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Rep. Steny Hoyer to Sandra Fluke: You should probably sue Rush, you know
Hotair ^ | 03/06/2012 | AllahPundit

Posted on 03/06/2012 6:46:17 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Given the insane mileage Democrats are getting from this story, he could probably get David Boies to represent her pro bono. Anything to keep the headlines coming.

Someone, I forget who, tweeted a few days ago that they’d happily bet ten grand that Fluke will get a cameo speaking appearance on one of the first nights of the Democratic convention. Anyone want to take that bet? Bear in mind, Obama’s already dialing up women’s colleges and inviting himself to speak at commencement in hopes of squeezing every last drop of war-on-women goodness out of this fiasco. At the rate we’re going, Fluke might introduce him at his acceptance speech.

“I’d like to see her take him to court,” said Hoyer, who was in Selma for the annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee. “She is not a public figure and, for that reason, she should be able to sue for slander, libel or whatever else might be involved.”…

Joseph Lowery, former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said he is familiar with “vintage Rush Limbaugh.”

“(Fluke) has ample room to sue him and I hope she does because he’s gotten rich off the mess he causes,” said Lowery, who joined Hoyer and other national leaders in condemnation of Limbaugh.

She’s got two problems trying to beat him on a defamation claim. One: Hoyer’s probably wrong when he says she’s not a “public figure” for First Amendment purposes. Courts will treat someone as a “limited-purpose public figure” under certain circumstances; according to the EFF’s summary of the law, typically that applies to someone who “(a) voluntarily participates in a discussion about a public controversy, and (b) has access to the media to get his or her own view across.” Fluke voluntarily testified before Congress and, lord knows, she has all the access to the media she could ever want. Assuming she’s a “limited-purpose public figure,” that means she’d have to show that Rush was more than just negligent in calling her a “slut” but acted with reckless disregard for whether it was true. Not an impossible standard to meet but more difficult, and his extended apology today may affect the calculus. The other problem is that, at bottom, he was making a crude joke more than a sincere accusation of fact. His point was that if you want someone else paying for your birth control then you’re kinda sorta being paid to have sex, in which case you’re kinda sorta a prostitute. That analogy is obviously different from claiming earnestly that someone’s promiscuous, but Rush did go on and on and on with it, especially in riffing on the absurdity of the $3,000 figure, so who knows how a jury would disentangle it. Would the line, “She’s having so much sex it’s amazing she can still walk, but she made it up there,” be viewed in the larger context of the point he was making or would it be viewed as a bona fide assertion of fact? I don’t know. Defamation lawyers, any insights?

You’ll be pleased to know that Bill Maher, the chief villain in Kirsten Powers’s j’accuse of liberal men this weekend, has a nifty new HuffPo post up talking about what it’s like to grow up a poor man and then donate $1 million to Obama’s Super PAC, Priorities USA. Among the people circulating his post on Twitter: Bill Burton, senior strategist and co-founder of … Priorities USA. You know, I’m starting to think they might not give back the money.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: altereddate; limbaugh; rushlimbaugh; sandrafluke; sandytheslut; stenyhoyer
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To: SeekAndFind
Message to Steny: DISCOVERY

You are going down hard azzhat.

21 posted on 03/06/2012 7:09:31 AM PST by VRWC For Truth (Throw the bums out who vote yes on the bailout)
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To: SeekAndFind

Gee. I wonder if Rush can afford a good private detective...

This woman would be so drug through the mud and, frankly, if she is a typical 30ish lesbian in twenty first century western civilization that has reached a point where the democrats desperately wanted a press conference with her in the first place, he could prove she really IS a slut 20 times over.

And they know it.

There will be no lawsuit. It is why Rush apologized for his choice of words, rather than the generic accusation itself. In a court of law, the evidence would be clear that the choice of words fit. Of that I have absolutely NO doubt.


22 posted on 03/06/2012 7:10:40 AM PST by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: Linda Frances

Yep, DO IT!

Rush has deep pockets and lots of powerful friends. The lefties won’t win this battle.

This is about an Assault by the Left on All Christians, Jews and some other faiths. An Assault to the very bedrock of our nation, the Freedom of Religion. You know, the Freedom of Religion granted by God and written into the 1st Amendment of our Constitution.

Doubt Ms. Fluke will want to participate in her own destruction.

FUBO!


23 posted on 03/06/2012 7:13:52 AM PST by Texas Fossil (Government, even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one)
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To: cuban leaf

RE: . I wonder if Rush can afford a good private detective...

Errr... Rush paid Elton John a million bucks to sing for a few hours at his wedding.


24 posted on 03/06/2012 7:13:52 AM PST by SeekAndFind (question)
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To: SeekAndFind

—RE: . I wonder if Rush can afford a good private detective...

Errr... Rush paid Elton John a million bucks to sing for a few hours at his wedding.—

So. Maybe he could get two! ;-)


25 posted on 03/06/2012 7:17:51 AM PST by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: Kansas58

It’s kinda comical when you think about it: Suing someone for calling you a slut.

