The “great and grand” (if pompous) radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh received a call of congratulations from not one, not two, but three members of the Bush family on the 20th anniversary of his talk show.

Wow! Rush picked up the phone and there was George W. Bush on the end of the line, followed by family patriarch George H.W. Bush, and younger brother Jeb! What luck that the current president would be on the phone offering congratulations to the grand Pooh-Bah of daytime talk. No doubt, Mr. Limbaugh felt so privileged — and somewhat embarrassed — that the Bush family considers him their “pal.” Gushing and speaking in tones one only hears at retirement parties and other venues, G.W. was heard hurling congratulations around as freely as rice at the conclusion of a wedding ceremony.

Rush’s popularity with the politically prominent Bush family brings to mind the classic conspiracy movie, The Brotherhood of the Bell.

Set at the fictional College of St. George in San Francisco, and starring veteran Hollywood actor, Glenn Ford, the secret society around which the film’s storyline was built was based (rather transparently) on Yale’s Order of Skull and Bones. However, it is not the membership of both presidents Bush in Skull in Bones that evokes The Brotherhood of the Bell, but the real-life role taken on by the bombastic Rush Limbaugh.

If the movie The Brotherhood of the Bell were to be remade, the part played by William Conrad (television talk show host Bart Harris) could very easily fit the real life role played by Rush Limbaugh. Bart Harris was a corpulent man, who had a gift for gab and could make college professors who appeared as guests on his show appear like kooks. He had his bells and props and a studio audience only too happy to join in on the fun to shut down anyone the Brotherhood conspirators wanted to discredit.

In the 1970 made-for-television movie, Glenn Ford brilliantly portrayed Professor Andrew Patterson who, his conscience tweaked by having to betray an old friend at the behest of the Brotherhood, breaks out from under the secret society’s toxic influence and does what any red-blooded American would do in similar circumstances — he tries to expose the heinous villains operating within the Brotherhood’s conspiracy!

Many a caller to the Rush Limbaugh show finds himself in the same situation as Professor Patterson, who goes on the Bart Harris show to present to the viewers a rational and logical explanation as to why certain events are happening in the world. Events that don’t seem to have any other explanation except that certain powerful people working within secret societies are making those events happen. Here is where Professor Andrew Patterson gets a real life lesson on how a conspiracy operates. He naïvely goes on the show to tell the world of this conspiracy. He feels certain that his credentials are sufficient to give him credibility and to make his case in an open forum like the Bart Harris show. Just like the Waylon Jennings song, “Wrong,” the professor finds himself facing a television lynch mob who are out to assassinate his character.

The Brotherhood gives a few individuals special attention and allows those individuals to rise to the level of celebrities so long as the Brotherhood’s parameters are strictly adhered to. There will be no talk of conspiracy and no naming of names and the secret agendas of the Brotherhood will never be allowed to be discussed in depth. One can mention, for example, the North American Union, but only to demean the people who buy into a “secret plan” or a “plot” or who use any of the catch phrases that point to a “conspiracy.” The job of the talk show host is to cut the caller or guest off right from the start and to misdirect the conversation to the point that the host can then hang the label of “nut job” or “conspiracy kook” on the inexperienced caller. How many times have you heard this done on the Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Medved show?

If I were the casting director for the remake of Brotherhood of The Bell I would place a call right away to Rush’s agent and ask if his client would play the part of Bart Harris. He looks the part of the character and he can play it with conviction.

He is the real life version. He is art imitating life!

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