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Rush's Drug Use No Joking Matter
by Joe Conason

As a man with firm and simple opinions about almost everything, America's
most successful radio personality told his listeners years ago what society
should do about unfortunate people like Rush Limbaugh: send them to prison.

Back in 1995, arguing against liberal leniency toward dope fiends, Mr.
Limbaugh endorsed the boilerplate ideology and draconian methods of the drug
war with baritone bombast. "Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some
might say, is destroying this country," he intoned. "And so if people are
violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to
be convicted and they ought to be sent up."

Displaying characteristic conservative empathy, he dismissed data showing
that blacks are punished more predictably and more severely than whites for
similar narcotics offenses. Such statistics are meaningless, he said; all
those studies prove is that "too many whites are getting away with drug
use." According to him, the proper solution is not to treat addiction among
all ethnic groups as a disease rather than a crime, but to arrest more white
offenders-and, of course, to "convict them and send them up the river, too."

Eight years later, Mr. Limbaugh's "talent on loan from God" has suddenly
collided with instant karma. If the story that his former housekeeper told
(or sold) to the National Enquirer is true, then by his own standards El
Rushbo himself should be headed "up the river" for a spell. His admitted
abuse of Oxycontin, a federally controlled opiate used by millions of
patients for the relief of disabling pain, was plainly illegal, as were his
alleged purchases of thousands of the little "blue babies."

Luckily for him, however, criminal prosecution is unlikely, despite the
e-mails, voice messages and other evidence his dealer reportedly kept. To be
indicted and convicted of drug offenses, he would have to be caught in
red-handed possession of his stash. And the credibility of his accusers in
court would be nil-not only because they sold their tale to the tabloid, but
also because of their own obvious criminal liability.

Legal experts in Florida agree that Mr. Limbaugh's high-priced Miami
attorney, Roy Black (best known for defending William Kennedy Smith and Marv
Albert), has little reason to worry that his celebrity client will do time.

So whatever punishment Mr. Limbaugh must endure will be handed down in the
court of public opinion. He enjoys the support of millions of character
witnesses, including prominent fellow hypocrites such as his close friends
William Bennett and Newt Gingrich. But they would all be hard-pressed to
describe the mighty radio mouth as someone who has earned great sympathy.
This is, after all, a man who earned millions by lampooning the plight of
AIDS victims, spreading rumors that implicated Hillary Clinton in murder and
Bill Clinton in cocaine abuse, and mocking the physical appearance of their
young child. His brilliant career was founded on daily "entertainment" of
this quality.

Mr. Limbaugh specialized in legitimizing the denigration of the least
fortunate. "The poor in this country are the biggest piglets at the mother
pig and her nipples," he complained. "And I'm sick and tired of playing the
one phony game I've had to play, and that is this so-called compassion for
the poor. I don't have compassion for the poor." Not even a hungry child or
an unemployed father or an ill elderly woman was deemed by the great
conservative guru to be deserving of his sympathy.

With that grim record, Mr. Limbaugh now presents a real challenge to liberal
compassion. Rather than the cruel "joking" he might well have inflicted on
an opponent in his situation, that challenge should be met with sincere
wishes for his recovery and rehabilitation.

But what would rehabilitation mean? In the statement he released last week,
Mr. Limbaugh said his addiction had grown from a prescription of pain
medication. By proffering that explanation, he only demonized effective
medicines that rarely cause problems for the millions who badly need
effective opiates to relieve disabling agony. Both he and the nation would
be better off if he resolved instead to deal with the real problems that
afflict him.

According to his biographers, Mr. Limbaugh has always been a terribly
insecure and often lonely man. His chronic projection of rage against women,
gays, blacks, liberals, Democrats and others is a symptom. Addiction is a
psychiatric diagnosis, which most often occurs in people who medicate
themselves to relieve psychic pain. His repeated failures to conquer his
drug dependency suggest that he has yet to obtain the kind of therapy he
needs.

While he examines his issues in seclusion over the next month or so, he
might also ponder the social injustices of the drug war. Wealthy and
well-connected junkies like Mr. Limbaugh get treatment and prayers; poor and
obscure junkies get prison and scorn. Even a dittohead should be able to
understand why that is wrong.

You may reach Joe Conason via email at: jconason@observer.com.

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This column ran on page 5 in the 10/20/2003 edition of The New York
Observer.