RUSH LIMBAUGH INVESTIGATED FOR ILLEGAL DRUG PURCHASES, PAPER REPORTS

Shocking Allegation Surfaces After Commentator Resigns From ESPN In
Racial Flap

Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh is being investigated for
allegedly buying thousands of prescription painkillers from a
black-market drug ring, the New York Daily News reported today.

The newspaper said Limbaugh has been implicated by his former
housekeeper, who says she was Limbaugh's pill supplier for four years.

Wilma Cline, 42, was quoted by the newspaper as saying Limbaugh was
hooked on the potent prescription drugs OxyContin, Lorcet and
hydrocodone, and went through drug rehabilitation twice.

"There were times when I worried," Cline told the National Enquirer,
which also carried the story in an edition being published today. "All
these pills are enough to kill an elephant -- never mind a man."

Cline could not be reached for further comment, but her lawyer, Ed
Shohat of Miami, said his client "stands behind the story."

Cline told the Enquirer she went to prosecutors with information about
Limbaugh and others after four years of drug deals that included
clandestine handoffs in a Denny's parking lot.

She said she wore a wire during her last two deliveries and gave the
tapes to authorities.

She also gave the Enquirer a ledger documenting how many pills she
claimed to have bought for him -- 4,350 in one 47-day period -- and
e-mails she claimed Limbaugh sent her.

In one e-mail, Limbaugh urged Cline to get more "little blues," the
street name for the powerful narcotic OxyContin, she said.

"You know how this stuff works ... the more you get used to, the more
it takes," the May 2002 e-mail read. "But I will try and cut down to
help out."

Premiere Radio Networks, which syndicates the politically focused
"Rush Limbaugh Show," issued a statement from Limbaugh Thursday
saying: "I am unaware of any investigation by any authority involving
me. No government representative has contacted me directly or
indirectly. If my assistance is required, I will, of course, cooperate
fully."

CNN reported Thursday that sources close to the investigation that it
did not identify said Limbaugh had turned up as a buyer of powerful
painkillers but that he was not the target of the investigation.

Mike Edmondson, a spokesman for the Palm Beach County state attorney's
office, told The Associated Press early Thursday that his office could
neither confirm nor deny that an investigation was under way.

The Enquirer reported that Cline became Limbaugh's drug connection in
1998, nine months after taking a housekeeping job at his Palm Beach,
Fla., mansion.

Limbaugh's lawyers, Jerry Fox and Dan Zachary, refused to comment on
the accusations.