The Republican Party’s favorite windbag Rush Limbaugh is being investigated for allegedly buying thousands of addictive painkillers from a black-market drug ring.

Limbaugh, who all but used the words boogaloo and shing-a-ling in his descriptions of black Eagles’ quarterback Donovan McNabb this week and who has advised deportation to Zurich for drug abusers, was turned in by his former housekeeper – who says she was Limbaugh’s pill supplier for four years.

Wilma Cline, 42, says Limbaugh was hooked on the potent prescription drugs OxyContin, Lorcet and hydrocodone – and went through detox twice.

“There were times when I worried,” Cline told the National Enquirer, which broke the story in an edition being published today. “All these pills are enough to kill an elephant – never mind a man.”

Cline could not be reached for further comment yesterday, but her lawyer, Ed Shohat of Miami, said his client “stands behind the story.”

The N.Y. Daily News independently confirmed that Limbaugh is under investigation.

His lawyers, Jerry Fox and Dan Zachary, refused to comment on the accusations and said any “medical information” about him was private and not newsworthy.

They said Limbaugh – who has a top-rated syndicated radio show but resigned early today from a weekly ESPN football segment amid criticism of racial comments about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb – was traveling and had no comment.

The Palm Beach County state attorney’s office, which is running the probe, said it could not confirm or deny the allegations.

Cline told the Enquirer she went to prosecutors with information about Limbaugh and others after four years of drug deals that included clandestine handoffs in a Denny’s parking lot.

She said she wore a wire during her last two deliveries to the conservative commentator and gave the tapes to authorities.

She also gave the Enquirer a ledger documenting how many pills she claimed to have bought for him – 4,350 in one 47-day period – and E-mails she claimed Limbaugh sent her.

In one missive, Limbaugh pushed Cline to get more “little blues” – code for OxyContin, the powerful narcotic nicknamed hillbilly heroin, she said.

“You know how this stuff works … the more you get used to, the more it takes,” the May 2002 E-mail reads. “But I will try and cut down to help out.”

The account Cline gave the Enquirer is that she became Limbaugh’s drug connection in 1998, nine months after taking a housekeeping job at his Palm Beach mansion.

It started after her husband, David, hurt himself in a fall, and Limbaugh asked how he was.

“He asked me casually, ‘Is he getting any pain medication?’ I said, ‘Yes – he’s had surgery, and the doctor gave him hydro-codone 750,'” Cline said. “To my astonishment, he said, ‘Can you spare a couple of them?'”

Cline said she gave Limbaugh 10 pills the next day and agreed to give him 30 of her husband’s pills each month. When the doctor stopped renewing the prescription in early 1999, Limbaugh allegedly went ballistic.

“His tone was nasty and bullying. He said, ‘I don’t care how or what you do, but you’d better – better! – get me some more,'” Cline said.

The housekeeper said she found a new supplier and arranged to hide Limbaugh’s stashes under his mattress so his wife, Marta, wouldn’t find them.

After several months, Limbaugh told her he was going to New York for detox and didn’t need any more pills, Cline said.

But a month later, he said his left ear was hurting and asked her for hydrocodone, followed by an order for OxyContin.

Limbaugh, 52, suffered from autoimmune ear disease, a condition that left him deaf and had to be corrected with cochlear implant surgery two years ago.

Cline said she continued to make deliveries to Limbaugh even after she quit as his housekeeper in July 2001 – but he became increasingly paranoid, even patting her down for recording devices, she said.

In June 2002, Limbaugh told her he was going to New York for detox a second time.

After he returned, “I went to talk to him, and he cried a little bit,” she said. “He told me that if it ever got out, he would be ruined.”

She claimed that a lawyer for Limbaugh gave her a payoff – $80,000 he owed her, plus another $120,000 – and asked her to destroy the computer that contained the E-mail records.

Soon after, Cline and her husband retained Shohat and contacted prosecutors.

The drugs Rush Limbaugh is accused of abusing are legal only with a doctor’s prescription. All are habit-forming.

– Hydrocodone

Anti-cough agent and painkiller similar to morphine. Side effects include anxiety, poor mental performance, emotional dependence, drowsiness, mood changes, difficulty breathing and itchiness.

– Lorcet

Brand name for the combination of Tylenol and hydrocodone, prescribed for moderate to severe pain. Side effects include dry mouth, nausea, vomiting, decreased appetite, dizziness, tiredness, muscle twitches, sweating and itching.

– OxyContin

Potent time-release medication for relief of moderate to severe pain, known as hillbilly heroin because of black-market popularity in some rural areas. Side effects include drowsiness, dizziness, sweating, muscle twitches and decreased sex drive. A large dose can be fatal.

– McNabb

Without backing down from his comments about a black football player, conservative commentator Limbaugh resigned from his TV sports job, saying he regretted having caused ”discomfort” to his colleagues at ESPN.

Limbaugh stepped down from the sports network’s ”Sunday NFL Countdown” late Wednesday, three days after making the statements that sparked outrage from Democratic presidential candidates, the NAACP and the player himself.

The cable sports network accepted the radio talk show host’s resignation.

“My comments this past Sunday were directed at the media and were not racially motivated,” Limbaugh said in a statement Wednesday. ”I offered an opinion. This opinion has caused discomfort to the crew, which I regret.

”I love ‘NFL Sunday Countdown’ and do not want to be a distraction to the great work done by all who work on it,” Limbaugh said. ”Therefore, I have decided to resign.”

Limbaugh was criticized for arguing during a pregame show Sunday that Philadelphia Eagles star Donovan McNabb is overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed.

”I think what we’ve had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well,” Limbaugh said.

”There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn’t deserve. The defense carried this team,” he said.

Seven black quarterbacks started games last weekend. Two other blacks who regularly start were out with injuries.

Limbaugh did not back down during his syndicated radio talk show earlier Wednesday.

”All this has become the tempest that it is because I must have been right about something,” Limbaugh said. ”If I wasn’t right, there wouldn’t be this cacophony of outrage that has sprung up in the sports writer community.”

Democratic presidential candidates Wesley Clark, Howard Dean and the Rev. Al Sharpton had called for ESPN to fire Limbaugh. Clark, a retired Army general, called the remarks ”hateful and ignorant speech.” And Dean, a former Vermont governor, labeled them ”absurd and offensive.”

The NAACP also condemned Limbaugh’s remarks, calling them ”bigoted and ignorant,” and called for the network to fire Limbaugh or at least provide an opposing point of view on the show.

McNabb had said earlier Wednesday that he didn’t mind criticism of his performance, but was upset that Limbaugh made his race an issue and said it was too late for an apology.

”It’s somewhat shocking to hear that on national TV from him,” McNabb said. ”It’s not something that I can sit here and say won’t bother me.”

Chris Berman, who anchors the ESPN show, said he did not believe Limbaugh’s tone or intent was malicious.

”As cut and dry as it seems in print, I didn’t think so when it went by my ears,” Berman said. ”I probably should have looked to soften it.”

Limbaugh is the radio host of the politically focused ”Rush Limbaugh Show,” syndicated in more than 650 markets. ESPN spokesman Dave Nagle said ratings for ”Sunday NFL Countdown” were up 10 percent overall since Limbaugh joined the show this year.

George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports, accepted Limbaugh’s resignation Wednesday. ABC and ESPN are owned by Walt Disney Co.

”We regret the circumstances surrounding this,” Bodenheimer said. ”We believe that he took the appropriate action to resolve this matter expeditiously.”

Limbaugh was scheduled to deliver the keynote speech at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Philadelphia on Thursday morning.