The Rush Limbaugh-Sandra Fluke birth control controversy took a disgraceful turn Friday when CNN's Piers Morgan and magician Penn Jillette discussed watching the conservative talker have sex.
The host of Piers Morgan Tonight also said, "I would love to know who Rush Limbaugh has had sex with over the years, how many times he has sex (video follows with transcript and commentary):
PIERS MORGAN, HOST: But when -- when I hear Rush Limbaugh go on like this, he sounds like some archaic --
PENN JILLETTE: Exactly.
MORGAN: -- Dickensian dinosaur. It's like we're -- mate, we're in 2012. You ridiculous, old man.
JILLETTE: I think it's going to be really hard for us to argue about this.
MORGAN: Is it?
JILLETTE: Yes, I agree --
MORGAN: Well, do you -- or do you have a slight position because you're an atheist, that actually -- this is what happens --
JILLETTE: No. No. No.
MORGAN: -- when you -- when you take religion to its extremities?
JILLETTE: Well, I -- I actually think that this does certainly -- anti-sex does start often in religion. But he doesn't -- he doesn't actually mention religion.
MORGAN: I would love to know who Rush Limbaugh has had sex with over the years.
JILLETTE: You would?
MORGAN: How many times he has sex.
JILLETTE: You would?
MORGAN: Yes.
JILLETTE: Oh.
MORGAN: I want to see what he does in his perfect little world. The idea that some student who is taking responsibility for her life, who is probably struggling. I don't know about her case -- but many students struggle financially, because in this country it's very, very expensive to go to college.
JILLETTE: Yes.
MORGAN: Let's wake up and get real. The idea that she wants to take responsibility, she's at law school, and she wants to take responsibility for her life. She's sexually active, and she's saying, "I want to have contraception." This makes her a slut and a prostitute? I think it's absolutely disgusting.
Actually, Limbaugh didn't say Fluke was a slut for wanting to have sex or use birth control. His point was her desire for others to buy her contraceptives was prostitute-like, a distinction that has been completely lost on her supporters in the media.
Another sleight of hand by Limbaugh's detractors has been in depicting Fluke as some young, innocent college student.
Quite the contrary, Reuters reported Saturday that she's a 30-year-old women's rights activist making her hardly the victim the press have made her out to be.
But let's get back to Morgan and Jillette for things really took a turn for the surreal on CNN Friday night:
(LAUGHTER)
JILLETTE: I was -- I was so kind of gob smacked by that, because I don't, I'm not sure I share that with you completely.
MORGAN: I'm amazed --
(CROSSTALK)
JILLETTE: But I'll get into it. I'll go -- I'll go with you. I'll go with you. I'll go watch Rush Limbaugh have sex with you.
MORGAN: That's perfect.
JILLETTE: I'll do that. I'm not -- I'm not completely comfortable with it.
(CROSSTALK)
MORGAN: I actually tell you anything I'd rather let's do than watch him have sex, but I would love to be his interrogatory about his private life as he wants to be about this woman, because she's acting perfectly responsibly.
So it's okay for a CNN anchor and a magician to joke about watching a conservative talk radio host have sex, but it's verboten for said conservative talk radio host to joke about women who have their birth control purchased by taxpayers having to make videos of their sex acts in return?
Doesn't make much sense, does it?
