A Moment of Compassion

I'm not obligated to feel or express any compassion for Rush Limbaugh. There are 6 billion other people on this planet, almost all of whom are more worthy than Rush of any emotional energy I wish to expend. My attitude - and approach to this blog - is that it's fair to treat people with about the same degree of fairness and venom that they treat others. And, by that criteria, Rush is truly in a class of his own.

Having said that, drug addiction is (contrary to Rush's assertions below) a serious disease. While I'm all for mocking Rush's (alleged) problems with as much bile as he throws at anyone who is down on their luck, I do want to make it clear that I'm not mocking drug addiction or drug addicts generally.

When this story unfolds, my guess is that (if the basic facts that we know are true) it will be spun that poor Rush suffered from chronic pain for awhile, and in the process he got hooked. That may even be true. But, much like Andy Sullivan claiming (perhaps truthfully) that he got HIV from unprotected oral sex, and it was therefore due to an "accident," and not due to "reckless behavior," this is just a way absolving himself of any responsibility, a particularly bad strategy for someone trying to kick a drug habit. As those 12 steppers say, "if you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you got."

If Rush were ever willing to cut anyone else that kind of slack, I might even buy it. I don't blame Sullivan for getting HIV and I won't blame Rush for becoming an addict. However, they do blame others for similar misfortunes. We make choices, and sometimes we get lucky and sometimes we don't. We should have a bit of empathy for the people who don't.

A final transcript (For now):

Everyone knows the Clintons have a cat. Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is a White House dog?

...Arthur Silber has some more comments.

Rush Limbaugh Show, 9-23-93

LIMBAUGH: OK. Welcome back and thank you very much. You're watching RUSH LIMBAUGH, the television show. Substance abuse--that means drug addicts. We're now going to cover their rehabilitation if this plan goes through.

Jerry Colangelo is the president of the Phoenix Suns. He's a man I've recently met this year as a guest of a friend of mine who's the coach of the Phoenix Suns, Paul Westphal. I went out during NBA finals in June--went--with them to Chicago. Had lunch with Mr. Colangelo. He's done miracles with this franchise. Six years ago, five of his players were charged with drug abuse and this kind of thing. And it--they've--they've got a wholesome operation out there--very cultured, very classy operation. Family entertainment's the way that they look at their basketball games and their team, and this re--it set them back. Colangelo vowed it's never going to happen again. He's got a player named Richard Dumas. One-time violator of the NBA drug policy. Got caught again violating the terms of his rehab. Colangelo says, I've had it. You're not playing here for this whole season. I don't care if you're clean. You've got to show me that you cannot--that you can stay clean for an entire career. I'm not going to pay you this kind of money.'

I want to let you read along with me a quote from Jerry Colangelo about substance abuse, and I think you'll find that he's very much right. Put it up, Chet, and I'll read along.

(Graphic on screen)

"I know every expert in the world will disagree with me, but I don't buy into the disease part of it. The first time you reach for a substance you are making a choice. Every time you go back, you are making a personal choice. I feel very strongly about that."

Jerry Colangelo President Phoenix Suns

LIMBAUGH: (Voiceover) He says that, I know every expert in the world will disagree with me, but I don't buy into the disease part of drug abuse. The first time you reach for a substance you are making a choice. Every time you go back, you're making a personal choice. I feel very strongly about that.'

What he's saying is that if there's a line of cocaine here, I have to make the choice to go down and sniff it. And I don't know how--how to do it, but if I was going to do it, I'd do it. If there were a gun here, it wouldn't fire itself. I've got to reach for it and--and pull the trigger. And his point is that we are rationalizing all this irresponsibility and all the choices people are making and we're blaming not them, but society for it. All these Hollywood celebrities say the reason they're weird and bizarre is because they were abused by their parents. So we're going to pay for that kind of rehab, too, and we shouldn't. It's not our responsibility.

