RUSH: This is Dean in Beulah, Iowa. Am I pronouncing that right?
CALLER: Yes, you are.
RUSH: Thank you, sir. Welcome to the program.
CALLER: Thank you. Mega dittos, Rush. Hey, I was just wondering, I’ve been a fan of the show for a long time, and has Chris Matthews ever guest hosted your show?
RUSH: Yes, he has.
CALLER: And why did you do that.
RUSH: Well, you know, there was a time that… Help me out on this, Snerdley. It was the mid-nineties, right?
CALLER: Yeah, at least that long ago. It’s been a long time, way before he ever came out as being more liberal. You know, for a time there he was almost conservative.
RUSH: Well, in part. But when we put him on as a guest host we knew that he wasn’t full-fledged conservative, but we did it just as a change of pace.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: But back then, he and I had a good relationship. I was going on his show, and he was calling in to my show, and we had a good relationship back then, but I stopped being invited to go on his show. Maybe it’s I stopped accepting invitations. I don’t know which. But clearly now, that network now is the house organ for the Democrat National Committee.
CALLER: Yeah. I think I remember that show he was on, and it was pretty good, if I remember right, but (laughs).
RUSH: I didn’t hear it. I never listen when I’m not here, obviously. If I could listen, I would be here to do the show. So I didn’t hear it. I’m trying to remember. My memory is, we had some people complain.
CALLER: (laughter) Well, I can believe it. It just kind of astonished me the one time, and as the years progress, I said, ‘Do I remember right? Did Chris Matthews actually host?’
RUSH: We’re going back 13 or 14 years here. We have to be.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: I mean, this is a perfect Open Line Friday call, but I’m stunned that you remember it and wanted to call. You’re calling actually to chastise me for doing this 14 years later, aren’t you? That’s what you’re doing.
CALLER: Well, a little bit. (laughing)
RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s what you’re doing. ‘How could you? What were you thinking, Rush?’
CALLER: (laughing) Exactly!
RUSH: Let me tell you something. There have been a lot of guest hosts on this program that are stranger circumstances than that one.
CALLER: That’s all my question was but I was just kind of curious, so…
RUSH: Well, I hope that your curiosity has been dealt with.
CALLER: It has.
RUSH: Thanks much.