[solitas]

He and his lawyer have been challenging the legal basis for opening up his medical records. They have every right to do this and Limbaugh's lawyer is obligated to zealously represent his client's interests. It's already clear that this particular DA leaks derogatory statements about Limbaugh to the media, statements that can and have further tarnished his reputation -- which potentially affects his livelihood. In view of this, I have no difficulty understanding Roy Black's reluctance to hand them more ammunition if he doesn't have to. There is a stark difference between pursuing your legitimate legal options and obstructing an investigation.

His constant whine has been that there's nothing IN his medical records to prove 'doctor shopping' - okay: then PROVE THAT by releasing the records to the court. The public doesn't have to know what is in them but if he has nothing to hide and states that they are harmless to his case then he should have no qualms about opening them to the court.

If there's nothing in them then they aren't 'ammunition', are they? He's tarnished his own reputation enough compared to the district attorney's supposed leaks.

[Bonaparte]

On the contrary, Limbaugh has good reason to keep his medical records away from the DA's scrutiny. And if you read the transcript Matchett-PI was kind enough to provide in post 172, you will realize this. The judge himself agreed that Limbaugh's concerns here are legitimate, given the DA's behavior so far with the media, leaking enough information to sensationalize all this to Limbaugh's detriment. The information contained in his medical records could be embarassing and damaging to him in ways having nothing to do with the DA's investigation or with any charges the DA may be contemplating. All this goes to Limbaugh's reasonable concern for his reputation with the public and, by extension, his viability in the marketplace.

To sum this up, if the DA had not acted with blatant lack of discretion in his disclosures, the opening of Limbaugh's records would not have become such a hot-button issue in these proceedings. The fact that the DA acted contrary to established precedent in his manner of obtaining those records doesn't help him either. Why should Limbaugh be compelled to cooperate with a DA who has so far shown himself to be more than willing to damage the man's reputation with the public and to do so before it's even clear that he has a case against him?

Remember when the democrats were screaming that Bush and Cheney should release the records of their candid consultations with energy industry people? That was a fishing expedition for ammo too and everybody in the forum recognized it as such, just as the courts eventually did. the democrats cannot be trusted with that sort of privileged information any more than they can be trusted with national security intelligence. And the Palm Beach DA has shown that he is in exactly the same league.