During the Bush administration, national Democrat leaders threatened to kill the ABC network’s broadcast license if a miniseries unfavorable to the Clinton administration wasn’t censored to satisfy Democrats. ABC complied.

Earlier this year, Democrats started a push for a Constitutional Amendment to gut (literally) the First Amendment. Over the weekend, Democrats launched a campaign to get — in their own words — “Rush Limbaugh off the air.”

The petition to get Limbaugh off the air comes straight from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in the form of a fundraising/petition email. The idea is to use the muscle of the petition to in turn muscle Limbaugh’s advertisers to drop him. The phony outrage is manifested from a toxic stew of lies crafted by the DCCC and (naturally) Sandra Fluke that take Limbaugh’s recent comments about sexual assault way, way, way out of context.

Using the subject header, “PETITION: Rush Limbaugh off the air,” the hysterical email reads:

3OO,OOO Signatures Needed: Demand Rush Limbaugh’s sponsors pull their ads after his sexual assault comments.

Sandra Fluke has been the target of disgusting, sexist comments from Rush Limbaugh before. So his latest abhorrent rant is no surprise to her.

Stand with Sandra and help us hit 3OO,OOO signatures today to put real pressure on Rush’s advertisers to drop him once and for all:

Yes, the very same Democrats who joined President Bill Clinton’s crusade to personally destroy every woman who accused him of harassment, assault, and rape (Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones [with whom Clinton settled out of court], Juanita Broderick) are accusing Limbaugh of being a rape apologist.

The truth is that Limbaugh was talking about a proposed policy at Ohio State that would require explicit permission between students before engaging in any kind of sexual activity. Here’s what Limbaugh said in full. He starts by quoting the proposal:

“Consent must be freely given, can be withdrawn at any time, and the absence of ‘no’ does not mean ‘yes.'”

How many of you guys, in your own experience with women, have learned that “no” means “yes” if you know how to spot it? Let me tell you something. In this modern world, that is simply not tolerated. People aren’t even gonna try to understand that one. I mean, it used to be said it was a cliche. It used to be part of the advice young boys were given. See, that’s what we gotta change. We have got to reprogram the way we raise men. Why do you think permission every step of the way, clearly spelling out “why”… are all of these not lawsuits just waiting to happen if even one of these steps is not taken?

The campaigns the Left and their allies in the media have waged to silence conservatives like the Koch brothers and Limbaugh have been both big and small. Earlier this year, the Left pushed to remove Limbaugh from consideration in a children’s book contest that he went on to win. There is also the organized “shadow campaign” against Limbaugh that involves a small group of leftists pretending to look vast as they intimidate Limbaugh’s advertisers.

Late last year, within the context of the Senate Democrats’ decision to weaken the filibuster, Limbaugh illustrated the importance of minority rights using the crime of rape. The phony outrage machines at the Huffington Post and Media Matters immediately hit warp ten: How dare Limbaugh use “rape” to make a political point!

Today Democrats and Sandra Fluke are using rape, not only to fundraise and make a political point, but as a fascist weapon to silence political speech.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC