I'll take what's behind door number 3, Monty...
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.”
Mr. Steele,
First you didn’t discipline Specter, Snowe and Collins and shove them out the door - inexcusable and a certain sign that your leadership is all about the same ol’ same ol’.
Secondly, you diss the single biggest reason, since Reagan, that there is a conservative movement. Here’s a clue - Gingrich and whoever else might like to think they are ‘leading’ conservatism don’t hold a candle to Rush.
Third, the single biggest reason that Rush has the popularity, power and influence that he does is that he is actually articulating what conservatives already think and, by doing so, has single-handedly expanded conservatism beyond ANYTHING the pubbie party has done since RR.
Get a clue and join us - that, or take a hike.
Yeah it was.
He stood there and talked.
Did you see him do something else?
Michael Steele - Dim Bulb.
Perfect fit for Chairman of the Stoopid Party
> he still had to prove himself after the hip hop nonsense. This wasn’t it.
Yeah, not Steele’s finest hour. Also, he’s agreed to go on the faux conservative Colbert Report for a “rap battle”. Words fail me. Now we are clowns dancing to the Dim tune? Why or why do they do this?? It’s sad and appalling. Our leaders. Barf.
I'll take what's behind door number 3, Monty...
Misleading title.Steele never said "sorry", or apologized in any other way, IMHO.
Steele used the word “UGLY” in regards to Rush’s speech.
In my opinion, a word like that doesn’t just SLIP out. This is what Steele really believes, when he’s chillin’ wit his homies. It’s unforgiveable. Steele needs to be OUSTED for this party to move forward.
Rush started the fight.
He knew what he was doing.
He can take it.
i just unsubscribed to the RNC e-mails tonight.
Appropriately the e-mail from RNC today was from Steele
Bye~Bye
I’m a Conservative!
(small libertarian...lol)
Calling Rush “an entertainer” was a deliberate choice of words. He realizes his mistake, but he’s gonna have to work much harder for me to trust him.
Don’t mess with Rush Michael . . . you’re gonna lose.
Yep that's right. See for yourself....HERE.. the NAZI comment occurs around the 2:20 mark.
I forget where I saw it (will Google later) but DC was once described as a sweaty, swampy, dreary Southern town.
I love the South but I have to agree with that assessment.
He can, but he obviously doesn't suffer backstabbers lightly. He's not the typical gelding Republican.
When you get tired of playing with your "gun," and decide to learn something, ask the "Class of '94" about his leadership.
BE GONE, Chairman Steele!
Michael Steele...RESIGN!!
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