BRETT: Coming up in this next hour, we have two special guests joining the program from Team EIB who were at Dan’s Bake Sale. They’re gonna give you perspective on that day that wasn’t reflected in the mainstream media. One aspect of that has to do with the crowd size. Here’s Rush talking about it.
RUSH: Here comes Dan’s Bake Sale. And the billing leading up to it is of a conservative Woodstock, Rushstock ’93, Rushfest, a right-wing love-in. I’m sure you heard all the terms. Let’s talk about what it was. It was all of that but in the most positive sense. I flew in about 12:30 local time, which was an hour and a half after the bake sale began.
I landed at Fort Collins Loveland in EIB One and from there took a helicopter over to the community airport in Fort Collins, the little metro airport there. And they flew me over I-25 because when we got on board the helicopter, said, “You won’t believe this. There’s traffic backed up 25 miles. There’s a 25-mile traffic jam. There’s seven miles of buses trying to get in there.”
I said, “Whoa.” I began to worry, is everybody trying to get in gonna be able to? Are we gonna have some disappointed people ’cause they’re not gonna get in there? Is this place too small to handle the crowds? So they are flying me over, and I got my video camcorder going, folks. And we videotaped this. This traffic is stopped on an interstate highway in Colorado.
This is not like an interstate highway pouring into a major metro area like the Bay Area or Los Angeles where it is common for traffic to stop on an interstate. This traffic was stopped all to get off at an exit to go into Fort Collins. We then choppered over the bake sale area. And when you see the aerial view of the people down there and then look at the — say the crowd was 20,000, you’re gonna find that the estimate there is way, way low. Senator Hank Brown of Colorado was there to meet me.
And he said this is a bigger party than a Broncos game up at Mile High Stadium. And what’s the capacity up there? It’s 78,000. There are people who didn’t get in. I feel so badly about this. My good friend Tyler Cox, who’s the operations director at our Fort Worth affiliate, they chartered a jet at the last minute, and they flew into Cheyenne, Wyoming.
And when they got to the highway that was gonna take ’em to Fort Collins, the highway patrol said, stop, you can’t get there, and they turned ’em back, and they went back to the airport, never even got near Fort Collins. So there have to be some disappointed people there. Three buses of people got turned back. Tom Sullivan chartered a jet from Sacramento, as you know, from KFBK. And had they not had a driver who knew the back route, backwoods roads into Fort Collins, they would not have made it.
They would have been stuck in that 25-mile traffic jam. So, this is definitely more than 20,000 people. Also, folks, you gotta remember, this is an eight-hour event. And so taking a count at any one time is going to be mis — I think — represented, and it’s gonna be understandably low. People are moving in and out of the place all the time. We didn’t know how many people were coming, and so we don’t have a figure that we have to, in terms of our own PR, say was indeed there.
We didn’t know anything. We were as… I’m telling you, nobody does things the way we did this. We rolled the dice. We rolled the die. We didn’t know what was gonna happen. We just have faith in this audience. I have so much faith in the people of America who are this audience. I understand the kind of people who are this audience, and I cringe when they are misrepresented, when they are maligned, and when they are impugned by a media, which has not done the proper investigative reporting to find out anything about this show and including who listens to it.
So I was not afraid to suggest to thousands to come to a central location and have a good time. The reason that I am trying to focus on the numbers is simply because what we do here is we relentlessly pursue the truth. And I am not accusing anybody of falsely estimating the crowd or purposefully creating a number that’s smaller than what it is.
It’s just hard to know, because so many people were moving out. And I don’t think anybody has ever done a capacity check on the Old Town Square in Fort Collins anyway. You really don’t know how many people squeezed in there. I’m telling you, folks, it was sardine city in there. I mean, if you were claustrophobic, especially when I was on stage speaking, then you were going to have problems.
BRETT: That is just such an awesome story. That’s an amazing line right there. I don’t think anybody’s ever done a capacity check on the Old Town Square in Fort Collins anyway. That was a momentous moment. It was a momentous time in EIB history. And we’re coming up on the 28th anniversary tomorrow.
And so we’ve got a tremendous look back at this. And you’re gonna get information that you’re not gonna otherwise know. The idea that Rush — and we’re talking about this is pre-internet. This is pre-internet. This is organic connectivity. You are talking about Rushstock here. You’re talking about Dan’s Bake Sale.
