VoteVets has a new ad ripping Rush Limbaugh for his "phony soldiers" remarks.

Per VoteVets' Brandon Friedman at dailyKos:

[The ad] will air both Wednesday and Thursday on FOX News and CNN.  We've also prepared a radio version of the ad that will air during Rush's show in select markets.  So there will be no preaching to the choir here.  We're taking this message to the people who need to hear it most.

Nice.

Rush pushed back on the ad today, this time with more slander directed at Brian McGough, the soldier featured in the ad. Get this, Rush likened him to a suicide bomber. Also from Friedman:

"This is such a blatant use of a valiant combat veteran, lying to him about what I said and then strapping those lies to his belt, sending him out via the media and a TV ad to walk into as many people as he can walk into. This man will always be a hero to this country with everyone. Whoever pumped him full of these lies about what I said and embarrassed him with this ad has betrayed him, they aren't hurting me they are betraying this soldier," Limbaugh said.

Turns out McGough's injuries were sustained in a suicide bomb attack. Classy, Rush.

Not surprisingly, Rush isn't the only one going out defending his remarks. Think Progress catalogs the parade of Rush defenders that Fox News trotted out, from Ann Coulter to Sean Hannity, to reiterate Limbaugh's false claim that he was just talking about one actual phony soldier (Think Progress debunks that myth HERE.)

Also, conservative paragon of virtue Bill Bennett went on CNN to defend Rush. Digby watches TV:

I just watched Bill Bennett quivering with outrage that Media Matters has "smeared" Rush Limbaugh; according to him Rush didn't actually say that soldiers who spoke out against the war were "phony soldiers." Wolf, uninformed about the details as usual,looked taken aback and somewhat frightened by Bennett's wild-eyed defense, and left it up to Donna Brazile to present the facts. [...]

The Republicans are going into full defense on Rush, which is what any smart organization does when its valuable assets are threatened. But Rush not only said what he said, he since edited his transcripts and lied repeatedly on the air.

I heard a similar defense of Limbaugh last night from a caller on The Ed Schultz Show who argued that Limbaugh was talking about soldiers or ex-soldiers who are recruited to be the tools of the left: "good soldiers just don't do that." Big Ed for some reason gave this guy the benefit of the doubt merely because he wasn't a raving lunatic and didn't call him out for completely misrepresenting what Limbaugh said. Similarly, Greg Sargent notes that Melanie Morgan, in her ranting defense of Limbaugh on her radio show today, never once actually played what Limbaugh had actually said (Media Matters has the audio) or read the transcript to her audience. Because if she had, well, it would have become obvious that there really isn't any room for interpretation here.

RUSH: The next guy that calls here I'm going to ask them, "What is the imperative of pulling out? What's in it for the United States to pull out?" I don't think they have an answer for that other than, "When's he going to bring the troops home? Keep the troops safe," whatever.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: It's not possible intellectually to follow these people.

CALLER: No, it's not. And what's really funny is they never talk to real soldiers. They pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and spout to the media.

RUSH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER: Phony soldiers. If you talk to any real soldier and they're proud to serve, they want to be over in Iraq, they understand their sacrifice and they're willing to sacrifice for the country.

The good news is this story is not going away. Today Wes Clark launched a petition calling for Rush's show to be pulled from Armed Forces Radio (sign it HERE.) The petition reads:

Last week, Rush Limbaugh labeled American servicemembers who support an end to the war in Iraq "phony soldiers."

We're going directly to Congress to take him off the Armed Forces Radio airwaves. Elected officials in Congress have the power to prevent Limbaugh from using taxpayers' money to disrespect and censure the voices of our soldiers.

Join us and hold Rush Limbaugh accountable for his offensive and outrageous comments -- tell your member of Congress to Dump Rush From Armed Forces Radio today!

NBC has since booked Clark on tonight's The Abrams Report and tomorrow's The Today Show (7am local time) to discuss it. Great to see the pushback effort against these liars is gaining steam. Clark's petition may have been just the right action to do it. As Stoller notes:

the right policy solution for the Rush Limbaugh hate speech is not to condemn his right to speak, but to remove his government subsidized channel to speak to the troops while attacking their right to hold political views different from the Commander-in-Chief.