Posted on 03/14/2009 8:10:45 PM PDT by james.richardson
Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele should resign from his post immediately, according to the American Family Association’s new online survey.
In light of Steele’s regrettable GQ interview, AFA President Don Wildmon asked members if the beleaguered Republican chief should resign from his post, declaring the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland believes “abortion is a choice, and homosexuality is not.”
An overwhelming 94% of the more than 74,500 respondents answered Wildmon in the affirmative.
Likewise making their displeasure known, prominent social conservative luminaries characterized Steele’s mea-culpa as “very troubling.” Ken Blackwell, who formerly endorsed Steele after withdrawing from consideration for chairman on the fifth round of balloting, sternly instructed his former rival to “re-read the Bible, the U.S. Constitution, and the 2008 GOP Platform … or get out of the way.”
Both Chairman Steele and his socially conservative detractors, the number of which are growing by the thousands at AFA’s website, are sorely misinformed: The role of RNC Chairman is not one of a curator of opinion. Steele’s opinions on abortion and gay rights – whenever he settles on one – should have no influence on the implementation of sound strategies in his capacity as chairman.
Speculating perhaps that the “open,” candidate-centered campaign for chairman manufactured Steele’s present predicament by creating the perception that the candidates’ opinions actually mattered, Phil Klein writes, “in the end, it turned the race into more of a personality contest."
The premature calls for the forcible ejection of the first African American chairman of the RNC – like those by the AFA’s tunnel-visioned membership – only offer credibility to the maddening circular firing squad meme.
Steele assumed office January 30th, 2008 with the hope he could unite a fractured party and make sense of the current political climate. Rome, as they say, wasn’t built in a day, and similarly, the Republican Party will not be re-built in three short months.
In addition to besting Blackwell, darling of the social conservative movement, Steele also wrestled former RNC Chairman Mike Duncan out of the running.
Despite his ability to mediate intra-party disputes with ease and his reputation as a prolific and unrivaled fundraiser, critics of Duncan often cited his scanty public appearances and interviews as motivation to elect a more polished, camera-friendly communicator. To them I say: Eat your words. In fact, have a second helping.
Cross-posted at www.Skepticians.com.
That just sounds too “Muslim” to me...
Steele has already lost the conservatives with his recent comments. He might as well go before it gets too much closer to the next major elections.
Wildmon is the last person that Conservatives and Republicans should listen to.
I figured that out years ago.
We lost the last election without the Religious Right.
We can win the next one without them.
I wish Ken Blackwell had won.
Yeah, sure you can...
Steele’s comments make fundraising very difficult.
A change in leadership and a committment to oppose Arlen Specter in the GOP Primary in PA next year might help.
But who wants to give to an organization whose leader has made comments like Steele has.
How did he get this high in the GOP? Who are the people behind him? I would love to know more about that.
Welcome to Free Republic!
I’ll settle for his resignation.
“We can win the next one without them.”
Don’t count on it Marine.
He did lose the people who sneak around reading soft-core porn like GQ and lapping up all the cr*p their Leftwingtard reporters write there.
Best if folks who read American Family Association materials just dropped their subscriptions to GQ if you ask me. That stuff'll rot your brain.
He should be fired because he fell into the abortion trap like a green rookie. The GOP needs a smart professional politician, not a doofus like Steele.
Don't lead us to believe you are more naive than you really are. It doesn't help anyone.
OK. Guess I’m out then.
You know who should have been RNC Chairman? Jeri Thompson, Fred Thompson’s wife. She’s attractive, sharp, and doesn’t back down from anybody. But she does have a youngster, so that may impact things a little.
I don’t read GQ, but he lost me (after reading threads here quoting his comments).
That is about the stupidest thing I ever heard. The problem with the last 4 or 5 heads of the RNC is that they were too liberal. And they expressed that liberalism by the way they organized the party, chose which candidates to back, how to distribute the money, and how to organize the primaries and the convention.
At this point, I don't give a damn whether Steele apologizes for all his stupid remarks. He has made it clear that he is a RINO abortion lover. We don't need that in this key position. He will only use his position to ensure that we get more Juan McCains and Lincoln Chaffees and Arnold Schwarzennegers.
