Price: Not up to Limbaugh to decide who’s in the GOP

Rush Limbaugh doesn’t get to decide who’s a good Republican and who’s a bad Republican, one of the House GOP’s leading conservatives said Monday.

“Look, it’s not up to Rush Limbaugh to decide who ought to be in the Republican Party,” Republican Study Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) said during an appearance on MSNBC.

Price said that the GOP was “without a doubt” broad enough to hold both Limbaugh and former Secretary of State Colin Powell — the latter of which supported President Obama’s presidential campaign despite having worked in the Bush administration.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney snubbed Powell in a recent interview, saying he’d choose Limbaugh’s GOP over Powell’s.

“I’m an arms-open guy. I want folks all across this land who believe in the fundamental American principles that we embrace to join us and move forward in a positive way as opposed to the kind of exclusive decision that we so often see in Washington,” Price said, calling the Republicans’ internal squabbles “counterproductive.”