Obama Joins the Fray Sparked by Rush Limbaugh
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Official White House photo by Pete Souza(NEW YORK) — Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Friday mocked President Obama for supporting a Georgetown law student who testified to Congress that birth control should be covered by health insurance, drawing out the culture war over contraception that has consumed the political world for the past week.
Shortly before the student, Sandra Fluke, gave an interview on the cable network MSNBC on Friday, Obama called her to tell her that her parents should be proud of her for speaking out for women.
After learning of the president’s phone call during his radio show Friday, a day after he chided Fluke over her sex life, Limbaugh made a kissing noise with his lips and mocked Obama.
“That is so compassionate. What a great guy,” Limbaugh said. “The president called her to make sure she’s OK. What is she, 30 years old? Thirty years old, student at Georgetown Law who admits to having so much sex she can’t afford it.”
In response to a question from ABC’s Jake Tapper, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Obama called Fluke to “express his disappointment that she has been the subject of inappropriate personal attacks and to thank her for exercising her rights as a citizen to speak out on an issue of public policy.”
Limbaugh replied by arguing that Obama should return the $1 million donation that the comedian Bill Maher gave his super PAC.
Limbaugh continued to focus on Fluke today, saying she “hilariously” testified to Congress that “she’s having so much sex” that health insurance should cover her birth control.
“Not one person says, ‘Well, did you ever think about maybe backing off the amount of sex you have?'” Limbaugh said.
He also claimed that Democrats “want to blame me as being the person they should fear.”
Limbaugh first thrust himself into the center of the contraception debate on Wednesday when he called Fluke a “slut” on his radio show for arguing to Congress that the expense for her birth control should be covered by her employer’s health care plan.
As the Senate voted down a Republican effort that would have allowed employers not to cover contraception in their health plans, Limbaugh enraged the left by saying that Fluke was “having so much sex she can’t afford her own birth control pills and she agrees that Obama should provide them, or the pope.”
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