First-Round Knockout

Well, that was fast.

For those of you who haven't been following the foibles and follies of the Republican Party over the last couple of days, the story is nice and short and goes a little something like this. Michael Steele becomes RNC Chairman. Rush Limbaugh, on an unrelated note, says that he hopes Barack Obama will fail. Democrats gleefully and wisely state that Rush Limbaugh is the de facto leader of the Republican Party. Rush gives totally insane speech at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) accusing virtually anyone who is conservative and doesn't share his approach to politics of being impure. Michael Steele, when told he is not, in fact, the leader of the party he was elected to lead, calls Limbaugh "an entertainer" and his show "ugly". Limbaugh responds, saying he would be embarrassed to be Steele, that the GOP is in a "sad-sack state", and that were he the chairman of the GOP, he would "get out (his) hari-kari knife". Steele, as noted at the beginning of the post, apologizes.

The apology, flat-out, is a mistake, the kind of mistake someone who is in a party dominated entirely by Rush Limbaugh would make. Clearly, in a perfect world, Steele wouldn't have said what he did, and its obvious that he said it because he was pushed (by D.L. Hughley, of all people). But he shouldn't have backed away, at least not so obviously and so pathetically.

Check this nonsense out:


Here's the point: those lines, the ones that are all trending down (none are above 30%, by the by), the ones that show how few people in America want to be thought of as Republicans, those lines are not going down because Rush Limbaugh isn't being listened to. Women have not abandoned the GOP because it doesn't have enough bloated, pill-popping assholes calling the shots, they've left because it has too many. Calling Limbaugh out for being who he is would have been a short-term hardship but a long-term serious gain: he needs to be marginalized, stat. It doesn't say much about Steele as a leader that he has to genuflect before a man who openly and repeatedly insults and belittles him and his abilities, and that when presented with an opportunity to halt the inevitable incoming deluge of "Rushpublican Party" commentary he jumps behind the nearest bush.

On a broader note, this is more of what I was talking about in my earlier post. The Republican Party is in a bad place: the demographics are against it, the economy is against it, every arm of the government is against it, and the public is against it. Now, I am not a conservative or a Republican, and while I love my schadenfreude as much as anyone else, I do think that in an era of absolutely fuck-diculous spending it would be nice to have an opposition that could reign in the inevitable excesses somewhat. The GOP will not be this party, not until they get rid of the angry white buffoon shrine they perpetually return to. Steele had a chance here, one that could have given him a) serious media time b) a real direction to lead and c) an example to show America that Republicans had learned something from the last eight years. Instead, he blew it, and now we'll have to wait for someone else (I'm guessing Eric Cantor) to take Limbaugh down a peg.