Althouse: "Even though people are telling me it’s not the way to look at it, I can’t help but feel that I’m letting everybody down with this."

February 3, 2020

"Even though people are telling me it’s not the way to look at it, I can’t help but feel that I’m letting everybody down with this."

"But the upshot is that I have been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.... So this has happened, and my intention is to come here every day I can and to do this program as normally and as competently and as expertly as I do each and every day, because that is the source of my greatest satisfaction professionally, personally... ... I have a deeply personal relationship with God that I do not proselytize about. But I do, and I have been working that relationship tremendously, which I do regularly anyway, but I’ve been focused on it intensely for the past couple of weeks.... And, as is the case with everybody who finds themselves in this circumstance, you just want to push ahead and try to keep everything as normal as you can, which is something that I’m going to try to do... So, I’ll be back here. I hope I’ll be back Thursday. If not, it will be as soon as I can — and know that every day I’m not here, I’ll be thinking about you and missing you...."

Said Rush Limbaugh on his show today. Video below:

120 comments:

Marshall Rose said...: Cancer sucks.; 2/3/20, 4:41 PM
Jaq said...: I am just sad. I hope he beats it, obviously. But this is terrible news. He has always been a figure in my life. Since he moved to New York City from San Diego, I think, and the movers had lost his stuff. He riffed on that, but that wasn’t the really funny stuff. I lived in New Hampshire at the time. I couldn’t believe that I wasn’t alone in my thinking.; 2/3/20, 4:44 PM
Whirred Whacks said...: On and off listener since 1991. A huge, huge presence.; 2/3/20, 4:45 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: I started listening to Rush during the hanging chad vote-divine-intent/ lets start counting votes until our guy wins /episode of political history.

Cancer sucks, indeed.; 2/3/20, 4:45 PM
Dave Begley said...: Rush Limbaugh is the single most influential American conservative of all time.

He backed Trump from the very beginning. I doubt if Trump would have won if Limbaugh didn't back him as strong as he did.; 2/3/20, 4:46 PM
whitney said...: This is sad news but the worst, for me not Rush Limbaugh, is going to be all the liberal gloating. They're going to be beside themselves with malicious pleasure; 2/3/20, 4:47 PM
Leland said...: My dad was just about my current age when he started listening to Rush Limbaugh in the late 80's. I eventually started listening regularly about 1990. I lost my dad in 2003 and listening to Rush brings back memories of my dad's enthusiasm with his show. When Rush ever leaves broadcasting, it will be more than just listening to him that will be missed.

As others noted, cancer sucks.; 2/3/20, 4:51 PM
Andrew said...: Reposting from the cafe thread:

It's difficult to explain to those who are younger how refreshing it was to hear Rush in the 90's. Rush made us feel like we weren't alone, and we weren't going crazy when we simply observed reality during the Clinton years.

Someone above mentioned the Rodney King riots. To hear Rush vent his anger at the rioters for burning down their own neighborhoods (and for targeting Koreans) was invigorating. No one else had the guts to do it. And to suggest that maybe Rodney King was in the wrong?!

In many ways Rush was an earlier version of Trump, taking on the forces of political correctness virtually singlehandedly. Similar to Trump's tweets, Rush could provoke the left and puncture their sanctimony with just a few well chosen lines. "The Rev-uh-rund ... Jesthe ... Jackthun." He constantly demonstrated how much liberals hated to be mocked, and have their hypocrisies exposed. And just like Trump, he had glorious fun while doing it.

I hope he still has a long and healthy life ahead of him.; 2/3/20, 4:52 PM
Anne in Rockwall, TX said...: I have listened to him since 1989. My son is a Rush baby. Heard him from infancy, ended up a Marine.

His ego is huge, his reach is vast. He is not right 99.9% of the time, but dang close. He plants seeds in the back of your brain that, when they flower, help you see things you never expected.

One thing I have always admired is his sense of humor. I hope it doesn't let him down as he fights this latest battle.

I am joining some friends for a novena on Thursday. He will be included with many others.; 2/3/20, 4:54 PM
Beasts of England said...: I listen to him infrequently - less than ten shows per year - but I’ve typically found him to be funny and informative. Cancer sucks, but the advancements in treatment are significant. Best wishes for El Rushbo.; 2/3/20, 4:54 PM
iowan2 said...: Rush has things squared up with his God. I believe him explicitly on that.
After getting busted for opiate addiction, I'm guessing he got clean and on a recovery path with a 12 step program. I catch several Big Book references in his broadcasts. I'd wager he will fight until wins, or gives himself over. All with a calm he already has, because he has already surrendered.; 2/3/20, 4:56 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Let the progs behave like Schitt's. Karma bites back hard.; 2/3/20, 4:56 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Cancer sucks, for everyone.; 2/3/20, 4:57 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Did Rush get "busted" for opiate addiction? - or did he have an addiction to pain killers, realized it, and sought help?; 2/3/20, 4:58 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Sad news.

It's hard to overstate what a splash he made 30+ years ago in talk radio. Back then, there was no internet, and CNN was only just getting started on cable tv.