He must go.
Steele is welcome to say anything he wants, and I like the guy, as a person. But he should never, as the leader of the RNC, say anything that is against party platform. And he should know better than that. Sadly, he has put himself in the position of mistrust.
But don't snipe at people or call them names for standing up for their values and principles, ok? I refuse to bash Steele, but I did expect better of him. Still, no matter I personally feel, the party platform is what it is, and the chairman should not speak against it. Reality is what it is.
The democrats brought in Obama with voter fraud reaching from ACORN to Soros to Saudi Arabia and he is seen as a black president.
The GOP have been following the democrats lead for years (supporting illegal aliens, soft on abortion, running liberals, fighting off conservatives) and they did the same here.
The brought in a black man because Obama is black.
Period.
You skipped an opportunity to reply to what I said in favor of scoring a snarky insult. Good job goober.
Steele is a reflection of the Republican Party as a whole.
His statements are on record, and he is now damaged goods.
Some might think time will soften the damage perspective, therefore it isn’t really a problem, but there is no time for this as all the time is necessary to repair the Party. Democrats/opposition will not let go of this.
Steele needs to resign. The Party needs to replace him with someone whom can better represent him/herself in more favorable light, thus provide the necessary fresh start in the trek to repair the Party.
How, exactly, were the last RNC chair heads 'liberal?'
You and Steele make the same mistake - you both think that the chairman can set party policy independently or has some kind of independent power.
The role of the party chairman is to be a technician. The job of the REPUBLICAN VOTERS is to set policy through their participation in the platform writing and, more importantly, through their selection of nominees for office.
Exactamundo!
I'm not concerned what color the Chairman of the RNC is
as long as his principles are truly conservative.
Attempting to pander to left leaning, and blue blood Republicans is a proven losing strategy.
Whatcha been smoking pal? The reason the GOP lost is because they abandoned their conservative constituents. Wildmon is spot on and people better start listening. Steele indeed needs to go and I've said that since the first day he won his post. Newt Gingrich needs to be running the GOP right now.
I never wanted Steele as the party chair in the first place — but then, the Repubs left me a long time ago. Had they chosen Katon Dawson, who I know, they would have done far better in the long run. Dawson was SC Party Chair for years, knows the way it works, understands his role and stands on PRINCIPLE. Steele is a purely political creature at a time that Conservatives DEMAND a principled leader, and the nation desparately NEEDS one!
Steele SHOULD go — but he ain’t going. The party powers-that-be would NEVER cut a minority party chair because they fear the long lingering accusaation of “racism.” NOT gonna happen...
Uh, no. The base needs to be respected. They are part of the base.
The voters have to vote for the candidates who are on the ballot.
The RNC has a large voice in determining who those candidates are.
Steele seems to be in over his head.
If you can’t say something that will help the party, keep your mouth shut.
I wanted Ken Blackwell to win. Too bad.
Steele is the product of a systemic problem within the Republican party. The party as a whole lacks conservative principles.
Uggghhhhhhh.. NOT!
I for one liked Michael Steel but I’m afraid it’s looking here lately like he’s letting us all down.
If anyone took his place at the helm I would love to see it be Ken Blackwell.
Blackwell showed us here in Ohio that he’s a man of principal. He’s a fighter, not one bit afraid to take on the left, and he is dead set against abortion. Not only in words but in actions too.
Am I asking too much?
Who is this “we” you speak of?
Katon Dawson? Isn’t he the guy that got called out for belonging to an all-white country club? Lord, I’m not sure which sounds worse: “GOP nominates their own black guy!” or “GOP nominates blatantly racist white guy.” Is it really that hard to find a guy that’s actually conservative and doesn’t have have a dozen skeletons in his closet?!
Those of us who showed up and voted, rather than stay home because the candidate had flaws.
anyone who supports the filthy disease ridden queers are just not republicans.....right Chode?
Snippets: On July 18, 1993, globalist Henry Kissinger said in the Los Angeles Times, concerning NAFTA: "What Congress will have before it is not a conventional trade agreement but the architecture of a new international system ... a first step toward a new world order."
