Maybe I was wrong.
I’ve been giving Rush Limbaugh a bad time over on my blog, The Pink Flamingo, (shameless plug) but not really taking Michael Steele’s side. The more I think about the situation, the more I think we have been manipulated by the Obama PR Machine. That’s okay. It’s politics and all’s fair in love and politics, right?
Maybe not.
I am also rethinking my enthusiastic support of Michael Steele when he ran for the Chairmanship of the Republican National Committee. Steele has (and continues) to impress me with his FOX appearances, but I’m starting to see things I don’t like (or am I?).
The first red flag went up when I discovered that RNC Treasurer, Tim Crawford, had been forced out of that job. Crawford is also associated with SarahPAC, Sarah Palin’s PAC.
Why?
Why did Michael Steele not attack when CNN’s D. L. Hughley compared the GOP to Nazi Germany? He should have taken Hughley out once and for all. I suspect Steele was taken aback by Hughley, and responded as a gentleman, relating his personal story, which is quite remarkable.
There is something else we need to put into perspective, Steele was being interviewed about the GOP and the minority communities. Let’s be honest, what does a person do, behave like a gentleman or take the biased CNN anchor out with a verbal tongue lashing?
I would have opted for the latter but then I learned my politics directly from the late, great Lee Atwater. You take no prisoners and leave no enemy standing. I think it is a lesson the GOP, trying to be nice, has forgotten.
BACK TO LIMBAUGH
I will admit I did not take the time to watch Rush’s CPAC speech. The excerpts I’ve heard from it are excellent. I agree with him. I agree with his basic points of conservatism, which are lower taxes, less government and a strong national defense. Those are the basics, along with the fact that the government should leave people alone. People should be free to live their lives, etc.
SEGUE TO STEELE
I felt sorry for Michael Steele as he explained his background and how he was given no credit for being an elected official who was of the same race as Barack Obama. Fact is, the Democrats subjected him to some of the worst racism I've seen in ages.
Then it dawned on me, this is not just about making trouble for Rush Limbaugh and an attempt to marginalize the GOP.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Joanne Huspek
Great piece, eloquently put.
I'd like to write my own, but I haven't finished singing the blues yet.
You might think that the masses aren't "stupid" but you may be wrong. Open up the local paper in Detroit and read the editorial page. It's full of letters to the editor praising the takeover of our freedoms and condemning the people who are rightly worried.
I only hope there are enough smart people left in the world to put an end to this.
2 - David W.
Paranoid much?
3 - Clavos
I only hope there are enough smart people left in the world to put an end to this.
Me too, Joanne. But I worry that we're a minority here on BC, which might be indicative of the country as a whole, as demonstrated by the letters to the DFP.
4 - Baronius
SJ, would you mind giving a little chronology of the Steele/Limbaugh dust-up? I haven't heard anything about it.
5 - Matthew T. Sussman
"It is also about Michael Steele, the first African American chairman of a national political party. This should be a big story " Michael Steele, African American Chairman of the Republican National Committee, but Obama’s slobbering media cannot allow it. The Obama Administration cannot allow it."
It should be a big story, had the Democrats not broken this very barrier with Ron Brown 20 years ago.
6 - Dr Dreadful
If the definition of eloquent is a sequence of muddled thought, unsupported claims, scaremongering, rabble-rousing and ad hominems, Joanne, yes, I suppose you're right.
This is just the sort of nasty rant Republicans were so quick to complain about when Bush was president. For starters, if the 'Democrat/liberal media' don't want to acknowledge a black man as a senior GOP figure, then how the fuck did Steele get onto Hughley's show?
To put this storm in a blue china teacup into perspective, is it perhaps possible that Steele is trying to steer the GOP ever so gently away from the sort of inflammatory Limbauvian bombastics that got them into their current mess? Is it, further, perhaps possible that it is powerful factions within the GOP which are trying to get Steele ousted, and not [make sign of cross here if urge arises] Democrats - none of whom have any say in how the party is run?
Apparently Limbaugh's thrall is so great that Steele - like other conservatives who've dared to criticize the Great One in the past - has now backed down with many succulent kissing noises. Is that what's pissing Republicans off about him, or is it his comments about their hero?
7 - Georgio
Great Job DR Dreadful..You said it all with perfection..I would just add ..that Rush is not stupid...IT"S THE DITTOHEADS WHO ARE STUPID for listening to him..
8 - El Bicho
Another accurate diagnosis from the good doctor. Rather a mess of a piece evident by the author's mouth-foaming hysteria, inability to focus, and apparent naivety about politics among other things.
