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Rush Limbaugh Apologizes on Radio Show; Byron York Explains Background

Posted on | March 5, 2012 | 30 Comments

Rush Limbaugh devoted the opening monologue of his nationally syndicated radio program today to explaining why he issued an apology to Sandra Fluke. Limbaugh said that in his fight with the Left, he had “descended to their level.”

Limbaugh then cited a Washington Examiner column by Byron York, in which Republican sources on Capitol Hill explained how Democrats had made a last-minute effort to substitute Fluke as a witness at a Feb. 16 hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The committee chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) rejected Fluke as lacking demonstrable expertise on the issue which was the subject of the hearing.

Fluke was subsequently invited by Nancy Pelosi to speak at a Feb. 27 meeting of the House Democratic Steering Committee, which was turned into a media event with Fluke presented as if she were testifying before an actual hearing. York writes:

The entire basis of her testimony to the Democratic Steering Committee the next week was that she had “a friend” who had a medical problem that required her to take birth control pills. Georgetown’s policy covers her friend’s condition, Fluke said, but did not actually pay for the pills, which caused her friend to stop purchasing and taking the pills and, later, to suffer a medical emergency. It was all pretty vague, and certainly wasn’t expert testimony.

Limbaugh subsequently read on his program a Feb. 28 Cybercast News Service article about Fluke’s “testimony.” When he labeled her a “slut” and a “prostitute,” left-wing organizations including Media Matters orchestrated a campaign to pressure advertisers to drop Limbaugh’s program, which remains the most popular radio show in America.

In her appearance at the Feb. 27 committee meeting, Fluke asserted that her fellow Georgetown Law students “struggled financially” to pay for contraceptives which, she told congressional Democrats “can cost a woman over $3,000” during the course of a three-year legal eductation. John McCormack of the Weekly Standard found that generic birth-control pills are available at a pharmacy near Georgetown for $9 a month, which would make the cost of a three-year supply $324.

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Category: Contraceptive Culture, Rush Limbaugh, Washington Examiner

Comments

30 Responses to “Rush Limbaugh Apologizes on Radio Show; Byron York Explains Background”

  1. Federale
    March 5th, 2012 @ 1:14 pm

    Typical of Limbaugh to back down.  No appologies were needed to Fluke.  I will state though that it is unlikely that she is sexually active, at least where she would need protection against pregnancy.  But she was defending sluts, hos and tramps.

    But it must be emphasized, Limbaugh always backs down when confronted.  Breitbart would have fought on.

    And Limbaugh lost advertisers anyway.  Never back down!  Winners fight on.  They are a strong horse.  People, especially Arabs, follow the strong horse.

  2. Who Is James Wolcott? And Why Would Anybody Want to Know? Or Care? : The Other McCain
    March 5th, 2012 @ 1:33 pm

    […] “controversy” that briefly permitted Wolcott to indulge his delusions of relevance, Rush Limbaugh explained his apology to Sandra Fluke today on the World’s Biggest Radio Show.Category: Atlas Shrugs, Charles Johnson, James Wolcott, […]

  3. Dicentra spectabilis
    March 5th, 2012 @ 2:18 pm

    But she was defending sluts, hos and tramps.

    No, she was saying that if an insurance policy won’t cover The Pill for contraception, it makes it hard to get payment for The Pill when it is not used for contraception.

    However, she is not making this argument out of concern for women with polycystic ovary syndrome but to force a private university to bend to the will of the Left’s power.

    The HHS mandate is primarily a way of showing the Catholics (and all religious people, by extension) who’s boss. It’s a huge middle finger to middle America.

    In other words, she’s not defending sluts, hos, and tramps, she’s defending the Oministration’s unprecedented, unconstitutional, tyrannical power grab.

    Hos, tramps, and sluts will always be with us; the Constitution may not be. Let’s get outraged over what she’s actually up to instead f what she appears to be doing.

  4. K-Bob
    March 5th, 2012 @ 2:35 pm

    Emphatic BS.  How is apologizing “backing down?”  Is he suddenly changing his stance on the issue?  Is he suddenly calling for support of Obama’s stupid lurch toward tyranny?

    No, he’s not.  All he did was apologize, and drop the namecalling as a tactic.  Which is fine, given that namecalling isn’t a successful tactic in the first place.

  5. TRANSMOGRIFY the Elite Media MEMES!!! « Temple of Mut
    March 5th, 2012 @ 2:58 pm

    […] for kindly taking my phone call, even though I disagreed with her a bit. We were discussing the Rush Limbaugh joke that involved the term “SLUT”. She didn’t think he should apologize. However, as I noted in my seminar: JOKE WITH CARE […]

  6. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    March 5th, 2012 @ 3:09 pm

    Sandra Fluke remains a joke…

  7. Finrod Felagund
    March 5th, 2012 @ 3:19 pm

    Jane Sandra Fluke, you ignorant slut.
     

  8. ThePaganTemple
    March 5th, 2012 @ 4:12 pm

     He still shouldn’t have apologized, it will be and probably already is interpreted as a sign of weakness. The best thing Limbaugh could have done is kept on and then laughed at them and their continually more strident responses, even played some of them on the air. Maybe he should feature a “Leftist Rant Of The Day” and portray it (fairly or unfairly, makes no never mind to me) as typical leftist fare.

    Instead, now THEY  are laughing at HIM.

  9. Dianna Deeley
    March 5th, 2012 @ 4:22 pm

    I know she wasn’t sworn in, but surely there is some consequence to lying like this?
     

