RUSH TO JUDGMENT

Limbaugh's Test -- Will He Face His Problems Like A Man?

Count us among those who hope Rush Limbaugh licks his demons. We're not
talking about the patently fake outrage over his ESPN remarks about Donovan
McNabb, even if we happen to think Mr. Limbaugh was off-base on that one.
We're talking about the allegations about drug abuse. All the facts are not
yet in, but it strikes us that what people are really waiting to see is
whether he will take the consequences of his actions like a man.

If that sounds old-fashioned, it's meant to. Over the years we've expended
a great deal of ink on the idea that character matters in public life. But
we have never bought the idea that moral credibility is predicated on moral
perfection; if it were, even our Sunday pulpits would be thunderously
silent. Character has as much to do with how we handle our failings as the
failings themselves.

Mr. Limbaugh's reluctance to discuss the details of the drug charges on his
Friday radio show suggests his understanding that until his legal situation
is resolved, anything he says publicly can and will be used against him.
Still, his biggest challenge is not legal but professional: the 20 million
listeners he has let down. On Friday he asked for their trust, saying that
he couldn't talk now but promising to tell them probably "more than you
want to know" as soon as he can.

That's not entirely persuasive, especially given a career founded on
directness. But it's worth detailing what Mr. Limbaugh has not done. He has
not expressed outrage at leaks about a criminal investigation. He hasn't
sent his wife out to accuse critics of manufacturing the thing out of whole
cloth. He hasn't attacked the housekeeper who sold her story to the
National Enquirer. And so on.

As for the rest of us, there have always been two ways to read the parable
about the woman caught in adultery and not casting the first stone. The
first is to argue that standards simply don't matter. The other way--the
way it has been read for 2,000 years--is to remind us that we are all
human, fallen creatures.

We're fairly sure we know which reading President Bush was taking when he
called Mr. Limbaugh a "great American" and said he hoped he would "overcome
any obstacles." After all, this is a President who not too long ago fought
a drinking problem. The accusations about abusing pain-relieving drugs are
more serious because they point to breaking the law, and they hurt not only
Mr. Limbaugh but the millions of those who looked to him for better. It
does not excuse anything he may have done to say America will not know the
full measure of the man until we see how he responds.