Tahoe-gate? Did Rush Limbaugh "Buy" Caller GM SUV?

So conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh is a big “friend” of GM’s. Thanks to pressure from Ralph Nader’s org on the FCC, El Rushbo decided it was in his own best interest to stop slipping mentions of GM products into his dietribes [sic]. These days, the segments promoting the General’s vehicles are separated from the main program- ish. But the question of conflict of interest rears its ugly head once more, as Limbaugh claims that he bought a listener a Chevy Tahoe, Elvis-style. According to the headline at rushlimbaugh.com, “It’s Official: Rush Buys Chevy Tahoe for Kerrville, Texas Caller.” Yada yada yada Zicam (don’t ask) go get a car on me. The transcript leads me to believe that the whole deal is a lightly-disguised marketing stunt– and contains some awesome unintentional humor: “She said, ‘I’ll pick one that I would normally buy.’ I said, ‘No, pick what you want. As long as it’s a GM car, pick what you want.’ So she finally picked a green Chevy Tahoe. She picked a green Chevy Tahoe. I don’t think it’s a hybrid. I’m not sure if she got the hybrid or not, but I do know that she drove off the lot with it yesterday. She and her husband have a brand-new green Chevy Tahoe, and the Kerrville, Texas, paper had been running stories on this. It’s the cutest thing. It is just the cutest thing. So they were just… They didn’t believe it.” The question is, do we believe that Rush paid for this out of his own pocket? Make the jump to read the rest of undeclared pimpatorial.

“They were ecstatic, and the dealership let ’em have the car before the wire had arrived. The dealership said, ‘Oh, we heard this. We heard about this, and we know if anybody’s good for it, old Rush is.’ (laughing) In these credit times, they let the woman and her husband drive off with the Chevy Tahoe before my payment had arrived in the wire transfer. Now, that is credit. That, ladies and gentlemen, is credit. And we’re not far away from the Chevy Volt that’s due to roll out in 2010. It’s a glimpse of what’s to come. It’s going to change the way people drive their cars. It’s a reinvention of the automobile. You plug it into your normal outlet in your garage and charge it up. It’s eagerly anticipated by a lot of people.” [thanks to JT for the link]