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Except that Rush was correct

I beg to differ. Rush blew this one big time. Sandra Fluke possibly (probably) invented women and their medical ailments. She may have made up the percentage of female Georgetown students who complain about the financial burden of contraception. She talked as if she were a medical and statistical expert.

But Sandra Fluke never said she, personally, took or paid for contraceptives. Sandra Fluke never said that she, personally, had sex with one partner or many. How can you be a slut or a prostitute if you aren't having sex?

I listened to the testimony. I read the transcript. I went back and read the transcript and watched a replay of the testimony.

Fluke talked exclusively about other women and about women in general; she didn't talk about herself.

Other specific women and (rarely) women and general were the entire premise of her testimony. Right after the introduction, Fluke said:

"When I look around my campus, I see the faces of the women affected by this lack of contraceptive coverage. [I]n the last week, I have heard more and more of their stories. On a daily basis, I hear yet from another woman from Georgetown or from another school or who works for a religiously-affiliated employer, and they tell me that they have suffered financially and emotionally and medically because of this lack of coverage.
“And so, I’m here today to share their voices, and I want to thank you for allowing them – not me – to be heard.

Fluke talked about other women (who may or may not exist). When she went to the first person the one or two rare times, it wasn't even directly tied to having sex. The first time, it was to demonstrate how much $3,000 was to a law school student. Fluke said:

Without insurance coverage, contraception, as you know, can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school. For a lot of students who, like me, are on public interest scholarships, that’s practically an entire summer’s salary.

That's not a definitive statement that Fluke's on birth control, only that public interest interns make only $3,000 per summer (as opposed to summer clerks at large firms, who are making many multiples of that).

When Fluke talked about the Georgetown policy later, she didn't say what she thought about it, she said what another woman thought about it:

“As one other student put it: ‘This policy communicates to female students that our school doesn’t understand our needs.’

Rush blew it. People who said Fluke talked about her sex life aren't sticking to the facts. Fluke never mentioned her own contraception; Fluke never mentioned her sex life, the cost of her contraceptives, whether she was on contraceptives, whether she's straight, or anything.

Here's what Fluke said. I ask: Where do we get the "Fluke is a slut" part? Fluke said:

(1) one woman (not Fluke) felt embarrassed and powerless when she 'learned for the first time that contraception was not covered on her insurance and she had to turn and walk away because she couldn’t afford that prescription';

(2) a married female student told Fluke that she had to stop using contraception because "she and her husband just couldn’t fit it into their budget anymore;"

(3) 'women employed in low-wage jobs without contraceptive coverage can't fit contraception into their budgets;'

(4) a friend has polycystic ovarian syndrome, and her birth control prescription is 'technically covered by Georgetown’s insurance because it’s not intended to prevent pregnancy', but the *gay* friend was denied coverage because the insurance company decided that she really wanted birth control to prevent pregnancy;

(5) a woman said doctors believe she has endometriosis, but that can’t be proven without surgery, so the insurance won't cover birth control pills for endometriosis;

(6) another woman told Fluke that she also has polycystic ovarian syndrome and Georgetown quit paying for it last August;

and (7) one woman (a really bright woman, apparently) allegedly knew about Georgetown's unwillingness to cover birth control, so when she was raped she didn't seek medical attention because she thought Georgetown didn't cover women's health issues.

Then she said that when 'we' women came to Georgetown we expected women to be treated fairly and to care for all of 'our' medical needs.

So . . . where is the "I'm a slut" part of the testimony?

Limbaugh said about Fluke: "she's having so much sex she can't pay for it, and we should."

Yet Fluke didn't say she was having any sex.

Limbaugh said: "So the woman comes forth with this frankly hilarious claim that she's having so much sex" that she can't afford it.

Fluke never said she had sex, much less 'so much sex she can't afford it.'

Limbaugh asked, "didn't anyone ever tell her: 'did you ever think about maybe backing off the amount of sex that you have?'"

Again, Limbaugh wasn't paying attention. He could have attacked Fluke on many grounds. He went after her sex life. Fluke never mentioned her sex life.

I could go on, because Limbaugh went on and on about Fluke personally; and none of it was based on anything that Fluke said about herself. When Limbaugh called Fluke a slut and a prostitute, he meant that she was having sex, and lots of it. And that she wanted to be paid for it.

And yet Fluke only talked other women and their need for contraception - and in almost every case, she talked about how birth control pills needed for medical reasons (a Democrat bait and switch), not for contraception.

In Fluke's testimony was there exaggeration, yes? Idiots who get raped and think that they won't get medical attention because birth control's not covered? Yes. Throwing out the $100 per month out-of-pocket figure (specifically for the pill, not condoms) for a birth control pill, and not mentioning $5/month birth control pills? Check. Claiming the ovarian cyst story was not rare? Check.

But telling stories about her own sex life that would merit branding her a slut? No. Not any. She didn't even mention whether she was on birth control or if she had sex.

Limbaugh blew this entire topic for conservatives. The attention was on the fact that Obama was forcing Roman Catholic health care plans to pay for contraceptives (and other plans with a religious objection to pay for care over religions objections).

We lost that argument now because of Rush. Now the issue is Rush's apology, and calling Sandra Fluke a slut because he wanted to be cute and didn't pay attention to what was said. He could have attacked her presentation on any one of a number of different (and factual) points.

But he didn't. He got cute by 100% too much and slandered a lefty plant about being a slut, claiming she testified about having too much sex . . . when she didn't say a word about having any sex.

And now he has to apologize and any moral high ground conservatives had on the entire 'Obamacare forcing Roman Catholic healthcare plans to pay for contraception' issue is lost due to his buffoonery.