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BRETT: This is an amazing, amazing opportunity that I have to be a part of this program, as we have two very special guests with us right now, Diana Allocco, editor — or the “editrix,” as Rush would say — of The Limbaugh Letter, and Denise Mei, the creative director. These two women are the driving force of the publication. They join us now to talk about that historic day, 28 years ago tomorrow, Dan’s Bake Sale, and also to fill us in on what’s going on over at The Limbaugh Letter. Welcome, ladies!
DIANA: Hello.
BRETT: It’s good to have you here.
DENISE: Hey!
BRETT: It’s good to have you guys here. It’s wonderful to have you.
DIANA: Thanks for having us.
BRETT: Let me start first with Diana. The day Dan called the show, you were actually in the studio and kind of planted the seed that got the ball rolling, right? Can you tell us a little behind the scenes of that pivotal moment?
DIANA: Yes. This is something I have really never told before. It was such a small piece of the puzzle, but it was secretly to me very fun as a memory. So, let me tell it. As you have heard that phone call where Dan called Rush and was complaining about not being able to afford The Limbaugh Letter, and Rush was joking with him about intellectual property rights and copyright infringement.
And he had a joke about, “Hey, we’re gonna take it out of Johnny Donovan’s budget,” and I was in the studio and had just closed the April 1993 newsletter. And in those days, we had a funny line after of Rush’s signature at the end the issue, and I had just written, “Liberals, we are making a profit and don’t need your bake sale loot.”
I had just written that and walked down the hall to the studio. So when Dan was talking, I said into the IFB, “Hey, he should have a bake sale!” And if you hear the recording, Rush went with it. He said, “Hey, I tell you what we’re gonna do: We’ll have a bake sale.” But if I hadn’t said that, if I hadn’t written that a few minutes before, I don’t think it would have unfolded the way I did. So, it’s just fun memory.
BRETT: It’s an incredible memory. It should be noted, by the way, you know, for everything that people are trying to take a shot at Rush on, the two most senior folks there on The Limbaugh Letter, Diana and Denise, are female staffers!
BOTH: (laughing)
BRETT: Not the sexist stereotype that the liberals would have you believe.
DIANA: It is so true. Now, let me tell you, the studio in those days, I’m not gonna say it felt like a frat party. But it was a party back there.
BRETT: (laughing)
DIANA: But Rush really loved the spontaneity. He fed off the energy, and he wanted people to say things. And if you had a good line, he did not care who you were, and I had a line at that moment, he did not say, “Oh, a woman said that,” or anything like that. It wasn’t even in his thinking. He just went with it and the rest is history.
BRETT: Absolutely — and, look, Denise, when did you guys realize that this was something potentially really, really big, the bake sale?
DENISE: So, right after Dan’s call, it started with more people calling in. An offset printer called saying they were gonna print fliers to advertise the bake sale. Then an outdoor billboard company from Fort Collins called to say they were gonna donate billboards. The Brennans of the famous New Orleans restaurant offered to send their world-famous chefs, and the calls kept coming.
And then when Rush said he would appear, it just snowballed. People were chartering buses and private planes and, you know, we knew there were gonna be hundreds of booths. And, of course, we were tasked with creating our own booth and T-shirts for The Limbaugh Letter, and we wound up printing 30,000 extra newsletters that we handed out that day. And, of course, we ran out halfway through the day. Honestly, only Rush could have predicted how big it was gonna be. (laughing) It was crazy. It was a crazy time. But, yeah, it sort of snowballed from there.
BRETT: It’s incredible. Diana, let’s go to the day of the event. Let’s go to the day of the bake sale itself. How many of Team EIB were there? Can you describe it for us?
DIANA: Well, I know James was there and Denise and Kit and Tony Lo Bianco, if you remember him. He was trolling around looking for dates.
BRETT: (laughing)
DIANA: He had rented a sports car and was driving around trying to take advantage of it.
BRETT: (laughing)
DIANA: That was basically the good-time feeling. And when we got there, the morning dawned rainy, and we were, “Oh, no. What are we gonna do?” It was like a state fair, that kind of feeling. People were pouring in, and they did not care about the weather. Everyone was setting up booths, and it was — they were selling a lot of fun anti-Clinton swag at the time. And people were just having camaraderie and fun and good times, and the big story of the day was the traffic that kept pouring in.
