What a Rush

29 December 2003


Rush Limbaugh's Medical Records May Be Reviewed by Prosecutors

People fighting drug addiction need jail, not sympathy, according to Rush Limbaugh, radio talk-show host. Now that he is out of rehab himself, one feels he is fair game again on this score. So it was good to see the courts in Florida reject his effort to keep his medical records confidential. He is accused of abusing the medical system to get his fix of prescription painkillers, and those records hold the proof of his guilt or innocence. They must be opened to inspection.

As with most ideologues in America, he can't quite handle the heat of living up to his public speeches. He is no worse (although no better) than the Clintonistas who maintained that lying under oath wasn't a big deal because it was a lie about sex. Mr. Limbaugh is trying to use the customary patient-doctor confidentiality to quash an investigation of a felony. If it were a matter of principle, one might feel some sympathy. It is not.

On his radio show, just after the judge's decision, he blathered on about how he is the victim of a left-wing conspiracy, how the Democrats couldn't beat him intellectually and had to resort to destroying his reputation. Quite possibly, but then, he showed is true colors. He claimed there were several liberals who had drug problems that were being hushed up by the media, that he could name names, but didn't.

Mr. Limbaugh is an intellectual descendent of Senator Joe McCarthy (who claimed he had lists of communists in government that never were revealed), and Father Coughlin, the fascist-apologist. Mr. Limbaugh does not deserve jail for having a problem like this, despite his beliefs, but it seems he has learned nothing.

While disagreeing with the right most of the time, one does respect the intellectual integrity of William F. Buckley, Jr., and of George Will. Mr. Limbaugh is not an intellectual, however, but rather he is an entertainer of a rather odious sort. He proves what John Locke said, "Not all conservatives are stupid, but most stupid people are conservative." One bases this assessment on the fact that he has not changed his position, but will not accept his punishment either. Weaseling is not a gentlemanly act.

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