With one phone call, President Obama has forced the Republican candidates for president into a Sophie’s Choice with potentially far-reaching implications: Do they stand up to Rush Limbaugh, who made divisive comments about a law student this week, or do they stand up for a highly influential conservative leader who’s embarrassed the Republicans who’ve crossed him in the past?
Early indications are Rick Santorum has chosen the former path. Other candidates have yet to weigh in.
On Friday afternoon, President Obama called Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown law student who was once best known as the woman Republicans would not allow to testify on their all-male panel about birth control access. Fluke has been a main target of Limbaugh’s in recent days, who first called her a “slut” and then suggested she put some sex tapes online so Rush and his fans could watch ’em.
Here’s video of Fluke describing the conversation, which the White House confirmed Friday:
Limbaugh’s attack on Fluke has been a burning issue for days, and Democrats have already made noise about it at the congressional level, urging members of Congress to condemn Limbaugh’s “patently offensive and obscene language.”
This whole thing has played out several times before. Back in 2009 — just days before Obama was sworn in — Limbaugh made headlines when he said he hoped the new president would “fails“. Republicans distanced themselves from the comment and from Limbaugh, only to face strong enough blowback that they were forced to beg for forgiveness after Limbaugh’s sizable conservative fan base wouldn’t take their political leaders crossing Rush.
Obama’s decision to personally weigh in on the Fluke issue elevates it to the presidential level. And that puts the GOP presidential candidates in the same awkward boat as congressional Republicans in 2009.
The Obama campaign wouldn’t comment on whether it was a strategic decision to volley Limbaugh back into the headlines the weekend before Super Tuesday. One Republican consultant said now that Limbaugh’s the issue, the candidates need to tread lightly. The consultant advised the candidates to deflect inevitable questions about Limbaugh and try to steer the conversation back to the administration’s mandate on contraception coverage, which Republicans still think is a winning issue for them.
Santorum appears not to be following that advice. In an interview with CNN Friday, Santorum dismissed Limbaugh’s comments, but didn’t condemn them.
“He’s being absurd, but that’s you know, an entertainer can be absurd,” Santorum said. “He’s in a very different business than I am.”
Calling Limbaugh “an entertainer” landed former GOP chair Michael Steele in a lot of hot water with the base back in ’09, and Steele later apologized. The consultant said Santorum’s take won’t necessarily damage him.
“It is a hard calculation for Santorum. It would not surprise me if his voters don’t listen to Rush but family radio. They might find Rush too harsh,” the consultant said. “Newt probably is the candidate whose voters listen more to Rush so it might not hurt him and it might raise his profile.”
Mitt Romney is taking a different approach so far.
“When CNN tried to get Romney to comment on Limbaugh he walked right by our camera,” tweeted Jim Acosta Friday.
Romney may be able to keep away from this, for now. He’s not scheduled to appear on any of Sunday shows this weekend, and his participation in Mike Huckabee’s pre-Super Tuesday televised candidate forum probably won’t mean he’ll face questions about Rush. The other two candidates are not so lucky. Santorum is scheduled for a slot on Fox News Sunday and Newt Gingrich is set to appear on four of the Sunday morning talkers.
