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House GOP leaders distance themselves from Limbaugh 'slut' comments
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) took the rare step Friday of criticizing radio host Rush Limbaugh, who earlier in the week called a Georgetown University law student a “slut” and a “prostitute.”
The Speaker “obviously believes the use of those words was inappropriate, as is trying to raise money off the situation,” a Boehner spokesman said.
A spokesman for Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said, "It's not language the majority leader would condone."
Democrats and women’s groups are furious over Limbaugh’s remarks, directed at Sandra Fluke, the law student who was not allowed to testify at a House Oversight Committee hearing last month about the Obama administration's birth-control mandate.
Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said his hearing was not about the contraception policy itself, but rather about religious freedom and whether the mandate encroaches on religious employers.
Democrats have launched an aggressive fundraising and organizing push and called on Republican leaders to disavow Limbaugh’s comments.
The Republican campaign committees and candidates have also made fundraising pitches off the contraception debate.
It’s rare for the GOP establishment to distance itself from Limbaugh, a powerful voice with the party’s base who is no stranger to controversy or anger from the left. But that anger has been especially pronounced this week, and Limbaugh waded into an issue where Republicans are already fighting accusations of a "war on women."
During his shows on Wednesday and Thursday, Limbaugh called Fluke a “slut” and said she should release sex tapes in exchange for receiving birth control without a co-pay.
“I will buy all of the women at Georgetown University as much aspirin to put between their knees as they want,” Limbaugh said on Thursday’s show, channeling earlier comments from a prominent donor to GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum, Foster Friess.
Even before Limbaugh jumped into the fray, House Democrats had raised more than $1 million off of the controversy surrounding the all-male panel on which Fluke wasn’t able to testify. And they’ve stepped up their campaign since Limbaugh launched his initial attack.
His comments are also another setback as the GOP tries to reframe the debate over the White House’s contraception mandate. Republicans argue that they’re not opposed to contraception and that the issue is fundamentally about religious freedom, not women’s health. But, like the all-male witness panel and the remarks from Santorum’s donor, Limbaugh’s commentary put the focus squarely on women.
