Er, adjusts his rhetoric, I mean. Just a few days ago, Jeff Poor reported on Maher’s response to the Rush Limbaugh/Sandra Fluke nontroversy:

“Listen to this,” Maher said. “Today, Rush Limbaugh tried to drag me into this [toro caca] he caused. Let me explain. Last week, I said goodbye to a million dollars. I bought gas,” Maher joked. ”No, I made a contribution to Obama’s super PAC and Rush Limbaugh says [Obama] has to give that money back … because I sometimes call Sarah Palin a bad name…”

“OK, this analogy breaks down in so many places I can’t even begin,” he continued. “Except, let’s just start with this — Rush, I don’t have sponsors. I’m on HBO. See, that’s the great thing about being on HBO, whereas Rush Limbaugh has already lost a lot of sponsors.”

Pretty arrogant, even for Maher. But now he’s sneering a different tune:

Hmmm. Wonder what HBO’s subscription numbers look like this week? I’m still not sure why broadcasting without sponsors means Maher isn’t responsible for his own words, and apparently Maher isn’t sure either.

As has been pointed out, this whole scandal has been orchestrated to obscure the fact that Catholics are being forced to pay for stuff they’re morally opposed to. Nobody’s talking about that, me included. So, good job, dishonest libs. But it’s also an important issue in its own right. Not because of how you feel about Rush Limbaugh, but because of the way liberals and the media (PTR) try to intimidate dissenters. They don’t want an apology from Limbaugh. They rejected his apology, because apparently it’s not really an apology if you still have substantive disagreements with the person and you refuse to back down from them. No, libs just want what they’ve always wanted. They want him to shut up.

Which is the same reason they’re fine with conservative women being attacked and maligned. (You can take a trip down memory lane here.) The goal is exactly the same: to intimidate the target into silence.

Here’s the thought process, if you want to call it that: “The awful things Limbaugh said about that woman are wrong because he’s evil, and the awful things that are said about Palin and other conservative women are okay because they’re evil.” Liberals don’t see the double standard because the very concept of standards is foreign to them. It’s about stifling dissent. It’s tribalism. If you don’t like the way you’re being treated, you evil conservatives, you should’ve thought about that before you refused to join their tribe.

Of course, Obama doesn’t want to talk about the misogynist rhetoric his biggest supporters use. Neil Munro found out firsthand:

President Barack Obama today declined to criticize his supporters’ sexually themed insults of female GOP politicians, including recent comments from comedian Bill Maher and a band called The Roots.

The Daily Caller asked the president about those insults during an afternoon press conference, his first of 2012.

“Should Bill Maher apologize for what he said about Republicans?” TheDC asked. “Should The Roots apologize [for] what they said about Bachmann?”

The off-the-cuff question, which was noticeably absent from the official White House transcript, came just after Obama criticized radio talker Rush Limbaugh for insulting Democratic activist and law student Sandra Fluke.

Of course they left it off the transcript. It doesn’t fit the narrative. A USA Today reporter asked a similar question, and Obama blew that one off too. He refuses to condemn or even address the hate speech used by his supporters.

Oh, but this part was delightful:

“The reason I called Ms. Fluke is because I thought about Malia and Sasha, and one of the things that I want them to do as they get older is to engage in issues they care about — even ones that I may not agree with,” he said at the White House Tuesday.

“I don’t want them attacked or called horrible names because they’re being good citizens,” Obama added.

Obama wants to protect women who participate in the political process… as long as they agree with him. And he’s standing up against misogynist rhetoric… but only if the perpetrator disagrees with him.

All you have to do is never, ever disagree with Obama. How do you feel about that, America?

P.S. There are so many examples of the left’s tremendous respect for women, I can’t even keep track. Remember this one from just a month ago?

[dcvideo videoid=”24778619″ name=”ndnPlayer_24778619″ type=”ndn” width=”640″ height=”360″ /]

Who do you think that kid is rooting for, Romney or Santorum?

P.P.S. John McCormack, Nick Gillespie, and Allahpundit have more.

P.P.P.S. Another one from last July. This time Maher is only a bystander. The loveliness starts at the 2:30 mark:

I had completely forgotten about that one. This sort of hate speech from the left is so commonplace, Marc Maron’s little hate-f*** fantasy doesn’t even stand out. And just listen to that crowd of enlightened souls cry out with joy at the humiliation of their enemy. These are the people who are now scolding us.

P.P.P.P.S. I never really saw the use in Carbonite. (The online backup service, not the fictional cryonic alloy.) Apparently, neither does anybody else.

P.P.P.P.P.S. Bill Maher’s misogyny is apparently great for fundraising.