Think Progress

After Saying Snowe Is ‘Welcome’ In The GOP, Steele Suggests He’ll ‘Come After’ Her For Supporting Stimulus

This week on MSNBC, Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) — who endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in New York’s 23rd congressional district run-off on Tuesday — refused to say whether or not he’s “glad” that moderate Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) — who voted for President Obama’s stimulus package — is in the Republican Party.

The next day on MSNBC, RNC Chair Michael Steele was asked if there was room for Snowe in the GOP. “Absolutely,” Steele said:

STEELE: Welcome! Welcome! Because–you know why that’s important? Because every footprint of this party is different from region to region, from county to county. I can’t win in the northeast with someone who’d be a better candidate suited in the south….So the reality of it is I’m looking to find my candidates where they are. And I want to lift them up beause they represent those districts. So like New England, Olympia Snowe works there for her. She may not translate in South Carolina. She works in Maine.

But today on ABC’s TopLine, Steele appeared to have a change of heart. When asked if he’s comfortable with GOP candidates who supported the stimulus, Steele said there’s “no justification” for that support, adding, “we’ll come after you”:

STEELE: So candidates who live in moderate to slightly liberal districts have got to walk a little bit carefully here, because you do not want to put yourself in a position where you’re crossing that line on conservative principles, fiscal principles, because we’ll come after you. [...]

You’re gonna find yourself in a very tough hole if you’re arguing for the president’s stimulus plan or Nancy Pelosi’s health plan. There’s no justification for growing the size of government the way this administration and this Congress wants to do it.

While Steele didn’t mention any names, clearly Snowe and fellow Republican Senator from Maine Susan Collins — who both supported the stimulus — may soon be in the RNC’s crosshairs.

Michael Steele Takes On Palin, Limbaugh: ‘Your Opinion Really Doesn’t Matter Much’

RNC Chairman Michael Steele endorsed moderate Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava (R-NY) in the NY-23 special election before national conservative leaders — like Dick Armey, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sarah Palin — forced Scozzafava out in favor of right-wing candidate Doug Hoffman. Following Hoffman’s defeat, Steele struck back at firebrands within his party, telling reporters earlier today that the opinion of conservative outsiders “really doesn’t matter much”:

STEELE: If you don’t live in the district, don’t vote there, your opinion really doesn’t matter much.

Later this afternoon, CNN host Wolf Blitzer asked Steele specifically about outsiders like Palin and Limbaugh, who loudly pushed the nominated Republican Scozzafava out of the race. Steele affirmed that he “hopes” those right-wing voices do not continue to meddle in Republican primaries:

BLITZER: Are you worried Mr. Chairman that Sarah Palin for example, or Rush Limbaugh or others in the conservative movement are going to go into some of these contests and go after the more moderate Republicans who might actually have a better chance at winning in the general election.

STEELE: Well, I hope not. [...] So I’m hoping not, and that’s not in their nature.

Watch it:

Of course, right-wing leaders are actually emboldened by their successful purging of Scozzafava, even despite the results of the election yesterday. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is actively backing Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, a friend of the anti-Obama tea party movement, against more moderate Carly Fiorina in the California Senate race. DeMint explained that DeVore will “stand against his own party leaders” and that conservatives need to continue to “shake up the Republican Party.”

Steele: I’m The ‘Cow On The Tracks’ Trying To Block The Health Care Train »

Today on Fox News, RNC Chairman Michael Steele railed against Democratic efforts to reform health care and said how proud he was that Republicans have stalled action. “They told us in June that there would be a health care bill on the President’s desk on Aug. 1,” he boasted. “I think our efforts helped change that dynamic.”

But with Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME) supporting the passage of the Senate Finance Committee health bill — and with news that Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) may be willing to break from GOP ranks to support legislation — the Fox News host asked Steele whether the health care “train” had left the station without Republicans on board. Steele then compared himself to a cow:

HOST: Very quickly, Chairman Steele. The feeling in some circles is that this health care train has left the station with President at the wheel, and Republicans better jump on board.

STEELE: Well, I’m the cow on the tracks, and you’re going to have to stop that train to get this cow off the tracks and move forward.