Whatever they call themselves, in 1994 this particular branch of our feckless ruling establishment moved heaven and earth to get around the U.S. Constitution. It did so when it climbed over the dying body that is the power of Congress to make treaties, including treaties on issues of money and trade.
Nonetheless, the globalist duo of Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich, along with complicit Republicans and Democrats, rammed the World Trade Organization agreement through a lame duck Democratic Congress. Like NAFTA before it, the powers that be gave away the national store. They gave it away to an unaccountable, unelected supranational body, the World Trade Organization.
That same faithless establishment forgot to remember that only Congress has the power to make treaties, raise taxes, print money and more or less promote the best interests of the economic and monetary system of the United States. In effect, they rewrote the U.S. Constitution.
In light of Steele’s regrettable GQ interview, AFA President Don Wildmon asked members if the beleaguered Republican chief should resign from his post, declaring the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland believes “abortion is a choice, and homosexuality is not.”
An overwhelming 94% of the more than 74,500 respondents answered Wildmon in the affirmative.
These people vote. They also give money to campaigns and political parties that represent them and do not insult them. They stay home during elections, change party affiliations, and stop the money flow, due to the multitude of RINO candidates that are foisted upon them by the RNC.
They are not stupid people who live in "flyover country." They understand that a RINO RNC Chairman who speaks like a RINO in public is not going to represent their convictions. He will not lead the conservative movement. He will not foster and promote the Republican Party as the Party of Life, because he does not share these convictions deep inside himself.
Both Chairman Steele and his socially conservative detractors, the number of which are growing by the thousands at AFA’s website, are sorely misinformed: The role of RNC Chairman is not one of a curator of opinion. Steele’s opinions on abortion and gay rights – whenever he settles on one – should have no influence on the implementation of sound strategies in his capacity as chairman.
Steele's opining in public, in opposition to any of the Republican Party planks, has everything to do with the type of impact he will have on the Party's future. He must leave NOW, or the Party will continue its downhill slide. That's indisputable fact. And if you want to persist in disagreement, just wait and you'll see for yourself soon enough.
The premature calls for the forcible ejection of the first African American chairman of the RNC – like those by the AFA’s tunnel-visioned membership – only offer credibility to the maddening circular firing squad meme.
Here we go again with the "circular firing squad." You and your ilk refuse to see that it's the conservatives who have been put in the center, and it's the RINOs that have the guns. How do I know that? Because it's the RINOs who keep on losing the elections, after all their work in selecting RINO candidates, and marginalizing the so called "Religious Right" with a superior air of mocking disgust.
I heard Rush Limbaugh mention "Red State" the other day. I took note because I've gone to your site every once in a while. Well, this article strikes me as the very antithesis of Rush's CPAC speech - very contrary to the whole concept of deeply held conservative values and principles as being the guiding force and basis for saving our country. I hope Rush sees this article, and I hope he hands your butt to you.
There are only two important facts:
The losses, on the other hand, came with the base sitting on their hands over their distaste for rancid RINO meat.
Anything based on morality sounds Moslem to you?
bookmark
Does any one have reliable stats on abortion rights polling?
I agree, Steele is a victim of political self-castration. He will never hold any credibility within conservative circles. He may as well take a long look around his office and clean out his desk already.
Where he leads, I will not follow.
The republicans seem to have problems with Mr Steele in several areas.
That is their problem, not mine.
Katon Dawson? Isn’t he the guy that got called out for belonging to an all-white country club? Lord, I’m not sure which sounds worse: “GOP nominates their own black guy!” or “GOP nominates blatantly racist white guy.” Is it really that hard to find a guy that’s actually conservative and doesn’t have have a dozen skeletons in his closet?!
____________________
Yeah...Right. This was a red herring thrown out by the MSM to disqualify a qualified candidate. Bottom line, there are alot of “clubs” around the nation (not just in the South) that have OLD “rules” that make no sense or are not politically correct by today’s standards. If we look hard enough, we might even find Democrat Senators with KKK sheets hidden in their closets...Um, oops....
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