Rush Limbaugh apologized on Saturday for calling Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute.”
Well, you could have knocked me over with a bulldozer, as Dorothy Parker said.
You know the story: Fluke testified very passionately before a Democratic congressional panel about contraception as an aspect of women’s health care. Rush intemperately demonized her, making it sound as if Fluke was popping birth-control pills uncontrollably and demanding Federal funding to pay for it.
The public turned on him. In his traditional style, he doubled down and stuck out his chin and dared the public to come get him.
And they – correction, we – did.
Petitions. Social media. Bad press. Bill O’Reilly tried to side with Rush the other night, and I think it actually made matters worse; it poured even more fuel on the fire, and made them both look incredible incivil and stupid.
And then the sponsors began to peel away. Carbonite. Sleep Train. Sleep Number. LegalZoom. Citrix. Quicken Loans.
See? If you want to punish a Republican, you take away the only thing he understands and respects: money.
I’m sure Clear Channel was very quick to go to Rush and give him the bad news: Apologize, babe. The jig is up. Glenn Beck got canned by Fox, and when was the last time you saw or heard anything from him? (He’s still around, and I know he still has a Tea Party / lunatic following, but he has nowhere near the audience he did once.)
Rush’s Saturday apology was thin and whiny and unsatisfying, but it was remarkable in that it’s really the first time he’s apologized for anything he’s said.
On Saturday morning, Mary Matalin said coolly that the liberals were silly to expect him to apologize; he’d never apologized for anything.
Surprise, surprise, Ms. Matalin!
I think this is really a by-product of the recent dust-up between the Susan Komen Foundation and Planned Parenthood. Komen tried to tighten the political screws on Planned Parenthood; people went nuts on the Internet about it; and overnight, Komen went from Everyone’s Favorite Pink Charity to the John Birch Society. They pulled back, they retreated. And now people have learned the power of the Internet and social media in mobilizing on these issues.
(By the way: I wonder how Komen’s fundraising is doing? I bet a whole bunch of people have realized that, instead of wearing pink and doing 2K runs, they could actually be giving money to other worthwhile organizations.)
And, even after Rush’s “apology,” another of his advertisers, ProFlowers, pulled out on Sunday. It’s almost as if they want nothing to do with him.
Buckle up, Rush. This may be only the beginning.
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