There were buses that had been chartered, a seven-mile backup of just the buses. And there were 30 miles of cars. A lot of people, as Rush said in that clip you ran, couldn’t get in. But the ones that were there, even that Washington Post story — which recently had a snarky article — admitted at least 80,000 people were there. I think it was more than that, more like a hundred thousand.
BRETT: Would you say, is it fair to say, this was a forerunner to the MAGA rallies today, that this was sort of the orgininal incarnation of that feeling?
DIANA: I would say that’s what it was. We have a special in the current issue of The Limbaugh Letter, and that’s what we titled it, “The First MAGA Rally,” and it was really significant, Brett, because it was the first time, I think, as Rush’s audience, we looked around at each other, and we knew the numbers of his ratings were going up. We all knew that.
But to see visibly, physically the amount of conservatives that are out there wanting to have a good time, of good cheer, engaging in entrepreneurialism. I think that was so important, because the media, then and now, has tried to give the impression that we are weird and marginalized us.
BRETT: (laughing)
DIANA: And we saw each other! They could not lie about it. We were great in number. It was so encouraging to us as conservatives. It’s like, “Wait a minute. Look around. There are a lot of us.” And it’s the same spirit of the MAGA rallies.
BRETT: It’s amazing. Denise, one of the stories that we hear about is the weather. There was all kinds of crazy weather, storms and thunderstorms, thunderheads and all that, but the moment Rush arrived on that chopper I heard the clouds literally parted. He was like a rock star coming in.
DENISE: Yeah, yeah. It was crazy. I mean, certainly, it didn’t just rain. It was thundering and lightning and hailing. I was in a building next to the plaza where he was going to appear, and you could see there wasn’t a single complaint. Nobody was leaving. I remember everyone was sort of laughing about it. It was sort of part of the experience that this was happening. It was belly-to-belly as far as the eye could see. Like you said, I was up high ’cause I was taking pictures for The Limbaugh Letter.
BRETT: Sure.
DENISE: And so I remember thinking, “Look at all these people standing down there,” and when Rush arrived by helicopter, it was still sort of a little bit raining, but we could hear the helicopter coming in, and people just started cheering, and the crowd went crazy, and they started chanting, “Rush! Rush! Ruuush!” and, in that moment, like, the sky opened up and the sun started shining, and then… I’m just getting…
I’m getting goose bumps thinking about it. But Rush came with eight mounted policemen that escorted him through the crowd. And the crowd parted as he made his way to the stage. And when he stepped on stage, it was electric. It just… Rush obviously spoke. It was just so exciting, and Dan gave Rush a check, and I think it was there was a fortune cookie involved — and, you know, the rest is history.
BRETT: (laughing) Yeah.
DENISE: You know, honestly it feels like yesterday. It doesn’t seem possible that it was 28 years ago.
BRETT: It is absolutely incredible. Diana, the May issue of The Limbaugh Letter features Dan’s Bake Sale, as you mentioned. Tell us what’s going on with the publication now and talk about what we’ll see on the cover of The Limbaugh Letter.
DIANA: Well, I just want to say thanks to James Golden who wrote our cover story for the May issue, “Modern-Day Founding Father,” and the whole issue is just wonderful. Of course, we are so sad and mourning that we have lost our muse, our inspiration. But his inspiration lives on, and we have always done original research on The Limbaugh Letter.
Rush always wanted us to do compilations of evidence that you can use to arm yourselves, to argue and win debates with liberals, and we have continued that mission. So, the coming issue we just finished, the cover story is, “Legacy of Greatness,” and I love this image. It has Rush playing golf with Reagan and Buckley and Maggie Thatcher, and it is one of the happiest moments.
It looks like a heavenly golf course. But the point of it was that we have such a legacy of people — brilliant, courageous heroes — who have fought the same battle we’re fighting now against tyranny and totalitarianism. And this is the legacy of us, we conservatives to carry on. Because this battle has been fought, it has been fought successfully, and we will continue into the future.
BRETT: And that Limbaugh Letter tradition will continue into the future, which is such an important message for the folks out there ’cause they’ve had questions, and it will continue in the vision of Rush and all the greats of conservative thought as well. I understand you have a little special offer for the callers happening today here, Diana? What’s going on here, huh, huh?
