So much hypocrisy in Limbaugh-Fluke fight

Now we have, rushing to Limbaugh’s defense, none other than … Bill Maher?

Maher? The guy who claimed that to be racist and to be Republican is pretty much the same thing? The guy who said America’s super rich routinely get away with murder, just because they’re rich? (He meant that in the literal sense, not the figurative one.)

The same guy who called former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin a word that’s a lot worse than “slut”?

Time to recap. Limbaugh, on his nationally syndicated show, said that Fluke wants us to pay for her birth control. He added that she was having so much sex that she needed us to pay for her birth control, and that any woman having that much sex is basically a “slut” and a “prostitute.”

Many conservatives and Republicans felt Limbaugh’s remarks were despicable, and we simply said as much. Liberals and Democrats, as might be expected, went into overdrive.

They went after not only Limbaugh, but also all conservatives and Republicans. They ranted about a “Republican war on women,” then they tried to raise money off the controversy.

Enter Maher, via Twitter, chiding his fellow liberals.

“Hate to defend #RushLimbaugh,” Maher tweeted, “but he apologized, liberals looking bad not accepting. Also hate intimidation by sponsor pullout.”

Maher was referring to the plethora of sponsors who have yanked their ads from Limbaugh’s show. Maher probably sympathizes with Limbaugh because his show “Politically Incorrect” was yanked from ABC shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

It seems sponsors didn’t care for Maher praising the “courage” of murdering terrorist fanatics. Those sponsors weren’t trying to “intimidate” Maher; they were simply exercising their option to take their dollars where they chose.

Basically, Limbaugh’s sponsors are saying the same thing. They aren’t trying to “intimidate” him either.

There were calls for HBO to yank Maher’s show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” after he called Palin a name that was distinctly not “slut.”

How bad was it? It was every bit as sexist as what Limbaugh said, with one difference: The word “slut” can be printed in this paper.

The name Maher called Palin can’t be, because it’s that much more vile, disgusting and despicable. But I’m sure we’ve all noticed the distinctly different reactions liberals and Democrats had to what Maher called Palin, versus their reaction to what Limbaugh called Fluke.

There was no outrage among liberals and Democrats about Maher’s sexism. We didn’t hear calls from the likes of Pima County, Ariz., Sheriff Clarence Dupnik for more civil discourse in America.

Dupnik went on his now infamous civility crusade shortly after Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others were shot at a Tucson supermarket in January of last year.

Dupnik, with not a shred of evidence to back up his claim, said talk show hosts like Limbaugh motivated the shooter.

Liberals and Democrats, since January of 2011, have been acting like they invented civility. They have presumed, for the past 14 months, to instruct conservatives and Republicans in the finer points of civility.

Now, if they’d only explain to us what was civil about the name that Maher called Palin.

And will they call on Priorities USA, a super-PAC that backs President Obama, to return the $1 million donation Maher recently gave the organization?

More to the point, will Obama, our feminist-in-chief, who’s all about women’s rights and who, I assume, is against sexism, implore Priorities USA to return Maher’s misogynistic dollars?

Let’s not hold our breath waiting for that to happen. We’d all die of asphyxiation.

Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.