Oct 5th, 2003, 11:36 PM
mainly i just love the whole denny's parking lot hillbilly heroin angle. it makes me giggle.
haha. denny's.
Published on Friday, October 3, 2003 by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette
He Can Always Say 'It Was the Drugs ...'
by Tony Norman
Well, if it wasn't racism that drove Rush Limbaugh to spout one of the most bigoted comments of even his storied career last Sunday, then maybe it was the OxyContin.
By now, the allegation that Rush Limbaugh is a big, fat prescription drug junkie has supplanted the brouhaha surrounding his observations about black quarterbacks being "media darlings" as the hot topic around office water coolers.
Days earlier, "Ditto-heads" reflexively weighed in with condescending bravado that their hero, though often, um, impolitic about race, surely wasn't a bigot. Why? Because he said so, that's why.
After all the spinning they've had to do since Sunday rationalizing Rush's comments as mainstream white opinion taken out of context, true believers are now scrambling to defend him from charges that he's also a degenerate pill-popper partial to a drug known on the street as "hillbilly heroin."
What's a Ditto-head supposed to think when a salt-of-the-earth newspaper like the National Enquirer -- not some elitist rag like The New York Times -- breaks a story about clandestine drug buys in the parking lot of a Denny's in Palm Beach, Fla.?
According to a cover story in yesterday's New York Daily News, Rush forced his former maid to score copious quantities of OxyContin, hydrocodone and Lorcet from a black market drug ring in Palm Beach.
Because Wilma Cline, Limbaugh's former maid, kept a detailed ledger of the thousands of pills she allegedly bought for him over the years and was wearing a wire for two deliveries, there's bound to be a prosecutor or two, even in Florida, who'll take the allegations seriously.
Among the most explosive of Cline's charges is that she scored 4,350 pills for him in a 47-day period. If true, it would make Rush one of the great unregistered pharmacies of the Republican Party.
For a guy who attacks the "druggy" legacy of the '60s as much as Rush does on his syndicated radio show, the news that such a paragon of sobriety is a mere notch or two above a low-rent crack addict is, well, startling.
The Daily News confirmed that the Palm Beach County state attorney's office is investigating Cline's charges, including an allegation that she was paid $120,000 in "Rush hush" money.
Curse the sordidness and duplicity of the "liberal media" for pouncing on a story of such questionable provenance with such unabashed joy. Whatever happened to the idea that prominent men were considered innocent until proven guilty? What do you mean "Ask Bill Clinton?"
Oh, never mind. We all know it's impossible for a conservative white male Christian with the normal racial hang-ups of his class to get a fair hearing in America these days.
Still, the allegation that Rush has been "under the influence" would shine a light on some of his more bigoted comments over the years. Maybe he doesn't consider himself a bigot because it isn't really "him" doing the talking.
In the early '70s, Rush told a black caller to "take that bone out of your nose and call me back." Years later, he quipped, "The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies."
Speaking of black leaders, Rush once opined, "Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?" Hilarious stuff, but not necessarily evidence of racism if you're high.
With his track record, who would've thunk that ESPN's Great Ratings Hope would say something offensive about black folks a mere month into his gig as a football commentator?
Honestly, given the volatile nexus of race and sports in America, everybody knew it was coming. Rush was hired by the Disney-owned channel to reel in a portion of his cantankerous radio audience. He's an affirmative action hire for yahoos. ESPN coveted his audience demographics. It would've been irrational for Rush not to throw some red meat their way from time to time.
The question isn't: Why did Rush say something so bigoted on ESPN?
The question is: What took him so long to get around to spouting the same bigoted tripe on ESPN that passes for wit on his radio show every day?
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