Rush Limbaugh rips Obama 'hypocrisy' on Sandra Fluke

Rush Limbaugh didn't much like what Obama had to say Tuesday about the still-reverberating Sandra Fluke 'slut' controversy. Limbaugh said the president hasn't denounced crudeness from fellow Democrats.

Rush Limbaugh ripped into President Obama on Tuesday for Mr. Obama’s comments about the Sandra Fluke “slut” controversy. He called Obama a hypocrite for criticizing his harsh words about Ms. Fluke, saying the president gives a free pass to similar language from liberals.

Mr. Limbaugh mentioned in particular an incident from Labor Day 2011 when, prior to an Obama address to a rally in Detroit, Teamsters President James Hoffa said of the tea party, “Let’s take these sons of bitches out.”

Obama only chuckled at that incident, said Limbaugh.

“It just goes to show the rules don’t apply to Democrats.... The double standard is alive and well,” said Limbaugh on his show, according to a transcript posted on his website.

To recap, at a White House press conference Tuesday, Obama said that Limbaugh’s verbal attacks on Fluke disturbed him as a father. He added that the reason he telephoned the Georgetown University law student to see if she was doing OK was because the incident brought his own young daughters, Sasha and Malia, to mind.

“One of the things I want them to do as they get older is to engage in issues they care about, even ones I may not agree with them on. I want them to be able to speak their mind in a civil and thoughtful way,” said Obama.

At the press conference, Obama also said he “did not know what’s in Rush Limbaugh’s heart” and so would not comment on the sincerity of the talk-show host/provocateur’s apology for his actions.

Limbaugh reacted strongly to this assertion, saying, “He doesn’t know what’s in my heart. I’ll bet he knows what’s in Jeremiah Wright’s heart. He was in Jeremiah Wright’s church for 20 years.”

The Rev. Mr. Wright, a longtime Chicago-area pastor, has made comments widely criticized as racially and religiously divisive. At one point he said of the 9/11 attacks that “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”

In May 2008, while running for president, Obama said he was “outraged” by some of Wright’s statements and resigned from his church.

As to what is in his own heart, Limbaugh said that anyone who listened to his show would know that.

“Everybody knows what kind of person I am. All of this is trumped up for political purposes, pure and simple,” said Limbaugh on his show.

Meanwhile, in defense of Limbaugh some conservative commentators have begun charging that Democrats are simply trying to silence conservatives on the question of whether the government should mandate that employer-provided health insurance provide contraceptives to women. That’s the issue that Fluke was discussing in her appearance before an informal congressional panel.

“What is happening here is an organized campaign by the left to shut down opposing views from the right,” wrote Erick Erickson, editor of the conservative RedState blog.