STEELE VS. LIMBAUGH.

March 2, 2009

8:18 PM

You can imagine Michael Steele's irritation. He just got elected chairman of the Republican Party. He worked hard for it. He's doing his best to make the party look like it's not just a home for angry white men, but the only problem is he's being pushed out of the way by the champion of angry white men everywhere. At CPAC, Limbaugh's keynote (during which he misquoted the Constitution) was practically an alternative State of the Union for conservatives. Don't think about policy, Limbaugh urged, "[o]ne thing we can all do is stop assuming that the way to beat [Democrats] is with better policy ideas."

It would be one thing if Limbaugh was just a talk show host. But he's essentially wrested control of the GOP from Steele--he's not deciding which races to prioritize, or how to raise money, but he's setting the ideological agenda, and Republicans at the highest levels criticize him at their peril.

On Saturday, Steele tried to set things straight on the DL Hughley show. Hughley said "Rush Limbaugh is the de-facto leader of the Republican Party," and Steele retorted, "I'm the de-facto leader of the Republican Party," before calling Limbaugh "an entertainer":

So let’s put it into context here. Let’s put it into context here. Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh, his whole thing is entertainment. Yes, it’s incendiary. Yes, it’s ugly.

Steele is right. Limbaugh is an entertainer...and as long as it helps him make more money, he'll be happy to let his dittobots see him as their leader. Until recently however, it looked like Steele was just competing with Limbaugh over who could make the most ridiculous comments. Now things seem to have changed.

We've seen the conscience of Michael Steele before. It appeared fleetingly in the aftermath of the Magic Negro controversy, and it appears to have found a voice again on Hughley's show. These moments might actually help...if Steele actually spoke his mind to conservatives rather than to a Thinkprogress interviewer or on a late night CNN show hosted by a comedian. Steele needs to steer his own party in a more productive direction before he can plausibly sell it to outsiders, even if it just means changing the way they sound.

The problem is that any attempts to marginalize Limbaugh when he's seen by most people not just outside the party, but within the party, as its most important voice, are simply futile. Steele knows how much damage Limbaugh can do to the party--as long as Limbaugh is the face of the GOP, any token attempt at bipartisanship from Obama looks exceedingly gracious. Limbaugh makes Obama look more pragmatic and non-ideological by the second, while making Republicans look "incendiary" and "ugly." But In order to actually be the face and voice of the Republican Party, Steele will practically have to stage a coup.

-- A. Serwer