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NY Daily News: Rush Limbaugh in Pill Probe -- Talk radio star had drug habit, maid sez
NY Daily News & Drudge ^ | October 1, 2003 | Tracy Connor

Posted on 10/01/2003 10:41:34 PM PDT by lainie

Talk-radio titan Rush Limbaugh is being investigated for allegedly buying thousands of addictive painkillers from a black-market drug ring.

The moralizing motormouth was turned in by his former housekeeper - who says she was Limbaugh's pill supplier for four years.

Wilma Cline, 42, says Limbaugh was hooked on the potent prescription drugs OxyContin, Lorcet and hydrocodone - and went through detox twice.

"There were times when I worried," Cline told the National Enquirer, which broke the story in an edition being published today. "All these pills are enough to kill an elephant - never mind a man."

Cline could not be reached for further comment yesterday, but her lawyer, Ed Shohat of Miami, said his client "stands behind the story."

The Daily News independently confirmed that Limbaugh is under investigation.

His lawyers, Jerry Fox and Dan Zachary, refused to comment on the accusations and said any "medical information" about him was private and not newsworthy.

They said Limbaugh - who has a top-rated syndicated radio show but resigned early today from a weekly ESPN football segment amid criticism of racial comments about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb - was traveling and had no comment.

The Palm Beach County state attorney's office, which is running the probe, said it could not confirm or deny the allegations.

Scoring in parking lot

Cline told the Enquirer she went to prosecutors with information about Limbaugh and others after four years of drug deals that included clandestine handoffs in a Denny's parking lot.

She said she wore a wire during her last two deliveries to the conservative commentator and gave the tapes to authorities.

She also gave the Enquirer a ledger documenting how many pills she claimed to have bought for him - 4,350 in one 47-day period - and E-mails she claimed Limbaugh sent her.

In one missive, Limbaugh pushed Cline to get more "little blues" - code for OxyContin, the powerful narcotic nicknamed hillbilly heroin, she said.

"You know how this stuff works ... the more you get used to, the more it takes," the May 2002 E-mail reads. "But I will try and cut down to help out."

The account Cline gave the Enquirer is that she became Limbaugh's drug connection in 1998, nine months after taking a housekeeping job at his Palm Beach mansion.

It started after her husband, David, hurt himself in a fall, and Limbaugh asked how he was.

"He asked me casually, 'Is he getting any pain medication?' I said, 'Yes - he's had surgery, and the doctor gave him hydro-codone 750,'" Cline said. "To my astonishment, he said, 'Can you spare a couple of them?'"

Husband's pills

Cline said she gave Limbaugh 10 pills the next day and agreed to give him 30 of her husband's pills each month. When the doctor stopped renewing the prescription in early 1999, Limbaugh allegedly went ballistic.

"His tone was nasty and bullying. He said, 'I don't care how or what you do, but you'd better - better! - get me some more,'" Cline said.

The housekeeper said she found a new supplier and arranged to hide Limbaugh's stashes under his mattress so his wife, Marta, wouldn't find them.

After several months, Limbaugh told her he was going to New York for detox and didn't need any more pills, Cline said.

But a month later, he said his left ear was hurting and asked her for hydrocodone, followed by an order for OxyContin.

Limbaugh, 52, suffered from autoimmune ear disease, a condition that left him deaf and had to be corrected with cochlear implant surgery two years ago.

Cline said she continued to make deliveries to Limbaugh even after she quit as his housekeeper in July 2001 - but he became increasingly paranoid, even patting her down for recording devices, she said.

In June 2002, Limbaugh told her he was going to New York for detox a second time.

After he returned, "I went to talk to him, and he cried a little bit," she said. "He told me that if it ever got out, he would be ruined."

She claimed that a lawyer for Limbaugh gave her a payoff - $80,000 he owed her, plus another $120,000 - and asked her to destroy the computer that contained the E-mail records.

Soon after, Cline and her husband retained Shohat and contacted prosecutors.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: addiction; afraidofrush; algorelostgetoverit; claslessdailynews; dailynewsnoclass; danzachary; edshohat; hitpiece; jerryfox; limbaugh; nationalenquirer; nydailynews; recovery; rush; rushlimbaugh; sleazydailynews; tabloidjournalism; talkradio; terrifiedofrush; wilmacline; wodlist
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To: quidnunc
Yeah, and the sky is falling! I don't agree with anything you said.
161 posted on 10/01/2003 11:21:17 PM PDT by CyberAnt (America - The Greatest Nation on the Face of the Earth)
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To: lainie
I don't believe a word of this bullsh**!
162 posted on 10/01/2003 11:21:23 PM PDT by nutmeg ("The DemocRATic party...has been hijacked by a confederacy of gangsters..." - Pat Caddell, 11/27/00)
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To: Yaelle
How can it possibly be true?

Have you checked out places like CNN lately? It doesn't matter if it is true or not. Period.

163 posted on 10/01/2003 11:22:19 PM PDT by Rokurota
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To: Pro-Bush
It shouldn't..I think he should resign, get better, and come back stronger than ever, and get over 700 affiliate radio stations to broadcast his message

OH, now you've declared him guilty?

164 posted on 10/01/2003 11:22:23 PM PDT by GeronL (The War is not the Presidents hobby!)
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To: RobFromGa
I too, am skeptical until proven guilty.

