[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 139 (Tuesday, October 16, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H6875-H6876]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TRIBUTE TO RUSH HUDSON LIMBAUGH, III

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, the Bible tells us that if you owe debts, pay 
debts; if honor, then honor; if respect, then respect; and with a 
little girl at home tonight sick, I am unable to join a Special Order 
this evening that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston) will be 
holding on behalf of an American who has greatly impacted my 
professional life, and, to the frustration of many, has greatly 
impacted the life of the Nation, and that would be Rush Hudson 
Limbaugh, III, a man born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on January 12, 
1951.
  He will be extolled on this floor tonight by many of my colleagues, 
as we come together during a time of great difficulty for the Limbaugh 
family to remember his contribution to the country. So I rise briefly 
tonight.
  There are many of my colleagues, particularly those that were 
elected, Mr. Speaker, in 1994, who will look to this pioneer in talk 
radio and will credit him in part for their election to the Congress of 
the United States, and that would be true. In many ways, the Republican 
majority owes much of its continued success to the talk radio that Rush 
Limbaugh reinvented in the mid-1980s as a format for conversation among 
millions of Americans on a daily basis.
  But it is a literal truth, Mr. Speaker, to say that I am in Congress 
today because of Rush Limbaugh, and not because of some tangential 
impact on my career or his effect on the national debate; but because 
in fact after my first run for Congress in 1988, it was the new 
national voice emerging in 1989 across the heartland of Indiana of one 
Rush Hudson Limbaugh, III, that captured my imagination. And while I 
would run for Congress again and lose, I was inspired by those dulcet 
tones to seek a career in radio and television.
  I began my career in radio in Rushville, Indiana, in Rush County, in 
1989, trying to do my level best impersonation of Rush Limbaugh in 
those early days; and it was, I am here to tell you, bad radio when I 
started.

                              {time}  2000

  By 1992, I began hosting a regular radio show in Indianapolis. It was 
a weekend conversation that became the most popular program on WNDE in 
the weekend lineup; and it was there that I became emboldened, 
listening oftentimes to the entrepreneurial spirit that emanated out of 
the Rush Limbaugh program to start my own syndicated radio program that 
grew over a 7-year period of time to a daily audience of over a quarter 
of a million people, 18 radio stations across Indiana. I was, in every 
sense, Rush Limbaugh's warm-up act in Indiana, airing every time from 9 
a.m. to noon as his lead-in on many Hoosier stations. It was from that 
platform of popularity and distinction that I was able to accept the 
call in the year 2000 to try again, for the third time, to run to stand 
in this Chamber.
  So I rise today in recognition of that fact. I rise today in 
appreciation of the

[[Page H6876]]

example that Rush Limbaugh has been to me, both as an entrepreneur and 
as an American. The truth is, he has been an inspiration to many 
millions of Americans. After Ronald Reagan left the national stage in 
1988 and many of us conservatives were searching for a voice and for 
over 20 million Americans, that voice was and is Rush Limbaugh.
  Now, I know something as a former radio professional about the 
formatics and my colleague (Mr. Lewis) in the Chamber knows that in 
radio we learned pacing and how to hook the audience. We know the 
techniques, and no one is better in that than Rush Limbaugh, in my 
judgment. But it was not the formatics that drew the audience to Rush 
Limbaugh; it was not the gimmicks. It was information, verifiable fact 
and an undaunting willingness to speak the truth boldly.
  Rush Limbaugh was not one of those in the media who, in effect, 
cowered behind that image of objectivity, hiding the fact that he had 
opinions, biases, beliefs, convictions; but, rather, he never feared 
being discovered to be an American of strong opinions. In fact, Rush 
Limbaugh never feared anything. I trust as he faces one of the great 
challenges of his life in a debilitating impact on his hearing, that 
that same courage, that same determination is being applied by Rush 
Limbaugh in the same way that his family is bathing his circumstances 
in prayer.
  I close today, Mr. Speaker, simply by saying that Rush Limbaugh has 
made a difference in my life, and I say without apology that I believe 
he has made a difference in the life of the Nation. He has given us an 
example of a life that is about ideas larger than personal advancement, 
a life that tries to bring the reality of God's grace in each of our 
lives and in the history of this Nation before the citizenry every day.
  My word to Rush is stay the course, encourage, tear down the 
strongholds, only be strong and courageous, do not be discouraged, for 
the Lord your God will go with you wherever you go.

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