HIT IN THE WALLET, LIMBAUGH APOLOGIZES

Rush Limbaugh doesn't apologize very often. He's been known to apologize when he offends someone famous -- BuzzFeed recounts apologies, or semi-apologies, he's issued after insulting Amy Carter, Chelsea Clinton, Donovan McNabb, and Michael J. Fox, and after chatting happily with a caller who said that her child thought then-presidential candidate Barack Obama looked like Curious George. What Limbaugh doesn't seem to do very often is retract nasty statements aimed at people who aren't famous. There seems to be only one example of that until now: In 1994 he issued a formal letter of apology to a woman named Sherrol Miller, whom he incorrectly identified in his second book, See, I Told You So, as a transsexual lesbian She had, in fact, appeared on TV talking about her husband, whom she described as a bigamist, but she wasn't a transsexual lesbian.

Why did Limbaugh apologize? Well, she sued him for libel. And now, he's kinda-sorta apologized for his remarks about Sandra Fluke because he's losing a lot of advertisers. So that's what it takes to get him to do a climbdown after he's said something outrageous even by his standards: be famous (and sympathetic) or cause him financial pain.

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Limbaugh's "apology" says in part:

I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability? Where do we draw the line? If this is accepted as the norm, what will follow? Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit?

Well, Limbaugh doesn't believe in government health care -- or, as Terry Golway of The New ork Observer discovered in 2003, private health insurance, either:

As I don't get a chance to listen to daytime radio, I can't say I'm familiar with the civic culture of Limbaugh nation. So I was mildly surprised to hear that nation's maximum leader carrying on about the stupidity of health insurance and the admirable but regrettably forgotten custom of simply paying Yankee dollars in exchange for services rendered. After all, Mr. Limbaugh told us, that's what he does when he visits the doctor! Why, he has two or three or four (he can't keep count!) health-insurance plans, including one foisted upon him by the union of radio blowhards, but he never uses these plans because he pays cash money for his medical needs. What a great nation we would be if only we were all like him! What kind of crypto-Euro-socialists have we become, that we rely on insurance companies to help pay for services we need?

It's almost more Romney-esque than Mitt Romney.