The new Bennetton GOP (?) Redux

[melliedee]

RNC member, Dr. Ada Fisher, calls for Steele to step down. This email was leaked, so I'm sure Carville is behind it.

I don't want to hear anymore [sic] language trying to be cool about the bling in the stimulus package or appealing to D.L. Hughley and blacks in a way that isn't going to win us any votes and makes us frankly appear to many blacks as quite foolish," Fisher wrote.

Fisher, who is one of three black members of the national committee, backed South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson, whom Steele edged out in the final round of voting to win the chairmanship in late January. She has voiced repeated opposition to Steele, sending dozens of e-mails to committee members even after Steele won election slamming him for any number of chips that have fallen awry.

Fisher’s call for Steele’s resignation comes amid growing frustration in the GOP that the new chairman’s repeated gaffes are hurting the party.

It remains unclear just how much trouble Steele may be in with his own membership. While several RNC members have told The Hill that Steele remains popular with their bases, Washington-based strategists are grumbling, an attitude that is slowly filtering down to the states.

Steele appeared over the weekend on Hughley's CNN show, where he fought back against the assertion that radio host Rush Limbaugh was the "de facto leader" of the Republican Party. Steele said he himself was the de facto leader and called Limbaugh an entertainer whose program's content was "incendiary" and "ugly."

On Monday, Limbaugh shot back, saying on his show that Steele was not the leader of the party and that many conservatives would "hang up" when Steele's RNC came calling for contributions.

"Limbaugh has already promised that 'His Conservatives' won't be giving to the RNC. I would suggest to you that that is a real bet," Fisher wrote. "If we can't raise money and continue to allow the alienation of the few varifiable [sic] red states remaining, we are foolish."

Steele later said he had reached out to Limbaugh to clarify his remarks, insisting he meant no offense. But the incident elicited crowing from Democrats, who for weeks have pursued a strategy seemingly designed to elevate Limbaugh to the front of the GOP line. Democrats would enjoy contrasting themselves with Limbaugh's assertion that he wants to see President Obama's economic policies fail.

Calling the Limbaugh-Steele clash a "Republican Horror Show," Fisher expressed what some other GOP strategists have until now only said privately: "I have never seen such ineptness in our GOP leadership," Fisher wrote. "And I though we handled the 2008 elections very poorly."

TheHill.com - RNC member calls on Steele to quit

[ryberg]

Originally Posted by melliedee

RNC member, Dr. Ada Fisher, calls for Steele to step down. This email was leaked, so I'm sure Carville is behind it.



TheHill.com - RNC member calls on Steele to quit

Wow....

And that Rush -- what a class act!

Rush: Kennedy won't live to see health reform

Rush Limbaugh suggested that one of the main sponsors of health care reform won't live to see its passage, telling his audience today: "Before it's all over, it'll be called the Ted Kennedy memorial health care bill."

[click on quote to go to link and audio file]

Ain't exactly horrible in the word of hardball politics. Then again, pick on an aging, frail guy with brain tumor problems who, as everybody agrees, is a lion of the Senate ?

Steve

[ryberg]

You folks catch this at the tail end of The NewsHour last night?

JIM LEHRER: We have 25.3 seconds left, and I'd be derelict in my duties if I didn't ask the two of you to say, in the struggle between Rush Limbaugh and the Democrats over who speaks for the Republican Party, who's winning, David?

DAVID BROOKS: Tactically, the Democrats are winning. The Republicans either have to dis Rush Limbaugh or sign on to him. And both of them are bad choices, from their point of view.

MARK SHIELDS: David is right, but the White House should not be involved in this...

JIM LEHRER: Why not?

MARK SHIELDS: ... in any way. I mean, this is a time -- we've just gone through the litany of horrors, what Americans are facing, the pain of 8.1 percent of Americans without a job to go through to Monday morning. And there -- you get the White House talking about Rush Limbaugh and the chief of staff of the White House...

DAVID BROOKS: I completely agree with that. I underline that.

Good points.

Actually there were many sobering points in that discussion, particularly wrt whether the Obama administration was trying to do too much and losing their focus or taking their eye of the ball. I found myself nodding in agreement with everything Brooks said, on that point.

But that is not the topic of this thread, I realize. Just wanted to throw in the above on what is the topic of this thread.

Steve

[Jacko]

Originally Posted by ryberg

You folks catch this at the tail end of The NewsHour last night?

Good points.

Actually there were many sobering points in that discussion, particularly wrt whether the Obama administration was trying to do too much and losing their focus or taking their eye of the ball. I found myself nodding in agreement with everything Brooks said, on that point.

But that is not the topic of this thread, I realize. Just wanted to throw in the above on what is the topic of this thread.

Steve

I caught it.

