everybody's biatch

the problem with RNC chairman michael "i'm the de facto leader of the republican party" steele's brand of baldfaced b.s. is that it only works if his fellow republicans go along with it.

however ... when even conservative sanctuary fox news won't take you seriously ...

steele says he doesn't know who the republican 'establishment' is; cavuto responds: 'you, you, you!'
citing rand paul's victory in the GOP kentucky senate primary against establishment choice trey grayson last night, neil cavuto asked RNC chairman michael steele today about "dysfunction in the republican party" as the GOP establishment clashes with the tea party. steele denied tension, saying he told the tea party in kentucky that "if we have a situation where your guy prevails, we're backing that candidate, we're very much looking to supporting rand and if our guy prevails, we'd like the same support."
cavuto responded that tea partiers had told him that they view the GOP establishment negatively, leading steele to reply, "i'm telling you as the national chairman of the party there's no bad blood between the republican national committee and the tea parties." cavuto persisted, however, in claiming that there was tension between the "establishment" and the tea party. steele responded by saying that he didn't even know who the republican establishment is, leading cavuto to note that steele is the establishment:
cavuto:	michael, the tea partiers didn't like senator bennett.
steele:	that's fine.
cavuto:	fairly or not, they didn't like him. the established republican party did.
steele:	ok, that may be ... but wait a minute —
cavuto:	i'm just saying that for you to say there is no angst between the two ...
steele:	neil, don't mix. please stop.
cavuto:	there clearly is.
steele:	[exasperated laughter] please do not mix the republican party establishment — i don't know who that is, by the way —
cavuto:	you! you! you! you —
steele:	— with activists, i, no ...
cavuto:	— you! you! you! you! you!
steele:	neil, have you been reading my press lately? i don't think, the last thing you could say about me is that i'm part of the establishment.
cavuto:	well, that's true because everybody hates you. but, i'm kidding ...

heh, that neil ... such a kidder ...

(hat tip to think progress)

image problem

(art by clay bennet)

bait taken, i'd say

quote of the day from think progress:

i really think one afternoon, [obama senior advisor] david axelrod leaned back in his office chair and said, "i know, let's see if we can get all the republicans to denounce the concept of empathy."

president barack obama, on supreme court justice souter's prospective replacement:

i view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles as an essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes. i will seek somebody who is dedicated to the rule of law, who honors our constitutional traditions, who respects the integrity of the judicial process and the appropriate limits of the judicial role.

utah senator orrin hatch:

well, it's a matter of great concern. if he's saying that he wants to pick people who will take sides, he has also said a judge has to be a person of empathy? what does that mean? usually that's a code word for an activist judge. but he also said that he's going to select judges on the basis of their personal politics, their personal feelings, their personal preferences. now, you know, those are all code words for an activist judge who is going to, you know, be partisan on the bench.

rnc chairman michael steele:

good morning y’all, we’re back in the house. we’re talking a little bit of constitution and a little bit supreme court. and a whole lot of saving america’s judicial system and saving our rights as citizens and not having empathetic judges decide cases, but rather judges who are actually understanding the rule of law and what the constitution and those laws are all about. and how to apply the facts to the law and the law to the facts. and adjudicate my case. i don’t need some judge sitting up there feeling bad for my opponent because of their life circumstances or their condition. and short changing me and my opportunity to get fair treatment under the law. crazy nonsense empathetic. i’ll give you empathy. empathize right on your behind. craziness.

update: bush attorney general alberto gonzales:

i do worry a little bit, well, i worry, i worry about about justices on the court making decisions based on what they think makes them feel good. i don’t think it’s fair to expect society to anticipate the outcome of a case based upon what makes a justice feel good. in essence what you’re saying, i think, is that i’m going to, i don’t care what the law says, i’m going to come out, i’m going to pursue an outcome that i think is fair and just. i’m going to rewrite the law. and i think that’s dangerous.

THIS IS A GREAT DAY ...