Aside from the other points previously mentioned that detail errors in the piece, I have some questions. What does Crawford's dismissal have to do with anything? Can you cite someone claiming to have voted for Obama out of guilt? If you think he won by manipulation, good luck in 2010. Why have you falsely attributed the "sucker" statement to Barnum when any bit of research would reveal that to be inaccurate?
If you are going to call others "weaker minded," you might want to spell "incredible" correctly. Also, those headers stand out like sore thumbs. Were you working from an outline and forgot to clean them up because it looks like Cliffs Notes? Shouldn't a reader know that you've made a segue or returned to a topic?
Newsflash: Limbaugh is already a laughing stock. Aside from being a thrice-married family-values guy, who doesn't seem to be bothered by welfare and drug addiction when he is partaking in it, he whines about open primaries and Democrats affecting the Republican candidates, yet gleefully advocated that his audience do the same to Democrats last year. He's a typical political hypocrite that only cares about what's good for himself.
Considering how your different members of your party felt about the nomination of McCain and the way some have turned against the policies of Bush, the press isn't creating a civil war within the GOP. Those sparks were already smoldering, although outside forces will no doubt help fan the flames. Your only hope of success is Obama's policies making things worse because Limbaugh won't be leading you to the promised land.
9 - Arch Conservative
Watching the Obama administration go after it's critics is a disturbing trend. While Obama and his cabinet should be governing and trying better this nation they're main concern seems to lie in attacking anyone who publicly critisizes them.
I can't recall any persidential administration in my lifetime activelty engaging in verbal sparring with radio talk show hosts and others in the media.
It's embarassing. The facade is starting to crumble and thin skinned narcissistic king Barry can't deal so he's having his butt boys Gibbs and Emmannuelle at the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda do his dirty work.
It hasn't even been two months but it's already become obvious that no godd will come to any citizen based on the actions of this administration. I look forward to more and more waking up to reality and kicking this piece of trash in the oval office in the teeth every chance there is to be had.
10 - Cindy
He’s preyed on our good will.
You have good will, like Scrooge had good will. You remind me of Ursula from The Little Mermaid.
11 - REMF(MCH)
"I agree with Rush Limbaugh's basic points of conservatism, which are lower taxes, less government and a strong national defense."
- SJ Riedhead
Uh-huh, sure...Lardbaugh believes in "less government," as long as he can get away with popping his Oxycontin; and "national defense," as long as someone ELSE does the fighting and dying.
12 - roger nowosielski
Well said, Cindy. I don't even read her trash.
13 - handyguy
No one in the White House has said or will say anything one-tenth as hyperbolic or downright nasty as that speech, which was laughable yet scarily sociopathic at the same time. They've just sort of been chortling along because they know that kind of extreme rhetoric is a turnoff to independents.
But now that Mount Rush-man has egomaniacally suggested that the president should debate him on his radio show, Rahm and company will stop playing along. Rush is plenty good at looking fringey without help from them.
The WH should have remained above the fray, I guess, but who could resist such a target?
14 - Clavos
but who could resist such a target?
Oh, I dunno...a truly presidential president?
15 - El Bicho
"I can't recall any persidential administration in my lifetime activelty engaging in verbal sparring with radio talk show hosts and others in the media."
Then you should do a better job paying attention because your recall is as good as your spelling. Of course, the Bush II administration had an easier time of it by faking news reports, buying off columnists, and feeding false information to the press.
16 - handyguy
I don't think the president himself has directly commented on this, has he? If so, even I disapprove.
But Rahm saying shit doesn't bother me much at all.
17 - Clavos
I don't think the president himself has directly commented on this, has he?
Not directly on this (yet), no. But Barack started it.
...Rahm saying shit...
That about covers it.
18 - handyguy
And would Clavos care to express an opinion about Limbaugh's rhetoric? Or would that lower his hoity-toity standards of political propriety too much?
Rush, less than a week after the inauguration:
"We are being told we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over and grab our ankles... because his father was black, because he's the first black president, we've got to accept this."
Obama [after the above, so not 'starting it,' and not even directly responding, but indirectly referring to it, in the context of offering advice to Republicans in the House and Senate about being more cooperative and open-minded]:
"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done."
This may not be the type of tea party manners expected of, say, Queen Elizabeth, but it's pretty mild for a president.
19 - Clavos
And would Clavos care to express an opinion about Limbaugh's rhetoric?
