Should Steele Resign Over This?

Via Hot Air headlines - to Jay Cost at Real Clear Politics. While I often like Jay's campaign horse-race analysis, I disagree with him here over Steele's comments. His reasoning is that the comments are divisive for Republicans and he thinks they show a tendency for Steele to deliver sound bites that can come back to haunt the GOP, or a particular politician.

The media is always going to do what it does to Republicans and Conservatives. I'd rather see a Right that was less afraid of speaking its mind, or just telling the truth. Steele's comments appear to be a reasonably accurate summation of what went on. The Right needs to stop playing defense all the time, always worrying about what the media is going to say about this, or that. Republicans should craft a positive message, speak truth as they understand it and show some boldness, instead of cowardice when it comes to the media glare. That's what a winner does. And all this hand wringing over this or that quote strikes me as a losing mindset.

It's Time for Michael Steele To Resign

Steele on Romney vs McCain (responding to a radio caller, not Cost): Yeah, but let me ask you. Ok, Jay, I'm there with you. But remember, it was the base that rejected Mitt because of his switch on pro-life, from pro-choice to pro-life. It was the base that rejected Mitt because it had issues with Mormonism. It was the base that rejected Mitch, Mitt, because they thought he was back and forth and waffling on those very economic issues you're talking about. So, I mean, I hear what you're saying, but before we even got to a primary vote, the base had made very clear they had issues with Mitt because if they didn't, he would have defeated John McCain in those primaries in which he lost.

Comments

[nina]

The base did not reject Mitt. A pact between McCain and Huckabee defeated MItt. It didn't help that RINO Crist endorsed McCain.

[AWW]

The MSM/Dem take away on this is that the GOP is bigoted against Mormons and other religous groups. Another big unforced error by Steele. And a RNC head who continously shoots his party in the foot is no good. And why can't Steele and other GOP leaders go after the target rich Obama/Pelosi/Reid environment instead of contantly saying stupid things about the GOP?

And to Nina's point Romney was beating McCain with the conservative base while McCain won with the moderates and switch over independents. NRO and other right leaning publications were for Mitt, not McCain. If Crist doesn't pull his last minute endorsement/campaigning for McCain in the Florida primary and Romney wins Florida then Romney is probably the GOP nominee.

[mark l.]

I can't really sweat steele...

The fulcrum of 2010, and probably 2012 is the current and looming budgetary imbalances. It isn't steele's strong point, but to be honest, it isn't michael steele who is up for election.

how important is the rnc chair?
name some previous chairman, who experienced success, and I can name one(or many) politicians who deserve 100 times the credit.

just looking back at previous chairmen-
William E. Brock III 1977–1981
Richard Richards 1981–1983
Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr. 1983–1989 Nevada Paul Laxalt served with Fahrenkopf as general chairman until 1987.
Lee Atwater 1989–1991
Clayton Keith Yeutter 1991–1992
Richard Bond 1992–1993
Haley Barbour 1993–1997
Jim Nicholson 1997–2001
Jim Gilmore 2001–2002
Marc Racicot 2002–2003
Ed Gillespie 2003–2005
Ken Mehlman 2005–2007

hmmm...Reagan or Brock? Bush 43 or Fahrenkopf? Newt or Barbour? Bush 44 or Nicholson?

Mitt? I was supporter, never a donor. The train came off the track for me in the MI primary, when he showed up to pander about saving detroit.

[MMM]

Steele should quit b/c of the ammo he's given the opposition, not because he stated a demonstrable truth regarding a small (but potentially decisive) part of "the base" in a tight race, where the winner in each contest only gets about 1/3 of the total vote case (see, e.g., the 2008 primary season until Mitt dropped out). If Mitt wasn't LDS, does anyone think that he wouldn't have been able to best the McChurian Candidate in enough states to keep it competitive until the convention? Huckabee did his damage because a small portion of "the base" wouldn't vote for Mitt, or any LDS candidate for that matter. Finally, Mitt's totals, added to Huckabee's totals = McCain back in the Senate by late-March 2008.

