Archive for October 31st, 2003

Drug warriors mum as Rush rehabs

Friday, October 31st, 2003

You don’t often hear me agreeing with the Libertarian Party, but once in a while they’re absolutely right, and they’re right about Rush Limbaugh:

“One thing we don’t hear from American politicians very often is silence,” said Joe Seehusen, Libertarian Party executive director. “By refusing to criticize Rush Limbaugh, every drug warrior has just been exposed as a shameless, despicable hypocrite.

“And that’s good news, because the next time they do speak up, there’ll be no reason for anyone to listen.”

The revelation that Limbaugh had become addicted to painkillers — drugs he is accused of procuring illegally from his Palm Beach housekeeper — has caused a media sensation ever since the megastar’s shocking, on-air confession last week.

As the Limbaugh saga continues, here’s an important question for Americans to ask, Libertarians say: Why are all the drug warriors suddenly so silent?

“Republican and Democratic politicians have written laws that have condemned more than 400,000 Americans to prison for committing the same ‘crime’ as Rush Limbaugh,” Seehusen pointed out. “If this pill-popping pontificator deserves a get-out-of-jail-free card, these drug warriors had better explain why.”

To that, I can only add that Limbaugh is one of those hypocrites. Like the Republicans and Democrats, Rush Limbaugh has been making a career of demanding that drug users should all go to prison:

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. — Rush Limbaugh, October 5, 1995