The gracious and the hideous: Sandra Fluke and Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh is an old hand at attack music – for example, mocking Elizabeth Warren's ethnic heritage with a rendition of Cher's otherwise respectable hit "Half Breed":
"Half Breed" by Cher
As most anyone who had a heart beat in 2008 will recall, even President Obama has been the target of Limbaugh's none-too-magical musical broadsides. (I'll offer Today's Ironic Limbaugh Fact about that, below.)
Would it surprise you, then, to learn that Rush Limbaugh supplies a playlist to his subscribers including the song "Funky Fluke"? Even if you're not a Limbaugh subscriber, you can see a partial playlist including that title here. (I'll include a version of the jazz tune, below.)
Oh, and I'm providing a three-fold bonus today. In addition to all the other goodies, there's a poll! |
Many of Limbaugh's attacks on people are neither subtle nor artsy, however; most are as flagrant as Mitt Romney is awkward.
Since early March there have been a host of Rush references, mentions, and insults targeting Sandra Fluke. Rush first mentioned Fluke on February 16 (two weeks before his three day tirade) when he observed, "Maloney pressed Issa to allow Sandra Fluke, a law student from Georgetown University, to testify about the impact of the new requirement that most health plans offer contraceptive coverage with no co-pay." Rush immediately followed that statement of fact with this empty assertion: "I don't want to mention any names 'cause the point is not to criticize any particular individuals." Sure, Rush.
The intense Rush tirade against Fluke – from which "slut" and "prostitute" type excerpts filled the news and social media, shocking the conscience of a nation – began on February 29, and continued through the first two days of March. Perhaps you've heard some of the most egregious slurs. One popular compilation, Caught On Tape: Limbaugh's Seventy Sexist Smears, comes from ThinkProgress:
Caught On Tape: Limbaugh's Seventy Sexist Smears
You won't be surprised to learn there are additional examples of Rush obsessing with Sandra Fluke, both during, and since the putative Limbaugh "apology". Please peruse the list, and other goodies, right after the skitter.
Examples of Limbaugh obsessing with Sandra Fluke:
February 29, 2012 |
Day One of Limbaugh's tirade, too many attacks to list |
March 1, 2012 |
Day Two of Limbaugh's tirade, too many attacks to list |
March 2, 2012 |
Day Three of Limbaugh's tirade, too many attacks to list |
March 3, 2012 |
[Apology issued in a typed bulletin on a Saturday, not a normal broadcast day for Rush] I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke. –Rush Limbaugh |
March 5, 2012 |
[Day of verbal apology, moral obfuscation and renewed attacks] [W]e've looked [Sandra Fluke] up. I mean she's a full-fledged activist for women's causes. And she has been in Berkeley, she's traveled all over the place. Cornell, she graduated from the women's studies courses there. She's a full-fledged feminist activist... she's a gender activist –Rush Limbaugh |
March 5, 2012 |
Democrats decided that Sandra Fluke would be a better witness for them, not because she had any special knowledge or credentials like Barry Lynn has, but because her optics as a woman and a college student... "Sorry, it's too late. She hasn't been vetted. We don't know who she is. She doesn't have any real qualifications to appear before this committee." ... Sandra Fluke gave vague examples based on unnamed friends ... Her testimony was hearsay, and it was unprovable... Democrats ... use Sandra Fluke to create a controversy. Sandra Fluke used them to advance her agenda... I descended to their level, using names and exaggerations to describe Sandra Fluke. It's what we have come to know and expect of them, but it's way beneath me... I descended to their level. –Rush Limbaugh |
March 13, 2012 |
The Democrats, they are gonna rue the day that they ever conceived this trick because it is going to backfire on 'em." Remember? I said that on February 24th. I said, "[I]t is going to backfire on 'em," and they're going to rue the day they tried this. They're gonna rue the day they created this war on women, and they're gonna rue the day that they brought Sandra Fluke on as a Democrat operative. –Rush Limbaugh |
March 13, 2012 |
The same PR firm that handled Sandra Fluke's episode is handling Game Change (the HBO movie), and you know who it is? Anita Dunn, formerly of the White House! The Mao Tse-tung admirer... –Rush Limbaugh |
March 13, 2012 |
...the [congressional hearing] that Fluke was not allowed to testify at because she's not an expert... –Rush Limbaugh |
March 13, 2012 |
This is a story that's in the Weekly Standard. It's by John McCormack. "How's the great contraception mandate battle of 2012 playing out? ... from March 7 to 10 -- a week into the national media firestorm surrounding Rush Limbaugh's degrading remarks about Georgetown Law student and liberal activist Sandra Fluke -- Washington Post/ABC conducted another poll. It found Obama's approval rating at 46%, down four points
–Rush Limbaugh |
March 28, 2012 |
I got an e-mail recently from a relatively new friend who lives overseas, and knows only of the Sandra Fluke incident... –Rush Limbaugh |
March 28, 2012 |
I don't care what they tell you has been the result of this Fluke business, [Obama] is hurting with women. –Rush Limbaugh |
March 29, 2012 |
I want to go back to this Steven Hayward piece: "The Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Month for the Left -- First came the Sandra Fluke controversy. What looked like a well-staged triumph for the Left because of a rare overreach by Rush Limbaugh resulted instead in a ferocious blowback against Bill Maher, Louis C.K.," and he goes on and on –Rush Limbaugh |
April 16, 2012 |
It was fine to manufacture phony outrage during Sandra Fluke, and it was fine to keep that going for three weeks... –Rush Limbaugh |
April 24, 2012 |
Sandra Fluke is just a poor, isolated, alone little college student worried about her contraception at Georgetown. –Rush Limbaugh |
April 24, 2012 |
