BOLO for Rush's pal "Steve"

[Mabus]

Be On the LookOut for "Steve"

Please help us find "Steve" and his 24 invisible friends.

Howard Dean coming is to Lawrence next week and I think it is important for us to restart the search for "Steve" the "KU student" who called into Rush Limbaugh's show on August 9, 2004 complaining about the whistle (no) stop the Kerry/Edward train made in here. Like a lot of things in Rush's oxycodin world this story didn't wash under scrutiny. If there is a "Steve" he might be lured out of hiding with the DNC Chair in town. I wonder if he'll call his buddy Rush again and complain about something.

Here's a recap of what happened.

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On the Monday, August 9th edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show, Rush talked at some length about the recent Lawrence, Kansas/John Kerry “whistle stop” train debacle (see http://www.ljworld.com/section/election04/story/178016 and related stories in the archives of same). During his discussion of the incident, Rush decided to pause and take a call from “Steve”, a person that claimed to be a University of Kansas student upset about the entire affair (see transcript of the conversation at http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_080904/content/john_f_kerry_stack_1.guest.html). The really interesting thing, in my opinion, about the entire conversation, is not that Rush put down my hometown of Lawrence, or that Steve seemed unusually upset about Kerry not stopping, but rather that some of Steve’s comments don’t seem to add up with facts. The first comment that caught my eye was Steve’s reply to Rush’s question regarding the number of people at the train tracks:

RUSH: But there were supposedly a thousand people lining the tracks.

CALLER: Oh, absolutely. The campus was a total buzz all weekend. You know, the whole week, and we figured if he's coming to Kansas City or to the Missouri side and he's going on to Colorado -- which you know we had heard through news and through the buzz and through our local paper and stuff, the school paper

Now, I work on west campus, but I’m not that far removed to know that the campus hasn’t been a “total buzz” for some time because…it’s summer! The place is dead until the fall session starts (see academic calendar at http://www.registrar.ku.edu/timetable/049calendarevent.shtml). In fact, summer classes ended Friday, July 30th (see http://www.registrar.ku.edu/pdf/046_calendar.pdf)! To break it down for anyone not following, there were no classes held the week of August 2nd! Most students have just moved back or have yet to do so if they’re moving into the dorms.

Okay, okay, this doesn’t justify putting Steve to the steak, but what about the fact that he learned about the “total buzz” from “the school paper”? This strikes me as particularly odd since The Kansan only prints once a week in the summer, the last edition having been Wednesday, July 28, 2004, Vol. 114, Issue 159. I looked through this issue, and I can safely say that no story whatsoever mentions Kerry coming to Lawrence by train. Not satisfied and thinking I might have missed the “total buzz” on campus “the whole week”, I searched the online archives at www.kansan.com. It appears, if the archives are up to date, that the Kansan has never published a story regarding the railway tour at all!

In all fairness, Steve does mention “our local paper”. With that in mind I searched the Lawrence Journal World’s archives. As it turns out, there have been stories about Kerry’s trip to Lawrence that have gone to print. The first story regarding the train’s pass through Lawrence was “Kerry Expected in Lawrence Friday Night” by Joel Mathis, which ran on Thursday, August 5 (see http://www.ljworld.com/section/citynews/story/177624). You’ll notice that in said article Mathis writes, “Marilyn Greathouse, chair of the Douglas County Democratic Party, sent out an e-mail to local supporters Thursday afternoon announcing that Kerry's campaign will stop around 11:30 p.m. Friday at Lawrence's Amtrak station.” If Mathis’ information is correct, from what I can tell, the above-mentioned article is the first local, public mention of the Kerry campaign’s intention to stop in Lawrence. That said, I couldn’t help but wonder if by “the whole week” Steve actually meant the second half of Thursday on into Friday night?

Throughout the course of the conversation Rush establishes that Steve and a group of 24 of his friends showed up at the tracks around four’o’clock in the morning on Friday, August 6th to wait for the train:

RUSH: Hey, hey, Steve, hang on just a second. I'm confused. You went there at four in the morning?

CALLER: We were out at four in the morning --

RUSH: What day?

CALLER: Because we were told that he was going to come, and, you know, to us, that's a big person just like if we were told you were going to come. I mean, we were very excited, and we get out there, and then all

RUSH: Wait a second. Wait a second, though. I just want to understand this. I want to see how early you got there because I said this would be a big deal with Lawrence, and he wasn't scheduled to be there till eight o'clock, seven or eight o'clock at night. You were there at four a.m. the day they were supposed to be there at seven or eight o'clock at night?

CALLER: Our goal was to plan on doing everything all day. We were planning on having a big rally. We were going to have a party. We were going to do stuff that college students do, and I'm not going to announce on the air, but we were going to do a whole day and night thing and be excited. And then we kept looking for the news, because we kept trying to figure out, "What's going on. How come he's not here? What's going on?" And we were so upset, and, like I said, this is my first time voting. I do not agree with the president on certain issues like abortion and the war and stuff, and we were excited, and now all of a sudden we hear from the newscasters later on at night when we were watching the news that Edwards makes this stupid, totally stupid statement that you didn't see us but yet we saw you. I have a question for you: "What is that?"

RUSH: You had to be devastated when that train didn't stop. You'd been standing there almost 24 hours!

CALLER: Oh, let me put it this way. We were there at four a.m. Mr. Limbaugh, we were up at around two or three in the morning. We were there well over 24 hours, totally excited --

RUSH: Oh, and you went home? You went home when they were late?

