Andrew Sullivan vs Michael Steele: Steele Wins

In another new attack on RNC Chair Michael Steele, alleged conservative Andrew Sullivan counts on his readers to not click through multiple links to get to the truth and can't resist taking another swipe at Sarah Palin for good measure.

He makes Palin look smart.

That attack is based on an alleged discrepancy in Steele's statements that doesn't exist. First Sullivan posts this below:

STEELE: Well, my position is, hey, look, I have been, um, supportive of a lot of my friends who are gay in some of the core things that they believe are important to them. You know, the ability to be able to share in the information of your partner, to have the ability to—particularly in times of crisis—to manage their affairs and to help them through that as others—you know, as family members or others—would be able to do. I just draw the line at the gay marriage.

Then this from a previous post of his: 

GALLAGHER: Is this a time when Republicans ought to consider some sort of alternative to redefining marriage and maybe in the road, down the road to civil unions. Do you favor civil unions?

STEELE: No, no no. What would we do that for? What are you, crazy? No. Why would we backslide on a core, founding value of this country? I mean this isn't something that you just kind of like, "Oh well, today I feel, you know, loosey-goosey on marriage." [...]

GALLAGHER: So no room even for a conversation about civil unions in your mind?

STEELE: What's the difference?

But you have to click back through 3 or more additional links to get to the source of the quote and then actually listen to the whole thing - it isn't that long.

Steele supports precisely what he claims to support through contract law and other existing means. So who is the dumb one, Andy? Never mind, we already know.

Comments

[SacTownMan]

Dan, why do you insist on getting poor Andy's panties in a bunch like that?

You know how sensitive HIS kind can be sometimes! And by HIS kind I don't mean conservatives!!

Everytime you point out his manic personality he sends his readers here.

Everything is just a different shade of lavender to ole' drew!

[Greg]

As long as Steele is the head of the RNC I will not vote for another Republican

After all, what is the point of suffering through eight years of Obama only to get four years of a McCain/Bush type that will only lead to another Obama (or more likely worse).

Sorry, I have been on this roller coaster ride too long. And I am not the only one. Obama is bad but then so was McCain. And so was (kill capitalism to save it) Bush!

[Scott]

Ever since Daddy Bush we have seen this pattern. Increasingly Liberal Republicans leading to increasingly leading Democrats.

When I hear Republican pundits and Republican politicians going on on about Obama I honestly think STFU and just turn them off. It isn't that what they are saying is necessarily wrong. It is most often right. But it is why they are saying it that bugs me.

Sorry they haven't won back enough of my trust to be "the Anti-Obama". They haven't even tried. Yeah, I know all the crap about Obama, no news there. But what I am intensely looking for is some light at the end of the tunnel.

Michael Steele represents the status quo and therefore means no light at the end of the tunnel. So until he is removed from the RNC as a FIRST STEP I am going to turn Hannity off. I am going to turn all the Republican politicians off. Because yeah, I get it Obama is bad, but you don't offer any chance for much improvement. All you represent is another Republican Socialist leading to another Democratic one.

Remove Steele, somehow regain the trust of the grassroots that was so damaged during the last administration, and then we will talk about "how bad Obama is". But not before!

[Scott]

I meant increasing liberal Republicans leading to increasing Liberal Democrats.

We are all on to the con. Its all a wrestling match. In public the Democrats and Repugs act like they are such enemies but behind the scenes they are fast friends. They are just two sides of the very same coin.

Having Michael Steele as their chair is a visual daily reminder that even after one of its greatest defeats in history the Republican party is unwilling to change. They are determined to become the Whigs of the 21st party.

And I can't think of any reason to get in their way if that is what they want. Conservatives need to think out of the box and find alternatives other than Republicans. Otherwise it will be Obama followed by some RINO followed by someone like or even worse than Obama. As that has been the history of American politics for more than a generation now. And that will continue to be the history of American politics as long as nothing change.

Michael Steele has become a daily symbol, a daily indicator, of this non-change.

As long as he is in office you can be sure that you can expect, regardless of whatever rhetoric they throw at us about "how bad Obama is" (I am not saying he isn't but to them it's just the rhetoric the Republican side of the coin use to play "their part" in this "wrestling match") what you can expect from the Republicans is reality not much better and will actually lead to the next round of a Clinton like, a Obama like, President, just like we have seen for more than a generation.

Michael Steele Represents "No Light at the end of the Tunnel". Yeah it is going to take more than removing Steele to win back my trust, but my trust will never be won back unless Steele is removed.

