Top Republican's Groveling Apology to Rush Limbaugh Is a Media Disaster

[babylonsister]

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/129862/top_republican%27s_groveling_apology_to_rush_limbaugh_is_a_media_disaster/

Top Republican's Groveling Apology to Rush Limbaugh Is a Media Disaster

By Max Blumenthal, The Daily Beast. Posted March 3, 2009.

Given Limbaugh's history of racial controversy, and Steele's prominence as the first black GOP chair, this is a huge blow for the Party's image.

snip//

When Rush Limbaugh basked in the CPAC spotlight for more than an hour and a half on February 28, drawing boisterous, sustained applause from conference attendees with a stemwinding speech reiterating his desire to see Obama "fail," Steele took action. The following evening, on CNN's D.L. Hughley show, Steele attempted to reassert control over the party. When Hughley referred to Limbaugh as "the de facto leader of the Republican Party," Steele shot back, "No, I'm the de facto leader of the Republican Party!" And he mocked Limbaugh as an "entertainer" whose behavior was "incendiary" and "ugly."

Almost as soon as the broadcast ended, a firestorm of criticism erupted on the right-wing blogosphere. "It's not easy watching a black guy stumble around in the dark, but really, I'm trying," wrote Dan Riehl, a marketing manager who hosts the popular conservative blog, RiehlWorldView.com, in posting widely circulated on the right.

While conservative bloggers and radio talkers piled on, Limbaugh lashed out at Steele with a condescending on-air rant, barking at the chairman "to go behind the scenes and start doing the work that you were elected to do." Finding himself under fire from Rush's army of self-proclaimed "Dittoheads," Steele immediately sued for peace. "I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren't what I was thinking," Steele whimpered. "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 peoplewant to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman--and he's not."

Steele's apology recalled a similar incident from late January, when Republican Representative Phil Gingrey of Georgia attacked Limbaugh for "throwing bricks" without paying the consequences. As I reported for the Daily Beast, Gingrey invited himself on Limbaugh's radio show the following day to grovel before the host. "I clearly ended up putting my foot in my mouth on some of those comments," the penitent congressman said.

But given Limbaugh's well-documented history of racial controversy, and Steele's position as the Republican Party's first African American chairman, his apology is more significant than Gingrey's. Limbaugh has, for example, mocked Obama as a "Halfrican-American" who should "become white;" he has called for a "posthumous Medal of Honor" for the assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr., James Earl Ray, and told an African American caller, "Take that bone out of your nose and call me back."

Steele's "off the hook" PR campaign is now off the rails. Within days, he has gone from being "da man" to just another "Dittohead."

[madaboutharry]

1. I could not help seeing this as a

very disturbing example of how the GOP can not accept a black man holding power. The whole incident of Steele kowtowing to Limbaugh really looked like Steele was being reminded of "his place". There are racist overtones to this entire episode.

[ShortnFiery]

2. Rush Limbaugh's larger than life, Authoritarian Rule of the GOP right reminds me of "Cool Hand Luke"

flick made in 1967. Specifically, Limbaugh is reminiscent of the Patriarchal Character who RULES the chain gang prison in the deep South.

"Don't you EVER talk that way to me. Never! NEVER!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z8HqqCyO9E&feature=related

Michael Steel, however, reminds me of the subservient "hound dog" caretaker within this "Cool Hand Luke" movie analogy. A truly sniveling and PATHETIC character. Very apt? Indeed! :evilgrin:


Since I grew up among right wing libertarians, I can claim with confidence that IF you stand up to them, the vast majority will PROMPTLY fold like a cheap suit. The "rank and file" right winger searches out "Daddy Figure(s)" to tell them what to do. The right wing both CRAVEs and ADOREs patriarchal AUTHORITARIAN RULE as they all unite via HATRED of "the other" (as defined/redefined by their Dear Leader).

[dynasaw]

3. Steele is the Republican party's Token Black

It's an old game: front the party/institution with a black/brown/yellow/female face but the have the real power driven by some fat old racist. Steel and Jindahl are window dressing.
Sickening.

[ShortnFiery]

4. It goes beyond racial dimensions albeit they are disturbing. It's all about PACK rule.

Gut wrenching patriarchal authoritarianism.

[babylonsister]

5. Yup. And the GOP has put him in his place...

GOP to Michael Steele: Quiet About Rush Limbaugh or You're Fired

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5177850&mesg_id=5177850

[ShortnFiery]

6. However, as Eleanor Roosevelt says "No one can make you feel inferior without your permission."

Michael Steele played his role as "The GOP's House Negro" with flawless perfection. :puke: :thumbsdown:

[pipi_k]

7. I have to admit that I haven't

been following this all that closely, but I do have some questions.

One of them has to do with the real or perceived overtones of racism in the whole incident.

For instance, giving Michael Steele the position he has, then turning around and virtually threatening him for "insulting" Rush Limbaugh...how and why would the GOP think that's a great idea, given that they don't want to alienate any more black voters than they already have? It just doesn't make sense to me. But then, a lot of what they do doesn't make sense, so that's nothing new, really....

Also, forgetting black voters, what about more moderate Republicans who think Rush Limbaugh is an embarrassment to the Republican party and are no doubt wincing in pain to think that he is representative of the Party as a whole...

I dunno...just seems to me that they're shooting themselves in the foot if the only people they're hoping to convince are the 20% or so who STILL think W was the greatest *Resident ever.

feh.

Whatever. It's still a hoot to see them chewing themselves to pieces, though.