[serfer62]

Get rid of steele. The GOP has passed the point of allowing idiots in the leadership or controlling the money. Enough...

[Paul A'Barge]

I'm with you. Keep Steele.

He's not the problem. It's the unable-to-change Republi-morons who won't get out of the road or lend a hand who need to be dumped.

[LOL]

The word "media" is not a singular noun dan. One day I hope you'll learn this.

[theadmiral]

Getting rid of Steele is largely irrelevant at this point. The GOP is lost, in the wilderness, and in all probability relegated to 3rd party status over the next decade. We've moved on. Conservatives, Americans who value limited government and traditional American values and independent thinkers and voters are looking elsewhere. Specifically where I don't know but I can assure you it's not at the GOP. The GOP is blind to what's happening across this country, the level of discontent and the festering frustration people have with both parties. If one single person in the GOP establishment, regardless of the voting minority status in Congress, would confront Obama, his minions and the Marxist policies being rammed down our throat, that single person would be the frontrunner in 2012 (assuming this country is a viable nation in 3 1/2 years...) Leadership at the RNC and in the GOP has been abysmal to put it kindly and both the RNC and the GOP show no signs of listening to Americans and changing their ways so in my mind they are complicit in this bloodless Marxist coup taken place right before our eyes.

[dkg]

He's doing okay since he got that job by writing off the CIA torture contract doctors and nurses at Hopkins. Health companies just went to the White House and they sold off another informant like Obama's dad. He didn't do what Joe Obama Buffet told him like GM, invest in Italy. His name was Stanford like the new Global Health Corps Sir Leaf is investing in as Joe Obama Buffet write offf billions of her loans at Treasury.

Obama don't like Banks. He don't like car companies. He don't like all that DEA funding going to places like Columbia when it could be Sir Leafs and Stanford's Global Health Corps. British don't like Stanford either, better money spying with the civil society NGOs. CIA, better money and better spies. Drugs are messy. They like Harvard like Obama and his pals.....

[BlackRedneck]

I'm sick of all the hand wringing. Cost should grow a pair. If Republicans devoted their time to trashing the dems, instead of their allies, they might start winning elections again. Steele told the truth. After two years, Hewitt and NRO pushing Romney, and an endless supply of cash, Romney lost to McCain (the backstabbing, McShamnesty maverick). I voted for Romney but he was my 3rd or 4th choice. He just never connected with the base and I don't see how that's going to change by 2012. Getting mad at Steele for pointing out the obvious is just stupid.

[Lala]

One day I hope LOL will learn history.

me⋅di⋅a

1   /ˈmidiə/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [mee-dee-uh] Show IPA
–noun

1. a pl. of medium.

2. (usually used with a plural verb) the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely: The media are covering the speech tonight.
–adjective
3. pertaining to or concerned with such means: a job in media research.
Usage note:

Media, like data, is the plural form of a word borrowed directly from Latin. The singular, medium, early developed the meaning “an intervening agency, means, or instrument” and was first applied to newspapers two centuries ago. In the 1920s media began to appear as a singular collective noun, sometimes with the plural medias. This singular use is now common in the fields of mass communication and advertising, but it is not frequently found outside them: The media is (or are) not antibusiness.

[seekeronos]

This sort of parallels the use of the plural verb forms with "the United States of America", i.e:

"The United States are engaging in policies of empire" vs. "The United States is engaging in a policy of empire"

That aside...

We really need to stop this dance over right vs. left... it is merely a distraction from the greater question of "Maximum statist interventionist government accountable to nobody" vs. "limited, tight-controlled small government accountable to the people".

The poster above "theadmiral" rightly stated that the GOP is a non-competitive entity at this point. We are essentially a single-party nation now, with the "moderate" or RINO wing of the GOP firmly in bed with the liberal Democrats.

True small gov't conservatives need to come together around a single standard - to agree that BIG government is NOT the answer, and the only party that comes close to that standard at present is the Constitution Party ( http://www.constitutionparty.org )

Give up on the GOP - it's a dying beast ridden throughout with the cancer of greed, apathy, and stupidity.