DIANA: Well, one of the interesting things is if you try and find any information on Dan’s Bake Sale on the internet, it has been scrubbed. At the time, it was mainstream coverage — wall-to-wall, television, all the news coverage — and you cannot find that anywhere. So I wanted to basically cast the net wide to our listeners.
If you have any photos, if you have any video, let us reconstruct the historical record that the media cannot erase. So, I know you have an email address that people can send this to, but I would love it and we would all love it if people can share their documentation. It’s called first documentation, first-person sources, and it is just a wonderful thing we need to have.
BRETT: Yeah. That’d be DansBakeSale@eibnet.com. It’s DansBakeSale@eibnet.com. It’s also up at the website at RushLimbaugh.com, and I understand that all the callers on the air today will be getting a free subscription to The Limbaugh Letter. So that is something very, very generous as well to spread the love of Rush Limbaugh out far and wide.
Once again, that email address: DansBakeSale@eibnet.com. A big thank-you to The Limbaugh Letter editor Diana Allocco and of course creative director Denise Mei for joining us today. Thanks so much for coming by, guys. It’s so wonderful to catch up with you and I look forward to speaking with you again very soon.
DENISE: Thanks, Brett.
DIANA: Thanks a lot! Take care.
BRETT: All the best. I’m Brett Winterble. That was an amazing moment.
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BRETT: Laura is in South Carolina. Says here, Laura, you were at Dan’s Bake Sale. Welcome to the show.
CALLER: Thank you. I was. And this is a first-time caller. It made me giggle when I thought about that because I remember that people saying that so long ago. But I just want, in memory of Rush, I was at that bake sale. And I listened to him leading up to that bake sale. And I’m young. I was going to school at CSU at the time and working part time and listening to Dan complain about how he doesn’t have money and on and on and on. And it warms me to know that, if you’re gonna do it, you gotta rely on yourself. And today I’m a business owner.
BRETT: Oh.
CALLER: A successful business owner in South Carolina. And it’s all because of Rush.
BRETT: That is awesome. That is —
CALLER: Yeah.
BRETT: That is awesome, Laura. And that is testimony to the lasting impact of Dan’s Bake Sale and to Rush’s message.
CALLER: For sure. Yeah. I was just — I — when you said that it was the anniversary, I went, holy cow, and it just made me smile. So I just wanted to call in and say that.
BRETT: All the best. That is so wonderful, Laura, and we appreciate your memory of being there at the bake sale and then connecting these years later. So many of us grew up listening to Rush. So many of us experienced the ebbs and flows from Dan’s Bake Sale to, you know, Bill Clinton going after Rush to, you know, any number of things.
And it was amazing to discuss the lasting impact Rush has had on the landscapes, not just of media and of politics, but of the national conversation in this country that I don’t think will ever be replicated in a way that Rush was able to connect with the people in this country.
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BRETT: Let’s head on out to somebody very special. Scott is a listener, and Scott, it says here you were at Dan’s Bake Sale back in 1993. Welcome to the Rush Limbaugh Show.
CALLER: Hi. Thanks for having me so much. Yes. Back in ’93. It’s hard to believe it was 28 years ago.
BRETT: What do you remember most about it, and who were you with?
CALLER: Well, who I was with was my girlfriend of about five months, and about five months later after Dan’s Bake Sale, we got married and we’ve been married now 28 years. So it’s not only the 28-year anniversary of Dan’s Bake Sale but coming up on our 28-year anniversary.
What I remember is just driving down from, at the time, my hometown in Cheyenne, going down kind of early, which I’m glad about because we listening to Rush talk about his friend who flew into it from Cheyenne and couldn’t get down. (laughing) I’m kind of glad we went early.
It was just the camaraderie and the fellowship. It’s kind of like be like-minded people and I just remember, like, all day being there and just being like (garbled cell) just like you’re running a race but just you’re having so much fun with people, meeting people, hugging people.
I remember getting the issue of The Limbaugh Letter. I remember I ate something at the Brennan’s tent, one of those restaurants that he loved, and just taking pictures by people who (chuckling) were selling cool things, meeting Dan and buying some of his cookies. It was just… It was a wonderful, wonderful day.
