RNC Head Michael Steele Apologizes for Calling Rush Limbaugh "an Entertainer" During an Appearance of D.L. Hughley’s Show

To the left, to the left…. That’s basically what’s happening in the Republican Party when conservative nutjob Rush Limbaugh is criticized. An apology always comes. So, Rahm Emanuel was absolutely right when he said that Limbaugh is the head of the GOP. I cannot believe that Michael Steele, who recently made some comments about Limbaugh while on the “D. L. Hughley Breaks the News, ” has apologized to the Almighty Rush.

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.” The dust-up comes at a time when top Democrats are trying to make Limbaugh the face of the Republican Party, in part by using ads funded by labor. Americans United for Change sent a fund-raising e-mail Monday that begins: “The Republican Party has turned into the Rush Limbaugh Party.”

Steele told CNN host D.L. Hughley in an interview aired Saturday night: “Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh — his whole thing is entertainment. He has this incendiary — yes, it’s ugly.” Steele, who won a hard-fought chairman’s race on Jan. 30, told Politico he telephoned Limbaugh after his show on Monday afternoon and hoped that they would connect soon. “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.” On Monday’s show, Limbaugh reacted both to the comment and to the assertion on CBS’s “Face the Nation” by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel that the radio host is “the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party.” Source: Politico

Well, Michael Steele punked out. As a result of his actions, he is now a very diminished leader of the Republican National Committee. First of all, I took offense when he excused Limbaugh as an entertainer. I am no fan of this guy, but since when is it an automatic disqualifier from political life to be an entertainer? Wasn’t Ronald Reagan an actor before he became the governor of California and later served as the President of the USA for eight years? If you can’t choose your words carefully and speak with some semblance of knowledge and diplomacy, then Steele is simply not ready to be in such a leadership role. Also, I am still wondering why every Republican that says something contrary to Rush Limbaugh ends up apologizing? What gives? If Limbaugh is the new voice of the GOP, then they are in way more trouble than they care to admit.

Filed under: Apology, Entertainer, Michael Steele, National Republican Committee, President Ronald Reagan, Rahm Emanuel, Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh

Barnes & Noble Apologizes for Monkey Book Displayed Among Books about President Barack Obama & Michelle Obama

Well, another monkey has popped up again. This time it comes to us courtesy of Barnes and Noble bookstore. A spokesman for the company claims a customer placed a book about monkeys in a window where Barack Obama books were on display.

Right and we were born yesterday. They took the easy way out — blamed it on a customer. Wait, I wonder just how long that book was on display before the employees realized that it didn’t belong there? That’s a sick joke, if someone thought it was funny.

Here’s the apology:

Barnes & Noble would like to publicly apologize for what happened in our Coral Gables, Florida store. We believe that a customer played a cruel joke and placed an inappropriate title in the front window of our store, where we were featuring books written by or about President Obama. We want to assure our customers that the book placed by someone other than our booksellers was never intended to be included in our display and was removed as soon as we became aware of the situation. We are looking into it and are taking the steps necessary so that it does not happen again. From time to time customers will move titles from one area of the store to another. In this particular case, we do not condone whatever message may have been intended with the placement of this title in our Presidential display. It certainly was not part of our merchandising and we regret that we didn’t see the placement of this title immediately. Mary Ellen Keating, Spokesperson Barnes & Noble, Inc. Source: Black Power

Hat tip to my regular reader Mz. Diva for pointing this out to me!

Filed under: Apology, Barnes and Noble, Display, First Lady Michelle Obama, Monkey Book, President Barack H. Obama

Oscar Goodman, Mayor of Las Vegas, Wants Apology from President Obama Over Comments About Increased Scrutiny of Bailout Funds

Photo: Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman

We all know that politicians embellish the truth and will do just about anything to win an election, but this is a new low. Oscar Goodman, the mayor of Sin City, wants President Barack Obama to apologize for saying companies shouldn’t visit Las Vegas on the taxpayer’s dime. He expressed concern that federal lawmakers might be discouraging travel to the city. I am guessing he has absolutely no qualms about executives spending taxpayers’ money to have fun while the economy is in a downward spiral. Sounds very selfish to me.

“What’s a better place, as I say, than for them to come here,” Goodman told KLAS-TV. “And to change their mind and to go someplace else and to cancel – and at the suggestion of the president of the United States – that’s outrageous.”

