Limbaugh rips into GOP chair - "Republicans hang up on you!"

Maybe this is all part of a plan.

Perhaps GOP Chair Michael Steele is fighting Rush Limbaugh now so when the next election heats up, he'll have honed his debating skills.

Moon crash

Far fetched? Who knows, look at the Chinese government. Yesterday they crashed a lunar probe into the moon. Crashed it.

What happened? Oh, it was on purpose.

According to Information Week, they did it to get "lunar landing experience."

Spin

Now, that's good. That's Ari Fleischer and Michael McCurry good. That's Drew Rosenhaus good. That even tops Baghdad Bob.

They crashed a satellite into the moon to get "lunar landing experience." Awesome.

Steele's experience

So maybe this is what Michael Steele is doing. He's taking on a pit bull who's the most listened to radio host in America. He's taking on the guy who can get a crowd rabid like Hank Williams, Jr. at a NASCAR event or Sarah Palin at a tractor pull. Or Joe Biden at a

And Limbaugh did exactly that on Saturday. Sure, he was in friendly confines. He was speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference. A conference that Chris Matthews compared to a Star Trek convention.

Regardless, Limbaugh's got a lot of juice left. And taking him on can bring back mixed results.

This is CNN

Today's issue was over what Steele said while appearing on CNN Saturday night.

First of all, the GOP chair didn't like it when host D.L. Hughley said Limbaugh was the de facto leader of the Republican party claiming that was his mantle.

Then, Steele explained away Limbaugh's recent press attention as unworthy because "Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer."

"His whole thing is entertainment.," Steele said. "Yes, it's incendiary. Yes, it's ugly."

Limbaugh responds

The "entertainer" line ticked Limbaugh off. Actually, every line ticked him off. For a full 20 minutes, Limbaugh went after Steele this afternoon.

"So I am an entertainer and I have 20 million listeners because of my great song and dance routine," Limbaugh said. "Michael Steele, you are head of the Republican National Committee. You are not head of the Republican party. Tens of millions of conservatives and Republicans have nothing to do with the Republican National Committee...and when you call them asking for money, they hang up on you."

"I hope that changes," Limbaugh added.

There's more

But before it changes Limbaugh launched a few more missiles at Steele, like:

• Why are you running the Republican Party? Why do you claim you lead the Republican Party when you seem obsessed with seeing to it that President Obama succeeds?

• I’m not in charge of the Republican Party, and I don’t want to be. I would be embarrassed to say that I’m in charge of the Republican Party in a sad-sack state that it’s in. If I were chairman of the Republican Party, given the state that it’s in, I would quit.

• When you send those fundraising requests out, Mr. Steele, make sure you say, we -- we -- want Obama to succeed. So people understand your compassion.

Divert

What's the RNC's response to this mess? Diversion.

"Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats know they lose an argument with the Republican Party on substance so they are building straw men to attack and distract," RNC spokesman Alex Contant said. "The feud between radio host Rush and Rahm makes great political theater, but it is a sideshow to the important work going on in Washington."

Huh?

Rush and Rahm? A feud between Rush and Rahm? No one's paying attention to that.

Although Limbaugh was discussed at the White House press briefing this afternoon, the Democrats get a free pass on this one. They can sit back and watch the show.

You expect "great political theater" between the two parties. But when it's happening internally, why look anywhere else?