Al Franken in Playboy (Relax, no pics. Just a question, out of 20) talking about Rush Limbaugh

playboy.com ^ | December 2003

[lowbridge]

Question 2

PLAYBOY: You've called Limbaugh a big fat idiot and dubbed conservative commentator Ann Coulter a hysterical diva. Did you miss the high school debate club meeting in which the moderator warned against personal attacks?

FRANKEN: No. I wrestled and I was in the drama club. I do personal attacks only on people who specialize in personal attacks. Like when Limbaugh said that the Clintons not only have a White House cat, they have a White House dog and showed a picture of then-13-year-old Chelsea. That's beyond the pale, and &*&% you, Rush. It's now open season on you, and I can call you fat. Somebody had to get into the mud with him and stop him. It's just the bully on the playground. You stand up to the guy, and he wusses out.

http://www.playboy.com/magazine/20q.html

___________________________

Here now, the truth excerpted from the show's transcript (Rush is doing a segment on In/Out lists, and their political biases. For example, he noted the "out" lists he was on despite the ongoing popularity of his programs):

Copyright 1992 Multimedia Entertainment, Inc.
RUSH LIMBAUGH
SHOW: RUSH LIMBAUGH (9:00 PM ET)
November 6, 1992, Friday 11:15 AM

LIMBAUGH: Thank you. This show's era of dominant influence is just beginning. We are now the sole voice of sanity, the sole voice of reason. We are the sole voice of opposition on all television. This is the only place you can tune to to get the truth of the opposition of the one-party dictatorial government that now will soon run America. Oh, I mean, we are only beginning to enjoy dominance and prosperity. Most of these things on the in-out list are not even funny, but a couple of them--one of them in particular is.

David Hinckley of--of the New York Daily News wrote this, and what he has--he's got--it's very strange. He says, In: A cute kid in the White House. Out: Cute dog in the White House.' Could--could we see the cute kid? Let's take a look at--see who is the cute kid in the White House.

(A picture is shown of Millie the dog)

LIMBAUGH: (Voiceover) No, no, no. That's not the kid.

(Picture shown of Chelsea Clinton)

LIMBAUGH: (Voiceover) That's--that's the kid. We're trying to...

(Applause)

LIMBAUGH: No, just kidding. I'm just getting. Oh. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it. That was a terrible thing. That--that was an absolutely terrible--I am--I am sorry. You know, I just--the end of the week, the pressure's on--actually the pressure's off, and I relaxed a little bit too much. You know, when my radio show started in August of 1988, a presidential campaign then, and Amy Carter was protesting everything American while at Brown University. And I didn't, of course, like that. I didn't like her protesting everything American, and I made a remark on my show that I've now since apologized for and I've taken it back; I didn't mean it. I said, You know, she may be the most unattractive presidential daughter in the history of the country.'

(Laughter)

LIMBAUGH: Well, there was outrage. No, there was. I mean, there was just plenty--my--my mom called me at home that night. She said, Son, you know, you--if you're going to be serious about this, you can't make fun of the way people look. You're not supposed to--you're not--you can talk about how you disagree with Amy Carter. You can talk about how you disagree with her politics and you think she's doing some bad things, but she can't help the way she looks, and you can't--you shouldn't make fun of that. And, besides, you forgot Margaret Truman.'

(Laughter)

LIMBAUGH: But I--I apologize...

(Applause)

LIMBAUGH: There I go. My friends, I apologize again. I--that's the third time the crew makes a mistake by showing you Millie the dog when I intended to show you Chelsea Clinton, and then I followed with that terrible story. I'm--I hope you'll forgive me. I'm fatigued. I'm tired. I really don't--in fact, you know what I'll do? Let's pretend this is a daytime talk show and that I'm a guest on, say, Sally, Phil or whatever. How can I make amends to you for what I just did? I can spank myself. People who spank themselves, next RUSH. Watch this. (Rush stands)

I'll do it with my left hand. I--I'm right-handed, so it won't hurt as much. Do it with my left hand.

(Rush spanks himself, screaming and crying; written on screen, Ouch!!!')

LIMBAUGH: There.

(Applause)

LIMBAUGH: We'll be back with the rest of our show in a moment.

And here's the apology

Copyright 1992 Multimedia Entertainment, Inc.
RUSH LIMBAUGH
SHOW: RUSH LIMBAUGH (9:00 PM ET)
November 10, 1992, Tuesday 11:15 AM

("Who's Sorry Now" is played and Rush points to himself)

(Laughter)

LIMBAUGH: Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry. Let me tell you very quickly what happened last Friday night. There was a new in list and new out list that was published in the newspaper. The writer said in, cute kid in the White House; out, cute dog in the White House. Could we show the cute dog in the White House who's out, and they put up a picture of Chelsea Clinton back in the crew. And many of you people think that we did it on purpose to make a cheap comment on her appearance. And I'm terribly sorry. I don't--look, that takes no talent whatsoever and I have a lot of talent. I don't need to get laughs by commenting on people's looks, especially a young child who's done nothing wrong. I mean, she can't control the way she looks. And we really--we do not--we do not do that on this kind of show. So put a picture up of her now and so we can square this.

(Photo shown of Bill and Chelsea Clinton, who is making a sour face)

(Laughter and applause)

LIMBAUGH: All right. We're sorry. We didn't intend to hurt her feelings. We'll be back with our final segment right after this. Don't go away.

[international american]

If you had the distiction of being the most unfunny comedian in american history, your choices are quite limited
1) You can become an obnoxious left wing advocate, trashing people that are your betters in every way.
2)You can get a REAL job!

[lowbridge]

So Rush took two shots at Chelsea, not one?

Rush took ZERO shots.

[Non-Sequitur]

Let me see...one...two...nope, looks like two shots to me.

[lowbridge]

Let me see...one...two...nope, looks like two shots to me.

Let me see...two...one...nope, looks like zero shots to me.

[Non-Sequitur]

One, shows picture of dog stating it's the 'cute kid in the White House.' Two, shows a picture of Chelsea making a face. Face it, he took a couple of cheap shots at a kid who was, what, 11 or 12 at the time? I have a 12 year old daughter and I can imagine how she would feel if someone did it to her.

[lowbridge]

One, shows picture of dog stating it's the 'cute kid in the White House.'

Correct. BUT this is NOT Rush taking a shot. This was something that HE clearly was NOT expecting. The pic of hte dog coming up took him quite by surprise. (It could be an accident by the behind the scenes crew, it could have been done on purpose by someone back there playing comedian, but it was clear it wasnt something done on purpose by Rush, nor something he expected). So a shot by Rush? No.

Two, shows a picture of Chelsea making a face.

Making a face AT Rush. This one was on purpose, he was making himself the butt of the joke, the pic of the sour face of chelsea at Rush was as if to say "apology not accepted by Chelsea".

Face it, he took a couple of cheap shots at a kid who was, what, 11 or 12 at the time?

Face it, he didnt take ANY shots.

I have a 12 year old daughter and I can imagine how she would feel if someone did it to her.

So would I.

[JusPasenThru]

Sounds like protective reactance to me.