NEW YORK - Rush Limbaugh drew fire yesterday from many directions, including President Obama, for his depiction of a college student as a “slut’’ and “prostitute’’ because she testified before Congress about the need for contraceptive coverage.
The third-year Georgetown University law student, Sandra Fluke, received a phone call from Obama and support from members of Congress, women’s groups, and the administration and faculty at her Roman Catholic university.
Calls for Limbaugh’s sponsors to pull their ads from his radio talk show rocketed through cyberspace, and at least two companies, bedding retailers Sleep Train and Sleep Number, said on their Twitter accounts that they were complying with the demands.
Obama considers Limbaugh’s remarks reprehensible, according to White House spokesman Jay Carney. He said the president called Fluke to “express his disappointment that she has been the subject of inappropriate personal attacks’’ and to thank her for speaking out on an issue of public policy.
“The fact that our political discourse has become debased in many ways is bad enough,’’ Carney said. “It is worse when it’s directed at a private citizen who was simply expressing her views.’’
“What was really personal for me was that he said to tell my parents that they should be proud,’’ a choked-up Fluke told MSNBC.
Fluke was given a chance to talk to Congress on Feb. 23, even though lawmakers were on a break and just a few Democratic allies were on hand to cheer her on. The previous week, a Republican-controlled House committee had rejected Democrats’ request that she testify on the Obama administration’s policy requiring that employees of religion-affiliated institutions have access to health insurance that covers birth control.
Fluke said that Georgetown, a Jesuit institution, does not provide contraception coverage in its student health plan and that contraception can cost a woman more than $3,000 during law school. She spoke of a friend who had an ovary removed because the insurance company would not cover the prescription birth control she needed to stop the growth of cysts.
On Wednesday, Limbaugh unleashed a lengthy and often savage verbal assault on Fluke.
“What does it say about the college coed . . . who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex?’’ Limbaugh said. “It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex.’’
He went on to suggest that Fluke distribute sex tapes of herself.
“If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it,’’ he said.
Senator Scott Brown, a Massachusetts Republican, also called on Limbaugh to apologize. A Brown spokesman said that as the father of two daughters, the senator found the remarks offensive and reprehensible.
Massachusetts Democrats have criticized Brown’s decision to cosponsor an amendment that would have let employers claim a moral exemption to offering contraception coverage.
Brown defended the measure, which was defeated Thursday, as a protection of religious liberty.
Washington congressman Dicks says he will retire
SEATTLE - As a young man, he worked for the late Warren Magnuson, a towering figure in the US Senate known for his ability to strike deals and work with his fellow Democrats as well as Republicans. Almost four decades later, Norm Dicks rose to nearly equal stature in the House, famous as a fierce advocate for his state and labor interests but still able to count opponents as friends.
Dicks shocked the political establishment yesterday, announcing he will retire at the end of the year after 18 terms in Congress. “At some point you have to retire. I just decided this was the right time,’’ Dicks said.
The top Democrat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, the 71-year-old former college football player has a reputation as a defender of the Pentagon and the Boeing Co. and its unionized workforce. The aerospace company employs thousands of people in his district. Dicks earned a reputation as an inside player, popular with Democrats and Republicans.
“I have rarely had the chance to work with someone of his decency, strong work ethic, jovial character, and honesty,’’ said Representative Hal Rogers, a Kentucky Republican. “Norm has never hesitated to work together to maintain the comity and spirit of bipartisanship that is the hallmark of the appropriations committee.’’
Dicks said he is particularly proud of the work he has done to protect the waters of Puget Sound and help restore the downtowns of Tacoma and Bremerton, the main cities in his district.