Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele is taking issue with the notion that Rush Limbaugh is the de facto leader of the GOP, calling the conservative radio talk show host an entertainer whose comments can be ugly.
Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in an interview with CNN that he, rather than Limbaugh, is “the de facto leader of the Republican Party.” And Steele described Limbaugh as a performer. “Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh’s whole thing is entertainment,” Steele said. “Yes, it is incendiary. Yes, it is ugly.” Last month, Steele, a former lieutenant governor of Maryland, was elected chairman of the RNC. He is the first African-American to lead the Republican Party. At the time of his election, Steele said that “Rush will say what Rush has to say; we’ll do what we have to do.” Steele made his latest comments regarding Limbaugh on CNN’s “D.L. Hughley Breaks the News,” which aired this weekend. The Steele interview was taped before Limbaugh’s appearance before the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual meeting of conservatives from across the nation. Watch Steele, Hughley talk politics ยป Limbaugh brought a cheering crowd to its feet several times as he called on fellow conservatives to take back the country.
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He used his self-described “first national address,” which ran more than an hour longer than his allotted 20 minutes, to accuse President Obama of inspiring fear in Americans in order to push a liberal agenda of “big government.” Limbaugh also backed up comments he made earlier this year in which he said he hoped Obama failed. “What is so strange about being honest and saying I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and re-form this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation” he said. But a top Republican in Congress disagreed. “I don’t think anyone wants anything to fail right now,” House Republican Whip Eric Cantor said on ABC’s “This Week.” “We have such challenges. What we need to do is we need to put forth solutions to the problems that real families are facing today.” RNC spokesman Alex Conant on Monday did not directly address Steele’s comments about Limbaugh but pointed out the back-and-forth between the White House and the conservative radio host. “Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats know they lose an argument with the Republican Party on substance, so they are building straw men to attack and distract,” he said. “The feud between radio host Rush and Rahm makes great political theater, but it is a sideshow to the important work going on in Washington.
“RNC Chairman Michael Steele and elected Republicans are focused on fighting for reform and winning elections. The Democrats’ problem is that the American people are growing skeptical of the massive government spending being pushed by congressional leaders like [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi,” Conant said. A spokesman for Limbaugh said the radio host did not have an immediate response, but added he would probably address Steele’s comments Monday on his nationally syndicated radio program.
