Newsweek: Rush’s World of Pain

[RamboLiberal]

Make sure you rate it at bottom:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/976114.asp?0dm=s16Bk

However gleefully Rush Limbaugh courts controversy, he could do without his current morass.

FIRST, THE CONSERVATIVE radio host inflamed opponents with racial remarks about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb on ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown,” which he’d recently joined as a commentator. The furor grew, and Limbaugh resigned from the network three days later. Then the following morning reports surfaced that he was once hooked on painkillers and is now ensnared in a drug investigation by Florida authorities. By last Friday Limbaugh was relying on the sort of evasiveness that he finds so execrable in others. “I don’t want to answer any questions about now,” he told radio listeners. “I really don’t know the full scope of what I am dealing with.”

<snip>

If the accusations are true, Limbaugh’s comments in a 1994 broadcast will prove prescient. During an emotionally turbulent time the year before, he told listeners, unspecified people suggested he take the prescription drug Prozac. “Do I have to go to the doctor for it?” Limbaugh said he asked, according to a transcript of the show made by Brian Keliher, the former publisher of an anti-Limbaugh newsletter. ” ‘Oh yeah, it’s a prescription, but we can get some for you, given who you are’,” he said they replied. “I started thinking about it.”

Limbaugh’s alleged drug use has prompted a stunning bit of speculation—that his hearing loss two years ago may have been caused by high doses of painkillers similar to Vicodin. In 2001, researchers at the House Ear Institute discerned a link between Vicodin abuse and sudden hearing loss. That year, the institute began treating Limbaugh. Doctors attributed his deafness not to painkillers, but to a condition called autoimmune inner-ear disease, though they noted that he didn’t display most of the symptoms associated with AIED. (He eventually regained hearing with a cochlear implant.) In light of last week’s news reports, the institute reaffirmed Limbaugh’s AIED diagnosis and noted that he lost hearing over a period of several months, while hearing loss from Vicodin usually occurs over a period of days. Whatever the case, the speculation only adds to the questions dogging Limbaugh. For once, the titan of talk may be praying for silence.

[salin]

1. Remember rush's big weight loss?

Wasn't this also in the time frame?

I hadn't heard rush in years - til I moved back to the midwest (where there is a dearth of am news radio).

Was commuting one day (circa 1999 perhaps early 2000), and rush was talking about all of the questions he has gotten about his successful diet/weight loss and promoting something he had written about it (in a book?). He spent at least 20 minutes on THAT topic - not on politics (the only reason I didn't turn it off right away).

The timing sticks in my mind.

So in '99 or '00 he is talking past tense about a miracle 'diet' - in the sense that he had already been successful and was touting the staying power of this diet.

If the oxycontin story is true... he began in 1998...

Was this Rush's miracle diet?

[ComerPerro]

15. Probably

It would make a lot of sense.

[OneTwentyoNine]

20. Well...When did the Al Franken book come out?

I've got my copy upstairs,it'll be interesting to look.

Franken book comes out,Pigboy decided to shed pounds,Pigboy does shed weight but hearing is lost,Pigboy is accused of buying pills... enough for him and half of Florida.

Connect the dots time....


David

[leesa]

2. Anyone know what pain he was taking pain medication for?

I can't recall seeing it, but I do know it is being used as his excuse.

[peaches2003]

3. Marta

Does anyone have any current info on Marta? She used to be very visible, but I haven't seen or heard anything about her in a long time.

Surely someone here lives in or around Palm Beach and knows something. Is she seen much with him or does he just bring her out occassionally to keep up appearances? A suspected druggie?

[loudnclear]

11. Is Marta very much younger than Rush?

Please post any info on her. I don't even know what she looks like. I do analyses of peoples features to predict thier character. Like to see a picture of Marta.

Oh, for the record, my analysis of Rush is that he is a big fat idiot!

[Junkdrawer]

12. According to the Enquirer article, Rush worked hard to hide his habbit...

from Marta. Fairly typical of junkies.

[even]

5. "The Portrait of Dorian Gray"

Do you know the story? Rush knows it only too well. He rots from the inside out.

[supernova]

8. Walking ugly portrait

is what rush is. He has no place to put his vileness. He wears it like a cheap suit.

[caledesi]

7. Oxycontin ("hillbilly heroin") and hydrocodone

Both heavy-duty narcotics.

[tjdee]

9. His ears?

I don't know. That's the only *viable* excuse, and I'm sure they'll be using it.

[snippy]

19. Well, this has got to be painful.

[mistertrickster]

4. I think the doctors are covering for the hearing loss thing.

Number 1--if he didn't show symptoms for Auto-immune disease, how can they be so cock-sure that's what it was?

Number 2--The connection between synthetic codeine and hearing loss is very poorly understood at this point. Some researchers are baffled by the whole thing.

Again, the doctors' statements are more authoritative than they could possibly be given the state of knowledge that we have.

Number 3--I used to occasionally tune-in to the Rushbag just to stimulate my critical thinking skills, and I remember him saying that he wouldn't reveal why he was losing his hearing. I remember thinking he probably has some degenerative disease like MS and he didn't want his listeners to doubt his mental abilities (such as they are, heh.)

If it was tied to drug use however that would be a big reason why he wouldn't want to mention it.

*****

Anyway, the bottom line is that by his own frequent and vicious criticisms of drug abusers, he is a parasite on society that should be reviled, rejected and doing hard time in prison.

By their fruits, ye shall know them. Out of their own mouths, they condemn themselves.

[lindashaw]

6. Personally, I despise the man, but if he's an addict, and I believe he

is, he's in enough hell right now that we don't have to do anything. Except pray that we never have to go through what lies ahead of this man.

