KEITH OLBERMANN: Some did when he branded troops who supported withdrawal from Iraq as, "phony soldiers," others when he said that he hoped the new president would fail.
But tonight, in our fifth story — as Limbaugh continues to pile on in a brutal and personal assault against a law school student, a sitting Republican senator has demanded he apologize, a Republican presidential contender has called the comments "absurd," a spokesman for the speaker of the House called the words "inappropriate," and a recent Republican Senate candidate called them "insulting and incendiary."
It is the strongest blowback from his own side in Limbaugh's 20-odd years of public notoriety and, more importantly, in one day his claims that Sandra Fluke was a "slut" cost him three major advertisers and may cost him a fourth.
National mattress retailer Sleep Train dropped its support this morning, followed by Select Comfort and Quicken Loans. The Cleveland Cavaliers, the owner of which was the founder of Quicken Loans, have also dropped out local advertising in Limbaugh's show, all of them reacting to a massive Twitter campaign of complaints, as well as comments from legislatures on the House floor.
Undeterred, Limbaugh seemed emboldened by the backlash, repeatedly attacking Fluke again today.
To put it into context, Sandra Fluke had testified about friends who had encountered issues with Georgetown University's birth control policy because it’s a Catholic school. One who said, because she could not afford birth control, developed tennis ball-sized cysts on her ovaries, requiring that they be removed, and another who had been raped, but did not go to the doctor to be examined because she did not believe it would be covered by Georgetown's policy.
Limbaugh, who has once — was once stopped by authorities as he re-entered this country from the Dominican Republic carrying a prescription for Viagra in somebody else's name — reinterpreted those stories.
(Excerpt from audio clip) LIMBAUGH: Her name is Sandra Fluke. She's having so much sex she can't pay for it. Three thousand dollars worth of birth control pills worth of sex. She's having so much sex — and her buddies with her — and not one person says, "Well, did you ever think about, maybe, backing off the amount of sex that you have?"
OLBERMANN: That, apparently, too much even for some Republicans to take.
(Excerpt from video clip) FIORINA: That language is insulting, in my opinion. It's incendiary, and most of all it's a distraction. It's a distraction from what are very real and important issues.
OLBERMANN: Senator Scott Brown also tweeting today: "Rush Limbaugh's comments are reprehensible. He should apologize."
Despite broad agreement that Limbaugh's comments were masochistic, hateful, and inappropriately aimed at — if you will, a civilian — some Republicans, perhaps fearful of the Limbaugh backlash, attempted to make it look like they were against the comments without coming out against Limbaugh.
(Excerpt from video clip) SANTORUM: He's being absurd, but that's — you know, an entertainer can be absurd.
OLBERMANN: Also, Mitt Romney made a similarly tepid comment later in the afternoon.
Speaker Boehner tried to have it both ways, had his press secretary issue a tepid denunciation of Limbaugh while, at the same time, bringing the Democrats into this: "The speaker obviously believes the use of those words was inappropriate, as is trying to raise money off the situation."
The problem for the speaker is no one appears to be trying to raise money off of Limbaugh. What conservatives are pointing to is the DCC email asking people to sign a petition to have a Republican leadership repudiate Limbaugh's comments.
Responding to a letter written by Democratic members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Chairman Darrell Issa knew exactly who to blame — the Democratic members of his own committee: "I am struck by your clear failure to recognize your own contributions to the denigration of this discussion and attacks on people of religious faith. I propose that you join me in broader condemnation of the attacks of people of faith" — you can read the rest of it for yourself.
Nobody called the people of faith "sluts," Mr. Issa.
Issa then swung back at Democrats on the committee, criticizing them for appearing, "outright giddy" in criticizing his hearing on contraceptive coverage. You'll remember that this is the one that originally did not have any women. Specifically, Ms. Fluke was not permitted to testify.
With all the Republicans trying to shift the blame away from Limbaugh's hateful words, it is easy to forget that there's a person behind those comments he made, a private citizen who was asked by legislators to share her experiences, and the toll of Limbaugh's anger was evident as Ms. Fluke describe a supportive call she received from the president.
