SENATE DEMOCRATS, LIMBAUGH BATTLE OVER HOST'S COMMENTS

PREMIERE RADIO NETWORKS syndicated talk host RUSH LIMBAUGH said MONDAY that the Democrats on CAPITOL HILL who are calling for censure of LIMBAUGH for his comments on anti-war troops are misrepresenting his comments in an attempt to discredit him.

"This is not just the anatomy of a smear. There's much more going on with this than just smearing me. There is an attempt, I think, as they have done throughout my career, to discredit me," LIMBAUGH told listeners. "These people have had three, four days now to learn the truth about this, and they no doubt know the truth, which doesn't matter. What they are trying to do is flood a false story into the 'drive-by media' and have that survive and suffice as the evidence and as the story of what I said when it wasn't."

Senate Democrats demanded an apology MONDAY for LIMBAUGH's remark to a pro-war soldier that the soldiers promoted in the news media as representing anti-war sentiment in the military are "phony soldiers." The Senators also demanded a repudiation of LIMBAUGH from CLEAR CHANNEL President MARK MAYS.

Senate Majority Leader HARRY REID said, "RUSH LIMBAUGH took it upon himself to attack the courage and character of those fighting and dying for him and for all of us. RUSH LIMBAUGH got himself a deferment from serving when he was a young man. He never served in uniform. He never saw in person the extreme difficulty of maintaining peace in a foreign country engaged in a civil war. He never saw a person in combat. Yet, that he thinks his opinion on the war is worth more than those who have been on the front lines. RUSH LIMBAUGH owes the men and women of our armed forces an apology."

LIMBAUGH says that the comment was intended to refer to JESSE MACBETH, the former soldier who was convicted of fraud and had falsely claimed to have participated in war crimes in IRAQ when he only served 44 days and never went to IRAQ, although the plural "soldiers" does not refer to an individual person.

The controversy is being promoted by MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA, the same liberal media organization that fueled the DON IMUS controversy.