Rush Limbaugh admitted to being addicted to pain killers today.
Is what Rush did wrong? Yes. Does it make him a hypocrit? No.
See, the difference between this and other national figures is that Rush admitted, not denied his problem. We did not hear him say, "I am not addicted to prescription drugs" or even "Well, that depends on what the meaning of 'addicted' is".
On a personal level, I can relate to Rush having to live with chronic pain. Three years ago I was hospitalized for Pancreatic Necrosis - life threatening and very painful ailment. I was prescribed the pain killer Dilauded by IV. After weeks on the drug I became addicted without even realizing it. When the IV was taken off I went through physical withdrawal symptoms.
That doesn't mean the pain was gone though. For the next few months, I still had great pain from the ongoing condition. Mentally, it becomes very depressing waking up after weeks of pain knowing that it will still be there for the forseeable future.
Thankfully, my wife watched out for me. When I went back to the hospital for another surgery, she made sure that I had limited access to Dilauded as well as monitoring the amount of other pain killers (Percoset) I was given.
Rush Limbaugh has sought help. Of course the political vultures are circling. They are saying that because Rush is not perfect he should not be a political commentator. That is a formula for the destruction of civilization.
When critics say that imperfect people (which we all are) cannot say we should aspire to living to a high standard, then the critics are advocating no standards.
