This report has a deeply misleading headline: "Rush Limbaugh arrested on prescription drug charges". While the headline is completely factual, it is not the main point of the story. The main point is that a settlement has been reached ending the three year long probe against him. If he stays in drug treatment for another 18 months, everything is dropped.
Now I can say in all honesty that I have listened to only a very little Rush Limbaugh over the years. Mostly I've been thoroughly amused at the way he gets the left to go absolutely bonkers. But let's be intellectually honest here: The probe into Rush Limbaugh's problems with prescription drugs was a politically motivated witch hunt. Period. The man made a public confession, sought treatment and that probably should have been that. Most people with prescription drug problems are not subjected to three year inquiries.
I don't see the people who hate Rush so much hounding after rock stars with drug problems. If they called for silencing all the entertainers out there with drug problems, the airwaves would be pretty empty.
There’s no such thing as “settling” a criminal charge. It’s a plea bargain.
And the reason he’s been chastised so much is not because of the drug use; it’s because he and his fans screamed for maximum punishment for people with drug problems – right up to the moment he got caught.
Citation?
There’s nothing good about drug use. We know it. It destroys individuals. It destroys families. Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods, which become consumed by them. 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.
What this says to me is that too many whites are getting away with drug use. Too many whites are getting away with drug sales. Too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we’re not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too.
…We are becoming too tolerant as a society, folks, especially of crime, in too many parts of the country…. This country certainly appears to be tolerant, forgive and forget. I mean, you know as well as I do, you go out and commit the worst murder in the world and you just say you’re sorry, people go, “Oh, OK. A little contrition.”… People say, “I feel better. He said he’s sorry for it.” We’re becoming too tolerant, folks.
–Rush Limbaugh TV show (10/5/95)
These tough sentencing laws were instituted for a reason. The American people, including liberals, demanded them. Don’t you remember the crack cocaine epidemic? Crack babies and out-of-control murder rates? Liberal judges giving the bad guys slaps on the wrist? Finally we got tough, and the crime rate has been falling ever since, so what’s wrong?
–RushLimbaugh.com (8/18/03)
In the audio link below, I go into detail about these non-thinking talking points that “you can’t tell people what to do with their bodies” and “you can’t legislate morality.” First of all, we tell people what they can do to their bodies all the time–no cocaine, no prostitution, no throwing yourself off a building. Second, laws are nothing but defining morality!
–RushLimbaugh.com (6/27/03)
All right. Joe Fernandez came to New York from Miami, ladies and gentlemen, to be schools chancellor…. Now he is embattled–he’s got a book that just came out, an autobiography that’s soon to come out, I think, in which he admits that he was a mainliner as a teen-ager. This guy [pretends to stick needle in arm]–pfsst–shot up heroin. And people are praising him. He overcame the scourge. He triumphed over that profound obstacle in his life and has gone on to become this great schools chancellor…. [Plays a clip of Fernandez saying that the message of his teenage drug use is "to not give up on our kids."]
Reach out and try to help them, not give up on the kids, give them condoms and teach them about a bunch of stuff that is worthless in terms of preparing them for their future as adults in the greatest country on Earth, teaching them all this social gobbledygook. “Let’s not forget about the kids.”…
Whoa. The guy wants to be education secretary, folks. Watch out. Now why does he want to go to Washington? Probably because he’s studied the case of Marion Barry. Here’s a guy who got involved in drugs. You want to see my Marion Barry impersonation? Do you want to see that? All right. I’ll do the Marion Barry impersonation.
You put some stuff out here on the table and you go [pretends to snort cocaine]. “You tell Jesse to stay out of my town. This is my town, and Jesse–you tell him to stay out. [More snorting.] And I said no, no, no, no, I don’t smoke it no more. Tired of ending up on the floor.” [More snorting.]
So what is he? He gets involved in drugs and ends up, ladies and gentlemen, as a newly elected official in Washington, D.C…. So I’m sure Joe Fernandez is looking down there saying, “Hey, there’s a future for, you know, drug users in Washington, D.C.”
–Rush Limbaugh TV show (12/8/92)
When you strip it all away, Jerry Garcia destroyed his life on drugs. And yet he’s being honored, like some godlike figure. Our priorities are out of whack, folks.
–Rush Limbaugh radio show (quoted in the L.A. Times, 8/20/95)
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…”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.”…
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 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. It’s up to the people who are doing it. And Colangelo is right.
–Rush Limbaugh TV show (9/23/93)
I have a solution for Mrs. [Jocelyn] Elders. I mean, if she wants to legalize drugs, send the people who want to do drugs to London and Zurich and let’s be rid of them. Now…The problem with legalizing drugs is, it’s just another abhorrent example of human behavior that we’ve suddenly decided, “Hey, we can’t handle it. We’ve given up and we’re going to sanction the destruction of lives. We’re going to let you destroy your life. We’re going to make it easy, and then all of us who accept the responsibilities of life and don’t destroy our lives on drugs–we’ll pay for whatever messes you get into.”…
I’m appalled at people who simply want to look at all this abhorrent behavior and say, “Hey, you know, we can’t control it anymore. People are going to do drugs anyway. Let’s legalize it.” It’s a dumb idea. It’s a rotten idea, and those who are for it are purely, 100 percent selfish.
–Rush Limbaugh TV show (12/9/93)
Links?
Sven, keep in mind I am not defending his actions. Nor am I a listener. My post is about the witch hunt – and you can’t seriously tell me it wasn’t just that. When have you ever heard of someone being put through that for abusing prescription drugs?
That particular drug is also, from what I’ve heard, hideously addicting and has caught a lot of people.
Are you kidding me? He was handled with kid gloves and got a sweetheart deal. What do you think happens to people who can’t afford celebrity lawyers, whine about their mistreatment over the airwaves or get expensive treatment? Let’s take a quick gander at Google News.
and…
and….
And on and on and on.
The first two look pretty mild, 30 days and probation. The third one does not look like a personal use thing – that’s an awful lot of pills.
Give it a rest Sven. No one cares anymore.
After years of Clinton redefining the meaning of “is” Rush Limbaugh is a paragon of virtue.
Put a sock in it Sven!
Ok, so let’s get this straight. You say Limbaugh was unfairly persecuted, yet he will serve no time, pay a fine equal to 2 hours of his income, and have no criminal record.
The punishment meted out to these people was “mild,” but included jail time, the loss of jobs (and in one case the loss of children), and a felony record that will follow them the rest of their lives.
Alrighty, then.
(Oh, and Limbaugh bought 2,000 pills over five months. That seems like an awful lot.)
Sven, I think your outrage meter needs a little recalibration. Frankly, I could not care less about persecuting ANYONE who gets addicted to prescription painkillers. Period. And quite frankly, it’s amusing to see the rpm’s mount higher on the left about this insignificant nonsense.
The only reason you’re outraged is because he’s a nice right-wing target – be honest.
And frankly, on the perspective scale you’re way out of whack. Let’s see, Rush Limbaugh abused prescription drugs versus Iran getting nukes. Yeah, I see how Rush is ‘waaaay more important than the other thing.