Rush Limbaugh Show, 10-1-1992

LIMBAUGH: All right. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for tonight's weather forecast from Rush Limbaugh. No, I want to show you something. This is a map of the United States. And these blue dots represent everywhere in the country you can watch this show. We--I'm not kidding--we have over 200 television stations, and the way this is measured in television lingo, we now blanket 98 percent of the country, but I want--I want to show you one dot that isn't blue. This dot, ladies and gentlemen, this red dot happens to be our nation's capital. If Jesse Jackson--the Reverend Jackson were to have his way, this would be the new state, New Columbia, appropriately named since there's drugs and crime there.

Rush Limbaugh Show, 1-15-96

In fact, I'm reminded--I had this story about three weeks ag--maybe it was before Christmas, maybe it was as far back as November--but there were a couple of drug convictions out in--I think it was a Colorado court. And these guys had--had done some really bad stuff, and there were mandated federal sentences for the crimes they had committed. And the judge apologized to the criminals while sentencing them because he thought it was too severe. He apologized and the com--the community was outraged. So we've gone from a judge sentencing a mother who makes her child beg six months in jail, to judges apologizing for getting dope dealers and crack dealers and drug salesmen off the streets with too severe a sentence.

Miller Much More Serious Than Jayson Blair

One could suggest that the reason Miller still has her job is that she's white*...

There is a widespread perception among staff that her work has brought dishonor on the newspaper. The perception that she's protected at the top is widespread, and the reluctance of editors to penalize her adds to that, one of my sources said. Why did an assistant managing editor consistently defend her work of the last year? One of the deans of political writers at the Times tells me: "It makes no sense [but] the only thing I can think of for that clap-trap going into the paper without adequate reporting safeguards -- maybe sniffing the Raines?"

Once reporter Steve Engelberg (he is said to have spent a good portion of his time keeping Miller honest) left the three-dimensional investigative team of Engelberg, William Broad, and Miller, "she had a free ride under Howell and Boyd to do what she wanted. They protected her, particularly Boyd," according to one of my sources.

As they continue to protect Gerth.

*Just echoing the standard line on the Blair fiasco

Amen

Good for him:

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie today accused ESPN of "institutional racism" for its decision to hire Rush Limbaugh and for the portrayal of NFL players in the fictional series "Playmakers."

ESPN had tarnished its image of being one of the most respected media outlets for NFL coverage for the sake of ratings, Lurie said. The hiring of Limbaugh and the show are examples of "racist potshots" toward the league, he said.

"Some of the events of this week are built with institutional racism," Lurie said. "It exists. Let's not hide it. Let's not make us believe the problem is a single person. It's far from that."

A telephone message seeking comment from ESPN today was not immediately returned.

The guardians of our national discourse (and yes, I mean YOU Howard Kurtz. And NBC. And Espn.) have for too long ignored the amount of explicit and implicit bigotry which oozes from Limbaugh's every utterance. ESPN knew that when they were hiring someone "controversial," that what controversial meant was "bigot."

Henceforth...

A few people (including Tresy) have suggested the new street name for OxyContin should be "dittos," and a new name for OC addicts be "dittoheads," a la "crackheads."

Shocking

House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi just compared Republican attempts to cut Medicare spending with the Holocaust.

ha ha ha, just kidding.

That didn't actually happen of course, but people are telling me that Grover Norquist just compared taxes to the Holocaust on NPR's Fresh Air.
In comments Peter provides this report:

I listened pretty carefully, and with some astonishment. Grover was making the point that in this country, people often go up and down the income scale, so a tax cut for the "rich" can benefit everyone. Terry Gross responded with a question about the estate tax repeal, which clearly benefits only those who have rich parents.

Grover calmly segued into a moral argument: that is was immoral to discriminate against one group of people just because they were different, ie, rich. He said something like, "It's like the Holocaust, people saying, 'Oh, it's okay, they're just going after those people there... not me.' Something is immoral no matter who they're doing it too."

