There is no clearer sign that the attacks on Mitt Romney’s contradictory statements on his tenure at Bain Capital are working — on whether he was in charge when the company off-shored thousands of jobs, as he suggested in sworn testimony in June 2002 or whether he “retroactively resigned” from the company after taking a leave of absence in 1999 — than the fact that GOP’s most listened-to propagandist offered Romney this advice on what to say to the president:
RUSH LIMBAUGH: Look, pal, when I was out creating jobs, investing in businesses, and growing this economy, you were at Columbia smoking weed and snorting coke.
This is rich coming from Limbaugh, who, just three years ago, reached a deal with prosecutors related to charges he purchased 2,0000 Oxycontin tablets over a six months period, a practice that may have been going on for years. It’s possible that Limbaugh’s voracious gobbling of opiates may have cost him his hearing.
Other leading conservatives — Newt Gingrich, Mitch Daniels, and Sarah Palin– have admitted to casual drug use in their pasts, a fact that Limbaugh conveniently overlooks. And Limbaugh was silent as story after story about George W. Bush’s drug use well into adulthood came out over the course of the 2000 campaign and the years of Bush’s presidency:
- Bush’s former sister-in-law Sharon claimed in her book that Bush often snorted cocaine at Camp David during his father’s presidency. Bush was 50 years old when he is father left office in 1992.
- Bush’s former spokesman Scott McClellan said that while campaigning in 1999 he overheard Bush say, “You know, the truth is I honestly don’t remember whether I tried it or not. We had some pretty wild parties back in the day, and I just don’t remember.”
- During the 2000 campaign, Bush denied using drugs in the “past 20 years” — meaning prior to 1979 — and he admitted that “I made some mistakes when I was younger. I’ve learned from those mistakes.”
- Like a lot of spoiled rich boys, Bush sat out the Vietnam War by serving in the “champagne unit” of the Texas Air National Guard, where he quickly developed a reputation as a party monster — rumors have it that he may have damaged a fighter jet piloting it on the runway while under the influence.
- Bush abruptly left TANG after the military instituted a strict drug testing policy for pilots. The records of his service have been scrubbed, but there were allegations that he was dismissed because he refused to take a physical, which, by law, would have required he submit to a drug test. His father later fixed him up with an honorable discharge.
Of course, hypocrisy is part of Limbaugh’s stock in trade. Limbaugh avoided charges of doctor-shopping in 2009 but tacitly admitting buying the drugs illegally years ealier, despite having recommended, in 1995, that “if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up.”
