Steele to Rush: I'm sorry

The Politico ^ | March 2, 2009 | Mike Allen

[Dan Nunn]

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele says he has reached out to Rush Limbaugh to tell him he meant no offense when he referred to the popular conservative radio host as an “entertainer” whose show can be “incendiary.”

“My intent was not to go after Rush – I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh,” Steele said in a telephone interview. “I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. … There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership.”

The dust-up comes at a time when top Democrats are trying to make Limbaugh the face of the Republican Party, in part by using ads funded by labor. Americans United for Change sent a fund-raising e-mail Monday that begins: “The Republican Party has turned into the Rush Limbaugh Party.”

Steele told CNN host D.L. Hughley in an interview aired Saturday night: “Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh — his whole thing is entertainment. He has this incendiary — yes, it's ugly.”

Steele, who won a hard-fought chairman's race on Jan. 30, told Politico he telephoned Limbaugh after his show on Monday afternoon and hoped that they would connect soon.

“I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren’t what I was thinking,” Steele said. "It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently. What I was trying to say was a lot of people … want to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman, and he’s not."

“I’m not going to engage these guys and sit back and provide them the popcorn for a fight between me and Rush Limbaugh,” Steele added. “No such thing is going to happen. … I wasn’t trying to slam him or anything.”

On Monday’s show, Limbaugh reacted both to the comment and to the assertion on CBS’s “Face the Nation” by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel that the radio host is “the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party.”

Limbaugh said: “I'm not in charge of the Republican Party, and I don't want to be. I would be embarrassed to say that I'm in charge of the Republican Party in the sad-sack state that it's in. If I were chairman of the Republican Party, given the state that it's in, I would quit. I might get out the hari-kari knife because I would have presided over a failure that is embarrassing to the Republicans and conservatives who have supported it and invested in it all these years.”

On the RushLimbaugh.com home page, the transcript is labeled: “A Few Words for Michael Steele.”

In the interview with Politico, Steele called Limbaugh “a very valuable conservative voice for our party.”

“He brings a very important message to the American people to wake up and pay attention to what the administration is doing," Steele said. "Number two, there are those out there who want to look at what he’s saying as incendiary and divisive and ugly. That’s what I was trying to say. It didn’t come out that way. … He does what he does best, which is provoke: He provokes thought, he provokes the left. And they’re clearly the ones who are most excited about him.”

Asked if he planned to apologize, Steele said: “I wasn’t trying to offend anybody. So, yeah, if he’s offended, I’d say: Look, I’m not in the business of hurting people’s feelings here. … My job is to try to bring us all together.”

[Texas Eagle]

“I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. …

(sigh) We are so screwed.

[Road Warrior ‘04]

Waaay too late! My email to the RNC (Steele):

Are you crazy?!!!!! With your attacks on Rush, you can count on me sending money to the RNC. immediately after hell freezes over!

Email address, if you're interested:

Chairman@gop.com

[fanfan]

LOL!

“I didn’t mean any harm when I trashed you.”

[Hot Tabasco]

My job is to try to bring us all together.”

Just wondering if this statement was made after today's Rush and a response to Rush ripping Steele a new butthole..............LOL!

I've said some stupid things in my life time but mostly when I was under the influence. However, I've never trashed any of my friends or any people who were in my corner when the chips were down. Rush stood up for Steele when he was being trashed by his political oponents and gave him free airtime during the assault.

I think Rush is right on just as he was with McCain when he said that Steele has fallen prey to the media spotlight thinking they are his friends when in actuality, they are just setting him up for the big fall......

The MSM are not the friends of Conservatives. Rush knows this and Steele is going to find out the hard way........

Apology not accepted!

[Twotone]

“See the left is winning... as they always have done... they incite... give them the fuel and they will run with it... let it die and they have nothing....”

I agree. All of the libtard talking heads are deliberately trying to get R’s to denounce Rush. The response from everyone ought to be “I am here to discuss ISSUES, not personalities!” And then proceed to debate the issues.

[Huck]

Actually, what he thinks about those issues doesn't mean squat unless he runs for office. What he says in public

Well then you should see his entire appearance on CNN. He's not just talking bout Rush. He also advocated affirmative action. And he's also talked in public about gun control. C'mon. Let's be real. Why the hell conservatives ever supported this guy is beyond me. Oh yeah, I remember. He's black. Come to think of it, no wonder he supports Affirmative Action. He's a product of it. The GOP, johnny come latelys that they are, wanted to go fetch em a black guy. Well, you got one! Congrats!

