October 21, 2003 by s.z.

Waiting for the White Smoke

Well, it's started.  You knew that it would.  The right-wing acknowledgment that yes, Rush IS a hypocrite and not the kind of guy we pharisees want speaking for us (because your choice of AM radio host says more about you than even your choice of spouse).

Sure, most of the Newsmax pundits are still excusing Rush.  For instance, Christopher Ruddy asks the question Is Rush a Hypocrite?, and answers it, "No, because the bitch set him up!"

Could it be that [Housekeeper Wilma] Cline was a classic celebrity enabler – a person who pushed and encouraged Rush’s addiction to blackmail and control him?

Such people are commonplace around celebrities and oftentimes celebrities pay big blackmail payouts. Cline admits she received at least $120,000 from Rush to keep quiet.

Apparently, Miss Cline was nothing like Alice in the Brady Bunch, but rather a cunning lady who saw an opportunity and exploited it.

You know, while it pains me to do it, I have to ask: Could it be that Alice was a blackmailer and drug pusher who got Carol Brady addicted to Beverly Hillbilly Heroin after Carol had that case of laryngitis on Christmas when she was supposed to sing that solo in church?  I mean, come on--what did Alice actually DO in that household?  Sure, she made meat loaf occasionally -- but stay-at-home Mom Carol was shown cooking as much as the nominal housekeeper.  Carol cleaned the house.  Carol did the gardening.  All Alice did was pick up mysterious packages from Sam the Butcher.  I think it's pretty clear that Alice was kept on staff for one reason only: and it wasn't her pork chops and applesauce!  No, it appears that she might well have been another cunning lady who saw an opportunity and exploited it.  No wonder everybody sounded tone deaf in that Brady Bunch variety show!

But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about.  I actually wanted to discuss John LeBoutillier's column (Hannity Takes Over), in which he claims that it's time for the mantle of apostolic authority to pass from Pope Rush I to successor Sean Hannity.

Sure, this is the same John LeBoutillier who said last week that God had called Rush to drug addiction, and He (Rush, that is; not God) now had the higher calling of ministering to the other recovering drug addicts.  But LeBoutillier has had all week to realize that if Rush is preaching to the former addicts, that leaves His main audience (hard-core conservatives addicted to hearing big-mouthed jerks heap scorn and ridicule on others) up for grabs. 

Here's the gist of LeBoutilllier's message:

But Rush's biggest problem when he returns is going to be the inevitable label of hypocrite. While he preached a "send them up the river" attitude toward drug users, he himself was using illegally obtained drugs. 

Limbaugh can do much to help address the epidemic of prescription drug abuse if he 'comes clean' about his years of abuse. But he will never completely resume his previous position as the top-rated conservative voice on the air.

[snip]

Rush Limbaugh has certainly lost some of his influence and, more importantly, some of his most valuable asset: his credibility.

Sean Hannity - in contrast to Bennett and Rush - assumes the No. 1 position with not a shred of personal scandal near him. A strong husband, father and son, Sean personifies the clean-cut image that others only try to portray. With Hannity, the old expression applies: What you see is what you get.

There will be no hidden drug or gambling problems to discredit Sean.

All of this is of critical importance as we head into the 2004 presidential and congressional elections. The Left will do anything to win next year. [snip]

That is why it is crucial that the new talk radio king be above reproach.

But IS Sean truly above reproach?  Are there NO skeletons rattling around in his house of glass? 

To find out, I went where we always go when we want to see sinners outed and misdeed exposed:  Yes, the sleaziest of tabloids, Focus on the Family's Citizen Magazine.  And there I found the eye-opening interview that Sean gave to Citizen a couple of years ago: Hannity Exposed!  Much like Arnold Schwarzenegger's old interview with Oui, it brings up incidents from the past that Sean was no doubt hoping were dead and buried. 

But it's a long interview, so we've condensed it for YOU, the busy consumer in need of somebody to tell you what to think.  Read it and then decide for yourself if Sean Hannity should be the new Radio Messiah:

'God Lets Me Know That We're Right'

"Conservatives are nice."

His good looks -- more working man than pretty boy -- certainly don't hurt.

"That's who I am. I can't fake it," Hannity explains in the matter-of-fact manner that has become his on-air trademark...."I had to lie to get it."

It would be years later -- after "a little rebellious stage" that lasted from about 13 to 22 -- before Hannity would realize just how much those late nights spent...probe[ing] into the Reagan...were riveting.

"I would literally take off work to watch," Hannity recalls. "I actually taped the whole thing -- in fact, I still have the tapes, saw the box in my garage recently. I was just fascinated by it."

President Reagan ignited a passion in Hannity that could only be quenched when he opened his mouth.

It felt good.

Chewing on a licorice stick, Hannity waits his turn to challenge guest Barney Frank .

Or the incident this spring, when a high-school student named Rebecca called to talk about how her public-school teacher made fun of her in front of the class for liking George W. Bush. 

"Bush and Reagan were drug runners and drug pushers," he recalls....They had a gay and lesbian perspective show.  And they didn't like me from the beginning because I was a young kid."

Sean Hannity's television career and the Fox News Channel were born on the same day in September 1996, the brainchildren of conservative political strategist Roger Ailes. His idea was to create a news operation stripped. 

There was just one problem: Hannity. "Roger should have fired me because I was terrible," he recalls. "Honestly, I found the camera really stiffened me up".

"The Bible teaches whoever is great, the greatest among you, shall be your...key to the heady ratings of the Fox News Channel." 

"I don't usually sleep but five or six hours a night and I'm raring to go...distribute condoms to your kids, or give them birth control."

"And if it ends, well, I can live with that, too."

This article appeared in Citizen magazine. Copyright © 2001 Focus on the Family. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

I hope this helps you find moral certainty in a shades-of-gray world.

2:04:05 AM