Sluts, Snobs and Social Sanity

Conspiracy theory: Is Rush Limbaugh trying to take the heat off Rick Santorum in the Off-the-Wall Olympics?

The mouthiest presidential candidate in memory was getting attention this week for his “snob” and “throw up” criticism of the President and JFK until El Rushbo took after a Jesuit university law student with his “slut” and “prostitute” aria over her backing of contraception.

Now, as Santorum poo-poos Limbaugh’s comments as those of an entertainer and Mitt Romney, as always, evades and waffles, Barack Obama calls 30-year-old Sandra Fluke to console her over the attacks and back her position.

“The Democrats are desperate,” Limbaugh responds with his usual logic. “This is all they’ve got...to impugn and discredit the people who disagree with them.”

All this recalls Maureen Dowd’s account of a long-ago encounter with Limbaugh when she was a reporter interviewing a rising talk radio star:

“He arrived in a chauffeured town car and ordered $70-an-ounce Beluga, Porterhouse and 1990 Corton-Charlemagne...

"At our long-ago dinner, Limbaugh credited his success with being 'one-dimensional.' 'I’m totally concerned with me,' he said. And that was way before he got a contract for $400 million, so we can only imagine how one-dimensional he is now.

"But on Sunday, he ripped the president for having 'an out-of-this-world ego,' for being 'very narcissistic,' 'immature, inexperienced, in over his head.' (Isn’t immaturity scoring OxyContin from your maid?)

"It gives new meaning to pot, kettle and black."

Looking back at the Limbaugh that was, now four-times married with no offspring of his own, it’s not likely he’s trying to help out Santorum, just doing what comes naturally in a world that has lost so much traditional decency that it will give ratings and votes to the kind of people who used to be considered “wacko” beyond the pale.

Update: Today Dowd herself goes after Limbaugh in a column titled "Have You No Shame, Rush" that starts: “As a woman who has been viciously slashed by Rush Limbaugh, I can tell you, it’s no fun.

“At first you think, if he objects to the substance of what you’re saying, why can’t he just object to the substance of what you’re saying? Why go after you in the most personal and humiliating way?”

It’s well worth reading her double-length takedown.