The Democrats must be getting a kick out of watching the Republicans fighting amongst each other. Michael Steele sounds more like a Democrat. This won't do. But Republicans got what they deserve for hiring someone so they can look like an inclusive political party:
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele’s series of gaffes turned into something more serious Thursday, as leaders of a pillar of the GOP—the anti-abortion movement—shifted into open revolt over comments in an interview with the men’s magazine GQ.
Steele called abortion an “individual choice” and opposed a constitutional ban on abortion in the Feb. 24 interview, which appeared online Wednesday night. He echoed the language of the abortion rights movement and appeared to contradict his own heated assertions during his campaign for chairman that he is a committed soldier in the anti-abortion movement.
While he issued a statement Thursday affirming his opposition to abortion and his support for a constitutional amendment banning it, the damage appeared to be done as leading social conservatives publicly attacked the embattled chairman.
“Comments attributed to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele are very troubling, and despite his clarification today the party stands to lose many of its members and a great deal of its support in the trenches of grass-roots politics,” former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) said in a posting on his blog. “For Chairman Steele to even infer that taking a life is totally left up to the individual is not only a reversal of Republican policy and principle, but it's a violation of the most basic of human rights — the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a conservative rival who ultimately backed Steele's bid for chairman, also lambasted him in a written statement.
“Chairman Steele needs to reread the Bible, the U.S. Constitution and the 2008 GOP Platform,” said Blackwell. “He then needs to get to work or get out of the way.”
Here's the NY Times spin on the Steele interview that has Republicans up in arms:
This was supposed to be the week that Michael Steele, the beleaguered new chairman of the national Republican Party, got his groove on, as he might put it: From filling vacancies left by the mass-firing he conducted upon taking office to issuing 100-day plans on how to make the Republican Party competitive on fund-raising and the Internet, among other things.
But no.
On Thursday Mr. Steele found himself yet again explaining what he had meant to say, this time after a lively interview with GQ in which he seemed to suggest, among other things, that women should have the right to decide whether to have an abortion. “I think that’s an individual choice,” he said.
A moment later, he appeared to clarify his remarks, saying that abortion policy should be decided by the states.
“The states should make that choice,” he said. “That’s what the choice is. The individual choice rests in the states. Let them decide.”
After the interview appeared online on Thursday, he issued a statement seeking to make clear that he is an opponent of abortion rights.
The interview — in which Mr. Steele also appeared to stray from the view of many conservatives on homosexuality while offering a steady patter of jokes and irreverent observations — rippled through Republican circles as soon it was posted on GQ’s Web site Thursday morning. If the interview, conducted several weeks ago, fueled the existing concern among party leaders, it was hardly a surprise after four weeks in which Mr. Steele had left many Republicans anxious about their new chairman. He had tangled with Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk show host, and become the target of mirthful parodies by Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and “Saturday Night Live” over his call to apply the party’s principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.”
It appears highly unlikely that there would be any serious move to recall Mr. Steele, who is barely two months into a two-year job. The political repercussions of replacing the party’s first African-American chairman would be too severe, several Republican leaders said, and there are no obvious candidates ready to take the job.
Nonetheless, there were expressions of anguish over what many Republicans described as Mr. Steele’s growing pains as he takes on the role of leader of a party struggling to find its way after its defeat in the November elections. This latest episode seems likely to diminish his conservative credentials further, undercutting his ability to present his case for his party and raise money.
“I think the job of chairman is to elect Republicans and beat Democrats,” said Chip Saltsman of Tennessee, who was one of Mr. Steele’s opponents for the job. “If anything, what Michael did was get away from the primary directive of being chairman. Right now, it’s a turbulent time for him, and everybody is coming at him.”
Mr. Saltsman, who came under fire for distributing a holiday CD to supporters that included the parody song “Barack the Magic Negro,” said he was confident that Mr. Steele would become an “excellent chairman.” But, he added, “Michael needs to get back to the basics and put together a team.”
Social conservatives like Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, were especially critical.
“For Chairman Steele to even infer that taking a life is totally left up to the individual is not only a reversal of Republican policy and principle, but it’s a violation of the most basic of human rights — the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” Mr. Huckabee said. “His statement today helps, but doesn’t explain why he would ever say what he did in the first place.”
Salon:
War Room got all the newsworthy bits of embattled, rattled RNC Chairman Michael Steele's surreal interviews with conservative Cal Thomas and GQ's Lisa DePaulo on Wednesday.
To recap: Steele told Thomas that GOP congessional leaders are like "mice" who are "scurrying" because they no longer have access to "cheese" -- read: any clue what Steele is doing. Maybe more inflammatory, he told DePaulo that he thought abortion was an "individual choice" and that he opposed a constitutional amendment on gay marriage. And for a guy who promised to bring hip-hop to the GOP message, he couldn't really name a modern-day hip-hop artist. He called Diddy "P. Diddy" -- oh, who can blame him -- and hailed Grandmaster Flash, who still deserves all of our love and respect, but who is also known as "the grandfather of hip-hop."
That inflamed Alex Koppelman. Understandably. But A-Kop utterly ignored the equally heinous ignorance Steele displayed in GQ about the music of my parents' era -- Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. Or as Steele described them, "the Pack Rats." Huh? DePaulo corrected him: "You mean the Rat Pack." Steele was cool. "The Rat Pack, yeah."
First he alienates that crucial "urban-suburban" hip-hop fan base by not knowing P.Diddy is now, usually, Diddy; then he turns off their grandparents by screwing up the term "Rat Pack"? To be fair, maybe "Pack Rats" is the hip-hop version of the Rat Pack. I'm so confused. But I am glad the RNC went out and found a black chairman, now that we have a black president. That is really working.
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