For you young people, Sandra Fluke tweeting today warning about interest rates doubling on July 1st? Obama at the University of North Carolina warning, scaring you that interest rates on student loans doubling on July 1st? ... Don't listen to Obama. Don't listen to Sandra Fluke. –Rush Limbaugh |
April 25, 2012 |
Sandra Fluke is being represented by Anita Dunn and her PR agency. Hilary Rosen and Anita Dunn, former White House employee. I mean, there's coordination. There's no doubt there's coordination between the White House and Anita Dunn in how they're using Sandra Fluke. –Rush Limbaugh |
April 27, 2012 |
Sandra Fluke is also out talking about how her student loan rate's gonna double, and it won't. Her interest rate will not go up, either, despite the claims she's making in her tweets. If I understand this right. There's a lot of confusion that I will have to admit to here on this. But the bottom line is that the Republicans have never wanted the interest rate to double. It's been a Democrat idea from the get-go. –Rush Limbaugh |
May 15, 2012 |
...the contrived Sandra Fluke thing... –Rush Limbaugh |
July 10, 2012 |
[O]ur audience has expanded geometrically ever since that Fluke business. –Rush Limbaugh |
August 7, 2012 |
Her death was not due to lack of health care. I know. I know. I know. I know. I've gotta back out. Folks, this is where I get in trouble, way too honest here. This is way too insensitive, and I can't do this. It's gonna be Fluke all over again if I go any further with this. If I go any further with this the whole thing is gonna turn around to be about me now. –Rush Limbaugh |
August 8, 2012 |
Well-known contraception expert Sandra Fluke is introducing Barack Obama. –Rush Limbaugh |
August 9, 2012 |
Last night on Hannity, Ann Coulter showed up and she was asked about the return of Sandra Fluke. You know, Fluke went out there and introduced Obama in Denver. Obama said Romney is threatening women. He's going to take you back to the 1950s. What does that mean, by the way, for women: Going back to the 1950s? Is that what it means? "You have to clean your house"? "No birth control pills, clean the house, wash the dishes, barefoot and pregnant"? That's what that means? "Gotta cook for your husband and shut up and like it"? That's what's going back to the '50s is? So Obama's saying that's what Romney wants to do. And when you finish all that, you've got to take care of the horses. Okay. So Hannity said to Ann Coulter, "Will the return of Sandra Fluke really score points with the voters for Obama?"
But imagine if Ann Coulter had not said it and I came out and said: "You know what?
"Let me tell you something about the Democrat Party base. Let me tell you who it really is. It's divorced, separated, single women. It's women who are looking for government to be their husbands because for whatever reason they can't find a man to provide for them. (gasp!) That's the base of the Democrat Party." If I or any man -- not just me, if any guy -- had said that? See Coulter can get away with it because she's a woman saying it. Coulter has also said that she thinks the problems with our welfare state, the entitlement state, started the minute women got the vote. Because women look to government to be their husbands. –Rush Limbaugh
|
August 31, 2012 |
She's probably worried what will happen if, you know, Bill hits on Sandra Fluke. I mean, that could be embarrassing. –Rush Limbaugh |
September 4, 2012
|
Bill O'Reilly, in a rare excursion into humor (Did you hear about this?) suggested when Sandra Fluke speaks, instead of dropping balloons they drop condoms. And more bodily fluids are emanating from the cavities of the face of Mr. Snerdley. Yep, and Sandra Fluke is profoundly offended by this –Rush Limbaugh |
September 5, 2012 |
That is the lowest in the ABC poll since Obama took office, and that is after all the money they spent on the War on Women. All that stuff with Sandra Fluke was for nothing. All this stuff with the War on Women and buying birth control pills. And now last night's first two hours of the convention: All abortion, all the time. The abortions just keep on coming. –Rush Limbaugh |
September 5, 2012 |
If Obama is Going to Skip the Balloon Drop, It's Time for O'Reilly's Idea (To Drop Condoms) ... So tonight is Bill Clinton and Sandra Fluke night –Rush Limbaugh |
September 27, 2012 |
Obama doesn't believe this victim business. He needs 'em. Liberalism is oriented around as many victims as possible, creating victims. What the hell was Sandra Fluke, if not a victim? –Rush Limbaugh |
All of this, of course, is just a small fraction of the loathsome, insufferable intolerance of Rush Limbaugh over the past six months. And without question, there's much more to come.
Of course, Limbaugh's downward spiral continues, because of a growing social media backlash. Even some prominent voices in the radio broadcast industry are predicting, or calling for Limbaugh's demise. The more who flock to the dozens of activist groups seeking to flush rush, the sooner the end will come. (Join us?)
The greatest threat to Rush Limbaugh's continued bigotry and propagandizing is the activism of consumers, volunteers, and activists who seek to hold Rush accountable for his hate speech by joining Flush Rush on Facebook, and other groups that use the StopRush Database to inform advertisers about where their ads are appearing. Please consider joining. |
Here is Today's Ironic Limbaugh Fact: When local radio stations have run out of advertisers that they can dump into the Rush Limbaugh Show (because so many sponsors have fled), the result is the default audio provided by the network. The default network audio is typically a series of skits that portray President Obama, Liberals, Blacks, Mexicans, Women, or other Rush targets in a compromising or ridiculous circumstance. (These can also frequently be heard on streamed audio, when the ads are not passed through to that format.) Here's the irony: whenever you hear "Barack The Magic Negro" these days, it just may be an indication that the radio station is losing money on the Rush Limbaugh Show. Lately, there are a few radio stations which are playing a lot of these spoofs! |
Also as promised, here is "
Funky Fluke". Listen as you vote in the poll below:
"Funky Fluke" by Johnny Griffin and the Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Quintet