Rush is right... very, very right

(Published May 25, 1993.)

The king of talk radio has already conquered the book world with a non-fiction volume which has dominated the market, setting records and yielding only to the Bible in sales volume. But that's not all of his kingdom.

When Rush Limbaugh is "on," the seemingly boundless energy virtually crackles across the airways ... radio and television.

But interview him, the bluster is gone and he just sounds charming.

He agreed. "I am always nice and calm and quiet."

But his lifestyle is another matter -- "it's busy. I get about five hours sleep a night. I'm up at 7 and at the office by 8:30. I go through nine newspapers with a razor blade and do the initial news digest. Then I phone the television show to see what's in the news, video-wise, and to tell them what I want them to find.

"The radio show is from noon to 3. About 3:30 I head to the TV station to look at everything assembled during the day. At 5 I go into makeup and at 5:30 tape the show -- real time until 6 p.m. Then I sign all the books that people bring that want them signed. Generally I'm through by 8 o'clock. I finish the business part of my day at 10 or 10:30 every night.

"Weekends are taken up totally with writing the second book." The sequel to his record best-seller, "The Way Things Ought to Be," will be out in December by Pocket Books. It's logical title? "See, I Told You So."

"I have about 25,000 words done and on my way to 90,000."

By using the computer, Rush is able to get some help from his brother, David, of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. "We modem the computer files."

Writing may be inspired but it still requires time and effort. "As you know, you have to sit down and do it every day so it takes a lot of discipline.

"So my schedule is seven days a week but it's not really work. I have made a few more public appearances than I did last year.

"I have chosen to do this. I have no boss to say 'you are going to do this today' and I do what I enjoy the most."

A few quick questions, now.

So, Rush, is there anything you want to say to the home folks in Cape Girardeau, Missouri?

"I've said everything they can possibly imagine me saying. I come home on an average of about four times a year. When I get home, there is a stack of books for me to sign. People send books from out of town so while other people are sitting around eating breakfast or chewing the fat, I'm signing books."

You're known for your Midwestern values... how does your audience relate?

"The values from the Midwest are crucial.

"Look at the nationally known, longtime entertainers and journalists. The number of them that came from the Midwest is amazing... Carson, Letterman, Brokow, Cronkite from the Kansas City area.

"I think if you grow up in the Northeast you don't know what life's like in the rest of the world. There is no other culture like New York City. Nothing like it. Most people who grow up here are in extreme deprivation or affluence. The middle class lives in rowhouses or Queens. There is nothing in common, culturally, with people in the rest of the country. The West Coast finds more people who live like Midwestern and Southern lifestyles.

"If I had been born in the Northeast, I would have an arrogance or smugness about people."

You're the only person to ever get the masses excited about the federal budget. Is there a chance you would ever run for president... or any other office?

"The way I feel about it, I couldn't. In politics you hold out your hand. They want to be paid back. Not with money but with part of your soul... policy implementation, shifts.

"I'm not obligated to anybody. I don't want to be indebted to a soul.

"I'd never bite the bullet to be in politics and never say never.

"I think if I were in politics I would feel so soiled after the first campaign that I would have to ask for forgiveness."

How do you diagnose the future of the Clinton administration?

"I just want it to crumble. I just got off the phone with Oklahoma Sen. [David] Boren. He said he is tired of the class envy and warfare of this man [Clinton]. He said, 'He's nothing but a liberal.'

"There is true dissension in the ranks.

"Clinton wants to create as many middle class people dependent on the government as he can. He wants to drive a wedge between the suburban middle class and the upper class. He's trying to convince the middle class that they can never be upper class.

"He's attacking the rich, again, trying to get everybody to despise the rich and to punish achievement. It's a sad thing.

"I think people inside of a year will be in shock at what they elected.

"We have in Bill Clinton and his wife and their friends a bunch of '60s radicals who, because of a quirk of fate, found themselves in the White House. What they are trying to do is put into action the silly little theories that came from sitting around in a commune smoking dope.

"The Clinton plan is to make people dependent on government. It's hideous.

"They want to take our health care system, the best in the world, and do it great harm and damage.

"I don't think he has a grip on reality. It's the only way he can get away without sleepless nights."

Some critics say you're a flash in the pan and soon will be forgotten. How do you respond?

"Those critics should give up their jobs.

"There is no evidence [that popularity will wane]. I wish the media would ask the critics who they are and what evidence they have to support it.

"I've been national for five years, and if you put the ratings on a chart, there would be a constant upward slope."

"The 'Era of Rush Limbaugh' is just beginning."