"Region’s GOP is steadfast for Steele; Embattled chairman has well of support" by Sasha Issenberg, Globe Correspondent | July 10, 2010
WASHINGTON — Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele has withstood criticism, ridicule, and demands to step down from prominent national conservatives, including Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma and pundit Bill Kristol, who said Steele’s Afghanistan comments were an “affront, both to the honor of the Republican Party and to the commitment of the soldiers fighting to accomplish the mission.’’
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Steele, a former Maryland lieutenant governor and failed Senate candidate, was elected more for his skills as a communicator than as an organizer or manager. He is often more visible in the media than Republican congressional leaders, and regularly stumbles into verbal trouble: delivering bad jokes, provoking fights with allies, or presenting policy views at odds with party orthodoxy, such as when he called abortion “an individual choice’’ in an interview with GQ this year....
Or being caught with his shirt off.
Related: Democrats Caught With Drawers Down
Must have been the booze they bought.
The latest controversy stems from remarks Steele made last week at a Noank, Conn., fund-raiser as part of a multistate New England tour. (Steele’s chief of staff visited Maine separately last weekend and met with party officials there.)
To the donors, Steele declared the US mission in Afghanistan hopeless, disowning the policy as “a war of Obama’s choosing.’’
“If he’s such a student of history has he not understood that, you know, that’s the one thing you don’t do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan?’’ Steele said. “Because everyone who’s tried, over a thousand years of history has failed.’’
What is CONTROVERSIAL about THAT?
It's the TRUTH!!!
Oh, right, it's AmeriKa now!
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Republicans have won the three heavily contested statewide elections during Steele’s term, including two to replace Democratic governors in states that Obama carried in 2008. Election handicappers expect Republicans to pick up seats this year in both the House and Senate and to perform well in major gubernatorial races.
Yeah, hurray.
Any other candidates on the ballot?
“I tend to be one that looks at results, but we did so well in New Jersey, Virginia, and with the Scott Brown race in Massachusetts, all of which Michael Steele put a great amount of effort into,’’ said John H. Frey, a Connecticut state representative who also serves as one of his state’s RNC committeepeople. “We’ve had a great run.... ’’
Guy makes it sound like it's over.
Steele, who is viewed as a political moderate, has found some of his most formidable enemies on the party’s right.....
Whatever that means.
So what did he say and when did he say it?
WASHINGTON — Republican chairman Michael Steele did not acknowledge his factual error about a war launched by President George W. Bush in response to the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001....
Why should he? Newspapers keep telling lies.
In remarks captured Thursday on camera and posted online, Steele criticized President Obama and his handling of the war and suggested it cannot be won.
“If he’s such a student of history, has he not understood that, you know, that’s the one thing you don’t do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right? Because everyone who’s tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed,’’ Steele said. “And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan.’’
Yeah, like apologizing and exiting.
He's still standing and not going anywhere.
Now let's see him leap a tall building before it collapses straight down into its own footprint due to fire.
