I’m no fan of Rush Limbaugh. As far as I’m concerned, he’s a blowhard who too many people, including himself, consider to be the de facto lead conservative thinker in the country. Oh, for the days of William F. Buckley.

On the other hand, I have this thing about apocryphal quotes, so I feel compelled to come to Rush’s defense on a small matter.

It’s a quote that’s floated around since 1993, at one point working its way into a book by Al Franken, and while I thought it might have finally been consigned to ignorant blog comments, the other day it found its way into a press release from the National Organization for Women:

On that point, it’s important to note that when Chelsea Clinton was 13 years old she was the target of numerous insults based on her appearance. Rush Limbaugh even referred to her as the “White House dog.”

- Lisa Bennett, NOW Communications Director, June 11, 2009

Now other websites have taken on the apocryphal nature of this quote before. Wikipedia has a lengthy discussion of it, with the consensus being that it didn’t happen that way. Consult those websites for the full story; here’s the Cliffs Notes version.

On November 6, 1992, three days after the Presidential election, Limbaugh did a segment on his TV show about an In/Out list produced by David Hinckley of the New York Daily News. Here’s the transcript of what happened on that show:

LIMBAUGH: David Hinckley of–of the New York Daily News wrote this, and what he has–he’s got–it’s very strange. He says, In: A cute kid in the White House. Out: Cute dog in the White House.’ Could–could we see the cute kid? Let’s take a look at–see who is the cute kid in the White House.

(A picture is shown of Millie the dog)

LIMBAUGH: (Voiceover) No, no, no. That’s not the kid.

(Picture shown of Chelsea Clinton)

LIMBAUGH: (Voiceover) That’s–that’s the kid. We’re trying to…

This transcript, reportedly from Lexis-Nexis, has floated around the web for a few years, and reliably shows up whenever someone cites Limbaugh’s “White House dog” incident. However, rather than nip the quote in the bud (or at least make people, like NOW, use a real quote rather than a made-up one), the response to the actual transcribed evidence has been to claim that there were two separate incidents, with the REAL “White House dog” comment occurring in 1993.

And it’s that mysterious “1993″ incident that I want to address.