That's right. We know that Olympia Snowe isn't exactly the strongest conservative. Yet even she could stand in support of Palin. So why couldn't Steele stand in support of Rush?
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.”
what’s this Obama urban agenda?
Well according to his claims of the past “it’s time for change”. Seems he’s trying his best to make change and if it comes in large enough doses hopefully the public will get a gut full. We’ll see I guess.
Yeah. I'll do that.
And he’s not the guy you want leading the Republican party.
Well said. Bravo!
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.”
us all... do you mean Dems and Rinos or DO YOU MEANS CONSERVATIVES, Mikey!!!!????
G@D, there’s that tingle going up my LEG, again!!!!!
Democrats and RINOs...
He was NOT catering to me...
pffft...Just ducking for cover. If he was truly sorry, he would take full and complete responsibility and say
“I was inarticulate. … ".
I'd buy that, all of us here have made mistakes with our choice of words. No reason why politicians are any different; but man up and take ownership.
I am so bloody tired of politicians in both parties trying to tap dance around voters. MAN THE F* UP and take stands on issues and quit pussy footing around.
Steele, if you get intimidated that easy, we have no use for you.
And that was NO apology, Michael Steele.
Everyone should call, fax, email the RNC ... get rid of
these pantywaist rinos!!
Reminds me of a joke...
Restaurant Host asks 'do you have reservations' Customer responds 'Yes, but I'll eat here anyway.' ...Kev..rim-shoot..
I guess we already have Steele, I'll give him only one more chance...just one. If he disappoints he'll lose my patronage.
Lets remember McPain jumped on the Letterman Show a couple of weeks after loosing to ZERO, and laughed and Giggled as Letterman did everything he could embarress and Humiliate the Stooge and said Horrible Lies about sarah as the Duufus sat there like a Bump and Grinned like a Fool:-( Why should Steele be anything different? at least right now he looks even dumber and stupider(Yuk)! Maybe Michael will wake up, lets pray he does for AMERICA at Least!
I don’t think he was caught off guard. He is the LEADER of the RNC! He knows Rush is in the media spotlight at this time...and he knows what Rush believes and what Rush said.....Steele should have supported Rush’s comments with no questions asked. To be an unapologetic conservative is the way to lead...
Big, big mistake. It will take much more than a phone call to Rush.
Too late Mr. Steele! I just returned the donation envelope you sent me today with a scathing letter about how I’m a Rush fan and you’ll get no money from me.
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