Later during an interview with Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY), another Fox News host laughed about Steele’s analogy, pointing out, “If you look at that analogy, the cow is not much of a match for that train.” Watch it:

Of course, trains often run over cows. If the cow is able to derail the train, a lot of people may get hurt as a trade-off — a fitting metaphor for what will happen if Republicans block health care reform.

Also during the interview, Steele blasted Democrats’ lack of “bipartisanship” and insisted that he isn’t trying to be an “obstructionist.” “To the contrary, I’m saying, can we all get in a room and have a Rodney King moment and work toward something that addresses the common-sense bottom-up approach voters and certainly the voters of our country — you, me, and others — want to be done,” he added. TPM points out that he appeared to be referring to “King’s famous ‘Can we all get along?‘ line following the 1992 Los Angeles race riots sparked by the acquittal of the police officers who beat King.”

(HT: DailyKos)

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RNC’s New Website Reflecting Steele’s ‘Urban-Suburban Hip-Hop’ Riddled With Errors, Widely Panned

The Republican National Committee (RNC) proudly launched its new website at GOP.com today, saying that it “will promote increased grassroots participation and innovation, better communication, improved platform compatibility and smarter marketing and fundraising tools for the GOP.” When a visitor goes to the site, the first thing he or she sees is a miniature floating Michael Steele walking onto the page with a greeting (similar in style to the old Microsoft Word Office Assistant):

The RNC press release announcing the site highlighted its widgets, tie-ins to other social media networks, and open platform. But here are the real highlights of the site (which is being widely mocked):

– Michael Steele’s Blog Called ‘What Up?’: In his first post, titled “Let me ask you,” Steele talks about how he finds the Internet an “amazing platform” for “life.”

– No Future Leaders: The new RNC site dedicates a section to “Future Leaders” of the GOP, but after it launched, the page was still empty. It has now been updated asking people to submit the names of possible future leaders.

– Misnaming Jackie Robinson A GOP ‘Hero’: The RNC tries to portray the party as diverse on its GOP ‘Heroes’ page (even though there is currently only one non-Hispanic minority serving as a Republican in the House and the Senate and only two percent of blacks identify as Republican), with people of color making up almost half the list. However, one of the people listed as a “great Republican” is baseball legend Jackie Robinson, who actually identified himself as an independent. In fact, Robinson spoke out about the “hatred” he saw at the 1964 GOP convention, where Barry Goldwater won the nomination. He called it “one of the most unforgettable and frightening experiences of my life.”

– Lists The ‘Iraw’ War As A Republican Accomplishment: The GOP takes ownership of Operation Iraqi Freedom at its ‘Accomplishments’ page, writing, “Five months later, in March 2003 President Bush ordered 250,000 U.S. troops into Iraw.” (View a screenshot here.)

According to GOP new media strategist Mindy Finn, the RNC vetted all the pictures of diverse faces at the top of the site to make sure they’re all Republicans.

The new site is even being ridiculed by conservatives, with Jillian Bandes writing at Townhall.com, “Is Michael Steele’s New RNC Blog Really Called ‘What Up?’ Yes. Yes it is. ::head hits keyboard::.”

Limbaugh: Michael Steele Is ‘Off-Message!’

In an interview with NBC’s Today Show, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh defiantly stated that he is “not the leader of the Republican Party.” “These people think they can discredit the Republican Party by making me the head of it,” he said. “All they’re doing is elevating me. It’s silly for them to talk about how I’m the leader of anything.”

Well, Limbaugh certainly wants to act like he is a leader of the Party. Just a few moments later, NBC’s Jamie Gangel told Limbaugh that he has a propensity to “scare Republican politicians,” particularly RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who backtracked earlier this year after calling Rush an “entertainer.” Limbaugh responded by instructing the GOP chairman on what he should be doing:

GANGEL: GOP Party Chairman Michael Steele, at his peril, he criticized you. He said you were just an entertainer. And he said you were “incendiary” and “divisive.”

LIMBAUGH: That’s right.

GANGEL: You went after him. I’ve never seen anyone apologize quite so quickly.

LIMBAUGH: Well, you’d have to ask him why he apologized. But, the reason I went after him is not because he said those things about me. It’s because he’s off-message! Michael Steele should be out there raising money and planning more ways to get people to vote for Republicans.

