On Monday night, Rachel Maddow unleashed liberal columnist Connie Schultz to rail nonsensically against Rush Limbaugh, that his attack on Sandra Fluke was conflated into an attack on her daughters and "the girls of mothers all across this country regardless of their politics." Would someone read that back to Schultz? What about all the conservative mothers and daughters who are Limbaugh fans? They were attacked?
Schultz wants to imagine that all women love abortion and free love -- well, free as long as your estimated $3,000 of law-school contraceptives are funded by a government mandate. It was four minutes into her rant that Maddow made the tiny little point that Schultz -- introduced merely as a syndicated columnist -- is married to liberal firebrand Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who's on the ballot in 2012.
On the Maddow website, they summarized the Schultz segment as "Rush offense rankles women nationwide." All women are liberals. Fact check? This is the relevant portion:
RACHEL MADDOW: But did Mr. Romney have to be more forceful here than saying that Rush Limbaugh used words he wouldn`t have used?
CONNIE SCHULTZ: Let me rescue you from this worry you`re being too harsh. I am -- you know, when I -- I watched Ms. Fluke`s testimony live. And we have -- our oldest daughter is exactly her age, just almost exactly and she is in law school. And we have three other young women, two daughters and a daughter-in-law, mother of our only grandchild, all of reproductive age.
Rush Limbaugh does not understand what he unleashed when he said those words because, you know what? He went after my girls. He went after the girls of mothers all across this country regardless of their politics. And that is what he has completely underestimated -- as have these candidates.
What is the down side to saying you don`t ask women, young women to post video, he asked for video, Rachel, of this young woman. He called her a slut because she wanted to be responsible about birth control. They have no idea yet it seems to me, what`s been unleashed but they are about to find out. There is no going back on this one.
Schultz stumbled about the "our" daughter business since she and Brown married in 2006. They have no children together. Schultz was so angry she had to repeat herself:
MADDOW: Connie, you`re getting at something I think has been hard to articulate in all of this, which is that this isn`t your standard political or even ad hominem insult. There is the fact that he used word slut and prostitute, that he used these gendered terms against a young woman speaking out on an issue of sexual health, and that has -- the way you`re described it, it`s unleashing something. It`s landed in a different way than a typical insult would, even in a typical slander would. And why do you think that resonates among women in that way specifically?
SCHULTZ: Well, I can tell you why it resonates for women of my generation, we remember hearing these sort of things when we were first fighting for this right. I remember hearing this in the 70s. We were hearing this if we dared not to wear bras to the classroom in college.
And what we never guessed after all these years, after all this progress, that we would be back to this and that he would be going -- and I can`t emphasis this strongly enough, Rush Limbaugh, you went after my girls when you said that. You went after my beloved daughters, when you said that, and you have crossed a line that you cannot recross.
Only then did Maddow say "as a matter of full disclosure also it`s relevant your husband is Sherrod Brown, U.S. senator from Ohio."
MADDOW: And Ohio`s politics -- I mean, heading in Super Tuesday, Ohio state-based politics have been very much hit by this Republican tide of sharply anti-abortion legislation, Ohio has had a raft of different anti-abortion measures, including a lot of them similar to the ones that have really got people protesting very angry across the state. Do you think that has changed the way that women will be voting? Do you think it`s changed the way people are thinking about electoral politics?
SCHULTZ: I do. And I`ll tell you one of the reasons that I think -- I have been at a number of Planned Parenthood rallies or speeches in the last few months in Ohio, and I have been attending these for years. I have always pro-choice, and you mention my husband. You know, I looked up his record on choice and on gay rights before I would even go out with him. So, he had to be where I need him to be.
This is the same couple that told Ohioans how deeply religious they were in a story about their marriage:
Schultz said their faith has helped get them through the toughest times.
''We both have a very strong spiritual faith,'' said Schultz. ''We also have a deep faith in what we're doing.''
Brown agreed, saying ever since he went to Israel with two Jewish friends a decade ago, he's found Christ's Sermon on the Mount to be an inspiration in both his personal and professional life.
''They took me to the top of the hill where Jesus is believed to have preached the Sermon on the Mount,'' he said. ''The guide handed me the Bible, opened to Matthew 5, and said Ôread this.' So I read the sermon and it was so exciting. To me, the Sermon on the Mount is the best sermon ever preached, and maybe the best political speech ever delivered. It's a big part of where my political views come from. The great traditions in Jewish and Christian teaching are about what you extend to the least among us, and what you believe about social justice.''
Schultz said politicians on the Left need to be vocal about their religion. ''I've written about how the far Right co-opted Christianity,'' said Schultz. ''It's important for those who are progressive to re-stake their claim to the faith.''