BRETT: So let me ask you, obviously you were into it. Was your girlfriend at the time into it or was she just kind of along for the ride? Your wife now, was she along for the ride or was she a Dittohead?
CALLER: I think at that time, she was kind of maybe halfway along for the ride, but I think she also became a Dittohead soon after. I mean, we met, and I started loving Rush because of the TV show and then I started listening to his radio show, and when we first started dating, we watched the show together, and then we started listening to Rush. Not too soon after that, we moved out of state and I just remember like recording the show on cassettes —
BRETT: (chuckling)
CALLER: — and then after coming back from school or work listening to it together. So, yeah, it wasn’t like it was something new to her or she had to make this great conversion. I think for both of us it was kind of like a lightbulb going off and it was like hearing stuff you already believe, common-sense stuff. It was like a light turned on. It was the same for her. Just the lightbulb turning on, just learning so much. To us, he was a member of the family and a good friend.
BRETT: You know, Scott, I’m so happy you checked in with us today, and it goes to prove something, that you and your wife’s first name?
CALLER: Ginger.
BRETT: Ginger. So Scott and Ginger, a happy upcoming anniversary, obviously. It’s gonna be coming around the corner here. We’re so happy you were there at the bake sale and sharing your experiences of your time there at Dan’s Bake Sale. And it’s clear that you both have incredibly good taste because you liked each other, and you also liked Rush, which is… I mean, that’s a home run right there, right out of the park.
CALLER: Yeah, everything about it was great. Just him and talking about what he was talking about each day up until his passing, and it’s really hard now with everything just seeming to go south, and I mentioned to her last night that, you know, on his TV show, that segment they have on his website now where he was on his TV show talking about how the media gave him a fair shake and did a good job reporting on Dan’s Bake Sale.
I mentioned to her; I said, “I think it’s because back then they were just trying to figure him out. They wouldn’t have done that, you know, later-on years, ’94, ’95, ’96.”
BRETT: Right.
CALLER: But it wasn’t too late after that where Bill Clinton calls KMOX and he complains about him needing a “truth detector” —
BRETT: (laughing)
CALLER: — and it’s not too soon after that it was, “Okay, we gotta find a way to stop this guy.” I think they were just trying to figure him out.
BRETT: Great story.
CALER: But I’m encouraged by Rush. We are the majority and we are all family and thanks so much for doing a great job hosting the show.
BRETT: Hey, I appreciate you it being there. Don’t forget, if you’ve got any photographs or memories or pictures, Scott, you and Ginger or anybody else out there, DansBakeSale@eibnet.com. We’re looking for your memories, your pictures of the event day. All the best to you, my friend, and we certainly appreciate you checking in with us.
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BRETT: It is Open Line Friday, a very special edition, the eve of the 28th anniversary of Dan’s Bake Sale, and we certainly want to hear from you at 800-282-2882. Especially if you were at Dan’s Bake Sale, we’d like to hear your thoughts your reminiscences. But it being Open Line Friday, obviously, you are free on opine on all the big stories that are out there moving.
But if I may for a moment on the Dan’s Bake Sale front, it’s a very special day, and we have set up something very special. All the callers on the air today are getting a free subscription to The Limbaugh Letter. And you can send your reminiscences to DansBakeSale@eibnet.com, if in fact you were there. If you have pictures, we’d love to share them with the rest of this amazing audience.
It was quite an accomplishment on that day, and Rush had absolutely the time of his life.
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BRETT: Let’s return now to the phones on Open Line Friday. Bill is in Las Vegas. Bill, welcome to the Rush Limbaugh Show.
CALLER: Good morning. Thanks for having me on. —
BRETT: Yes, sir.
CALLER: Mega dittos from Vegas. So I’ve been listening to all this about the bake sale, and it’s great reliving it. But there’s more to the backstory that isn’t being told here, which provided Rush with an opportunity to show the absurdity of the left, and that is there was a bake sale before the bake sale.
BRETT: That’s right.
CALLER: There was a young girl that held a bake sale, made some money, and then presented the money to President Clinton. And what just really irked Rush was that Clinton took the money from her and kept the money and, you know, kind of led people to believe that we could have bake sales to work our way out of the economic problems.
