Joel Award: Michael Steele

It is time to give out the Joel Award. The award goes any celebrity, pundit, blogger or politician that purposely contradicts himself or herself.

RNC chairman Michael Steele told talk show host D.L. Hughley Rush Limbaugh's rhetoric is too negative.

Steele told CNN host D.L. Hughley in an interview aired Saturday night: “Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh — his whole thing is entertainment. He has this incendiary — yes, it's ugly.”

Steele was not happy with suggestions that Limbaugh and not he, was the leader of the Republican Party.

"No he's not. I'm the de facto leader of the Republican party," Steele said.

Oh really.

After Limbaugh attacked Steele on his radio show, Steele placed his tail between his legs. Steele called Limbaugh and personally apologized.

"My intent was not to go after Rush - I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh," Steele told Politico. "I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. ... There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership."

How did Limbaugh not go from having a leadership position to Steele not wanting to diminish "his leadership?" Steele then kisses Godfather Rush's hand.

“I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren’t what I was thinking,” said a groveling Steele. "It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently. What I was trying to say was a lot of people … want to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman, and he’s not."

Democrats wanted to prove no Republican has the courage to speak out against Limbaugh. Steele accomplished this goal better than Rahm Emanuel ever could.

Joe Scarborough and the panel of Morning Joe make fun of Steele's lack of political courage. The DCCC has a helpful "I'm Sorry Rush" form Republicans can use.