Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum today tried to excuse away Rush Limbaugh‘s attacks against college student Sandra Fluke, by saying Limbaugh is merely an “entertainer” who was just “being absurd.” Limbaugh over the past few days called Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” for campaigning for contraception rights, and demanded she post online videos of her having sex “for all of us to watch.” Santorum added Limbaugh “is in a very different business than I am.”
Santorum, refusing to denounce Limbaugh’s caustic and misogynistic remarks, defaulted to an attack on the President. “I’m concerned about the public policy of this president imposing his values on people, people of faith who morally object to the government telling them they have to do something, which they believe is a grave moral wrong,” Santorum said in a CNN interview.
Santorum is married to a woman who used to live with an abortion practitioner and who left him for Santorum. The couple have seven children, including three girls, and are an ardent Roman Catholics and openly anti-contraception, along with being anti-choice.
None in the Republican Party dare to actually cross Limbaugh, still viewed as the unofficial head of the GOP, except for Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, who this afternoon said via Twitter Limbaugh “should apologize,” and in so doing became the first sitting Republican politician to denounce Limbaugh’s offensive and misogynistic remarks and attacks. Brown is in a tight race against a nationwide hero, Democrat Elizabeth Warren.
Speaker of the House John Boehner, third in line to the Presidency, through a spokesman has stated he “obviously believes the use of those words was inappropriate, as is trying to raise money off the situation,†an attack on Democrats, while House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, also via a spokesperson, stated “It’s not language the majority leader would condone.”