BRETT: No, that’s right. That was the impetus for the bake sale, right? That was impetus for this, because Rush was doing the story. It was out of Iowa, I think, Davenport. Washington school sixth graders in Iowa raised $64.41 selling cookies and goodies and sent it to Bill Clinton who then… He didn’t return it.
He kept it to retire the debt or put it in his pocket or whatever, but that was the impetus for the bake sale conversation that Diana raised with Rush when the caller called in and talked about how it was he was not able to afford a Limbaugh Letter subscription. He was getting bootlegs from his friend.
So, yeah, that is the foundational thing that presented this entire conversation to begin with. And you’re right on. And it’s important to note that: $64.41, and the president kept it! He kept it off of a bake sale for the debt, and you know what’s incredible? The deficit back then, this is pennies. You’re talking about $290 billion in deficit!
Man, we could retire that in a minute today with the Federal Reserve just printing some more money. I’m kidding. But that’s it. You’re exactly right on, though, Bill, and it’s important to remember where the germination point was. It’s terrific that you checked in with us. I see that we’ve got some calls on hold wanting to talk about the bake sale as well as the big stories of the day.
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BRETT: Thank you, Johnny. Great to be here with you with each and every one of you, and a tremendous visit down memory lane as we come to the end of the show today, we want to play some more Rush describing that incredible day that was Dan’s Bake Sale satisfied from being our (unintelligible) conservatives and Doctor of Democracy Rush was also a consummate storyteller.
RUSH: Let me tell you about the rain. As I’m choppering in, I see this huge thunderstorm coming in over the Rockies. And you can see rain — ought to see rain from a cloud in the air. You say, uh-oh, it’s headed right for the bake sale. I said, “Aw, darn. It’s headed right for the bake sale.” And as soon as the chopper touched down, it started.
So we’re driving over in a motorcade surrounded by eight mounted police officers, horseback mounted police officers. And we drive over there, and it’s just coming down. It’s hail. It’s coming down in buckets. And they meet me, and they say, “Rush, we’re gonna have to wait. It’s raining out there. We can’t take you out ’til it stops raining.”
I said, “I’m not waiting here any longer than 20 minutes.” In 20 minutes, the skies opened, the clouds parted, and brilliant sunshine rained down on Old Town Square in Fort Collins, and I took the stage. And during — it was a violent 20-minute storm, and nobody left. In fact, it energized the crowd. They had to huddle close together for warmth, companionship. 20,000 plus were cuddling in Fort Collins.
People say that this show, you know, survives on a platform of hate. And nothing could be further from the truth. Why, it’s just the opposite. I have this profound love for people, and I have great expectations of people. I have confidence in people. I think that most people want to do the best they can and want to be right and want to try to do the right thing.
And those people are the ones that are made fun of and impugned and laughed at in the media today. And so here was a chance, here 35 to 65,000 of them get together in an area too small to hold all of them. No vandalism. No disorder. No civil disobedience. No theft. No problems.
The cops said they had nothing to do. The toughest thing the cops had to do was get me to the stage and get me off the stage. Some people traveled from Angola. There were people there from Guam. There were people there from the United Kingdom. Think of the economic boost the United States got because of this event. And it wasn’t one government program. It wasn’t one bit of policy from Washington or from Bill Clinton that caused this to happen.
Here’s the truth of the matter. These people show up, 35,000 to 65,000, they drop a hundred dollars in and around Fort Collins. That, my friends, is called trickle-down economics. If Bill Clinton had shown up — this is what I told the assembled multitudes. If Bill Clinton had been there that day instead of me, 90 to 95% of the people there wouldn’t have been there.
In fact, somebody in the front row shouted, “A hundred percent wouldn’t be here, Rush.” And instead of you dropping a hundred bucks and spending it on things you choose in and around Fort Collins, Bill Clinton would have left with your hundred bucks. You wouldn’t have had a hundred bucks to spend. He would try to take it from — That’s exactly how to illustrate the differences in approach. And it was a sight to behold.
Let me tell you another quick little story. You might say, “Rush, were there any protesters there?” Yeah, there were a couple. Some outfit tried to set up an anti-Rush booth. But nobody paid ’em any attention; so they shut it down. There was a guy running around, one guy running around with an anti-Rush sign and a pro-Clinton and Gore sign. Nobody hassled him. They talked to him. Nobody threw anything at him. Nobody taunted him. Nobody insulted him.
