Rush to Judgment [Lucianne's Singularly Thoughtful Column on Rush's Drug Problem]

Lucianne.com Short Cuts, October 13, 2003 ^ | October 13, 2003 | Lucianne Goldberg

[paulklenk]

Only hours after the news broke, Katie Couric thought Rush Limbaugh's drug problem was funny. So funny as a matter of fact, that she made up a story about sitting next to him on the plane and asking for an aspirin - you get the rest. She told it with a baby-girl hair flip. It wasn't funny.

During the Democrat debate last week, John Kerry thought Rush's pain was funny and took a shot. That wasn't funny either.

For hard-pressed liberals, merchandising Rush Limbaugh's admitted pill addiction will be an interesting test of individual sensitivity and a telling reality check and we'd better brace ourselves. Response from the left will probably follow the line of Newsweek's cover story today; he's a shy, loner, schlub and hypocrite -- heavy on the hypocrite. They describe him as a solemn couch potato with few friends, an aversion to nightlife and a kid who stayed in his room with water balloons on Halloween, then dropped them on the departing trick-or-treaters (frankly, my kind of guy). They write with self-rightous glee at his misfortune that he is an "actor" filled with self-righteous glee at the misfortunes of others.

This merry-go-round is just cranking up and we will hear much more of the same and worse about him in the days to come. This is their irresistible right and inevitable. To counter it, pundits on the right will revisit the drowned girl at Chappaquidick, other known addicts, the drunks, embezzlers, and jailbirds - the whole panoply of losers on the left. We've all been there before.

There is no way to stop the ranting and high-fiving. They will do it until they get bored with themselves and move on. Now that Rush has admitted his problem it is all fair but it is a dangerous game and the more thoughtful among them may want to rethink their commentary.

How truly funny is drug addiction and who among them has not had their hearts broken by it? How taxing is it to whip up jokes about rehab? How amusing is it to know that a public figure has begged a servant, a friend, a colleague even a stranger for a hit or fix because they fear they would go mad without it.

Are there truly any yucks in knowing that someone had stockpiled thousands of pills just in case....just in case....there isn't a painless instrument around with which to kill themselves if they run out? When the early jokes give way to the righteous rants will they be delivered by those who haven't a clue about the terror that is drug addiction?

As much as I can't stand them, I do not wish this for those who will feast upon Rush Limbaugh's pain: The call in the middle of the night that a beloved child has been arrested for DWI or picked up in a crack house or hung themselves. The realization that a wife or husband or loved one whose personality has changed has been stealing stuff, maxing out a credit card has been sneaking pills from somewhere and is hopelessly addicted. I do not wish them the expense and agony of waiting for someone they love to maybe make it through rehab and maybe not. I do, however, wish they could look into their souls and ask if they have the strength to survive what Rush Limbaugh will go through to get his life back.

But, politics ain't beanbag and they are going to have at this situation - first with the jokes, then with the indignation and I-told-you-sos. They can't help themselves and frankly, we couldn't either if Al Franken got picked up in a motel with an underage boy or an overage goat. That's the way this game is played. It will never change so their behavior is not the point.

People, decent people, have hearts. They are loyal to their friends and steadfast in time of trouble. Our commitment should be standing by Rush Limbaugh. He has given us hope and help and a way of seeing the world.

Remember when being a conservative was a very lonely business? Remember when we huddled in Rush Rooms and were almost afraid to listen to him on the radio with passengers in the car. Think what the Clinton years would have been like without Rush. None of that is diminished by his current problems.

We are 20 million strong. We can do anything we set our minds to and have the track record to prove it. The operative word here is 'strong' and a healthy, productive Rush Limbaugh, who knows how grateful we are, is the goal. Perhaps he can do it without us but I, for one, don't want him to.

-Lucianne Goldberg

[Ready4Freddy]

"Those were in the day or so before he announced it."

Thanks, Doc, the timing wasn't clear from Lucianne's well-written article. Rush is a big boy, he should be able to take it as well as he dishes it out. Any further similar comments after his admission on Friday would be beyond the pale, IM(ns)HO.

[Cobra64]

Get a grip dumbass,Rush has a serious back problem.

Yup, folks like Freddy are lurking DU dolts that pleasure themselves with mental masturbation of an honest man that has admitted the he has an addiction problem to PRESCRIBED anti-pain medicine.

[tet68]

Ya done good. This is excellent work from her.
I remember those days.

[Dustbunny]

Lucianne is right on the money and so was Neil Cavuto's common sense comments at the end of his show today.

Praying for Rush daily and waiting for his return.

[Political Junkie Too]

Only hours after the news broke, Katie Couric thought Rush Limbaugh's drug problem was funny.

When Couric's husband died from colon cancer, she did a series of reports on colon cancer and her own colonoscopy. So when a prominent person admits addiction to prescription pain medication because of severe back pain, did Couric do a series of reports on chronic back pain and how Americans cope? No, she ridiculed the person because he's a conservative Republican.

-PJ

[all_mighty_dollar]

>>>It's about a failed medical procedure performed on a celebrity that the medical community did not want to take responsibility for its failure.

