For many years I thought Rush was a fat, bigoted, hypocritical blowhard.
But he's lost weight recently.

We are comparing radio talk show hosts to Presidents and Senators! good stuff!

Judging solely from Mercedesshop past I think it will be difficult to find any MBshop right winger that gives a poop about Rush Limbaugh. I wish our counterparts would hold the people on their own side to the same level of accountability.

How's this?

He was accurate in what he said and knew it to be true from personal experience.

Bot "Spinmeister"

By his own statement, would personal honor not have demanded that he volunteer to be "sent up"? Since he didn't, his statement was either a lie, or he considers himself above all other Americans, thus not subject to those same rules he deems appropriate for others.

I have a difficult time evaluating somebody else's concept of personal honor, much less how another person chooses to behave in regard to it. I can however, speak to my own. When I used drugs I lied about it. My rationalization was that the drugs should be legal. Thus, the immorality of lying was not mine but the system of laws that oppressed me.

I haven't indulged in that crap in approaching 30 years. I still think as I did then, that drug use is a personal decision on par with abortion and suicide. But as some writer or philosopher once said, a family is society's hostage to the future. I have intentionally stopped behaviors that might endanger my family -- getting busted for dope is exactly that kind of behavior. And since dope use is a choice, I choose not to indulge.

Having known a few people who had severe back pain (and having a stenosis between C-6 & C7 myself and a bottle of hydrocodone in my meds cabinet waiting for the pain), I fully understand how one could become habituated or dependent on drugs for pain relief if not for stimulation of the pleasure center.

Combine the chronic pain with the demand of a stressful job and a practically unlimited back account (and boundless ego!) and you have all of the elements necessary to get sidetracked, complete with rationalizations.

I'm not excusing Limbaugh. But I do understand how he got there.

B

Yep, that's what I gathered when I read the transcript.

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-livin' in the terminally flippant zone

Don't get me wrong, I'm not being judgmental. To me, recreational drug use is an entirely personal issue, which I neither condemn nor condone. But I do think it's fair to hold someone like Limbaugh to his own standard, which he has heaped upon the whole of society in a rather loathsome manner. And the simple fact is that he took a path toward drug abuse that many he had previously condemned have taken -- it's not that unusual, after all. In fact, I would bet good money that most recreational drug abusers (as opposed to recreational drug users) have some tale of woe to tell. The bottom line is that if a guy like Limbaugh cannot live up those standards that he himself deems appropriate for all of the rest of us, he should just recuse himself from the airwaves and STFU. Frankly, I'm a bit surprised that his listening audience didn't make that happen shortly after this fiasco went public.

Yes you are. To an apparently hypocritical situation in which Limbaugh decried drug use and then went and did it himself. It's a natural thing that people do.

Having kids has made me some what sensitive to my own hypocrisy. It really sucks to be called on it at times. I'm a big fan of the "do what I say and not what I do" school. At least at this point.

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-livin' in the terminally flippant zone

I always thought Rush Limbaugh and Dr Laura would make a perfect couple.

That's true. But I am not applying any judgment to him other than his own, which I believe is entirely appropriate.

Rush's sins aside, that is not the point.
Do you not see that something is drastically wrong when a private citizen is attacked--and that attack is based on deliberat misrepresentations--by US Senators!! The US Senate has no more pressing business than for a group of hypocrits to attack a private citizen? This same Sen Reid has said very damaging things about our troops.

This is an attack on free speech, no matter that Sen Ried says Rush has the right to say. This is an attack to discredit ralk radio.

True liberals should decry this infraction of 1st amendment guarantees.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

I missed that part. What misrepresentations?That's true. Reid's actions are almost as bad as those who attacked moveon.org for its ad about General Patraeus. I say "almost" because at least moveon appeared to be acting in good faith. I am not sure the same can be said about Rush Limbaugh.

At any rate, all of this official condemnation of speech is most unfortunate.

Whether or not you agree with Rush's idealogy, at least praise (or taint) him for what he actually SAID. The dumbasses in the media and Congress are clueless if they can't read a simple transcript of what was said and what the conversation was actually about.

It is also disturbing when Congress takes time to condemn an individual IN SESSION because they disagree with him. I guess Murtha slandering our Marines didn't rise to condemnation level.

I lean right and agree with Rush on most topics, but personally I can't stand to listen to him because he has become bigger (in his mind) than the issues. His ego is all that matters. Thats why I read his web site instead. O'Reilly is the same, caught up in his own celebrity. I saw one of his shows where he was arguing with a guy who was AGREEING with him. I think it caught him off guard and he felt obliged to get in the guys face anyway.

I hope Hannity does not get too big an ego.

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MB-less

I guess I'm no better, because it's not clear to me that he meant what he now claims. Can you clarify what he meant when he said "phony soldiers"?

Limbo has identified the soldier that his "phony soldier" comment was directed to. I think the guy has a good case for a slander/libel suit. This is beyond the 1st amendment.