A Thrilling Evening at the White House Christmas Party

RUSH: Now, last night, ladies and gentlemen, I had the honor of once again being invited, and thus I attended, the White House Christmas party. President and Mrs. Bush do this three times a week for a couple or three weeks and every night is a different group of people, and last night was the media, the media’s turn to go in. I tell you, it’s so gorgeous, the way they decorate the White House. We arrived and it was a cold drizzle, flirting with a hard rain. We had the umbrellas and walked in. And even with that, it was just gorgeous in there. The way the White House is decorated, it’s Currier & Ives. It’s Norman Rockwell. It’s breathtaking. It’s a shame that a lot of Americans never get to see it in person other than if they watch documentaries or television specials that illustrate the way the White House is decorated. I ran into a lot of people in there last night from both sides of the aisle, and it’s always — (interruption) what are you saying to me? Snerdley was there last night. I wasn’t going to mention that, Snerdley, but now that you’ve put it out there, Snerdley was marvelling pointing out that I had crowds around me like I was the vice president last night.

But I have to tell you a funny little story. Roger Ailes and his wife, Beth, and their eight-year-old son Zach were also there, so we teamed up. We happened to get the same color-coded ticket to get in line for the presidential photo. President and Mrs. Bush stand downstairs near the east entrance of the White House for what is easily two hours, and they actually do it four hours a day ’cause there’s a party from four to six in the afternoon and then a party from seven o’clock to nine. And last year when I went through the line I said to the president, ‘You earn your salary doing this.’ He said, ‘Oh, no, no, no, I like it, I really like doing this.’ So Ailes and I were there, and we decided to team up when we went through the picture line, Ailes and his lovely wife, Beth, and son Zach, who will turn I think eight or nine on the 1st of January. He was born in Y2K. So they’re in line in front of us, and then we’ve got Kathryn, Kathryn Rogers, the lovely and gracious, the most beautiful, with me, and we’re standing behind them, and then there’s all kinds of other media people behind us, in line.

Ailes walks up to the president and Mrs. Bush, and the president opens his arm, ‘Well, look who’s here,’ and they start chatting and talking and so forth, and after a while I finally shouted, ‘Hey, can we move this line on, please?’ And Bush turned around and had a smile on his face and said, ‘Quiet, Limbaugh, Ailes and I are conspiring.’ So they pose for the picture, and Kathryn and I got up there, and I introduced Kathryn to President Bush. I said, ‘Mr. President, this is Kathryn Rogers,’ and he took a step back, his eyes got wide, he said, ‘No, the Kathryn Rogers?’ It was the funniest thing. We posed for the picture and we moved on and saw a lot of people. I went up to the uniformed people, they have Marines and other people inside the White House that are running around helping the traffic flow and so forth, and keeping people from getting lost in the place, and it was about 8:40, and not wanting to be rude, I went up and said, ‘When do you guys start trying to nudge people outta here?’ He said, ‘In about five minutes, sir.’ So I took that as a cue to start making the way toward the door. But it was great fun, and I was very appreciative of the invitation, ’cause who knows when, if ever, ladies and gentlemen, someone like I will be invited back there again, other than for an interrogation. So it was a thrill and a great opportunity and I really do wish people had an opportunity to see it in person.