CO Springs talk-radio host and former GOP House candidate wonders whether Fluke’s “birth control” includes “hotel room” and “cigarettes afterwards”
Two days after Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute,” Colorado Springs talk-radio host Jimmy Lakey asked his listeners if they thought Fluke spent her “birth control” money on “cigarettes afterwards,” “booze,” and a “hotel room.”
Lakey, who ran for Congress in the 2010 Republican primary for Rep. Ed Perlmutter’s seat, said he couldn’t believe that Fluke spends $3,000 per year on birth control. He did the math and calculated her monthly birth-control expenditure to be $249.
From there, Lakey went into a jag March 4 on his 740 KVOR talk show about how in the world Fluke’s birth control could cost so much?
Lakey: Two hundred and forty nine dollars a month. That’s … Does that include the booze? Does that include the cigarettes afterwards? I mean, what does that include?
Guest Nathan Fisk: It’s gotta include something other than prophylactics, I’m sorry…
Lakey: Does that include the hotel room? Does that include…. I… I..
Fisk: [inaudible]. I don’t know.
Actually, Fluke testified that “contraception can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school,” which would make the annual spending closer to $1,000. But it’s hard to imagine that this would make any difference to Lakey. In fact, initially Lakey thought the figure was $1,000 per year.
But, to be fair, Lakey told his audience he was joking, straight up, during his show. “We make fun of Ms. Fluke,” he said. Limbaugh explained later that he was joking, and he apologized.
Here’s more of Lakey’s “fun” with Fuke’s congressional testimony:
Lakey: You know, her parents, her grandparents, all of her family has just got to be really proud. (laughter in background) They’ve got to be really proud about right now… (Impersonating Sandra Fluke’s grandfather)… “Oh, Sandra! Oh, Sandra! Oh, we’re so proud of you. We’re so proud of that Congressional testimony you had. So happy! Oh, Granpa’s happy. Come give Granpa… a little hug!…
Lakey also said on the air that he thought the congressional hearing at which Fluke testified was a waste of time, a distraction from the core job of fixing the economy. He called the hearing an “embarrassment” and he scolded House Republicans for allowing the hearing to occur at all.
“And the House committees are all chaired by Republicans,” he said. “And they said we’re gonna have a hearing about this?”
Lakey said:
Lakey: Now, I don’t know what kind of birth control the girl is using. I don’t understand… Can you imagine, in these serious times that we live in, our Congress is having hearings with a young lady who has very frequent sexual encounters in college, and this is the Congressional testimony they get. Amazing! But birth control – I thought if you’re taking the birth control pill you go like monthly, and they give you the little spindle of the pills, and you time them out and take them daily, and you’re done.
Lakey apparently thought Obama’s call to Fluke was dumb, unless he was joking.
Lakey: This girl who in Congressional testimony, saying that she is having relations of a Bill Clinton proportion on a regular basis. [Impersonating Clinton]: “I did not have sexual relations….” But she says, [still as Clinton] I did have a thousand dollars of sexual relations this year…” And she’s doing that this year. And Obama calls her to congratulate her and thank her for telling us. “Thanks for speaking out.”…Ms. Fluke gets a high five from President Obama. “Thatta girl!” It’s like a fraternity house around there.
As I write this, Lakey’s radio station, owned by Cumulus Media, prominently features Rush Limbaugh’s apology on its home page.
But there’s no apology from Lakey, who describes himself on his Facebook page as an “entrepreneur,” “humanitarian,” “former candidate for U.S. Congress in Colorado’s CD7, ” and “a frequent guest host for radio talk shows across the USA.”
Lakey did not respond to an email Monday asking if he’d apologized for his comments or if he thinks an apology is warranted.
Fisk told me in a telephone interview that Lakey is currently in Africa doing charity work, which could explain his not responding to me.
But Lakey also did not respond to my past requests for comments for blog posts about his comparing Michele Obama to Chewbacca and his laughing wildly when a caller compared Michele Obama to a character in The Planet of the Apes (though KVOR management did comment).
Fisk is not a regular co-host of Lakey’s show. He was a guest. He told me both he and Lakey thought Limbaugh’s apology was appropriate, and said so on the air. The banter about Fluke was intended to be like a “Saturday Night Live” skit, he said, pointing out that it has been over a week since the show aired and he doesn’t remember every minute of it.
“I think it was a discussion on the radio intended to actually look at what was said and to condemn words like whore and some of the other words that were used, and to make light of parts of it the same way a Saturday Night Live sketch would, but to clearly draw a line and say there were clearly some inappropriate things that were said on national radio,” Fisk told me.
Fisk has joined the show for its “Scotch and cigar segments in the past,” Lakey said on air, but I’ve never listened.
Listen here to excerpts, spliced together, of KVOR’s Lakey joking about Sandra Fluke 3-4-12
Jimmy Lakey Show (with guest Nathan Fisk), Excerpts of Commentary about Sandra Flukes testimony, March 4, 2012
JIMMY LAKEY: The girl we’re talking about, obviously, is trying desperately to create a family, but not have any result… I …She’s uh…. A thousand dollars a year. A thousand bucks a year on birth control. Right?
