing.)
‘Rush, you’re just tempting them, aren’t you?’
(Laughing.) ‘Rush Limbaugh today inspired controversy by referring to Rosie O’Donnell as a woman who eats dog food! Why would that be?’
Folks, just as a human being, I’m going to tell you: I am worried about Rosie O’Donnell. There’s something in her life or many things, perhaps, that are making her miserable. Happy people do not behave this way. People that are content and happy do not need to draw attention to themselves in such profane and vulgar ways, which she does. Remember when Rosie first appeared on the public scene? She was out there this very popular, overweight, middle class, from-Long Island babe who used to go to Radio City, and then she ends up on the stage at Radio City and she stars in a couple movies with Madonna. She’s the girl next door. Something’s happened, and she has just become a toilet. (Uh! Sorry. I’m not trying to go back to Sheryl Crow.) Her act is in the toilet or whatever. I think it’s just too much for them to have to be able to support, given all of the — if you want to call it ‘the Imus movement,’ but given all the — scrutiny, I don’t think there’s that much scrutiny aimed at her from the people that would, say, aim it at me or other conservatives. They’ve propped her up for the longest time, as has Barbara Walters. I think it’s just gotten to be too much to bear. You talk about going on the air every day and rolling the dice? That’s what they have to be doing with that show.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is Kathy Weymouth, Massachusetts. You’re next on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: I was dying to talk to you about how people are so worried about Rosie O’Donnell having a breakdown or something, and I’m pulling my hair out because —
RUSH: Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Who’s said that she’s going to have a breakdown?
CALLER: Well, you had mentioned it earlier, not a breakdown but just that, you know, oh, what’s happening to Rosie, her.
RUSH: No, no, no. I didn’t say that. Well, that might be how you interpreted it. Something happened. She used to be a different personality than she is now. I’m just convinced that she’s miserable. She’s unhappy, and is acting out something. She has serious problems.
CALLER: Well, I also heard Bill O’Reilly mentioning he was worried about her, and I remember back to 1996, during the election when she walked out on the stage (I believe it was David Letterman. It could have been Jay Leno) it was like the beginning of my… I couldn’t stand her. She walked out and yelled, ‘Bob Dole sucks.’ An American hero! I mean, what has she ever done that comes near Bob Dole? That’s when I knew who Rosie was. That is Rosie being Rosie. That’s who she is.
RUSH: Yeah, I remember that.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: But she’s been around for a long time. The left props her up. You know, it is often said by the left of the left, ‘They are the sole guarantors of the First Amendment. They alone are out there protecting free speech,’ when in fact, it’s just the opposite. The Speech Police are compromised of leftists. Political correctness? All that is, is censorship — and now the spies, the Speech Spies that are out there waiting for the next slip of the tongue by a conservative media personality (names not mentioned here) are just waiting to pounce. The thing about liberals and free speech, you can say whatever they agree with. You trash God; you trash Catholics, Christians and Protestants, or you trash conservatives, and you will be supported. You will be heralded! You will be promoted. If you say things that liberals don’t want to hear? A-ha! Then they have to shut you down or discredit you or embarrass you or destroy you or what have you. There’s no free speech to these people whatsoever. Rosie is a great illusion of this. She’s one of them, and she was out saying things that they loved, and so? ‘We must be tolerant in these circumstances, and we must respect all opinions,’ blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It’s when liberals hear opinions they don’t like and don’t want to have to deal with, that they turn into giant censors.