Posted on 10/12/2003 7:08:17 PM PDT by yonif
NEW YORK -- None of Rush Limbaugh's friends contacted by Newsweek seemed to know the talk-radio host had a drug problem. "What's interesting," one of these friends told Newsweek, "is that he apparently hid the pills from his wife." Limbaugh's dependence on painkillers began after an unsuccessful back surgery in the late '90's, reports Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas in the October 20 issue of Newsweek, (on newsstands Monday, October 13).
In last week's radio confessional, Limbaugh told his listeners that he had twice gone to a hospital to detox. "What did he tell his wife when he checked into the treatment center? -- unless these were 24- to 48-hour clinics to clean out your system. There's an awful lot of mystery about it," said the friend.
Law-enforcement sources tell Newsweek that Rush Limbaugh's exposure as a pain-pill addict began when his former housekeeper Wilma Cline, 42, showed up at the Palm Beach County state attorney's office late last year eager to alert the cops to her boss's drug use. Her motive remained murky, but her story -- how she had met Limbaugh in parking lots to exchange sandwich bags filled with "baby blues" (OxyContin pills) for a cigar box stuffed with cash-was luridly damning, reports Thomas.
According to Cline, Limbaugh took as many as 30 OxyContin pills a day. It is not clear why Cline went to the authorities. She could still be prosecuted, despite a partial grant of immunity, say law-enforcement sources. The investigation has so far produced an arrest of a Palm Beach County couple accused of pushing hydrocodone and OxyContin.
Journalists who have spent time with Limbaugh have been struck by the contrast between Rush the Radio Know-It-All and the private, ill-at-ease Limbaugh.
Friend Bill Bennett, whose book, "The Moral Compass," Limbaugh touted on radio, says he knew nothing of Limbaugh's pill opping.
"He's a very private man," Bennett told Newsweek. "He takes problems into himself."
Limbaugh lasted only a year in college. He jokes that he flunked Public Speaking. Actually, he got a "D," his speaking teacher, Dr. Bill Stacy, told Newsweek. Limbaugh's father maneuvered him into the communications class,hoping his son would like it enough to stay in college and eventually become a lawyer.
Limbaugh was more interested in riffing off the top of his head.
"You need to make an outline. You need some data to support your assertions," Stacy told young Limbaugh.
Failed Disc Jockey
"Frankly, he wouldn't do those things." He was not much of a success as a disc jockey, either. Fired twice (and briefly on the dole, a detail Limbaugh overlooks when he rants against welfare), Limbaugh finally scored when he replaced Morton Downey Jr., an angry right-wing talk-radio host, on a Sacramento station.
He quickly became the patron saint of conservative talk radio and has stayed on top of the charts for more than a decade. (His most recent contract, signed in 2001 for eight years, was for $285 million.)
But his personal life left something to be desired.
His self-absorption made dating difficult. Two women who dated Limbaugh told conservative activist (and Limbaugh friend) Paul Weyrich that they couldn't seem to get his attention. "They both said, 'I'll never go on a date with him again'," Weyrich told Newsweek. "They did not have a good time. He talked about himself and didn't seem interested in them at all."
Limbaugh may have dropped a hint about his addiction a few months ago when he joked, in a seemingly offhand way on his radio show, that he had been "popping pills" for back pain. He drew a very sympathetic response two years ago when he announced that he had suddenly gone deaf-the result of some kind autoimmune illness, he said at the time.
Suspicion has now turned to his drug habit: repeated large doses of hydrocodone, a painkiller sold under the brand name Vicodin, can cause severe hearing impairment.
The penalty for illegally buying large quantities of prescription painkillers in Florida can be five years in jail, and contrary to some published reports, prosecutors do go after users as well as pushers -- especially if they want to make an example of a celebrity.
Limbaugh's best shot at keeping his vast audience is by being open about his problem, reports Thomas. Glenn Beck, an up-and-coming conservative talk-radio host who is regarded as one of the heirs if Limbaugh falters, is himself a former drug addict and recovering alcoholic.
"The hardest thing I had to do was stand up in front of a room of people and say, 'I'm an alcoholic,' and those were people who were sympathetic to what I was saying. He had to do it in front of 18 million...I can't imagine how hard it was to get on the air and say I have a problem."
Might that interfer with with his golf swing?
Richard W.
Don't forget, more news outlets than the Enquirer had those stories, they just didn't print them because they didn't want to tarnish x42's image. When it became obvious that the stories were being spiked, they began to come out. In x42's case, there were other witnesses, State Troopers, and friends of the accuser, who could support parts of the stories. So far, all I've heard about Rush is the housekeeper's story, and the plethora of supposition that has been uttered onscreen and in the press about what may have happened and offering advice on something no one really knows anything about.
A guy called in to Neil Boortz today saying he took about 25 oxycontin pills per day. It's a high dose -- this guy was a leukemia patient and the docter thought he was terminal -- but apparently not beyond the realm of reason.
Back surgery is not a silver bullet. My sister had surgery for a herniated disc 4 years ago, and is still in pain to this day. Granted, the pain is not as bad as before the surgery, but it is there.
We have no idea what kind of pain Rush might have been in, so I wouldn't begrudge him the prescribed relief from severe pain in order to function in his daily living. Folks don't realize just how addictive those things can be; apparently the dependency just grows gradually so that, if you're not paying close attention, you don't even realize it is there until it is too late.
You're an old friend, so it surprises me that you don't know who really pays.
Employers don't pay for anything. The employee pays for EVERYTHING. The employee pays for both "halves" of Social Security, all of his health bennies, all of the matching retirement contribs, you name it. Want proof?
Go to your boss (if you work for someone other than yourself) and ask to see your line in the company's budget. That line is what it costs the company to have you show up and perform your duties. Notice that the figger in this line is a lot more than what you have been told is your "salary." That's because your REAL salary is the amount on your line of the budget. This charade is a long-lasting one, fostered back in the days when withholding was first introduced.
Let's say I own a company that needs what skills you possess and I want to hire you. Let's say that I can spend $10,000 a month on your position because you will produce in excess of that amount for me in profits. Do I offer you "$10,000 a month?" Of course not. I offer you the "window-dressing" salary of $7,000.00 a month. And you, probably, take it - because $86 Large isn't bad for a year's work. But I know that I'm going to have to spend $120,000 on you, so that's what you're actually making. And YOU pay all of the deductions, UI, med ins., SS, Medicare, the whole shootin' match.
Whatever it costs your employer to have you around is what you're making. Period.
Michael
Rush presents the greatest danger to them - not only due to his popularity - but because he plays tapes of their own voices saying the outrageous things that they expect their media lap dogs to cover up.
Rush is the overwhelming alternative to the liberal media... and he has his blind spots also.
It will be interesting to see if Rush survives this in tact. I always predicted that Rush would end up in Switzerland living on his 'earned income' as the commies put the rest of us under socialist slavery... I didn't foresee Rush's 'soft underbelly'.
FReegards,
Bob Ireland
I also think they specifically are trying to mislead us into thinking he was on welfare by calling it "on the dole". More likely it was unemployment. Quite a difference.
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