Greg Sargent reports:

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 saying the liberal activist strategy on health care was “f–king retarded,” 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.”
It hardly has the passion of her response to Rahm, and there’s no call for him to step down. But given Rush’s stature among conservatives, it’s pretty interesting that she went this far, denouncing his on-air rant as “crude and demeaning name-calling.”