Limbaugh slams RNC head for ‘shaky start’

Following a rock star’s reception at
this weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), popular radio host
Rush Limbaugh has fired back at Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael
Steele for calling his show “ugly.”

“It seems to me that Michael
Steele is the one off to a shaky start,” Limbaugh said. “I hope the
RNC chairman will realize he is not a talking head pundit.”

{mosads}Limbaugh was responding to Steele’s
appearance on CNN Sunday night, in which Steele argued with host D.L. Hughley
over who headed the Republican Party.

“I’m the de facto leader of the
Republican Party,” said Steele, who was elected in late January by the 168
members of the RNC. “Rush Limbaugh is an
entertainer. Rush Limbaugh, his whole thing is entertainment. Yes, he’s
incendiary. Yes, it’s ugly.”

“He launched an attack on
me!” Limbaugh said Monday morning.

“Michael Steele, you are head
of the RNC. You are not head of the Republican Party,” Limbaugh shot back
on his show on Monday. “Tens of millions of conservatives and Republicans
have nothing to do with the RNC and they want nothing to do with the RNC and when
you call them asking for money they hang up on you.

“It’s time, Mr. Steele, for you
to go behind the scenes and start doing the work you were elected to do,”
Limbaugh said, specifically referring to his calls for closed presidential
primaries.

The latest feud between Limbaugh and
another prominent Republican cropped up after a big-name Democrat, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, said Sunday that Limbaugh speaks for the
Republican Party.

“He is the voice and the
intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party,” Emanuel said
of Limbaugh on Sunday’s “Face the Nation” on CBS.

On Saturday, Limbaugh addressed a
standing-room-only crowd at CPAC and said he was rooting for President Obama to
fail, touching off criticism from the administration. “In watching a few
cable clips of Mr. Limbaugh’s speech, his notion of presidential failures
seemed to be quite popular in the room,” White House press secretary
Robert Gibbs said during his Monday briefing.

Limbaugh said he couldn’t understand
why Steele had distanced the RNC from a radio host wanting Democratic
policies to fail.

“Why do you claim you lead the
Republican Party when you seem obsessed with seeing to it that President Obama
succeeds?” Limbaugh asked incredulously. “It’s going to be really
hard, Mr. Steele, if you as the chairman of the RNC want President Obama to
succeed.”

An RNC spokesman wouldn’t say
whether Steele would go on Limbaugh’s show, which he has in the past, though he
accused Democrats of setting up an ideological “straw man.”

“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. 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,” said RNC spokesman Alex Conant.

“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 [D-Calif.].”

Conant continued to refer reporters
to his comments, made before Limbaugh’s Monday show, throughout the afternoon.

In recent weeks, Democrats have made
a point to cite Limbaugh as his party’s chief spokesman. Several Republicans have pushed back, notably Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), who in January urged
Limbaugh to cut House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) some slack.

Gingrey went on Limbaugh’s show the
following day to apologize.