It seems Steele don’t really ‘be da man’

Bless his little heart. Michael Steele really thought he was in charge of the Republicans. He eked his way into the position of Chairman of the Republican National Committee in a very competitive race, then started making the rounds to sell “his” party.

You might excuse him for thinking he was in charge after his ‘endorsement’ by Rep. Michele Bachmann. After Steele finished speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Bachmann belted out “You be da man!” That moment would have been awkward anywhere else but the CPAC. Not one person from the Conference seemed to get it or has since acknowledged her comments might be construed as inappropriate.

Anyway, fresh with that endorsement, Michael Steele went on D.L. Hughley’s CNN show and proclaimed that Rush wasn’t the head of the Republican Party. Steele said that HE was the head of the party.

“Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh — his whole thing is entertainment. He has this incendiary — yes, it's ugly,” Steele said.

Now an interesting thing happened in between that exchange and Rush’s response. On CBS’ Face the Nation, Rahm Emanuel reinforced that Rush was the head of the Republican Party.

“When a Republican did attack him (Rush), he was — clearly had to turn around and come back and basically said that he's apologizing and was wrong.”

Ok, back to Michael and Rush.

As you might expect, Rush didn’t take too kindly to Steele’s comments.

“I hope the RNC chairman will realize he’s not a talking head pundit, that he is supposed to be working on the grassroots and rebuilding it and maybe doing something about our open primary system and fixing it so that Democrats don’t nominate our candidates,” Limbaugh said, his voice rising. “It’s time, Mr. Steele, for you to go behind the scenes and start doing the work that you were elected to do instead of trying to be some talking head media star, which you’re having a tough time pulling off.”

Ooooh... Well Michael Steele couldn’t let those comments go without a response, could he?

“I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren’t what I was thinking,” Steele said. "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."

“I’m not going to engage these guys and sit back and provide them the popcorn for a fight between me and Rush Limbaugh,” Steele added. “No such thing is going to happen. … I wasn’t trying to slam him or anything.”

An apology? Actually, three. After that apology, Steele called Limbaugh and apologized in person. Steele then issued another statement saying that he had apologized, and Rush had accepted him back into the fold. I guess now he can “go behind the scenes and do the work he was elected to do,” just as Rush had instructed.

Excuse me… who’s the head of the Republican Party?

Bless his little heart... He really thought he was in charge.