Days after bragging that a quote he fabricated had surfaced in a question Talon News Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent Jeff Gannon asked of President Bush at a January 26 White House press conference, nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh asserted that Gannon's question was “accurate.”

Gannon asked Bush: "[H]ow are you going to work with people [Democratic leaders] who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?" prefacing the question with the assertion that Senate Minority Leader “Harry Reid [D-NV] was talking about [the poor having to get food in] soup lines.” On Limbaugh's radio show the same day, Limbaugh bragged that he had inspired Gannon's question, while acknowledging that Reid “never actually said 'soup lines.'” But on the February 2 edition of his radio show, Limbaugh declared that the question -- which also referenced Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) -- “was an accurate recitation of what the Senate Democrat leaders had said.” Similarly, on February 4, Limbaugh declared that Gannon “dared to ask questions accurately quoting Senate Democrat leaders.”

From the January 26 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: [W]hat makes me think that the reporter [Gannon] was listening to the program is that Harry Reid never actually said “soup lines.” That is my characterization of their portrayal of America. He never actually said it. He just describes circumstances reminiscent of soup lines. ... Uh, Harry Reid never said “soup lines.” That's my term for the simple way to characterize the Democrats' view of America or vision of America. They look out there and they see 1930s soup lines all over the place, but Dusty Harry [Limbaugh's nickname for Reid] never actually said that yesterday, but the reporter [Gannon] attributed it to him -- and I'm not angry about this at all, folks! I'm flattered and honored and proud to have a point made by this program represented in the press conference today and asked by a reporter.

From the February 2 Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: What I heard there was an accurate recitation of what the Senate Democrat leaders had said and what Hillary Clinton had said. In fact, this is pretty much what I said the day before this press conference. ... And so this reporter, Jeff Gannon, just asked the president for his response, and the White House press corps says, “Something is not right here,” because, you see, ladies and gentlemen, an accurate recitation of statements made by Democrat leaders is considered an “attack.” ... So it still is apparently the case, ladies and gentlemen, you cannot accurately recite the words and the points made by Senate Democrat leaders or potential presidential candidates without being accused of being “White House-friendly” and engaging in “attacks,” and as such, Mr. Gannon has found himself on the receiving end of an exhaustive investigation by The Boston Globe.

From the February 4 Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: The Boston Globe and others in the mainstream press [are] upset that Jeff Gannon is on-site and present at White House press conferences where he dared to ask questions accurately quoting Senate Democrat leaders. That is considered an attack by the left when you accurately quote Democrats. That's an attack. This is what Gannon did in that White House press conference.

Even Gannon himself acknowledged that the Reid quote in his question was fabricated. As Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz noted in his February 7 “Media Notes” column, “Gannon concedes he picked up the characterization of Reid's views from a Rush Limbaugh monologue and that Reid never referred to soup lines.”