A Message To Conservatives: "Your Silence About Rush Limbaugh Is Deafening."

MichaelGraham.com ^ | 12/24/03 | Michael Graham

[suspects]

A NOTE TO MY FELLOW CONSERVATIVES:

Your silence regarding Rush Limbaugh is excruciating.

I like Rush, too, and given that he and I have the same employer, I'm not exactly improving my career prospects by being consistent. It's a bad habit I picked up after years of listening to, and admiring, Rush Limbaugh.

And if we learned the lessons of Limbaugh (individual responsibility and the rule of law), how can we now agree to "Clintonize" ourselves defending him? A drug addiction is one thing, but blackmail? He's allowed himself to be blackmailed for years--the same years he was rightly pounding the stuffing out of the Clintons? And now he claims he's the victim of a politically-motivated prosecution?

What's next: "The b**** set me up?"

Of all the disappointing decisions Rush has made, these last two are the most disheartening. Consider for a moment what blackmail is: An admission that you know what you're doing is wrong.

The decision to fork over the cash is just that--a decision. It can't be any less difficult to make that decision than to decide to, say, go to your lawyer, spill your guts and spend a month in detox at Charter. So why not choose to do the RIGHT thing?

But that's not what Rush chose to do. He chose instead to continue, for years, to do the wrong thing and then--after he was caught--blame the consequences on the vast, left-wing conspiracy. As Rush himself said very wisely and correctly when Jim Carville made the same argument defending President O.J., "It doesn't matter what Ken Starr's politics are if you're innocent."

Bill Clinton wasn't an innocent victim of political vendettas. He was a perjurer and obstructer of justice who blamed others for his own lack of character and its consequences.

Which means, my fellow conservatives, that Rush Limbaugh is....?

I'm sorry, I can't seem to hear you. It must be that deafening silence again.

[steve50]

I think it was Boortz, if he's a libertarian I'm the Pope.

[Hildy]

Question:Bill Clinton wasn't an innocent victim of political vendettas. He was a perjurer and obstructer of justice who blamed others for his own lack of character and its consequences.

Which means, my fellow conservatives, that Rush Limbaugh is....?

Answer:

A man who made a mistake, fessed up and is willing to take the FAIR consequences. Oh, and I forgot...HE'S NOT THE FREAKIN PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

[Hildy]

And, if he did buy them illegally, I expect him to get what other first time offenders get...NOTHING.

[TigersEye]

Of course, if he did not over medicate himself to an addictive state he would not have been engaged with criminals at all.

You suggested that he overmedicated himself. If he was following a doctor's instructions I would be inclined to believe the blame doesn't fall so squarely on his shoulders for getting addicted. If, however, you are suggesting that a doctor's instructions should always be considered suspect and dangerous I guess I'd have to agree with you. There are a lot of highly respected quacks in medicine these days.

[Capitalism2003]

Think of the tens and HUNDREDS of billions we have wasted over the years on this drug war. Tommy Chong of "Cheech N Chong" had 20 agents bust down his door, sieze his computer and bongs he was selling on the internet.

Show of hands: Who feels safer with Tommy Chong off the street today??

Show of hands: Who would rather we use some of these resources to say...PROTECT THE BORDERS...INSPECT a few hundred shipments arriving at our ports every day from Jkarta, Uzbekistan, Korea, etc etc?? Wouldn't this be a better way to protect Americans?

Lets let people be idiots in their own homes...get high all they want. If they want to kill themselves, it us their decision. When they do it in public however, the penalties should be severe...with punishments at least 3X as harsh has current DUI punishments. I say, the first DUI offense should be a MINIMUM 90 day prison sentence and $5000 fine. Second offense, you lose your license for 5 years. Third offense = 5 years jailtime and revoked license for life. Do this and drunk driving would drop like a rock. People would be safer...and we can use the thousands of DEA agents and BILLIONS they are spending to incarverate pot smokers, and go after the REAL terrorists, and other REAL threats to our country, like uninspected shipments from terrorist regions around the globe.

Just a modest proposition.

[Abogado]

What about vets who became hooked on pain-killing drugs after suffering injuries, but are unable to afford, or unable to obtain, "legal" drugs in civilian life? Seems the main difference between Rush and a poor vet hooked on pain-killers is economic resources - one can afford to obtain "legal" drugs, the other cannot. Face it, what is disturbing is that Rush's addiction to drugs forces people to examine and justify thier WOD poisition.

[Bluntpoint]

Depression and the like type illness are not biological in nature but symptoms of weakness?

