Republican National Convention Chairman Michael Steele is getting the business from all sides after apologizing to radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. It should have forward thinking Republicans doubled over in agony. The idea that presents itself goes like this. Is Steele really that weak or is Rush the political Godfather of the Republican party?

Late last week on Breaking the News with DL Hugely, Steele defiantly stated that he was the defacto head of the Republican party and that Rush Limbaugh’s comments were incendiary and ugly. To say the least, I was excited, a good fight had come to town and I wasn’t going to have to contact my cable operator to get in on the action. But like a boxing match in the early days of Mike Tyson’s career, it was over before it started.

Kneel Before Rush

When Rush Limbaugh went on the air the next day, he took Steele to task and like a political rookie with no constituents other than his own backside, Steele up and apologized. So their were two big questions coming out of this.

First was Michael Steele that inept or politically ignorant to challenge someone who had absolutely no skin in the game and the ear of a considerable portion of his party. Uh, yes; yes he was.

Two, does Rush really carry that much juice that he can make Republicans cower in their boots while gushing apologies for even thinking anything contrary to the Limbaugh agenda. This last remains to be seen. With a party this is in serious trouble and beginning to splinter, Limbaugh may very well be the wedge that splinters the party into a new direction.

The biggest problem faced by Republicans will be attracting voters beyond their dwindling base. The antics of Limbaugh can only hamper these efforts, so the first challenge of the next real Republican leader will be to deal with the Limbaugh question.

Never thought I’d live to hear the words “poor Republicans” fall from my lips. Well that day has come. The Republicans who seemed to be standing back up after November’s drubbing at the polls, were back in the dumps. It took only one speech to dim their horizon. Less than 30 minutes after Barack Obama’s 2009 Presidential Address, I was looking at my TV in disbelief. Jindal appeared to be a fake and a fraud. I was duped.

Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana governor, who was tapped as the Republican darling turned out to be nothing more than a 4th grader masquerading as an elected official. And I actually liked this guy. As I listened to the four letter sentences stammer forth from his talking head, my mind began to wander to something familiar that I couldn’t place but had seen this before.  I got it.

It was the 1988 movie “Big,” starring Tom Hanks. You know the one where the little boy wishes himself into an adult’s body? Only this time it was little Bobby.

Given the Republicans recent track record for scouting talent, I should have been less than surprised. Their selection of Michael Steele as the RNC chairman was, I believe, less then genuine and borderline obscene. I can’t really speak to his qualifications, but I believe the RNC, having lost to an individual of color had a sobering moment to digest.  A moment when the realization drifted in on a cold Alaskan wind and they realized, they were out of touch. Rather than allowing calmer heads to prevail and reason to carry the day, they were taken by the shallow politics of race and their contentious decision ultimately laid bare the lack of comprehension of their conundrum. I think they erroneously surmised from President Obama’s election that American’s wanted diversity. In a knee jerk reaction, they looked around and found the first, if not the only , dark skinned rebuttal to Obama’s win and America’s racially coded electoral challenge.

When I saw the crowds at the Republican convention, and the rallys organized by Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin, I was amazed. I was unaware that such pockets of monolithic genetic similarity still existed on the stage of national politics. That the Republican leadership mistook color for character to me is amazing. Instead of looking for the right candidate, they opted for the politics of color and race in the selection of Michael Steele, the very same inequitable sin of convenience they castigated the left for.

This is bolstered by the fact that Steele was regarded as an outsider as he held no RNC post prior to his election as the chairman. Within the last 30 years, no RNC chairperson elected during a tight balloting process has come from outside the RNC ranks. This might be plausible in Steele’s case if Republicans had a better track record with minorities or had larger numbers as representative members. Not the case and this was plainly clear when looking out upon the crowds that attended the National Convention and the campaign rallys.

This is not to say they dislike minorities, but between their legal assaults on illegal immigrants in this country, their fear tactics against the Muslim community, their desire to legislate female reproductive rights, their stripping of affirmative action programs, and their desire to cut programs to the poor in favor of the rich, they are not making a lot of friends in communities that don’t look like them. The judgment as to whether they are on the right or wrong side of these issues is not important to the discussion. Only the fact that those who DO support these measure are by an large respectable swaths of the electorate.

I have a ton of Republican friends and I’m sure I’ll get grief over this post, but, I can handle it. Question is, in 2012, who are the Republicans gonna get to do their dirty work or will they get screwed again?