Posted on 10/13/2003 1:42:22 AM PDT by ambrose
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Monday, October 13, 2003
Liberals love Limbaugh's pain Posted: October 13, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Barbara Simpson
Liberals lost one and won one last week, leaving them crying and laughing.
They lost California to Arnold Schwarzenegger - a landslide in the recall election. That's the loss and the reason for anger, tears and political concern.
On the other hand, conservative talk host Rush Limbaugh told his listeners, as he signed-off on Friday, that he's addicted to prescription pain drugs.
That's a win for liberals. You can hear the laughing and gloating across the country and it's heard with a vengeance on liberal talk shows. As if professional jealousy isn't enough to engender the mountains of hate, they just love tearing conservatives apart when they find out they're human.
The media are acting like kids on a sugar binge. While liberal (read that Democrat) media hate that Arnold won the recall election, they secretly love it because, in their heart of hearts, they're celebrity whores and love the Hollywood glitterati. Arnold Schwarzenegger is nothing if not that, even though he's now governor.
But the Limbaugh situation is entirely different. This is personal and human, but it's being treated with ruthless cruelty by liberals, who not only hate what Limbaugh stands for but hate his very success. They detest that one individual, simply by doing a good job of articulating the conservative point of view, has been able to touch millions across the country. It galls them even more that he's No. 1 in ratings and got rich in the process. Oooh.
They smelled blood two weeks ago when racial sensitivity hit the fan with his observation on ESPN, a job he had for the main purpose of making observations about sports. He stepped in a politically correct pile by saying something evident. To avoid more controversy, he resigned.
Almost at the moment that story hit the headlines, another broke in Florida: His former housekeeper alleged she had provided Rush with painkillers without prescriptions. Limbaugh said he'd say nothing until he knew more about what was transpiring. Newspapers said an official investigation was ongoing.
Rush was torn apart for saying nothing, yet under the circumstances, it was exactly the correct thing to do. He said nothing until Friday when he took about four minutes of his program to tell listeners that he's addicted to prescription painkillers. He told of unsuccessful back-surgery several years ago, which left him with chronic pain and, now, two herniated discs. This is big-time pain.
Rather than risk further surgery - which can leave the patient worse or even paralyzed - he chose to take medicine prescribed by his physician. Along the way, he became addicted and said that he twice entered medical facilities to break the habit - to no avail.
His decision now is to take a month off to enter a 30-day treatment program to try to break the habit. He asked for listener support and their prayers.
So what does he get from the liberal media? Attacks. There's no sympathy for his medical ordeals. He's equated with street junkies and his addiction compared to guy in the alley mainlining heroin.
Yes, chemically, street drugs and prescription drugs are similar and yes, the effect of opiates on the body may be the same, but liberals just miss the point. Lots of points. Deliberately.
They won't cut him any slack because he's spoken out against use of illegal drugs. Sorry guys, there is no comparison. The people using illegal drugs do it for the high ? becoming a junkie is a built-in risk.
But liberals take it further: They want him thrown in jail. And, ON TOP OF THAT, it serves him right because he was outspoken about illegal drug use!
People in pain use prescriptions drugs to enable them to live as normally as possible. There's no high involved, just relief. They want the pain gone and the doctor can help.
Of course, there's an addiction risk. For heaven's sake, you can become addicted to over-the-counter cough medicine! That isn't the issue. For pain relief, the trick is balancing that with the point of addiction. Sometimes it doesn't work. But to excoriate Rush because he slipped over that line is monumentally cruel.
But liberals choose to be cruel, even if they sacrifice their own humanity. The same people who have compassion for the dregs of humanity on the street and for animals and insects cannot find an ounce of compassion for Rush.
And we know why. He committed the greatest sin: He's a conservative.
Barbara Simpson, "The Babe in the Bunker" as she's known to her KSFO 560 radio talk-show audience in San Francisco, has a 20-year radio, television and newspaper career in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. |
I wonder if Rush would have the compassion so many here are expressing or the outrage of those who have seen liberals pile on if the Alan Colmes had suffered the same series of events Rush has just gone through. Believe me, each time Colmes name was mentioned, Rush would satirically refer to or imply that Colmes's thoughts were the result of the haze produced from his addiction.
I concur with what you've said. Taking it a step further...Clinton was impeached...not because of his "private" sex life, but for purgery under oath. The dems all wanted to excuse it because his lying was "about sex". With Rush, regardless of WHY he used the medication (pain, addiction, etc.), he may very well have obtained the meds ILLEGALLY, and if so, that's a crime and cannot be excused or just "brushed under the carpet"--if Rush is ever to regain/retain his credibility. So he may have to face some very real, unintended consequences for his actions.
Also regarding Alan Colmes, I was listening to his radio show Friday night, and I must say that I was impressed with how he was handling Rush's situation. Colmes was most gracious, compassionate and very defending of Rush, because he views this as a medical problem (the addiction) vs. a criminal problem. Colmes was a class act on Friday if you ask me. He may be a bumling head liberal, but he is by no means anything like those vicous, salivating John Kerry/Bill Press/Al Franken scumbag-types!
Just like they treated/wrote about Linda Tripp. You'd have thought no living human being now or ever could possibly be as low, dirty, rotten pond scum as they implied that she was for taping the conversations of "a friend". They'll do no less -- they'll do even worse -- to Rush.
If he had obtained all those pills legally he wouldn't have hired that high-powered lawyer to keep his hypocritical ass out of jail, or immediately started trying to mealy-mouth the whole thing. Anybody taking prescribed drugs can just say so and shut everybody up.
I'm not a Rush Bot and I wasn't talking about Rush .. I was talking about the liberals
He also has said that your wife and daughter would be safe alone with him, an implied use of the phrase.
These are both semi-serious, faux-righteous throwaway lines designed to get a chuckle from his fans and to tick off those people who think he's being serious with them. Seeing you guys build your case, that Rush set himself up as a role model, upon these throwaway remarks is a little like seeing people get upset at Onion articles. I'll bet you'd have a tough time quoting or remembering specific instances where Rush set himself up as such, because I honestly don't think he's said those sorts of things in seriousness. It appears to me that a lot of the beating up on Rush is really a beating up on an imagined Rush, a charicature, a strawman.
"We're going to let you destroy your life. We're going to make it easy and then all of us who accept the responsibilities of life and don't destroy our lives on drugs, we'll pay for whatever messes you get into."
Rush's quotes, my bolding.
Present a distinction first, and I'll tell you whether it is valid or not. As it reads, you've only presented an allegation.
If that's what constitutes a "win" for liberals, then we have NOTHING to worry about. We gain more and more political power by the day (California was one of their last governmental strangleholds), and they think complete victory is around the corner because a radio talk show host is going to be on vacation for a month, during which time the show will continue to be live every day with guest hosts.
And I'm talking about RINO statists who insist on onerous punitive measures against tokers - those same statists whose heads are now spinning like tops as they try to rationalize Rush's addiction as being exempt from the WOD.
-PJ
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