Mark Twain: “Never pick a fight with a man who buys his ink by the barrel.”
Modernized version: “Never pick a fight with a man who speaks to 20 million people daily.”
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Steele is learning a hard lesson -- in the woodshed.
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.”
“FU,” Steele!
I love the “I’m sorry if you’re offended” kind of apology.
You have to question his sensibility on this mess. What in the world was Steele catering to?
I still have reservations about Steele.
I didn’t say I did not agree... what I said was it is the nature of the beast to incite... do with it what you will.... but just realize that the left will use it to tear us down if we let them.
Well, the other highlight at the GOP convention was Rudy Guiliani; his speech was great!
I bet it was a very, very long day for Michael Steele.
Yes. Steele is sorry.
(He is a sorry excuse for a dipshitte “leader” who wants to play footsie with those who hate US.)
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I’m sorry too.
You had your chance.
Steele...this is the best the GOP can do??
Rush Limbaugh Blasts Michael Steele as "Gutless" - Audio 3/2/09
Mark Twain: “Never pick a fight with a man who buys his ink by the barrel.”
Modernized version: “Never pick a fight with a man who speaks to 20 million people daily.”
==
Steele is learning a hard lesson -- in the woodshed.
Palin didn't try to curry favor with liberals by attacking conservatives.
Exactly... while he should be out there toting the Republican tenets at every opportunity, he should at least go where they will be seen. Not some back bencher CNN show that a total of 25 people watch (including Media Matters).
Rush is brilliant and fearless....it’s about time these GOP leaders start listening to him. Lord knows we have a gutless GOP that needs an infusion of courage with intelligent standards. Hopefully Steele is a better man and conservative for it. Thanks Rush.
this is exactly what the dems want....to break us apart...Michael Steele is a good conservative...Rush is a good conservative....We start fighting eachother and we will never be strong. At this point we need as much positive energy we can get.
Thanks for the info. Wow.
That I am sure of. But it goes to show that anytime you appear in the MSM you have to be prepared to be ambushed. Remember Cantor also fell for the bait.
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