Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Rush Limbaugh: new, softer civil libertarian?

Commentary by PAT MURPHY

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Could it be that Rush Limbaugh, the right wing’s most abrasive and reliable ideological polemicist, is undergoing the same sort of transmogrification that turns an unattractive caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly?

Is he, wonder of wonders, showing signs of becoming a civil libertarian?

Will Rush Limbaugh one day announce, for example, that gays should be allowed to serve in the military and same-sex marriages should be legalized?

Far-fetched? Oh, yes. But check out Rush’s symptoms for telltale signs.

As millions of his faithful know and millions of critics who delight in his current plight know, Limbaugh is an admitted pain killer addict whom Florida authorities want to charge with doctor-shopping for pills—2,000 pain killer pills in six months from four doctors, maybe more.

But Limbaugh is outraged that the Palm Beach County attorney used a search warrant to seize his medical records, rather than notifying him. He’s in court arguing that his privacy has been violated.

He also claims, Limbaugh-style, that he’s the victim of politics—the prosecutor is a Democrat and, as Rush is wont to suspect, a liberal Democrat to boot.

But along comes an utterly unlikely ally to join his defense and help argue his case—the (gasp!) American Civil Liberties Union, of which few are more liberal in Rush’s mind and whom Limbaugh has flipped off ungraciously in the past.

So, if Limbaugh has become such an ardent defender of privacy rights and a civil libertarian concerned about prosecutorial zeal, presumably he henceforth will preach on radio what he practices in his own legal troubles.

Does he regret his memorable quote from the past, "If you commit a crime, you're guilty!"

Limbaugh, who lives in an $11 million seaside mansion in Palm Beach and commutes from his New York broadcast studio in a private luxury jet, ironically and perhaps prophetically, also said on the air, "Poverty is not the root cause of crime."

And this: "And so, if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up." Presumably Rush draws a distinction between violating painkiller laws and violating street drug laws.

Further, "In most cases we ought to increase the light sentence and make it compatible with the heavy sentence and be serious about punishment because we are becoming too tolerant as a society, folks, especially of crime in too many parts of the country."

If privacy rights are now Limbaugh’s personal crusade, what’re the chances he’ll fire an angry salvo on radio at President Bush and his homeland security brass for asking American, JetBlue and Northwest airlines to fork over personal information on millions of passengers without informing them, admittedly illegally, and not even with a search warrant or court order?

Limbaugh criticizing President Bush?

Naw. Rush’s high dudgeon about his privacy rights after all does have its political exceptions.

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