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

[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.

[HAL9000]

Rush is going to get huge ratings tomorrow.

[fire_eye]

That's what keeps bothering me... Let's assume Rush is a complete dope addict. Is he going to be getting pills from a #$%^&! *housekeeper*? and one that he barely knows? when Spew York is *full* of sleazy doctors who'll write a *prescription* for pills (and are then AFAIK bound to maintain confidentiality, just as are lawyers)??

The guy is a multimillionaire, and he's scrounging narcotic pills off a *housekeeper*?? ***PuhLEASe...***

[RobFromGa]

Wilma Cline is actually William Clinton in Drag

I heard it was the other way around.

[GeronL]

She won't get in trouble, she's a new hero! The liberals are always saying we shouldn't punish the users, but they have now changed their minds

[yonif]

Who believes crap in the National Enquirer?

[Hildy]

I don't doubt he took pills...BUT 100 a day...COME ON...that's absurd.

[MJY1288]

ROFLMAO, I should have known :-)

good One!

[GeronL]

I think Rush still plans to be off tomorrow

[lainie]

I know. "Drug ring?"

[Tree of Liberty]

Have you, or anyone for that matter, heard if he's going to be on the air tomorrow? The last I heard, he was going to be in Philadelphia at some sports broadcasters breakfast.

[Lurkd Long Enough]

"Abuse of pills is not out of the question."

True, but these are controlled substances. You're only supposed to take one ever three or four hours. Maybe 2 if that's what it takes to get rid of the pain.

But four at a time, five, ten?

Once Rush started buying pills off the black market to satisfy his habit, I would say that he has a problem.

[quidnunc]

This may be a big part of the reason that Rush quit ESPN.

This could do his radio program in as well if radio stations decide to drop it.

Don't kid yourself, this is a serious hit.

[per loin]

Hmmm. A drug dealer going to the cops to turn in a client?

[lainie]

And he won't even be there!

Walter Williams is subbing for Rush, who should be giving the keynote address at the Nat'l Assn of Broadcasters thing.

Wonder if his plans will change now.

[Redcloak]

Someone refresh my memory... Which Clintonista's law firm represents the Inquirer?

[MJY1288]

Get a grip..... If Rush was taking 100 pills a day he would sound like Ozzie Ozbourne

[Hildy]

Why don't these dates add up...According to the end, they contacted prosecutors in the middle of 2002. What's been going on for a year and a half? This is weird.

[GOPrincess]

On another thread a poster dug up a quote from Rush's doctors at the House Clinic stating that his hearing loss was not caused by overuse of medication...which if this "maid" story is true, he would have been using in the time frame before his hearing loss. Surely they had investigated his medication thoroughly and wouldn't knowingly lie in a press conference. Even if they knew he took the stuff but didn't think it caused the hearing loss (hydrocodone=Vicodin, which can cause hearing loss if abused) you'd think they wouldn't touch any of that with a ten-foot pole. The House Clinic is the finest hearing clinic in the world and I can't imagine they'd jeopardize their reputation. Something isn't right here. I also have trouble believing that anyone as smart as Rush would send emails on this subject, knowing how the left would be gunning for him. You never know -- I mean, who woulda thunk Bill Bennett was a high-stakes gambler? -- but something just seems odd here, especially combined with the ESPN story.

I'm sick of conservatives always being the "good guys" who fall on their swords -- and in this case it was totally unnecessary. The leftists (who kept quiet when Dusty Baker made totally racially idiotic comments earlier this year!) twist and turn and demagogue and suddenly the truth is what they've made it, not what really happened. (I see some of the same stuff going on in the "CIA" scandal story, media playing hide-the-ball with pertinent facts, blowing it up with gusto...) They're gonna be crowing about this "kill" for years. Just once, whether it's Frist and filibusters or Rush and ESPN, I want to see a conservative say "I'm not going to take it anymore" and push back.

[Allan]

Don't kid yourself, this is a serious hit.

Yes it is if it is true.

[lainie]

This is the NY Daily News, but yeah, same diff.

As alway, your mileage may vary!