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 great, it it comes again. The righteous republicans trashing one of our own...as usual...doing exactly what the liberals intend...destroy each other!
Steele is not perfect but he’s a good man. I am sure Rush can get over this.
Seriously if you all think Steele is the enemy now, it is over. This party does not stand a chance and you better start forming that perfect conservative party real fast.
You are a guy?? I am a real Jennifer...female.
The worst thing that the Chair of the RNC (basically the man in charge of fund raising) can do is to insult Rush Limbaugh. 20 million fans and listeners should not be pissed off and saying stupid things about Rush and his great speech at CPAC can only get you in trouble.
As we say in Maryland, “Strong as Steele!”
You hit the nail on the head. I suspect the RNC got hung up on many times today, and received many more calls pulling support.
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On all sorts of threads, I heard that they were hanging up on callers upset about Steele’s trashing of Rush. I emailed them and asked to be removed from their database for all the good it will do me.
At this rate the RNC will be very fortunate if they can afford to pay their phone bills, let alone staff salaries...
I'd say they need a staff purge for starters along with a REAL apology from Steele that is followed up by 100 times better performance.
Or he could resign and be replaced by Ken Blackwell. HIM I trust.
Time for Republicans to stop fighting among themselves and fight with the stupid ass Democrats.
Hey Steele and other Rino’s : the worthless piece of shit lord messiah the marxist is that way—— Leave Rush alone...
Yes. Exactly. The Republican Party must be torn down so a Conservative party can emerge.
There were definately lapses in the Bush adminstration’s judgement of when to fight; however, in this case the more fuel we give it the bigger it will become and the ONLY people it will benefit are those trying to wreak havoc in the conservative movement. There are definately battles out their to be fought.... however, this is not the one.. not at this time....
No, no. Don’t panic. This is a good thing. The RINO’s must be ousted to make room for conservatives, and the average American is craving this level of outrage against the incompetent Republican party.
The same could be said of you when you attempt to hijack Rush threads.
We need to stop fighting with each other and stop sucking up to Democrats. I’m not interested in what Democrats think. If I thought like a Democrat, I’d be voting for them.
Too little to late for the RINO who panders to black racists and doesn’t have the backbone to stand up to their slander.
Too little too late for the RINO who panders to the same black racists who call him an “Uncle Tom”, “house n****r” and throw oreo cookies at him, yet he doesn’t have the backbone to stand up to their slander.
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When did those things happen? Where was it reported?
Tavis Smiley “State of the Black Union Conference.”
http://c-span.org/Watch/watch.aspx?ProgramId=HP-A-40849
http://michellemalkin.com/2005/11/02/the-vile-bile-we-have-to-put-up-with/
http://freedomeden.blogspot.com/2005/11/oreos-for-uncle-tom.html
http://freedomeden.blogspot.com/2005/11/oreos-for-uncle-tom.html
stuck on stupid.
Mr. Steele does not get my money.
I do more for the party and for america by investing in Rush 24.7
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