SOME THOUGHTS ON SCANDAL

A lot of republicans think that the Los Angeles Times report on Arnold
Schwarzenegger's groping problem was an unfair, last-minute surprise.
Not so. The Times article left five days for Arnold and his allies to
respond and explain. Stories about Arnold feeling up and talking
grossly to random women have been circulating for years. What was the
Times supposed to do, sit on the evidence it had that the tales were
true? Besides, the Times carefully included quotes from women
depicting Arnold as a sort of lighthearted and sexually frisky
innocent. Could be, but putting your hand up a woman's skirt or down
her blouse isn't just harassment. It's assault. And the tales told by
the Times aren't just about groping. They are about attempts to
degrade. After the story broke, Arnold quickly apologized to all the
women involved. Smart move. But does that eliminate the issue?

Rush Limbaugh's football comments on ESPN were certainly boorish and
insensitive, but so what? Most watchers of highly opinionated pregame
shows care less about sensitivity than whether the speaker is talking
nonsense. On this score, Limbaugh was vulnerable. Limbaugh said
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb gets undeserved credit
for his team's success because "the media are very desirous that a
black quarterback do well." If a commentator thinks race is playing an
unfair role in sports, he should say so. The real problem is that
Limbaugh's comment was so wrong-headed. There is no racial issue
here. McNabb is going through a difficult season, but he's a genuine
star, possibly the best scrambling quarterback ever. He didn't deserve
the insult.

At this writing, the story of Limbaugh's alleged addiction to
painkilling pills is still unfolding. The timing of the story is
surely interesting--piggybacking on the racial comment (which got Rush
to quit ESPN) and breaking just as Limbaugh, who gives few speeches,
was about to deliver a major talk to the National Association of
Broadcasters.

Details released by the National Enquirer, which broke the Limbaugh
story, are sketchy. Wilma Cline, Limbaugh's former housekeeper who
allegedly sold him pills, told the tabloid that he was hooked on the
powerful painkillers OxyContin, Lorcet, and hydrocodone and went
through detox twice.

The first question is whether the left's famously sensitive concern
for people who are hooked on drugs will emerge as strongly for a
conservative talk-show host as it does for Hollywood drug abusers. The
addict's brain is "hijacked by drugs," Bill Moyers once said on Meet
the Press, adding that "relapse is normal." If addictions are purely
medical problems (in this case, presumably, Limbaugh's response to the
pain of his approaching deafness), look for Moyers and the entire
cultural left to defend him. (Look, maybe, but don't expect.)

Curious details. The initial report was full of curious details. Cline
was wearing a wire for law enforcement the last two times she talked
to Limbaugh, she told the Enquirer. Wearing a wire is unusual in a
case of anyone buying painkillers for personal use. Cline told the
tabloid she sold him 4,350 pills in 47 days. Can anyone take 93
powerful pills a day for seven weeks, or is the enquirer asking us to
believe, with no supporting evidence, that Rush is a drug dealer himself?