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NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Wednesday 7 March 2012
“Limbaugh was losing his spotlight tan and needed a UV blast of attention.”
What Limbaugh Is Really About
Too bad the Republican candidates had to comment on Rush Limbaugh's flaming attack on a female law student at Georgetown University. El Rushbo plays troubadour to the party's right wing from his home in its entertainment wing. The business of the entertainment wing is show business. That means making money off talk shows, books and TV appearances — and running the publicity machine at hysterical volume. It does not mean keeping the interests of the Republican Party foremost.
My take on Limbaugh is that he was losing his spotlight tan and needed a UV blast of attention. Thus the "conservative" radio personality called the self-possessed Sandra Fluke "a slut" and "a prostitute" for testifying in favor of requiring all employers to cover birth control. Elaborating further, he suggested that mandating coverage for contraceptives amounted to the public paying women to have sex. In return, the women should tape themselves in the act, he ventured, "and post the videos online so we can all watch." Attention he got.
President Obama called Fluke and said he'd stand by her, while his press secretary characterized the attacks as "reprehensible." But the Republican candidates — though already in hot water with many women voters — so feared Limbaugh's wrath that they issued mild responses. Mitt Romney squeaked out that "it's not the language I would have used." Rick Santorum offered that "an entertainer can be absurd." (Not just entertainers, Rick.)
Full disclosure: Limbaugh targets me on occasion. But though he's said such unflattering things as "she might be stupid," I don't mind much. She who dishes it out should be able to take it. In any case, my right-wing friends are so mightily impressed when the Great One finds me worthy of notice, they invite me to lunch and pick up the check.
I confess to a tiny soft spot for Rush.
In top form, he can amuse as well as irk. Meanwhile, he faces stiff competition, as others crowd the stage El Rushbo once dominated.
Sarah Palin was the Republican choice four years ago to stand one heartbeat away from the presidency. She's now on Fox talking about the media getting "wee-weed" over Santorum's Satan talk. Then there's Ann Coulter, the late Andrew Breitbart and an army of industrious online provocateurs.
Climbing the greasy pole of the 24/7 right-wing news cycle requires finding increasingly violent ways to express contempt for liberals and their attitudes. But having been at this for a quarter of a century, Rush is getting a bit old hat. Next to what else is out there, his Angry White Male riffs seem almost staid. Hence, the graphic amplification at the expense of a poorly chosen victim.
It's one thing to gargle vile things into the mike, even if they ultimately hurt the cause one purports to serve. It's quite another to offend advertisers. When advertisers go, so does the money. Several advertisers, perhaps having eyed the exits for some time, pulled out after the offensive remarks. That alone explains Limbaugh's eagerness to issue a rare regret.
Whether his media empire fully recovers remains to be seen. Abject apologies didn't work too well for talk radio king Don Imus. In a similar verbal belch, he called the splendid Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos."
As for Limbaugh's intended target, I imagine that she's tougher than he is. And women not in the business of responding angrily to swipes at their gender are laughing at the shtoopidity.
Which makes me want to end with a gem from the Rush Limbaugh Treasury of Humor: "Women should not be allowed on juries where the accused is a stud." Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck.
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ABOUT Froma Harrop
Froma Harrop’s nationally syndicated column appears in over 150 newspapers, including The Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Seattle Times, Denver Post and Newsday. The twice-a-week column is distributed by Creators Syndicate, in Los Angeles.
Harrop has written for numerous other publications, ranging from The New York Times and Institutional Investor, to Harper’s Bazaar and Metropolitan Home. Previously, she covered business for Reuters Ltd., in New York, and was a financial editor for The New York Times News Service.
A Loeb Award finalist for economic commentary, Harrop was also honored by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Over the years, the New England Associated Press News Executives Association has named her for five awards.
Top Stories
By Ronnie Cummins
20 comments on "What Limbaugh Is Really About"
March 08, 2012 6:20am
DMILLERFLA, if you listened to all of Ms. fluke's statement, and not just the bits and lies the morons like Rush told you to focus on, you'd know she added into the figures the cost of going to doctor to get the prescriptions. The figure is probably higher if you factor in lost wages for missing work to go to the doctor, gas, public transportation, etc. So, the next time you boast that you did some research on the subject, go the extra mile and research all of the facts.
March 08, 2012 2:08pm
I guess she was following in Rush's footsteps when he use to go Doctor shopping for his Vicodens, wonder if he charged off those travel expenses to his Blue Cross, hell, some of those Doctors where in another state. Rush should have thought about the glass house theory before he started throwing stones. The guy a Pigbag and his followers are a bunch of Neo-Nazis
March 07, 2012 9:09pm
No one has analyzed the exact twists he intentionally gave to her statements. Just pick apart their deceptive and misleading "quotes" will reveal that these emperors have no clothes.
Because Fluke wanted contraceptive medicine (often prescribed for reasons other than prevention of pregnancy), Rush said she wanted to be paid to have sex. Wrong. She would have sex anyway without being "paid" by contraception.