However, the allegations are far beyond just
drug abuse. Apparently, he coerced his maid
to be his supplier:

http://www.nydailynews.com/10-02-2003/front/story/122839p-110349c.html

I hope for his sake that this is all just a big lie.
165 posted on 10/01/2003 11:22:29 PM PDT by vp_cal
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To: Hildy
And WHY would Rush ask her to do so ?

I wouldn't know where to go, nor even whom to ask about getting that volume of meds illictly. How come SHE did ?

166 posted on 10/01/2003 11:22:44 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: GOPrincess
I don't know what's going on, but I'm going to bed tonight feeling unsettled.

me too - and kinda sad.

167 posted on 10/01/2003 11:23:06 PM PDT by radiohead
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To: bluebunny
I'm so mad right now. I can't even go to bed.

Plenty to read tonight. ;)

168 posted on 10/01/2003 11:23:10 PM PDT by PRND21
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To: pete anderson
If she went to authorities in 2002, why did it take so long to come out? He would have had to have known, wouldn't he?
169 posted on 10/01/2003 11:23:13 PM PDT by Hildy (SUCKER: Short-sighted Uncompromising Conservative Kool-Aid-drinking Elitist Republican.)
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To: nutmeg
Me neither. I think it's fishwrap.
170 posted on 10/01/2003 11:23:14 PM PDT by lainie
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To: Bubbette
"I, for one, am praying for him and his family. True or not, they need our support. Already, I feel heavy-hearted and empty inside at the thought of what will and might come."

Ditto.

I thought his hearing loss and the prospect he might have to quit broadcasting if the implant didn't work was scary, but this has me really low.
171 posted on 10/01/2003 11:23:43 PM PDT by GOPrincess
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To: Junior_G
The optimist in me is hoping that all this time he's been building some sort of sculpture out of all those pills. It will be called "vindication" and will look like 4-foot tall smurf.

ROTFLOL!

172 posted on 10/01/2003 11:23:52 PM PDT by nutmeg ("The DemocRATic party...has been hijacked by a confederacy of gangsters..." - Pat Caddell, 11/27/00)
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To: lainie
Ed Shohat re: Rilya Wilson

http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/3241222.htm

and a connection to Al Gore

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/campfin/stories/glicken071098.htm
173 posted on 10/01/2003 11:24:22 PM PDT by hmmmmm
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To: MJY1288
If Rush was taking 100 pills a day HE WOULD BE DEAD!!

This is a pile of doo-doo and WE ALL KNOW RIGHT WHERE IT CAME FROM.
174 posted on 10/01/2003 11:24:43 PM PDT by CyberAnt (America - The Greatest Nation on the Face of the Earth)
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To: Yaelle
Have you lost your Republican mind?

Do you realize it would be just as easy to make up a story like this about YOU or ME? First off, the newspaper was given a story. The maid is the one who Rush would sue, and she doesnt have deep pockets. This would be equal to Stephen Glass, making up things. Please dont be so gullible.

175 posted on 10/01/2003 11:24:45 PM PDT by Pukin Dog (Sans Reproache)
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To: Lancey Howard
David Kendall's law firm vets the articles in the NE against lawsuits. Not him personally.
176 posted on 10/01/2003 11:24:49 PM PDT by Howlin
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To: Fledermaus
Are you interested in a bridge I have for sale?

Listen, RL could FOLD this NY newspaper if this is not true, and you know it and I know it and the newspaper knows it. That is the #1 reason that I believe this story. It involves an investigation. PERHAPS THE LADY IS LYING, and ends up being a disgruntled employee who was sent out to buy blue jelly beans for Rush and she got him on tape. But they are investigating something here.

177 posted on 10/01/2003 11:24:53 PM PDT by Yaelle
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To: nutmeg
I agree. This is sheer stupidity to believe this about Rush. I have a cousin who has to take megadoses of Oxycontin due to severe back problems. Even she is not on that high of amount a day, and I understand that to get high off of them you have to put them in another form rather than just the pills. Oxycontin pills are slower acting. Guess we have to check Rush's arms for track marks now? Give me a break!!!

As far as the investigation goes, I imagine most allegations need an investigation- particularly if they get some sort of statement on audio tape (even taken out of context). Smells like a RAT set up to me.
178 posted on 10/01/2003 11:24:55 PM PDT by DittoJed2 (Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it,derived from our Maker- John Adams)
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To: GeronL
NO. See post #115.
179 posted on 10/01/2003 11:25:05 PM PDT by Pro-Bush (Homeland Security + Tom Ridge = Open Borders --> Demand Change!)
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To: ARCADIA
"We have been listening to the guy every week, and he has been under intense medical attention over the last couple of years. He has probably had hundreds of blood test during the period. Something this explosive would have been all over the media a years ago. Furthermore, the guy is not a recluse, he is out and about in public every week."

It does seem like the ENQUIRER would have sniffed something long before this if the story is true, especially if he did go into rehab... How would he even have TIME for rehab when he's had to make all the medical visits to get his implant working?

I keep wavering between feeling this can't possibly be true and feeling down... Even if it's not true I hate what is happening tonight.
180 posted on 10/01/2003 11:25:16 PM PDT by GOPrincess
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