You had the nightly news on ABC, NBC & CBS. You had the NYTimes and Wall St. Journal. We had the SF Chronicle, which was not a national paper, but more of a local rag.

But the NYTimes was everything. Each of the TV newscasts, would start off, "A recent article in the NYT says that George Herbert Walker Bush's father actually helped fund the Nazis prior to WWII....." Shit like that.

Then, Rush came, and he was funnier than hell. An irreverent conservative. Never seen one of those before. He almost single-handedly built (or rebuilt talk radio). Now, anyone can have a podcast.

I listened to him for about 5-6 years, but then got bored and moved on, probably in the mid-1990s. He hated Bill Clinton and called him, "Der Schlickmeister." (German for "Slick Willie.")

Recently, I checked out his in the show Trump era, and found him to be very lucid. He was much less loud and boisterous, or had been supplanted on radio over the past 20 years by others much more loud and boisterous.

I hope he hangs in there -- very sad to hear about his lung cancer.; 2/3/20, 4:59 PM
Psota said...: AN all-timer, that's for sure
For many years, he did the heavy-lifting that "professional" GOP politicians should have been doing. Only Reagan, Trump and maybe Newt (on a good day) could come close; 2/3/20, 5:00 PM
rcocean said...: Tragic. But there's always hope. People thought he was gone forever when he had his hearing problem, but he beat that. Maybe he's beat Lung Cancer and live another 10 years. Lung Cancer is hard to detect before its too late, Rush just noticed shortness of breath.; 2/3/20, 5:03 PM
rhhardin said...: You don't die that fast from lung cancer, there's treatment, and Rush wants it ignored. It's turning into another Kobe Bryant event. Weird, celebrities. It's the soap opera urge in America.; 2/3/20, 5:05 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "He backed Trump from the very beginning. I doubt if Trump would have won if Limbaugh didn't back him as strong as he did."

Rush did not back Trump from the very beginning. He avoided choosing between the candidates because he said wanted to preserve his ability to support the nominee at the end of the process. I listened to the show in podcast form every day back then. When it came down to Cruz and Trump, it was my belief that Rush preferred Cruz, but he never said that explicitly, and he did not tear Trump down.; 2/3/20, 5:05 PM
rhhardin said...: Respect Rush's humanity with cordial indifference.; 2/3/20, 5:06 PM
gilbar said...: BleachBit-and-Hammers said...
Did Rush get "busted" for opiate addiction? - or did he have an addiction to pain killers, realized it, and sought help?

As i understood it; he had
a back problem, which caused
a pain killer problem, which caused
a deafness problem, which caused
a Now Everybody Knows problem

So, he wasn't 'busted', he was 'outed' so to speak... But i could be Way wrong

I happened to be listening to him today, coming back from the Boston Mountains in Arkansas (seventy FOUR degrees on sunday!), and heard his announcement.
I thought he was going to announce that he was retiring to play golf or some such...
When he said the 'advanced stage lung cancer', i didn't cry; but i took the long(er) way back home. My brother had the same diagnosis; he lasted 3 and a half months; 2/3/20, 5:07 PM
rhhardin said...: Imus died, answering the question if he'd ever get better after going PC after getting fired for nappy headed ho'. Answer, no.; 2/3/20, 5:08 PM
wild chicken said...: I first heard Rush while I was driving thru bumfuckidaho in 1990. He was wild, really out there. The media tried to ignore him for a few years in hopes he'd go away.

Older party people are still reticent about him. But he made more Republicans than the GOP ever did.; 2/3/20, 5:08 PM
gilbar said...: Our Beloved Professor Althouse said...
He avoided choosing between the candidates
it was my belief that Rush preferred Cruz

That's what i thought too, but he never opened up; 2/3/20, 5:09 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "It's turning into another Kobe Bryant event."

No. With Kobe, there was strong pressure for everyone to be solemn and to recognize him as a hero and there was retaliation against anyone who even mentioned the criminal charges against him for rape.

With Rush, if you look at Twitter, you'll see many people saying nasty things about him, and people seem to be getting away with celebrating Rush's misfortune and hoping for him to suffer and die. There's no compulsory hero worship with Rush as there was with Kobe.

Now, one thing about Kobe is that the daughter and other people died too, and it was therefore especially beastly to use the occasion to attack him.; 2/3/20, 5:09 PM
walt said...: Within the past month and a half, I've read two articles, one from Israel and the other from Britain, about scientists treating cells in such a way as to CURE cancer, including lung cancer. I sent both articles to Rush today. If I have read such things, I presume his doctors have as well.

Some years back, I wrote out a list of the people who have been most influential in my life. On the list were my father, Ronald Reagan, my martial arts Master, others; Rush was on the list too. He has given voice to my ideals.; 2/3/20, 5:09 PM
CaroWalk said...: God bless him. Irreplaceable. Courageous American.; 2/3/20, 5:11 PM
Marshall Rose said...: Rush is a giant for conservative advocacy. None larger in our modern world. I have contemplated what will fill the gap when he is gone, even before this most recent announcement.