Maybe a cheap dinner and few drinks, but her sexual decisions are not based on money.
It was deceitful to say they were.
The Left needs to call the extremists out on their errors, their lies and their intentional deistortions.
Rush may be absurd, as Santorum said, but Santorum is pathetic because he thinks he is sincere and factual. Ruch just counts the bucks and the ratings and tries to figure out how get more of both.
Here is how far the abuse of languiage has gone. Santorum complained about what is wrong with society, but said if elected he would make no effort to address them. Too much government intervention.
So let the poor eat cake, they deserve to be deprived of a real and nourishing like anyway. It's their own fault anyway.
March 07, 2012 9:06pm
Harrop writes as if she thinks Limpballs created the controversy deliberately in order to boost his ratings against competitors, but I don't think so. Rush has a history of sabotaging himself. I offer in evidence his (very) brief Monday Night Football gig. This was a real opportunity for him to take himself and his right-wing message mainstream, but he blew it by raising an entirely gratuitous and unprovoked kerfuffle about Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb and black quarterbacks in general and got himself thrown off the show after two or three weeks. He is a self-loathing sociopath who can't help tripping himself up. And thank goodness. Because otherwise HE would be running for President!
March 07, 2012 5:26pm
Rush let him mouth talk before his brain and fell into the simplest traps - set by the Obama Camp to radicalize women against Republicans. Think about her comments about $3000/yr. for contraception prevention? I am no expert on this issue but checking on-line it looks to me like pills only cost between $15 to $50 a month. - So the $3000/year is a hoax that was setup to create a reaction issue to get Obama reelected- by a women who apparently was part of his campaign and not some naïve school girl as they would like us to belive- and Rush fell for it and disgraced himself.
This is just another political scam set up to get votes - and NO the national government should not pay for contraception college kids.
March 09, 2012 10:54am
DMILLERFLA let his mouth talk before his brain and fell into the simplest traps - set by the Newscorp Camp to radicalize rednecks against Obama. Think about his comments about the national government paying for contraception for college kids? I am no expert on this issue but checking on-line it looks to me like the insurance company would be paying for the cost of going to the Doctor and the cost of the pills. So the national government paying is a hoax that was setup to create a reaction issue to get a GOPher elected, by a Fox News who apparently was part of their campaign and not some fact based journalist as they would like us to belive- and DMILLERFLA fell for it and disgraced himself.
This is just another political scam set up to get votes - and NO the national government won't be paying for contraception for college kids.
By the way, my daughters, my daughter in-laws, my nieces, my cousins, their daughters, their nieces and their cousins and every other woman are all still waiting to hear the apology from Limbo calling them sluts and prostitutes and wanting them to show the videos on line.
March 08, 2012 1:42pm
@Riconui, Virile? I think not. A virile man doesn't hold the ignorant belief that a woman's use of contraception is proportional to her sexual activity. A virile man knows better.
A virile man doesn't go to the child-sex capital of the world, while single, armed with Viagra, in the company of 4 other men.
A virile man doesn't have four wives and remain childless when he is so ignorant of contraception and so opposed to abortion.
Rushbo is anything but virile. He's a fat slob who is attempting to make up, with money and attention, for a childhood and adolescence that saw him entirely ignored, especially by the opposite sex. His misogyny and failure to maintain an intimate relationship belies his inner ignored fat kid. He's truly a pathetic man. Perhaps that's where Ms Harrop gets her soft spot. Some people can't help but pity a pathetic creature, no matter how vile. Vile, not virile.
March 08, 2012 1:32pm
I'm going to ignore your idiotic claim that this was some kind of political trap. I'll also ignore your obvious ignorance of the fact that many women need contraception for medical reasons having nothing to do with conception. The stupidity you display regarding the basic nature of the issue and the costs involved proves that nothing else you spew is worthy of serious consideration.
Case in point: There is NOTHING in this debate that has anything to do with the national government paying for contraception. No one is proposing single payer national health insurance. Any "college kid" who is not an employee of their college may be getting insurance through their school and, if that is the case, they are paying for it out of pocket.
But more importantly, this debate is all about the right of an employer to exclude services and medications based on their personal beliefs. If an employer can deny contraception coverage to an employee based on their religious beliefs, then they can also demand their insurance carrier tailor special policies that deny services like transplants, blood transfusions or therapies based, for example, on stem cell research.
There are religious proscriptions for all of those and, unless you advocate special deference to the beliefs of the Catholic church, you cannot deny employers of any faith, or no faith at all, their right to tailor the health care coverage of their employees to their own personal convictions. BTW, that would include people of the Muslim faith.
If you're thinking of arguing that a religious affiliated or private organization shouldn't be forced to pay for health insurance that defies their conscience, think again. In fact, companies don't pay for the insurance of their employees. Every so-called "benefit" an employer provides is nothing but another form of paycheck. Employees receive insurance as part of their compensation packages. Employees pay for their insurance and their employers' contribution to such insurance, by means of their service. If an employee wasn't making enough profit for a company to cover an employer's contribution, the employer wouldn't provide the benefit in the first place.
