WASHINGTON – As self-serving ramblings go, Rush Limbaugh hit it out of the radio booth. It was 192 words, with the apology coming at around word 180. As advertisers bail, he had no choice. Considering Limbaugh’s the leader of the Republican pack, his predicament perfectly paints their problems this year.
“[House Speaker John] Boehner comes out and says Rush’s language was inappropriate. Using the salad fork for your entrée, that’s inappropriate. Not this stuff,” Will said. “And it was depressing because what it indicates is that the Republican leaders are afraid of Rush Limbaugh. They want to bomb Iran, but they’re afraid of Rush Limbaugh.” – ABC News
It mimics the Chris Matthews model, which he had to unload during the 2008 season, which I cite in my book, when Matthews led the cable yakker smears against Hillary: it starts with talking about yourself and the tough daily grind of how difficult it is to keep what you really think in check.
If these guys weren’t hopelessly backward in their thinking toward women it wouldn’t be so difficult.
If you want to hear a statement worth reading, here’s how it’s done.
“No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady. Mr. Limbaugh, with his highly personal attacks on Miss Fluke, overstepped any reasonable bounds of decency. Even though Mr. Limbaugh has now issued an apology, we have nonetheless decided to withdraw our advertising from his show. We hope that our action, along with the other advertisers who have already withdrawn their ads, will ultimately contribute to a more civilized public discourse.” – A Statement from David Friend, CEO of Carbonite, Posted on Facebook
Media Matters will be going all out to keep this trend going.
Rush couldn’t match the statement above in a million years, because he can’t put himself second to anyone.
“…civility is censorship…” – Rush Limbaugh, 1.13.11 (1:30 p.m. EST)
This is what happens when you do your work without being involved or engaged in the world around you. Few inhabit the rarefied air of what has been Rush Limbaugh’s perch. Caught in his 1% bubble, Limbaugh missed the new century dawning and new generations rising, as well as new media taking over where right-wing radio used to reign.
Beyond politics…
We need to all agree that in the second decade of the 21st century no powerful person gets to call out a private citizen from a position of authority using the media.
But attacking a woman asked to testify before Congress, publicly by name, like a common bully or back alley thug, while making her the brunt of a withering personal attack that is so personal as to claim she’s immoral, while invoking parental pride, is actionable.
I’ve kept an ear open for Rush Limbaugh most of the last two decades, studied and dabbled in radio as well. When a controversy arises over sex you can be sure the Good Ole Boy from Missouri will get himself into the story. There’s money in it.
The facts of Sandra Fluke’s story were immaterial to Limbaugh’s plot line. That she was talking about contraception used for medicine because of ovarian cysts hardly matters. The Missouri showman sees a government mandate for women’s contraception and what he sees is a ripe rich fruit straight from the Garden of Eden for his audience. Though I’m not saying Rush Limbaugh worships, because his Sunday church is an 18-hole golf course.
For Rush Limbaugh’s audience, women having sex outside of marriage and being completely free translates to liberal women having sex.
Sandra Fluke responded first with MSNBC’s Ed Schultz:
“I guess my reaction is the reaction a lot of women have when they’ve been called these names. Initially you’re stunned but then, very quickly, you’re outraged because this is, historically, the kind of language that is used to silence women, especially women who stand up and say that these are their reproductive health care needs and this is what they need. And what’s been amazing to me today is the outpouring of support. Everyone from members of Congress to Georgetown faculty to so many women who’ve contacted me, and I think it’s clear from what they’ve said that they’re not going to be silenced by this.” – Sandra Fluke
For Rush, it’s all twisted up in his introverted persona, where a ballsy female emasculates him or maybe it’s just liberal women don’t find him attractive, because anyone this tied up in knots about women enjoying a non-married sex life has issues, which fully emancipated females can sense a mile away.
Rush Limbaugh still thinks a feminist is a woman who doesn’t like flowers, her door opened for her, or being swept off our feet in some other manner.
Limbaugh is out of the same neutered male doll mold as Sen. Roy Blunt. They’re the type of man I fled from when I left Missouri, who made the social landscape treacherous for women.
However, it’s serious business when a man of political power and wide American media influence decides he’s above common decency and cannot in any way be held accountable for what he says about a private citizen, because he’s economically untouchable.
Limbaugh wanted to pick a fight about sex, so he hoisted Susan Fluke on to a golden EIB stake, then set it aflame.
Rush is the general in the Republican Party’s war on women and this is a presidential election year. But what Republicans missed by a mile was that this is now 21st century America and women, regardless of politics and age, will not let anyone take us back to the 1950s, before birth control set us free.
Taylor Marsh is the author of the new book, The Hillary Effect – Politics, Sexism and the Destiny of Loss, which is now available in print on Amazon. Marsh is a veteran political analyst and commentator. She has been profiled in the Washington Post, The New Republic, and has been seen on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic, as well as on radio across the dial and on satellite, including the BBC. Marsh lives in the Washington, D.C. area. This column is cross posted from her new media blog.
The photo at the top of Rush Limbaugh is the publicly released mugshot from 2006.