Limbaugh’s comments draw rebukes
President calls student targeted by radio host
WASHINGTON – In unleashing his sharp tongue on a law student this week, talk show host Rush Limbaugh – who called the woman a “slut” and a “prostitute” for advocating expanded access to birth control – sparked rebukes from President Barack Obama, fellow Republicans and longtime sponsors of his talk show.
Obama entered the fray on Friday when he made a phone call to Sandra Fluke, a third-year Georgetown University law student, to express support after she drew Limbaugh’s ire when she testified in favor of the administration’s new rule requiring employers to offer health plans that cover birth control.
Earlier this week, Limbaugh said on his show that Fluke “wants to be paid to have sex. She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.”
Limbaugh stood by his statements on Friday, even mocking Obama’s phone call. He offered to “buy all of the women at Georgetown University as much aspirin to put between their knees as they want,” a revival of a comment made last month by wealthy Republican Foster Friess, a supporter of presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who suggested such a use of aspirin as a less-expensive form of birth control. Friess later apologized.
Democrats saw opportunity even as they expressed outrage. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called on House Republicans to disavow the statements, but referenced the “vicious and inappropriate attacks” in an email soliciting signatures for a petition against “the Republican war on women.” Other groups launched fundraisers, asserting that Limbaugh’s opinion only emphasized the importance of recruiting and supporting Democratic women to run for Congress.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, kept quiet on the matter, but his spokesman said Boehner “obviously believes the use of those words was inappropriate, as is trying to raise money off the situation.”
Santorum said Friday that Limbaugh was being “absurd,” but dismissed him as an entertainer.
Other Republicans voiced stronger repudiations.
“Rush Limbaugh’s comments are reprehensible,” Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., wrote on Twitter. “He should apologize.”
California Republican Carly Fiorina said the statements were “insulting.”
White House press secretary Jay Carney said the president called Fluke “to express his disappointment that she has been the subject of inappropriate personal attacks, and thank her for exercising her rights as a citizen to speak out on an issue of public policy.”