I am a slut.

Before this week, I didn't know I was a slut. But Rush Limbaugh set me straight:



What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex? What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute.

Sandra Fluke is the Georgetown law student who testified about the necessity of providing insurance coverage for birth control. She spoke about her friend who suffers from polycystic ovarian syndrome, which was being treated with birth control pills, until she could no longer afford to shell out $100 a month for her treatment.

Ms. Fluke did not talk about her own sexual activity. She did not claim that she was having so much sex that she could not afford the cost of contraception. She did not demand that she be paid for having sex.

But no matter—according to Rush, Ms. Fluke is a slut. I don't know what dictionary Rush is using, so let's see if we can suss out what exactly he thinks makes Ms. Fluke a slut:

Maybe it's because she can use the word "contraception" without blushing. So can I. Guess that makes me a slut.

Maybe it's because she cares about women having affordable access to necessary medical care. So do I. Guess that makes me a slut.

Maybe it's just because she's a woman. So am I. Guess that makes me a slut.

And you know what? If you can talk about contraception, care about women's health, or have the audacity to possess a vagina, you're a slut too.

When he was called out for his obscene attack on Ms. Fluke, Rush didn't back down; he doubled down:



It was Sandra Fluke who said that she was having so much sex she can't afford it. [...] She's spending $3000, $1000 a year, on pills and she's going broke and wants us to buy it. [...] By her own admission, in her own words, Sandra Fluke is having so much sex that she can't afford it. [...] Does she have more boyfriends? They're lined up around the block. Or they would have been in my day.

Ms. Fluke said none of those things, but you know the Republican rule: When you're losing an argument, just make shit up and hope no one notices. This afternoon, Rush issued an " apology ," in which he basically said he was sorry if any sluts were offended by being called sluts, but if they weren't such sluts, he wouldn't have to call them sluts. Some apology, eh?

Of course, people did notice. Like Republican Rep. Darrell "Vaginas violate my religious liberty" Issa in Congress:



Democrats are largely to blame for the name-calling and personal insults of the contraception debate, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) charged Friday. [...]

“While your letter raises important concerns about these inappropriate comments and the tone of the current debate over religious freedom and Obamacare, I am struck by your clear failure to recognize your own contributions to the denigration of this discussion and attacks on people of religious faith,” Issa said in response to Cummings.

You see, if those damn sluts hadn't objected to Issa's No Girls Allowed hearing about how birth control makes Catholic bishops sad, Rush Limbaugh wouldn't have had to attack those sluts for being sluts. See? It's all their fault. You might even say they were asking for it.

Bill O'Reilly, who once had to pay millions of dollars to settle a sexual harassment claim, so you know he's highly educated about what makes a woman a slut—refusing to have sex with Bill O'Reilly and his falafel—also joined Rush Limbaugh in his slut crusade:



"Let me get this straight, Ms. Fluke, and I'm asking this with all due respect," he said. "You want me to give you my hard-earned money so you can have sex?" (Fluke is actually calling for her university's private insurance plan to cover birth control.) O'Reilly went on, saying that, since Fluke wanted society to cover her "activities," the government should also have subsidized his college football uniforms, since an injury might "cost society a lot." He also said that perhaps taxpayers should pay for gym memberships for men so they could stay physically fit.

Women

But a funny thing happened on the way back to the 17th century.Sluts took notice too. Known slut and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called Limbaugh's attack "obnoxious." The sluts at the Washington Post wrote in an editorial, "This is not the way a decent citizen behaves."

Even President Obama, the slut-in-chief himself, called Ms. Fluke to offer his support:



"He encouraged me and supported me and thanked me for speaking out about the concerns of American women," Fluke said. "What was really personal to me was he said to tell my parents that should be proud, and that meant a lot because Rush Limbaugh questioned whether or not my family would be proud of me, so I just appreciated that very much."

The sluts of America are fighting back, and they're hitting Rush right where it hurts: his corporate sponsors . Sleep Train, Select Comfort/Sleep Number, Quicken Loans, Cleveland Cavaliers, Citrix and LegalZoom have all pulled their support from Rush's show. [Late today, the CEO of Carbonite announced that despite Rush's "apology," Carbonite is pulling its support too.]

So, sluts, you know what to do: Click here to send an email to Rush's other corporate sponsors, demanding that they stop supporting him and his slut crusade.

And then click here to tell Bill O'Reilly's sponsors to drop him like a hot falafel.

This week’s good, bad and ugly below the fold.