Limbaugh on The Dark Knight Rises: "I Never Said That"

In spite of a torrent of mockery from both political and comic book quarters, Rush Limbaugh isn't done talking about The Dark Knight Rises' villain Bane just yet. "Yesterday on this program, I uttered some words about the new Batman movie and the evil villain named Bane," controversial conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said on his show earlier today. "I made some comments about it--doesn't matter what. I have had more reaction to that than anything." "More people are concerned about whatever I might have said or didn't say about a Batman villain than they are about their own jobs," said the host, who described many of the e-mails his show has received since yesterday's episode "hateful." Of course, he's referring to an incident where he appeared to have claimed that Bane was chosen as the villain of The Dark Knight Rises in order to vilify Bain Capital, the investment house co-founded by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. "Do you think that it is accidental that the name of the really vicious fire breathing four eyed whatever it is villain in this movie is named Bain [sic]?" reads his show's official transcript. He went on to elaborate that "a lot of people are gonna see the movie, and it's a lot of brain-dead people, entertainment, the pop culture crowd, and they're gonna hear Bane in the movie and they're gonna associate Bain. The thought is that when they start paying attention to the campaign later in the year, and Obama and the Democrats keep talking about Bain, Romney and Bain, that these people will think back to the Batman movie, 'Oh, yeah, I know who that is.'" It's an assertion that Bane's co-creator Chuck Dixon, a self-described conservative, called "silly" in an interview with ComicBook.com shortly after the show. Earlier in the day, having read a similar piece in The Washington Examiner, Dixon had posted to his message board that "I got a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach that Rush may pick up on this, and hat would be the second time he pegged me and Graham [Nolan, Bane's co-creator] as liberals on his show." Today, Limbaugh attempted to clarify his position. "I never said that--I didn't say there was a conspiracy theory. I said that the Democrats were going to use it, which they have. Jon Stewart is harping on it." In fairness, Stewart is a comedian, and likely making fun of Limbaugh's interpretation of events more than he is the Bane/Bain homonym. Ironically, most people had never considered the connection until a number of conservative commentators brought it up early yesterday, prompting Limbaugh's comments. There's video at the bottom of the page of today's comments. The Dark Knight Rises opens Friday, with midnight screenings around the country tomorrow night.