Limbaugh and Fluke

Rush Limbaugh's latest revolting outburst has been well covered by bloggers such as Smartypants, Progressive Eruptions, Plutocrap, and Gothic Atheist. But I was especially struck by Limbaugh's subsequent remarks:

So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it, and I'll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.

I really doubt a guy as rich as Limbaugh is at all hard up for sex videos of whatever genre he finds appealing. But he knows his audience. His suggestion is perfectly crafted to appeal to the dirty, smutty, sniggering, nudge-nudge wink-wink attitude about sexuality which is typical of the repressed prudes who listen to him, vote for Santorum, and otherwise feel at home on the modern sexophobic right wing. The fact that it was also a degrading and invasive slap at a woman who dared stand up to the prudish patriarchy made it all the more lip-smackingly salacious to that type. It doesn't matter that Fluke's testimony wasn't even about her own sexual history (not that most Limbaugh listeners probably even watched it) -- she was made a stand-in for the unapologetically sexual kind of modern women they find so threatening, and targeted as such.

But as a columnist cited by Progressive Eruptions notes, "If Limbaugh hasn’t gone too far this time, then 'too far' no longer exists." It's long past time for this bloated gasbag to meet his Hindenburg moment. President Obama himself called Fluke with thanks for speaking out -- well merited too, given the guts it takes to brave the vomitous cesspit that the right wing has become. Parsley's Pics has posted the names and contact info of companies that still buy advertising on Limbaugh's show, and I suspect they'll be hearing from plenty of people.

Limbaugh, at least, need not fear pay-back in kind. I can't imagine anyone wanting to see videos of whatever he gets up to down in Puerto Plata.