Someone Take the Shovel Away from Limbaugh

Because he's just digging himself in deeper with this sad attempt to clarify his troop bashing comments. A hat-tip to Jules Siegel on Pff, who alerted me to Rush Limbaugh's attempt to correct the record on his use of the term "phony soldiers." Limbaugh's explanation?

I was not talking, as Contessa Brewer said here, about the anti-war movement generally. I was talking about one soldier with that "phony soldier" comment, Jesse MacBeth.

But Limbaugh did not say "phony soldier." He said "phony soldiers," plural.

It only gets worse from there.

Media Matters had the transcript, but they selectively choose what they want to make their point. Here is -- it runs about 3 minutes and 13 seconds -- the entire transcript, in context, that led to this so-called controversy.

But, even as Limbaugh accuses Media matters of creative editing, he provides a transcript that is creatively edited. His "entire transcript" is missing over a minute of dialog between his "phony soldiers" comment and his subsequent reference to the infamous Jesse MacBeth.

I love the smell of desperation in the morning.

Also worth a look is Jon Soltz's blog on The Huffington Post, in which he poses the following challenge to Limbaugh:

My challenge to you, then, is to have me on the show and say all of this again, right to the face of someone who served in Iraq. I'll come on any day, any time. Not only will I once again explain why your comments were so wrong, but I will completely school you on why your refusal to seek a way out of Iraq is only aiding al Qaeda and crippling American security.

Ball's in your court.

And if you're in the mood for some really creative editing, (or "creative edititing," as it says on the video) this wing-nuttized version of Soltz's appearance on "Hardball," discussing Limbaugh, was the only one I could find on YouTube.