I am not encouraged, the shoes are to big to fill.; 2/3/20, 5:12 PM
gilbar said...: until '92, i was a life long, card carrying knee jerk liberal democrat
( i voted for Carter, Mondale, Ducaucis, Clinton)

I've always said, that there were TWO people that made me a republican
Rush, and BJ Clinton

It was easy voting democrat, when they never got elected; once BJ Clinton got elected, and i was listening to Rush; i wised up; 2/3/20, 5:12 PM
rhhardin said...: It's turning into a Kobe Bryant event on the right. The left is being the left. They're always a mob and shout to each other so they know they're not alone.

The right is going with sadness expressed. I claim it's self-entertainment, like Kobe thoughts and prayers.

It turns out like it turns out, without any self-entertainment, too.; 2/3/20, 5:12 PM
rcocean said...: "Rush did not back Trump from the very beginning."

Exactly. Limbaugh never backs Candidates until the Primaries are more or less decided. He will occasionally attack primary candidates he considers too liberal. I never noticed him favoring Trump over Cruz. However, once Trump got the thing sown up, he started supporting him 100% - because as he's stated - his primary goal is beating the Left. He even held his nose and supported McCain in 2008.; 2/3/20, 5:12 PM
Milo Minderbinder said...: Without Rush, this country would've been packaged and sold off abroad five years ago. We're praying for his recovery daily.; 2/3/20, 5:13 PM
Drago said...: Wild Chicken: "Older party people are still reticent about him. But he made more Republicans than the GOP ever did."

Very true.

And to this day LLR's of all stripes absolutely despise Rush.; 2/3/20, 5:14 PM
wild chicken said...: Ann is right. Rush was cautious and soon realized his audience was going for Trump. He knew better than to try to "school" us out of it.

They're not really "thought leaders." None of them are. Like he said, he's an entertainer.; 2/3/20, 5:14 PM
Yancey Ward said...: My father was a regular listener from the moment Limbaugh went national. One of my most distinct memories was driving up to Chicago with my father in early August of 1988 to find an apartment to live for graduate school. He kept scanning the radio for one that carried the show as we drove up through Indiana. When he was still working in housing construction, he always had his portable radio with him. After he retired for good, he would always listen in his bedroom so my mother wouldn't have to "listen to that shit", and I showed him how to access the show over the web. One of the ways I noted the scope of my father's dementia is that he stopped listening to the show at the end of 2015.

I wish Limbaugh well, though I am not listener- the only times I have ever listened to his show is in a car with my father. I often read op eds that he wrote from time to time, and occasionally read a transcript of a show during big events. However, he is clearly one of the most influential conservatives/Republicans in history- he has left his mark on the movement and party, regardless of his ultimate fate with this disease.; 2/3/20, 5:14 PM
rhhardin said...: Rush is busy dealing with Rush stuff, not with expressions of sadness or the opposite, so it doesn't help anything.; 2/3/20, 5:14 PM
Jaq said...: At the time his show came on, that made two people in the media I could identify with, Rush and Alex P. Keating, a fictional character.; 2/3/20, 5:16 PM
rcocean said...: Looking at the data, it looks like up to 40% with stage III live at least 2 years. So, yes Rush should around for quite awhile.; 2/3/20, 5:16 PM
rhhardin said...: It's another neighborhood vs country thing. Expressions of sympathy have a use, like "Sorry about your father." That doesn't mean you're sorry! It means you're cutting the guy some slack in his obligations for a while. He doesn't have to laugh at the same joke you always tell for a while; he doesn't have to turn in work on time for a while. He has a use for that sympathy, and that's why it's given.

Rush has no use for your sympathy. It's pure self-entertainment.

An instinct gone wrong thanks to communication putting everything in your backyard.; 2/3/20, 5:17 PM
Jaq said...: I think I remember exactly where I was when I first heard Rush. On I-293 in Bedford, NH, near the off ramp for the Daniel Webster Highway.; 2/3/20, 5:17 PM
rcocean said...: "Rush is busy dealing with Rush stuff, not with expressions of sadness or the opposite, so it doesn't help anything."

funerals don't help dead people either. Guess we'll just put you out next to the trash can RH - when its time.; 2/3/20, 5:18 PM
Jaq said...: Or at least that’s where I was when I realized that Rush was something different.; 2/3/20, 5:19 PM
Jaq said...: I also felt like Trump was not Rush’s first choice.; 2/3/20, 5:20 PM
rcocean said...: some people are embarrassed/annoyed by receiving expressions of gratitude or sympathy. Just reading Sinclair Lewis Bio, and he would viciously mock and satirize anyone expressing sympathy for his son's death in WW 2. Guess it cut too deep.; 2/3/20, 5:22 PM
rcocean said...: Lets see if Poor Al Franken, who was looking for sympathy over his lost Senate seat, will behave with class - or like he usually does.; 2/3/20, 5:24 PM
Dave Begley said...: Ann:

I disagree with you. While Trump never directly backed any candidate until the primaries were decided, it is my recollection that he clearly favored Trump.

