[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3017-3018]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1020
                      RUSH LIMBAUGH'S ``APOLOGY''

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Here's how sorry Rush Limbaugh is for his attacks on a 
law school student who dared to give her opinion about access to 
contraception coverage. He's so sorry that a full transcript of his 
tirade, including the words he ``apologized'' for, was available 
yesterday under the heading ``Most Popular'' on the home page of his 
Web site.
  He's so sorry that the verbatim document of his March 1 rant, in 
which he repeated his name-calling of Sandra Fluke and mocked Democrats 
for criticizing him, is right on his Web site today under the title 
``Left freaks out over Fluke remarks.'' Also on Limbaugh's ``Most 
Popular'' list today is ``Democrats Are Desperate: Obama Calls Sandra 
Fluke, the 30-Year-Old Victim.'' I don't mean was on his Web site, 
before he decided to apologize; I mean it's there today. Just click on 
the link.
  And this Monday, Limbaugh talked at length about the discoveries his 
staff had made about Ms. Fluke. Apparently, in Rush Limbaugh's world, 
part of apologizing is researching and criticizing the person you're 
apologizing to. I want to give you a sample of Limbaugh and his crack 
research team's eye-opening discoveries:
  Here's Limbaugh, verbatim, on March 5:

       This woman, well, we've looked her up. I mean she's a full-
     fledged activist for women's causes. And she has been to 
     Berkeley, she's traveled all over the place. Cornell, she 
     graduated from the women's studies courses there. She's a 
     full-fledged feminist activist.

  America, I join you in being shocked at the discovery of these facts. 
Sandra Fluke has traveled all over the place. She's even taken women's 
studies courses at Cornell. Women's studies? No wonder she gives her 
opinion in public and thinks that women should have some say over their 
health and reproductive choices. I mean, what would you expect from 
somebody who went to Cornell?
  There's more. You see, I did my own research, Limbaugh. It shows that 
Toni Morrison, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Mae Jemison all went to Cornell, 
too. And what do these three troublemakers have in common? It's 
obvious. They're women, women who somewhere in their lives, most likely 
at Cornell, the same place that brainwashed Sandra Fluke, got the idea 
that they could accomplish anything they wanted to and speak about it 
in public and have their opinions respected.
  Morrison--Nobel Prize. Ginsburg--the Supreme Court of the United 
States of America. Mae Jemison even got that great crazy idea she could 
be the first black woman in space. Shocking.
  Mr. Speaker, here are the facts. A glance at Rush Limbaugh's Web site 
makes it obvious that he continues to spew nonsense and that he's not 
the least bit sorry for what he said. It makes plain that he deeply 
resents women who speak their mind. Those who do are ``full-fledged 
feminist activists'' who deserve only his scorn.
  There are, however, some things to visit Mr. Limbaugh's Web site for. 
If you want a bumper sticker calling Obama, the President of the United 
States, a socialist, or a T-shirt promoting Rush Limbaugh for the Nobel 
Peace Prize, then his Web site is the place for you. But if you want a 
sincere apology from a man who is sorry that he called a decent young 
woman a ``slut,'' you're looking in the wrong place.
  Now, the truth is that what a radio talk show host thinks about 
Sandra Fluke really doesn't matter, except for one important point: the 
Republican Party respects and fears Rush Limbaugh. The three leading 
Republican contenders for President of the United States won't take him 
on. Three men who are so tough that they compete daily with each other 
to say the most disparaging things about President Barack Obama, three 
tough

[[Page 3018]]

talkers who promise to keep us safe from terrorists, these tough guys 
are struck speechless and cowardly by a man sitting behind a microphone 
in his mansion out in Palm Beach, Florida.
  When a talk show host calls a decent American woman a slut and a 
prostitute, that's sad and wrong. But when Mitt Romney, the Republican 
Party's frontrunner for President, is asked about it and all he can say 
is ``it's not the language I would have used,'' then it's a leadership 
crisis. I guess Mitt Romney would have said she was a ``lady of the 
night.'' What he should have said was, ``Rush Limbaugh, you're dead 
wrong. Stop it.''
  It's time for all Americans to say enough is enough. And it's time 
for anyone who wants to be a leader--even Republicans who are terrified 
of Rush Limbaugh--to stand up for treating every woman with decency and 
respect.

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