I mean, although so many have pointed out by simply using the word “discover” it doesn’t really emphasise this enough: When you sue someone for calling you a slut, you are giving them permission to prove, in a court of law, that they were justified.

And all that that implies.

It really is comical. I would like to see her do it for the entertainment value, if nothing else.


26 posted on 03/06/2012 7:20:22 AM PST by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Given her exploits and being a brain-dead liberal, there ought to be enough pictures on the web of Ms. Fluke (rhymes with) in compromising positions and in various states of undress to make the slut label stick.


27 posted on 03/06/2012 7:26:42 AM PST by backwoods-engineer (I will vote against ANY presidential candidate who had non-citizen parents.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Nope, she’s long since lost her “Private” Status, when she put herself out there to take on Georgetown and Conservatism... sorry Sandra, you’re Fluked.


28 posted on 03/06/2012 7:31:43 AM PST by dps.inspect (the system is rigged...)
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To: SeekAndFind

Sue for what? Being called a slut?

Show the clips of the View when Laura Ingraham was on, with all the yentas yukking it up about how they call each other slut all the time, it’s no big deal, Laura, lighten up.

Then show the clip of the show when Sandra Fluke is on, and oh, how horrible, you poor deal, Rush is horrible, blah, blah, blah.

Move for dismissal.


29 posted on 03/06/2012 7:33:31 AM PST by exit82 (Democrats are the enemies of freedom. Be Andrew Breitbart.)
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To: cuban leaf

probably well under ware, I mean way...


30 posted on 03/06/2012 7:33:31 AM PST by dps.inspect (the system is rigged...)
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To: SeekAndFind

Rush has the ability to hire the very best counsel and investigators. Plus there’s that little thing called discovery in litigation.

Ms Fluke will be in the news for another 7 days, and then she’ll be a trivia question. Rush will continue to make tens of millions per year. The world will move on.


31 posted on 03/06/2012 7:33:50 AM PST by lurk
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To: SeekAndFind

The truth doesn’t matter when liberals are out there, making their political statements and scoring their debate points.

Only conservatives are held to any standards.


32 posted on 03/06/2012 7:35:33 AM PST by Dilbert San Diego
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To: SeekAndFind

The truth doesn’t matter when liberals are out there, making their political statements and scoring their debate points.

Only conservatives are held to any standards.


33 posted on 03/06/2012 7:35:51 AM PST by Dilbert San Diego
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To: MarkL

I hope everyone on FR will read Andrew Breitbart’s book, “Righteous Indignation,” and will then get to work. Andrew died trying to open the eyes of this nation to the corruption which will take us down. It has ratcheted up to unbelievable heights in the days since his death..


34 posted on 03/06/2012 7:43:02 AM PST by jazzlite (esat)
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To: SeekAndFind

I am amazed how elected officials involve themselves in dustups between private citizens.


35 posted on 03/06/2012 7:44:18 AM PST by ScottinVA (GOP, meet Courage... Courage, meet GOP.)
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maybe Steny can call her up for a date...he's single but would probably need to get some free Viagra first..

her parents need to be exposed so we know what kind of background she came from...has to be LIBERAL, political.

36 posted on 03/06/2012 7:46:17 AM PST by haircutter
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To: SeekAndFind
the dems are experts at creating diversions from the truth and real issues facing this country and too many are foolish enough to keep falling for it. gene pool issue
37 posted on 03/06/2012 7:48:33 AM PST by drypowder
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To: cuban leaf

The term “slut” has no precise meaning. So proving it as defamation would be pretty tough.

I believe Rush also referred to her as “a prostitute.” Unless he can prove she has accepted money for sexual services, Rush would not have truth available as a defense for that one.


38 posted on 03/06/2012 7:49:53 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: VRWC For Truth
Message to Steny: DISCOVERY You are going down hard azzhat.

Rush's good friend Mark Levin was licking his chops over discovery on his show yesterday. I imagine he'd be more than happy to help out his good friend.

39 posted on 03/06/2012 7:51:36 AM PST by Marathoner (Obama has his own 9-9-9-plan: $9.99 a gallon at the pump.)
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To: MarkL

I almost wish she had testified under oath to Congress because perhaps then you could get her for perjury as she misrepresented the price of the pills.

If you can get them for under $100/year, you don’t have to pay $1000/year or $3000/3years.

She would have been corrected and made to look the idiot fool she is IMO for whining that she needs someone else to pay $100/yr for pills while her tuition (if she’s full time in the law school) is $46,865.00.

IMO she already sounded like a moron when she said she saw the concern over lack of free contraception on faces of the women there.

If you see concern on someone’s face, how do you know it’s over contraception and why would you assume contraception as opposed to a breakup with a boy friend, death of a friend or relative, bad medical news, bad grades... How far down that list comes contraception.

IMO she made herself (and this campaign) look ridiculous and I’ve got to wonder if Georgetown’s reputation can be damaged by having this level of intellect represented as part of its student body.


40 posted on 03/06/2012 7:52:02 AM PST by Sal (Soros owns ALL the 'Rats and the GO PEE (self appointed Establishment Elite)
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