I thought this was appropriate to consider based on the focus for the week...(it is not the topic either..)

MARK SHIELDS: Jim, we spend more on health care, twice as much on health care as the gross national product of India. I mean, you want to think -- I mean, India is a pretty much of an economic success story. And you want to know the human cost? A hundred and twenty Americans every hour declare personal bankruptcy because of health care costs.

[ryberg]

Well they seem to need work on whether they're going hip-hop or new wave or prog rock or just what, but this entertaining interview with the GOP Policy Chair seems to go here:

Steve

[ryberg]

Did you guys get bored of this? To me, it just doesn't seem to end:

Steele, under fire, walks back 'choice' remark

Another anti-abortion activist and sharp critic of President Barack Obama on the subject, Jill Stanek, was even blunter.

"Michael Steele has just unmistakably proclaimed himself to be pro-choice," she said in an email. "You thought he was 'embattled' last week over his Limbaugh comment? Ha. He has now stepped both feet into it."

Not sure if this was before or just after Specter went on a show

where he was asked who led the Republican Party. Specter replied that he was "trying to bring it back in a sensible, centrist approach," and indicated that neither Rush Limbaugh nor RNC Chairman Michael Steele are worth listening to.

I mean, that's not news to Dems, perhaps, but from a prominent figure on the Republican side?

Steve

[melliedee]

Here's the inteview exchange:

Steele: "The choice issue cuts two ways. You can choose life, or you can choose abortion. You know, my mother chose life. So, you know, I think the power of the argument of choice boils down to stating a case for one or the other."
DePaulo: "Are you saying you think women have the right to choose abortion?"
Steele: "Yeah. I mean, again, I think that's an individual choice."
DePaulo: "You do?"
Steele: "Yeah. Absolutely."
DePaulo: "Are you saying you don't want to overturn Roe v. Wade?"
Steele: "I think Roe v. Wade--as a legal matter, Roe v. Wade was a wrongly decided matter."
DePaulo: "Okay, but if you overturn Roe v. Wade, how do women have the choice you just said they should have?"
Steele: "The states should make that choice. That's what the choice is. The individual choice rests in the states. Let them decide."

The Fix -- Chris Cillizza's Politics Blog on washingtonpost.com

[ryberg]

Yah. Pretty funny when you read through it and try to, you know, understand what he was saying.

Steve

[ryberg]

And again!

Steele 'choice' gaffe sparks GOP revolt

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele’s series of gaffes turned into something more serious Thursday, as a 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 appearing 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....

I know, I know -- we need to focus on getting the economy going and our other troubles. But I just can't look away, and they keep doing this stuff!

In a related bit:

Rendell: Steele's 'days are numbered'

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell predicted on Thursday that Michael Steele's "days are numbered" as chairman of the Republican National Committee.

"He's in trouble because I just think that those who control the Republican Party don't want a big tent," Rendell told reporters during a lunch hosted by the Christian Science Monitor...

And with that, we're back where we started from, on this thread, I believe.

Steve

[sctx]

Originally Posted by ryberg

Yah. Pretty funny when you read through it and try to, you know, understand what he was saying.

Steve

so do you think he's implying it falls under the state's rights or do you think he's implying that no person shall be deprived of life without due process as stated in the constitution?......... he's hard for me to read, but I like the non compliance with party platform aspect

[ryberg]

Originally Posted by sctx

so do you think he's implying it falls under the state's rights or do you think he's implying that no person shall be deprived of life without due process as stated in the constitution?......... he's hard for me to read, but I like the non compliance with party platform aspect

Dude, you're telling me!

I have no idea what he meant, there.

I think what happened there is that he either intentionally spoke his true mind or unintentionally said something amiss, and then realized it was amiss (I mean amiss in terms of the party platform and so on) and then scrambled like a harried QB under pressure to escape a nasty sack and significant loss of yardage.

Steve

[SunKneeMarie]

Originally Posted by ryberg

Dude, you're telling me!

I have no idea what he meant, there.

I think what happened there is that he either intentionally spoke his true mind or unintentionally said something amiss, and then realized it was amiss (I mean amiss in terms of the party platform and so on) and then scrambled like a harried QB under pressure to escape a nasty sack and significant loss of yardage.

Steve

and yet another sports analogy... I love these

[ryberg]

Originally Posted by SunKneeMarie

and yet another sports analogy... I love these

Thanks for the compliment, Char!

I'm telling' ya, that thing has "busted play" written all over it!

Well, or "foolish act committed before thinking properly," which gets you in the same position, basically.

Steve

[roni]

I wonder what is going on with his brain.

These seem like way before rookie mistakes to me, and he is no rookie in the Republican party.

There must be a plan.

[sctx]

seems there are quite a few pro-choice republicans, are there no anti-abortion democrats?