Posted on 03/02/2009 3:20:29 PM PST by 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.”
Sorry, I thought I read something that said he apologized.
But now he’s in a real fix of his own doing. He could have handled the situation much better and convincingly without agreeing with them. It can only mean one of two things; he either meant what he said and agrees with them, or he is a big time rookie that let them intimidate him. Now, if/since/when he apologizes, he loses whatever imagined inroads he thinks he made with them. If he doesn’t, he loses us.
I will give him a second chance and no more. It needs to be swift and clear.
And it is not he who is trying to separate the Republican party....Rush has always been careful about sticking together to win elections.
But, this year.....the “moderate intellectual” Republican writers and pundits repeatedly said that the Republican party must move on from Reagan conservatism.
And Rush is objecting.
You can bet it wasn't before Rush let him have it today. If Steele would have called Rush right after he made that statement and apoligized Rush never would have gone after him.
Plain and simple. He’s a plant (mole) , and a RINO..
.
Steele needs to spotlight admirable patriotic winners like Lynn Swann and Tiger Woods
Not racist scumbag clowns like Hugley - who is just a younger version of Rev. Wright and OJ.....
I KNEW this was coming. Rush is too big. You can’t stab him in the back and get away with it. I love what Rush had to say about this on his show.
Cool...a person who actually admits a blunder. How refreshing.
There was not an apology in that at all.
Hah. I sent him an email suggesting he get out of the beltway once in a while so he wouldn’t be stuck on stupid when it comes to Rush.
Fair enough. He was dumbfounded. However, the manipulation of Steele seemed so easy for them. I'm sure he's a good man and maybe he learn not to underestimate these folks. Some have asked 'do we have the time for him to correct'? I don't know but I'll be watching him more closely.
Thanks for your input.
Just something to keep in mind, folks. They are trying to divide us. We know this, but I just listened to Bernie Goldberg bring it up again and this could be a perfect example. We can’t fall for it and we certainly shouldn’t help them.
Those against Steele were right. I was wrong.
With this stated, Steele can take his “apology” and pound sand. Rush may or may not accept it, but it doesn’t matter. The guy showed what he was made off and I repudiate every single word. There will be no trust and no support from me for a Steele led RNC.
I think they call this trying to cover one’s ass; or something like that. Too late Michael. I lost a lot for you. YOU SOUNDED TOO DAMNED RINO TO ME.
Tell that to Michael Steele.
Far as I can tell we’re no more divided than we ever were. Conservatives on one side, the RINO’s/Establishment on the other.
I was certainly excited about him taking the helm myself. However, when I saw DL Hughley wrap Steele around his finger and then basically call him a token without response...OMG!...
Unfortunately, I think Steeles days are numbered. Unless he comes out in the next round fighting til someone hits the mat.
I saw some of that last night and Steele was too busy kissing Hughley’s butt to stand up for anything.
CNN was out to trash Rush with its entire schedule this weekend. Steele was brought in and even “did his part.”
Forgot to mention, I did send my thoughts to Steele, fwiw.
Too late.
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