[anon]

I think Steele is an example of how the GOP has forgotten under Bush that there has to be meaning and competence behind symbols. Steele is an empty symbol, he was supposed to be a symbol that the GOP is not the party of old white men, racists, and rednecks. That is a good message. However, the symbol/messenger they chose is incompetant.

Reagan knew how to use messaging and symbols to communicate, but he also knew that behind the symbols you had to have professionals who knew what they were doing and could deliver.

Steele is like George W. Bush, an empty vessel that cannot deliver on either style, substance or competance.

[Scott]

But you see the GOP never was the the party of old white men, racists, and rednecks.

The Democrats was always the place that such people found a home. For example Robert KKK Byrd.

But this is an example of the "party elite" believing the liberal lie.

Steele obviously believed it because on that show he was on when the guy called Republicans Nazis all he could do was nod his head.

I am no longer going to support a party the doesn't support me. I am no longer going to come to the defense of a party that doesn't come to the support of me.

And while yeah, Obama is going to be Hell, Bush was Hell. Especially the last year. And lots of the policies that Obama is enacting now are just policies started with Bush.

Again, I see Steele as a barometer. As long as he is in the RNC it is a sign that the GOP is unwilling to change the way it needs to. Now the removal of him doesn't necessarily mean the opposite but keeping him certainly means that the GOP is in the "no change" mode.

The GOP over the last decade has destroyed a lot of trust. And it will be very, very difficult for them to win that trust back. I honestly don't know how they could as once bitten twice shy and all of that. It is much harder to win back trust than it is to destroy it.

But the fact is that the GOP hasn't even tried. In fact if the point was to do the exact opposite of winning back trust then they are indeed excelling in that.

Sorry, Obama might be bad but the point is do the Republicans offer a light at the end of the tunnel. Steele as RNC head shows they don't so in that case I much rather them STFU. Until they show me a light at the end of the tunnel them telling me "how bad Obama is" is just going to anger me.

Why vote when experience has shown me that even when I win I lose!

[Scott]

I am no longer going to support a party the doesn't support me. I am no longer going to come to the defense of a party that doesn't come to the defense of me.

Yeah, Obama is bad, what of it? If he hadn't gotten elected last year he (or someone just as bad or worse) would have gotten elected elected in 2012 after McCain inflicted hell on this country.

So until you show me a light Republicans, Republic lackies like Hannity, STFU! But instead you have Republicans insulting and stabbing conservatives in the back every chance they have.

They think my hate is going to make me vote for them. They are wrong. I am totally opposed to Obama but my hate, well that is directed at the GOP. It was the failure of the Bush Administration that led America into the hands of Obama just like it was the failure of his father that led us to Clinton. And it was W. who first started this socialism push with his (save capitalism by destroying capitalism) bailout.

No, I will probably never vote Republican again. They have not regained my trust. They haven't even tried to regain my trust. Instead they have still found every opportunity to betray.

And Steele like I said is a barometer of all that. He is a flashing red light saying we aren't going to change we aren't going to give you any light at the end of the tunnel!

YOU THINK MY "HATE" IS GOING TO ENSURE YOU MY SUPPORT! Actually it is going to do the exact opposite. Hatred of the experience that I have had of a GOP who has totally sold out on every principle it ever claimed to have.

No, the GOP hasn't earned enough trust from me for me to see it as the "anti-Obama". In fact it has done the exact opposite.

[mark l.]

trying to imagine what sullivan would have to say, if mccain/palin had won, and the dow fell 20% in their first few months.

[Scott]

McCain voted FOR Bush's (Save Capitalism by destroying Capitalism) Bailout.

I am not saying the Dow would have fallen 20% percent. More likely around 10 percent.

And then in 2012 we would have gotten an Obama.

[seekeronos]

I *want* the GOP to fail.

Really, I do.

I want it to fail miserably, and never come back again from being a minor third party.

I want to see a party rise that will represent the interests of true, small govt., pro-2nd amendment, fiscal conservatives, that will never again be beholden to any special faction (incl. the so-called "religious right") - a place where the ideals of the late Sen. Robert A. Taft and Calvin Coolidge and the Hon. Dr. Ron Paul are held close to the heart of conservatives.

The best bet for that now is in the Constitution Party, and perhaps with it, some remnant of the existing GOP whose voices (like the Republican Liberty Caucus) are crowded out by the big-money Rockefeller Republican establishment.