... for the incredible shrinking party republicans!

rnc chairman michael steele:

and, y'know, the fact that he would say, uh, president obama's spending package, y'know, 780 billion dollars, and the stimulus, and the budget, made him realize he's a democrat ... well, if, if spending the, the hard-earned dollars of the american people and redistributing their wealth, ah, and, and moving towards a collectivist, uh, socialist, uh, approach to government, if that, if that, helps you realize you're a democrat, well, y'know, good riddance.

and the peanut gallery agrees!

this is a great day for the republican party! we have the RINOs running!

yep, the more we can cull away from the party those who are not committed to, understand, or have no liking for those goals, the better off we shall be.

i’ve always suspected that specter was a plant.

if he really switched party affiliation he’d now be a conservative!!!!

ridding ourselves of these RINO’s can only benefit us in rebuilding the party to where it should be.

we will go down this road with fewer but STRONGER people, if they get the message that is.

the actuarial tables are on our side ... at 79 years old he shouldn't be sucking in air too much longer he's a waste of CO2 credits.

... well, most agree.

we need to keep [minnesota senator-elect al] fraken [sic] out as long as possible. hopefully until the 2010 elections so we can get some of the 60 back into gop hands. 60 votes on the dhims means way too much of a loss to conservatives. things could possibly never get repaired.

WE are so close to losing it all....

great. we can have a senate with 70 to 75 democrats (considering what some people have been saying even inhofe is a RINO, so maybe that should be 100 Ds). then zero will pack the supreme court like FDR wanted to with 7 or 9 more justices, the heller case will be struck down, the 22nd amendment will be ruled unconstitutional, and we will live with bambi as pres for life. for all of specters faults, and they were many he helped clarence thomas get through, and voted with the reps at least 70% of the time. if we are goin to go for 100% purity, we will have to live in a permanant minority.

---

RINO = republican in name only; a moderate republican; a nearly extinct species

whom gods destroy

... they first drive mad.

a number of conservative members of the republican national committee are pressing the committee — and by extension, [rnc chairman michael] steele — to officially adopt the position that the democratic party is socialist. over a dozen members of the conservative wing of the RNC have submitted a new resolution, to be eventually voted on by the entire RNC, that would call on the democratic party to rename itself the "democrat socialist party." if the RNC adopts this resolution, the RNC’s official view would become that democrats are socialists. from the resolution: RESOLVED, that we the members of the republican national committee call on the democratic party to be truthful and honest with the american people by acknowledging that they have evolved from a party of tax and spend to a party of tax and nationalize and, therefore, should agree to rename themselves the democrat socialist party.

the new girl

even if the s.s. gop has opted to sulk in dry dock for the next four years, lord limbaugh can still count on the party to keep his cabin quarters supplied with freshly-spanked talent.

tax day, april 15th — kansas rep. todd tiahrt, when asked "by a kansas city star editorial board member whether limbaugh was now the de facto leader of the GOP."

no, no, he's just an entertainer.

four days later — tiahrt spokesman sam sackett tells the wichita eagle editorial board:

the congressman believes rush is a great leader of the conservative movement in america — not a party leader responsible for election losses ... nothing the congressman said diminished the role rush has played and continues to play in the conservative movement.

considering tiahrt's turnabout took longer than the customary 24 hours, it looks like experienced deck hands michael steele and phil gingrey have a new recruit to break in.

the short happy life of chairman steele

well, as everyone seems to be saying this week, that was quick, wasn't it?

but i'm not talking just about the apology. i'm talking about the whole transparent charade that the g.o.p. has been staging over the last month.

when michael steele proudly beat crypto-racist katon dawson after six contentious rounds of committee voting, conservatives heralded his victory as a bona fide statement that republicans were ready to "rebrand themselves" and reach out to the hearts and minds of voters outside the shrinking circle of old white men now composing the increasingly bitter rump of the party.

the georgetown university-trained lawyer and seasoned veteran of television talk shows is expected to become a highly visible spokesman for republicans. his moderate views and charisma could help the party combat the impression that it is insensitive to minorities, working people and those with divergent views on social and economic issues. he's also likely to bring more openness and diversity to the rnc. in his victory speech, mr. steele promised something else that rank-and-file republicans are hungry for — election wins.

