UPDATE:  For those late to the game, The Carpetbagger Report will catch you up.

USA Today:

WASHINGTON — Rush Limbaugh has accused actor Michael J. Fox of exaggerating the physical effects of his Parkinson’s disease in political ads urging viewers to vote for Democrats in next month’s election.

The conservative radio host told listeners Monday that Fox’s lurching, palsied movements in a TV ad for Missouri Senate challenger Claire McCaskill were "an act." Limbaugh noted that Fox, a longtime advocate for research on embryonic stem cells, has said he sometimes does not take his medication in order to illustrate Parkinson’s severe physical effects. Uncontrolled shaking and stiffness are among the symptoms of the nerve disease.

"If this was not an act," Limbaugh said later on the show, "then I apologize."

Of course, since nobody can prove (to Rush’s satisfaction) that Fox wasn’t acting, Rush is never going to have to apologize.

Still, one wonders from what center of depravity Mr. Rush "I Can’t Get An Erection" Limbaugh summons the gall to comment on how people self-medicate.

UPDATE:  WaPo covers it, too.  Apparently, Rush did apologize sort of, but that didn’t stop his attacks:

Later Monday, still on the air, Limbaugh would apologize, but reaction to his statements from Parkinson’s experts and Fox’s supporters was swift and angry.

After his apology, Limbaugh shifted his ground and renewed his attack on Fox.

"Now people are telling me they have seen Michael J. Fox in interviews and he does appear the same way in the interviews as he does in this commercial," Limbaugh said, according to a transcript on his Web site. "All right then, I stand corrected. . . . So I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong, and I will apologize to Michael J. Fox, if I am wrong in characterizing his behavior on this commercial as an act."

***

Fox has appeared in ABC’s "Boston Legal" this season. In his scenes, taped over the summer, Fox does not shake or loll his head as he does in the Cardin commercial, but does appear to be restraining himself, appearing almost rigid at times.

A source with direct knowledge of Fox’s illness who viewed the Cardin ad said Fox is not acting to exaggerate the effects of the disease. The source said Fox’s scenes in "Boston Legal" had to be taped around his illness, as he worked to control the tremors associated with Parkinson’s for limited periods of time.

Then Limbaugh pivoted to a different critique: "Michael J. Fox is allowing his illness to be exploited and in the process is shilling for a Democratic politician."

Rush is a wanker.  There’s nothing more to say about that.

RELATED LINKS:  The Michael J Fox Foundation

MORE:  World O’Crap does some fine skewering

UPDATE:  Fox responds.  Think Progress has the video.

And Tbogg provides the Shorter Dean Barnett:

When Michael J. Fox uses his Parkinson’s Disease to address an issue, he’s being manipulative. When I use my lifelong battle with Cystic Fibrosis to address Michael J. Fox, I’m just being honest.

And The Rude Pundit responds, well, rudely:

Why Rush Limbaugh Ought to Be Force-Fed His Own Liposuctioned Fat, Part 979:
Alas for Alex Keaton. Sigh for Marty McFly. Cry for whatever his Spin City character was named. Anyone with a heart, and a memory that goes back more than a couple of years, who watches the Michael J. Fox ad that supports Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill for Senate will have that heart broken by the end. Through his rocking and shaking, Fox makes a simple plea to support McCaskill against Jim Talent, a proud member of Bush’s ass harem, so that stem cell research might progress. Yeah, for the vast majority of of us, by dint of our humanity, no matter what our political stripes, no matter how we agree or disagree with the message, probably can’t help but be moved by the ad.

Which, of course, leaves out Rush Limbaugh, whose only purpose on earth seems to be keeping big pharma in business, providing three hours of masturbation material for shut-in nutzoid conservatives – the kind who yank their scabby peckers and yowl in pain and glee whenever Rush farts his disgust at those who would stop the killing in Iraq, and making sure that Dominican child prostitutes get slapped in the thighs for a couple of seconds by his demi-erect Viagra-ed cock before he dribbles out a bit of spooge and screeches for drug mules to bring him more hillbilly heroin for his "back pain." And, of course, to eat heapin’ bowls of ‘nana pudding while sucking his cigar like it’s Dick Cheney’s, well, shit, dick.

Limbaugh said this about Fox: "[H]e was either off the medication or he was acting. He is an actor, after all." Strangely, Limbaugh didn’t address the fact that whether Fox was on his meds or not, the actor still has Parkinson’s, the disease that forced him to retire from being in front of the camera. But then again, if you down enough oxycontin, you generally are numb to everyone’s pain, yours, Michael J. Fox’s, or the pre-pubescent slave whores’ of Santo Domingo.

And, oh, yeah, here’s another political ad which is sure to send Rush into a tizzy: