RUSH: Brian from Asheville, great to have you on the program, sir. Welcome.
CALLER: Hi. Thank you, Rush. Longtime listener, and I got a strange call last night. It was one of those robopolls where they asked me if I was aware that the Speaker of the House could be chosen from somebody who was not a member of the House of Representatives. That kind of threw up a flag for me, but I couldn’t say anything because it was a recording. But I got to pick one through five — you know, hit one through five on my phone. One was Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, David Petraeus, Newt Gingrich, and…Rush Limbaugh. (chuckling) And so then, after I, you know, made my choice, the caller told me that: ‘Would I be willing to call my representative and, you know, kind of push him a little bit to go along with this thing?’ Well, my representative has voted for Pelosi twice. He’s [Heath] Shuler. He’s voted for Pelosi twice, and he’s trying to get out of this box. So he says he’s gonna run for Speaker. So I don’t think he’d go along with me if I called him, so I haven’t called him. But I’m wondering what you think about this. I couldn’t find this in the Constitution ’cause I went straight to the Constitution to look for it. I couldn’t find it, but I’m sure it’s in there because I was told it was.
RUSH: I don’t think this is true. You can be a member of the Supreme Court without having to be a lawyer.
CALLER: Yeah, I know that.
RUSH: Or without having been a judge. The Speaker of the House without being a representative, that’s the first I’ve heard of this. But, anyway, they’ve had a multiple choice? You could choose from five different people to be Speaker?
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: That’s what it was? And, after you made your choice they wanted to know if you’d be willing to call your representative and say what?
CALLER: You press one for… He asked me if I would call my representative and try and, you know, convince him this would be a great thing to do, and then one for yes, two for no or…you know.
RUSH: Okay, we’re looking at it here. You’re right. There is no specific requirement in the Constitution that the Speaker must also be a current member of the House. However, there’s never been a circumstance where that was the case. Every Speaker has been an elected representative.
CALLER: The best I could come up with —
RUSH: But now that I know that I could run for Speaker…? Hmmm! And I don’t have to be elected to office in order to pull that off?
CALLER: No, I think what they’d have to do is the House of Representatives would have to vote for you.
RUSH: Oh, I know. That’s what I mean, but I wouldn’t have to spend any money campaigning in a district like Florida 4 and then go there and being elected then run for Speaker. I could just start any Speaker campaign right here.
CALLER: Well, I listened to you talk about the agenda that you would be telling whoever it’s gonna be to run yesterday.
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: And I thought, ‘Right on!’ (chuckles) Why not?
RUSH: I know. Who could disagree with that agenda?
CALLER: Well, I couldn’t. But why not just go do it yourself. You want something done right?
RUSH: Well, look, there are downsides to this. A, I’m sure it would be a huge pay cut.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: B, you have to be there every day. C, you have to sit there and be on camera for an hour and a half every January during the State of the Union speech while you don’t say anything. You have to sit next to the vice president, which would be Bite Me for the next two years. You can’t make faces except (chuckles) I’d make faces at Bite Me.
CALLER: (laughs)
RUSH: Interesting. I don’t know who’s doing this poll. Who would be my competition for Speaker? Colin Powell. Newt might do it. You know, once people figure out they could be Speaker without having to be elected to Congress? (laughing) Thanks for the call. I appreciate it, Brian.