I first met Mr. Steele back in 1994 or 1995, when he first became Chairman of the Republican Party of Prince George's County. I was instantly impressed, and have always thought he was a great guy.
But his October 2006 performance on Meet the Press was disappointing and disheartening. His comments regarding Roe v. Wade were somewhat internally contradictory (Roe should stand, but Roe should be decided by the states - that's just gibberish). But in the end, he affirmed that Roe should stand.
That's not a pro-life position.
Perhaps he didn't mean it, perhaps he misspoke, perhaps he was trimming, fudging, trying to do the dance (none too successfully), but in the end, on that day he DID NOT defend the rights of the unborn with his words, but rather acted like a sniveling, compromising, fearful tool. It was very, very disappointing.
All that being said, I'd still be willing to give Mr. Steele a pass if he were to clarify that ROE MUST GO (whether by court decision, constitutional amendment, federal legislation removing jurisdiction from the courts, or what-have-you).
But without that, he appears to me to be unfit to lead the party. His words and actions that October day mark him out to be someone willing to contradict his own principles for political gain, as someone who is more of a follower than a leader. Leaders are forthright, and say what they believe, even if most folks disagree with them.
Everyone makes mistakes, but at least for the really public ones (and Meet the Press is a pretty public place to make a mistake) you gotta own up to them and correct them before you can successfully move on.
sitetest
Thanks for your thoughtful comments.
I read the MTP thing over and over, and I gotta say, it isn’t setting off my warning alarm. I have no problem with someone saying what he did, which is that RvW is a dead issue. It’s never going to be dumped. It’s “settled law” and is such an emotional trigger no one is going to touch it.
What he DID say is that the issue should be sent back to the states, which is precisely what would happen if RvW went down.
Russert was doing what all MSM folks do—trying to back a Republican into saying something rather foolish, seeing how RvW is never going anywhere and is only a diversionary tactic.
Republicans HAVE to frame this debate—we can’t let the left do it anymore.
If you ask people “What about RvW?” you will see an unalterable block saying leave it alone.
But if you ask “Should states get to decide?” I am betting you would get a huge shift to our side.
I want abortions to end. I am not for jumping off a bridge and saying “Well, at least I stood by dumping RvW!” when I could be marching forward in severely cutting down on the abortions in this country—which is the whole point of being against elective abortions.
So Steele is a politician? Yes—this isn’t a surprise.
We have to consider the time and media landscape in which we actually live if we’re going to affect change, and not pretend we can make our own rules about how we appear in a medium controlled by leftists.