Watch it:

Also in the interview, Limbaugh is asked whether he was moved in any way by the election of the first black President. “Yeah, but I got over it pretty quickly,” said Limbaugh, who declared his desire to see Obama “fail” even before he was inaugurated. Limbaugh said he predicted Obama’s election would “exacerbate racial problems — and it has.” Indeed, Rush has done his part to make sure of that.

Steele Dismisses Report That Obama Has Received 400 Percent More Threats Than Bush »

On CNN’s American Morning today, host John Roberts asked RNC Chairman Michael Steele about the Facebook poll that asked “Should Obama be killed?” — which the Secret Service is investigating — and whether it was “spawned by racism.” “No, I don’t think,” replied Steele, adding that he’s “always very careful about going down that road, you know, so blindly and so quickly.”

Roberts followed up by asking Steele if he agreed with Tom Friedman’s column this morning, in which he wrote that “Criticism from the far right has begun tipping over into delegitimation and creating the same kind of climate here that existed in Israel on the eve of the Rabin assassination.” “Where do these nut jobs come from? I mean, come on, stop this,” replied Steele. He then said that America didn’t have “this kind of conversation” when people were “complaining and protesting” about President Bush.

“Not to say that it’s about the color of his skin or his background, ethnic background or whatever, but threats against this president are at a level 400 percent higher than they were against former President Bush,” replied Roberts. “What explains that?” Steele was skeptical of Roberts’ numbers, saying “how do we know that?” When Roberts said it came from the Secret Service, Steele largely dismissed the concern:

STEELE: Well, I don’t — I don’t know — I don’t know that because I don’t have a report to compare that to. The Secret Service has it. I haven’t seen that publicly put out there statistically to show that.

But even if it is, this is my point. You know, I think that we need to be very smart and very careful about jumping, making these leaps on race and connecting dots that may or may not exist there. We are engaged as a country right now in a very important public policy debate, whether it’s the war in Afghanistan or health care cap and trade or what happens to be. There are passions that run deep and long on both sides of the aisle.

Don’t necessarily jump to the conclusion that, because someone says something vitriolic or hot that that’s necessarily from the right or necessarily from the left. It’s reflecting deep-seeded frustrations that people have. We don’t excuse it but I just — I want us to be very careful because I just — I see ugly things happening down the road if we’re not smart approaching these types of issues.

Watch it:

Roberts’ 400 percent statistic comes from Newsmax correspondent Ronald Kessler’s book, In the President’s Secret Service, for which he had unprecedented access to the agency. “A lot of those threats are racially based,” Kessler told the New York Daily News. “So there is a real basis for concern.”

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Steele Hits Obama For Olympics Trip, But Squirms When Reporter Pointedly Asks Him If It’s A ‘Mistake’ »

Today in an RNC conference call, chairman Michael Steele criticized President Obama for going to Copenhagen, Denmark this week to pitch Chicago as the site of the 2016 Olympics. Steele said that “at a time of war, at a time of recession,” Obama’s short trip would distract him from focusing on pressing problems.

Steele basically tried to argue that the country couldn’t move forward with Obama in Copenhagen, saying that Obama should tell the public if he wants the country to make the Olympics “the priority” as his job-creation program:

STEELE: If the priority is the Olympics in seven years, okay, then tell the nation that’s the priority and that’s what we should be focused on because we’ll create jobs then and we won’t worry about it between now and 2016. But if the goal is to create jobs here in America today, then let’s do that.

After the RNC chairman bashed Obama over the Olympics for several minutes, Baltimore Sun reporter Paul West asked Steele, “So are you saying that it’s a mistake for him to go to Copenhagen?” Steele tried to dodge the question (eliciting an audible sigh from West), and eventually tersely cut off West when he tried to follow-up:

PAUL WEST, BALTIMORE SUN: Hi, I just wanted to follow-up on that last question: So are you saying that it’s a mistake for him to go to Copenhagen?

STEELE: You know, a mistake is in the eye of the beholder. I just don’t think it’s necessary. I mean, I don’t know the judgment behind the President going. [...]

WEST: Okay, but I’m still not clear. Is it a mistake in your eyes?

STEELE: My eyes don’t — What do you mean, my eyes?

WEST: Well, you said a mistake is in the eyes of the beholder. I’m wondering if you think it’s a mistake?

STEELE: I gave you my answer, Paul.

