Rush's eBay letter gets patriotic venue

Rush's eBay letter
gets patriotic venue
'One of the most valuable printed documents
of the modern era' at Patrick Henry homestead

If talk radio had been around in 1775, one American patriot – Patrick Henry – is certain to have been one of it's major voices.

Now, 232 years after Henry's famed "Give me liberty or give me death" speech, the firebrand of the American Revolution is set to host – posthumously – an artifact made famous by radio talk host Rush Limbaugh – the letter from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that demanded an apology from Limbaugh over his "phony soldiers" comment and which Limbaugh auctioned last month for charity on eBay for $2.1 million.

The announcement was made yesterday on Fox's "America's Newsroom" during the Because You Asked segment, where host Bill Hemmer answers questions submitted by listeners.

A listener, identified as "Ted from Cleveland," asked, "What happened with Rush Limbaugh's eBay sale of the Democratic letter from Harry Reid? Did he match the final purchase amount? Did he make a presentation?"

The letter from the Senate majority leader, signed by 40 other Democrat senators, was sent to Clear Channel Chief Executive Officer Mark P. Mays demanding he repudiate Limbaugh's earlier comments and extract an apology from him.

Reid claimed Limbaugh's use of the phrase "phony soldiers" was an attack on all U.S. troops who oppose the war in Iraq. However, a transcript from Limbaugh's Sept. 26 show suggests the "phony soldiers" remark specifically addressed the case of Jesse MacBeth, an anti-war activist who claimed to have witnessed atrocities as a Purple Heart recipient in the Army Rangers. MacBeth never served in Iraq and was expelled from the military after 44 days in uniform.

Limbaugh responded by auctioning the letter on eBay to raise money for the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, a charity offering financial assistance to the children of Marines and federal law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. He promised to deliver the letter himself to the top bidder and to match the winning bid himself, while challenging the senators who signed the letter to join him.

To answer Ted from Cleveland, Hemmer invited Limbaugh to respond on the air.

"Well, let me tell you about the woman who was the high bidder on eBay. Her name was Betty Casey, and she's a philanthropist. She's a longtime listener to my radio program. We've not made the presentation of the letter to her yet because she's a widow. Her husband was a real estate developer, it turns out, in Maryland and Washington, and they own – or she now owns – Patrick Henry's original homestead. She's refurbishing it, and the Harry Reid smear letter is going to be presented there, and placed there when it gets ready.

"So we have it in a bank vault protecting it, making sure that nothing happens to it. The Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation was the charity here, and they have received $4.2 million now from Betty Casey and from me. So it's a done deal. They have the money. We're just waiting for the work to get done at Patrick Henry's place to make the presentation."

The winning bid by Casey, a noted philanthropist and trustee of the Eugene B. Casey Foundation in Gaithersburg, Md., was the largest ever in an eBay charity auction, breaking the $800,000 mark paid for a Harley Davidson motorcycle bearing the signature of "Tonight" show host Jay Leno.

"The Eugene B. Casey Foundation believes freedom of speech is a basic right of every citizen of this country," the foundation said in a statement on the auction. "Their purchase of the smear letter was to demonstrate their belief in this right, and to support Rush Limbaugh, his views, and his continued education of us."

Addressing Reid, Limbaugh said, "It wasn't your letter that raised this money. It was your abuse of power that is responsible for raising this money."

If it were any other letter by Reid, he said, "people wouldn't pay a dime for it."

"This one represents an abuse of power by a U.S. senator, who after besmirching me by name on the Senate floor, gets a hold of my syndicate partner, asking him to confer with me about something he thought improper," said Limbaugh.

'That is why your letter is historic," he continued. It's "a full fledged, undeniable, 100 percent abuse of power."

Limbaugh's conversion of the Reid letter into $4.2 million for charity made it 'one of the most valuable printed documents of the modern era,' the Washington Post wrote.