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.”
Oh yeah, what about the RNC staff hanging up on Conservatives all day who were calling in to complain? Explain that, Steele, while you’re at it...!
See the left is winning... as they always have done... they incite... give them the fuel and they will run with it... let it die and they have nothing....
Too late. Bye!
What about not challenging Hughley on the Nazi Party statement Mr. Steele?
If anybody’s convention looked like Nazi Germany, it was O’s, with all of the chanting and euphoria.
Our convention was dull, with the only highlight being the beautiful breath of fresh air, Sarah Palin.
What about Steele nodding in agreement when Hughley said the republican party looked like a ‘bunch of nazi’s’( or something similar)? I see Steele did not apologize for that!
He needs to!
Rush had his “A Game” today, but is still man enough and smart enough to accept the apology from Steele.
GO RUSH!!!!!!!!!
Ideology aside, a lesson to Michael Steele: Don’t take on someone who gets paid to talk for three hours per day - he’ll always have the last word!
Problem is that the RNC won't have the gumption to get rid of Steele and they've just cut their donations in half. They are so hosed, no message, no money and a doofus they can't get rid of.
That’s a step in the right direction. Let’s see what happens next.
I’m ok with giving the guy a break. Remember President Reagan’s 11th commandment.
Let’s not shoot our own soldiers. Steele admits he made a mistake-— give him the benefit unless or until he shows that weakness again. Rush is a teacher and hopefully a valuable lesson was learned. Let’s not trash Steele too badly for an admitteed screw up.
right.
Sorry, but this makes Steele even look weaker. We need someone with cojones to lead the RNC, not a backstabber like Steele. He had no business going on Hugley’s CNN show and speaking ill of Rush behind his back. I don’t buy the fake apology. Steele is only interested in saving his own skin.
Steele’s the one that goofed up. He shouldn’t have went on some stupid ass show in the first place and he certainly shouldn’t have been calling a prominent conservative incendiary and ugly and letting Nazi Party comments about Republicans just fly by and slightly nodding his head in agreement.
I knew this would happen...next time you go on a talk show or news program and another “brotha” tries to turn you against Limbaugh...I want to hear you scream from the mountain tops, that Limbaugh is a force to be reckoned with and is right 98.8% of the time.
“Too damn late, Steele. Too damn late.”
—
So was he crossing his fingers behind his back when he was trash talking Rush or when he was apologizing in response to the outcry for having done so?
Ain’t no puttin’ that toothpaste back in the tube, Mikey.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.