Rush to Judgment by Mark Steyn

Rush to Judgment
The Corner
by Mark Steyn
Kathryn, in all the Rush-bashing, I was more disturbed by Michael Steele’s wretched performance. His initial reaction — that Rush’s show is “incendiary” and “ugly” — revealed:
a) that he never listens to it;
b) that he takes his cues from the mainstream media, for whom Rush is invariably “angry”. They don’t listen either. Rush is a lot of things, but “angry” isn’t one of them. If you catch him for 20 minutes, you know he’s full of fun, laughing it up, having a grand old time. There are a lot of angry talkshow hosts out there bellowing at the world for three hours a day, but Rush isn’t one of them. (Full disclosure: I guesthost for Rush once in a while, and regard it as a signal honor for a sinister foreigner such as myself.)
This first reaction is disturbing for two reasons: first, given the size of Rush’s audience, it’s something an RNC chairman should not be so obviously foreign to; second, it’s not encouraging when the de facto face of the party accepts so unthinkingly the liberal/media framing of the issue.
Then we come to Mr. Steele’s second response – his reaction to the reaction to his original reaction: By apologizing for his first remarks, he opened the door for his DNC opposite number to make sport of the way he was kowtowing to the “ugly” Limbaugh. So a man who apparently shares the elite’s disdain for Rush and his audience nevertheless feeds the impression that the Republican leadership is prostrate at his feet: the worst of both worlds.
In two brief soundbites, Mr. Steele has managed to suggest to his own party base that he has a lazy disposition that reflexively shares the liberal biases, and to allow the wider world to portray him as a craven squish. This is not encouraging. At the very minimum, he does not appear ready for primetime.

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Wild Thing’s comment…….
Mark Steyn is always so good!
When an imbecile like D.L. Hughley is able to outfox you in a debate, it’s time to hang it up.
Michael Steele was on Sean Hannity yesterday, and Sean was practically telling him what to say, and he was still blowing it. Earmarks, for example. He agreed with Sean several times that it’s a shame Republicans have 40% of the earmarks in the budget, and they really need to explain to their voters that “not this year, not in this economic climate, wait for a year or two” and when things get back to normal they can resume bringing home the bacon “for that hospital or clinic.” No, Mr. Steele, not next year, not ever. Earmarks and pork are part of the problem, on principle. We shouldn’t be sending people to Washington to get other people’s money and bring it back for politically selected spending. Period.
On Laura Ingraham’s radio show yesterday she had Michael Steele on for a few minutes.
The other day Laura really did an awesome rant about what Michael had said and done.
Before he came on she said she wanted to ask him some questions about what had happened and let him explain.
Anyway, Michael came on her show and she said perhaps he got caught up in the moment, but it was still wrong no matter what. He had a chance to say something that could make up for it but instead he said everyone says things that can be taken wrong. sheesh
Then Laura said, well Michael I have to ask you about something that bothers me even more then what you said about Rush although as you know I let you have it pretty strong the other day about it. What I have to ask you is about when D.L. Hughley and his guest were saying that the Republican Convention was like Nazi Germany, you nodded and said yes and nothing else. Let me play it for you Michael and I want you to tell me why you did this.
She played back the tape and he got audibly upset I could tell just from listening to Laura play the tape. She then asked him well Michael what do you have to say to that.
Michael said, Laura there are only 30 or so blacks visibly in the Republican party in leadership so I feel…… Laura cut in and let him have it. She minced no words in her being upset about his initial reaction on the tape and also his explanation for his agreement.
Then he was thanked for being on her show and it was done. She went on to the next thing.
This is so telling, there is an inner deep seeded anger that I thought Michael did not have. I was upset about both the things Michael did, the Rush thing and also the Nazi Germany thing, BOTH imo will not go away and his explanation only cemented it how he truly feels.
Here is a good example for Michael Steele to look at . Bobby Jindal on Larry King ( this is the part where he comments about Limbaugh, Michael Steele and wanting Obama to fail.
Also please be sure to catch the very beginning of the video. It starts off when they are coming back from the break and you can hear very clearly Larry King says… “Jesus Christ” .

….Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67