Why the Left is Targeting Rush Limbaugh

The Intellectual Conservative ^ | October 17, 2003 | Doug Schmitz

[Lando Lincoln]

I searched and did not see this. Great stuff.

[Burkeman1]

I worry more about the Right that seems to target Rush daily on this site.

[CHATTAB]

They're targeting him because...
he stumbled a bit?
Give the guy a break, he may be sharp as a tack, but he's still only human! Jeeeez!!!

[Paleo Conservative]

Conservative talk radio is bigger than Rush Limbaugh. Rush lead the way, but there are lots of others out there now because of him. My favorite is Neal Boortz.

[Eva]

The posters on Free Republic who attack Rush are not conservatives, they're the so-called Libertarians who are only interested in ending the war on drugs.

[John from Manhattan]

I think we all must agree that the personal failures of Rush and Bill Bennett have been a significant blow to the ability of conservatives to take the moral high ground on several issues. Nobody is perfect, but it hurts when our idealogical leaders screw up.

[laweeks]

"The posters on Free Republic who attack Rush are not conservatives, they're the so-called Libertarians who are only interested in ending the war on drugs."

I am not a libertarian, I'm not a seminar caller, and I am personally disgusted with Rush's behavior. There are other conservative voices out there to whom I'll turn for news and views.

If just half, or even a fourth, of the information in the National Enquirer article (I DID read it) is true, then he's a disgrace: the groping of someone who was not his wife, the lying, the trying to get people to lie, the purchase and use of drugs illegally, the spilling of pills out of golf bags and luggage, the righteous condemnation of the Hollyweirdos who were themselves hooked on drugs, etc.

I find it incredible that the conservative posters on Free Republic are so quick to forgive someone whose behavior was so pathetic. Go ahead and fire away. I'm so absolutely surprised to see Rush's behavior get explained away like Der Shlickmeister's behavior was by the left.

[elbucko]

...they're the so-called Libertarians who are only interested in ending the war on drugs.

Entirely correct. Furthermore, IMHO, the nub of Rush's story isn't the effect of prescription drugs, but the aftermath of failed back surgery and how surgeons "dump" their failures onto family physicians who are not prepared to deal with chronic pain. It's not the drugs that need national attention from the FDA, but many surgical procedures that have a success rate of less than 60%. If the surgery that Rush went through was a medication instead, it would not be approved by the FDA.

Good Luck, Rush.

[AlwaysLurking]

Yes John, I do agree. But we need these guys. They have proven to be great educators and communicators of the conservative message. They are human. They make mistakes. They dealt with temptations incorrectly.

But where would we be right now without them? Certainly not poised, as Fred Barnes recently wrote, at the brink of being the MAJORITY party! These two and many more like them but certainly they are the forefathers, so to speak, have taken a lot of hits for us!

I forgive both Bill and Rush. I look at them in the same high respect I always have. I will not trash them. We need them. We need them strong and sharp and on message. We have a big election coming up and I for one do not want to go thru that without Rush.

Frankly, I do not want to go one more week without Rush but I guess I had better get over that!

[Burkeman1]

Conservatives don't have "ideological" leaders. I haven't agreed with Rush on the war in Iraq since Bush started to push for it and I thought Rush was selling out. But he was one of the first conservative voices I listened too. I was never under any illusion that he was some perfect man without sin. But I have enjoyed his show for years (though I wish he was more comedy orientated as he was in his early years). Rush got tame over time. It would be a shame to abandon him now as I still agree with almost everything he says on Domestic issues. Let's hope he gets over this and gets back on the air.

It is hard to hold and defend the moral high ground as a sinful human while your opponents don't even recognize a morality of any kind that needs defending.

[Andy from Beaverton]

"The posters on Free Republic who attack Rush are not conservatives, they're the so-called Libertarians who are only interested in ending the war on drugs.
PPLEEEAASSEEE!!! Spare me with the drug thing. I would be a Libertarian, but they will never have a chance of winning any political office, so I'm an independent. But I will stick up for the Losertarians. They are for the retail sales tax. How about Republicans? They don't pander to the left with bailouts, subsidies and increased spending. How about the Republicans? They believe what happens behind closed doors in no one's business as long as no person is being hurt. How about Republicans? I'm glad the Losertarians are out there keeping Republicans in check. Most of them don't use drugs and think that filling up the jails with a bunch of pothead instead of violent criminals is very stupid. Need I go on???

