Marking Territory

How cute. Michael Steele gets all angry when somebody tells him Rush Limbaugh runs the GOP rather than, you know, Michael Steele, Chairman of the RNC.

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.

HUGHLEY: I will tell you what …

STEELE: I’m the de facto leader of the Republican Party.

Sure you are Mike.

Sure you are.

[UPDATE] And Rush in turn tears Michael Steele a new one for daring to cross El Rushbo. Gotta love it.

Responding to criticism by recently-elected RNC chairman Michael Steele, talk show host Rush Limbaugh tore into the party's leader, contending that Steele is actually "not the head of the Republican Party," cautioning that the chairman is off to a "shaky start."

I'm not sure which is the more laughable proposition, Steele as head of the GOP getting his ass handed to him by a radio host, or that same radio host really being the de facto leader of the party.

"Michael Steele, you are head of the RNC," said Limbaugh. "You are not head of the Republican Party."

"I hope... he realizes he's not a talking head pundit," said Limbaugh on Monday. After telling him to go behind the scenes and do the work he's been hired to do, the radio host added, "He's off to a shaky start."

The first clue that Limbaugh would lampoon the GOP leader came in an e-mail to Politico.

"I’ll handle it on the radio," he wrote.

"Mr. Steele, if you want to lead the Republican party -- as you say you do -- you need to run for and win the presidency," said Limbaugh, adding that Steele isn't going to lead the party by being "cute" on cable news.

Since El Rushbo isn't going to take any crap from any Republican who is not in the White House, I say the GOP should enjoy the monster they have created. They're stuck with him for quite some time now.

The GOP is still taking marching orders from Rush, and they will continue to.

[UPDATE 2] And now, Steele has in fact apologized to Rush Limbaugh.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele says he has reached out to Rush Limbaugh to tell him he meant no offense when he referred to the popular conservative radio host as an “entertainer” whose show can be “incendiary.”

“My intent was not to go after Rush – I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh,” Steele said in a telephone interview. “I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. … There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership.”

As Darth Vader once said, "Now your failure is complete." Rush completely owns you assholes. Both John Cole and Andrew Sullivan think Rush should just run for President himself himself in 2012. And why not? As Cole says, "It's Rush's party now." There's no way this can ever be walked back. The ads for the Dems write themselves for the next four years.

If it wasn't so pathetic, so indicative of the total failure of the Republican Party at this point (and I will argue with my last breath that a solid, intelligent opposition party is necessary for the functioning of America) it would be hysterical.

[UPDATE 3] Josh Marshall has the best line of the year so far:

Dems gloat after Rush awards himself sole custody of Steele's testicles.

The Oxycontinfather runs this town, bitch. You work for him, Mike.