Al Franken Implicated In Rush Limbaugh Drug Scandal

[ByeDick]

Did Rush Limbaugh's reported OxyContin addiction develop as a result of his desperate attempt to find relief from excruciating physical pain? Or did Rush simply stumble upon a way to exchange his addiction to food, for an addiction to hardcore drugs?

The weight-loss "benefits" of OxyContin (and similar pain medications) are not simply limited to replacing the euphoria of binging, with the euphoria of narcosis. High-dosage use would have very likely exposed Rush to constipation, nausea, vomiting, and headaches (for starters).

It's very convenient for Rush to garner sympathy with his story about fighting pain. But was the pain he speaks of really caused by an injury to his neck? Perhaps the pain-in-the neck he's talking about is a guy named Al Franken.

In 1996, Franken got Rush's attention by announcing the title of his new book, "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot: And Other Observations." Sadly, this would have come to Rush's attention just before he innocently and tragically realized the weight-loss side effects of his high-dosage use of OxyContin (and or similar pain-relief medications).

Rush reportedly lost 80 pounds between October 1997 and January 1999. The timing of the book, combined with Rush's incidental drug-induced weight loss, may have pointed Rush down a path of no return.

If Rush was desperate to find relief from physical pain, he certainly had the resources to seek out alternative medications and medical opinions. As a mega-millionaire he has the very best of medical science at his fingertips. But for some reason, Rush turned away from medical science and readily hopped on the train to rock bottom.

Rush,

Get Well Soon….And then let us know what really happened.

(10/14/03; edited)

[Patriot_Spear]

1. You're fucking kidding me...

I have honset to God, heard it all now...

[charlie]

4. I dunno

Sounds plausible to me.

[Patriot_Spear]

11. Poor Rush, Huh?

Franken writes a tell-all and Rush turns to drugs for relief- is that what I'm hearing?

LMAO

[charlie]

16. Heh

Yeah, I can see it. He's overweight with an immense fragile ego. One day a book calling him a BIG FAT IDIOT appears. The author does the TV rounds and it looks like everyone in the country is chortling over his fat stupid ass. The book charts and climbs... and climbs... and climbs, until it's the country's bestseller. It perches near the top for months. Where Rush might've once snarfed Dove Bars to assuage his anguish and rage, he hoovers happy pills. Why not?

No, Al didn't cause Rush's drug habit and he's not "implicated" in the scandal. It just amuses me to think that he might've driven Rush to binge. Y'know like the way he made O'Reilly blow a cork and rode his tantrums back to the top of the charts.

[janekat]

26. Uh-oh. Don't let the freepers get a hold of this thread.....

...they'll be out for blood. LOL!

[Patriot_Spear]

30. Careful Jane- You'll get me into trouble and another 'Compassion' lecture

lol... just kidding. To critisize Rush we have to get through our own first- geez.

[salin]

31. I believe it was sarcasm.

Noting the timing of Rush's weight loss and the drug use.

Didn't Rush go around hyping his news letter (or some book) in the 'find out how I did it... and how you can too'?

The thread question - of then tell us the truth - I read to be refering to the weightloss. The Franken twist is just a way to get at the timing.

[Patriot_Spear]

32. I got it- I was trying to sarcastic as well... and failed, obviously.

Thanks!

[salin]

35. not to worry

several folks missed the originators sarcasm as well.

Lets just say at times we are rather literal forum ;-)

[tridim]

2. Maybe Rush should sue Franken

Would that make you happy?

While he's at it, he should sue Clinton too. After all, Clinton was such a bad man that it obvioulsy drove Rush to hard drugs.

[janekat]

27. Yes - but WHEN did he reach the apex of his addiction???

That's right when DUBYA became Prez. Oh the inhumanity!!!

I thought that when Dumbya became Prez. it would cure this country of all of these evils!

Maybe it's the mere presence of Hilary in the Senate that did Rush in....

[Blue-Jay]

3. Hahaha!

That's parody, right?

right?

<snort>

[WilliamPitt]

5. I'LL BE DAMNED

Where did this come from?

This is a masterpiece. Brilliant. This is spin in the pure, as well-spotted as any bullseye. Think about it. What group of people are most in need of a person besides Rush to blame this on? I'd say the hard-core Rush listeners fit that category. This story is manna for the heart of that crew, and they will eat it up like dogs because it implicates Al Franken. Rush the Martyr torn apart by Franken the Demon.

Best I've ever seen. Hole in one.

[ByeDick]

25. From Me (I Wrote This)

Call it parody or satire or whatever works for you.

I used the term "IMPLICATED" because I knew people would see the headline as some kind of absurd legal development, and would want to read on. But, as you read, the "implication" was of another sort, entirely.

Without actively listening, I heard about Rush trying to control the story to fit his needs, and I thought I'd offer a fresh angle.

As far as "The Right" using this . . . Don't bet on it.

This is for us.

[Ishoutandscream]

33. Yes, it is brilliant

But where does Clinton's penis fit into the equation? Someone has already mentioned Hillary's senate victory as probably putting Rush over the edge. I mean, it can't be Rush's fault!

[Junkdrawer]

36. You may have missed this from DUer soupkitchen....

Since Rush would pillory Hillary
And Pillory her Bill
Should Hillary Pillory Rush
Or just his addiction to pills.

[amazona]

6. rush was already on drugs then...

...if he needed al franken to tell him that he was seriously obese.

