"Over the years, Cline supplied Limbaugh with thousands of pills. This wasn't done pro bono, of course. Limbaugh paid both for the drugs and for her silence. But eventually the deal went sour, and in 2003 Cline went to the Palm Beach County State Attorney's office with documents and emails." (94)
Chafets writes clearly about the Oxycontin scandal--although sandwiching it in with Limbaugh's hearing loss, his move from New York City to Palm Beach, and his returning to air full-time after a cochlear implant. With the help of ample finances, celebrity defense attorney Roy Black, a stint in rehab, the commiseration and sympathy of the right-wing media machine, and his undeniable usefulness to the national GOP, Limbaugh was able to return not just to work but to an even more lucrative and full-throated career--a radio show picked up by hundreds of stations; two books published; his web site; and a monthly subscribers letter--aside from investments including real estate.
Chafets describes Limbaugh's Palm Beach estate in Lucullan terms (Ch. 6, "Limbaugh in Limbo"). As of this writing Limbaugh's lavish New York City apartment is up for sale for $13.95 million.
Still, Chafets begins his Acknowledgments with the following complaint:
"I have been in the book-writing business a long time, but I was amazed to discover that almost no New York publisher wanted a book about Rush Limbaugh tht didn't have the word "idiot" or "liar" in the title. A friend in the business explained it to me. "I have to go out for lunch in this city every day." Luckily I found an editor, Adrian Zackheim, who doesn't care about lunch . . ."
(Note: Dov Zackheim, PNAC signatory and ex-GWBush administration appointee, [is a relative of this editor.])
It is to Chafets' credit that the book does not omit the two flaming character issues of Rush Limbaugh's adult life aside from his assaults on the body politic--getting out of Vietnam, and getting into drugs. But a nebulous suggestion of entitlement, that for unspecified reasons someone like Limbaugh should be immune to the kind of criticism, let alone punishment, that other people would endure for certain behaviors, still seeps through.
As my email correspondent-tipster wrote back the day after his first message--and again, this was months before Rush was busted,
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