The racist arm of the GOP will have none of this uppity negro thinking he's anything more than window dressing. Here's how it all began, with Steele letting us all know yesterday that Rush Limbaugh is not the leader of the party:
HUGHLEY: You know what we do, we talk like we're talking now. You have your view. I have mine. We don't need incendiary rhetoric.
STEELE: Exactly.
HUGHLEY: Like Rush Limbaugh, who is the de facto leader of the Republican Party.
STEELE:No, he's not. HUGHLEY: I will tell you what ...
STEELE:I'm the de facto (sic) leader of the Republican Party. HUGHLEY: You know what? I can appreciate that. But no one will actually decry down some of the things he says. Like when he comes out and says he wants the president to fail. I understand he wants liberalism to fail. Like, I get it's not about the man. But it is still about the idea that he would rather have an idea fail so his idea can move to the forefront. And that would succeed. And that to me is destructive.
STEELE: How is that any different than what was said about George Bush during his presidency?
HUGHLEY: You're absolutely - let me say something. You're absolutely right.
STEELE: So let's put it into context here. Let's put it into context here. Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh, his whole thing is entertainment. Yes, it's incendiary. Yes, it's ugly. CHUCK D: You do get a sense that he would say anything.
HUGHLEY: He influences the party. And I tell you what, you're the first Republican I have talked to, and I have talked to a lot, to say he's not the leader of his party. I have never heard anybody say that on any show.
"So I am an entertainer and I have 20 million listeners because of my great song and dance routine," Limbaugh said. "Michael Steele, you are head of the Republican National Committee. You are not head of the Republican party. Tens of millions of conservatives and Republicans have nothing to do with the Republican National Committee...and when you call them asking for money, they hang up on you...
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 a 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.
No matter, the RNC appointed a man of quality who can lead. Look how he boldly grovelledstood his ground this afternoon!
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."
..."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."
"You be da man" Michael! If it all wasn't so sad and pathetic, it would be riotously funny. Goodbye, GOP.