Listen here:

The whole trip will take approximately 18 hours. The New York Times reported:

Moreover, aides noted that it would be a relatively small time investment. Mr. Obama will leave Thursday evening and fly overnight, arriving in Copenhagen just in time to join Chicago’s final presentation Friday morning, when he and the first lady will address the committee. He returns to Washington on Friday afternoon.

So according to Steele, Obama spending 18 hours to promote an event that has the opportunity to increase U.S. prestige, generate $22.5 billion in economic activity, and the equivalent of 315,000 new full-time jobs must mean that he has completely abandoned his entire policy agenda and plans to now spend all his time on this issue. Does this mean that Obama is no longer overexposed?

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RNC Chairman Steele Withdraws Support For Rep. Kirk Over His Cap-And-Trade Vote (Updated)

This past June, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) — who is now running for Senate — was one of the eight Republicans to cast a vote in favor of Waxman-Markey clean energy legislation. But ever since Kirk began taking heat from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, he has been trying desperately to backtrack from his vote.

Kirk has since offered contradictory explanations for his shifting stance. “I voted for [cap-and-trade] because it was in the narrow interests of my congressional district,” he explained recently. But at the time of his vote, Kirk cited “national security” considerations, “arguing that a modest carbon tax would spur development of domestic energy sources and reduce dependence on oil controlled by Saudi sheiks and Venezuelan dictators.”

Now, RNC Chairman Michael Steele is feeling the heat from the right-wing base as well, and is pulling a flip-flop of his own. The Chicago Daily Observer reports that Steele is withdrawing his support from Kirk:

Republican National Chairman Michael Steele has withdrawn his sole endorsement for Mark Kirk for the U. S. Senate, recognizing that the candidacy of Patrick Hughes has drawn major support from Illinois Republicans: thus Steele’s RNC is neutral…a distinct victory for Hughes.

Steele has previously referred to Kirk as a rising star and someone he would support. “I’m so excited about Mark Kirk and his race,” Steele said in a radio interview. “We were all kind of sitting around with bated breath as he was making his decision, a very personal decision, a family decision, to run for the Senate.”

“You have absolutely no reason, none, to trust our word or our actions at this point,” Steele told Glenn Beck in February. This of course remains an ongoing challenge for conservatives.

Steele Criticizes Democrats For Playing The Race Card, While He Plays The Race Card

Former President Jimmy Carter stirred a media-frenzy this week when he said in an interview with NBC News that much of the most strenuous opposition to President Obama stems from the color of his skin. “I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American,” he said.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele has since been all over the airwaves complaining, calling Carter’s comments “out of line.” And in an op-ed in Politico today, Steele argued that there is no racism whatsoever in opposition to Obama:

Proud Americans, black and white, fought for too long and too hard to have the claim of racism be used in such a cavalier fashion. Blind charges of racism, where none exist, not only are an affront to those who have suffered the effects of racism, but it weakens our efforts to address true acts of racism and makes them more difficult to overcome.

Yet this morning on CBS, host Maggie Rodriguez got Steele to admit that some right-wing opposition is racially-charged:

RODRIGUEZ: I wanted to make time to ask you about these allegations on behalf of former President Carter and others that all of this criticism towards President Obama is motivated by racism. … When we have protests like we saw in Washington last week, when we see Confederate flags and pictures of the president in white face and signs that say he needs to go back to Africa, can you afford to ignore that?

STEELE: No you don’t ignore it but you don’t paint such a broad brush with it.

Watch it:

Yesterday on Fox News, Steele criticized Carter and other Democrats for playing the race card. “We cannot go to a point in this country,” he said, “if every time we find ourselves in disagreement with [Obama], his sycophants and others out there are running to his side and rushing in with charges of racism.”

Yet earlier on CNN, Steele accused Democrats in Congress who represent African-American sections of the country of being racist:

STEELE: You know, I’m looking at cities around the country where black folk live. Now, you showed me the Congress with all these wonderful black Democrats and white Democrats. But I go to black neighborhoods that are run by those same Democrats. And you tell me where racism really exists.

This isn’t the first time Steele has played the race card. Hosting a radio show in May, Steele said the media didn’t vet Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign because they “fell in love with the black man running for the office.”

Apparently Steele himself has no problem playing the race card when it suits his interests.