Mornin', John !Freeper feedback time. Which pic caption is better ?? ...
Posted on 10/14/2003 9:39:36 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
Great sadness came with Rush Limbaugh’s announcement that he needed to take a break from his wildly successful radio career to conquer a prescription-drug addiction. Few things can be more humiliating than to have to admit in front of an entire nation that you are ... a junkie. And yet that’s exactly what Rush did -- with no excuses. Humiliating, maybe. But also highly courageous. From coast to coast, the Limbaugh nation is hoping and praying that, after taking 30 days off for rehabilitation, he’ll be bouncing back, liberated from his demons, sharper and happier.
A few hours after Rush made his explosive announcement, Chris Matthews asked me to be his guest on "Hardball" that evening. On the set before the start, I told Chris I just wasn’t up for the high-voltage debate style that’s made his "Hardball" show famous. Thankfully, Matthews was in full agreement and conducted what was a difficult interview with a level of professionalism -- and grace -- one rarely finds in the media today.
He wondered how Rush’s fans would react to the news. The truth, I think, is that this is the very least of Limbaugh's worries. Rush Limbaugh enjoys the greatest well of sympathy for any public figure in the conservative firmament, with the exception of Ronald Reagan. Contrary to caricatures from liberals who never listen, Rush has been an inspirational leader, a great popularizer of the conservative cause, and an oasis of hope and humor for the millions who feel their causes and heroes are pounded unmercifully by the liberal press. Twenty million listeners are indebted to him and will repay him with their affection.
Then, Matthews stated his concern that some on the left would greet the news with glee. How right he was.
Some liberals have tried to restrain their glee, but their feelings of moral superiority -- or arrogance, for short -- still came shining through. Writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, columnist Richard Roeper responded to a listener telling Rush "we all make mistakes" with this rejoinder: "I don't think that's the general philosophy of Limbaugh or his audience when it comes to his targets. It sounds a lot more like something a liberal caller might say to an NPR host, doesn't it?" Liberalism equals compassion, understanding and forgiveness.
Tell that to Rush’s fans after what they’ve seen liberals do since Rush’s addiction story broke. Before his admission, "comedian" Al Franken joyfully proclaimed that he was "looking forward to the perp walk ... I'll be switching channels to get it from every angle." Katie Couric thought Rush’s addiction was great fodder when she appeared on Jay Leno's show: "I feel actually good because I flew out here, and Rush Limbaugh sat next to me on the plane. He gave me some vitamins. Whaa! It feels good!" In the latest Democratic debate on CNN, candidate John Kerry cracked that to improve access to prescription drugs, "You can hire Rush Limbaugh's housekeeper, or you could elect me president of the United States."
The reaction wasn’t kinder after Rush began his rehabilitation regimen. CNN anchorman Aaron Brown conceded that he could not deny the "permanent smirk that seems to be attached to my face." (He then ceded his show to more bile from Franken.) Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter gave this compassionate assessment: "It's been a bad year for bully-boy conservatives. Time for them to taste their own bitter medicine." The Newsweek cover story by Evan Thomas called Rush "a childless, twice-divorced, thrice-married schlub whose idea of a good time is to lie on his couch and watch football endlessly."
But the king of the mud mountain was Newsday columnist Jimmy Breslin, who spread the taunts across the entire Limbaugh audience: "His people are hopelessly, embarrassingly dumb. Or -- sudden revelation! -- they're all out there whacked out on Hillbilly Heroin just like Rush. Only they can understand his babble."
Where are the national nannies of the public discourse to tut-tut at all of these compassion-deprived leftists now?
Let no one now pretend that the problem with liberals is that they’re too tender and toothless, too compassionately cuddly and fuzzily forgiving. Trapped in arrogance and wishful thinking, supposedly astute analysts like Alter and Franken believe that if Rush undergoes a successful recovery, he will come out more enlightened and less vitriolic -- and his show will be finished, since conservatives only want heaping helpings of ignorant vitriol.
After all of these slurs and insults, Rush knows that the best way to respond is to put this whole mess behind him and to apply all the force of his radio personality to the power of his own will. It’s also what his audience knows and will expect. That’s tomorrow’s agenda. For now, 20 million supporters are just pulling for him to pull through.
Try again. Immediately after posting my comment, I clicked on the link (I was so surprised that it came up as a link, that I wanted to check it out), and sent the e-mail I had been intending to send. It worked for me.
I'll be checking my snail-mail for a tax bill from the dems -- lol.
Ummm...I don't think dittos has an "e" in it, but I could be wrong. As I indicated in post 41, the one I sent apparently went through because I just checked my e-mail and there was no "returned mail" error message.
O-K -- just looked up ditto, and both ways appear to be acceptable spellings (without the "e" was listed second).
I don't always agree with Rush. Mostly he's a republican party hack. He deserves a break on this one.
Good seein' ya, Lurker.
Yes! Since she is a member of the Schwarzenegger transition team and the host she substituted for, who was subing for Rush, was Tom Sullivan who adores Schwarzenegger to a higher than healthy level!!!
Mornin', John !Freeper feedback time. Which pic caption is better ?? ...
I think an awful lot of Rush's behavior may be tied to the responsiblity of being Maja Rushie. Think about the daily pressure of being right, funny, ahead of the curve 99.9% of the time. This speculation will incense some people, but the fact is Rush spent a great deal of his time analyzing a variety of situations, and, folks, this is one helluva situation! It is not enough to say he was seduced into this because of back pain; there simply must also be a psychological component and viewing the pressures of the show as part of that is fair game. In that light, I don't particularly want Rush back in thirty days. For the longest time I have complained to my husband, among others, that Rush has "changed." I heard the slurring long ago and in tandem with that was a change in the joy I sensed, and some of the subject matter Rush tackled. He became less pro-life: subjects like abortion and euthanasia, the Terri Schiavo case for instance raging in Florida today, were no longer touched by him. That was a substantial change. Even education and the incredible homosexual lobby were no longer mentioned on his show. In some ways Rush became more libertarian, although he always publicly eschewed that moniker.
I sincerely hope Rush takes all the time necessary to get better. I think it is naive to expect that five years of an addiction will dissolve in thirty days, and I think it is reasonable to discuss if the responsibilities of the very show he is being urged back to didn't at some point overwhelm him.
What I want for Rush is that the person he was gets a chance to heal, to become whole and restored. Whatever spiritual journey he needs to take, I pray he takes and for as long a time as is necessary. For sure, he's got a lot of people back over here waiting patiently, and lovingly for him. V's wife.
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