Steele Open To Running For President, Claims Limbaugh Blow-Up Was Planned
Emerging from his self-imposed cone of silence, RNC Chairman Michael Steele gave an interview Wednesday in which he said he would consider a run for president and claimed to have strategically planned his recent confrontation with radio talk host Rush Limbaugh.
Speaking to CNN's Don Lemon, Steele said he "would think about" running for the White House but only if "that is where God wants me to be at that time."
"I would have to have a very long conversation with the wife and kids," he said, "because this business is not a fun thing. Our politics today does not incite or inspire someone to make that sacrifice, because the way our politics is played out today, in all honesty, is very ugly."
That statement, while curious considering Steele's early, rocky tenure at the RNC, was not the only newsworthy proclamation made. Later, he was asked to look back at his tiff with Limbaugh, in which he claimed that the bombastic radio personality was "incendiary" and "ugly" only to backtrack on his words.
It looked embarrassing for the Maryland Republican at the time. But Steele contended that it was all a part of a grand "strategic" plan.
"I'm very introspective about things. I'm a cause-and-effect kind of guy. So if I do something, there's a reason for it... It may look like a mistake, a gaffe. There is a rationale, there is a logic behind it," he said. "I want to see what the landscape looks like. I want to see who yells the loudest. I want to know who says they're with me but really isn't."
"It helps me understand my position on the chess board. It helps me understand, where, you know, the enemy camp is and where those who are inside the tent are," Steele added. "It's all strategic."
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March 25, 2009 06:44 PM