Thanks Rush

Oops.

Looks like Rush Limbaugh's claim that Michael J. Fox was "faking" in his ads promoting Democratic candidates who support funding embryonic stem cell research isn't going over too well, forcing him to actually apologize before he stuck the knife in again.

"Now people are telling me they have seen Michael J. Fox in interviews and he does appear the same way in the interviews as he does in this commercial," Limbaugh said, according to a transcript on his Web site. "All right then, I stand corrected. . . . So I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong, and I will apologize to Michael J. Fox, if I am wrong in characterizing his behavior on this commercial as an act."

Then Limbaugh pivoted to a different critique: "Michael J. Fox is allowing his illness to be exploited and in the process is shilling for a Democratic politician."

He can spin all he wants; in fact, I'm surprised that he's not attacking Fox for being Canadian, and thus an illegal immigrant. But the point is that Fox has credibility that he's lending to the stem cell effort, no different than Aramaic-speaking Jim Caviezel and others are lending their credibility to the effort against it. And attacking a guy with Parkinson's disease does nothing but attract attention to the ad, which is undeniably powerful. In fact, it may just tip the Senate. This is a major point of contrast in Missouri's Senate race, which has a stem cell funding referendum on the ballot, and voter preferences clearly show Democrat Claire McCaskill's position ahead. As Billmon puts it:

If you're Claire McCaskill (Missouri) or Ben Cardin (Maryland) this is the best thing since the invention of the teleprompter. Both are running against anti-abortion, anti-stem cell Republicans; both badly need a big turnout among pro-choice, pro-stem cell voters to win. But both are also running in Border South states with large Catholic voting blocks -- i.e. states where the anti-abortion movement is strong and a pro-choice stand can alienate a lot of voters who might otherwise be willing to pull the Democratic lever.

But Rush, in his infinite wisdom, has now ensured that the issue isn't abortion. It isn't even stem cells. Now it's all about Michael J. Fox and his battle with Parkinson's Disease -- which is exactly how you don't want it framed if you're the GOP candidates in those races (or a supporter of Missouri's proposed constitutional ban on stem cell research.)

I don't know where Limbaugh got the idea that telling scurrilous lies about one of America's favorite celebrities -- and someone who enjoys a huge amount of public sympathy to boot -- was a shrewd political move. But the Dems should be damned glad he did. Considering how razor-close the Missouri race appears to be, Rush may have just single-handedly booted away a Republican Senate seat.

Go Rush! Go!

Can we get OxyContin boy to claim black people wanted to call George Allen the N-word too?