Alan Simpson’s Rush Limbaugh Joke (As Told by Peter Orszag)
With Peter Orszag leaving office soon, he let his hair down at the Aspen Ideas fest—long enough to tell conservative curmudgeon Simpson’s favorite joke about the radio talk show titan. Lloyd Grove has the punch line.
Rob Carr / AP Photo
White House Budget Director Peter Orszag is leaving office July 30th, so maybe that's why he was willing to throw former Republican Senator Alan Simpson under Rush Limbaugh's stretch limo at the Aspen Ideas Festival Friday morning. During a session with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, Orszag recounted a joke told by Simpson at a recent formal meeting of President Obama's bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (of which the retired Wyoming senator is co-chair). Simpson's joke: "A guy is looking to buy an expensive car, tests it out, and comes back to the dealer to complain, 'This is an expensive car, but the radio doesn't work.' The dealer explains, 'No, no, this is a high-tech state of the art car radio. All you have to do is say what you want to hear. Say 'country music' and country music comes on. Say 'rock n' roll' and rock 'n roll comes on." The guy says, "Great, I'll take it." The guy is driving it off the lot and turns into the street when another motorist cuts him off. "JerK!' he mutters—and Rush Limbaugh comes on." Over to you, Rush.
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.