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.”
Two simple things;
I don't trust any politician.
If Steele is ready to lead the Republican Party in an apropriate conservative manner against Obama and the liberals then he will have my support.
No. Steele didn't say that he just found out how valuable Rush is. What Steele said was that he mispoke.
Look, if you don't trust Steele that's one thing. But like Steele, you should try to get things accurate.
I had high hopes for Steele and the RNC especially the way they and McCain did not stand up to the Sarah Palin trashing. I always enjoyed hearing him speak on Fox. Now I see he’s just another spineless shell of a man agreeing with his “brothers” instead of his party’s values.
This is going to be a long 4 years with Nobama as President and we need people on our side with a freaking spine.
Anybody got an email address for Hughley? Maybe we should flood him like we’re flooding Steele.
Hannity just said he talked with Steele and Steele said he spoke directly with Rush and “they are good”. I guess we’ll get Rush’s side of the story tomorrow.
Already on Hannity’s show right now leftist Doug Schoen is using Steele’s attack on Rush to show even the RNC disagree’s with Rush and Sean had to correct him with Steele’s apology.
It’s too late. Just like the media twisted Rush’s remarks about Nobama failing the media will now use Steele’s comments for a very long time.
Thanks Steele. You’ll get no money from my family and I.
Cantor and Steele both fell flat this weekend. It’s somewhat disheartening, but at least we know who CAN’T be relied on to step up big in the future.
Eventually, it will be the last woman or man standing, as the pretenders fall all over themselves trying to please
the libtard de jour.
How do you misspeak when you say someone’s views/speech/show/whatever are incendiary and ugly? What was he really trying to say when those words just misspoke out of his mouth—that Rush is insightful and inspiring? I think Steele got things accurate—accurate as in what his brain really thinks.
Do you think the GOP will learn that affirmative action didnt worked for them either? I doubt it.
They are all garbage. Steele is merely the latest one to confirm it.
President Bush did this, it didn't work. Being nice to ratcrats is the same as being nice to terrorists. They will still kill you and laugh at your being so dumb.
He needs a coach at the very least!
All who say Rush will accept are right, he will because of who he is. I hope this is a huge lesson learned for Steele. Hughley is NOT Hannity, going on Hannity, it's easy to look good. Till you get yourself a tougher spine Michael, stay away from Hughley types, stick with what you know.
That’s exactly what I don’t get. What Steele needs to do right now is make sure the base is there. The base is fired up right now BECAUSE of Rush and the fraud in office. Obama’s failed policies will take care of what is needed to put conservatives over the top. Steele is out there trying to pick up one vote while possibly losing two or more in the process.
DITTO!!
DITTO!!
Making Rush the face of the Republican party may be the only thing that saves it.
Steele apologizes to Rush. I love it!
Shows you two things:
1. Ideas trump pragmatism. “Conservatism” is the conceptual and ideological core of the GOP.
2. Rush is the de facto spokesman of the conservative movement.
Steele understands that — he was indirectly apologizing to us, as well as to Rush — but he does not identify himself as a “conservative.” He identifies himself as a “Republican.” Two different things.
Exactly right! Instead he labels conservative principles ugly and incendiary. Then he ends his apology with: "Look, I’m not in the business of hurting people’s feelings here. … My job is to try to bring us all together.”
WTF? Bring us all together? Does he mean liberals and conservatives? I don't think so Mr Steele. We want an attack dog. We want a killing machine. We want to see you to wipe the floor with liberal hides.
Do your job!
That’s pretty scary if a dumb comedian can throw him for a loop.
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