And this guy is quoted in the paper as saying he was surprised. Everybody was nice to him. There wasn’t much of that anyway. I mean, I’ve heard five total protesters, maybe seven were there. And they laughed. I mean, there was nothing for ’em to do. Nobody responded to what they were doing. Nobody took the bait. I’m telling, you were great. Everybody out there, you were… It’s amazing.
Think of this. 35 to 65,000 people. There’s not one story of vandalism to report. This little paper may make one up, but there isn’t one — just kidding. Here you’ve got 35,000 people all sardined inside the Old Town Square. You cannot avoid bumping into somebody, right? It’s not poss. But every — you know what the most popular word was on Saturday? “Excuse me.” “Excuse me” must have been uttered a million times.
Every time somebody jostled somebody, “Oh, excuse me.” When you couldn’t help it. You put most people in a crowd like this, and the baby boom that would result nine months from yesterday or Saturday would have been — that’s how close together they were. I mean, there are a lot of stuff could have been going on and nobody would have known about it.
But I’ll tell you, it was great.
BRETT: A moment of incredible history as only Rush could deliver it. Sandy is in Seattle, Washington. Sandy, welcome to the show. What’s on your mind today?
CALLER: Hi, Brett. Thank you so much for taking my call. Dan’s Bake Sale dittos. I was there about 50 feet from the stage.
BRETT: Wow.
CALLER: Saw Rush come in on the helicopter. And I have the wooden cookie and a picture with Bo and Tony Lo Bianco 62,000 prove it. It was a magical day. It really was.
BRETT: That is outstanding. What sticks out most in your mind as you look back 28 years ago? Is there a particular moment of that event that you think about and reflect on?
CALLER: Well, in looking back I hopped on a charter flight from Dallas to Cheyenne. I remember I was an introvert and you found Rush and, oh, my gosh. He just changed my life, transformed any personality. We all have a voice and they’re all worth using. He taught me that.
But I think the friendliness of everybody, bumping into somebody and, “Excuse me. I’m sorry.” You know, oh, my gosh. It was like conservative utopia. And I do remember when everyone cleared out at the end of the day, no trash. It’s like we weren’t even there. I don’t… It was just an unbelievably friendly experience. It was less than 24-hour trip for me.
BRETT: Wow.
CALLER: And my husband at the time did not want me to go. It was the best decision I ever made, to go.
BRETT: Wow.
CALLER: No. It was just a step in the process. But listened to Rush from the beginning, and my life has just… I miss him every day, but thank you for carrying on the legacy, for taking my call. I’m super nervous.
BRETT: Oh, you’re great. You’re great. And thank you for sharing with us your memory, and make sure, if you can, to send copy of those pictures to DansBakeSale@eibnet.com, because that’s something really worth holding onto, Sandy, and I appreciate you being out there.
CALLER: I’ll look for my photos right now and find it. Thank you so much.
BRETT: Take care. Enjoy the memory tomorrow, ’cause tomorrow is the 28th anniversary of Dan’s Bake Sale, and a remarkable time for everybody to get together and to spend that time with Rush, and I know how much it meant to him to see each and every one of you out there loving the country as much as he did.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
BRETT: Let me talk to Mike in Toledo, Ohio, joining us on the line now. Mike, welcome to the program. What’s on your mind today, sir?
CALLER: Thank you, Brett. First, I want to say I’m actually from Temperance, Michigan, but I want to say mega dittos from Temperance, Michigan. I’m real close to Toledo, 1.9 miles. I want to thank you for carrying on Rush’s word and all you’re doing and all the other fill-in hosts. But I think… I wanted to start out by offer any sincere condolences to Kathryn Limbaugh and all of you that were very close to Rush.
I also wanted to tell a story about how I actually found out about Rush. Quite a few years ago my dad, who I lost in 2007, we were sitting having a drink together, and there was a local channel on. It was a news story that came on the radio — the TV, rather — and I was almost clueless, and I wasn’t really paying attention back at that time, and my dad said, “Hey, you really need to find a good new source and pay attention to what’s going on in the world.”