[Don_G]

13. He Made His Hell

And also divided the country in "earning" his 25 Mill per year.

If he needs help, he can damm well pay for it and/or join Judge Crater and Jimmy Hoffa if he can't deliver what he's promised his "masters."

[FARAFIELD]

10. HE'S AN IDIOT

The main thing he has going for him is his celebrity-hood. You would think he would choose that over possible jail time (which everyone knows he would never do) If he came clean now he might make himself an example and open himself up to possible charges for his admissions BUT he could say that he told the truth. If he doesnt come clean and continues to lawyer UP and has to go to trial or continues to be a citizen under suspicion he will be a eunuch.
The latter would be ok with me if he decides that he is a girly man.

[dsc]

14. I honestly don't know what to say

This sounds like a very sad story of a man who needs help. I hope he gets it. I had hoped his hearing loss would have lead him to be more sympathetic to people less fortunate than he. Obviously that didn't happen. If he works a legitimate program to get the oxy cotten monkey off his back that should. For his sake I hope so.

[OneTwentyoNine]

18. I know what to say....

Screw the BASTARD. I feel NO remorse,pity,pain,sympathy etc..for that SOB. He's made his bed for well over a decade.

He's felt no sympathy for people like Kitty Dukakis,called a child of a sitting President as ugly as a mutt.

Hear me now Rush...FUCK YOU,YOU SOAB. I hope your FATASS lands in a cell where you and bubba can do the jailhouse rock.

Pity for that fucker?? Not in my lifetime!!

David

[dsc]

23. I would imagine the difference is that I have been where Rush

was and you probably weren't.

[charlie]

16. That quivering tower of bologna

put up a transcript of his opening statements first day back at the mike. The bulk of it is an oily strokefest of his idiot listeners. Here's the only thing America's Truth Detector had to say about his situation:

...Now, here's the nub of it at the moment. The story in Florida is - it really is an emerging situation. I watch what's being reported on television and it changes from morning to morning, hour to hour, day to day. I don't know yet what I'm dealing with there, folks.

I really don't know the full scope of what I am dealing with. And when I get all the facts, when I get all the details of this, rest assured that I will discuss this with you and tell you how it is, tell you everything there is, maybe more than you want to know about this. You can believe me and trust me on that. I don't want to answer any questions about it now, as I say, until I know exactly what I'm dealing with, and at that point I will fill you all in. As I say, I can't tell you how much I appreciate the notes and all of the expressions of support. It means everything to me, as has your support over these many years, and nothing has changed in that regard.

...

I don't want to deal with hypotheticals, and I don't want to respond to what's in the press. I'm very tempted to. I'm not going to even go there. But I want to say, "Trust me," but I don't...look it, it makes no sense for me to go there. I'm not even going to tell you how you ought to look at that stuff that's in the press. I'm not going to even characterize it yet. Just trust me on this. When I find out all that this is - aside from those that are closest to me in my personal and business orb, and you all are very close on the personal orb - then you are going to be among the first to know, from me.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_100303/content/rush_opening_statement.guest.html

[Dr Fate]

17. This drug-addled junkie stoned himself to "deaf"

Did Hunter S. Thompson every get so fucked up that it caused him to LIE and go deaf?

At least left leaning drug-users are not hypocrites-

Rush has been an outspoken "drug-warrior" and a supporter of "throw away the key" Drug laws for years.

He and Norm Woodruff propbably used to inhale "poppers" before they "relaxed" after those clothes shopping sprees...

Read here about Rush's controversial "relationship" with his gay "mentor" Norm Woodruff, who "taught him how to dress."

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22Jeff+Christie%22&start=30&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&selm=CDoFHp.4Et%40kaiwan.com&rnum=34

“Arkush was not entirely complimentary. He criticizes Rush for not
crediting Norm Woodruff for pulling the strings that got him into KFBK,
which was where he was working when he met Ed McLaughlin. Norm gave Rush
that last chance (he had been fired a number of times and fallen into
obscurity while working in baseball). Norm taught Rush how to dress for
success and presented him to KFBK at a key moment -- upon the firing of
Morton Downey. Arkush says Rush fails to give Woodruff his just credit
for his involvement in Rush's success, which if it ever does come will
have to come posthomolously. Woodruff died in the mid 1980's of AIDS. He
was gay.”

[0rganism]

22. You can't really compare Rush to HSThompson

It seems that the more drugs Thompson took, the more lucid and brutally honest he became, probably because he was a dedicated journalist and humorist as well as a drug fiend. Unlike Rush, Thompson has credibility. If HST says there are purple lizards all over the floor, I believe him, dammit!

Thompson is sort of a latter-day Burroughs, a drug-inspired genius, and nobody's fool.

Rush Limbaugh? A big zero. A null byte. An expensive tool of far smarter men than he. And now a national laughing stock, discrediting his entire body of associates and admirers.

Karma is beginning to come back around for the cretinous monster, and it won't be pretty. I have a hunch he'll follow the same path his predecessor, commie-chaser McCarthy, did, ending his own disgraced life with a bullet in a rented room.

[Junkdrawer]

21. Wonder if he'll do his show tomorrow - and if from NYC or Florida...

If he does it from NYC, it means he's probably still "on the lam".

[Merlin]

24. It took far, far too long, but finally this fat jackal, ...

this Joseph McCarthy retreat, this venom spewing reptile will get a taste of the merciless hell of ignominy he so richly deserves.

Please spare me any sympathies for his addiction. He is utterly devoid of compassion for others.

I detest this rotten bastard. A painful, agonizing, humiliating, protracted death would be way too good for him.