Newt Watch - Cashing In On Rush Limbaugh's "Slut-Shaming"

March 4th, 2012

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Well, even after the fat man issued his phony apology, there was at least one politician who sought to gain some advantage by dragging himself through Rush's snail-stain.

The National Journal reports:

"Newt Gingrich on Saturday used the flap over Rush Limbaugh's controversial denunciations of Sandra Fluke as a way to attack President Obama for acting "opportunistically" when he called the Georgetown University law student to express his disappointment over Limbaugh's comments.

After Limbaugh described Fluke as a “slut” and “prostitute” for advocating for subsidizing birth control, Obama contacted Fluke personally. Numerous conservatives and other GOP presidential candidates have rebuked the conservative broadcaster to varying degrees, but the former House speaker said he saw the issue much differently.

"I think the president will opportunistically do anything he can," Gingrich said in response to a reporter’s question after a rally in Hamilton. "I think the most important use of language in the last week has been the president's apology to religious fanatics, and I want to stay focused on what the president has said, and I think what he said was inexcusable and is exactly the wrong policy at a time of life and death, and playing political games is irrelevant as far as I'm concerned."

My first reaction is to suggest that Gingrich, with this act of opportunism, is the last person who should accuse anyone else of behaving "opportunistically."

What's really illuminating here is that he attempted to use the vile spectacle while simultaneously framing it as no big deal.