MORE FEET OF CLAY

Rush Limbaugh, the radio gasbag who mobilized his legions of "dittoheads" to
push for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton for untruthfulness about
sex, postured as the very model of upright conservative outrage.

But like so much of upright conservative outrage, it was all a scam. The
real Rush Limbaugh wasn't morally superior at all to the liberals he
excoriated. The real Rush Limbaugh waited in parking lots with cigar boxes
full of cash, which he exchanged for cigar boxes full of prescription drugs,
including OxyContin.

Now Mr. Limbaugh has announced that he is entering a clinic, and that may
save his life. But if he believes what he has often said, he must
subsequently enter prison. Mr. Limbaugh, you see, has forcefully insisted on
his radio program that drug users should be incarcerated in the Big House.

We don't really want Mr. Limbaugh to be locked up, even though he apparently
does figure in some fashion in a Florida drug investigation. Unlike Mr.
Limbaugh (at least until last Friday), we think addicts are ill and should
be treated instead of further abused.

But that doesn't mean that anyone - fans or non-admirers - ought to buy the
spin being concocted on his behalf.

First of all, Mr. Limbaugh didn't act upon an obligation to be forthcoming
with his listeners. He confessed after being caught.

Reminiscent of William Bennett's compulsive gambling, Newt Gingrich's (and
countless others') adultery, President Bush's record of drunken driving and
Arnold Schwarzenegger's history of sexual assault, Mr. Limbaugh discussed
his problems only because the truth was already out.

Second, the Limbaugh incident is another blow, if any were needed, to the
conservative mantra that "exercising personal responsibility" is a
one-size-fits-all guide to human conduct and antidote to misbehavior.

People in all walks of life can be overwhelmed by circumstances. One of them
is addiction, which is unmanageable by its very nature and respects
ideological lines no more than it does distinctions of race, gender or
class.

And thus we have Mr. Limbaugh. He's not a principled hero. He's just a very
sick man who is receiving sympathy he'd never have shown others.