Nobody elected Limbaugh, and he doesn't run anything but his radio show, despite the laughable allegations by the Obama sycophants.
And I'm only hoity-toity about priggish peasants.
20 - Dr Dreadful
Nobody elected Limbaugh, and he doesn't run anything but his radio show
Not officially, no. But he does wield a lot of influence in the GOP - hence Steele's retraction, not to mention his predecessors in ass-kissing, Mark Sanford and Phil Gingrey, both of whom hastily backed away from their criticisms of Limbaugh after the Great One threw his toys out of the pram.
21 - handyguy
So you may agree with him, or you may think he's an asshole, but you're not going to share whatever that opinion may be with the readers of Blogcritics. Are you sure you're not a lawyer?
[I note also that you very rarely/never express disagreement with conservative writers/commenters on this site, even though I bet you often differ with them.]
22 - Cobra
Oh, you folks just need to stop it. I don't even think the Rush Limbaugh quote is the best part of this interview.
From the transcript of CNN's "Breaking the News":
HUGHLEY: I really do. I think you're a really bright guy. And they hired both of us because we have a black president.
STEELE: That's right.
HUGHLEY: You, me, Bobby Jindal, we're all working because of the brother in the job.
STEELE: That's right. All the brothers in the same room, right?
HUGHLEY: I read a lot of what you said. One of the things you said is the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we wanted to apply them to urban-suburban hip-hop settings. So you're going to bring hip-hop to the GOP?
STEELE: Yeah, and the idea, really, I have a deep affection and friendship with Russell Simmons and a number of folks in the community that we talked about issues like poverty and education, and I think that the GOP, if it took its head out of the sand and paid attention to what was going on around it, focused on how communities are changing, the dynamics of the communities, the makeup and how we look and sound and go into those communities and speak about those issues and the context of what we believe with respect to education and charter schools, for example, you know, economic empowerment and opportunity, home ownership, those type of things I think resonate.
At least to the extent that people will pay attention and listen and you're not dismissed right out of hand because you have got this crazy look in your eye.
HUGHLEY: No. I think that we have an obligation to -- to kind of support the party that we believe we have the most kinship to. But the Republican Party, clearly, has a bit of an image problem with African Americans.
STEELE: They do. They do.
HUGHLEY: Because even if you put it to hip-hop, how do you rap, ""I'm against affirmative action." How do you remix that?
STEELE: This is where it becomes interesting, because I'm not. I'm an affirmative action baby, if you will. I grew up with it. I recognize the power and importance of it.
HUGHLEY: But the Republican Party isn't.
STEELE: This is the other point, D.L. The Republican Party should. Because the first affirmative action program that was put into place was 40 acres and a mule by Republican congressmen after the slaves were freed. The second ...
HUGHLEY: Look how that worked out, Michael. Is that part of the stimulus package? I ain't get mine.
STEELE: Wait a minute -- but the second and the most significant one, though, was 1968 to 1972. In the Richard Nixon administration, Art Fletcher, African American Republican, created what we know today as affirmative action. And the idea was to create a tool for economic empowerment to level that playing field. So I say to Republicans all the time, how can you be against the very thing that you help put in place to empower people? If you have a problem with it, fix it to make it work so that people don't lose whatever opportunities they have.
The leader of the Republican National Committee stands for hip-hop culture, Black economic empowerment and Affirmative Action...
...and it's NOT a punchline for a bad talk radio bit?
This is hysterical! I'm doubled-over with laughter. Michael Steele in this interview KNOWS he's just window-dressing in the Republicans lame attempt to look like they represent more than just an angry, old, Southern White Party with a few miserly oligarchs thrown in. The fact that he folded up faster than a Kmart leisure suit for Limbaugh should tell you that he's not going to affect any change in the party's status whatsoever.
I'm giggling with glee that the Democrats have successfully labeled these pompous right winged hacks like Limbaugh for the hateful, sexist, bigoted moral failures they appear to be. It's 2009. They can't hide anymore. Transcripts, soundbites and video clips are online at your fingertips.
--Cobra
23 - bliffle
I'm astounded that Limbaugh revealed his hidden racism so readily under such light provocation.
Oh well, what can you expect from a guy like that?
24 - Clavos
There's no enjoyment in being a closet racist, it's not like being a Democrat.
25 - Baronius
Handy, that's quite a piece of hypocrisy. You said that you wouldn't defend Obama if he criticized Limbaugh in comment #16. In #17, that criticism was documented. In comment #18, you defended Obama.