RUSH: Open Line Friday, Rush Limbaugh to Raleigh, North Carolina. This is Paul. It’s great to have you, sir. Hi.

CALLER: It’s an honor, Rush. I gotta ask you a question. On the 25th anniversary show, you replayed the interview with your hundred-year-old grandfather, Pops.

RUSH: Yes.

CALLER: Was that replay also a way to let your critics know that there’s longevity in your family and you’ll be around a lot longer than the two to three years they said you’d be gone?

RUSH: You know, I like the way you think out there, Paul. This program’s been a fad for 25 years. Just two weeks ago, The Politico and others were speculating that this program would be finished. The New York Times speculated that this program would be over in two to three years, that that’s about all that I had left. Today, by the way, they’re very disappointed.

Actually, starting last night, a couple of new stories leaked that I’m not gonna comment on yet, but they’re out there. In the Drive-By Media, they’re really very sad and disappointed today and hoping that the leaks that they ran into last night are wrong. But they’re really… I mean, The Politico just on July 28th, it was over for me. And then they had to run a story today saying, “Uh, uh, not.” Was there a subtle, subliminal-type message that I’m not going anywhere?

Could be. Could be. I’ll never tell.

I’ve always said since I guess the first year I was doing this program, when being asked by people both in the media and out, “How long do you want to do it?” In my first year they’re already calculating when I’m gonna quit. I said, “I’ll know. It’ll be real easy to know.” They said, “What’s that? What’s that? How will you know? How will you know?” I told them, “When I wake up and don’t care what I’m seeing in the news. If that happens for a consistent period of time, like a month or two, then I’ll know.

“And then I’ll make a decision. Do I want to chuck it or fake it and come in and act like I care when I don’t.” That will be the decision I have to make, but I’ll know. It’s real simple. If I don’t care, if I get up and look at the news and I go, “I don’t care. I really don’t care to talk about it. I don’t care and I don’t care what anybody thinks about it,” then I’ll know, and then I’ll calculate how many years could I fake caring and get away with it.

(interruption)

Snerdley’s saying I had one of those days Monday. I didn’t say that that was… This is a fine-point difference. I didn’t say that I don’t care. I said there’s nothing worth talking about that day. Nothing interested me, but didn’t foreclose Tuesday.

(interruption)

Snerdley is shouting at me that I did a good show on Monday even though nothing interested me. So his point is, “You don’t have to care. You can still do it and be good.” Yeah, but then would I want to? Have you ever had to act like you care about something when you don’t?

(interruption)

If you’re married?

(laughing)

Yeah, if you’re in a relationship. You don’t have to be married. (laughing) Why do I put myself in these situations? Anyway, I’m just kidding. I appreciate the call very much.