Michelle Bachman to Michael Steele: 'You be da man!'

UPDATED

There is a scene in the 1998 HBO movie The Rat Pack in which Frank and Dean start teasing Sammy Davis,Jr. on stage with crude jokes about watermelon or fried chicken, or some such. Sammy, portrayed by Don Cheadle, erupts into burlesque laughter while facing the overwhelmingly white audience, but then turns away with a stricken expression on his face.

I wonder if RNC chair Michael Steele felt a little bit like that at CPAC yesterday.

To much applause, Steele attacked the Obama administration’s recently-passed stimulus package, calling it “nothing short of frightening.” He said conservatives must use the political moment to re-assert their belief in a set of basic principles: limited government, freedom, opportunity and the ability of the free market to “create, innovate and prosper.”

November’s losses, he contended, should not be a discouragement.

“I am here tonight to reject the idea that defeats of the past are a repudiation of core conservative values and principles,” he said. “Nor do I believe that those defeats are a sign of things to come.”

[...]

As Steele concluded his remarks, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann — the event's moderator — told Steele he was “da man.”

“Michael Steele! You be da man! You be da man,” she said.

You be da man. Wow.

I don't think much of Michael Steele, but apparently neither does a fellow conservative traveler like Michelle Bachmann. Bachmann actually thinks it is appropriate to address the chairman of her party, in public, with ghetto slang.

I never thought I would say a thing like this, but in the future, Bachmann should probably restrict her public remarks to paranoid conspiracy theories and accusations of treason against Democrats.

Those kinds of comments are awful, and are infuriating to listen to, but at least they are not as cringe-inducingly embarrassing as this.

UPDATE

The story is no longer available on the CNN website.

In its place is this:

Not Found

Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn't here.

Don't know if this is a technical glitch or the result of an editorial decision.

UPDATE II

The story is still available at a link with a slightly different URL.