All Hail King Rushbo!

You, I almost pity Michael Steele, the newly elected head of the Republican National Committee. The GOPers got their asses handed to them in last year's elections and the new administration continues to enjoy good ratings. Wading into that mess, Steele has my sympathies. Which doesn't mean I'm not going to point and laugh at him while he cowers before the real power in the GOP - Rush Limbaugh.

Steele's trouble started over the weekend, when he was on CNN talking with D.L. Hughley:

Mr. Steele bristled after a questioner on CNN referred to Mr. Limbaugh as the de facto leader of the Republican Party on Saturday.

'No he’s not – I’m the de facto leader of the Republican Party,' Mr. Steele responded.

'Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer,' he said. 'Rush Limbaugh, the whole thing is entertainment. Yes, it’s incendiary, yes, it’s ugly.'

But that won't just do. Rush was having none of it, firing back on his show yesterday:

'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.'

So what does Steele do? After all, he was right. Rush has always been an entertainer and frequently says provocative things. Stick to his guns? Nope. In what looks like growing trend of GOPers kowtowing to the Duke of Dittos, he caved:

'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.'

That's right, the loud, boorish, thrice-married, one time pill popper is part of the "leadership" of the Grand Old Party.

I'll say this for the GOPers - when things aren't going their way, they are awfully fun to watch.