Not-So-Democratic Milquetoast of the Week: Michael Steele
I don’t always do a Democratic Milquetoast every week. Partially this is because there isn’t always a good candidate, but mostly, it’s because I’m lazy. At any rate, this week, my winner isn’t even a Democrat. He’s RNC Chairman Michael Steele! His utter spinelessness early this week while sparring with right-wing hate jock Rush Limbaugh demands that I award him with the Milquetoast award – it was that epic!
It all started after the Oxycontin Comedian made his keynote address at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). It was your typical right-wing red meat speech, again touching upon his wish that President Obama and his policies fail (never mind that such a failure would also be a disastrous failure for the entire country, resulting in economic misery for millions.) Naturally, Democrats have been making hay using Rush’s statements. For example, Rahm Emanuel openly stated on Face the Nation that Rush Limbaugh was the de-facto leader of the Republican Party.
Michael Steele ended up on this bandwagon when he was interviewed on CNN, and called Rush an “entertainer” and said his comments were “incendiary and ugly”. Of course, Rush retaliated by ranting for 20 minutes on his radio show, saying “It’s time, Mr. Steele, to go behind the scenes and start doing the work that you were elected to do instead of trying to be some talking head media star.” and “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.” His dittoheads followed his lead and started making angry phone calls. Suddenly, there was any ugly catfight in the GOP, and Steele was about to be hit with a backlash.
You’d think that if Michael Steele had any self respect at all, he’d continue to trash-talk for a few days, or clarify his remarks, or make a non-apology just to show he had some game. Nope, instead, he folded immediately, calling Rush a “national conservative leader” and saying “To the extent that my remarks helped the Democrats in Washington to take the focus, even for one minute, off of their irresponsible expansion of government, I truly apologize… I was maybe a little bit inarticulate… There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership… I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren’t what I was thinking…”
Wow. Michael Steele and Harry Reid need to get together and form a support group for spineless jellyfish. Rush hit Steele with one of the most spectacular political bitchslaps I’ve ever seen! This smackdown came right after Steele spent so much time trying to cultivate his “street cred” with black voters. It’s safe to say that any credibility Steele had with the black community has completely evaporated.
But the most lasting effect isn’t the humiliation of Steele, but the coronation of Rush as the de-facto leader of the GOP. President Obama, his staffers and allies, and other Democrats have been insinuating for a while that the GOP was being led by Rush Limbaugh, but Limbaugh’s bitchslap of Steele has confirmed the power he holds over the Republican Party in the worst possible way! Nobody in the GOP dares cross Rush, for fear of being ripped up on his show and mobbed by his dittoheads. They’d rather be seen planting their lips on Rush’s boil-infested ass. For the Democrats, this is the best possible outcome – the GOP’s public face is an extremist lunatic who happens to be one of the few people in American politics that is actually less popular than George W. Bush. Rush Limbaugh is going to be the GOP’s Moses – under his leadership, the Republicans will be lost in the wilderness for 40 years!
Michael Steele, and Rush Limbaugh, your actions have made my life as a Democrat much easier and far more pleasurable. Please keep doing what you’re doing. No, please. Keep going. I’m addicted to schadenfreude, and I need another fix!
