Selective Outrage

This recent story about Rush Limbaugh's comments regarding Sarah Fluke, the Georgetown University student who testified before Congress about availability of birth-control in her health insurance plan, has many women's-rights activists in a tizzy.  Now, I would not normally defend a man who makes such crass remarks about any woman, but in this case, the hypocrisy of the left is so outrageous, that it is time for conservative women in America to point it out.  The double-standard is apparent as liberals rail against conservatives who step over the line in a manner that is disproportionately harsh compared to their reaction to similar or even worse comments and behaviors coming from their liberal counterparts.   Let's take a look at some of the more egregious violations that have gotten a pass from liberals and women's-right's groups.  If you are offended by off-color remarks, then I suggest you read no further!

Bill Maher

Bill Maher has made a career out of tearing down conservatives of both genders, but he seems to have a particular fondness for using incendiary and shockingly tasteless comments when discussing conservative women. Women's-rights groups, including the National Organization for Women (NOW) have remained silent about Maher's tirades against conservative women.  The Democratic party and left-leaning media outlets and publications are also mum on Maher's incredibly offensive remarks.  Do they condone Maher's behavior?

Here is a just a small sampling of Maher's reprehensible remarks:

• Referenced Sarah Palin: “Did you hear this – Sarah Palin finally heard what happened in Japan and she’s demanding that we invade ‘Tsunami,’” Maher said. “I mean she said, ‘These ‘Tsunamians’ will not get away with this.’ Oh speaking of dumb tw**s, did you...”
• Routinely uses a vulgarity (c**t) when referencing Palin
• Called Bristol Palin a wh*re and a twit
• Discussed having 'angry sex' with Michele Bachmann because his guests hated her so much.
• Said about the GOP presidential field: “If Bachmann and Palin both get in, that’s two bimbos"
• Talked about the wife of Senator Rick Santorum using a vibrator

Keith Olbermann

Keith Olbermann does not seem to limit his tactless remarks for conservatives only.  He repeatedly makes sexist remarks about women in general.   He has included the likes of Paris Hilton, Hillary Clinton, Lindsay Lohan, Brittany Speers in his rants.   He even called his co-worker Rita Cosby 'dumber than a suitcase of rocks'.  Yet there seems to be no similar outrage (compared to that directed at Limbaugh) coming from the left about Olberman's outrageous remarks. Why the double standard?

Here are a few examples of Olberman's crude remarks about conservative women:

• Referring to Michelle Malkin: a “mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick.” 
• Has made disparaging remarks about Malkin's ethnicity 
• Said that S.E. Cupp should have been aborted by her parents, 
• Discussed Carrie Prejean’s breasts (former Miss USA); participated in a tasteless attack
• Smashed an Ann Coulter doll to pieces while cackling maniacally

Other misogynistic leftists include:

• Chris Matthews, of MSNBC, has wondered aloud whether Sarah Palin is even “capable of thinking” and has called Bachmann a "balloonhead" and said she was “lucky we still don’t have literacy tests out there.” 
• Matt Taibbi, a left-wing blogger, described in Michelle Malkin using a very graphic sexual reference in a 2009 blog.  In his profile of  Michele Bachmann he labeled her “batsh*t crazy.”
• Ed Schultz, of MSNBC, said that Sarah Palin set off a "bimbo alert" and  called Laura Ingraham a “right-wing sl*t.” 

Now back to the Rush Limbaugh remarks that have caused such a ruckus: Limbaugh has been termed the 'shock jock' of conservatism. He regularly makes over-the-top remarks to drive his point home. I am personally not so offended with much of what Rush has to say, but I do concur that calling Sandra Fluke a sl*t did little to bolster his argument and likely undermined what he was trying to accomplish. By simply pointing out the fact that Fluke is a single female sitting before congress discussing her need for contraception, the audience would have had no trouble putting 2 and 2 together. I doubt many in Rush's audience consider Fluke a virtuous woman. I actually listened to portions of the radio-shows that are the center of this controversy, but missed some of Rush's more inflammatory remarks. I have since read some of the excerpts.

It is clear the focus of the media's coverage of Rush's remarks do not address his underlying argument:  liberals want the government to pay for everything, including birth control for liberals that choose to attend a Catholic university. Rush said that Fluke asking for insurance coverage for contraception was akin to asking the government to subsidize her sex-life, then went on to equate this with prostitution (i.e. money for sex).  This portion of Rush's argument was offensive and unnecessary, but it definitely got the attention of liberal media.  Perhaps that was his point; unfortunately, they are not playing his argument along with the term 'prostitute', so I am not sure many liberals even know what point he was making because they are not putting the offending words in the context of his argument.

The cries from liberal women and liberal organizations about Rush's comments have been relentless. They are now boycotting Rush's advertisers and making a full-out-effort to have Rush Limbaugh removed from the airwaves.  Those same women have said and done nothing to stop the vile and vicious attacks against Sarah Palin and attacks against other conservative women that go on unchecked.  This selective outrage a perfect example of liberal hypocrisy.  President Obama has even placed a phone call to Sarah Fluke to offer his support, but where is his sympathy for women being skewered routinely by the left?  I've never believed that the National Organization for Woman was really interested in women, but only interested in furthering their left-wing ideology; this selective outrage is just more evidence of that.  

Rush Limbaugh has since apologized for his remarks, but we're still waiting to hear apologies from the likes of Maher and Olbermann.  Because I have spoken out against this double-standard, I, too, am being subjected to harassment on Twitter from the left.  Godless liberals with no moral standards, sitting in judgement over conservatives.. oh, the irony.