Dem leader: More advertisers should drop Limbaugh

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) is calling on advertisers of Rush Limbaugh's popular radio show to join those advertisers who have dropped the program in response to Limbaugh's three-day verbal attack on a college student.

Limbaugh issued an apology Saturday to Georgetown Law Center student Sandra Fluke after calling her a "slut" and a "prostitute" on his show last week. Miller, a leading House Democrat who co-chairs the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, said on Monday that Limbaugh's apology was insincere and unacceptable.

Miller said Limbaugh's attack on Fluke — who testified recently before Congress in support of President Obama's new contraception mandate — was "hateful, hurtful and deliberately misleading."

"I believe that Rush Limbaugh chose his words carefully when he called her a slut and a prostitute for using contraception," Miller said in a statement. "And in doing so, he called every woman who uses contraception a slut and a prostitute and as a result has lost what little credibility he might possibly have retained after his many years of intentionally inflammatory and hateful commentary."

The uproar surrounding Fluke began late last month, when Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee refused her a seat at the table during a hearing on Obama's new birth-control mandate, which requires employers' insurers to provide contraceptives without a co-pay. Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said the topic at hand was religious freedom, while Fluke intended to discuss women's reproductive health.

Democrats seized on the episode by calling Fluke to testify before the Steering and Policy Committee the following week. Her statement before that panel led Limbaugh to call her a "slut" and a "prostitute."

"She wants to be paid to have sex," Limbaugh said on his Feb. 29 show. "She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex."

On Saturday, Limbaugh apologized in a statement posted on his website, and repeated that apology on his radio show Monday.

"I've always tried to maintain a very high degree of integrity and independence on this program," Limbaugh said Monday. "Nevertheless those two words were inappropriate, they were uncalled for. They distracted from the point I was trying to make and I again sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for using those words to describe her."

A number of GOP leaders — including several Republican presidential contenders — took the rare step of distancing themselves from the conservative radio host over the initial comments, and with Limbaugh's apology they're hoping to put the episode behind them.

Miller's remarks, however, are a clear indication that Democrats — who have hammered Republicans for being out-of-touch with women's health issues — are hoping to keep the incident in the headlines for as long as possible.

"Time will not redeem Rush Limbaugh and there is no acceptable apology given his history of hateful and hurtful speech," said Miller, a close ally of  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "He chose his malicious words carefully and now he must take full responsibility and face the consequences for them."

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