Does Rush Limbaugh Still Run The Republican Party?

Penny Nance is an unhinged fanatic from the dark fringes of the American Taliban. She heads the hate group Concerned Women for America, which is only concerned with a kind of cultish extremism that has no place in America. She would however have felt right at home as a leader of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (the League of German Maidens), the Werk Glaube und Schönheit (the Belief and Beauty Society), the Frauenwerk or any of the organizations that made up the Nazi Women's League headed by the Penny Nance of her day, Gertrud Scholtz-Klink. When Hitler insisted that for the German woman her "world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home" he was perfectly in tune with the Taliban-- the one in Afghanistan, the one in Saudi Arabia and, of course, the one right here in America.

Wednesday Nance was savaging Michael Steele and demanding he resign as head of the RNC. She argues that "The new RNC chairman needs to be both a fiscal and social conservative, and must represent the party in a professional and engaging way... There is simply too much at stake for the Republicans to keep Michael Steele as the RNC chairman. If the party wants to maintain its gains among conservatives and independents, the GOP needs to start gearing for the 2012 election now. There is no time to waste on party politics and the crisis communications that have been commonplace at the RNC since Steele took over."

While the GOP picked up historic numbers of seats in this past election, it was in spite of, not because of, Michael Steele. In an unbelievable, and oftentimes comical, reign of just two years as RNC chairman, Steele managed to embarrass his party through his gaffe-prone media appearances.  He was specifically tasked with helping to bring African-Americans into the party, but when asked if there were any good reasons why they should vote Republican, Steele said they don’t really have a good reason. He also flip-flopped on his opposition to abortion during an interview with GQ Magazine and slammed conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, resulting in an embarrassing showdown (which Steele lost).

It wasn't as stinging towards Steele as the resignation letter from his own former political director, Gentry Collins (real name) but then again, Nance isn't running for RNC head the way Collins is (not to mention ex-Michigan GOP leader Saul Anuzis, Maria Cino (one of Boehner's favorite lobbyists), Ann Wagner, Norm Coleman, Wisconsin GOP Chairman Reince Priebus, former RNC Chair Mike Duncan, Connecticut GOP Chairman Chris Healy, California GOP Chairman Ron Nehring, some KKK leader from South Carolina and half a dozen other kooks and nuts).

But it's funny that Nance brought up the Rush Limbaugh incident. Remember how the feisty Steel reacted when someone pointed out on CNN that Rush Limbaugh is the de facto head of the Republican Party? Steele went nuts, insisting: “I’m the de facto leader of the Republican Party... 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.” You probably remember what happened next, since it has been repeated ad infinitum by Republican toadies who forgot someone might be listening. Dave Neiwert and John Amato captured it in their most recent book, Over The Cliff:

The next day, Limbaugh launched a brutal verbal assault on
Michael Steele:

"I’m not in charge of the Republican Party, and I don’t want to be. I would be embarrassed to say that I’m in charge of the Republican Party in a sad-sack state that it’s in. If I were chairman of the Republican Party, given the state that it’s in, I would quit... Republicans and conservatives are sick and tired of being talked down to, they’re sick and tired of being lectured to. And until you show some understanding and respect for who they are, you’re gonna have a tough time rebuilding your party."

Steele, too, abjectly apologized, telling Politico in a telephone interview: “My intent was not to go after Rush-- I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh... I was maybe a little bit inarticulate...There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership.” Meanwhile, there were whispers from anonymous “Republican advisers to Congress” that unless Steele shut his trap, there would be a special session of the RNC to remove him. Steele said no more about Limbaugh, other than to praise him.

And as Amato and Neiwert pointed out, Steele is far from the only Republican politician who grovels in front of Limbaugh. There was a really funny dust-up between Limbaugh, Boehner and one of Boehner's lackeys:

Representative John Boehner of Ohio, in an interview with right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt, denied that his ideas came from Limbaugh: “I like Rush, but, he’s a talk show host, and I’m in the policy-making business.”

Limbaugh responded by blasting him as weak: “He’s [Obama is] obviously more frightened of me than he is Mitch McConnell.

He is more frightened of me than he is of, say, John Boehner, which doesn’t say much about our party.”

Representative Phil Gingrey of Georgia came to Boehner’s defense in these remarks to Politico:

I mean, it’s easy if you’re Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You don’t have to try to do what’s best for your people and your party. You know you’re just on these talk shows and you’re living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of thing.

The next morning, Gingrey issued a retraction, declaring that he saw “eye to eye with Rush,” and that afternoon was on Limbaugh’s show, abjectly apologizing:

"Rush, thank you so much. I thank you for the opportunity, of course this is not exactly the way I wanted to come on... Mainly, I want to express to you and all your listeners my very sincere regret for those comments I made yesterday to Politico... I clearly ended up putting my foot in my mouth on some of those comments... I regret those stupid comments."

I wonder if they'll run all the bills they try to pass by Limbaugh before they introduce them. I just ran across this wonderful old video from a couple years ago that seems to be as relevant as anything right now, especially on a nice quiet Black Friday like today: