A little cat fight broke out in the Republican party the last two days between Rush Limbaugh and Robert Steele the new Chairman of the Republican Party and Steele gave every indication that his name bears no resemblance to his spine.At first Steele criticized Limbaugh for much of what he said in his bizarre speech, making clear that Limbaugh didn't speak for the party. Limbaugh took exception and fired back at Steele who a day later, showing what the future holds for the Republican Party, backed down and apologized.
When you feel you have to apologize to a Rush Limbaugh for criticizing the kind of comments he made, you've given up any claim to being a leader and instead have become a stooge.
Steele was right to criticize Limbaugh but bowing to the systemic problem of being a Republican, caved in to conservative pressure. Once again Reagan's Rule, the rule which not only contributed to the continuing multiple disasters of the last eight years, but the destruction of the Republican Party as a political influence -- thou shall not criticize a fellow Republican -- prevailed.
The biggest problem with Limbaugh as already noted is, he is either a congenital liar, is seriously out of touch with reality, or has a self serving agenda that has nothing to do with the well being of the country. That agenda might possibly be that he is simply an entertainer and he knows it, the NotoriousBIG of conservatives.
Notorious Rush's statement that the Democratic Party is all about "destroying lives" brought cheers from the hip hop CPAC crowd. Steele was right to criticize Limbaugh for that and other equally Notorious statements but,as everyone saw, backed down and virtually recanted the criticism( while Republicans whine about a lack of bi-partisanship).
To make his point about the Democratic Party "being all about" destroying lives, Limbaugh said, "Ask Robert Bork or Clarence Thomas".
Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas? While it's true that in both cases the Democrats went down into the political gutter to try and stop a Supreme Court nominee, the last time I looked Thomas was an Associate Justice to the Supreme Court, and Bork has been a highly paid Washington lawyer for the last 20 years. I suppose that is a Notorious conservatives view of two "destroyed lives". Which is not to say the confirmation hearings didn't get ugly and the Democrats didn't play dirty. They did. But Thomas and Bork didn't exactly have to line up for unemployment or lose their health insurance.
Of course,being a conservative mouthpiece with an agenda instead of principles, Limbaugh never mentions the lives destroyed by Bush -- 3000 killed on 911 because Bush ignored every national security warning regarding terrorism to pursue a conservative agenda involving restarting Star Wars. Or the 4000 soldiers killed in Iraq, most of whom were killed post invasion because Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, all conservatives, were inept and incompetent in managing the war. Or the 1500 who died in New Orleans because Bush couldn't get food water and medicine into that city for 5 days following Katrina even though he had a 2 day advance warning that it was going to hit. And now of course the lives affected by the worst economic meltdown since the 1930's -- the tens of millions who have lost their homes, jobs, and life savings thanks to a conservative President and a conservative congress with a conservative economic agenda.
If Limbaugh wants to count Thomas and Bork as being victims of the Democratic Party, then he should be willing to keep score, because right now when it comes to lives disrupted or destroyed, it's Democrats 2, Conservatives 200 million. Which is why Steele is going to need someone to lullabye him to sleep at night. But maybe with a slight change in lyrics.
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