Michael Steele: Republican Party Is Totally Irrelevant
This one got lost in the shuffle yesterday but it really deserves to be highlighted. Check out RNC chair Michael Steele’s rather intriguing reaction on MSNBC to the news that Al Franken’s victory has put Dems within reach of a super-majority in the Senate (via Nexis):
“They have 60 seats in the Senate. And I can say without hesitation that this government is totally theirs now, and everything that comes out of it and everything that results from it is on their plate.”
Steele, obviously, was trying to inflate expectations for Dems now that they’re within reach of 60 votes in the Senate. But he seems to have botched it by going too far, saying Dems own “everything” that results from the legislative process, basically conceding that the Republican Party has no role whatsoever in it.
Senator John Cornyn, by contrast, was far more artful the other day in playing this “expectations game.” He merely said that the Dems’ super-majority means that “the era of excuses and finger-pointing is now over.”
Steele intended to say that Dems will now own the government’s failures, but he also seemed to suggest that the GOP will have no constructive role whatsoever in its accomplishments, either. It’s hard to see how conceding your party’s total irrelevance is a sound political strategy.
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I’m not so sure “the era of excuses and fingerpointing is over” is particularly artful, since it is the Republican party more closely associated with this activity, and it will be even more now.
But Fox News is saying the Dems are disbanded and really don’t have that many votes. Steele is way off message here.
I think Steele is projecting his on feelings of self worth on to the whole of he Republican Party.
Remember – even Steele’s gaffes are according to plan. (It’s extremely entertaining to watch that plan unfold…)
I have been a Republican for 43 years.Today I believe they have been bought and paid for by Corporate America and no longer support anyone but their Corporate masters. I have seen their leadership act like 5 year olds toward the President, not only this week but ever since President Obama was elected. The entire leadership( Term is used loosely) should be charged under the RICCO act and jailed. Their actions are clearly a conspiracy toward our elected President. I will not vote for any republican candidate for any office;county, state or national until the entire leadership is replaced!