As to why Rush Limbaugh suffers from addiction (if indeed he does), you might also ask why Bill Bennett gambled excessively, or why Arnold Schwartznegger allegedly engaged in sexual harassment long after he was married and entered the ranks of respectability. People can become ensnared in terrible problems. The lure of "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" can as much cause a conservative, even a conservative Christian, to go astray, as it can liberals and nonbelievers.
The political problem arises with the GOP, and especially the conservative movement, identifying with "family values," opposing abortion, legalized drugs, permissive child rearing, homosexual unions, etc. Given the deterioration of American (and Western) public morality, particularly over the last 35-40 years, there was a clear need for a strong affirmation of traditional moral values in the public arena.
However, the downside to this strong stance is that it places its advocates, such as Limbaugh and Bennett, to have to be like Caesar's wife, that is, beyond reproach. When a Republican or a conservative slips, the fact that the mainstream print and broadcast media are in the iron grip of leftists will ensure maximum exposure of their opponent's shorcomings. This applies to the religious community as well. Scandals among evangelical Christian and Catholic clergy will receive abundant air time and a barrage of condemnation. Similar failures of mainline Protestant or black clergy will be given little media exposure and no condemnation.
The "purity" measurement was not one that conservative leaders of earlier times, like Barry Goldwater, Robert Taft, Sr., or Calvin Coolidge, had to endure. But up until the 1950s, liberals and even socialists adhered to traditional moral standards. The public statements of liberal heroes Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman affirming belief in the God of the Bible would cause a 2003 ACLU attorney to suffer apoplexy.
Let's hope that Rush Limbaugh will be exonerated. But we must also consider the possibility of a Rush-less future. Whatever the fate of Limbaugh, we must never let the "Fairness Doctrine" re-emerge.
It's kind of ironic. When the decision to let go of the fairness doctrine was being discussed, know who raised the biggest fuss? Religous organizations. That's where the Madelyn Murray O'Hare "no more gospel on radio" urban legend came from. They were sure that without time set aside for "public affairs" where most rebuttals of the culture were being made, they feared there would be a culture gone wild an no one to counter it. Maybe the hand wringing about the fairness doctrine now is just as baseless.