No employee receives any type of "benefit", including paid vacations, from any employer unless that employee is earning it via their service. Therefore, the employee is indeed paying for his own insurance, whether directly through a payroll deduction, or indirectly through the service he provides his employer.
Either way, the national government has no role in paying for insurance, contraception, or anything else. Get your ear out of Rushbo's anal orifice for a minute and try to learn some facts before you formulate your moronic political conspiracy theories.
March 07, 2012 6:24pm
DMILLERFLA: Let us know when you get back from lunch OK , because if your buying into that swill of analysis the next thing your going to say is what a class act Rush is.
Methinks you be a big Rush fan,if you want to idolize a Moron like Limbaugh go right ahead. It's a free country,it's just that "Guilty by association" thing I would be concerned about
March 07, 2012 4:34pm
Ms Harrop, you wrote a clear analysis of the issue that has become a shooting star to which so many have tried to catch a ride. I wrote earlier that I have been entertained by Rush for nearly 20 years and have been entertianed by Bill Maher despite his despicable descriptions of the "right" things. I defend their right to be who they are and claim that Al Franken is NOT funny. I also think all advertisers need to evaluate their budget and spend the money they can allocate in the markets that generates the best return. I seriously doubt many of them consider the dribble being broadcast on TV and watched by their target demographic really represents their company values and morals.
March 07, 2012 4:23pm
Ms. Harrop,
I am impressed with the deep thoughts and intelligence demonstrated by those who have replied to your column. Are all your followers this smart? Seems to me you deserve excellent responses to your well thought out columnds.
March 07, 2012 2:55pm
Failed truckdriver, failed DJ.
March 07, 2012 2:53pm
Slandering and shaming an innocent college student because her political views are different is not entertainment.
March 07, 2012 2:46pm
Amen to all of the above. Nothing from my vast vocabulary stores could add to what's already been written here.
March 07, 2012 2:34pm
Regarding Rush Limbaugh's recent rude, demeaning and insulting anti-feminist remarks:
Consider the source. Mr. Limbaugh is a convicted drug offender, who while still on court supervision was found to be in possession of Viagra, when leaving the United States bound for a Caribbean "paradise" that caters to sexual tourism.
Why do men take Viagra to a country that has sexual tourism? It is likely to highly probable that most men who use Viagra while engaging in sexual tourism are actually sex addicts. What is available to the sexual tourist elsewhere would merit a felony indictment in the United States.
While he may no longer be using illegal substances, Mr. Limbaugh is clearly not in recovery.
The blatant hypocrisy of his comments is truly astounding.
August 02, 2012 7:08am
DMILLERFLA, if you listened to all of Ms. fluke's statement, and not just the bits and lies the morons like Rush told you to focus on, you'd know she added into the figures the cost of going to doctor to get the prescriptions. The figure is probably higher if you factor in lost wages for missing work to go to the doctor, gas, public transportation, etc. So, the next time you boast that you did some research on the subject, go the extra mile and research all of the facts.
expresso pas cher
March 07, 2012 1:58pm
If Limbaaaaaaaaaaaaaa is impressed with anyone aside from his own big, fat, ignoramus, idiot self, that person should be crying because he/she may have done something so stupid that this idiot admires. He was dead in the water when he was discovered to sell painkillers was it not for Bush and his Dick's god and terror era. He is done and shall be gone soon, to all thinking people's relief.
March 07, 2012 1:48pm
Limbaugh is pissed at himself because he's a latent Homosexual that needs to come out of the closet. That big cigar in his mouth is his subliminal message . He reminds me of J.Edgar Hoover, I wonder if his Tutu is pink or purple
March 07, 2012 1:38pm
Ms. Harrop, any "soft spot" you might have for the "father of hate talk" must clearly in your head!
March 07, 2012 1:37pm
Ms. Harrop is being far too charitable to the weezing gasbag of right wing inanities. His "apology" was nothing of the kind. He apologized for his choice of rhetoric, not his vile and contemptuous, ummm.......analysis(?). Multi-multi millionaire limbaugh, ensconsed in the safety of his studio/cocoon, demonstrates how a great big (and by that I mean fat) virile, cigar smoking, college drop-out, draft dodging chicken hawk, thrice divorced, oxycontin popping, wing-nut "entertainer", can bring his unique and patented slander to bear on a rather courageous law school student making an honest and forthright plea for insurance companies (not the government) to fund contraception, much in the same way that the same insurance companies are willing to fund Viagra.
If this USDA certified a**hole lived in a better world, he wouldn't be on the radio. He would be in an appropriate therapeutic milieu where he would be getting the help that he desperately needs. He would be learning to recover the self esteem that was lost along the way. He would be on a treadmill loosing about two thirds of his body mass. Maybe he would be able to loose the 50 lbs. of fat lodged between his ears. But that's just my fantasy of a world that was created during the four Kucinich administrations. As it is. we are stuck in this world. And rush limbaugh is still just a yammering, mendacious, venal, vacuous, intellectually flaccid, bullying, over inflated, soul-less bladder.