THE LIMBAUGH LETTERS

Even if Barry Krischer has a case for disclosing negotiations between his
office and Rush Limbaugh's attorney, disclosure doesn't help Mr. Krischer's
case that the talk-show host is getting fair treatment from the Palm Beach
County State Attorney's Office.

Last week, after requests from newspapers -- including The Post -- and a
private legal foundation, Mr. Krischer made the correspondence public. Mr.
Limbaugh, a Palm Beach resident, is under investigation for
"doctor-shopping," ordering painkillers from several physicians
simultaneously to obtain more than is legal. In 2002, the Legislature made
the crime a third-degree felony. Mr. Limbaugh's attorney, Roy Black,
suggested that his client simply undergo treatment, as he did last fall.
Prosecutors saw at least 10 possible counts and wanted a guilty plea to one.
Mr. Black now calls the offer "preposterous."

Mr. Krischer consulted the Florida Attorney General's Office and the Florida
Bar. The responses convinced him that written plea negotiations, absent any
information related to the investigation, were not exempt under the state's
public-records laws. On Monday, Mr. Black showed a summary of the Bar's
conversation that seemed to indicate less certainty about whether the
records are public.

The issue has sent Mr. Black out yet again onto the interview circuit, where
he talks about everything but the real issue. Monday night on Fox News, Mr.
Black cast the staunchly Republican Mr. Limbaugh as a victim of chronic pain
who is being investigated selectively because of "who he is and what he
says."

Mr. Krischer is a Democrat. Yet the Republican-led Legislature made
doctor-shopping a felony two years ago, in response to a series of incidents
that involved prescription painkillers. The Republican governor, whose
daughter went through a diversion program after her arrest on a felony
drug-fraud charge, signed the law. Nothing in the law says that it must be
applied only to members of one political party. Mr. Limbaugh's ex-employees
say that at one point, he bought 12,000 pills in six months. Does Mr. Black,
an officer of the court, believe that prosecutors should not investigate
when there is suspicion of a crime?

Mr. Limbaugh's daily radio forum, his media allies and his well-paid counsel
allow him to frame the issue. None of them needs help from Mr. Krischer in
shifting the debate away from what matters.