LIMBAUGH SAYS HE FEELS REBORN

He Tells Listeners He Was Powerless to Overcome Painkiller Addiction

"I was a drug addict," Rush Limbaugh declared Monday. "I still am.
From 1996 ... '95, whatever, to just five weeks ago."

Returning to the microphone five days after leaving an Arizona
rehabilitation center for treatment of addiction to painkillers, the
conservative talk show host assured his audience the treatment didn't
transform him into a "linguini-spined liberal" but rather was "sort of
like being reborn here at age 50."

Limbaugh, the nation's most listened-to radio personality on more than
600 stations with a weekly audience estimated as high as 20 million,
used affirmations from 12-step recovery programs, admitting he had
apologies to make for years of clandestine drug use.

"I knew it was wrong the whole time," he said, noting he was powerless
to overcome his addiction.

Limbaugh made only oblique references to his unresolved legal
situation.

"There's a whole lot of stuff I want to tell you," Limbaugh said.
"It's not that I'm avoiding it. There's even more honesty to come."

An investigation into allegations of using a former housekeeper to
supply him prescription painkillers, including OxyCotin, is still
reportedly open in Palm Beach County, Fla., where Limbaugh maintains
an oceanfront mansion.

Limbaugh announced on Oct. 10 that he was taking a leave of absence to
seek treatment after the National Enquirer reported that he was under
suspicion of buying thousands of pain pills from his former
housekeeper, Wilma Cline.

The tabloid later published what it said were e-mails from Limbaugh to
Cline asking for the medications.

"It's quite hilarious to listen to people quote the National Enquirer
as the world's foremost authority, and I'm here to tell you that
they're not, ladies and gentlemen," Limbaugh said Monday.

"What you know -- what you think you know -- you don't know. But you
will when I am able to tell you all about it, and I hope that's going
to be very, very soon."

Comments on Drug Users

Limbaugh also blamed critics Monday for misrepresenting his views on
drug offenders. A 1995 statement that more white drug addicts needed
to be jailed was "taken totally out of context," Limbaugh
complained."This business I've been hard on drug addicts ... I think
there are a lot of phantom quotes out there ... I avoided the subject
of drugs on this program for the precise reason that I was keeping a
secret."

Limbaugh said he is in discomfort because of two herniated discs,
takes a drug prescribed by a physician that cuts the pain by about
half and has a physical therapy regimen.

He said he will probably need to have surgery to correct his back
problem but has resisted because the procedure would need to be done
through the throat, requiring his voice box to be pressed aside.

Path Seems Clear

"He clearly said, 'I'm powerless over the addiction I had, I can't
change it by my own will,' " said Keith Larson, whose talk show
precedes Limbaugh's noon program on Charlotte's WBT-AM (1110).

"One of the key challenges for most addicts or alcoholics is to come
to grips with their own personal powerlessness over their addiction
and the need to reach out for the power to overcome it," said Larson,
a recovering alcoholic who has been sober since 1982 and who has never
hidden from listeners his own struggle against the disease.

"I think that as a whole, Rush is going to have bigger numbers than he
had before," said Mike Mangan, general manager of Salisbury's WSTP-AM
(1490), which carries conservative G. Gordon Liddy against Limbaugh at
noon. "There aren't that many goody-two-shoes who listen to Rush."

Limbaugh's voice quavered in the early going Monday, then grew
stronger as he returned to his hammer-on-liberals rhetoric, singling
out longtime targets Hillary Clinton and Sen. Ted Kennedy.

"I just have one more thing to say," Limbaugh said at the show's
conclusion. "A memo to you liberals. The party's over. I'm back."