I was closely following the GOP primaries for Power Line and I backed Carly and then Ted. And I recall Rush being very much in favor of Trump when I wasn't. I didn't understand why Limbaugh was such a Trump supporter as I thought of him as kind of a scoundrel based upon his business dealings and treatment of women. Limbaugh's strong backing of Trump influenced my opinion about Trump before the election. I would never vote for Hillary but Rush's backing made me feel good about my Trump vote in November.

We can disagree on this point as it really isn't that important.; 2/3/20, 5:28 PM
Ken B said...: Althouse is spanking Hardin.
I'd elaborate but I need to sling pig nets from trees.; 2/3/20, 5:28 PM
Ken B said...: I agree with Begley. Trump favored Trump, right from the get-go.; 2/3/20, 5:29 PM
Meade said...: rhhardin said...

"It's turning into a Kobe Bryant event on the right."

I agree. But I took down my wisecrack because my wife didn't find it funny and it made her feel bad. My preference is for her to be laughing and feeling good.

Still, how do we know that repressing wisecracks and zingers doesn't give all cancer?; 2/3/20, 5:31 PM
Just an old country lawyer said...: Before Fox News, before the internet, there was Rush, only Rush, standing alone like Churchill in 1940, defiant but optimistic and full of good cheer. I hope we hear him for a good long while yet.; 2/3/20, 5:31 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Rush's hero was William F. Buckley, who was my hero at the time (this is college in the 80s).

Buckley would debate anyone at any college campus, and had that great tv show on PBS, Firing Line (how public tv put up with him is a mystery.)

Check out the old Firing Line episodes, there are some real gems. The best are where he's trying to politely engage crazy famous Leftists (Huey Newton, Allen Ginsburg, Norman Mailer).

Rush was much more rowdy than Buckley. He despised the liberals, found no common ground, and just mocked them relentlessly.

He beat the hearing loss, maybe he can beat this? Hope springs eternal......; 2/3/20, 5:33 PM
Rory said...: Before Limbaugh, the thought was that a national talk show couldn't generate enough revenue for a local station to play it in the middle of the day. Rush blew that away, and stations would carry him during the day and then do a rerun at night. Then he got a TV show where he commented on clips and did comic bits.

I haven't listened consistently in recent years, but he was a fantastic talk show host. Every hour left something hanging for the next hour, every day set up the next. His mantra was that his job was to keep and hold an audience, and be was terrific at it.

He also said that liberal callers went to the front of the line. I can't know if that's so, but it wasn't unusual for him to talk to a liberal call through several commercial breaks.; 2/3/20, 5:34 PM
Temujin said...: Aunty, I lived in Bedford, NH for a very brief period in my life, years ago. Rush kept me company there. As he did through years and years of outside sales. From the Midwest to the Northeast, to the Northwest and back down to the Southeast. All across this country, in every city I've landed in- Rush has been the constant companion. I wish him nothing but good things. What he did for me can not be repaid.

There will not be another like him. What he did will not be repeated. Perhaps in another day, in another, as yet undiscovered media format. But for today, he is the best that ever was. And he touched millions.

I'm wishing the best for him.; 2/3/20, 5:36 PM
Temujin said...: Ann...if I'm not mistaken, he pulled your blog into his spotlight a couple of times over the years.; 2/3/20, 5:37 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Well, it isn't a Kobe event- Rush ain't dead.; 2/3/20, 5:38 PM
Yancey Ward said...: And, at 69, lung cancer might not be what kills him.; 2/3/20, 5:38 PM
Jaq said...: "I backed Carly and then Ted. And I recall Rush being very much in favor of Trump when I wasn't. “

Yeah, the home team fans always feel like the announcers are secretly backing the other side.; 2/3/20, 5:38 PM
Meade said...: But honestly, Rush is still living and breathing and walking around. Is this really the time to eulogize him? Maybe it is. But then really, in that case why not spend all our time eulogizing everyone everyday?; 2/3/20, 5:38 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "I was closely following the GOP primaries for Power Line and I backed Carly and then Ted. And I recall Rush being very much in favor of Trump when I wasn't. I didn't understand why Limbaugh was such a Trump supporter as I thought of him as kind of a scoundrel based upon his business dealings and treatment of women. Limbaugh's strong backing of Trump influenced my opinion about Trump before the election. I would never vote for Hillary but Rush's backing made me feel good about my Trump vote in November."

If you were AGAINST Trump, then you may have been extra sensitive to the level of support that Rush showed. But what I'm saying is that he was also supportive of Cruz, and he was explicit about wanting to preserve his ability to support the final candidate. And I listened the all the shows and tried to figure out what he really wanted, was it Cruz or Trump, and I formed the opinion that it was Cruz, and then I continued to listen and to test my theory. Supporting Cruz was also consistent with Rush's longstanding dedication to conservative ideology, which he was always explaining. Rush's mission was to get people to understand conservatism, and Cruz was like Rush, a believer in conservative ideology and an explainer of conservative ideology. Those 2 believe in the power of the ideas. Trump is a different kind of politician, and there was reason to wonder if he really was a conservative. Trump was doing things in a new way, using emotion and showmanship. And Trump was kind of horning in on Rush's territory — speaking in an entertaining, comic fashion. I know that I gradually stopped listening to Rush once Trump got elected. They're too much alike. I couldn't take a double dose!; 2/3/20, 5:39 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Ann...if I'm not mistaken, he pulled your blog into his spotlight a couple of times over the years."

