“Rush, I know that this all sounds very personal - and it is.” (Gloria Allred/Rumorfix)
CHICAGO, March 11, 2012—Celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred unleashed a two-pronged attack on Rush Limbaugh this week. She sent an open letter to RumorFix demanding, yes demanding, that Rush be criminally prosecuted in Florida under an obscure 19th century statute that protects the reputations of women.
It is one of those archaic laws, found in many states, that was never taken off the books.
Allred is appalled by Limbaugh’s vulgar and profane attack on Sandra Fluke, the 23-year-old 30-year-old professional activist, who just happens to be a law student, on her way to being a professional celebrity activist.
Fluke has retained Anita Dunn, one of the president’s former communication advisors, to represent her. This is no ingenue.
Fluke has not retained Gloria Allred - yet. But in the grand tradition of ambulance chasers Allred stated, “I don’t reach out to women, they reach out to me.” And, “If she did reach out to me, obviously I would respond.” (Politico)
Translation: “Ms. Fluke, call me ASAP.”
Allred would have a soapbox and all the attention she could want. Those seem to be the only things she loves more than money.
Allred’s latest crusade is against free speech. But, like the rest of the so-called progressive movement, she’s out to stop only the free speech that offends her political sensibilities. Ed Schultz, Bill Maher, Randi Rhodes, Keith Olbermann, Mike Malloy, Al Sharpton, Louis CK, Matt Taibbi, Jesse Jackson, Progressive talk radio, and others can say whatever they want.
They are heroes, fighting the good fight for the right cause.
Gloria Allred has not attacked or writen open letters to them. Nor has she hustled clients over their tasteless, hate-filled tirades against women and men. She seems to believe that they have a greater right to free speech. They have a right to be offensive and repulsive, vile and obscene. They have a right to be misogynist or misandrist.
Their conservative opposition has no right to disagree on the same terms, that language from the right constituting hate-speech or slander.
Gloria Allred has every right to spout her anger at Rush Limbaugh. As an attorney, she should know professionally that the government cannot prosecute people for speech, and ethically the very idea should repulse her.
The law she cited would not hold up in any court in the land. Rush Limbaugh would not need an expensive team of lawyers, as a first year law student could wipe the floor with a prosecutor over such a silly charge.
Allred isn’t letting professionalism or ethics get in the way of her radical ideology. They certainly won’t get in the way of a camera or a microphone.
What Rush Limbaugh did was beyond the pale, but Fluke is a professional activist, not an ingenue. She was trained and educated to expect harsh personal criticism. It goes with the territory. When you throw your hat in the political arena you will get knocked down by the bull once in a while.
The test is whether you get up to fight the bull again or run away, while arena clowns, like Ms. Allred, distract the beast.
The real issue here is blatant hypocrisy. The left keeps demanding civility while practicing the worst forms of incivility. Their position is, “don’t do as I do, do as I say”.
This hypocrisy must be exposed and given as much publicity as Rush Limbaugh’s gaffes. It must be attacked with the same viciousness with which they attack free speech.
People like Allred must be outed and exposed for what they really are: pure, unadulterated hypocrites. They take hypocrisy to the highest levels of ridiculousness.
Prosecuting Rush Limbaugh would allow the government to chill free speech by making it a punishable criminal offense, the result that radicals of the left want. This was the main objective of campus political correctness, to hinder free speech, induce self-censorship, and eventually shut down the competitive market of ideas, no matter how repulsive. The goal is a monopoloy of speech on the left.
We have been on the road to polite censorship for decades. Few have the courage to fight back. It is easier to cravenly give in to bullies, despots, and tenure committees.
Uncivil, hateful, and obscene speech should be criticized, but never banned, censored or prosecuted. We have no constitutional right not to be offended, and just about all political speech that isn’t self-evident pap is offensive to someone.
The left isn’t fighting in defense of women, but in a war on free speech. It is a war they must not win. The only way to defeat them is to hit back at the hypocrites on the left harder than they hit at their opposition. So-called “progressives” have to be forced to care about what they say and be held to the same levels of accountability that they hold others.
Anyone who demands civility should practice it.
Others have entered the fray. Three washed up members of the she-woman-man-haters club have demanded that Rush Limbaugh be silenced by the FCC: Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem, and Robin Morgan. In an open letter on CNN they urge the FCC to pull the license of any station that airs Rush Limbaugh’s show.
Some marginal people will do anything to get attention.
The radical extremists will do anything to end free speech in America.
Peter V. Bella is a retired Chicago Police Officer, freelance writer and photographer, cook, and raconteur. He likes to be the sharp stick that pokes, prods, and annoys. His opinions are his and his alone.
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