I wonder if Captain Midnight is ever going to come back to this topic now? I’ve noticed he’s got a habit of starting OPs and then never ever posting in them again.
No, that didn’t happen. Sorry, but that story is made up. Fictional. Bullshit. What you just stated is false.
I know it’s a popular story, and can even tell you who created it; Molly Ivins, in her column of October 17, 1993. I know a lot of folks insist they think maybe possibly they saw it happen, but of course they didn’t and are just misremembering a popular myth as actual memory, because it did not happen, which is why you never see or hear a tape of it. I’m not a fan of Rush Limbaugh, either - in fact, I think he’s an irritating, dishonest blowhard who would happily say anything for a dollar. But this is not even remotely close to anything he actually said or did.
Here’s what ACTUALLY HAPPENED:
Very shortly after Clinton had won the election, Limbaugh, on his television show, was doing a segment on “in/out” lists pertaining to the imminent administration change. It was probably the November 5, 1992 program.
Limbaugh quoted one list as saying “In: Cute kid at the White House. Out: Cute dog at the white house.” He then said “Could we see a picture of the cute kid?”
A picture of the cute dog (the Bush’s dog Millie) popped up.
Limbaugh, immediately, said, “no, no, no, that’s not the cute kid.”
The picture was switched to a picture of Chelsea Clinton and Limbaugh said “That’s the cute kid.”
Limbaugh IMMEDIATELY apologized, in detail, and sincerely, for the implication that the picture switch might have given.
He apologized again a few days later.
Ivins then wrote her version of events eleven month later, which was wholly fictional but has been repeated so often it’s accepted as truth. Whether Ivins was lying, or had simply misremembered the incident and allowed it to blow up in her memory and then did not bother to check her facts, I don’t know, and we’ll never know now.
Now, it’s possible the picture switch was meant as a joke rather than accidental; if so, Limbaugh’s unusual (especially for himself) and detailed apology during the same show is a bit hard to understand.
What’s ironic about this is that at the time insulting Chelsea Clinton’s appearance was not entirely uncommon in the media, and yet Limbaugh has been pilloried for 17 years for something he didn’t say, despite saying like a THOUSAND other things he can be rightly torn apart over.
(Side note: I discovered while researching this that Socks lived to be almost 20 before getting cancer, and spent most of his last eight years living with the Clinton’s secretary because he hated Buddy the Dog so much they quite literally could not continue living together. That must have been one tough-ass cat.)
RickJay, I would like to believe you, but do you have any kind of a cite for that? Before I made my previous post, I did a little checking around (Snopes, a basic Google search, etc.) and didn’t turn up anything like what you just posted. Which of course doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist; I’m just saying, if it does, it’s not readily accessible to the casual searcher.
Sounds to me like RickJay offered as clear a cite as can be, in the face of what frankly sounds like a “that’d be the butt” style urban legend. Do you have a cite?
Yeah, I can provide several articles published in generally well-respected news outlets (Time magazine and the Washington Post) that repeat the “White House dog” story:
Those Limbaugh “apologies” are bullshit. Where was the humor of the bit then, RickJay? Of course the switch was intentional. That was the joke. Then he could both make his “my staffer’s a bad widdle boy” shrug and take the pseudo-high road via plausible deniability.
Also, see his “apology” –
“I didn’t call her an ugly dog! I’d never do that. She can’t control the way she looks!” Yeah, that is a sincere apology. He also repeats the gag because he’s probably proud of it and wants to make sure he gets the audience chuckling twice.
Chelsea Clinton, like many of us, had an awkward phase. As a grown woman, she looks great. She doesn’t have movie star looks, but she’s way better than average.
But more importantly, from what I read, she seems to be a mature, intelligent, hard working, and well balanced individual.
And in the post immediately after yours, someone quoted Limbaugh at the actual time of the incident.
Every cite you will ever read claiming the “Socks the cat” version can be traced to Ivins’s incorrect account. Every one. The story as told is false, and I challenge anyone to PROVE otherwise, with direct evidence. I’ve tried, believe me, and it just isn’t there. I’ve been looking for the evidence for years. It all traces back to Ivins and goes no further.
Again, I can’t speak for the sincerity of Limbaugh’s apology, and I’m not saying he’s funny, or that what he actually did wasn’t in poor taste, or that I like the guy or agree with anything he says. His ridiculous comments about Michael J. Fox, or calling Barack Obama a “street thug” because he’s black, should be enough to paint him as an asshole for all eternity without needing to make shit up. What I am saying is that the story as is commonly told is just not true; it was made up by Molly Ivins.
The first person who can provide a clip of Limbaugh making comments substantially the same as the “There’s a White House cat, and did you know there’s a White House dog” with a picture of Chelsea Clinton, as has been claimed, I’ll send a check for a hundred bucks. It did not happen, no matter how often Ivins’s phony account is repeated as fact.