Yes. That's why I started listening to the show. People emailed me that he'd quoted me. That was back in '07 or '08. I'd disregarded him, but that caused me to get the podcast (where you can listen without the ads). I'm quoted in the NYT saying I liked Rush Limbaugh. You'll have to try to imagine how that hurt me with certain people I know (or should know) in real life.; 2/3/20, 5:42 PM
Meade said...: Yancey Ward said...
"Rush ain't dead."

Exactly! And I for one will thank heaven everyday that he ain't. And that you ain't neither!

As of the day he was diagnosed, Rush became a cancer survivor. I say rejoice and make merry.; 2/3/20, 5:44 PM
Francisco D said...: I was on a road trip in the late 80's when I accidentally turned on El Rusbo.

I went "Whoa. This is something different." Until then, my only exposure to conservative media was the McLaughlin Group.; 2/3/20, 5:46 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Meade sez: "I say rejoice and make merry."

Should be the new Althouse blog tag line: "Rejoice and Make Merry!"; 2/3/20, 5:47 PM
Temujin said...: Meade, you are right. As I was writing I was thinking...he's still alive. And fighting hard to stay that way.

As we all are. Rejoice and make merry indeed.; 2/3/20, 5:52 PM
Meade said...: "I'm quoted in the NYT saying I liked Rush Limbaugh. You'll have to try to imagine how that hurt me with certain people I know (or should know) in real life."

You should've yelled: "I like Fidel Castro and his beard"; 2/3/20, 5:53 PM
Yancey Ward said...: "But then really, in that case why not spend all our time eulogizing everyone everyday?"

I will miss Meade- he seemed like a decent guy. RIP.; 2/3/20, 5:56 PM
Meade said...: Yancy, we hardly knew ye.; 2/3/20, 6:01 PM
Yancey Ward said...: I just read that Trump sold Adam Schiff to Putin.; 2/3/20, 6:02 PM
Yancey Ward said...: I can tell- you still can't spell my name!; 2/3/20, 6:03 PM
Meade said...: You'll be fine.
Your friend,
Mead; 2/3/20, 6:04 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: CBS News just said "Limbaugh has downplayed" the risks of smoking. I've listened to him for at least 20 years and never ever heard Rush say anything about the danger or risks of smoking.; 2/3/20, 6:04 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Limbaugh savagely mocked the big tobacco lawsuits the state filed, but that is a far cry from minimizing the dangers of smoking. Of course, CBS News isn't likely to understand the distinction.; 2/3/20, 6:08 PM
Jaq said...: Yeah, they lie about Rush all the time.; 2/3/20, 6:09 PM
Clayton Hennesey said...: Reza Aslan distinguishes himself:

https://twitter.com/rezaaslan/status/1224472951967191040; 2/3/20, 6:11 PM
Yancey Ward said...: We need the insight of the LLRs on Rush's potential demise.; 2/3/20, 6:12 PM
narciso said...: putin would send him back, we look upon all the trash people, like stewart, who pulled the trick of convincing the young they were actually learning the news, or a libertine jerk like bill maher, who is tough on islam, but hates every form of belief that demands self control, or the spew, which is the kibitzing party from hell, they generally subtract from all knowledge; 2/3/20, 6:13 PM
Meade said...: We'll have to wait. The LLRs are all busy in Iowa. Caucusing with the Dems.; 2/3/20, 6:14 PM
Rob said...: The Washington Post, knowing its readers, disabled comments on its article about Limbaugh, but the commenters are going to town on Limbaugh in the thread about impeachment. It's a frightening look at the hatefulness and venom that afflicts the left.; 2/3/20, 6:16 PM
Temujin said...: Clayton Hennessey said: "Reza Aslan distinguishes himself:..."

Not surprising. He is not a bright human. He's a dolt. With a degree. Which makes him...common. And they hate common.; 2/3/20, 6:16 PM
Howard said...: In Santa Cruz the locally-owned and powerhouse AM 1080 ksco was vilified for carrying the Rush Limbaugh program. Interestingly enough, they were the early adopters of dr. Joel wallach Dead Doctors Don't lie liquid mineral American longevity MLM. The longevity of the radio station receives profits from the loyal following of the mineral health product/customers.

The local bookstore owned by the mayor of Santa Cruz priced one of Rush's books as equivalent in weight and price of Bologna.

I'm pretty sure ksco still carries Rush. They used to have wild and crazy right-wing and conservative local hosts who were a hoot to listen to.; 2/3/20, 6:17 PM
narciso said...: he lied about the nature of jesus, calling him a sicari, a jewish militant, so this is near beer from him,; 2/3/20, 6:18 PM
Equipment Maintenance said...: Losing Rush would be like losing Scalia.; 2/3/20, 6:20 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Sad, sad, sad. I started listening to him in '88. Gorbasms, Condom Updates, Pat Schroeder needs a bran muffin, Gay Nuns On Dope. Them were the days!; 2/3/20, 6:25 PM
eddie willers said...: Mead and Yancy

Thanks for cheering me up as I read down the thread.