[elbucko]

I find it incredible that the conservative posters on Free Republic are so quick to forgive someone whose behavior was so pathetic.

I find it incredible that you are quick to condemn a person for a condition that may have been brought about by botched surgery, rather than a character flaw. You'd better be sure your house isn't glass, before you start throwing your sanctimonious stones.

[laweeks]

No, I'm not a drug addict. And I don't hang around anyone who is, nor do I ask anyone to get me drugs illegally. Nor do I have a national forum to criticize those who do.

I have asked my Rush friends if they could EVER recall Rush saying ANYTHING about back surgery EVER. We heard about his ear surgery, but NEVER about back surgery. And when one considers how devoted to golf that he has become, one wonders why he'd play a sport so extremely difficult to play with a bad back.

And I would think that if one were in such extreme pain that required heavy drug doses, that he'd take up some other kind of "back friendly" sport. And we faithful listeners all know how often he'd go on "leave" to be in this tournament and that tournment. Never ever heard him mention (or even allude to)back surgery even once. Isn't anyone even the slightest bit suspicious about having been taken for a ride?

[lowbridge]

The Left’s complete intolerance for the conservative voice is so great that Eric Alterman callously admitted in a February 13, 2003 Esquire magazine interview, after Limbaugh’s successful cochlear implant surgery, he actually wanted Limbaugh to lose his hearing: “I hate to say it, but I wish the guy would have gone deaf. I shouldn’t say that, but on behalf of the country, it would be better without Rush Limbaugh and his 20 million listeners.”

While leftist media mudslingers like Alterman are drooling over this latest revelation, they’ll continue to make political hay out of a potentially serious medical condition.

No shock there. From MRC:

"...this November 4, 1994 quote from then-USA Today columnist and Pacifica Radio talk show host Julianne Malveaux on Justice Thomas: "The man is on the Court. You know, I hope his wife feeds him lots of eggs and butter and he dies early like many black men do, of heart disease. Well, that’s how I feel. He is an absolutely reprehensible person."

[JoJo Gunn]

I think some of them act as if Daddy abandoned them....

[Burkeman1]

Without a doubt- it is really interesting to see who abandons Rush now isn't it? I compare them to the same guys who talk tough in the bar but then disappear once outside and a bouncer is not in site. Cowards.

[hope]

The left has chosen a battle they cannot win. They have written their own moral code of forgiveness and moving on. They have had the bully pulpit far too long on that subject..They are about to stake all on showing their philosophy on the subject is void.

[Phaedrus]

The Left is Lies. Period.

[buzzsaw6]

"Conservative Posters on Free Republic are so quick to forgive" because our lord Jesus Christ commands that we must. What is your problem?

[Paleo Conservative]

It's not the drugs that need national attention from the FDA, but many surgical procedures that have a success rate of less than 60%. If the surgery that Rush went through was a medication instead, it would not be approved by the FDA.

And you know this how? Most neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons will reccomend surgery only after conservative methods like physical therapy have been tried and have failed. One neurosurgeon I went to defined "medically necessary" spinal surgery as being when one loses control of the bladder or bowel movements or if there is cancer. Otherwise it just depended on how much pain one could tolerate. I didn't have my surgery till 3.5 years later and he had retired.

While my back surgery did not return me to the condition I was in five years before the surgery it was a great improvement over my condition the last year before surgery. Upon seeing my myelograms and CAT scan, my surgeon told me my disc was completely surrounding my spinal chord and I was in "danger of permanent neurological loss" if I did not have surgery as soon as I could get scheduled. I was also told to call him any time of day or night if my condition got any worse prior to the scheduled surgery.

In the 2.5 years since my surgery there have been some times when I have had more pain than ibubprofen or prescription non-opiate pain medications could take care of, but it was nothing like the pain I had prior to surgery.