TALK SHOW HOST LIMBAUGH PLEASED BY RESPONSE

WASHINGTON (UPI/States) - U.S. Rep. Donald Pease, D-Ohio, Thursday blamed feisty right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh for the calls to Pease's office about the House check-kiting scandal. And during his Friday afternoon radio show, it seemed apparent that Limbaugh enjoyed his role in the scandal.

Pease was interviewed Thursday morning on C-SPAN, and said his office had gotten about 40 or 50 phone calls about the House bank. "I said they were nearly all generated by that bomb-thrower Rush Limbaugh," Pease said.

Pease, in an interview Friday, added that, although he doesn't listen to Limbaugh's call-in show, his staff does, "so they know what constituents will be complaining about."

When constituents called and asked for a full listing of those lawmakers who wrote overdraft checks on their House bank accounts, Pease said his staff members would ask the callers how they heard about the scandal - and most said they heard about it on the radio.

"Rush Limbaugh is busy stirring up the pot," Pease said.

"A caller brought it up to him Thursday afternoon," said Limbaugh's secretary, Kathy Dellacava. And on his Friday afternoon program, Limbaugh, a native of Cape Girardeau, played the tape of Pease's C-SPAN comments to his radio audience.

"He thought it was hysterical that he had that much influence in the Congress," Dellacava said. "He played (Pease's remarks) three or four times."

Pease said he has no plans to contact Limbaugh about the incident.

Limbaugh himself was unavailable for comment, but Dellacava said the talk show host "doesn't even consider it an incident - it's just people who have two different perspectives commenting."