Obama made the remarks Monday during a town hall meeting in Elkhart, Ind., where the president traveled to muster public support for economic stimulus legislation. “You can’t get corporate jets, you can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer’s dime,” Obama said. Source: Yahoo News

The President’s comments were warranted and I think Mayor Goodman owes him an apology. There needs to be increased scrutiny of the banks that received bail-out money. They need to use that money to help Main Street and stimulate the credit markets, not to go to Las Vegas to gamble and take in all the city has to offer on taxpayer dime. No way.

Late Monday, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said it had moved a three-day conference from the Las Vegas Strip to San Francisco amid what the bank called a broad review of its activities. Goldman Sachs has accepted $10 billion in federal bailout funds.

Last week, Wells Fargo & Co., which received a $25 billion infusion, canceled a planned employee recognition conference in Las Vegas after an AP story reported on the trip and the bank received criticism from Capitol Hill that it was misusing the funds. Source: Yahoo News

The tourism officials there are only worried about themselves and their bottom line. According to media reports, the number of visitors to Las Vegas was down 4.4 percent in 2008 compared with a year earlier, and visits in December alone declined nearly 11 percent. In case Mayor Goodman hasn’t noticed, there is an economic downturn in just about every major city in this country. I am sure he has heard of what’s going on in California and Indiana, for example. This is the same mindset that got us into this financial quagmire in the first place.

Filed under: Apology, Economic Downturn, Goldman Sachs, Government Bailout, Las Vegas, President Barack H. Obama, Wells Fargo

Barack Obama Opposes Offering Reparations, Apologies for Slavery

Barack Obama being heckled in Florida

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said that he is against offering reparations to the descendants of slaves, which has put him at odds with some black groups and leaders. He argued that the government should instead combat the legacy of slavery by improving schools, health care and the economy for all.”I have said in the past — and I’ll repeat again — that the best reparations we can provide are good schools in the inner city and jobs for people who are unemployed,” the Illinois Democrat said recently.

This is at odds with what some two dozen members of Congress have undertaken as co-sponsors of legislation to create a commission that would study reparations — that is, payments and programs to make up for the damage done by slavery.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People supports the legislation, too. Cities around the country, including Obama’s home of Chicago, have endorsed the idea, and so has a major union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Obama has worked to be seen as someone who will bring people together, not divide them into various interest groups with checklists of demands. Supporting reparations could undermine that image and make him appear to be pandering to black voters.

Yesterday while giving a speech in Florida, he was heckled by three young black men, who asked what will he do for the black community. My position is simply this–Obama is running for the President of the United States, not the President of the Black United States. So, let’s get a grip and face the facts as they are. He cannot effect sweeping changes for every issue that affects and confounds Black America. Black America must do a lot of those things for itself–stand up to the gangbangers wreaking havoc in the inner cities, pay more attention to what your kids are doing, instead of saying they are good kids when they break the law; pay attention to your children’s education; take your right to vote seriously and do so; stop crying racism when there was none. We have fought too long and hard for the efforts of our forefathers to go down the drain. Yes, there are racists acts perpetuated on blacks everyday, but there are also instances in which people are crying wolf.

Some may say that Obama is pandering to the white vote in his opposition to reparations and an apology, but this is not a position he adopted just for the presidential campaign. He voiced the same concerns about reparations during his successful run for the Senate in 2004. The reality is that there is enough flexibility in the term “reparations” that Obama can oppose them and still have plenty of common ground with supporters.

The NAACP says reparations could take the form of government programs to help struggling people of all races. Efforts to improve schools in the inner city could also aid students in the mountains of West Virginia, said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington bureau. The National Urban League — a group Obama is to address Saturday — avoids the word “reparations” as too vague and highly charged. But the group advocates government action to close the gaps between white America and black America.

The House voted this week to apologize for slavery. The resolution, which was approved on a voice vote, does not mention reparations, but past opponents have argued that an apology would increase pressure for concrete action. Obama says an apology would be appropriate but not particularly helpful in improving the lives of black Americans. Reparations could also be a distraction, he said. My sentiments exactly. In my opinion, what good is an apology, when the people who inflicted such pain and denigration on blacks are dead? The reality is that some of the very people touting the resolution are doing so, not because of a deep conviction for what this right, but because it will make them look good to their constituents and colleagues. While they are on this “goodwill” campaign, let’s not forget the American Indians and what happened to them and continues to dog them everyday. So, Barack Obama, if he prevails in the fall, he will, undoubtedly, rub some blacks the wrong way by not “helping” them in whatever they need and will be called a “sell-out.” Just my thoughts, you be the judge…..

Filed under: Apology, Barack Obama, Reparations, slavery