Steel

Conservatives really need to stop the infighting whose most recent incarnation is Limbaugh vs. Steel.

To catch everyone up, Steel described Limbaugh's show as "ugly" to the media, which infuriated Rush and the grassroots. Steel was forced to reconcile himself with Limbaugh. But now moderates are complaining that we're doing exactly what the Democrats want us to do by making Limbaugh into a leader in the Republican party.

So who exactly benefited from this exchange?

The Democrats of course. They were able to present the following information to the American people:

1. Even Republican insiders think Limbaugh is bad.

2. These same Republicans are too cowed to stand up to him because of his influence (at the same time they accuse Obama of catering solely to Liberal interests and their agendas).

3. The GOP is so fractured between moderates and hard-liners that it can't come up with a coherent policy.

I don't want to cast blame for this on Limbaugh or Steel, because this is just one example of the larger infighting that is gripping the Right. Republicans and conservatives of all stripes are doing the Democrat's dirty work for them: portraying the party as too caught up in internal squabbles to create any coherent policy for the American people.

Maybe my memory is faulty but I don't remember this sort of infighting from the Dems in 2005. It would be as if in 2005 Howard Dean decided to trash Michael Moore or some lefty hero, and then was forced to back down. The Democrats would have been portrayed as the party held captive to deranged loons.

So we need to get serious and direct the guns towards the Dems and not each other.