You are absolutely right! I just watched MTP, and Newt was excellent. Totally respectful of Rush, saying merely he was “right to apologize.” Which he was! Like other posters, I must admit I’ve been cringing the past few days listening to Rush, shouting at the radio to “Stop it, already! You’ve made your point!”
One other thing. Rick’s statement throwing Rush under the bus, saying he was an entertainer is light years worse than Newt merely saying what he did because I firmly believe that Rush is the main reason Santorum has maintained his candidacy as long as he has. Without Rush spending huge amounts of precious broadcast time EVERY DAY explaining what Rick meant to say, or helping Rick pull his feet out of his mouth, Rick would have imploded long before this. And how does Rick thank him? By calling him an entertainer.
Good point. This was not the time to fall into media-laid traps by "reacting" to flaming curve balls.