Darrell Issa’s response to the Limbaugh Affair is typical “both sides do it” nonsense:
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) said in a letter on Friday that Democrats had a “narrow focus” on Rush Limbaugh calling Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” for her testify about contraception coverage and said members of his staff had been attacked as well.
~snip~
Issa said that his female staffers had been the subject of “intense and disgusting accusations and insults — ‘hag,’ ‘traitor,’ and numerous references to anatomy have been among the milder expressions hurled over the phone.”
Issa said he does not agree “with many comments that have been made during the effort to examine the constitutionality of Obamacare’s mandates on individual freedom, including the ones by Mr. Limbaugh, I find your narrow focus on this particular comment to be self-serving and dismissive of other inappropriate comments and attacks on Americans of faith.”
A break — give me one. Rush Limbaugh is practically the leader of the GOP and has been spewing racism and misogyny for a quarter century, but Issa wants to compare Limbaugh’s disgusting rant against Sandra Fluke to some unknown attacks against Issa’s staffers.
No. That mealy-mouthed nonsense is insufficient, as is calling Limbaugh’s words “absurd,” or “inappropriate” as Santorum and Boehner have done.
Rush Limbaugh is calling your mothers, sisters, and daughters sluts and prostitutes. “Inappropriate” and “absurd” doesn’t begin to cover it.
And by the way, the “you sluts want us to pay to have sex” narrative is unimaginably stupid. Sandra Fluke testified about her friend who was prescribed birth control for a medical condition — ovarian cysts. Nobody’s asking to be paid to have sex. Nobody’s asking for government-subsidized condoms. Besides, we women have been paying men to have sex for years. The only purpose of Viagra and Cialis and the like is to allow men to have sex. Many health insurance plans cover Viagra. Where’s Rush’s outrage about that? Shouldn’t all men who take those little blue pills be forced post sex tapes online?*** Face it: We’re not the sluts — you are.
***Put the camera down.
[via TPM]
[cross-posted at ABLC]
joeyess
Speaking of which. This is how you talk to right wing gasbags on the radio.
Don’t these people know that the Irish refuse to drink weak tea?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/01/1069909/-President-of-Ireland-Must-See-Believe-Me-Please-?via=siderec
Bullsmith
Conservative public figures, be they in the media, free enterprise or government, have a right to speak the ugly truths. Dirtbag complainers in the public, especially those who are not god fearing male republicans and if appropriate their female relations, on the other hand are a goddamn assault on the first Amendment every time they open their dirty hippie mouths. People need to get some perspective.
At least that’s how I interpret his statement.
YellowJournalism
It no longer surprises me that a person like this can’t distinguish between anonymous private citizens being assholes on the phone and the very prominent radio personality degrading and misrepresenting Fluke’s testimony on public airwaves (not to mention spewing contempt and vile, misogynist memes at the same time). But keep telling us both sides do it.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
This is highly true, that is both scary and comical at once. Issa isn’t going to give Rush the brush off, not in any direct way, even for going around calling women “sluts” in public. That would be like someone figuring out who Damien was in The Omen. Things will fall from the sky for no apparent reason.
John S.
This is factually inaccurate.
Vi@gr@ is also used to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension and high-altitude pulmonary edema associated with altitude sickness. The active ingredient in Ci@lis is also used to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension, but under the brand name Adcirc@.
While the more common usage for both drugs is ED, that isn’t the same as the statement you made.
John S.
Bah, moderation hell. I tried to trick it, but to no avail.
Anyway, both drugs mentioned are used to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension, so claiming that they serve no other purpose than doing the horizontal mambo is factually inaccurate.
YellowJournalism
What company makes the Sleep Number mattresses? They are withdrawing sponsorship of Rush’s program.
David Koch
Wingers are freaking out because Limbaugh is losing sponsors and they’re doubling down, trying to personally destroy Sandra Fluke.
BO_Bill
I kind of like Rush.
lamh35
So according to Ed FoxNews has their fembots all over the net and over twitter to disparage Sandra Fluke. These witches should be fuckin’ ashamed of themselves and any fuckin’ daughters or nieces or sisters they have.
They are a disgrace. Mittens and his “Not the language I’d used” what the fuck language would the guv’nor use?
And of course CNN with their usual all sides do 2 to 1 republican with mary matalin and ari fleisher. Mary Matalin defeding Rushbo.
WTF. This is really maddening.
Anderson Cooper should be ashamed of the segment he just had on CNN where he let both repub panel member just lie their fuckin’ faces off and let Ari Fleisher trying to compare Arianna Huffington to Rush fuckin’ Limbaugh.
