Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University law student who has become a "poster child" for Democrats since Republicans wouldn't let her testify at a House hearing about President Obama's policy on contraception, said today she was stunned and outraged Wednesday when conservative radio broadcaster Rush Limbaugh called her a "slut" and "prostitute" on his nationally syndicated show.
"It's important to think about that in our society in certain sectors this is evidently still acceptable" discourse, she said on NBC-TV's The Today Show. "That's really problematic."
Her university also weighed in. School President John J. DeGioia says in a statement that:
"In recent days, a law student of Georgetown, Sandra Fluke, offered her testimony regarding the proposed regulations by the Department of Health and Human Services before a group of members of Congress. She was respectful, sincere, and spoke with conviction. She provided a model of civil discourse. This expression of conscience was in the tradition of the deepest values we share as a people. One need not agree with her substantive position to support her right to respectful free expression. And yet, some of those who disagreed with her position — including Rush Limbaugh and commentators throughout the blogosphere and in various other media channels — responded with behavior that can only be described as misogynistic, vitriolic, and a misrepresentation of the position of our student. ...
"In an earlier time, St. Augustine captured the sense of what is required in civil discourse: 'Let us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance. Let us not, on either side, claim that we have already discovered the truth. Let us seek it together as something which is known to neither of us. For then only may we seek it, lovingly and tranquilly, if there be no bold presumption that it is already discovered and possessed.'
"If we, instead, allow coarseness, anger — even hatred — to stand for civil discourse in America, we violate the sacred trust that has been handed down through the generations beginning with our Founders. The values that hold us together as a people require nothing less than eternal vigilance. This is our moment to stand for the values of civility in our engagement with one another."
Limbaugh says the "left has been thrown into an outright conniption fit" by his comments and hasn't backed down because he thinks Fluke wants the government to "pay for her to have sex" by requiring that employers offer health insurance that covers women's contraception costs.
One advertiser, Sleep Train Mattress Centers, that it's pulling its ads from Limbaugh's show because "we don't condone negative comments directed toward any group."
Update at 2:55 p.m. ET. Limbaugh Repeats His Words:
The Huffington Post reports that today on his show, Limbaugh "doubled down on his incendiary comments." According to Huffington, Limbaugh said of Fluke that in her news media appearances she's signaled that "she's having so much sex she can't pay for it, and we should."
Update at 1:30 p.m. ET. Obama Calls Fluke:
Politico reports that "President Barack Obama called Sandra Fluke on Friday to express his concerns to the law student who was called a 'slut' by Rush Limbaugh. 'He encouraged me and supported me and thanked me for speaking out about the concerns of American women,' the third-year Georgetown University law student said on Andrea Mitchell Reports."
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