who knows if steele really believed his own pandering hip-hop hype, but he certainly believed he had new muscles to flex and new capital to spend, presumably bestowed upon him by the shiny new epaulets he'd just won. it was a belief brought abjectly to its knees just 31 days later.

even if the u.s.s. g.o.p. weren't already imploding on seemingly a dozen different decks, whatever's left is in no danger of being overrun by eager multiethnic recruits after steele's groveling performance. he'd bragged, just a day earlier, in front of millions of viewers, that he was the commander, and lord limbaugh showed him, just a day later, in front of millions of listeners, that the crew belonged to him, as it always did, and that steele was just another one of his cabin boys, a punk, a wayward prag.

yeah, that's the kind of ship i want to serve, where an ambitious cadet, from any background, can move up the ranks on his own merit — all the way up to cabin boy. where race truly no longer matters, because now anyone can work hard for a place in line servicing a loud, loathsome, bloated bigoted gasbag.

no, steele won't be winning over any new hearts or minds, which renders him useless, since that was the whole point of his election — expanding the party base. groveling eunuchs don't inspire enlistment, so his emasculation is complete. he didn't bring with him anybody who wasn't already on board and who hadn't already pledged their allegiance to lord limbaugh, who with the back of his hand, and with everyone watching, showed steele what steele had either forgotten or pretended wasn't true. now no one can pretend any longer.

in hemingway's "the short happy life of francis macomber" the title figure is pitied by his game guide as a "boy-man", after macomber succumbs to panic during a close call in the field, then loses his wife to the guide. but when macomber helps kill two buffalo the next day, he gains a measure of manhood, enough to stand up to his contemptuous wife:

... some of them stay little boys so long, wilson thought. sometimes all their lives. their figures stay boyish when they're fifty. the great american boy-men. damned strange people. but he liked this macomber now. damned strange fellow. probably meant the end of cuckoldry too. well, that would be a damned good thing. damned good thing. beggar had probably been afraid all his life. don't know what started it. but over now. hadn't had time to be afraid with the buff. that and being angry too. motor car too. motor cars made it familiar. be a damn fire eater now.

however, macomber's newfound "happy life" is cut short when his wife shoots him as a buffalo charges — and not quite by accident, the guide suspects.

the weekend drama "the short happy life of chairman steele" illustrates a sad reversal: the title figure gains a measure of manhood after a close contest. he succumbs to over-confidence and publicly insults his contemptuous patron. a swift edifying bitchslap forces him to publicly renounce his pretend manhood and affirm his cabin boyhood. thus ends steele's "happy life".

lord limbaugh's bitchslap educated steele at a time when the world's most famous and most popular non-white leader is exercising, in stark contrast, not pretend power, but real, far-reaching power, not only over his own party but also keenly felt by his rivals, who are desperately trying to pretend that their own "magic negro" is just as good. even now, nancy pelosi, the first female house speaker, is batting away divisive rumors that she herself is wielding too much power of her own.

so, really, which ship would you rather sign up with?

the one looking for just a few good "boys" ... ?

jindal gets his breather

josh marshall @ talking points memo:

dems gloat after rush awards himself sole custody of steele's testicles.

i'm loving michael steele. i mean, i'm not sure how else to put it. this guy has to be about the worst, most embarrassing party chair we've seen in recent memory. it's embarrassing enough that steele is like, what? ... the third republican to criticize rush and then make it less than 36 hours before being forced to undergo the 21st century republican version of a maoist self-criticism session. it's sad for the republican party that no one can criticize rush without having to be hauled out for this sort of humiliation a day or so later. but for steele not to have realized that or not to have been sufficiently in control of his mouth to avoid saying this just shows once again that this dude is really, really not ready for prime time.

digby @ hullaballoo:

but [limbaugh] is, as some of us have been pointing for years, the true leader of the republican party and we were told that he was a harmless, mainstream entertainer and we should all just lighten up, even as luminaries of the republican party and the luminaries of the conservative movement bowed and scraped like abused streetwalkers at the feet of their violent pimp. they defended his comments about abu ghraib, fergawdsake. he can literally do no wrong.

