Enceladus
2003-10-16 20:36:40 UTC
See, I told you so?
Curse of liberal wimpathy prohibits rubbing Rush's nose in it
BOSTON -- After all these years, I have finally come up with the
definition of a liberal wimp. It's someone who feels sorry for Rush
Limbaugh.
Here is a man who has kept 20 million dittoheads on a closed loop of
right-wing rhetoric for three hours a day, five days a week, for 15 years.
Here is a man for whom the word "bombastic" was invented.
Imagine what he would say about some "feminazi" caught popping 30
illegal pills a day. Imagine how forgiving he would be to an "environmental
wacko" scoring OxyContin while tree-hugging. Or any liberal who had to be
outed by the National Enquirer before he took "full responsibility for my
problem."
This is a man who created so many petards over the years, it's hard to
know which one to hoist him on. How about the title of his book: "See, I
Told You So." Or how about one of his many tirades against druggies: "The
answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict
them and send them up the river too." It's Rush, after all, who complained,
"We're becoming too tolerant, folks."
But everytime I rev up a rant, I imagine the demi-god of dittoheads
skulking around a Denny's parking lot to get his fix. I imagine the man
waiting, surely, for his housekeeper/drug dealer to drop a dime. I imagine a
lonesome, 275-pound guy who apparently never even told his wife when he went
into rehab and relapse twice. A man so hooked he may have sacrificed his
hearing to his little blues.
And I, gulp, feel sorry for him.
This is the curse of liberal wimpathy. Conservatives talk of right and
wrong. Liberals talk of strengths and weaknesses. The right thinks of drug
abuse in particular as a moral failing; the left thinks of it as a medical
illness. When one of ours goes bad, they jump on him like a churchyard dog.
When one of theirs goes bad, we tend to ... understand.
With a few exceptions, conservatives have shown some fancy footwork in
defending Rush. Former Bush speechwriter David Frum said, "I don't think any
less of him for having ordinary frailties." Gary Bauer, president of
American Values, made a moral distinction between getting addicted in order
to get high and getting addicted to kill pain. Rich Lowry, editor of
National Review, defended him to Don Imus because Rush never claimed to be a
victim. And a dittohead caller on his show said, "we all make mistakes."
Meanwhile opponents, like this wimpette, who would generally like to
put a sock in his mouth, are restrained to the point of gentility. Even Al
Franken, who wrote "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot," said, "I don't wish
that (drug addiction) on anyone." Joe Conason, author of "Big Lies," said,
"It's hard not to feel sorry for anyone whose suffering causes them to
hustle narcotics." And Howie Kurtz, the media voice of a favorite Rush
target, The Washington Post, wrote, "I suspect most people, even those who
can't stand the guy, will see a man struggling with his personal demons and
be careful about condemning him for his weakness."
Curse of liberal wimpathy prohibits rubbing Rush's nose in it
BOSTON -- After all these years, I have finally come up with the
definition of a liberal wimp. It's someone who feels sorry for Rush
Limbaugh.
Here is a man who has kept 20 million dittoheads on a closed loop of
right-wing rhetoric for three hours a day, five days a week, for 15 years.
Here is a man for whom the word "bombastic" was invented.
Imagine what he would say about some "feminazi" caught popping 30
illegal pills a day. Imagine how forgiving he would be to an "environmental
wacko" scoring OxyContin while tree-hugging. Or any liberal who had to be
outed by the National Enquirer before he took "full responsibility for my
problem."
This is a man who created so many petards over the years, it's hard to
know which one to hoist him on. How about the title of his book: "See, I
Told You So." Or how about one of his many tirades against druggies: "The
answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict
them and send them up the river too." It's Rush, after all, who complained,
"We're becoming too tolerant, folks."
But everytime I rev up a rant, I imagine the demi-god of dittoheads
skulking around a Denny's parking lot to get his fix. I imagine the man
waiting, surely, for his housekeeper/drug dealer to drop a dime. I imagine a
lonesome, 275-pound guy who apparently never even told his wife when he went
into rehab and relapse twice. A man so hooked he may have sacrificed his
hearing to his little blues.
And I, gulp, feel sorry for him.
This is the curse of liberal wimpathy. Conservatives talk of right and
wrong. Liberals talk of strengths and weaknesses. The right thinks of drug
abuse in particular as a moral failing; the left thinks of it as a medical
illness. When one of ours goes bad, they jump on him like a churchyard dog.
When one of theirs goes bad, we tend to ... understand.
With a few exceptions, conservatives have shown some fancy footwork in
defending Rush. Former Bush speechwriter David Frum said, "I don't think any
less of him for having ordinary frailties." Gary Bauer, president of
American Values, made a moral distinction between getting addicted in order
to get high and getting addicted to kill pain. Rich Lowry, editor of
National Review, defended him to Don Imus because Rush never claimed to be a
victim. And a dittohead caller on his show said, "we all make mistakes."
Meanwhile opponents, like this wimpette, who would generally like to
put a sock in his mouth, are restrained to the point of gentility. Even Al
Franken, who wrote "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot," said, "I don't wish
that (drug addiction) on anyone." Joe Conason, author of "Big Lies," said,
"It's hard not to feel sorry for anyone whose suffering causes them to
hustle narcotics." And Howie Kurtz, the media voice of a favorite Rush
target, The Washington Post, wrote, "I suspect most people, even those who
can't stand the guy, will see a man struggling with his personal demons and
be careful about condemning him for his weakness."