THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 1, 1994 TAG: 9407010078
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
BRIAN KELIHER, who publishes the Flush Rush Quarterly, a newsletter devoted to bashing conservative radio and TV talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, today finds himself with a friend and ally in a very high place.
The Oval Office.
Keliher said it pleased him no end when President Clinton last week blistered Limbaugh and other conservative talk show hosts for delivering ``a constant drumbeat of negativism and cynicism.''
Until Clinton fired away at Limbaugh during an interview with the hosts of a radio show in St. Louis, it's been pretty much Keliher vs. Limbaugh.
``Nobody else has taken him on but us,'' said Keliher from his office in San Diego from where he sends the Flush Rush Quarterly to 11,000 subscribers.
Keliher said he started the Flush Rush Quarterly after he heard Limbaugh make what he calls outrageous statements about the spotted owl, members of Clinton's cabinet, middle-class taxpayers, the North American Free Trade Agreement and many other subjects. His quarterly is published to set the record straight, said Keliher.
``There are a lot of people across this great nation who are sick and tired of Rush Limbaugh's half-truths,'' Keliher said.
I'm surprised that Clinton hasn't lit out after Limbaugh before now.
The president must be a patient man.
If I were Clinton, and I heard a broadcaster on 600 radio stations referring to my administration as ``The Raw Deal,'' I would have taken him on months ago. Limbaugh daily counts down the days of the Clinton presidency, the days of ``America being held hostage,'' as Rush puts it.
To Limbaugh, the president isn't Bill Clinton.
He's Slick Willie.
``It felt so good to hear Clinton say what he said about Rush,'' Keliher said. ``He had it coming.''
Clinton came out of the closet as a Limbaugh hater to make this point: The president has limited time on radio or TV - sometimes as little as five minutes - to defend his policies. In contrast, Limbaugh and others in talk radio have hours each day to air out their opinions about the administration.
The Flush Rush Quarterly often challenges those opinions.
Keliher asks, where else can you get the inside story of Limbaugh's past marriages? His status in the draft? What he really thinks about Katie Couric, Anita Hill, Betty Friedan, Jocelyn Elders, the hole in the ozone?
``People in this country take Rush far too seriously,'' said Keliher. ``We dismiss him as nothing but an entertainer. He is not the brilliant expert he pretends to be on such subjects as the environment, foreign affairs and the sciences. It's amazing to me that he is taken so seriously by so many people.''
The Flush Rush Quarterly takes Limbaugh very un-seriously.
The publisher believes that the Best of Rush Limbaugh is three hours of radio silence.
The cost of four issues is $13.95. The Flush Rush Quarterly's address is PO Box 270525, San Diego, Calif. 92198.
Limbaugh's supporters (he calls them Dittoheads) use that address to send hate mail to Keliher and his associates. Keliher recently received a letter addressed to ``Commie-Liberal Rag, Puppet of Draft-Dodger Bill.''
Keliher said he has mixed emotions about Clinton's very public criticism of Limbaugh. Oh, Limbaugh had it coming, the San Diego publisher said.
But Keliher hated to see Clinton elevate Limbaugh to the world stage, to validate him as a critic, to give him more status than he deserves, to put Limbaugh on Page 1.
That's more attention than a clown deserves, said Keliher. by CNB