Posted on 10/13/2003 1:27:21 PM PDT by paulklenk
Only hours after the news broke, Katie Couric thought Rush Limbaugh's drug problem was funny. So funny as a matter of fact, that she made up a story about sitting next to him on the plane and asking for an aspirin - you get the rest. She told it with a baby-girl hair flip. It wasn't funny.
During the Democrat debate last week, John Kerry thought Rush's pain was funny and took a shot. That wasn't funny either.
For hard-pressed liberals, merchandising Rush Limbaugh's admitted pill addiction will be an interesting test of individual sensitivity and a telling reality check and we'd better brace ourselves. Response from the left will probably follow the line of Newsweek's cover story today; he's a shy, loner, schlub and hypocrite -- heavy on the hypocrite. They describe him as a solemn couch potato with few friends, an aversion to nightlife and a kid who stayed in his room with water balloons on Halloween, then dropped them on the departing trick-or-treaters (frankly, my kind of guy). They write with self-rightous glee at his misfortune that he is an "actor" filled with self-righteous glee at the misfortunes of others.
This merry-go-round is just cranking up and we will hear much more of the same and worse about him in the days to come. This is their irresistible right and inevitable. To counter it, pundits on the right will revisit the drowned girl at Chappaquidick, other known addicts, the drunks, embezzlers, and jailbirds - the whole panoply of losers on the left. We've all been there before.
There is no way to stop the ranting and high-fiving. They will do it until they get bored with themselves and move on. Now that Rush has admitted his problem it is all fair but it is a dangerous game and the more thoughtful among them may want to rethink their commentary.
How truly funny is drug addiction and who among them has not had their hearts broken by it? How taxing is it to whip up jokes about rehab? How amusing is it to know that a public figure has begged a servant, a friend, a colleague even a stranger for a hit or fix because they fear they would go mad without it.
Are there truly any yucks in knowing that someone had stockpiled thousands of pills just in case....just in case....there isn't a painless instrument around with which to kill themselves if they run out? When the early jokes give way to the righteous rants will they be delivered by those who haven't a clue about the terror that is drug addiction?
As much as I can't stand them, I do not wish this for those who will feast upon Rush Limbaugh's pain: The call in the middle of the night that a beloved child has been arrested for DWI or picked up in a crack house or hung themselves. The realization that a wife or husband or loved one whose personality has changed has been stealing stuff, maxing out a credit card has been sneaking pills from somewhere and is hopelessly addicted. I do not wish them the expense and agony of waiting for someone they love to maybe make it through rehab and maybe not. I do, however, wish they could look into their souls and ask if they have the strength to survive what Rush Limbaugh will go through to get his life back.
But, politics ain't beanbag and they are going to have at this situation - first with the jokes, then with the indignation and I-told-you-sos. They can't help themselves and frankly, we couldn't either if Al Franken got picked up in a motel with an underage boy or an overage goat. That's the way this game is played. It will never change so their behavior is not the point.
People, decent people, have hearts. They are loyal to their friends and steadfast in time of trouble. Our commitment should be standing by Rush Limbaugh. He has given us hope and help and a way of seeing the world.
Remember when being a conservative was a very lonely business? Remember when we huddled in Rush Rooms and were almost afraid to listen to him on the radio with passengers in the car. Think what the Clinton years would have been like without Rush. None of that is diminished by his current problems.
We are 20 million strong. We can do anything we set our minds to and have the track record to prove it. The operative word here is 'strong' and a healthy, productive Rush Limbaugh, who knows how grateful we are, is the goal. Perhaps he can do it without us but I, for one, don't want him to.
-Lucianne Goldberg
Boy, do I agree. Ever been bitten by a flea? Hurts, doesn't it. When one looks at a fleas jaws (in a microscope) they are comparatively small in relation to the pain they cause. The general public (and a lot of doctors) conceive of the cause of pain as being something BIG, like a knife or a gunshot, not a cause that is the size of a flea bite. Pain needs to be a major speciality, with equipment to match. Right now, doctors cannot "see" pain with a CT or MRI, or a PET Scan. They need to. They need to be able to image the source and the path of pain, just as they can detect a hairline break in a leg. And, as you mention, this will need monies allocated for and research dedicated to the truly effective treatment of both temporary and chronic pain. It will save us all money and pain in the end.
However, in Rush's case, I suspect some impatience may have added to the tragedy. I don't think Rush may have had the time and patience to do a year of physical therapy. One of the advantages of surgery is that when it works, it works fairly quick. Rush may have pushed for surgery to get the pain over with and, in doing so, only set himself up for more. Poor guy.
A: A brain tumor.
[Feel free to pass this along if you ever meet sweet, sensitive Katie.]
What it does do however is something funny. But before I explain, if you do a search here you will find that I am hard on Rush. Not because I dislike what he says (I agree with most of it)or am jealous of what he has accomplished (I respect the fact he has gone from almost nothing to being one of the most influental people in politics today albeit not as much as in the early/mid 90's). But I will hold Rush to the same standard he would hold a liberal to. While he does it as satire in many cases, the fact is, Rush piles on when a liberal makes an error in judgement or has a setback in the course of life. He should be held to the same standard that he gives.
If you read Lucianne's comments she as well as other defenders are saying or writing in their own way that he's a sad victim of addiction. They are making Rush the victim that he so clearly stated in his previously scripted on air revelation. While not expressed in these exact words throughout the various pieces a "Poor Rush", "he was entraped by his domestic staff" and on and on and on. The making of a victim.
I will encourage everyone to say prayers for a recovery from the addiction. I will encourage everyone to to pray that he finds relief from the pain that apparently pushes him toward medical relief. I will also encourage everyone to admit that IF Rush got these drugs, and especially in large quantities, in a non-legal manner, he is a criminal whether tried and convicted or not. That's if. If he did that, then his is a criminal. He would have broken the law IF he did what we have seen. Plain and simple he becomes criminal.
Again, I am tough on him. He's been tough on others. But the right has circled the wagons and has made Rush the victim he so boldly told us that he didn't want to be nor would allow himself to be.
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