Limbaugh: "How can I be anti-woman? I even judged the Miss America pageant."

[JHB]

40. Breaking: It takes 15 years for MSM to have NOW on to comment about Limbaugh

He's been doing this sort of thing for as long as he's been on the air. If someone makes "his team" look bad, he smears the messenger in order to discredit them (ask a long list of Democratic politicians). When Fluke emerged during the "contraception panel with no women" aftermath, he did it to her. Since she wasn't a public figure few people knew who she was, and she didn't have any real history his minions could look up, so he went personal. And since he's "joked" about this sort of thing for so long, he didn't think twice about launching his slut/prostitute tirade, nor with doubling down with the sex tapes line when there was any pushback on it. After all, who's going to push back? the "NAGs" at NOW? He's been blowing off their outrage for decades. This would blow over in a few days too, he thought, and help feed the red meat to his dittoheads in the process.

The difference this time is that it comes after months of RW direct attacks on women, both individually and on organizations that provide services: Congressional Tea Partiers threatening to default on the national debt in order to attack Planned Parenthood; a host of anti-abortion and anti-contraception bills in the states, the use of Komen For The Cure to attack Planned parenthood (one of the main providers of cancer screening for poor women, which is supposed to be Komen's mission); bills for state-mandated invasive vaginal probes, the wailing about "religious liberty" over the directive that insurers have to pay for contraception too, etc.

That meant a lot fewer people were inclined to dismiss it as radio blather and a "what can you do about it" shrug, and a lot more who wanted to express their anger at what has been happening. And Limbaugh painted a big red target on himself. Add to that the way social media makes campaigns like this easier to start and easier to join, and we get what happened: a reaction unlike anything he's had to deal with before, and an unprecedented sponsor exodus. (well, some of them have merely "suspended" airing ads on his show. If they think it's safe they'll start again once this blows over. Let's keep reminding them, shall we?)