Linda Featheringill
BTW, it looks like Bain Capital owns Clear Channel, who is Limbaugh’s boss.
FWIW.
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/bain-capital-owns-clear-channel-rush-limbaugh-sean-hannity-glenn-beck-michael-savage-etc
Steve
I have mixed feelings about this situation. On the one hand, I know that all this misogynist talk will backfire on the GOP and I want to see them dig their own grave. On the other hand, we’re talking about hate speech that is legitimately hurtful to real people, and it’s kind of thoughtless to just sit there eating popcorn as it happens. I know that all of this has my wife really angry and ready to go out and murder the GOP in November, but at the same time it just makes her want to hate politics and shut down. I can’t really blame her.
Ben Cisco
@lamh35: The GOP is a huge problem in this country; the Ferengi Media is running a close second.
The Dangerman
@Steve:
Just wait for the bilge the GOP will unleash between now and November; people shutting down is their goal.
pseudonymous in nc
@lamh35:
I’m sure that there’s a word in the Book of Mormon used to describe women who don’t end up as a nth wife.
gwangung
This is a feature and a goal by the GOP. We’d be stupid not to take account of it.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@The Dangerman:
I honestly believe a lot of the crazy shit these people do, is a kind of subliminal messaging, letting voters read between the lines, ‘if you think we are crazy now, if we don’t get back in charge, we will get really crazy’
I don’t know if it will work, especially if they have a bad candidate, but you are right they are going to at a minimum try to lobotomize the public into just not wanting to deal with politics, or even go vote.
Jenn
@Steve: Something that has really helped me, and that may help your wife – I’ve actually written down a plan of what I’m going to do to help Dems win at the ballot box in November, and I’ve put all of my local/state/federal representatives/senators on speed dial on my phone for everything that comes up in the meantime. The past several weeks, I’ve just been so … rage-filled, that my life has become a political football, and I just can’t live that way. So I made a plan. Now everything those bastards do just adds to my determination, rather than adding to my blood pressure.
AxelFoley
Is this what it sounds like when doves cry?
Cacti
And for all the married men, Rush is calling your wife a slut.
Your life partner is a sinful trollop if she has sex for any reason besides crapping out a dozen sprogs.
amk
where are the prominent women org’s ? why aren’t they pushing back in a very vocal and very public way ?
Cacti
@amk:
Which major media outlet is anxious to give them a forum?
Exposure is for important people. You know, people that have dicks.
Svensker
@joeyess:
Wow. Is that guy eligible to run for office in the USofA?
Linda
I, for one, admire Limbaugh. If I were a (formerly) single man who got caught with somebody else’s scrip for Viagra in the Dominican Republic, my muscles could not form the word “slut” in reference to anybody else in the universe. He must be pumping iron.
amk
@Cacti: They have the money for ads, don’t they ? And which major media is going to give up making money ?
Mouse Tolliver
@lamh35:
Patricia Heaton, the republican asshole sitcom actress, is part of that army too apparently. I know she tweeted about not wanting to pay for some slutty slut’s birth control.
pseudonymous in nc
@Svensker: Since he’s now head of state of his native land, I doubt he’d accept the offer even if he were eligible.
(Michael D.’s election was a strange one: the leading candidate was an Irish entrepreneur type running as an indendent, until the final debate, when Higgins asked him about his associations with the old ruling party, and after that, his support dropped like a stone.)
Svensker
@Mouse Tolliver:
What is it with that meme? How is having your insurance cover contraception making Republicans pay for your sex life? I don’t unnerstan.
joeyess
@Svensker: Yeah, ain’t that delicious?
gwangung
@amk: They don’t have to take their money. And they’ve been known to refuse ads from atheists and unitarian churches.
Cacti
@Mouse Tolliver:
Patricia Heaton’s just another hypocritical Christer. Last child was born in 1999.
So either she and her husband haven’t had sex in 13 years, or she used teh demon contraception.
AA+ Bonds
The way I see it is that I’m paying Sarah Fluke to not have children and I would very much like the opportunity to pay women around the world to not have children, and I would like for others in America to be forced to act in their own best interests in that regard or go to jail for tax evasion
amk
@gwangung: It may be but has any of these women’s org’s actually made an ad so far ? Only then the question of news orgs turning them down arises.
Cacti
@AA+ Bonds:
Insurance companies Luuuurve some birth control.
A dozen scrips for the pill for a whole year costs less than a single pregnancy and delivery.
