Flukeaquiddick Update

Stacy McCain has a good run-down on where we stand on Flukeaquiddick:

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.

Ace adds a quote from liberal journalist Kristen Powers, which he paraphrases as, “I’m Beginning to Suspect The Media Has a Double-Standard About Crass Comments About Women:”

“This isn’t really about misogyny; this is about the Democratic Party. And that’s what it always comes down to, it’s a proxy war for the Democratic Party.”

Good interview (and more links from Allah, which I can’t steal), and good article.

But if Limbaugh’s actions demand a boycott—and they do—then what about the army of swine on the left? [QED — Ed] During the 2008 election Ed Schultz said on his radio show that Sarah Palin set off a “bimbo alert.” He called Laura Ingraham a “right-wing slut.” (He later apologized.) He once even took to his blog to call yours truly a “bimbo” for the offense of quoting him accurately in a New York Post column.

Keith Olbermann has said that conservative commentator S.E. Cupp should have been aborted by her parents, apparently because he finds her having opinions offensive. He called Michelle Malkin a “mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick.” He found it newsworthy to discuss Carrie Prejean’s breasts on his MSNBC show…

The grand pooh-bah of media misogyny is without a doubt Bill Maher.
Left-wing darling Matt Taibbi wrote on his blog in 2009, “When I read [Malkin’s] stuff, I imagine her narrating her text, book-on-tape style, with a big, hairy set of balls in her mouth.”

She makes a great point about Maher. Maher claims the reason he’s allowed to call Palin a twat, c**t and so forth is that “he doesn’t have sponsors.”

No, he has a patron in HBO — and HBO suffers him. HBO is a corporation; shouldn’t they drop him?

And he has additional cover: HBO is owned by TimeWarner, which also owns CNN. Which is why at least one MSM news network will likely never call him on his vile rhetoric.

Meanwhile, as Big Journalism notes, entirely expectedly, “Fluke Snubs Rush Apology: ‘Read Media Matters.'”

Alan Dershowitz, call your office.

Related: “Sandra Fluke v. Joe the Plumber.”

More: “The Culture War Is The Fiscal War,” Melissa Clouthier writes. “And America’s children are the losers both ways.”

One More: “Sandra Fluke Argued for Mandatory Coverage for Sex-Change Surgery.”