And to recreate my Rush memory from the other thread.

After the Rodney King riots, Rush said he'd like to welcome all the new listeners to his show hearing him on "their brand new radios!".; 2/3/20, 6:27 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Ooops! Almost forgot; Feminazi. That one will definitely outlive him.; 2/3/20, 6:30 PM
William said...: I listen to him frequently. I didn't notice any somber tones or muted responses during the past week. You try being upbeat and making jokes after receiving such a diagnosis. He's a true professional.....I wish him well. The outcome will be utterly random and will not be dependent on his humor or courage. Too bad. He has those qualities in abundance....What made him unique was not his conservative insights, but the humor and good nature with which he delivered them. His like will not come again any time soon.; 2/3/20, 6:57 PM
KellyM said...: Bay Area Guy Said:

"Then, Rush came, and he was funnier than hell. An irreverent conservative. Never seen one of those before. He almost single-handedly built (or rebuilt talk radio). Now, anyone can have a podcast."

I agree. Rush's clever and well timed barbs to those on the left for their constant attempts to school us "rubes" were a welcome respite. It was a fine thing to have someone with that sort of influence call out the hypocracy of the left. I sometimes wished he'd do the same to the GOP establishment who, in many cases, were aiding and abetting the other side. In the late 80s/early 90s when I started listening, there was no one else out there quite like him.; 2/3/20, 7:01 PM
Ray said...: "I like Fidel Castro and his beard"

I didn't know Fidel was gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that.; 2/3/20, 7:02 PM
Ray said...: Rory-
Roger Ailes was the producer of Rush's TV show.; 2/3/20, 7:05 PM
Jaq said...: Maybe some people are actually immune to cancer and we would never know because they never get it.

https://www.msn.com/en-my/health/medical/scientists-accidentally-discover-immune-cells-that-can-kill-most-cancers/ar-BBZzVza; 2/3/20, 7:07 PM
Jaq said...: Gorbasms! Ha! “Dum de da dah, de da dumpf de da dah...”; 2/3/20, 7:09 PM
Mark said...: It wasn't so much the humor that made Rush such a game-changer. It was that people who previously had kept their thoughts to themselves suddenly learned that there was someone who thought like they did. And not only did he validate their common sense, people discovered that there were actually millions upon millions who thought that way too.; 2/3/20, 7:18 PM
Ray said...: Rush's greatest gift is his ability to make the complex understandable. In doing that he turned the middle class onto conservatism. The heart of the Republican Party is now middle class because of Rush. Trump wouldn't be president today without Rush.; 2/3/20, 7:26 PM
narciso said...: Raul reputedly swung both ways, one of his daughters in the lesbian regime propagandist; 2/3/20, 7:32 PM
ken in tx said...: I started listening to Rush in the early 90s. He made me feel good that someone else was paying attention. As time went by, I found that I could learn most of the things he was talking about on the web, by myself. I am not a regular listener anymore; however, I distinctly remember him remarking that he was conflicted about whether to support Trump or not, because he was a golf buddy of his.

I am sorry to learn about his cancer and hope he is successful in overcoming it.; 2/3/20, 7:45 PM
iowan2 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/3/20, 7:50 PM
Chuck said...: I'm glad I read through all of the comments. I almost topped at Begley's first comment to fire back that Rush did not support Trump from the beginning. I kept reading, and got to Althouse's reply, which is exactly right. And a search of media from 2015 and 2016 shows it clearly.

Rush absolutely did not back Trump from the beginning. At one point, Rush went out of his way to defend Ted Cruz from a Trump attack. Trump made an even larger point of proclaiming that Trump was "not a conservative."

Rush is totally encamped in TrumpWorld now. But Althouse is totally right, and Begley is just wrong. Rush waited a long time before gradually adopting Trumpism.; 2/3/20, 7:52 PM
Chuck said...: "stopped," not "topped."; 2/3/20, 7:53 PM
Matt said...: My heart broke a little when I saw the news. I love Rush. No one skewers the left as well as he does, nor has as much fun doing it. He never sounds mad; he just illustrates absurdity by being absurd, as he likes to say.

I knew he wouldn't last forever, but I'm still not ready for him to be gone. I've been dreading the day he retires, this is so much worse. The only celebrity death that will ever matter to me.

And let the left hate and celebrate. It's what they do. I'll be dancing like the Munchkins in the Wizard of Oz when Pelosi, Schumer, Maddow and the entire staffs of Slate, NYT and WAPO meet their maker. So its only fair.; 2/3/20, 7:56 PM
Chuck said...: I'll be interested to see if Rush has anything to say about health care reform.

I expect that Rush will fly privately to M.D. Anderson, and that money is no object, and that Rush will simply marvel at what amazing care is available in the U.S. (If you can pay for it. And a private jet.)

Health care reform is pretty much the last subject that Hannity! or Tucker Carlson or Althouse or Michael Savage ever want to discuss. Too boring. Too wonky. Too embarrassing for anyone keeping score on Trump's campaign promises.