andrew sullivan @ the atlantic:

comrade steele dutifully apologizes to the great leader and offer his regrets to his fellow comrades in the movement. re-education camp will follow shortly. this climb-down marks the end of establishment republican resistance to the poujadist pontificator. it’s rush’s party now. so why shouldn’t he run for president in 2012? make palin his veep — and be done with it.

dnc chairman tim kaine:

chairman steele’s reversal this evening and his apology to limbaugh proves the unfortunate point that limbaugh is the leading force behind the republican party, its politics and its obstruction of president obama’s agenda in washington.

white house press secretary robert gibbs:

i was a little surprised at the speed in which mr. steele, the head of the RNC, apologized to the head of the republican party.

mark silva @ the chicago tribune:

the democrats are laughing all the way to the blood-sport bank.

dittohead central @ free republic:

... this makes steele even look weaker. we need someone with cojones to lead the RNC, not a backstabber like steele. he had no business going on hugley’s CNN show ...

next time you go on a talk show or news program and another “brotha” tries to turn you against limbaugh...i want to hear you scream from the mountain tops, that limbaugh is a force to be reckoned with and is right 98.8% of the time.

to see the way the CNN host was manipulating steele so easy was just horrible. hughley heaps praise on him and speaks about his new level of respect for steele. steele's response was a pie eyed nod in agreement. hughley could have had him agreeing to recreational drug use in the whitehouse if he wanted.

unless blacks start seeing themselves as men, and not blacks, then nothing will change.

michael steele is the one that took the bait and helped the democrats with this whole thing. they have been baiting for weeks now..surely steele is not that clueless.

i went back at that tape and i realized words that i said weren’t what i was thinking wow! that inspires confidence.

one of those things where i thinking i was saying one thing, and it came out differently one of those things? happens to everybody all the time, huh? sure, malapropisms, a lapsus linguae now and then, but no, no one says "bite me" when they mean to say "i love you."

i was maybe a little bit inarticulate. hey a-hole: you're the chairman of the republican national committee. you can't afford to be "maybe a little bit inarticulate." you know, don't you, that media whores from CNN to CNBC to god knows where are quoting you and using your "little bit inarticulate" stupidity to hang racism around your party's neck? you do know that, right? why are we cursed with dumb f*ckwads for "leaders." i give up.

grovelgrovelgrovelgrovelgrovelgrovelgrovelgrovelgrovelgrovel

nothing says you’re sorry like, “i resign”.

rush had his “A game” today, but is still man enough and smart enough to accept the apology from steele.

i left the GOP today and i’ll be damned if i go back. i’ve had it. perhaps one day with god’s grace the grand old party will learn how to treat conservatives who fight the hardest, vote in droves and give freely pf time, talent and cold hard cash.

his master's voice

white house chief of staff rahm emanuel shoots ... and scores!

(okay ... i'll admit it, this one was a gimmie, big time.)

rnc chairman michael steele, yesterday:

hughley:	you know what we do, we talk like we’re talking now. you have your view. i have mine. we don’t need incendiary rhetoric.
steele:	exactly.
hughley:	like rush limbaugh, who is the de facto leader of the republican party.
steele:	no, he’s not.... i’m the de facto leader of the republican party.
hughley:	you know what? i can appreciate that. but no one will actually decry down some of the things he says. [ ... ]
steele:	... 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.

emanuel, yesterday:

schieffer:	we talked about newt gingrich a lot this morning and now you bring up rush limbaugh. who do you think now speaks for the republican party?
emanuel:	you just named him: it is rush limbaugh. he has laid out his vision, in my view. and he said it clearly. ... and whenever a republican criticizes him, they have to run back and apologize to him and say they were misunderstood. he is the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the republican party.

limbaugh, today:

so i am an entertainer and i have 20 million listeners because of my great song and dance routine ... michael steele, you are head of the republican national committee. you are not head of the republican party. tens of millions of conservatives and republicans have nothing to do with the republican national committee ... and when you call them asking for money, they hang up on you!

steele, today:

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. ... i went back at that tape and i realized words that i said weren't what i was thinking ... it was one of those things where i thinking i was saying one thing, and it came out differently. what i was trying to say was a lot of people ... want to make rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman, and he's not.