Just now, Rush Limbaugh responded to a couple of my email questions on air about why he's now urging listeners to call Congress over health care legislation. 
 
 It's an unusual move for Limbaugh, who as Erick Erickson tweeted, has only done so once before. Despite having the largest talk radio audience in the country, Limbaugh typically doesn't use his show to mobilize listeners for coordinated political action. 
 
 The last time Limbaugh gave out the Capitol's switchboard number on air, he said, was when Steve Roberts was writing a profile of him in the 1990's for U.S. News & World Report. Limbaugh said that Roberts "was of the belief -- like so many people believed back then -- that all I was doing was giving out phone numbers of members of Congress and switchboards in Washington." 
 
 
 
 "And he asked me why I did this," Limbaugh recalled. "I don't do it. I'm the one that doesn't do it. I don't use my show for activism. I said, 'If I did it, I would shut the place down. So I'll demonstrate it for you." 
 
 
 
 Limbaugh said he didn't remember what the issue was about, but to prove his point, he gave out the number and the switchboard was quickly tied up. 
 
 
 
 "The same thing happened today at the two toll-free numbers I gave," Limbaugh said. "Those numbers have now -- you don't even get a recording at them now. They're invalidated. Nothing happens. So we had to give out the toll-free and the toll-call numbers." 
 
 Given the fact that Limbaugh doesn't use his show in this way, I asked next why he was doing so now. He responded: 
 
 "This is ball game. This is ball game, and Michael, the only reason we're at this point is because the American people have stood up. The Republicans don't have the votes to stop this. And the Martians don't have the votes to stop this. Republicans may as well be Martians on this given their influence. All we can do is continue to have the American people let it be known they want no part of this -- the substance of the bill or the process. They don't like it. And that's why I am urging -- because this is a transformation of our country into something that no one has ever seen it be like. And we don't want that transformation to take place. We like America as it was founded. We don't want to turn it into a third world country." 
 
 Limbaugh acknowledged that by responding on air, I'd be losing my "exclusivity," but that's fine -- just as long as the answers get out there. 
 
 comments closed 
 
 permalink
– Rush Limbaugh helped snarl the White House switchboard today when he gave listeners the toll-free numbers and urged them to call to chat about health care reform. “The system is being overwhelmed by calls,” one employee told Roll Call this afternoon. It's only the second time Limbaugh has pulled such as a stunt, and he explained it was necessary because "this is ballgame." Answering an email from Michael Calderone of Politico on the air, Limbaugh said: "The only reason we're at this point is because the American people have stood up. The Republicans don't have the votes to stop this. ... All we can do is continue to have the American people let it be known they want no part of this—the substance of the bill or the process."