In Jail Because We Failed

New at Reason: Can Rush Limbaugh be a hypocrite if he only abused a Schedule 2 drug? After all, any slob can be addicted to crack, but it takes class to get hooked on pills. While we wait for the rest of the shoes to drop, Jacob Sullum considers the case for prosecuting the king of talk with his own words.

Comments

[s'wonderful]

For all you hypocrite-o-phyles, I recommend a good essay by AW:

http://mysite.verizon.net/res1uo0x/id43.html

Hypocrisy does not diminish the thought or the man. Just reinforces the truth.

Haters.

[erf]

This is a nice situation where we can feel good about him getting the jailtime he perscribes for others (if he does), or hope that if he walks some reasonableness will be injected into mainstream arena. I guess that's a little optimistic of me...

[Ruthless]

Yes, erf, you're much too optimistic. Be cynical. Be Ruthless.

As I've preached before, the WOD is a robust meme, like the Catholic church almost.

[rst]

Does anybody in here actually support the laws that would put Limbaugh in jail, or is this discussion more for the thrill of bashing on him rather than any appreciable need for justice?

[R]

Are you just now getting up off the wrong side of the bed, rst?

[Gene Berkman]

I think Rush needs rehabilitation, not jail.
Having heard him, perhaps he needs psychological help as well. Sorry Dr Szasz.
But how much do you want to bet he will walk, or get summary probation,and then never mention his problem again to the dittoheads?

[Anonymous]

I don't think Rush needs jail time, but he seems to.

[joe]

Thrill of bashing, rst. Rush was one of the Drug War's most public, most arrogant supporters. He often used alleged association with "60s drug culture" to smear his political opponents as unfit for public office or respect.

The phrase is "hoisted on his own petard."

[JDM]

The phrase is "hoisted *by* his own petard." Where's JB when you need him?

[TalkLeft]

Actually, oxycontin, percodan and other narcotic painkillers are scheduled the same as cocaine and crack --all are Schedule II controlled Substances. Here's the statute. But marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms are Schedule I substances, the same as heroin. Go figure.

[Citizen]

I think he can only be a hypocrite if he asks or demands to not be convicted. If he is both charged and convicted and THEN cries "Mercy!", THAT would be hypocritical. Here's to hoping he takes jail time like a man and wipes the smug, satisfied grin off of nay-sayers faces.

[Ayatollah Usoe]

I recall a Rush Rant on personal responsibility, and a caller suggested that we extend that to drug use: that we can use drugs responsibly. Rush quickly backed away from personal responsibility, saying that drug users are not responsible.

At the time I thought it out of character. Now I know why.

[Ruthless]

I wonder if we could start an on-line petition to get Rush some jail time?
That would shine light on the issue, eh?

[Fred Gillette]

Sign me up Ruthless. And please, oh please can I kick him in the balls before he goes away?

[David Tomlin]

Haters.

That's one of the things I love about the Limbaugh drug scandal. Conservatives are suddenly embracing all sorts of liberal cliches.

[David Tomlin]

Talkleft:

As I understand it, the classification isn't based on how dangerous the drugs are, but on whether they have recognized medical uses.

[David Tomlin]

I've said before that if I were on Rush's jury, I would vote to nullify.

But that's just me. There is no logical inconsistency in saying that the law should change, but until it does it should be enforced evenhandedly.

Sexual harassment is a good example. Some people thought the laws had gone too far, but that didn't make it wrong for them to insist on Clinton being held to the same standards as everyone else.

[Andy]

the phrase, from Hamlet, is hoist with his own petard (Ref: Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable)

[ron]

FAT BOYS REFERENCE IS GO!!!!!!!!

[Victimless? Maybe.]

Until we know the sources of RL's pills, we can't automatically conclude that his actions were victimless. We know that there have been armed robberies to obtain Oxys. If RL got the pills from Dr. Feelgoods, that's one thing; if the pills were booty from violent crime, that's another thing.

[brzegal]

I just want to know why it's such a big deal in the first place. It's one thing to have back surgery and get addicted to painpills, and quite another to have a party and get addicted to powder....I fail to see the moral equivalence there.

When it comes to Rush, all I have to say is:

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a dam#.

Nothing he has ever said over the air has stopped anyone from firing up a joint if that's what they wanted to do. And nothing he every says ever will. So hypocrisy shouldn't even be an issue. It takes a departure from reality to treat this hypocrisy charge with any validity that is best attributed to an altered state of mind, like, oh you know...a painpill?

If he didn't know that before, he knows it now. I say, he should take the "high" road and opine for the legalization of drugs.

NOW THERE'S A REASONABLE THOUGHT