Boy, do I agree, given my experience with my minor back problem. I would also suggest that it may be time to take some of the money allocated for aids medical research and earmark it for back problems research, treatment improvement, and prevention procedures.

[Ready4Freddy]

"...of an honest man that has admitted the he has an addiction problem to PRESCRIBED (sic) anti-pain medicine."

Saying that Rush' drug of choice is prescription drugs is meaningless. Besides the use of other-than-mainstream channels, shall we say, it doesn't sound like he was following doctor's orders, does it,? He's fortunate that it came out the way it did - he's apparently had serious intent-to-distribute weight on him, 10-15 year weight, so much that FL's deferred adjudication avenue probably wouldn't be open for him.

I wish him well, the detox won't be easy, as he knows.

[backhoe]

Thank you for posting this. It needs to be read.

My prediction? I think this is going to blow up in the Left's face, bigtime.

There are a lot of ordinary people out there who either have had similar problems, or are married to, or know someone who has walked the same road.

Kicking a man when he is down is bad form to most people.

Once again, the elitists you see on TV "don't get it..."

[YaYa123]

Yes, I saw it earlier, and emailed Lucianne my thanks for such brilliance, obviously straight from her heart.

[Uncle Fud]

I wish he hadn't waited

Spot on, if he'd made this announcement three weeks ago he'd have my support 100%, as it is there's more than a little of "confessing after you're caught" which works in the other direction.

[Humidston]

Thanks, Weegee!

I didn't read your entire link, but found it interesting that Rush's 'infamous' quote against drug use was in 1995. If I'm not mistaken, he said last Friday that his addiction began AFTER 1995.

(Not pointing a finger at you.... Just reminding others he may NOT be the hypocrite the libs say he is - if his drug remark was *prior* to his own problems.)

[weegee]

There are certainly some who have also found pro-legalization monologues from Rush. Rush even said legalize it and then prosecute it like tobacco (including billion dollar product liablity lawsuits against the Cali cartel).

[Humidston]

Good point. Let's say TWO clowns!

[ConservativeMan55]

I've heard Don Imus talk about his drug addiction in the 70's A LOT. Don's working on 80 something I believe.

Rush can bounce back from this. I truly believe this is only the first chapter of his life.

[Ferret Fawcet]

read later

[PeoplesRep_of_LA]

People, decent people, have hearts. They are loyal to their friends and steadfast in time of trouble. Our commitment should be standing by Rush Limbaugh. He has given us hope and help and a way of seeing the world.

Remember when being a conservative was a very lonely business? Remember when we huddled in Rush Rooms and were almost afraid to listen to him on the radio with passengers in the car. Think what the Clinton years would have been like without Rush. None of that is diminished by his current problems.

We are 20 million strong. We can do anything we set our minds to and have the track record to prove it.

Yes, it actually pleases me greatly to see those weak kneed, triangulationist fools on the "right" as well as the Usual Suspects on the Left try to take Rush down. It makes me feel proud that I, for one, will not back down to the cause or Conservatism, nor the rightful place in that fight of Rush H Limbaugh III.

This is the time when the Going Gets Tough. I'm up to the challenge. Rush will be too.

[Renfield]

The thing that strikes me most about this column is that Mrs. Goldberg appears utterly unable to make a pronoun agree with its antecedent. This goes a long way in explaining Jonah Goldberg's difficulties with grammar, syntax, and punctuation (as those of you who read NRO will have noticed).

Her appallingly poor command of English notwithstanding, her sentiments are correct. Furthermore, it is obvious that the left underestimate the mettle of Mr. Limbaugh. Their premature celebration will come back to bite them.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Obviously, a president's health is a legitimate matter of unbigoted inquiry. Making light of people's health problems (and that is what Rush has a HEALTH PROBLEM related to medication) in the form of ridicule is what my post addresses. Not the question of someone's fitness for high office based on ailing health. Turning Rush's poblems with pain pills into the rhetoric of a "DRUG" problem is a deliberate rhetorical maneuver. I doubt Rush's feelings have been hurt by the jibes from Franken and Kerry. Some Americans seem to have some sort of panic about medication and near-hysteria reactions to "drugs." Apparently, Clinton got passes on alcohol and cocaine abuse from the same libs now milking Rush's alleged "drug" problem.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Wasn't even Tipper Gore addicted to medications for depression? Did Rush savage her on the radio? Does the left somehow recall Rush giving Jeb Bush's daughter a pass on her addiction to Xanex and forged prescriptions because she was a Republican? I certainly do recall the media attacking President Bush for having a niece who is addicted to prescription medication. 45 posted on 10/13/2003 2:47 PM PDT by weegee

That's an interesting point. And quite a reach when the niece becomes the issue. Maybe they will discover that Arnold Schwarzennegger had a "drug" problem because of his involvement with mind-altering steroids. [irony]

[Ready4Freddy]

"Yup, folks like Freddy are lurking DU dolts "

Don't quit your day job, cobra, your Karnac impression sux. ;>/