Don Imus didn' t let his own drug problems deter him yesterday from making fun of Rush Limbaugh (above) going into rehab.
October 14, 2003 -- DON Imus showed Rush Limbaugh no mercy yesterday, even though Imus himself was off the air several times during the 1970s and ' 80s because of cocaine and alcohol addiction.
" Rush is a fat, pill-popping loser and an undisciplined slob who was turning his maid into a drug pusher, and she' s the one who' s gonna go to prison, and - as soon as he gets caught - he starts whining," Imus ranted yesterday on his WFAN wake-up show.
" He' s going to rehab because he can' t get any more pills and he' s gonna go to prison," Imus said.
Limbaugh stunned his radio audience last Friday by announcing that he' s leaving the air for 30 days to battle an addiction to prescription pain killers following reports that his maid had sold him massive amounts of black-market pills over a four-year period.
" Suck it up, fatso, and stop taking 100 pills a day or whatever . . . and employ some discipline in your life," Imus said, while offering Limbaugh some recovery advice.
" The rehab I went to was Hazleton, and there' s a Hazleton in West Palm Beach, probably a couple of blocks from where Rush lives," Imus said. " Hazleton is hard core. You don' t want to go to one of those chi-chi deals, these country clubs, these co-ed deals - you might as well check into the Four Seasons," Imus advised.
" You need to go hard core."
Hazleton spokesperson Jackie Halderman told The Post that federal rules prohibit the Florida rehab facility from confirming or denying enrollment.
" I' m sure everyone is praying that [Limbaugh] recovers from the disease of addiction," Halderman said.
When an e-mailer suggested that Imus lay off the top-rated talker because of his own past experience with addiction, Imus said he' s simply giving what he got.
" Everybody made fun of me - and still does," he said. " When I went to rehab, [Howard] Stern was hilarious."
Meantime, Al Franken, the outspoken political humorist who wrote " Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot," told CNN he has no sympathy for the " hypocritical" conservative superstar.
" He called my friend Jerry Garcia ' just a dead doper' when he died," Franken claimed.
" He' s a dishonest demagogue."
Sean Hannity, the Fox News Channel personality whose own syndicated radio show follows Limbaugh' s on WABC, said he wishes Limbaugh a speedy recovery - but he warned it won' t be easy.
" I know the Rush critics out there - the ' those who want to see any conservative fall on their face' crowd - will probably meet the news with glee and joy and happiness," Hannity told his radio listeners.
" The real liberal compassion will show its true colors here," he said.
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Ahhhhh Imus. Yet another liberal answer to the conservative talk show success. His Rush bashing lacks impact simply because his ratings are so poor. (They just don' t get it....their messenger isn' t the problem....THE MESSAGE IS) But don' t anybody tell them...it' s fun to watch them come and go. As far as Rushs' plight, I stick by my previous comments. You da' man, Rush!
Imus the Idiot