I am an "often" (not regular) listener to Rush. I don't believe he's ever had a serious discussion of health care reform. I can't say it's never been mentioned, because of course there has been the cartoonish bits about "Obamacare." But nothing more than that.

I don't have any high hopes. I expect that Rush will toss out tidbits of personal praise for his personal team of caregivers. But not much more than that.; 2/3/20, 8:05 PM
Chuck said...: I will say that I actually do remember listening to the show during the week of January 20, when Mark Steyn and then a couple other guys were subbing, and they kept making excuses for getting it wrong about when Rush would be back.; 2/3/20, 8:08 PM
iowan2 said...: Great recollections of Rush's evolution as a national voice of conservatism. One of his original methods of skewering the media was playing a compilation of all the various TV talking heads using exactly the same phraseology. The earliest I remember was when Busch picked Cheney for VP. He was forced to because his ticket desperately need "gravitas"Rush had 2 minutes of all the news magpies using the exact same word. "Gravitas"

On another note, I meant no disrespect about Rush's addiction So I went back to make sure I wasn't off base. He did do a plea deal of not guilty, as long as he continued his treatment. He had leverage because the Police raided his DR's office and took his files, instead of serving a warrant. The police didn't start the investigation until after he had admitted his problem and checked himself into treatment.; 2/3/20, 8:14 PM
Jaq said...: They really tried to trample on his rights in that case. The same people who let Epstein skate, Palm Beach County.; 2/3/20, 8:19 PM
Narr said...: I doubt that I've heard 90 minutes of Rush since he's been on; I do know that he pressed the buttons of many people, who happily shared their outrage with me, and since the outraged also tended to be ignoramuses and rubes on any subject I knew about, I concluded that he was doing good work.

His longtime sidekick with the voices is/was a cousin of a cousin of mine, IIRC (based not far from here).

Narr
Lung cancer is almost a family tradition with us. It sucks.; 2/3/20, 8:57 PM
Jimmy said...: In 1988 or so, I remember hearing on TV that Rush was a terrible person. Racist, homophobic, etc. The next morning, I tuned into his show, having no idea what to expect. Sitting in my work van, drinking coffee, early morning here. Radio show comes on, and the first thing I hear is this-Mommy mommy, the tuna tastes different without the dolphin in it. I hate it" at the time, it was found that dolphin were being scooped up by the trawlers fishing for tuna. It was a hilarious bit, and I listened to him everyday into the 90's. He could be hilarious at times, and also spot on about what liberalism had become.
He was the first conservative to stand up and proclaim what he believed, and why. and pushed back against liberals, at a time when no one was willing to do that.; 2/3/20, 9:16 PM
Birkel said...: Oddly no Democratic has ever had a serious discussion about health care reform either.

They've only talked about insurance.; 2/3/20, 9:34 PM
Tina Trent said...: Rush refrained from backing Cruz or Trump, as he does with any competitive national GOP primary. But he didn't favor Cruz, and the Cruz people were distraught over it.

The Trump people were not. They were completely confident from day one about Rush and the election. Given the odds against them, it was extraordinary.

Rush has always been a populist, fighting the culture wars while rejecting the GOP's increasingly unrealistic libertarianism and effete subsidized beltway marketeers. He was deeply alienated from the Party establishment and DC types well before 2016. Cruz was somewhat an outsider too, but the Kochs -- no friend of Rush's -- bought and paid for him to get to the national stage, and the establishment strongly preferred him to Trump, to say the least. Cruz's unfortunate debt to the establishment was in their comfort zone.

Trump's ideological peer group includes Ann Coulter, Steve Bannon, Matt Drudge, Mark Steyn, Michelle Malkin, and other dissenters from the GOPe. Steyn may someday replace him. Rush never forgets the people between the coasts. The GOP did.; 2/3/20, 10:00 PM
Mark said...: I am an "often" (not regular) listener to Rush.

No doubt you were and have been an early and often seminar attendee.; 2/3/20, 10:31 PM
stephen cooper said...: He should proselytize more.

I know the reasons why he doesn't , and they are all stupid reasons.

WHEN GOD IS GOOD TO YOU SPREAD THE GOOD WORD.

For fucks sake, I was telling people how good God is back when I was ridden with pain every hour of the day and working for little pay at a difficult job.

Grow up, Rush, and proselytize a little bit.; 2/3/20, 11:03 PM
Saint Croix said...: Tulsi Gabbard's tweet:

"To Rush Limbaugh: I and my family send our love and best wishes to you and your loved ones at this difficult moment in your life. May your hearts and minds be filled with and strengthened by God's love."; 2/3/20, 11:14 PM
Mark Nielsen said...: I remember how devastating it was to hear of Breitbart's very sudden death. This is very different, of course. Rush isn't dead, for one thing. But he's also much bigger than Breitbart was. There is no equal -- nobody even comparable, really.

He has always had a talent for distilling his considerable insight down to memorable phrases or even single words. "The Left is a religion." "Liberalism is tenured." Yes, and "Feminazi". May he live on to continue sharing that talent.

