“The chair of the Democratic National Committee has called out GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney for not condemning comments by radio personality Rush Limbaugh about a law student who testified on Capitol Hill in support of the administration’s health care law.

“‘The bottom line is, the leading candidate on the Republican side for president couldn’t even bring himself to call Rush Limbaugh’s comments outrageous and call him out and ask him to apologize,’ Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the DNC leader, said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday…

“‘There is a dramatic contrast between President Obama and his view that women who have access to affordable health care, including contraception, and Mitt Romney and the Republicans, who believe that women should not,’ she said.”

“‘The lie was that somehow she was asking that taxpayers pay for contraception,’ Axelrod said on ABC’s This Week. ‘The policy is that in basic insurance policies, contraception — contraceptive services, birth control, should be included.’

“Axelrod added, ‘even in his sort of quasi-apology last night, Mr. Limbaugh continued that falsehood, and it needs to be challenged.’…

“Axelrod said Obama ‘did the right thing’ in calling Fluke, and ‘I think what Rush Limbaugh said about that young woman was not only vile and degrading to her, but to women across the country.'”

“Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul said an apology by conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh to Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke for calling her a ‘slut’ and a ‘prostitute’ was not sincere, and was made only because it best served Limbaugh…

“‘He’s doing it because some people were taking their advertisements off of his program. It was his bottom line he was concerned about,’ Paul said…

“‘I don’t think he’s very apologetic,’ Paul said. ‘It’s in his best interest, that’s why he did it.'”

“What we are saying is that Mr. Limbaugh has abused his unique position within the conservative media to smear and vilify a citizen engaged in the exercise of her First Amendment rights, and in the process he debased a national political discourse that needs no further debasing. This is not the way a decent citizen behaves, much less a citizen who wields significant de facto power in a major political party. While Republican leaders owe no apology for Mr. Limbaugh’s comments, they do have a responsibility to repudiate them — and him…

“Incivility is not a one-way street in America. Far from it: Mr. Limbaugh’s left-wing equivalents have trashed any number of conservatives over the years. Conservatives have a point when they protest that the ‘mainstream media’ don’t always heed their legitimate grievances…

“For the good of U.S. political culture — or at least its own political self-interest — the GOP must distance itself from Mr. Limbaugh. In response to listener complaints and, apparently, the promptings of its own corporate conscience, Sleep Train Mattress Centers has quit advertising on Mr. Limbaugh’s show. Dare Republican leaders show less decency?”

“But if Limbaugh’s actions demand a boycott—and they do—then what about the army of swine on the left?…

“[T]he grand pooh-bah of media misogyny is without a doubt Bill Maher—who also happens to be a favorite of liberals—who has given $1 million to President Obama’s super PAC. Maher has called Palin a ‘dumb twat’ and dropped the C-word in describing the former Alaska governor. He called Palin and Congresswoman Bachmann ‘boobs’ and ‘two bimbos.’ He said of the former vice-presidential candidate, ‘She is not a mean girl. She is a crazy girl with mean ideas.’ He recently made a joke about Rick Santorum’s wife using a vibrator. Imagine now the same joke during the 2008 primary with Michelle Obama’s name in it, and tell me that he would still have a job. Maher said of a woman who was harassed while breast-feeding at an Applebee’s, ‘Don’t show me your tits!’ as though a woman feeding her child is trying to flash Maher. (Here’s a way to solve his problem: don’t stare at a strangers’ breasts). Then, his coup de grâce: ‘And by the way, there is a place where breasts and food do go together. It’s called Hooters!’…

“This is not to suggest that liberals—or feminists—never complain about misogyny. Many feminist blogs now document attacks on women on the left and the right, including Jezebel, Shakesville, and the Women’s Media Center (which was cofounded by Steinem). But when it comes to high-profile campaigns to hold these men accountable—such as that waged against Limbaugh—the real fury seems reserved only for conservatives, while the men on the left get a wink and a nod as long as they are carrying water for the liberal cause.

“After all, if Limbaugh’s outburst is part of the ‘war on women,’ then what is the routine misogyny of liberal media men?”

“The tables have turned. Abortion used to be a matter of choice. Ditto birth control. But now that they have considerable political power, the erstwhile choice advocates want to take away the choice of dissenters to opt out.

“Choice is gone. Tolerance is musty memory. ‘Access’ is the new buzzword — and access means free. Under Obamacare, employer-paid health plans can charge women copayments for necessary and vital medical services if they are seriously ill, but birth control is free…

“What is more, Fluke asserted that if students have to go out and get their own birth control — because they chose to attend a Catholic institution — that hurts their grades. Therefore, Washington must force religious institutions to go against their deeply held beliefs and hand out birth control, if indirectly.

“Washington has accomplished a great leap, from a plea for choice to a roar of entitlement.”

“Barack Obama’s campaign to convince voters that ‘America is back’ is a dud, so they want everyone to look at the squirrel. When the media comes asking about Limbaugh, the Republican politician’s response ought to be: ‘I want to discuss the issues Americans actually care about — don’t you?'”

“When NBC’s Meet the Press host David Gregory brought up Limbaugh, Gingrich started shaking his head.

“‘I am astonished at the desperation of the elite media to avoid rising gas prices, to avoid a presidential apology to religious fanatics in Afghanistan, to avoid a trillion dollar deficit … and suddenly decide that Rush Limbaugh is the real national crisis this week,’ he said.”

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