Terry, who is very kind of all sorts of guests, interrupted: "Excuse me... did you just compare taxes to the Holocaust?"

"No," said Grover, and then did it again. He repeated that whether or not you're taxing someone, or "shooting" someone, its immoral for you to accept it just because it's happening to someone else. He also then threw in a comparison to the Apartheid regime of South Africa.

Briefly: this interview was actually disturbing. Norquist laid out ridiculous arguments and nebulous facts with the calm, reasoned manner of a Lyndon LaRouche: someone who believes that only he has the truth, and everyone else is deluded or evil.

The interview started with him responding to Terry's question: "How do we pay for the war in Iraq, etc." by him saying, "Interesting use of the word 'we.' We are the people. The government is THEM. THEY have to pay for it; we don't."

And this man talks to the President and his senior advisers on a regular basis.

Can't wait for the transcript...

UPDATE: Sadly No kindly provides the transcript:

Norquist [Discussing the death tax] I think it speaks very much to the health of the nation that 70% plus of Americans want to abolish the death tax because they see it as fundamentally unjust. The argument that some who play to the politics of hate and class division will say it's only 2% or 5% in the near future of Americans likely to have to pay that tax. I mean, that's the morality of the Holocaust, it's only a small percentage, it's not you it's somebody else. And this country, people who may not make, earning a lot of money, at the centerpiece of their lives, they may have other things to focus on, they just say it's not just, if you've paid taxes on your income government should leave you alone, not tax you again.

Q. Did you just compare the estate tax with the Holocaust?

Norquist: No, the morality that says it's ok to do something to a group because they're a small percentage of the population, is the morality that says that the Holocaust is ok because they didn't target everybody. It's just a small percentage what are you worried about? It's not you. It's not you, it's them. And arguing that it's ok to loot some group because it's them, or kill some group because it's them, and because it's a small number, that has no place in a democratic society that treats people equally. The government's going to do something to or for us it should treat us all equally. And the argument that Bill Clinton used when he wanted to raise taxes in 1993 is I'm only going to tax the top 2%, so this doesn't affect the rest of you, I'm only going to get some of these guys, not you, others.

The challenge there, when people use that rhetoric, in addition to the fact that I think it's immoral to separate the society, by, uh, when South Africa divided society by race, that was wrong. When East Germany divided them by income and class, that was wrong. East Germany was not an improvement over South Africa. Dividing people so when you can mug them one at a time is a bad thing to do. Whether you do on racial grounds, religious grounds, whether you work on Saturdays or not grounds, economic grounds.

Q. So you see taxes as being, the way they are now a terrible discrimination against the wealthy, comparable to the kind of discrimination of say, the Holocaust?

A. Well, when you pick, when you use, you can use different rhetoric, or different points for different purposes, and I would argue that those who say don't let this bother you I'm only doing it, the government is only doing to a small part of the population, that is very wrong. And it's immoral. they should treat everybody the same. They shouldn't be shooting anyone. And they shouldn't be taking half of anybody's income or wealth when they die.

Way to Throw an Opening, John

So, John King just had Tom DeLay talking about how great it will be if CA gets the gubernator because the state needs someone to restore "fiscal sanity."

Um, John, couldn't you have maybe, just maybe, mentioned the federal deficit?

Drip Drip Drip

Even Fox...

Newspaper reports alleged Limbaugh got the drugs from his housekeeper. But a source close to the investigation told Fox News that Limbaugh had other drug suppliers and could become a target of future criminal probe.

The investigation apparently began as a probe into the illegal sale of prescription painkillers in South Florida that targeted dealers. But later investigators came across Limbaugh through clues gathered in a bust a Palm Beach County (search) in May, revealing him as a buyer.

...

Asked about the culpability of Limbaugh in an investigation which did not target him, the source told Fox News that he could still face charges for having a large quantity of prescription painkillers without a prescription, but said no charges are imminent.

