Talk show host denounces Guardian blog about darling of Tea Party movement and former premier as 'essentially a hoax'
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Rush Limbaugh, pictured giving a speech in Michigan, accused the Guardian of making up a story about Sarah Palin and Margaret Thatcher. Photograph: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
Rush Limbaugh, the conservative US radio talk show host, was on sparkling form on Wednesday as he announced a special treat for his listeners.
Yes, devotees of the Tea Party movement will now have their very own tea to sip. Limbaugh told his listeners he is to sell a new brand of iced tea with a special name worthy of the highly conservative grassroots movement – Two If By Tea.
The name is a reference to the line in the 1861 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, Paul Revere's Ride – "One, if by land, and two if by sea". The poem is a tribute to the famous 1775 midnight ride by the American patriot Paul Revere to warn of approaching British forces.
Sarah Palin, who coincidentally slipped up recently on the precise details of the midnight ride, provided Limbaugh with a brief diversion as he teased his listeners by saying they were about to hear broadcast history. Before he strode into the history books, by announcing that listeners could buy a 12-pack of his new tea for $23.76, Limbaugh said he wanted to deal with some "news" things. It turned out this was my blog of last week which reported that Margaret Thatcher would not be meeting Sarah Palin when and if she passes through London next month on the grounds that she is seen as a frivolous politician.
The following remark by a Thatcher ally riled Limbaugh and others on the right in the US:
Lady Thatcher will not be seeing Sarah Palin. That would be belittling for Margaret. Sarah Palin is nuts.
Limbaugh reminded his audience that "I, El Rushbo" had dwelt on the report about Palin in the "UK Guardian". He then moved onto the important business of promoting his new brand of iced tea.
But later in the show he returned to Palin and Thatcher again as he denounced my blog as "essentially a hoax". This is what Limbaugh said in remarks which appear on his website under the headline See, I Told You So: UK Guardian Story on Thatcher, Palin was Wrong:
On this Margaret Thatcher business, once again I was right. It turns out that whole thing was essentially a hoax. The whole thing was made up. Nobody in Margaret Thatcher's camp ever did say that Margaret Thatcher wouldn't meat with Palin because Palin's nuts.
Limbaugh cited a blog by Nile Gardiner at the Daily Telegraph. Gardiner, who is director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the right wing Heritage Foundation in Washington, wrote:
I have spoken to Lady Thatcher's Private Office regarding the story, and they confirm that the attack on Sarah Palin definitely did not come from her office, and in no way reflects her views. As a former aide to Margaret Thatcher myself, I can attest that this kind of thinking is entirely alien to her, and that such remarks would never be made by her office. She has always warmly welcomed like-minded figures in the United States, and has in the past met with numerous US presidential candidates and political dignitaries when they have visited London. But at the age of 85 she is now able to receive very few visitors at all.
There was never any snub of Sarah Palin by Lady Thatcher's office. However, there has been a great deal of mischief-making and unpleasantness from sections of the liberal press in a vain and futile attempt to use Margaret Thatcher's name to smear a major US politician.
Limbaugh concluded by saying:
So I just wanted to square this. Once again you're on the cutting edge if you listen regularly and religiously to this program.
At the risk of provoking Limbaugh for a third time I should point out that my blog of last Tuesday and a second blog still stand. I posted that last Thursday after Limbaugh criticised my original blog as "preposterous".
Gardiner pursued the formal route of contacting Thatcher's private office for a response. I followed a different path, the path trodden by journalists down the ages when they want to discover people's true thoughts. I spoke to a Thatcher ally who outlined the private thoughts of members of the former prime minister's circle. The ally confirmed the accuracy of my blog when the US right started to react against it last Wednesday.
Limbaugh is struggling to grasp a simple point: members of Thatcher's circle are highly protective of the former prime minister and do not want her to be demeaned by meeting someone they regard as essentially frivolous.