"Taking Sides: It's Rush Hour Again!"

It's time to Break It Down!

As much as I was tempted to write about my beloved Tar Heels taking the customary Champions’ visit to the White House this week, to celebrate their National Title with the “First Hoopster,” I refrained. It would have a natural segue to delve into the details of how “shy guy” Donald Trump decided that he would tough it out despite the attendant media circus surrounding Miss California USA, and allow Carrie Prejean to keep her Crown. I resisted.

No, another saga is playing itself out in multiple dimensions; some still unfolding. Historians will record that Barack Obama was the first African American President of the United States (POTUS). It is unlikely the part-time hoopster, full-time Commander-in-Chief will add a more significant title to his sterling resume. But he has wrought other miracles, already.

Clearly, as President, he infused the dynamics of the already diversity-conscious Democratic Party with even more kinetic energy. And while all manner of emphasis has been placed on his first 100 days in office, it should be noted, it took exactly 10 days for the shadow of POTUS to re-engineer the Grand Old Party. On January 30, 2009, The RNC elected Michael Steele to the Chairmanship of the Republican National Committee. Let's be clear; this was not a race, but a cause and effect sequence. Mr. Steele, the first African American to hold the post, is a former Lieutenant Governor of the State of Maryland. You may remember Mr. Steele as the only African American with a speaking part, roughly 10 minutes, during prime time at the Republican National Convention.

In the September 10th Edition of this blog, I wrote about the numerical benchmarks that defined the Republican Convention, including 2,380 delegates, and 36 African Americans, which amounted to 1.5% representation. But I digress. Today’s post is not about rehashing the St. Paul Convention. It a brief look at the effort to “Rebrand the Republican Party.” A group called the National Council for a New America, comprised of GOP heavyweights, John McCain, Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, and Bobby Jindal are among those prominently featured in this Political Public Relations Machinery. Republican House Minority Whip Eric Cantor is said to be one of the chief designers of the effort.

The idea has met some resistance from the party’s base. While Senator McCain describe the effort as one intended to attract moderate Republicans, and some Democrats, social conservatives have noted there was no mention made of several bedrock components of traditional Republican Articles of Faith, including taking positions on same-sex marriage, abortion, and immigration. At least one recent Republican presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, has distanced himself from the effort, saying, “It’s hard to keep from laughing out loud when people living in the bubble of the Beltway suddenly wake up one day and think they ought to have a listening tour; even funnier when the first earful expedition takes them all the way to the suburbs of Washington, D.C.”

The yin of the Council’s charge and the yang of the social conservatives’ reaction to it provide the context of this contemporary battle for the soul of the Republican Party. One interesting dimension; call it the battle within the battle, is the three-way dust-up involving former Secretary of State Colin Powell, conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh, and former Vice President Dick Cheney. Briefly, Powell in effect, took on Limbaugh, suggesting among other things that in his role as an entertainer, he has diminished the Party’s ability to deal effectively with a number of important issues.

Now you might say to yourself that sounds familiar, and it should. On March 4th, I Broke Down the details of the intrepid Michael Steele going boldly where…well, you know the rest. After Steele referred to Limbaugh as an entertainer, Rush promptly told Steele where to go, and a number of GOP stalwarts followed-up by chiding the new RNC Chairman. The man of Steele quickly apologized, and has, basically, not been heard from since.

In response to Powell, who has described himself as a Republican and a right-of-center conservative, Limbaugh said he’s “just another liberal,” and added, “He should close the loop and become a Democrat.”

This past Sunday on CBS’ Face the Nation, the former VP joined the fray, noting, “If I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I’d go with Rush Limbaugh. My take on it was Colin had already left the Party, I didn’t know he was still a Republican.”

While this intra-party drama unfolds, others are busily engaged looking for the proverbial chink in President Obama’s armor. One of the most recent opportunities stemmed from Comedienne Wanda Sykes’ comments at this past weekend’s White House Correspondent’s Dinner. She told several jokes that pushed the envelope, as she almost always does. Conservative pundit and political theorist, Bill Bennett led a chorus of boos, and cried foul on Ms. Sykes.

Of course the fact the President appeared to find several of Sykes’ quips amusing made offense greater, some argued. That many of the same commentators had defended Mr. Limbaugh when he oft repeated his hope that President Obama fails; even though if he fails we all do, seemed to have been lost on them.

Ms. Sykes pointedly framed at least one of her remarks as a response to Rush; she hoped his kidneys failed. If given the authority to draw the line, I would declare both sentiments over that line one should not cross. Moreover, without condoning either comment, I would add, therein lies the problem with defending an ad hominem attack; one is certain to beget another. Where does it end?

The one recurring theme with these issues is Rush Limbaugh. Good bad, or indifferent, he is behaving as, and being treated as though he were the Republican North Star. It is not up to me to say whether he is or is not. There are those who argue not only that he is, but he should be, while others suggest he is not, never has been, nor will he ever be. Perhaps; but in the vernacular of one sect of sociological purists, the Duck Test does not lie. You know, that is the scenario in which, “if it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it is…yeah, you got it!” Nevertheless, the GOP is “Taking Sides: It’s Rush Hour Again!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/. A new post is published each Wednesday.

For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the links below:

http://northcarolina.scout.com/2/864163.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/05/12/ent.miss.california.usa/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Cheney

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_limbaugh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Powell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Steele

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Huckabee

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanda_Sykes

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/09/wanda-sykes-video-of-whit_n_201280.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/09/wanda-sykes-video-of-whit_n_201280.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/12/daily-show-wanda-sykes_n_201961.html

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/04/30/gops_big_names_try_to_forge_ne.html

http://www.syracuse.com/today/index.ssf/2009/05/cheney_takes_sides_in_limbaugh.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bennett