Posted on 03/03/2012 8:32:15 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Rush Limbaugh has posted a statement on his website this afternoon, forwarded by his brother David (one of my friends on line), apologizing for calling Sandra Fluke an insulting name while discussing her claims. It’s impossible to retain the context of his apology by excerpting it, so I hope Rush will not mind me posting it in its entirety:
For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke.
I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability? Where do we draw the line? If this is accepted as the norm, what will follow? Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit?In my monologue, I posited that it is not our business whatsoever to know what is going on in anyone’s bedroom nor do I think it is a topic that should reach a Presidential level.
My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.
I think Rush did the right thing in apologizing to Fluke. However, let’s keep in mind that it was Fluke who made her sexual activity a matter of national political debate by insisting that the government pass laws and regulations forcing employers and insurers to provide her free contraception, and apparently as much as she and others demand. It’s Republicans who believe that contraception should remain a private affair, and that employers and insurers should be free to decide whether to cover contraception for their employees and customers or not. Democrats used Fluke to demand that those choices be stripped from private enterprises and instead be forced by the executive branch to entirely subsidize contraception.
That is the argument we should be making, as Republicans and conservatives. If you want your sexual choices to remain private, don’t use the government to force other people to subsidize them. Then we won’t have to turn the sex lives of Georgetown law school students into topics for political speculation.
Update: Along those same lines, does Donna Brazile also now oppose the government mandate to force employers and insurers to have a role in the decision to use contraception? She tweeted this message not too long ago (via Keder):
Agree! The government should have no role in contraception, and shouldn’t force employers or insurers to have a role in it, either. Keep it between the woman, her sexual partner, and her doctor. Well said.
Oh, wait, Brazile meant this in support of the mandate? She seems just as badly misinformed on the issue as her media colleagues … or as deliberately obtuse.
If Rush truly meant his apology, he’d pull the Tea if by Two ads.
Rush has a new wife he probably wishes to keep a bit longer, and she probably asked him, “You called her a WHAT?!”
The media just hammered Rush on this so that his sponsors would leave him and so that we would take our attention off of high gas prices, the 5 trillion in debt Obama has piled on us, that Obama is letting in illegals , no jobs , growing government etc.
Rush didn't create any national stir. The liberal media did by posting this as news and not the high gas prices, Owebama 5 trillon $ debt etc. The media controls what people talk about and so shifts public opinion .The media has ruled this country for 100 years. The media got Obama elected by lying against Palin, lying against Bush and the “republican Congress” for 8 years, etc. If the media were really reporting news and not “Palin got that congress woman shot” then we'd be about to have president Palin right now. The media has ruled this country for 100 years so that government and socialism and debt is always growing : so we must collapse as any who borrow 5 trillion in 3 years must. The media is the cause of all our problems.
If Rush were Churchill, he would hold the line & add:
Fluke: "What! Me a slut? How dare you!"
Rush: "Madam, you've already established that in front of Congress & the Nation....Now, we are only discussing the price." (Churchill to Lady Astor.)
Rush could have retired fifteen years ago; he doesn't need any of this garbage. Every notable conservative needs expensive security. He/they put up with daily threats. Rush has an airport quality scanner for everything addressed to him. I am not aware of any Leftist who pays for personal security from rabid Tea Partiers.
Too many pubbie pols have relied on Rush and others to do their work, to get into the Left’s faces and call them out.
So you don't like Rush's business decision? Tough.
Slut and whore are the wrong words.
When you pay a whore, you get sex.
I have to pay the stinking b*tch and I don’t get any sex.
Thief is the right word.
Con man is the right word.
Whether women can get the pill at Wal-Mart for that price, or whether some get it elsewhere at a higher price, may make her a liar but it does not make her a slut. Seeking to have the pill included as part of health insurance does not make her slut either.
That is what Rush called her, and that is what this is about.
Rush: You expect other conservatives to stand firm and you do not. You apologize to a slut, to an activist. What does that say about you? Follow the money.
The old Rush Limbaugh show with its swaggering confidence is gone RIP.
Very very well said. I try to listen to his opening salvos at work in my car during lunchtime..and when I can, on the way home. And as you said, for the education..and humor. Rush is a radio talk show host and he has opened my eyes many times. But he is not the be all to end all of conservatism and he would agree.
I get it, too.
Providing free birth control does not guarantee a man is going to get sex.
I suggest we take the program one step further and create a Federal Department of Escort Services where any citizen can hire a hooker for the hour (paid by your fellow taxpayers)!
We should not pay for contraception unless sex is guaranteed!
He changed a lot since his marriage.
Reminds me of that line from “Designing Women.”
Julia to Suzanne: “If sex were fast food, they’d have to put an arch over your bed.”
“... do you think any woman college student who is sexually active (yet not married or engaged) is a slut?” ...
A very large number of college co-eds are acting very promiscuous these days. I have 2 college age daughters and I can tell you from real life (they watch the behavior in disgust and don’t partake) that the hooking up scene with different partners every week end night is out of control. This is recreational sex BIG TIME and isn’t about the sexually active girls engaged or with a steady boyfriend.
The boundless hooking up college scene is over the top right now with large numbers of college women fitting the definition of “slut”, tramp, hoe. etc. In fact they consider it funny/cute to label themselves as “hoes” (whores) for fun.
Agreed. This is a liberal media sensation. Rush is a master at manipulating them and they allow it every time.
This to-do will fade in a few days.
I can’t believe I’m reading, “Rush has lost us the election!”
No doubt. I've always thought of him as a very rich man, but now it is clear he is financially on a slender limb and cannot safely extend any further.
IOW, Rush is maxed.
Follow the money, Rush. What are these folks big investment plans with big pharma companies if contraception is is mandated?
A prelude to insider trading. Don't retreat, reload.
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