Marco Rubio to GOP: Cut out the harsh anti-immigrant language

Take note: My black conservative friends, if you want more blacks to consider joining the GOP it may help to speak out - like Senator Rubio - to chastise your party when they use over-the-top rhetoric against the African-American community (Herman Cain and company, the perfect opportunity was when Newt suggested that blacks should demand jobs and not settle for food stamps).


I know former RNC chairman Michael Steele once stepped up to the plate to voice his concerns of race baiting language by Rush Limbaugh; unfortunately he was taking to the shed - You name is Toby, Boy style - and we never heard a peep out him again on this subject.

Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, told CNN's D.L. Hughley Saturday (February 28) that Rush Limbaugh was "entertainment," agreed he was "incendiary" and said, "Yes, it's ugly." Two days later, in a statement reported by the Associated Press, he apologized for his words, saying he respected Limbaugh as a "national conservative leader" and did not want to "diminish his voice."

Why apologize? What did he say that could have been construed in any way as to necessitate an apology? Nothing he said about Limbaugh was either untrue or impugning.

Except to Rush Limbaugh.

Rush Limbaugh -- who has found that with the election of Barack Obama, he has become a driving force within the Republican opposition to the Democrats -- took exception to Steele's words and suggested he resign on his nationally syndicated radio talk show Monday. "Why are you running the Republican Party?" he asked. "Why do you claim you lead the Republican Party when you seem obsessed with seeing to it that President Obama succeeds? ... I would be embarrassed to say that I'm in charge of the Republican Party in the 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."

In his statement late Monday, Michael Steele said, "I respect Rush Limbaugh, he is a national conservative leader, and in no way do I want to diminish his voice. I'm sure that he and I will agree most of the time, but will probably disagree some as well, which is fine."  source

Rubio, on his home turf stated enough is enough:

Marco Rubio condemned unnamed members of his own party Friday for using "inexcusable" rhetoric about illegal immigrants.

"For those of us who come from the conservative movement, we must admit that there are those among us who have used rhetoric that is harsh and intolerable, inexcusable," Rubio said at a conference for the conservative Hispanic Leadership Network. "We must admit, myself included, that sometimes we've been too slow in condemning that rhetoric."

Rubio, a Republican senator to Florida who is often floated as a potential vice presidential nominee for the party in 2012. source

Let's hope Rubio sticks to his guns and doesn't cave. But then again, this may be nothing more than a coordinated  and cynical ploy (I smell Romney and potential VP nomination for Rubio as the impetus) to win over the valuable Latino vote.