CNN Cancels Comedian Who Called the GOP "Nazis"

D.L. Hughley can go back to being a occasionally funny comedian:

Comedian D.L. Hughley was pummeled by critics when his weekend talk show debuted on CNN last fall. "What the hell was CNN thinking?" a columnist for AdAge asked after watching the first episode. It remains unclear what was running through the minds of CNN execs when they signed him up for the spectacularly unfunny program featuring painfully awkward interviews. But the network may have come to its senses or at least decided to cut its losses. A source tells us that CNN has decided to cancel the show due to "budgetary constraints."

The cancellation comes just a week or so two late to save Michael Steele from a major mishap when he said some things about Rush Limbaugh on Hughley's show that caused a lot of heartburn, and failed to defend his party against "Nazi" comparisons. Charles Krauthammer described Steele's bad day like this:

In the meantime, what has really happened here is that Michael Steele, who is a rookie at his job, has had a misstep. He insulted Limbaugh at the beginning and inadvertently, I think, goaded into it.

Then he groveled, which made it even worse. And, in the end, I think the real offense was in the same radio spot in which he did. He was with a host. The host actually spoke of the Republicans as Nazis, I think, because—it was indistinct, I think, but because he was attributing it to the fact that it is heavily racially white.

And Steele, who heard this, didn't protest or argue against it. That was, I think, his real offense.

Steele managed to elevate Rush and cancel a hateful comedian all in one week. Not bad.