Drugs, lawsuits and meltdowns good for Franken

For his appearance on MPR's "Prairie Home Companion" on Saturday, Al Franken says he's working on a sketch called "Rush Limbaugh at a 12-Step Meeting." For professional satirist Franken, who's in town this week promoting his latest book, life doesn't get much better than it is right now. Every day seems to drop another supernaturally sweet dollop of nectar onto his tongue.

First, Bill O'Reilly melted down and demanded that Fox News sue Franken — for something, anything, no matter how absurd. That staggering miscalculation sent sales of Franken's latest book into the stratosphere. Then O'Reilly popped up again last week, fulminating about Franken and the lawsuit like a delusional paranoid on NPR's "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross.

And now Limbaugh, the thrice-married, childless avatar of family values has been outed for an addiction to OxyContin (aka Hillbilly Heroin), among a variety of other drugs, which he purchased by the thousands illegally, thereby pumping God-knows-how-much cash into south Florida's street crime culture. If you made this stuff up, you'd be accused of smoking crack.

Franken jokes and Buzzflash sneers as Limbaugh begins treatment.

This week the part-time comedian and full-time conservative basher Al Franken, in Washington to promote his new book, entertained fans at a local restaurant by imagining Rush Limbaugh undergoing drug rehabilitation. Franken performed "a great impression of Rush Limbaugh in a 12-step program," one admirer told the Washington Post. "He said, 'Rush is having problems with the step where you acknowledge a higher power. He's wondering if you can acknowledge yourself as a higher power.' It was hilarious."

A few weeks ago, when The National Enquirer published its expose of Limbaugh's drug use, Franken said that if the allegations were true, "I'm looking forward to the perp walk." "I'll be switching channels to get it from every angle," Franken told the New York Daily News. "My favorite part is when they push their heads to get them down into the car."

Comparing Limbaugh to Chruchill????

As we sifted through this week's mail, our curiosity got the better of us when we spotted a picture of Rush Limbaugh on an envelope of the sort we usually just drop in the trash. "Rush Limbaugh in Los Angeles! Special Invitation," the caption read.

It seems the Claremont Institute will be holding its annual Sir Winston Churchill Dinner next month, where it will honor Limbaugh with its "2003 Statesmanship Award." Yes, friends, we live in a culture where an ostensibly serious think tank could confuse Limbaugh's unabashedly partisan polemics with an above- the-fray pursuit of public welfare.

Maybe Rush will appear under indictment - we can only hope.