GOP Chairman Michael Steele and Pundit Rush Limbaugh in War of Words

March 3, 2009 RSS Feed Print

BY Michael Saul
DAILY NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

It's an elephant-on-elephant slapfest - and the White House is likely loving every minute of it.

The Republican rumble pits conservative talk icon Rush Limbaugh against new GOP boss Michael Steele in an increasingly nasty war of words.

"I would be embarrassed to say that I'm in charge of the Republican Party in the sad-sack state that it's in," railed Limbaugh yesterday, adding he "might get out the hari-kari knife" if he had Steele's job.

Limbaugh lashed out at Steele on his radio show after the party boss slapped the talk legend's style during an interview Saturday.

Steele had insisted that he - and not Limbaugh - was at the helm of the party.

"Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer," Steele said on CNN. "Rush Limbaugh, his whole thing is entertainment. Yes, it's incendiary, yes, it's ugly."

That was enough to set off Limbaugh.

He accused Steele of being "gutless" and afraid to challenge President Obama.

Last night, Steele tried to call a truce. "I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh," he told politico.com. "I was maybe a little bit inarticulate...there was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership."

Tags:
conservatives,
Rush Limbaugh,
Michael Steele,
New York Daily News,
politics,
republican party

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Steele should be embarassed.

He should have handed Rush a heaping bowl of STFU. People LIKE LIMBAUGH are killing the republican party with their hate-mongering ignorant spew all over the airwaves. The fact that Steele even insinuated that Limbaugh was a party leader of some sort is appalling. Limbaugh is not an elected official, he has no say in policy, and should be ignored by the Republicans if they want to be at all popular with the American people ever again. The Neo-Cons in the party blew it for them, and they need to move towards the center again if they ever want to have a say.

Everyone who switched to the Democratic ticket in November did so because they were tired of the bigotry, fear-mongering, and slander associated with the right wing. Now the right is paying for it.

You have OBVIOUSLY never listened to Limbaugh. I feel sorry for you. You talk about things which you obviously refuse to actually learn about. You're exactly like someone who would only read the title or a few lines of an article and insinuate what it's about instead of reading and comprehending the entire thing. I CHALLENGE YOU to listen to Limbaugh for 1 month... Then again, you'll probably just listen to a couple 30 second segments and say you listened to the entire show, just like you would a news article. That's the problem with so many Americans today. They speak about things they know nothing about. Limbaugh is FAR from a racist and bigot. Do I agree with him on everything? No. Will you? Probably not. But when you don't even give someone a chance and just repeat what other, hateful, people say about him, you prove yourself to be a fool. Are you a fool? Is that how you want people to think of you? Better yet, is that how you want to think of yourself? Go ahead and look in the mirror and tell yourself you've given Limbaugh a fair shake... I dare you.

Tony (feels bad for you, Adam of NY) of NJ 11:34PM July 11, 2010

I see that the only change in the new face of the Republican Party is that it is painted black. The old boy network is still in control. The only reason that Steele was elected was so they could go after Obama and avoid cries of racism. Now, I'm not against blacks being in the republican party, (we are just as diverse as whites), and our affiliations should reflect that. What I dislike is when those blacks allow these messages steeped with hidden racism to flourish unchallanged. They seek to belong so bad that they forget who they are. Obama's election to presidency has opened the door for many other blacks to seats of power, but do they really have control? In my life, for example, I've held many supervisory positions, but it always seems that when I get them the job description changes to a working supervisor position. Every supervisor before me worked from behind a desk, I always had to work on the floor. I see the same thing happening here, because many whites refuse to take orders from blacks. You may notice that I don't use the term African American. That's because, according to genetic proof, EVERYONE in America is African American.

Rahjee of NC 11:43AM March 04, 2009

He should have handed Rush a heaping bowl of STFU. People LIKE LIMBAUGH are killing the republican party with their hate-mongering ignorant spew all over the airwaves. The fact that Steele even insinuated that Limbaugh was a party leader of some sort is appalling. Limbaugh is not an elected official, he has no say in policy, and should be ignored by the Republicans if they want to be at all popular with the American people ever again. The Neo-Cons in the party blew it for them, and they need to move towards the center again if they ever want to have a say.

Everyone who switched to the Democratic ticket in November did so because they were tired of the bigotry, fear-mongering, and slander associated with the right wing. Now the right is paying for it.

Adam of NY 8:46AM March 04, 2009

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