[bobsatwork]

Comments to the author: First, Rush is an entertainer, not the POTUS. If you don't see that distinction, you are well beyond my help. Second, I do not buy the "if you are being blackmailed, you must be doing something wrong" argument. Blackmailers are criminals - not the other way around. And as I have said repeatedly, if Rush bought drugs illegally, he should be treated exactly the same as anyone else cought doing that (first time use - possession).

[steve50]

Rush remained silent on drug criticism, directing his comments on other topics.

Rush became "silent" once he became addicted himself. Before 95 or so he was promoting prosecution of affluent white folks like himself who beat the system. That says lots about his character, or lack thereof.

[CWOJackson]

Actually a lot would depend on the nature of the vets injuries and how they were suffered. If the medical condition is going to be long term then they are usually medically retired so that their continuing care is provided under the military health care system; which would include help for a resulting addiction to prescribed pain medications.

If they were simply discharged, but had suffered injuries in the line of duty, then those injuries and any resulting conditions, including addiction to pain medications as a result of those injuries, can be treated via the VA. The quality of VA care is independent by region; there are actually some quality VA centers out there.

In either case, if the injuries were received in the line of duty, the vet could get care with a resulting addiction to prescribed pain medications.

[Moby Grape]

MESSAGE TO LIBERALS: Your hypocritical ranting about Limbaugh is telling.....

You have at last found an addict you don't love.....Let the left of Hollywood go into rehab for the 14th time, and you liberals hail them as heroes...let ONE conservative admitt to being an addict, and you folks call for the death penalty (so to speak).

[arthurus]

When depression becomes widely recognized as an exculpatory cause of crime then there will be no more crime and no more punishment and the remaining traces of personal responsibility in American society will evanesce entirely.

[ODDITHER]

Rush can earn my respect and admiration again if he publicly takes his lumps. I imagine that Libertarians have no problem, forgiving Rush because they don't feel that the state has any business regulating addictive drugs.

As a conservative, I am very conflicted as to how I defend Rush's actions. I am very supportive of his sobriety efforts, but I realize that part of coming clean is facing up to everything. including legal problems.

Rush got into trouble with drugs because he is human but also because he is rich. Unfortunately, he will have to face the music the same way.No one can do it for him.

I can pray for him, I can continue to listen to him, I can stick up for him when people try to demonize him but I can't make exuses for him. I can't defend his his willingness to feed that addiction by buying pills on the black market and paying black mail money to his dealers.

If anyone has suffered from an addiction, there is a 99$ chance that they have broken the law. The road back is going to be an uphill battle. Making amends is part of that battle.

It is just a fact of life, that liberals wait like buzzards, circling the bodies of conservatives, waiting for signs of weakeness to attack. If conservatives who espouse personal responsibilites, rule of law, moral values - go against those beliefs in their personal lives,they will have their bones picked clean.

[OldPossum]

For the life of me, I cannot understand why you cannot understand the difference.

Since you put "medical" in quotation marks, that indicates that you have not had chronic pain and don't accept pain as a reason for using drugs that can stop (or alleviate) it. The Indians had something to say about this, something about walking in another's moccasins.

[Ditter]

I haven't been silent. I have told Rush I love him on every Rush thread. Hey Rush, I LOVE YOU!

[Bluntpoint]

Then, what is depression?

[quadrant]

I agree that Rush is being hammered unfairly by the liberal press, but that is to be expected. The liberal press is going to clobber any conservative who make himself (or herself) vulnerable in any way whatsoever.

There is little that can be done about Rush's situation.
As much as I respect the man (and I do) and as grateful as I am to him for his contributions to the conservative cause (and I am) I know that Rush is going to have to extricate himself from this affair.

Any move made by conservatives to help Rush will but lead to charges of hypocrisy by the liberal press, and the supoort will be explained away until its effect is meaningless.
That is, the liberal press will say that conservatives hammer liberals for transgressions but are willing to look the other way when a conservative finds himself in difficulty.

Worse, attempts by conservatives to help will do will be ineffective. This affair, from what I've read of it, is not the kind of thing where public support can be effect the outcome.

I can send him a message of support and I do. I can pray for him and I will. I can continue to listen and I will.

[HankReardon]

Drunks do not need a driver's license to drive drunk.

[nicmarlo]

I would say it has more to do with the drug controlling and affecting his behavior. I doubt that people who are fat criticize or persecute those who overeat. Or those who are chain-smokers while they consume vast amounts of alcohol are the ones in the forefront attacking smokers or drinkers. It's human nature: the wrong choice of excess leads to more wrong choices and justifications for the wrong choices made.

[Maigrey]

I guess the writer doesn't hang out here. The Limbaugh issue has been running for weeks.