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After Apology, GOP Chair Calls Tiff With Limbaugh 'A Side-Show Distraction'
 
March 4, 2009 1:16 p.m. EST
 
 
Kris Alingod - AHN Contributor
 
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele on Wednesday downplayed his heated exchange with radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, calling it "a great side-show distraction."
Appearing on NBC's "Today" show, the newly elected GOP chair said, "There are a lot of opinions out there, some come from people who are notable, some from people who are not so notable. And my job is to try to balance that. I wasn't that effective at it this week but, you know, I've been 30 days on the job and we'll, you know, move forward."
"This is a great side-show distraction. There's a lot of popcorn going around for folks who are watching this and going it," Steele added, referring to his word war with Limbaugh.
Limbaugh had caused controversy in January when he said on his radio show that he wanted President Barack Obama to fail.
This week, Limbaugh said in his speech during the Conservative Political Action Convention, "For those of you just tuning in on the Fox News Channel or C-SPAN, I'm Rush Limbaugh and I want everyone in this room and every one of you around the country to succeed. I want anyone who believes in life, liberty, pursuit of happiness to succeed. And I want any force, any person, any element of an overarching Big Government that would stop your success, I want that organization, that element or that person to fail."
"This notion that I want the President to fail, folks, this shows you a sign of the problem we've got. That's nothing more than common sense and to not be able to say it, why in the world do I want what we just described, rampant government growth indebtedness, wealth that's not even being created yet that is being spent, what is in this? What possibly is in this that anybody of us wants to succeed? Democrats... not only wanted the war in Iraq to fail, they proclaimed it a failure," he added.
Steele, the first African-American chair of the GOP, had called Limbaugh an "entertainer" and the conservative pundit's radio show "incendiary," but detracted the statement and apologized on Monday.
Democrats have taken up Limbaugh's statements as a sign of the kind of leadership and "partisanship" in Washington that they said Obama seeks to change.
The President's former campaign manager, David Plouffe, penned an op-ed in the Washington Post on Wednesday saying, "The 2008 election sent many messages. At the top: Americans wanted to turn the page on the politics of division... Watching the Republicans operate this past month, it would appear that they missed that unmistakable signal. Instead, Rush Limbaugh has become their leader."
"If the GOP sticks with its strategy of failure as the only option, further eroding its brand with the people who decide elections, we may find out what it means for a political party to hit rock bottom," Plouffe added.
And the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has begun a website mocking the spat between Limbaugh and Steele. Saying Republicans are able to quickly "tuck their tail between their legs and apologize to Limbaugh," the website offers a "Republican Apology Machine" that lets Democrats complete a letter to the conservative pundit.
  
    
      
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