WASHINGTON -- Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele on Monday criticized Rush Limbaugh for making racist remarks about
Tom Perez, the Justice Department official who is
President Barack Obama's nominee for Secretary of Labor.
News of Perez's nomination drew opposition from some Republican senators and he quickly came under fire from figures in the conservative media, with Limbaugh
comparing him to the “grand kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan” and the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Steele doesn’t understand where Limbaugh is coming from.
“I think we just need to be a little more tempered here,” Steele said. “I just don’t see a basis for, you know, Chavez? How did we jump to that? Oh, because he’s Hispanic? Oh, got it, got it, alright. Again, you can’t take that seriously, and that’s what the American people are tired of, quite frankly.”