Steele on Limbaugh Flap: 'It's All Strategic'

By John Johnson, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 25, 2009 9:16 PM CDT

(Newser) – RNC chief Michael Steele had been quiet for a while, but he brought that to an abrupt halt today with an interview on CNN. Steele did not rule out a future run for president—if it's part of God's plan for him—and suggested that his recent run-in with Rush Limbaugh was no gaffe but part of a grand strategy on his part, reports Talking Points Memo.

"If I do something, there's a reason for it," he said. "Even, it may look like a mistake, a gaffe, there is a rationale, there's a logic behind it." In the Limbaugh incident—Steele belittled him as a mere entertainer, then apologized—his rationale was to see "who yells the loudest. I wanted to know who says they're with me but really isn't." The strategy "helps me understand my position on the chess board," Steele said. "It's all strategic."

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In this photo provided by ABC News, Michael Steele, appears for an interview on ABC's 'This Week.' (AP Photo/ABC News, Lauren Victoria Burke)

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