IS EL RUSHBO really the de facto  leader of the Republican Party, as some Democrats suggest? Nah. At least not according to Republican voters in Pennsylvania. No, the picture is a lot bleaker than that. Who is steering the ship of the GOP these days? Apparently, GOP voters don’t have a clue. When asked who they believe are the party’s most influential members,  50 percent of registered Republicans in this state said: “We don’t know.”

Rush Limbaugh? He gets only 3 percent of the vote. Pretty paltry when you consider that 5 percent say no one’s guiding the ship. In fact, the party’s own presidential candidate last year, John McCain, tied with Newt Gingrich for the lead — with a measly 9 percent, Franklin & Marshall College’s latest poll found.

“This does illustrate the difficulty the Republican Party has in trying to figure out who its leaders are, and where it goes,” said G. Terry Madonna, the poll director. “This is a classic illustration of a party that doesn’t have the presidency, that doesn’t have a set of nationwide figures who appear ready to lead the party,” said Madonna.

Rounding out the list below McCain and Gingrich are: Sarah Palin with 4 percent; Arlen Specter (yes, that Arlen Specter), Mitt Romney and Limbaugh, each with 3 percent. This if funny: Michael Steele — who really is chairman of the national party — gets 2 percent. Mike Huckabee,  Glenn Beck, Pat Buchanan, Bobby Jindal, George Bush, Tom Ridge, Rudy Giuliani and Colin Powell each get only 1 percent. Another 8 percent responded that the most influential member of their party is “other” … without saying who that other is.

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CHRIS MATTHEWS, who had considered running for U.S. Senate, tells it like it is: “I don’t want to be a toady of a political party and when you join these damn political parties, no matter which one it is, you end up buying the blue plate special, you gotta buy card check, you gotta buy trade restrictions, you gotta do everything they want. You’ve got to eat it. And I didn’t want to eat it. Now Arlen is willing to eat it. This guy is willing to do anything to keep that Senate seat.”

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U.S. SECRETARY OR DEFENSE ROBERT M. GATES quietly slipped into Lancaster County last weekend. He attended the wedding of Vanessa Dziuba, a 1997 Catholic High and 2001 Franklin & Marshall grad, to Seattle native Bryant Wilkie, our sources tell us. The event was held Saturday at the Best Western Eden Resort & Suites in Manheim Township. Gates arrived, with Secret Service, at the Eden Road facility around 2 p.m., general manager Mark Clossey confirmed. He was early for the nuptial, so took a guest room and stopped by Garfield’s, one of the Eden’s eateries, for a drink. Later he attended the wedding, held in the resort’s grand ballroom, and left about 10 p.m., shortly after it ended, Clossey said. “He enjoyed his time in Lancaster,” said Clossey. “It was a lovely wedding. It was very low-key. I thought it was very nice.” The attention was on the bride and groom despite the presence of Secret Service agents, he said.

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Somebody has been distributing Charlie Smithgall for Mayor flyers across parts of the city again. One of our sources dropped off a fresh copy this week. Supporters are trying to orchestrate a write-in campaign for the former two-term mayor in next month’s primary. Smithgall says he has no idea who’s behind the movement, but has guessed the effort is pretty small. The draft-Smithgall campaign must get at least 250 write-in votes for their candidate in the May 19 Republican primary for his name to appear on the November ballot for Lancaster mayor. There’s no Republican on the primary ballot, leaving Democratic Mayor Rick Gray potentially unopposed in the fall. Smithgall, who is 63, has said he might consider running if his name is to appear on the ballot. But I get the sense he understands how monumental of a challenge beating Gray would be.