On the January 22 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, discussing the January 21 CNN Democratic presidential candidates debate during which Sen. Hillary Clinton (NY), Sen. Barack Obama (IL), and former Sen. John Edwards (NC) sat in chairs for the latter part of the debate, Rush Limbaugh said of Clinton, “She was the only one sitting there who could not cross her legs.” Limbaugh prefaced his comment by saying, “I'm gonna pay for this. See, this is the kind of thing that you're not supposed to say. That when you say this, all it does is drive people to Hillary. Women, especially.”

While Limbaugh suggested that Clinton did not cross her legs because she “could not” cross them, etiquette expert Miss Manners (Judith Martin), on page 133 of her book Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior (W.W. Norton & Co., 2005), notes: “A lady's [at-ease posture while seated] is to cross her ankles.” As a still clip of video from the debate shows, this is exactly what Clinton was doing.

In purporting to explain why he would notice whether the candidates' legs were crossed, Limbaugh stated: “Very simple, ladies and gentlemen. I'm a leg man. I'm jealous. I can't do it either; I can't cross my legs sitting in a chair like that, and I'm jealous of people who can. I notice people who can't, and it makes me feel better about myself, OK?”

Later, Limbaugh called his remark a “questionable taste comment,” adding that he had “quasi-apologized, but not really.”

From the January 22 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: Barack and Hillary went at it there for a while. Hillary accused him of doing business with a slumlord after he accused her of being a corporate lawyer on the Wal-Mart board while he was fighting for the little people in Illinois. And he stood up and he said, “I don't like the fact that you're factually incorrect in assessing my positions on things.” And by the way, the Clintons love this. They absolutely love it because they think it takes Barack off message when he has to respond to them.

There was also -- I -- I -- I'm not going to say this. Never mind. I'm not going to say it 'cause all I would do would make women mad, don't want to do that 'cause making women mad will just send -- all right, I'll go ahead and say it, but I'm going to stop doing this in the future. After the first part of the debate, they were standing up there at those podiums. And then they took a commercial break and Blitzer came back, and they were all sitting in chairs. I'm gonna pay for this. See, this is the kind of thing that you're not supposed to say, that when you say this, all it does is drive people to Hillary. Women, especially. [sigh] But see, I'm not going to tease you. It's really unfair to say I'm going to say something and then not say it, so I gotta say it now. She was the only one sitting there who could not cross her legs.

[commercial break]

LIMBAUGH: [in mock lisp] “That's horrible, Mr. Limbaugh, I can't believe you said that, that's just horrible. Why do you even notice things like that, Mr. Limbaugh? I can't believe you.” Very simple, ladies and gentlemen. I'm a leg man. I'm jealous. I can't do it either; I can't cross my legs sitting in a chair like that, and I'm jealous of people who can. I notice people who can't, and it makes me feel better about myself, OK? I can't do it either!

Welcome back. Rush Limbaugh here, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network. 800-282-2882 if you want to be on the program. The email address, elrushbo@eibnet.com.

What I was going to say before I got sidetracked by the latest questionably -- questionable taste comment, for which I have now quasi-apologized, but not really. Mrs. Clinton said something -- I heard a clip of her at an MLK event, a Martin Luther King event, and I'm going to paraphrase this because I don't have the exact quote in front of me. She said, after 40 years we are nowhere near solving the problems of race, and it's time to step up and get it done.