So I was really not politically involved, and my dad suggesting I start listening to Rush, which I did. And it changed my life. I looked forward to listening to Rush. I valued his opinion. When something big would happen in politics, I couldn’t wait to tune in on Monday to find out what Rush had to say. He just absolutely changed my life.
BRETT: Sure. Absolutely.
CALLER: Yeah. I mean, I just… I looked forward to it, looked forward to hearing his life, wisdom and political views, and just… I listened tremendously. I just… That’s all I really wanted to say. I’ve been trying to phone in for a lot of years, and I —
BRETT: Yeah.
CALLER: — just wish I had the opportunity to talk to the big man himself.
BRETT: Mike, listen. He’s hearing you and we hear you, and we appreciate your support of this program, and we’re happy you found him and we’re happy you connected and we’re happy that he connected with you, and I just want to say thank you so much for checking in today and for sharing your story. And it is most appreciated by everybody here on the team. Thank you very much, sir.
CALLER: All right. Thank you for the subscription to The Limbaugh Letter too. I’ll truly value it.
BRETT: You’re very welcome. Look, as we conclude our anniversary edition of Open Line Friday celebrating Dan’s Bake Sale and all the memories, we’d like to imagine that today’s EIB High Note is dedicated to us by Rush himself. This is a clip of the Maha speaking from the stage to all of us.
RUSH: I love you all from the bottom of my heart! I love you.
CROWD: (cheers and applause)
RUSH: I appreciate this more than you can possibly imagine. I really do, you all have, done such a change-around in my life, and I want to encourage you to continue to be yourselves and to be happy — and above all, don’t get down. I know the dominant media culture makes it look like what you and I believe in is a minority, but it isn’t. We are the majority of thinkers in the country!
CROWD: (sustained cheers and applause all-but drowning out Rush)
RUSH: Stay confident! Stay confident!
BRETT: Did you hear that cheering? That is rock star cheering. That is rock show cheering. I have no doubt that Rush is still saying all of that to all of us now from where he is. Remember, we’re collecting photos from Dan’s Bake Sale to prove not only that the day did happen, but it was a wonderfully positive event. So if you have any photo memories, you can email them to DansBakeSale@eibnet.com.
That’s Dan’s, Dan with an S. Email them to DansBakeSale@eibnet.com to help us memorialize and remember that very, very special day. Now, Bo Snerdley was at Dan’s Bake Sale and he joined this program last week so speak with our good friend Todd Herman about his new podcast series. It’s quite a tribute to our beloved Rush sharing memorable moments of working together and the kind of person that Rush was.
MyPillow and Tunnel to Towers Foundation are both sponsoring this 12-episode series. You’ll find a link to the first podcast episode on our website at RushLimbaugh.com and wherever you listen to the podcasts that are out there. It is so great to be here with you. It’s 28 years since Dan’s Bake Sale, and I remember I wasn’t yet on the team here.
But I remember following it closely, listening to the coverage afterwards, and I remember all those special moments that were shared by tens of thousands of people who then went home and shared it with tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands and more, and here we are all gathered today on the eve of the 28th anniversary.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
BRETT: It has been an absolute pleasure this week getting an opportunity to sit here behind the Golden EIB Microphone and speak with each and every one of you throughout this week. I don’t want to do this last. I want to do this first, and it’s this. I want to thank all the amazing people who are working so hard here at the EIB Network to make this show happen every single day regardless of the guide hosts or who it is that’s actually talking into the microphone.
Mike and Ali and Greg and Joe and Keith and Dean, and today Denise, Denise Mei and Diana Allocco who came by today to share with us their thoughts on Dan’s Bake Sale, 28th anniversary tomorrow, and I would encourage folks to go over to RushLimbaugh.com and enjoy all the great content there. I would encourage everyone to scribe to The Limbaugh Letter because it is so important to stay in touch.
And my final sort of message is, you know, as we get into the weekend, we’re all gonna go our separate ways, and come next week, we’ll be doing all different kinds of things here. But let me just say this: That event happened. That event in Colorado happened 28 years ago tomorrow. We didn’t imagine it, and what the left loves to do is make you think you’re the only person out there that thanks the way you think and that you’re nuts.
You’re not. You’re patriots. I don’t care where you end up or what you’re doing, you were part of this, and that’s what’s hugely important. And I was so happy to be with you all this week, and I’m looking forward to next week as well. Thank you so much.