Limbaugh: 'I acted too much like the leftists'

Rush Limbaugh on Monday insisted that his apology for calling a Georgetown University law student a "slut" was "heartfelt," adding that liberals were to blame for the whole incident.

In a statement on his website over the weekend, the conservative radio host said he “sincerely” apologized to Sandra Fluke, who had testified before Congress about the need for contraception coverage at colleges and universities, even if they are owned by religious institutions.

"I don't expect -- and I know you don't either -- morality, intellectual honesty from the left," Limbaugh told his listeners on Monday. "They've demonstrated over and over a willingness to say or do anything to advance their agenda. It's what they do. It's what we fight against here every day."

"But this is the mistake I made: In fighting them on this issue last week, I became like them. Against my own instincts, against my own knowledge, against everything I know to be right and wrong, I descended to their level when I used those two words to describe Sandra Fluke. That was my error."

He continued: "I feel very badly about that. I've always tried to maintain a very high degree if integrity and independence on this program. Nevertheless, those two words were inappropriate. They were uncalled for. They distracted from the point that I was actually trying to make. And I again sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for using those two words to describe her. I do not think she is either of those two words. I did not think last week that she is either of those two words. The apology to her over the weekend was sincere."

Following a commercial break, Limbaugh returned to attacking liberals for his smear of Fluke.

"I used satire, I used absurdity to illustrate the absurd," he said. "This story at the Cybercast News Service which characterized a portion of her testimony as sounding like -- based on her own financial figures -- that she was engaging in sexual activity so often that she couldn't afford it. I focused on that because it was simple, trying to persuade people, change people's minds."

"I acted too much like the leftists who despise me. ... It's what we know and have come to expect from them, but it's way beneath me."

As of Monday, at least nine companies had suspended their radio advertisements on Limbaugh's program.

Watch this video from The Rush Limbaugh Show, broadcast March 5, 2012 and uploaded by Media Matters.