NATHAN FISK: Wow
JL: Did I get this story right?
NF: You did. I don’t have a good answer for you, Jimmy.
JL: Now, I don’t know what kind of birth control the girl is using. I don’t understand… I didn’t ask. They should have asked… Can you imagine, in these serious times that we live in, our Congress is having hearings with a young lady who has very frequent sexual encounters in college, and this is the Congressional testimony they get. Amazing! But birth control – I thought if you’re taking the birth control pill you go like monthly, and they give you the little spindle of the pills, and you time them out and take them daily, and you’re done. That doesn’t… That’s twelve months a year, and that doesn’t total ….
NF: Ummm
JL: A day earlier now, President Obama called her to congratulate her. (Laughs) I mean, you,…this is such a strange story. I mean, if I were Obama, you let Rush swim in it and whatever he’s got to do. Rush can dig himself out. Rush is a big boy, and Rush will be just fine. But now Obama’s out there… This girl who in Congressional testimony, saying that she is having relations of a Bill Clinton proportion on a regular basis. (Impersonating Clinton): “I did not have sexual relations….” But she says, (still as Clinton) I did have a thousand dollars of sexual relations this year…” And she’s doing that this year. And Obama calls her to congratulate her and thank her for telling us. “Thanks for speaking out.”
NF: Aren’t there more important things for Congress to be worried about? Aren’t there more…ah…absolutely right-in-front-of-us kind of issues: the economy, the election coming up, the Republicans running, whatever. And we’re talking about this. It doesn’t make any sense to me.
JL: Makes absolu… for a Congressional hearing to be going on about this, it’s absolutely … ah… positively…. dee-gusting, is what I would say…
(BREAK)
JL: Well, evidently it’s reached presidential level and Ms. Fluke gets a high five from President Obama. “Thatta girl!” It’s like a fraternity house around there.
NF: Don’t know what to tell you, Jimmy.
JL: I don’t either.l..
(BREAK)
JL: All right, the calculations were off, my friends. It’s worse than we thought. Sandra Fluke spends three thousand dollars, not one thousand, she spends three thousand dollars a month on…ah… a year, on birth control. That’s two hundred and….forty nine?
NF: Two hundred and forty-nine dollars.
JL: Two hundred and forty nine dollars a month. That’s … Does that include the booze? Does that include the cigarettes afterwards? I mean, what does that include?
NF: It’s gotta include something other than prophylactics, I’m sorry…
JL: Does that include the hotel room? Does that include…. I…
NF: [inaudible] I don’t know.
JL: What… whatever… I… Two hundred and forty-nine dollars a month…a year, on contraception….. uh, a month. Two hundred and forty-nine dollars a month. Three thousand dollars a year. I’m going to post it on the Facebook fan page, the actual testimony of her wasting time and Congressional dollars and your tax dollars, uh, testifying before the Congress, in which she confesses to such… You know, her parents, her grandparents, all of her family has just got to be really proud. (laughter in background) They’ve got to be really proud about right now… (Impersonating Sandra Fluke’s grandfather) “Oh…”
NF: Do we know where she’s from? Do we know what state she is from? Have we… have we seen this?
JL: (Still impersonating Ms. Fluke’s grandfather): “Oh, Sandra! Oh, Sandra! Oh, we’re so proud of you. We’re so proud of that Congressional testimony you had. So happy! Oh, Granpa’s happy. Come give Granpa… a little hug!” Is that a … Does that sound like Granpa?
NF: (laughing) That sounds nothing like Granpa. (Both laughing)
(BREAK)
JL: Seriously, I think,…. We make fun of Ms. Fluke, but it is an embarrassment that the House … there was a House …this was a House committee, right? And the House committees are all chaired by Republicans. And they said we’re gonna have a hearing about this…
NF: And they said okay. Instead of a hearing about our economy, instead of a hearing about jobs, instead of a hearing about … oh, about a million other things that are more important than this.
JL: Yeah, I think that’s the point that could get lost on some things is um… is that this is John Boehner’s house! These are Republicans! This should have been shut down long before. This should have never … we’re not,… because all they’re doing is playing into this nonsense that they’re trying to get the Republicans…They’re want to take the eyes of America off the economy, off of the failed policies of Barak Obama, and so they want us to be painted as a bunch of cooks, and talk about social issues, and that’s why they’ve been going after Santorum, that’s why they’ve been going after Romney and Gingrich, and all this stuff … They’re trying to get all the attention on social issues. And whoever chaired this committee… I ought to find out who it is and give you his office phone number…. Really ought to have his committee chairmanship stripped, unless I’m …. Maybe I’m missing some explanation because this hearing happening was absolute ludicrous, I tell you, ludicrous!
NF: Well, the phones are lighting up hotter than a sex pistol… (Lakey laughs)