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.”
Looks like Steele got pwned.
I think the RNC ought to move their headquarters out to Elko, Nevada or something so they aren’t populated with a bunch of career consultants, lobbyists, and failed politicians. Change the whole culture at the top.
As for the Steele/Limbaugh flap, I’m glad Steele realizes what he did - most likely the RNC was deluged with calls from angry conservatives. However, this public spat has only helped Emanuel and Obama in their quest to paint Limbaugh as the head of the RNC.
Steele and others need to not take the bait in the future.
Huh? “Michael Steele is a good conservative?”
It was Steele who condemned Rush and his positions. It was Steele who had no retort for an interviewer who said that the GOP convention was like “Nazi Germany.”
Would you think a “good conservative” would have such lapses of judgment? Steele is an idiot.
Steele isn’t sorry for his words, he’s sorry for getting caught.
So, Mr. Steele hopefully RUSH feels the same way or your tenure as RNC Chairman will be a short one!
anti-gun Steele has burned the bridge.
Uh, it was Steele who dissed Rush in a bad way, first.
Rush only stood up for himself and you are condemning him and the rest of us for setting this issue straight?
Crazy.
Nothing says you’re sorry like, “I resign”.
this isn’t about the issues. This is about strategy and tactics and Steele doesn’t seem to have a clue. You don’t win elections by screwing your base and the most popular radio host.
too late. IN my last post, I WARNED YOU ALL that Steele is making a fool of himself in more ways than one.
He should resign and be replaced by Blackwell.
Steele is no patriot, He is nothing but a pathetic RINO only in his place to advance the Obama regime.
You make me sick, Mr. Steele. You got where you did by affirmative action only.
Gawd, these people make me ill.
Steele no longer represents me. I quit the Republican Party this morning and switched to the Conservative Party. My voter registration change card has been delivered.
Dan, I now go record: Steele is unqualified to lead the RNC. He has no gravitas, no brains, NOTHING!!
The RNC and the nation would be better served with his resignation.
Yep! For the head of the RNC to cater to the PC left on attacking Rush is a bad move.
When Rush said today on his show that Mr. Steele’s job is to set up a primary process so that the other party can not effect the nomination process (not to go on cable news shows). I wonder if that may have been a back handed complimebt to Howard Dean who has seen the democrats back into power and has largely shun the cable talk and sunday morning programs.
I don’t think what Rush said has anything to do with his ‘hurt feelings’. Hurt feelings? It’s about Steele’s reaction to Rush’s comments and who Steele is supposed to be. It’s about Conservatism and the state of the Republican party. I don’t think Rush was reacting at all out of ‘hurt feelings’. Point missed mistah Steele.
Mr Steele hasn’t learned yet...
Yes - he’ll be gracious to Steele who was ungracious to him.
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