Approximately 12:06 p.m. EST: Rush Limbaugh addresses his controversial use of the word “retard” and suggests that Sarah Palin wouldn't “denounce” him because she “knows I do this kind of” thing:

LIMBAUGH: They're all trying to get Sarah Palin to denounce me just as she did Rahm, and if she doesn't do it, she's a hypocrite, they're saying. She knows that I do this kind of -- Sarah Palin is a lifelong listener of this program. I have never told you people this. It was in our Sarah Palin interview in the Limbaugh Letter, but one of the years I'm out at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, a guy comes up to me and says, “My daughter is a huge fan. Would you sign a book for me?” And it was a copy of my book and it was to Sarah Palin. Long before she was governor of Alaska.

So, and I've had a couple of chats with her, one on the air here and one for the Limbaugh Letter, the most widely read political newsletter in the country. So they're trying to goad her into denouncing me like they did Emanuel, but she knows that all I'm doing is quoting Emanuel and highlighting that it's these people who say this kind of stuff.

Approximately four hours later: Palin spokesperson responds to Greg Sargent's questions about Limbuagh's comments and says that “crude and demeaning name calling at the expense of others is disrespectful”:

Palin believes Limbaugh's repeated use of the word “retard” yesterday was “crude and demeaning,” her spokesperson emails.

In the wake of Palin's demand that Rahm Emanuel be fired for calling a bunch of liberal activists “f-king retards,” a bunch of people have been asking how she'd react to Limbaugh's tirade on the air yesterday.

“Our political correct society is acting like some giant insult's taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards,” Rush said, adding that Rahm's meeting yesterday with advocates for the mentally handicapped was a “retard summit at the White House.”

I asked Palin spokesperson Meghan Stapleton for comment on Rush's rant, and she emailed me this:

“Governor Palin believes crude and demeaning name calling at the expense of others is disrespectful.”