MoveOn Hits Rush Limbaugh, Rick Santorum For Comments About Women

Ramping up the already white-hot debate over gender politics, the progressive advocacy group MoveOn.org Political Action is launching a national campaign ad, highlighting some of the harsher statements made by conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, former Sen. Rick Santorum and others.

The spot, which is a minute long and will air on cable, features female MoveOn members reading, verbatim, the defining lines from the past month's debate over contraception coverage. It's an effective bit of messaging, if only because the statements sound even cruder in the ad than when they were originally delivered. It is also further evidence that Democrats see the Republicans' "women problem" as not just merely a wedge issue to drive women away from the GOP but as a defining difference between the parties.

According to a MoveOn.org official, the ad "is being released to coincide with GOP primaries in Alabama and Mississippi, two states looking to enact new measures attacking women’s basic rights."