Limbaugh and Oxycontin? What about Obama and cocaine?

This is sort of about Wanda Sykes, but then again it really isn’t. In my opinion, she’s nothing beyond average, just another voice in a very large group of rather unoriginal comics to whom shock value is an acceptable substitute for wit and intelligence.

This does have  to do with something she said last night at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner; frankly, it’s not even that it came from her - it could have come from anyone - but her parroting of this particular thing last night was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.

What is ‘it’, you ask?

‘It’ is the tired, old Oxycontin attack on Rush Limbaugh.

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, back in 2003, Limbaugh was being investigated for illegally obtaining the prescription drugs oxycodone and hydrocodone. On October 10th 2003, Rush admitted to his listeners that he was in fact addicted to prescription painkillers, and that the addiction stemmed from several years of severe back pain heightened by a botched surgery intended to correct those problems. He announced that immediately after the broadcast,  he would enter inpatient treatment for 30 days.

Through various twists and turns, the investigation of Limbaugh culminated in 2006 with charged being dropped in exchange for repayment of approximately $30,000 in investigative costs, along with an agreement that he would complete an 18-month therapy regimen with his physician.

Now, as you can probably imagine, the left has had a field day with this whole situation for years. Nevermind that the landscape of the liberal left is literally riddled with drug casualties, many who have over the years been elevated to hero/legend status (Joplin and Morrisson come to mind as two who, had they lived, probably would not have achieved anywhere near the level of idolatry that their post-mortem selves did). Then of course there are those who have managed to beat their drug/alcohol demons and in some cases even make it back to the top of their game. Look no further than Robert Downey JR as an example of the latter. The respect heaped upon Downey by his hollywood counterparts and the liberal media in general is fairly unaminous. (And yes, I do realize he is now a conservative.)

So, why then is Limbaugh’s past drug use so unacceptable to the left? Where is the ‘forgive and forget’ attitude that they bestow upon their own?

Of course, the above is rhetorical; there’s nothing the least bit unusual about the left using a conservative’s personal human failings against them in malicious attempts to prove what hypocrites they are, while the same human failings in a fellow liberal are portrayed as courageous battles to be triumphantly overcome.

This type of  double-standard is a liberal stock-in-trade. However, it’s not every day that you get to see it in such brazen display as it was during Sykes’ set at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

What she said about Limbaugh:

“Mr. President . . . you’ve had your fair share of critics. … Rush Limbaugh, one of your big critics, boy — Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails. So you’re saying, ‘I hope America fails.’ You’re like, ‘I don’t care about people losing their homes, their jobs or our soldiers in Iraq.’ He just wants our country to fail.

To me, that’s treason. He’s not saying anything differently than Osama bin Laden is saying. You know you might want to look into this, sir, because I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker but he was just so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight”

What I find most disengenuous about this - aside from the fact that she completely misrepresented what Limbaugh actually said - is that she said it in the presence of a United States president who, by his own admission, smoked dope and did blow in college. From his book “Dreams From My Father”:

“I blew a few smoke rings,remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though. …”

“Blow” is a street name for cocaine. “Smack” is slang for heroin.

“Junkie. Pothead. That’s where I’d been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man …..I had discovered that it didn’t make any difference whether you smoked reefer in the white classmate’s sparkling new van, or in the dorm room of some brother you’d met down at the gym, or on the beach with a couple of Hawaiian kids who had dropped out of school and now spent most of their time looking for an excuse to brawl. … You might just be bored, or alone. Everybody was welcome into the club of disaffection.”

Michelle Malkin wonders “why don’t comedians do many jokes on Obama?” Well, if Sykes had any courage - and honesty - at all, another part of her set may have gone something lke this:

Yo, wassuup!, I’m Barak [sniff] Obama and [sniff, snort] I’d like to take a moment [sniff, rub nose] to talk to you about [snnniiiiffffff] ……hey, I know that dude…..uh, where was I…..[snort] oh yeah…..I want to be president of the United States of America……..[breaks into hysterical stoner laughter]. Thanks, and y’all be cool!

Of course, that would be a stark admission that the Obamessiah is but a mere mortal; a flawed being with human failings just like the rest of us.

Or maybe, just maybe she could have taken the high road and left the drug references, 20th hijacker jokes and kidney failure references out in the gutter where they belonged.

I don’t necessarily begrudge Obama’s past drug use, but if we are going to forgive or overlook it, then we have to forgive Limbaugh’s as well.

…………….

-Cnation