In the meantime, here's a word from Spatula City.; 2/3/20, 11:17 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Limbaugh was taken by surprise by this. Some lung cancers move very fast. If he is stage four, it is probably in his liver. Six months on the outside, barring a miracle.
It pains me to say this, but this is my experience with a close family member. She had a chest x-ray with no abnormalities seen, and a year later had metastasized cancer that began in her lungs.; 2/3/20, 11:54 PM
DeepRunner said...: Rush Limbaugh has dominated the conservative talk radio arena for as long as he's been a national host. His early stuff was insanely funny. Whether it was his "environmentalist whacko" update, or his devious and twisted comedy about political correctness (attacking NOW as "The National Association of Gals"), or his taking on the Bill Clinton and the Democrat Party ("American Held Hostage! Day xxx for the country, day xxx for the rich, the dead, and Kurt Cobain" [he actually said that the day after Cobain was found to have committed suicide]), he was unrepentant chauvinistic conservatism writ large and king of the medium. When I was in grad school, I had a part-time job at a commercial news-talk station that carried his show, and he was the anchor of a potent programming lineup at that place.

He became a bit of a one-note over time, and yes, he had the addiction to oxycontin/painkillers, but he's long outlasted other would-be's like G. Gordon Liddy, Michael Savage, etc. I was actually listening to him in the car yesterday but finished when my traveling was done, before he made his announcement. Sad that he has advance lung cancer, and I can't imagine that the "treatment" options are very attractive or appealing.; 2/4/20, 12:54 AM
gadfly said...: In 1993 , Rush Limbaugh was 43, weighed 270 lbs and lived in an Upper West Side apartment in Manhattan making $15-20 million and frequently mentioned his "formerly-nicotine-stained fingers" on his show. As Mervyn Rothstein wrote in Cigar Aficionado Magazine in its Spring 94 issue;

So it is not surprising that near the end of the day, he welcomes the opportunity to relax and to do so with a recently discovered interest--a cigar. "I've only been smoking them for about a year,'' Limbaugh says. "But I've gotten into them like I haven't gotten into anything in a long time.''

It all began, he says, at a dinner in Ozone Park, Queens, in New York, with a friend and the friend's family. "He had his three sons with him,'' Limbaugh says, "and after dinner he passed around some cigars. They smelled just superb. He offered me one, and at first I rejected it. But I finally relented and took it, because it was a celebratory evening. They were pre-Castro Montecristos. And they were absolutely stupendous.''

Twenty-seven years later it is obvious that tobacco is tobacco and inhaling smoke in any form, first cigarettes early in life and now even the small amounts of cigar smoke that enters the lungs of non-inhaling cigar smokers can still become lethal.

We can but hope that the amazing cancer treatments devised for each patient by our talented oncologists will save the day. How advanced a cancer has become is defined by size and affected lymph nodes and distance that cancer has spread.

Rush's description about the advanced stage of his disease is not good but I had a friend live five years after he was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer thanks to aggressive radiation and chemotherapy and eventually brain cancer surgery -- but in the end the frequent chemo likely killed him.; 2/4/20, 4:57 AM
rwnutjob said...: I remember the day like it was yesterday. Who is this guy who thinks like me?

Althouse is correct.His coverage of the Republican primary was far more unbiased than anything in the "drive by" media. Many thought that because he did not degrade or dismiss Donald Trump, it was an endorsement.

I also remember that he told his audience "Listen, Donald Trump is NOT a conservative or an ideologue. If you want the modern incarnation of Ronald Reagan, Ted Cruz is your man"

He did revel in Trump's treatment of the media, a fight Rush had been in for years.

I too was listening while traveling yesterday & had to get out of the car before the announcement.

Sad day. Prayers Rush.; 2/4/20, 4:58 AM
iowan2 said...: Rush is one of those celebrities that everyone "knows". That includes media types who have written reams about him. "hes a racist" is the most common. The media practiced this particular schtick on Rush, refined and expanded it, and now the same slur is used to attack President Trump. Evidence to support the slur, is nonexistant, but facts never get in the way of a good slur.; 2/4/20, 5:44 AM
rhhardin said...: Rush's technical breakthrough was direct marketing. He gets paid by ad responses, not for running the ad. That means that ad buying organizations don't get any say in whether he gets sponsors and so can't cut him off.

Affiliates, as I understand it, don't pay for the show but have to run Rush's ads, in addition to whatever of their own they place.; 2/4/20, 6:25 AM
rhhardin said...: Thus, the "free ad" Rush gives new advertisers isn't really a generous offer of an extra to the advertiser - it gets more responses for Rush. He runs an extra ad for his own benefit.; 2/4/20, 6:28 AM
RichAndSceptical said...: Rush has been a great teacher. Recently I have noticed social, cultural, or political events and come to a conclusion about them days before Rush talks about them.

I hope Rush is able to beat cancer, but he has done his job. There are millions of us now who can read the stitches on a fastball.

From Aug 8, 2019 "So I think using my highly developed communication skills and my ability to read the stitches on a fastball".; 2/4/20, 7:25 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Tulsi is great. True political opposition that we can respect.

Tulsi is NOT part of the Schitt-Hillary-Maddow lie brigade.; 2/4/20, 8:41 AM