(via Hesiod)

I'm quite disappointed in Bill O'Reilly. He's apparently defending Rush on his radio program. He should've seized the opportunity to throw Rush overboard...

The Palm Beach Post has a picture of the maid up...

and, here's a story.

Rush Limbaugh Show, 10-13-95

... Story number two: St. Paul, Minnesota. A state legislator, a Democrat, spent hours driving drunk around Minnesota on Wednesday, threatening to kill himself with a BB gun and talking by--and--talking by car phone to people who begged him to stop and get help for his alcoholism. Name is Bob Johnson. He was arrested on a well-traveled two-lane highway just outside Bemidji--if I'm pronouncing that right; I hope I am--and was extremely drunk according to the county sheriff; said he was driving erratically, taken to the county jail and placed under a suicide wat--suicide watch. This situation on Wednesday was so tense that the state Democratic Party asked the media to hold off reporting details until it was resolved.


Now get this: Bob Johnson, drunk, driving around Minneapolis, threatening to shoot himself with a BB gun--Wonder where Al Cowlings was this night?--was drunk and calling people on the phone. Lis--listen to this. Bob Johnson was once listed in legislative directories as a school social worker, quote, "recognized for work in fields of youth and family problems and alcohol drug prevention."'
Another Democrat--another--folks, these people are taking it really hard, you know, these


Democrats, threatening to kill themselves with a BB gun, getting drunk. Here--a guy who had been cited, who had been recognized for his great work in alcohol and drug abuse is drunk on the highways. This is just--it's tragic, but it's just--it's outrageously funny. And he is just the latest in a series of Democratic legislators in Minnesota accused of crimes including shoplifting, spouse abuse and insurance fraud. Conflict resolution, Democrats and all their good social works, and still, look at what ha--it just--it's--it's hypocrisy. ...

(thanks to jm)

Rush Limbaugh Show, December 16, 1994

So we're not going to get on--we don't fault these animals for a lack of discipline, but we get on human beings who are fat for lack of discipline and you know it and I know it. But here's the thing that struck me about this. We have alcoholics and drug addicts in our society, don't we? And what do we say about them? Well, they can't help it. Why, it's genetic. Why, they have a disease. Why, put one thimbleful of scotch in front of them and they can die.'

We totally exempt them from any control over their lives, do we not? Some athlete will spend two years snorting lines of coke. He can't help it.' You know, it's--it's just--it's not--it's--it's genetic. These people--they're predisposed to having this addictive syndrome. They--they can't help--yeah, like that line of cocaine just happened to march into the hotel, go up to the athlete's room and put itself right there in front of him on his blotter.

Rush Limbaugh Show, 12-12-95

Finally, I don't know how many of you saw this or not. This is--this--this is an amazing story. I want to laugh at this so badly, but it--it--it's--you shouldn't, but I can't help it. It's a story about Scott Plumlee, 39 years old; Pensacola, Florida. In his neighborhood, there's far too much drug activity going on. He doesn't like it. He went to the cops and demanded they stop it. The cops said, Sorry, Mr. Plumlee, we don't have any evidence. We can't move into your neighborhood and just remove all the drug dealers because we don't have any evidence it's going on.'

So Plumlee went back to his neighborhood, went down to the corner, bought 4 bucks' worth of marijuana, went back home and called the cops. He said, Come on out. I've got the evidence.' They have arrested him. I kid you not. They've arrested him and he's got, perhaps--he's facing a one-year jail sentence for 4 bucks' worth of marijuana.

He--he--he said, After I bought it, I thought there it is. Boom. Now get him off the street. I never thought we'd get in trouble.' The cops are all saying down there, Hey, look, you know, we don't want citizens taking this dangerous activity into their own hands.'

