RUSH: Dick Cheney on CNN, State of the Union yesterday, with John King. One question was this. ‘There has been a big dustup in recent days in part stoked by the White House about Rush Limbaugh making some comments. David Frum, conservative who worked in your administration, says that Limbaugh’s kryptonite as he drives away the voters the Republicans need to build a road to discovery. Is Rush Limbaugh kryptonite?’
CHENEY: No, Rush is a good friend. I love him. I think he does great work and has for years. He’s now offered to debate President Obama on his radio show. Hell, I’d pay to see that, would be interesting to have developed. I think Rush is a good man and serves a very important purpose.
RUSH: Thank you, Mr. Vice President, Dick Cheney. One correction. I’m offering to debate Obama’s teleprompter. And now Chuck Barkley. Chuck Barkley was on a Philadelphia radio station. I want to contrast this now. You just heard Vice President Cheney say I’m a good man, loves me, would pay to see me debate Obama’s teleprompter. Doing great work, have for a long time. Radio talk show in Philadelphia, sports radio this morning, Chuck Barkley, this conversation with the host.
BARKLEY: Since I’ve been in the joint, what have you been saying about Rush Limbaugh?
HOST: I haven’t gotten into Rush Limbaugh, to be honest with you.
BARKLEY: Y’all have to get that fat ass off the brother, you hear in? Why do y’all let him say just what the hell he want to say. Somebody has got to say, ‘Rush Limbaugh, sit your fat ass down somewhere and quit embarrassing the country and yourself.’ There’s a lot of idiots out there. Rush Limbaugh has a lot of influence on people.
RUSH: Now, Barkley is calling this outfit or they called him, ‘since I’ve been in the joint.’ He’s in jail on a DUI thing. He wants to know, of all things, what this sports station has been saying about me, and the guy is saying, ‘I haven’t brought him up.’ And Barkley says, ‘You gotta get that fat ass off the brother,’ meaning Obama. ‘You hear me? Why do y’all let him –‘ now, this is from a man, I have to tell you this, it’s amazing. I have not changed in the 20 years I’ve been on this program. Back in the mid-nineties sometime, Charles Barkley hosted a charity golf tournament in Disney World at Orlando with a bunch of his NBA player buddies, a whole bunch of people there, and he invited me to come be the keynote speaker, the inspirational speaker for all of the people, deserving kids, young people, his charitable golf participants and so forth, and I went there and did it.
I’ve seen Charles a couple times, saw him out in Las Vegas prior to the Super Bowl shortly after 2000 or something. So I’m in the restroom, told him to tell Tiger that I admired his courage and his mental toughness and so forth. He said, ‘Yeah, me and T, we hang out and we have good times at T’s house.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about –‘ I guess it was before 2000, ‘–don’t worry about Clinton, Rush, he’s going to be gone in not too long a time.’ Now, I have not changed. I’m the same guy who addressed — I mean, there’s a thousand people in there in this ballroom. Now all of a sudden Charles Barkley is calling a Philadelphia sports talk station from jail asking the host what he’s saying about me. And, by the way, Chuck, you want to compare fat asses, it’s close, Chuck. I mean, you’re not exactly Slim Whitman out there. And I’ll put my golf swing up against Chuck’s.