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March 13, 2009 08:19 PM UTC

RNC Chair Angers Republicans...Again

  • 27 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

It wasn’t long ago that new RNC Chair Michael Steele was forced to apologize to Rush Limbaugh for not being nice to him. Now Steele has made another boo-boo, as The Washington Post reports:

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele was on the receiving end of a fresh round of criticism from prominent party members yesterday after an interview was released in which he referred to abortion as an “individual choice.”

His comments to GQ magazine inflamed abortion opponents, one of the GOP’s core constituencies, and further complicated an already difficult first month on the job for Steele.

Former Ohio secretary of state J. Kenneth Blackwell, who endorsed Steele in the RNC chairman’s race, harshly condemned the remark. “Chairman Steele needs to reread the Bible, the U.S. Constitution and the 2008 GOP Platform,” Blackwell said. “He then needs to get to work or get out of the way.”

Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential candidate, called Steele’s comments “very troubling” in a post on his Huck PAC Web site. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, condemned Steele’s comments as “cavalier” and “flippant,” adding that the chairman’s remarks “reinforce the belief by many social conservatives that one major party is unfriendly while the other gives only lip service to core moral issues.”

Steele probably screwed up in his comments, but it doesn’t help the GOP in general to keep sniping at their own leader – particularly when the average voter already considers the Republican Party leaderless.

Comments

27 thoughts on “RNC Chair Angers Republicans…Again

  1. This guy is probably toast. Lots of top GOP officials wanted him out before, now he likely signed his own letter of resignation.

    But it’s not like there aren’t pro-choice Republicans like Republican Majority for Choice. If Steele was forced out over this it would be a major slap in the face to the people in groups like RMC.

    I always think it’s funny when Republicans invoke the name of Barry Goldwater, because by their own standards, he wouldn’t be able to be their party chair.

  2. .

    then who is making that choice ?  

    How did they get that authority ?  

    At its core, Christianity is about individual choice.  

    A person can’t really be born a Christian.  

    The only way to be a Christian is to choose.  

    Free Will.  We are all, whether professed disciple or not, free to choose who we are by our choices of what we do and think.  

    Obviously, the Christian religion and mindset are also grounded in the consequences of those choices.  Fundamentalist Christians are acutely aware that everyone, including themselves (ourselves,) deserves to die and burn in Hell eternally for our choices.  

    Then, of course, the attraction of Christianity is that we can be spared from that fate – from Justice – by the power of Jesus to forgive, or atone, or whatever.  

    ……..

    If I have no choice, and no freedom to err, I have no need of Jesus.  Religion is a crutch for the weak.  

    The strong and the perfect are right to mock us simpletons and mouth-breathers who cling to our religion (guns optional.)

    Automatons who cannot choose are blameless.  A robot has no culpability.  

    So, why is Chairman Steele vilified for speaking this obvious truth ?  

    Or did I once again misunderstand ?

    .  

    1. That’s a serious question.  Despite my knowledge and education in religions and the bible, I find myself thinking that concerns about abortions is mostly a modern construct.

      There certainly is no direct mention in the bible.  In fact, the Jewish faith has held for thousands of years that life begins with the first breath.  And as we all know, Christianity was a cult of Judaism for a long time, and that the Old Testament is really the Hebrew Bible. So, how, when did this construct appear?

      Correct me if I’m wrong, but most states never had laws prohibiting abortion until the early 20th century.  Granted, most women probably carried to term for any number of social reasons up until those days.  Who were these people and organized groups that found it “necessary” to have laws made?

      I’ve said it before, the Catholic church and Barron are at least consistent, caring about life from beginning to end.  Wish our conservative Protestant brethren would do likewise.  

      1. “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.  Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”

        This is the passage that fires up the anti-choice community.

        1. I’m familiar with that line, and it’s very touching.

          But it says nothing at all about the beginning of life, or taking of “life” while within the womb.

          So, if God knew that a still-to-be-formed fetus was going to be an abortionist, wouldn’t He/She stop that?

          And since that line has been there for over two thousand years, why is it just now discovered and used as a basis for political action?  

            1. Just pointing out the logical inconsistencies and late arrival of concern.  

              I love the bible, too.  But I understand what it is and what it isn’t.  As we Quakers are prone to say, a book about God, but not the Word of God.

              If one were searching for the latter, I would nominate two.  The Koran was channeled through illiterate Mohammed in a short period of time in a language that is still very much the same.  The other would be A Course In Miracles.  That was channeled by a Jewish woman who never really believed what was happening or its content except generally.  Modern English, too.  

              Yet, they are very, very different.  Islam is a strictly legalistic religion, CIM is some would say, New Age.  

    2. The criticism that Steele is receiving from the more extreme wing of your party is based on the fact that they do not want abortion to be a matter of “individual choice”.  They want abortion to be illegal in all circumstances or, in effect, the choice of abortion to be a collective decision left to the state.

      Incidentally, ironically, Steele is of that opinion as well.  Both times he ran for statewide office in Maryland he ran as an anti-choice candidate.

      1. .

        I checked the transcript of the interview.  

        Steele’s statement was interpreted to mean that a person has a right to an abortion, as you indicate.  

        So I misunderstood what the argument was about.  That’s what BlueCat meant, but the brevity of her post left me unawares.

        Thanks for the feedback.

        .

  3. Gays = bad

    Abortion rights = bad

    These are not complicated positions that the Republican party has embraced.  So why can’t this guy remember them?

    1. instead of the party drivel ?  I really wonder about this one.  

      There seems to be a shred of decency in Steele that keeps popping up, Jekyll and Hyde like, then he forces it back down or it is forced back down by others.

      Its so ironic that he’s going to great efforts again to explain why he said something that is so palatable to a majority of American people.  That’s a big no no – we just can’t tolerate that in the “big tent”.

            1. Steele’s done as chair. He’s gone off the page and contradicted the party platform on one of its cornerstone issues, abortion.

              His verbal gaffes and general screw-ups may be dismissed individually, but when they’re taken as a whole, they’re unforgivable to the party faithful.

    2. is that Steele is the sort of guy who tells his interviewer whatever s/he wants to hear. Many politicians are obsequious, but Steele seems to have an extreme case of it.

  4. if anything short of a written apology from the RNC to Natalie Maines and admission that she was right all along could save the R Party now.  After the 8 disastrous Bush years, I’m inclined to believe that American is “not ready to make nice”.

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