I have to think that this is going to get straightened out; that the guy's not really going to go to jail. But, see, you've got a drug-infested neighborhood and here's a guy trying to do something about it. Goes out and makes a buy just to get the evidence. The cops say, No, we didn't see it happen. We still don't have any evidence. All we know is that you've got the 4 bucks of--of marijuana. Follow us to jail, pal.' So--but our heart's with the guy.

Rush Limbaugh Show, 7-22-1996

LIMBAUGH: All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. You know, I've been--I've been thinking. There are some other things the Dole campaign could do in addition to hiring Billy Dale. You know the story about the Mena Airport--Mena, Arkansas. This is the--the--the story about drugs and--and--and--and--and--and cash being run in and out of there to Central America that--that--that Clinton knew about when it was all going on and it's been written about in The American Spectator. How about Dole goes to w--and it's closed now--the Mena Airport's no longer there. But how about Dole goes there, does a public appearance, and while he's making a speech, helicopter flies over, drops a bunch of bales of hay to indicate drugs coming into the state of Arkansas. Or he could go to the Excelsior Hotel, where Paula Jones claimed that Clinton took--pu--he took his pants down. And Dole could go to the hotel room, conduct a press conference there. Go out to a savings and loan, stand in front of--do all sorts of stuff, just--just to--just to focus the press on--on some of Clinton's, shall we say, transgressions.

Get Your War On

here.

Arnold

"I apologize."

oy.


...god, they're showing it again. He really did say that the allegations weren't true, and then apologized for being a bad boy.

Treason

Says the father of Mike Spann.

"If someone in the Bush administration leaked this, they need to be punished, and they need to be made an example of, because that's not just a leak, that's treason," Spann, of Winfield, Ala., told The Associated Press. "They should appoint an independent counsel so the American people can be sure, and let the chips fall where they may."

Arrest the Alleged Pill Popper

The more I think about this, the more outraged I get. Sometimes things are just so commonplace and expected that you cease being outraged. There are so many young black men (and others) in jail for decades after getting busted for possession of minute quantities of illegal drugs. If law enforcement has evidence that Limbaugh has been buying illegal prescription drugs for years, then they have an obligation to arrest him. At they very least they can give him the compassionate conservative treatment that Noelle got (the compassionate conservative treatment is, of course, simply compassion for conservatives) and get some mandatory treatment.

CNN on Rush

It appears that Limbaugh is a part of a drug investigation, but they're targetting the suppliers and not the buyers.

Sure is nice being a rich white illegal drug user.

Proper Dosage

Ever 6 months or so they get Richard Cohen's medication just right and he hits one out of the park.

That hypocrisy was on display Tuesday when President Bush indignantly declared war on leaking, asserting that there are "just too many leaks." The president, as is his wont, misspoke. What he meant to condemn are leaks that do damage to his administration. Up to now, he has said nothing about leaks that favor his cause.

The leak now under investigation is of a particularly pernicious kind. The identity of the CIA employee was disclosed not really to inform the public of something it should know, but as a way to send a dead fish to anyone in the administration who might question that Iraq was a major and imminent menace. Saddam Hussein, we were once told, not only had chemical and biological weapons but was rushing to build an atomic bomb. "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud," said Condi Rice.

Within the intelligence community, remarks such as Rice's caused a certain amount of head-snapping. The president's national security adviser waxed mushroomish the same day in September 2002 that the New York Times reported Iraq had "sought to buy thousands of specially designed aluminum tubes" for its nuclear weapons program. The Times story cited "administration officials," "American officials" and the conclusions of "American intelligence experts."

The Times story was clearly based on a lot of reporting -- and just as clearly, government officials cooperated. They did so because the story suited the purposes of the Bush administration -- never mind that they led the Times astray. The tubes are now thought to have been designed for a conventional weapons program -- missiles.

For some reason the Bush administration did not denounce that sort of leak. On the contrary, Rice, Cheney and others used the story in their Sunday talk show appearances. This was typical. The administration has leaked or used intelligence over and over again to make the case for a war in Iraq. However, it would not permit dissenting views to surface.