Rush to Judgment [Lucianne's Singularly Thoughtful Column on Rush's Drug Problem]

Lucianne.com Short Cuts, October 13, 2003 ^ | October 13, 2003 | Lucianne Goldberg

[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

[Milligan]

What does DU mean? Is like "DUI"? I'm not familiar with chatroom jargon.

[Ready4Freddy]

"Turning Rush's poblems with pain pills into the rhetoric of a "DRUG" (sic) problem is a deliberate rhetorical maneuver. "

Once someone's doing their 3rd detox, some people begin to think of it as a drug problem, if they're lucky. Some don't, and a lot of them die.

[ladyinred]

Very good article.
The sad part is, were he a liberal Hollywood star, they would be praising his courage.
Since they won't, I will. It took tremendous courage to stick it out on Friday's show until the last few minutes, then admit what we all heard was partly true. I wish him well.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Actually Tipper and Algore were supposedly serious potheads
and Algore supposedly was a hash fiend, really into Thai hash sticks. Clinton and his brother were into cocaine, if reports from Arkanasas state troopers and numerous witnesses who later mysteriously suicided are to be believed. [ irony]

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

The use of the term "drug" into American political discourse generally means something illegal like cocaine, canabis, heroin, LSD, Ecstasy or the like.
"Pain medication" would be the accurate and operative variable regarding the Rush episode. When Al Franken jokes about Rush being "high" on the air, it is pretty clear the words have been chosen deliberately to obfuscate whatever might be involved in the problems Mr. Limbuagh has had with his medications. Maybe Lucianne was putting all libs on notice with the quip about Franken possibly being caught with an underage boy.

[nygoose]

As long as you brought up the subject, why is Free Republic the enemy of both Lucianne and Drudge? What has been done to repair our relationship with these two people?

[Ready4Freddy]

Fine. If Rush doesn't face up to his 'delicate condition', or his 'issues with "pain medication'", he'll get the same sentence, or be just as dead, as if he had been fooling around with "drugs", as you put it.

[marron]

For what its worth, I went through a situation with someone who suffered from chronic pain. The doctors, pain specialists, neurosurgeons, working together almost destroyed this person, reducing him to a blithering, near-comatose state, and still couldn't help the pain.

I sat down and analyzed the stuff they were prescribing and to my unschooled eyes, based on my un-schooled research, it looked like the assortment of medications were working at cross-purposes. Somehow, despite the pain and the severely medicated state, the person understood that they were killing him, and took control of his own condition. They tried to frighten him into staying under their care, but he quit the whole thing cold turkey, and started treating himself. Nutrition, workouts at the gym despite the severe pain, and over the next couple of years the pain subsided and despite some bad days, you wouldn't know he was ever in the shape he was in.

They almost killed him. I hate doctors.

But based on that I have an understanding of what chronic pain can do to you, and how unbelievably incompetent doctors can be. They are great if you have a broken bone, or a gunshot wound, something clearcut, but if its complicated they don't know what to do, so they wing it, blame the patient, medicate you, fob you off to other doctors when their one-minute diagnosis doesn't solve it.

It was painful to watch someone almost be destroyed this way, but seeing them take control and fight their way back to health in an almost miraculous fashion has been awe-provoking. One of a few times in my life when I swear I saw the hand of God at work.

I don't know Rush's case, it amazes me that he could be as sharp as he was if he was as medicated as he supposedly was.

[zip]

Who's Terri? Who's Michael and Felos?

DITTO

[zip]

As long as you brought up the subject, why is Free Republic the enemy of both Lucianne and Drudge?

You have it backwards. sorry if you don't know the history.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

If Al Franken and John Kerry are taking pleasure in Rush's pain management, medication, and health problems, they are just revealing their true colors.
They seem to have no problem with supporting the mass slaughter of the unborn. So in that sense, there's nothing all that shocking in the non-Christian sadistic qualities in their jokes about a man's health. This is the sad state of American culture in 2003 A.D. Baby killers joking about the sick and aging. That apparently is what liberalism is all about.

[nygoose]

Thanks for the sympathy. Why don't you answer my question?

[samantha]

Terri Schiavo-see other threads ref Federal judge refusing to intervene so she can live.

[Hot Tabasco]

After all, why does he need all this crap when he could retire and walk away from people dissecting his every move and criticizing everything he says?

He doesn't need it, you are right. But the rest of the statement is something he has dealt with for his entire career. He'll be back and I for one will be listening to him every chance I get. I absolutely refuse to allow the socialist media to drive a wedge between myself and Rush which is the sole purpose of all the media articles you are reading and all the so-called experts who are beginning to be paraded on tv and all the rest of the criticism you are hearing.......

FWIW, there is a silver lining to this dark cloud for me. If all this hadn't broken, I would not have found an accessible internet site thru our firewall at work that carries his program. Considering that it is an office building, I cannot receive a.m. signals in my cube.

I find this to be a very good omen of things to come........

[arjay]

Excellent post. Lucianne hit this out of the park.

[yhwhsman]

She's a severly disabled woman who is to be starved/dehydrated to death starting on Wednesday. Do a search for Terri Schiavo on FR, or search World Net Daily or CNS News; they have some very good articles explaining Terri's plight.

Her family also has a website--www.terrisfight.org. The court system in Florida has failed to give this poor woman any justice, not to mention the fact that the husband stands to benefit financially from her death.

[TAP ONLINE]

Hi DU is democratunderground.com
If you go there wear a condom, face netting, and have anti- venom on hand. Pls disinfect when re-entering FR.
Tap

[clintonh8r]

Thanks. I also saw it on H&C. Terrible situation.

[Darheel]

I also have a soft-spot in my heart for Lucianne and LDotters. Lucianne.com was my "gateway drug" to FR, and I never forget my friends.

[paulklenk]

You're welcome, and I agree.