[True Republican Patriot]

Steele has NOT apologized to Rush in anyway given the words I have seen. Steele better get on his darn knees after his second rate “ Gosh, I didn’t mean to offend anyone” statement! Can Steele actually be a Man and say he apologizes and demands that Hugley apologize for calling US Republicans the Party of Nazi’s!!!!!!! Steele, There AIN’t anything MORE Offensive Than That!!! and Hugley shouldn’t be aloud to Skate by You,Mr. Chairman Steele, just because he is a fellow “BROTHER!”

[ConfidentConservative]

“...Rush listeners are the base of Conservatism...”

THAT is RIGHT! The Base IS the right and Conservative.

Some here haven’t listened enough to Rush to know that simple truth. Rush speaks to the base.

[Hot Tabasco]

Rush had his “A Game” today, but is still man enough and smart enough to accept the apology from Steele.

I heard most of Rush today but I didn't hear any acceptance of Steele's apology. When was it made?

[topfile]

It must be amusing for all the radical leftists in this country to watch us eat our own over and over.

You mean folks like Spector and Snowe? Look we lost, something needs to change. Steele appears to be another RINO. I'm upset with him. However, I'll allow this foul up if in his next appearance we see a more focused man.

Did you see the Vid I posted at 213? You'll understand.

[Road Warrior ‘04]

Some here haven’t listened enough to Rush to know that simple truth. Rush speaks to the base.

And, tries to teach the rest!

[PhilDragoo]

I called our congressman and senator today on this matter.

Michael Steele does not speak for me. Rush Limbaugh has been a tireless promoter of the conservative principles I learned from the 1960 Sharon Statement of YAF, the writings and speeches of Barry Goldwater, the decades of scholarship and debate of William F. Buckley--the stuff which has made American Exceptionalism the envy of the world.

Michael Steele is an apologist anxious to grovel and scramble back into the golf cart for drinks at the club house.

Do not go along with the intentional socialist destruction of our free markets and our freedoms conducted by this non-American president.

Steele should be changing the primaries so Democrats don't pick our next loser a la John McCain the good little boy who dutifully lost--after a campaign-long apology reminiscent of the loathesome Steele.

Watch out for the RNC snakes--they have been kissing Democrat butt for so long they are blinded by any light at all, let alone the million-candlepower on loan from God.

Steele would do well to more closely emulate Rush while eschewing the glutinous Gibbs.

[Texas Eagle]

The dust-up comes at a time when top Democrats are trying to make Limbaugh the face of the Republican Party...

As Rush explained today, this strategy is straight from Obama's mentor Saul Alinsky, who detailed in his book, "Rules for Radicals", how to divert attention from what you are really up to by personalizing, marginalizing, and isolating one person as being the "voice" of the opposition.

[Spunky]

".....he referred to the popular conservative radio host as an “entertainer” whose show can be “incendiary.”

“My intent was not to go after Rush – I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh,” Steele said in a telephone interview. “I was maybe a little bit inarticulate."

I don't think a person would come up with a word like "incendiary" if you are a little bit "inarticulate."

[dixiechick2000]

Nice rant!!!

[mylife]

We need to start smacking around the rest of the RINOs

[flintsilver7]

Specter, Collins, and Snowe are all turncoats and I don’t think anybody doubts that. They are RINOs and they have the voting records to prove it (especially the two from Maine). Steele is not a rock-ribbed conservative - he’s more moderate - but he’s not a RINO.

I’ve seen that video, and I disagree with the statement that Steele agreed with that ridiculous statement. He agrees with some of the other salient points and to me it looks like he has something of a dumbfounded look on his face when that comment was made. If you want to fault him for not going back and singling out the comment, that’s fine.

[Redbob]

"“The Republican Party has turned into the Rush Limbaugh Party.”

Far better that than have it turn into 'The John McCain/Lindsay Graham Party!'

[shadeaud]

Steele pissed me off. I thought, I really believed he had the cajones to tell it like it is and demand the RINOs to fish or cut bait, now he shows he's just a waffler, a get along type of guy. He had me hoodwinked and for that I pray that he will find the light and just take a chance to be a leader, rather than a wimpy yousah boss man. Shame of you and shame on me for having the faith in a pipe dream.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

I think after Rush was off the air, but don’t know. I suspect Steele gave elRushbo a call today to mend fences.