Al Franken’s decision not to run for the Senate is a loss for the people of Minnesota and the country, but at least he’ll have more time for his very funny radio show and books. I was just thinking about Al’s first book today after reading a transcript of Rush Limbaugh’s Valentine’s Day show.

Recently, I wrote in this space about data showing that single women were more likely to be Democratic voters than married women, and I joked that this was another reason not to get married. Now, I do know that it’s the nature of our political culture today that if a progressive, even a happily married one (16 years), makes a joke like that some right-wing blowhard is going to distort it for the sake of scoring cheap partisan points. So it wasn’t a surprise that Rush Limbaugh, the grandaddy distorter of them all, stepped up to the plate to take a whack. But what did surprise me is that he took the opportunity not only to attack me but also my husband. Here’s what he said:

“Now, The Nation is one of our favorite publications here, the far left fringe publication of the liberal journal of opinion that is edited by well known communist named Katrina vanden Heuvel whose husband is a well known communist at Columbia. Well, I use the term advisedly. Stephen Cohen’s his name.”

Now, I know that Limbaugh doesn’t have a lot of experience with successful relationships, but attacking someone’s spouse is generally considered to be pretty low down and dirty. In fact, some would call his reckless allegations libelous–my lawyer, for example. I also know that Limbaugh suffers from a rather severe case of McCarthy-era nostalgia, but equating liberalism with communism is tired and boorish even for someone who is a big, fat idiot. I use the term advisedly.

By the way, if Rush had done any research, he would have discovered that my husband now teaches, after many years at Princeton, at NYU, not Columbia. (Kids, this is an object lesson: read books, don’t take drugs.)