As the first month after the passing of radio icon Rush Limbaugh is approaching, here are some personal words and memories about Rush.

Back in 2006, John Murtha was trying to become House majority leader.  I had uncovered the infamous Murtha Abscam videotape of 1980 and discussed it with Rush.  Murtha had wanted to make his own deal to assist the fictitious FBI "Sheiks" to immigrate to America, which was part of the sting.  He would eventually be named an unindicted co-conspirator and testify against two fellow congressmen who were later convicted.  The full tape had been made public in September 2006, a month before the midterms, but the mainstream press was ignoring the damning video.  After the Democrats took the House, Murtha was on course to become majority leader.

But the tape had wounded him.  Murtha implored incoming speaker Nancy Pelosi to endorse him, which she did.  The next morning, Rush was talking about the endorsement, and I was able to get through.  I touched on Murtha's role in Abscam, which Rush was unaware of, and noted that Pelosi had wanted the most ethical and honest Congress in history, yet she wanted Murtha as her number two.  After my segment was done, Rush kept talking about the tape, and he began playing highlights from it.  That evening, the tape was featured on all the cable news networks, and the next morning on the broadcast news shows.  Murtha was soon defeated by longtime Pelosi nemesis Steny Hoyer in a landslide.

Four years later in 2010, I talked to Rush about efforts of unrepentant FALN terrorist Oscar López to receive parole.  I had sent a draft of an article to the American Spectator that had not yet been published.  López was a cofounder of the small but deadly terrorist group who wanted independence for Puerto Rico but had little support on the Island.  In the 1970s and 1980s, they had set off bombs around America, killing six and injuring dozens more.  In 1999, Bill Clinton stunned the world and offered clemency to twelve of them, including López, who would still have to wait because of sentences added for two prior escape attempts, but he rejected the offer regardless.  The other 11 were released from numerous federal prisons in 1999.  It was later discovered that Hillary and her staff had been involved, thinking it would help her win the Puerto Rican vote in New York in her run for the U.S. Senate.

But in 2010, López petitioned the Federal Parole Board for release.  My draft had not yet been published, but I called Rush in late 2010 and said López should never be released.  Limbaugh then continued to talk about López.  The Spectator had heard me with Rush and told me it would publish the draft.  I soon found out that the entire Commission had seen the article.  At the hearing in early 2011 at the federal prison in Terre Haute, López faced Joe and Tom Connor, whose father Frank had been murdered by FALN; a widow of another victim; a man who had been grievously injured; and an FBI agent who had helped capture the terrorists.  López had no apologies or remorse, and the parole examiner recommended he remain in prison.  The next month, the Commission denied López freedom, taking into account the horror he had caused the victims, and even used some of the words from my article.  However, sadly, Obama ordered his release in his final week in 2017.

If it had not been for Limbaugh, Murtha would have likely won the majority leader race, which might have changed the course of the Iraq war, which Murtha had been daily undermining.  As for the unrepentant López, the article as well as the emotional testimony of his victims kept him in prison for an extra six years.

Rush Limbaugh was a true American hero, and I am far from alone in mourning his passing.

Image via Public Domain Pictures.