AA+ Bonds
Is anyone really surprised that when Rush Limbaugh thinks about satisfying sexual urges his mind immediately goes to online pornography and prostitutes
I mean, I’m shocked, a trim and handsome prince like that, he must have had a great and not at all traumatic time in high school and no doubt continues to drive the ladies wild
Anyone have the Franken book handy who can quote the early-career Limbaugh transcript where Limbaugh tells the story about how he grew from an obese loser into a morbidly obese sadsack welfare queen when a woman left him
The Dangerman
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero):
Fortunately, I live in solidly blue CA; the people in the true swing states will have very strong fingers by the end of this election cycle (from repeatedly hitting the mute button).
AA+ Bonds
Al Franken’s book had that little timeline showing the varying size of Limbaugh’s silhouette in profile as dated to his problems with women, that seems like the best model for his behavior
pk
If she is a slut for having sex with all those men, then what are all the men who are having sex with her? Is she raping them? I think that’s what Limbaugh will say next. She wants us to pay for raping all the good men.
AA+ Bonds
Literally the first thing that enters Rush Limbaugh’s mind and the minds of many men in America when they hear a woman talking about birth control is rage that the woman in question would probably never sleep with them in a million years
Jimbo316
@Ben Cisco: In a couple of different languages ferengi (or farangi) means foreigner. Is that your meaning? If so, what mean?
AA+ Bonds
I can guarantee you that this millionth public spat about how women hate him has, as usual, touched something very basic in Rush Limbaugh’s psyche that goes a lot deeper than “take that bone out of your nose and call back” and there’s a good chance we will get some absolute choice stuff out of his show in the next month or so, real over-the-line, I’m-a-man work from him.
I suggest everyone keep an eye on the transcripts; often with him there’s no cool down period once you’ve got him oinking and shuffling his trotters, and I assume some FPer has a blog that NPR interns read?
Bago
@Jimbo316: It means you are culturally alienated. In Deep Space. Nine times over.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@The Dangerman:
I live in a swing state, but will be okay since my teevee is resting in the local landfill. No mute button needed :)
DanielX
ABL:
Limpballs is a well known major consumer of those little blue pills himself. If you want to contemplate the awful prospect of seeing a sex tape with that poisonous globe in it, feel free, but if I had to choose I’d rather spend the rest of my life at a Michael Bolton concert. Hopefully one cut short by Bolton being struck by lightning.
Kathy in St. Louis
@John S.: You know, when I watched old Bob Dole huckser for Viagra, I never once heard him talk about hypertension, heart disease, etc. I believe it was invented to help the afflicted get it up. It was later discovered to have other uses. So, technically, you may be right, but let’s be honest about the order of events here.
catclub
@AA+ Bonds: Also, ask if you would rather pay for some slut’s contraception or her abortion and it is head exploding time.
You can either pay for contraception for the sluts or have more abortions.
Choose one. They end up choosing more abortions.
It is _all_ about the slut-shaming.
John S.
@Kathy in St. Louis:
If we’re being honest, then let’s be honest. Making the claim that these drugs literally have no other purpose is inaccurate, no matter how you slice it.
It’s like claiming that contraceptives have no other purpose than women wanting to have sex and avoiding pregnancy, when in reality, they are used for other measures as indicated by Fluke’s testimony.
ABL has a strong enough argument without having to stoop to making inaccurate claims.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@John S.: You misunderstand.
“Sildenafil” has multiple uses. The most common brand name under which it is sold has no other reason than giving men a “Schwing”.
bob h
Surely a defamation suit is in order. Ms. Fluke will know how to proceed.
John D
@Kathy in St. Louis: No, actually, it was invented for pulmonary hypertension and angina. John S. is correct. During the Phase I trials, it was noticed that it caused erections, and they decided to market it as a boner pill. Look up Sildenafil for more info about it.
Michael
Issa reminds me of what Deepthroat says to Woodward about the so-called President’s Men: “The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.”
No matter how offensive these guys can be, the worst thing to do is legitimize their behavior by responding in kind. Better to just dig in to what they do and get them to out their lack of … well, anything. The rest should take care of itself as they double-, triple- and quadruple-down on their own idiocy.
g
I don’t understand why they don’t get it. Yes, it’s terrible that Issa’s staff are taking abuse from people calling his office. But it’s not equivalent to what is happening to Sandra Fluke.
Unnamed female staffers taking nasty phone calls is NOT equal to a private citizen being defamed BY NAME about her supposed sexual life over nationally syndicated radio for THREE SOLID DAYS.
Not a single one of Issa’s female staff is going to circulate her resume for a future job and have someone recognize her name and make an assumption about her. Not a single one is going to see her name on the internet being called vile and horrible things.