RUSH: John in Newcastle, Washington, I’m glad you called, sir. Great to have you on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush. I enjoy your program, and I just wanted to let you know that being a grandfather, I miss your talking about and getting the wisdom that you found in your grandfather.
RUSH: Well, thank you, sir. There was more of that than I had a chance to absorb.
CALLER: Well, you did a good job, and you called on him when you wanted to seek his knowledge, and I just wonder what you think he would make of what we’re faced with, with the Republican conservatives trying to get this next election.
RUSH: What would my grandfather think here?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Of McCain being the nominee, for example, and the candidates that we face?
CALLER: Yes, and you need to support him, and I would wonder if your grandfather wouldn’t advise you that we have only one Republican Party and one candidate.
RUSH: Yeah. You know something? My grandfather was not, in public, overtly Republican. In private, he was. But in public, he had clients, he was a lawyer, he had clients of all persuasions. He was publicly affiliated with the Republican Party, sat on some organizations and so forth, but you would not have known him to be a confrontational-type ideologue.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: My brother and I and my dad are about the only members of my family that are as vocal about politics as we are. The others feel it but they’re just not quite as vocal.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: And my grandfather, I haven’t even thought about this, but I’ll never forget, you know, my grandfather was very active in St. Louis in the legal community. I remember after one of the Democrat conventions, I guess it might have been ’92, my grandfather called me, said, ‘I really wish you’d back off on Richard Gephardt. He’s a fine man.’ It wasn’t that he disagreed with me.
CALLER: You were being a little too hard on him?
RUSH: Well, no. Yes. But not because I was wrong, but just because it made things uncomfortable for everybody else, because, you know, the family’s got a presence in St. Louis. My grandfather would probably say to me what you would say to me, ‘Look, you think this is helpful to Senator McCain?’ I would say, ‘Yes.’ I would try to explain to him that the worse thing I could do would be to come out now and support Senator McCain. Let me ask you, John, let’s say I’m gone these next two days, come back Monday — this is hypothetical here.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: I come back Monday and I open the program and say, ladies and gentlemen, you won’t believe, I had epiphanies over this weekend, I got a talking-to, I had some people sit me down, I saw things like I haven’t seen them, and I am here today to tell you that I do believe Senator John McCain would be the best man at this time in this nation’s history to be president of the United States, and give reasons, and why I had changed my mind over the course of four days after eight years of a consistent position to the opposite. What would your reaction be if you heard that?
CALLER: Well, I think it’s normal. I think you will. I do wish that you do, because you reach a lot of people.
RUSH: I know.
CALLER: And I’ve been listening to you for the last 15 years. My wife was very conservative.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: She’s the one that put me on to your program. She took your newsletter. And she was a wonderful woman.
RUSH: You sound just like the former Secretary of State James Baker. Are you?
CALLER: Well, I’m a Texan.
RUSH: I knew it.
CALLER: I lived in Chicago several years and was also over in Saudi Arabia. I learned a lot about the Muslim countries —
RUSH: Were you in the oil business?
CALLER: I was in the oil business.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Building a petrochemical plant on the Red Sea. By the way, can I say hello to my 82-year-old brother in Plano, Texas?
RUSH: Sure.
CALLER: He listens to you every day. His eyesight has gotten pretty bad. I would just love to, you know, be able to express my love for him.
RUSH: Well, you just did.
CALLER: Well, thank you, Rush.
RUSH: I’m sure that will help him see a lot clearer today.
CALLER: Yes, sir. And, Rush, you are a charmer, really. You had my wife wrapped around your little finger.
RUSH: Well, I didn’t know it, that’s the unfortunate thing.
CALLER: And she was a beautiful woman, she was a school teacher. She died as a result of an automobile accident.
RUSH: Wow. Sorry to hear that.
CALLER: And you remember this. When you come on the air every day, there’s somebody, an old grandfather like me listening to you and just thanking you for everything you say about conservative America.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. I really do. Thanks very much, John. That’s very nice of you to say.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush.
RUSH: You bet. I mean, it is, that’s heart-tugging. We’re still back to the question, what would happen if I were to come in Monday and do that? There would be a lot of confusion out there, and people would wonder what really happened. He is the best of the three, but I’m not talking about coming out and saying that. I’ve already acknowledged that. Maybe John was saying, ‘Look, stop being critical.’ (doing McCain impression) ‘Yes. That would be helpful. Actually, I kinda like it when I get to come on your show and complain about what you’re doing because you never, ever, invite me. So the only way I get on is when you talk for me, and that’s fine, that’s fine, because you’ve got me down pat.’
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, I forgot to say one thing. My grandfather had been a judge in his life, and my uncle is a judge, and my cousin is a judge — and when you’re a judge, you have a certain temperament. Even as a retired judge when you go back into practice, you have a certain temperament. My grandfather in the early nineties asked me — well, he didn’t actually ask me. He sent the word through my brother that he thought I was being a little critical of Gephardt. So I talked to my grandfather about it, and he told me why, but I did not back off. That’s what I forgot to add. I think it’s about then we started calling him ‘Little Dick’ Gephardt.