CALLER: Oh, yeah. Some of the students there had big banners they made for him, saying, "Kansas loves Kerry," saying, "We will vote Democrat this year! You'll see it change!" Different things. Some of the guys had their face painted with the Democratic colors and stuff. I mean, one of the guys, real dorky, even brought in Eeyore for like a donkey, and we were excited, and then all of a sudden we just get passed by because supposedly this is a Republican state. Well, why don't they come and find out for themselves instead of just assuming?

And later:

RUSH: So how many others were in your crowd, your group that were disappointed?

CALLER: In our group I know that we had 24 students.

Personally, I didn’t show up to see Kerry’s train roll by around one’o’clock the morning of Saturday, August 7th, but I did see some news coverage of the event. I don’t recall hearing any reports about a group of students standing around before sunrise waiting for the train (if anyone has I’d like to know of the reports). Again, a search of local news archives has uncovered nothing alluding to Steve and the gang’s apparent absorption with Kerry. The apparent lack of information about the early-bird group is even more interesting given Steve’s following statement:

CALLER: …And I'll be honest with you, we bugged reporters, because there were reporters there and we kept asking them and yelling at them and even using foul language at them trying to figure out what's going on. "Have you heard where he's at? Why isn't he here?" And you know what their response was? "Well, we were told the same thing you were. We don't know."

At 3:05 p.m. on Tuesday, August 10, I attempted to contact the Lawrence Amtrak station to inquire about a certain Steve, et al that might have been hanging around in the dark early Friday morning. Alas, a helpful agent informed me that no one is staffed at the location, and that he could not provide a phone number.

What follows is some more “interesting” information about Steve:

With respect of who to vote for in November, he is apparently undecided. Despite this, it would seem he hung around for almost 24 hours to see John Kerry! I wonder if this is typical behavior for a swing-voter or first-time voter?

RUSH: Actually, what are you majoring in, Steve?

CALLER: Actually right now, I'm kind of undecided. Kind of like I'm undecided about the presidency right now.

Yet earlier in the conversation:

RUSH: You really wanted to love this guy. You really wanted -- exactly as I said -- you wanted to get out there and you wanted to meet Kerry and you wanted him to be something special, and he essentially flipped you off which made you flip him off?

CALLER: It wasn't that I love him, but yes, I really wanted to see him. I was hoping that he might stop so that I could see him, because, you know, he has been wishy-washy on a lot of things but, you know, again I just -

“Wishy-washy”? This entire conversation is wishy-washy! Also intriguing is the fact that Steve, et al would put forth the effort to wait around for “almost 24 hours” and then bail when the train was only an hour and a half late (cf. http://www.ljworld.com/section/citynews/story/177709 with http://www.ljworld.com/section/citynews/story/177771).

Is it just me, or is 24 the only number that Rush and Steve are familiar with?

RUSH: You had to be devastated when that train didn't stop. You'd been standing there almost 24 hours!

CALLER: Oh, let me put it this way. We were there at four a.m. Mr. Limbaugh, we were up at around two or three in the morning. We were there well over 24 hours, totally excited --

And later:

RUSH: So how many others were in your crowd, your group that were disappointed?

CALLER: In our group I know that we had 24 students.

As if all of this wasn’t fantastic enough, perhaps the most unlikely part of the entire conversation is pointed out by Rush himself! Apparently this is Steve’s first-ever time listening to the show. Guess what? That makes it his first call-in as well:

CALLER: …I've never listened to your station before. We actually are listening to it now because we're trying to -- right before you came on we had some other stuff, local news, so we're listening to you, too, and I heard you talking about this so I had to call in, but this is as big as a deal as when we found out that Roy Williams was leaving to go to North Carolina.

Wow! Steve is a lucky guy. He just happens to be incredibly passionate about the Kerry/train debacle (he waited almost 24 hours for the event, mind you), and he just so happened to accidentally tune into Rush as he began talking about the very issue!! Again, his first time ever listening to the show!

Rush continues:

RUSH: I tell you what, you know what you ought to do? You know, everything is an opportunity, Steve. Look at everything as an opportunity and a message. You have been sent a message. You have learned something about the man you were going to support. You don't have a major. This is a chance for you to go into politics, become a political science major, poli-sci and learn about this stuff. You have just been given a great opportunity here, not to mention the opportunity that you accessed and the good fortune that fell your way when you got through to this program after calling it the first time. Do you know how many people have been trying to call this program for 16 years and have never made it through, and you did on your first try. This is an omen, Steve. Take it to the classroom with you. Tell your instructors about it. Share with them what you've shared with this audience. You need to get this stuff out. Don't suppress it. It'll stay with you your whole life.

16 years vs. “the first time”. Wow, unbelievable. Here’s what I’m thinking: 3 possible scenarios could play themselves out if word gets out about Steve, Rush and the 24-hour train mess. I’m not claiming one or the other is true, I’m simply trying to figure this deal out:

1. Steve is a real KU student and just very confused about the “total buzz” and “the whole week”. His outlandish 4 a.m. story is completely true, and he just so happened to call in and get through at exactly the right time. After all I haven’t actually heard the conversation; I only read the transcript (I don’t listen to Rush, and I am not paying the dough to access his archives). Perhaps Steve was real nervous when he miraculously got through and then fumbled over his own tongue time and again? If so, I would like to ask Steve to make himself known, and clear a few things up.

2. Steve is not a real person, but rather some bozo that just wanted to be on the air with Rush. He’s from Anywhere, USA, and just wanted to talk with Rush real bad about Kerry.

3. Steve is not a real person and, dare I say, a certain radio show’s staff perpetrated the whole thing.

source: local forum

[pelagius]

1. Interesting stuff!

This implies that certain talk show hosts might play fast and loose with the facts! I'm crushed! :-)

[Mabus]

2. Franken mentioned it on his show

right after it happened.

It's something we all laugh about around here.