Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is in trouble yet again for an ugly verbal assault on Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student. Calling Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute" was awful enough but he also said of Fluke that she insists on "being paid to have sex," and he said of her that she "was having so much sex" that she "could hardly walk to the hearing room" -- to testify at a congressional hearing.
Since Limbaugh had not yet plumbed the depths of his salacious being, he said that in return for paying for women's birth control he wanted videos made of the sex acts so those paying for the birth control -- including himself, of course -- could get a return on their money.
Rush Limbaugh was not just launching an attack on Sandra Fluke, who is well-informed on the birth control issue, he was attacking all women who use birth control at some time -- an estimated 99 percent of all women -- by creating the impression that all these women are getting contraceptive assistance for free. Women who have birth control in their health insurance policies pay for it in their premiums. Others pay for it directly through Planned Parenthood, drug stores and the like.
Limbaugh also distorted Sandra Fluke's testimony before a congressional committee by implying that she testified about her sexual experiences, whereas Fluke testified specifically about the birth control issue and recounted the experience of someone she knew who suffered severe medical complications for failing to use a contraceptive.
What passes as humor among the Limbaugh dittoheads is his promise to purchase enough aspirin to allow all the females at Georgetown University to hold the tablets between their knees. Limbaugh's pathetic attempt at
satire stems from Rick Santorum's chief financier saying that in the old days women practiced birth control by holding aspirin tablets between their knees.
As the storm of protest mounted against Limbaugh. Bay Buchanan appeared on national television to label Limbaugh "brilliant." Other die hard Limbaugh supporters used the classic defense whenever Limbaugh gets in trouble: they say he is "just an entertainer," and what he says should not be taken seriously; however, millions of dittoheads take him very seriously. It is not known if Miss and Mrs. Dittohead are cleaving quite as closely to his words now.
I had an experience regarding the dittohead mentality as a poll worker in a precinct located in a Republican enclave in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As word filtered down that Barack Obama was defeating John McCain, the GOP poll workers became noticeably glum and depressed. One obvious Limbaugh dittohead told a fellow dittohead standing near me: "We need to find out what Rush says."
Political conservatives have a standard reaction when they or someone sharing their ideology gets in trouble for something said. They desperately search to find a liberal or maybe a moderate Democrat who has said something somewhat similar. This is called equivalence, meaning that the two statements cancel one another out The major problem with this kind of weaseling out is that conservatives, especially of the hard-right variety, charge liberals with not taking personal responsibility for their actions. They, themselves, avoid personal responsibility like it is the plague.
Rush Limbaugh initially apologized on his web site but that apology was limited to "My choice of words was not the best." On March 5, he apologized on his radio show but that apology was limited to the use of the words "slut" and "prostitute." Limbaugh has devoted hours of radio time to the birth control issue, and if using nonfactual anti-women language were a criminal offense, a prosecutor would have a treasure trove of comments on which to draw.
As of today, by one count, a total of 35 advertisers have pulled or suspended their advertising. Besides a more fulsome, contrite apology from Rush Limbaugh, there should be an apology from the advertisers. If I were to write it, it would go something like this: "Ever since we began advertising on Mr. Limbaugh's radio show, our corporation has stood silently by when Mr. Limbaugh made nonfactual comments that were clearly anti-women and other comments that were racist in nature; also, he has routinely skewered his political opponents with language that has gone well beyond the bounds of reasoned discourse.
"We deeply apologize for our silence and our failure to take any action to induce Mr. Limbaugh to radically change his ways as a condition of the continuance of our advertising."
Besides a show of contrition from Limbaugh advertisers, this is a time for Republican leaders to issue a full-bore denunciation of Rush Limbaugh. In the past, whenever anything a Republican leader said was even mildly critical of Limbaugh, his counterattack was so fierce that the offending leader felt no choice but to meekly issue an apology. The Republican presidential contenders have become so tongue-tied in regard to Limbaugh's attack on birth control that words are unable to issue out of their mouths.
The person who has come shining bright out of the societal mess created by Rush Limbaugh is Sandra Fluke. Her words have been measured but forceful; she has displayed a very good grasp of the birth control issue; and she has refused to knuckle under to Limbaugh's media power by refusing to accept his non-apology apology.
An Afterword: Studies have shown that spacing of pregnancies is a critical factor in preserving women's health. Obstacles thrown up to the use of birth control are a detriment to women's health.
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