  10. K-Bob
    March 5th, 2012 @ 4:36 pm

     Yeah, I get that.  But it was gonna happen no matter what. It’s not a zero sum game, so Rush will make out fine.

    Meanwhile, read what Ace has to say about her (the Fluke).  She’s a phony.

  11. Chris
    March 5th, 2012 @ 4:46 pm

    “However, she is not making this argument out of concern for women with polycystic ovary syndrome but to force a private university to bend to the will of the Left’s power.”

    Good thing we have a mind-reader of your powers to tell us what women are thinking.

    Why, if I had your talents, I could tell that your whining about religious freedom and leftist power grabs is just a cover for your REAL motivation of making women the legal property of men.

  12. rosalie
    March 5th, 2012 @ 4:49 pm

    There’s never a consequence when it concerns the Democrats.

  13. Dianna Deeley
    March 5th, 2012 @ 5:07 pm

     That needs to change. 

  14. ThePaganTemple
    March 5th, 2012 @ 5:13 pm

     Good thing for leftists they aren’t really interested in power grabs, cos there ain’t nothing I’d like better than to see a leftist freak with a Molotov cocktail and put a bullet in his brains. Cos see, I’m determined that I am never going to be their legal property, or of any state you vermin infest, no matter what I have to do to prevent it.

  15. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    March 5th, 2012 @ 5:15 pm

    Now Imus is going after Rush…Imus?  
    http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/292655/don-imus-house-pet-andrew-c-mccarthy  Imus is just a pile of dried scabs.  

  16. Christy Waters
    March 5th, 2012 @ 5:17 pm

    I hate that Limbaugh called the Fraud Broad a slut, not because I disagree with him, but because it has created such a massive distraction that makes me wonder what the libs are trying to sneak in the back door while we’re all focused on the front. The word “slut” has become as benign as the word “racist. Frankly, I wish he would’ve called her Uncle Sam’s whore, and asked her how she likes living in his brothel.

    I find it pathetic that these supposedly “independent” women who say that the govt has no place in their reproductive decisions, expect that same govt to pay for them. That’s like a teenage girl telling her father that he can’t tell her what to do, while she’s still living under his roof. If hypocrisy smelled like body odor, Sandra Fluke and her ilk would clear the damn room! It might also be because “those kind” tend to stay away from Lady Bic. #JustSaying

  17. ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore « The Camp Of The Saints
    March 5th, 2012 @ 5:17 pm

    […] Mr. Limbaugh has apologized [Stacy has a follow-up post here with some background info]. There was nothing wrong with the words he used – they were […]

  18. Adjoran
    March 5th, 2012 @ 5:37 pm

     Even unsworn testimony to Congress is covered by the law, and lying is a crime.

    However, this wasn’t even a hearing.  It was a Democratic Caucus meeting called by Pelosi after Dan Issa ruled that Fluke didn’t qualify as an expert to give testimony before the Committee, so it doesn’t count.

    Issa should consider inviting her to testify under pain of perjury about her “survey” and its methodology and how the costs were figured.  That would be interesting.

  19. Adjoran
    March 5th, 2012 @ 5:43 pm

     Exactly.  We had the high ground in the debate over conscience, and the whole issue was hijacked by Limbaugh’s big fat mouth. 

    He’s been around long enough to know it was coming.

  20. Adjoran
    March 5th, 2012 @ 5:43 pm

     If they couldn’t lie, what would they say?

  21. Bob Belvedere
    March 5th, 2012 @ 5:59 pm

    Spot-on.  He wimped out.  He showed weakness and now the jackels are circling.  Rush has shown that can be intimidated.

    More: Tis Pity She’s A Whore.

  22. Bob Belvedere
    March 5th, 2012 @ 6:01 pm

    So?

  23. K-Bob
    March 5th, 2012 @ 6:03 pm

     I suspect he realized he crossed his own line on this one.  I don’t think he cares about the media’s line.

  24. Bob Belvedere
    March 5th, 2012 @ 7:39 pm

    But Rush didn’t descend to the level of the Left. Unlike the Left who have thrown out the term ‘slut’ without it being tied to reality, he used it according to one of it’s proper meanings.

    With his apology, Rush played by the Left’s rules.

  25. K-Bob
    March 5th, 2012 @ 8:46 pm

    Now that level of convolution is playing by the left’s rules. <emoticon goes here>

  26. richard mcenroe
    March 5th, 2012 @ 9:03 pm

     Never explain, never apologize, Mister… it’s a sign of weakness (Col. Nathan Biddles, USCAV (Ret.)

  27. Adjoran
    March 6th, 2012 @ 1:42 am

     But are you saying that . . . Imus and Maureen Dowd are  . . . really one and the same person?

    Come to think of it, I never have seen them together . . .

  28. K-Bob
    March 6th, 2012 @ 2:35 am

    As usual, it depends. You know the exceptions as well as I do.

  29. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    March 6th, 2012 @ 3:18 am

    I think you may be right.  Eeeewww.  

    I did laugh at that SNL skit that had Shepard Smith as Norman Bates.  That may not have been a skit…

  30. ThePaganTemple
    March 6th, 2012 @ 9:26 am

    Actually, yeah she used to come on his old show, the one that was dropped after he made the “Nappy-Headed Ho” comment. She used to be something of a regular on that show. She appeared at least a couple of times, and at least one time along with Frank Rich.