(Excerpt from video clip) FLUKE: Well, what was really personal for me was that he said to tell my parents that they should be proud, and that meant a lot because Rush Limbaugh questioned whether or not my family would be proud of me, so I just appreciated that very much.
OLBERMANN: We're going to talk, in two ways, about what Limbaugh has done. First, on the subject of his war on women, I'm joined again by Huffington Post political reporter Laura Bassett. Laura, thanks for your time tonight.
LAURA BASSETT: Thanks for having me.
OLBERMANN: How are these remarks seen, do you think, in the larger context of this recent GOP — I'll use the kind word — pressure on women's rights, particularly reproductive rights?
I mean, we all thought the Susan G. Koman/Planned Parenthood disaster was the low point of that. Does it seem like this event might replace that?
BASSETT: This is, certainly, a new point — a new low point in terms of rhetoric. I think the problem is that the argument that he's trying to make this about, you know, women want men to pay them to have sex, is just so absurd. It's beyond what the Republicans are saying. It's beyond what the Democrats are saying.
This is about women's health care, and I think the Democrats have been sort of fanatically trying to get that point across. You know, even Fluke's testimony was not about wanting to have sex and needing birth control for that reason. It was about, you know, her classmate who had a golf ball-sized cyst on her ovary and needed birth control coverage for health care reasons.
And so, I think that, you know, Rush said what people are afraid — that a lot of Republican men think — which is that, you know, women are going out and trying to get people to pay them to be promiscuous. I mean, it couldn't be any further from the truth, and it's absolutely absurd of him to say.
OLBERMANN: Well, as I suggested earlier, this man has been the national clearinghouse for decades for misogyny, but there's a hypocrisy in this — is it hypocrisy, or is it actually ignorance about how birth control is used by women compared to how, say, erectile dysfunction drugs are used by men? There seems to be some sort of belief that each event requires a separate dosage?
Is it really — is it possible for an adult male over the age of 25 not to understand how, say, birth control pills work?
BASSETT: I think it is possible. I think we're seeing how it's possible. You know, for him to say, "She's having so much sex that she can't afford birth control" — I mean, whether you have sex once or whether you have it 100 times you need the same amount of birth control, and birth control is prescribed for a number of health reasons that go beyond simply wanting to space out your children or family planning or anything like that.
And I also think that there is an element of hypocrisy involved because erectile dysfunction drugs —
OLBERMANN: Exactly.
BASSETT: — are covered under a lot of these health plans, and, you know, for instance, the Catholics to say, "We oppose birth control because sex is supposed to be for procreation within the confines of marriage," — do they oppose providing erectile dysfunction drugs for single men? Should single men be having sex? That's not a conversation that anyone is having, and I think that it would be no less absurd than the conversation we're having about Sandra Fluke right now.
OLBERMANN: Well, indeed. There's also an even larger one. I don't know the last man who had a vasectomy who paid full price and didn't get at least some insurance coverage on that.
BASSETT: Exactly.
OLBERMANN: This other thing that I pointed out last night, based on what he called Ms. Fluke — any woman in this country who even once did not pay for birth control 100 percent out of her own pocket, Limbaugh called her a slut and prostitute, too. Is that beginning to resonate? Has it, sort of, grown out of just this assault on this woman who doesn't deserve this kind of assault?
BASSETT: Of course. It was an attack on all women. I think everybody sees it that way. You know, he did say, yesterday, "I would like to buy, you know, the women who go to Georgetown Law as much aspirin as they want to put between their knees," you know, echoing Foster Friess' controversial comments a couple of week ago.
I think that this is about men — certain men, not all men, of course — certain men, like Foster Friess and Rush Limbaugh, trying to turn the clock back on women and push us back into the Dark Ages and say, "You know, you should be barefoot in the kitchen and having our babies," and I think that's what — I think that's what women are afraid of, and he's sort of speaking to our fears by voicing a comment like that.
OLBERMANN: Nothing will make people wake up faster than exactly what you just described, hopefully. Huffington Post political reporter Laura Bassett, great thanks for your time. Have a good weekend.
BASSETT: Thanks for having me.
