LIMBAUGH'S WOES CAN'T BE PINNED ON DEMOCRATS

Guess who's claming to be a victim now? Rush Limbaugh says he's a victim of
Democratic smears by people who are using his admitted drug addiction as a
means of wrecking his reputation through leaks of his legal problem.

Limbaugh's legal problem is that Florida investigators think he may have
gone "doctor shopping" to get his drugs. After checking pharmacy records
and finding four doctors prescribed him 2,000 highly addictive painkiller
pills, they seized the radio personality's medical records. The assumption
is no sane doctor would prescribe 2,000 pills.

A Florida judge ruled Tuesday the state acted within its legal rights,
though Limbaugh's lawyers will appeal the ruling.

Doctor shopping for drugs is illegal in Florida and if authorities can show
Limbaugh didn't tell his doctors about prescriptions issued by the other
physicians, he could be in a heap of legal trouble.

Limbaugh says it's all unfair and that he is being victimized by Florida
prosecutors and whined that "I'm being treated differently than anyone else
in this circumstance."

Well, I don't know if that is true or not. I know that if it were a
Democrat who was making that argument, Limbaugh would have a field day.
But, hey, I'm hypocritical, too.

What the legal procedures do point out, however, is that addiction can have
severe consequences, even for the rich and famous.

Limbaugh is a self-admitted prescription painkiller addict. Most people who
know anything about addiction would say that's not his fault.

Most people can take even powerful painkillers without becoming addicted,
just as most people can drink martinis without becoming alcoholics. But
some people - I'm one of them - cannot safely use drugs or drink alcoholic
beverages.

We didn't ask to be addicts or alcoholics, but we are. I'm no more morally
culpable for my alcoholism than I am for my diabetes (though my actions may
have made both conditions worse).However, we are legally culpable for the
things we do as a result of our addictions.

My friend Eric Stearn is an alcoholic with a bipolar condition. That's not
his fault and he tried over the years to deal with both conditions. But, a
little more than a year ago, Eric got drunk, drove his car through a stop
sign and hit another vehicle. A 6-year-old boy in that car died. Eric was
arrested and is now serving a 13-year jail sentence.

Eric was devastated by the accident and would, obviously, have preferred a
lighter sentence, but he accepted the legal responsibility for his actions
with some degree of grace.

I, too, have driven cars after drinking. The fact I didn't smash into
someone else is due more to the grace of God than to my moral superiority.
But I was lucky and I face no legal consequences of my past behavior.

Rush Limbaugh is not morally responsible for being a drug addict. But if he
broke the law in obtaining 2,000 (or more) addictive pills, then he is
legally liable for the consequence of his actions.

He deserves his day in court and he will get it. He may well beat the rap.
Perhaps his doctors should lose their licenses for prescribing so many
pills. The purpose of the legal proceedings is to sort all that out.

But if he's a victim, he's a victim of his own genes and of his own
arrogance, not of some Democratic political vendetta.