There’s some great discussion going on in the right-wing blogosphere about Rush Limbaugh, Michael Steele, and the movement. In the wake of CPAC and Rush’s energizing speech, Steele’s basically been playing it down, trying to distance the GOP and the RNC from Rush. Rush responded today on his show, and it’s worth a listen. Ace of Spades HQ and Hot Air have some really great comment threads on this, where you can see lots of interested politicos arguing about who is right or what’s the right course of action.
It’s a tough time for the Right right now, but I tend to agree with this commenter at AoSHQ about the productivity of this debate:
Here’s my view. Instead of papering over it, let’s actually fight the battle now instead of later – closer to an election. … I don’t see how this stops until there is a fight over it.
My two cents are that Rush is right to be indignant that Steele would so willingly toss him to the side after Rush vocally supported Steele back in 2006. It may sound childish, but I imagine it’s frustrating for Rush to be “expected” by elected Republicans to do the dirty work of rallying the base only to be disregarded as a sideshow when the media press those Republicans on it.
There are plenty of people on our side who are really worried about the effectiveness of Obama’s plan to make Rush the head of the GOP, to isolate him, and to ultimately destroy the party and the movement. There’s the argument that Steele’s doing the real work of trying to put a defeated party back together, and Rush is just unnecessarily getting in the way.
The problem is that, as Rush points out, those Republicans who chastise him for saying he wants Obama to fail essentially want the same thing. The catch is that they just can’t go out there and say that without looking like extremists or obstructionists. It’s not good politics for a party that’s (supposedly) reviled by the public.
But what if it is good politics? Okay, maybe independents aren’t super high on Rush Limbaugh, but they may not be that high on the stimulus, mortgage buyouts, universal health care efforts, expanded welfare state…and perhaps Obama in the next few years (or months, even). It seems impossible to fathom how Obama could have worse poll numbers, and Republicans may want to look like they are on the winning side, but what happens when it all comes crashing down? It’s going to be difficult to stay strong on the principles, but there could be a political payoff.
UPDATE: Looks like Steele is reaching out to Rush. The Left will howl about this, but I think this may clear up some significant problems. Allah thinks this hurts Steele from both directions, but I think (more optimistically) that it could end a silly feud about words (like “succeed” and “fail”) and perhaps get conservatives and Republicans talking.
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Mike, nice to meet you the other day. I like the post. I’m at least minimally alarmed at Steele’s inability to handle media attention. He’s now successfully (at least for the moment) pissed off conservatives for dissing Rush, and liberals for apologizing to him, feeding right into Rahm Emmanuel’s comment about how any Republican that criticizes Rush needs to go back and apologize.
He should take pointers from how Jindal handled the situation on Larry King Live. He managed to support both Steele and Limbaugh without trying to dodge the issue.