US VERSUS THEM: IS RUSH'S PAIN MORE COMPELLING?

Re: "The left's gloating is tacky, misguided" by Jonah Goldberg (syndicated
column, Oct. 18).

Goldberg frankly admitted he thinks that getting addicted to pain medication
after being prescribed it is different from going out and scoring some
heroin. But what he really believes is that crimes committed by us (white,
upper class, conservative) are less serious than the same crimes committed
by them (everyone else).

In trademark conservative fashion, Goldberg tries to distinguish us from
them by contrasting Limbaugh's "getting addicted to pain medication" (which
might happen to any of us) to "scoring some heroin" (which would be
committed only by them). But Limbaugh's crime was not getting addicted; it
was actively and illegally purchasing and using drugs.

The truth is that Limbaugh was scoring Oxycontin on the street, albeit
through a go-between (ironically, one of them). Oxycontin is synthetic
heroin. Scoring Oxycontin is precisely what Limbaugh and his lockstep
legions have pitilessly condemned when done by them.

Was Limbaugh's back pain somehow more compelling than the physical and
psychic pain of poverty, hopelessness and despair? Implicit in the apologia
of Rush's rationalizers is the premise that Limbaugh needed drugs; the
people he attacked for years merely wanted them.

Tom Powell