And rush is nowhere near rock bottom. When rush has confronted the truth about his behavior - he gave money to buy medication that is stolen from terminal cancer patients and other people in severe pain -- and when he has made amends for that behavior, perhaps he has some chance at recovery. I doubt this will happen hiding from the consequences of his actions in a cushy rehab. He needs to confront the reality of his actions by going to prison and seeing himself as just another fallible human among many. He needs to be in a place where race and wealth don't matter. Until that happens, don't expect any "recovery" from rush, just more excuses.

Everybody over 40 has some degree of neck or back pain. It's called getting older. Remember, the "prescription" drugs he paid to have stolen for him were prescribed for somebody else!



it is not compassionate to deny an addict his chance to hit bottom -- good on al franken if he did manage to make rush look at himself honestly for even a moment

[LoZoccolo]

7. Lie.

Al Franken's book /Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations/ was released in 1996.

[ByeDick]

14. Damn

Damn. I'll have to restate the scenario to fit 1996. But it makes more sense that way, anyways.

[LittleApple81]

18. Who are you? n/t

[scrutineer]

15. Yes, 1996

But still, the pain caused by Franken’s taunts surely simmered just below the surface in the psyche of the poor bloated buffoon, and obviously led him to seek an escape through drugs a couple of years down the road.

What a bastard that Al Franken is. :D

Oh, well. As George W. Bush says, “Incarceration is rehabilitation.”

Rush, you’ll be a woman soon. :D

[WilliamPitt]

17. ...while ranting about drug abusers the whole time...

[liberalhistorian]

8. OMFG, this has GOT to be a parody or

a joke, right? RIGHT?

[bearfartinthewoods]

9. rush lost weight because

he married a young blonde leggy arobic instructor.

[LittleApple81]

10. Source for this? wow, what sorry victimization complex argument n/t

[maggrwaggr]

12. don't forget the pain of being

a closeted gay named Jeff Christie.

[Jacobin]

13. All addicts have or make up excuses for their abuse of substances.

Big victory to celebrate? Hey let's get drunk/high!!!

Feeling sorry for yourself? Hey, let's get drunk/high!!

Bored out of your skull? Hey, let's get drunk/high!!!

Feeling fat? Hey, let's get drunk/high!!!

Enablers buy into the Bullshit that addicts use to justify/explain away their addictions and thus aid them in their downward spiral.

Go for it. Give him all the excuses he might need to relapse. (don't worry, he'll find one) The world would be a much better place with this pig off the planet. So, I hope all the enablers do a great job to help excuse his self-destruction through drug abuse.

HillyBillie Heroin. How appropriate.

[Snellius]

19. Sounds like someone's going through Rush withdrawal

What do all the dittoheads do with themselves in the afternoons now that they can't get their contact high?

Do listeners of Limbaugh get a Rush rush?

[LittleApple81]

23. great conclusion. n/t

[DemCam]

Man...

This Mass Comin' down could get ugly. We better get outta the way 'cause it could look like the sky's fallin'.

[Catherine Vincent]

20. Did you write that too?

Funny yet brilliant.

[Mari333]

21. and Im the Queen of Sheba!

and the pope isnt Catholic, and Bears dont shit in the woods!

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

22. Don't forget the part that Bill Clinton played in all this

He made Rush feel inadequate because the ladies love Clinton, but they hate Rush (except for his wives, that like only his money). Poor little man. It's sad that people don't like him just because he's mean.

[Junkdrawer]

24. Well, poor Rush never could take criticism, so....

there may be something in what you say.

And that "something" is an ADDICT'S INFINITE CAPACITY FOR RATIONALIZATION.

[rucky]

28. Such a sensitive soul...I never knew this side of him (sniff)

:cry:

[dbt]

29. Absurdist Masterstroke

Godot finally shows up and nobody is ready.

:spank:
dbt

[ByeDick]

38. Oh well...

Onto the next horizon.

[janekat]

43. don't worry - I think most of us picked up on it...

n/t

[smirkymonkey]

34. What about the "personal responsibility" thing the

freepers are always going off about?? People are poor because they choose to be poor, People are addicts because they choose to be addicts, etc. etc.

I say nail him to his own cross.

[Selwynn]

37. Jesus implicated in the Rush Limbaugh Drug Scandal

Jesus said "narrow is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth into paradise" which is obviously just a subtle jab at the fact that Rush is fat, which threw him into a cylce of depression and desperation...

Curse you Jesus! You heartless bastard!

[submerged99]

39. Franken

I was wondering how Bill O Reilly was reacting to the news that Al Franken retained his number 1 spot on the NYT bestseller list. I was in Oklahoma a couple of weeks back and forced myself to listen to O Reilly's program.

O Reilly was saying that he never prayed for selfish reasons but he was going to do so this time by praying that he knocked Franken off the number one spot because their was a "cultural civil war' and it would be a victory.

I wonder how he's coping with the news that Franken knocked him off again.

[ByeDick]

42. Oh my, it's an epidemic?

You're not saying that Frankel may claim another victim, are you?

[newyawker99]

45. Hi submerged99!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Walt Starr]

40. Typical rightwingnut methodology

Blame everybody but the person responsible.

[Cat Atomic]

41. So the professional mudslinger is allergic to mud.

Oh, tragedy.

[OneTwentyoNine]

44. Sorry but Rush cleared Franken when Pat Sajak ...

Was hosting I think Larry King live a couple of years ago. Sajak had fatass on the show and only asked him a couple of softball questions. One was about his obvious weight loss and what compelled him to lose the weight.

Pigboy claimed he did it because his father died at an early age and Rush didn't want to follow that path. Then Sajak asked how old his dad was when he died and Rush said something like 72 or 76. Huh?? thats premature?? Thats about normal for a male in the US. But what the hell,sure cleared Franken. But...we all know why Rush really lost all that weight....


David