THE PHONY FLAP OVER FLUKE

The rift between the Obama administration and Israel over what to do about Iran’s nuclear program was on public display last week.  More U.S. troops were murdered by their Afghan ‘allies.’  A Gallup survey predicted a sharp increase in the unemployment rate.

But media attention was focused on the flap caused when radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh called Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke a nasty name.

Colleges should be required to include contraception in insurance policies for students because "without insurance coverage, contraception, as you know, can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school," Ms. Fluke, 30, testified Feb. 27 at an ersatz ‘hearing’ of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee.  

"For a lot of students who, like me, are on public interest scholarships, that’s practically an entire summer’s salary," she said.  "Forty percent of the female students at Georgetown law reported to us that they struggled financially as a result of this policy."

If Ms. Fluke and her friends actually are spending ‘over $3,000′ on birth control, they must be having way too much sex, Mr. Limbaugh said on his radio program last week (2/28).

"According to Planned Parenthood — and they should know — birth control pills cost between $15 to $50 a month.  So, at most, that would be $600 a year," he noted. "What is Sandra Fluke buying?”

At a dollar each, condoms are a bit more expensive.  But to spend $1,000 a year on condoms, Ms. Fluke would have to have sex 2.74 times a day every day, calculated CNS News reporter Craig Bannister.

Ms. Fluke’s testimony was a legitimate target for ridicule.  But then Mr. Limbaugh called her a ‘slut,’ and she became a victim.  

Democrats denounced Mr. Limbaugh on the floors of Congress, and to any reporter who had a microphone handy. Some advertisers dropped his radio program in protest.  Barack Hussein Obama called Ms. Fluke to commiserate.  

Thus she’s an instant celebrity.  Ms. Fluke got more air time on broadcast and cable television than did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Washington for what amounted to a public confrontation with President Obama at the annual conference of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Mr. Limbaugh apologized Saturday (3/03), as he should have.  Ms. Fluke refused to accept it. 

Her fellow liberals are selective in their indignation over misogyny, columnist Kirsten Powers wrote yesterday (3/05).  MSNBC talk show host Ed Schulz called conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham a ‘right-wing slut,’ she recalled.  He and other liberal commentators have made sexist remarks about Sarah Palin, Rep. Michele Bachmann, and conservative columnists S.E. Cupp and Michelle Malkin.

"If Limbaugh’s outburst is part of the ‘war on women,’ then what is the routine misogyny of liberal media men” Ms. Powers asked.

"It’s time for some equal-opportunity accountability," she said. "Without it, the fight against media misogyny will continue to be perceived as a proxy war for the Democrat Party, not a fight for fair treatment of women in the public square."

A proxy war for the Democrat Party is precisely what this flap is about.  Religious schools such as Georgetown must provide contraception and abortificants in their health insurance plans, even if they have moral objections, the Obama administration has ruled.

This is a clear assault on the First Amendment, and is — understandably — highly unpopular with Catholic clergy.  

So Democrats want to ‘change the narrative.’  The purpose of Ms. Fluke’s testimony was to recast contraception as a ‘women’s health’ issue. Had Mr. Limbaugh restricted comment to Ms. Fluke’s preposterous demand that a Catholic university subsidize her sex life, the ploy wouldn’t have worked.

Nor would it have worked if Mr. Limbaugh had responded as Newt Gingrich did on ‘Meet the Press’ Sunday when host David Gregory pressed him to comment of the Fluke flap.

"I don’t like the framing (of the issue) because I think the framing was false," said Newt. "That young lady has access to contraception every day. There’s no place in America where it’s illegal to go get contraception. What the question is, is should a religiously affiliated institution be required to provide abortion pills?  Should they be required to provide sterilization?  This is a very serious fundamental fight about religious liberty."

But when Mr. Limbaugh made a crack about Ms. Fluke’s character, he fell into the Democrat trap, and this very serious fundamental fight about religious liberty was obscured, as they intended.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.