Yup, Marge, that Michael Steele feller shore looks like roadkill
I'm almost as interested in the reaction of the Republican observers in the phone video that showed Michael Steele making those bizarre comments about the war in Afghanistan:
Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama's choosing. This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.
Well, if [Obama is] such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed. And there are reasons for that.
It's not clear if anyone in the audience is really aware that the Republican National Chairman's career is going up in flames before their very eyes. Indeed, those who are not too busy chatting and ignoring Steele seem to enthusiastically agree with him. At least the baldheaded guy seems aware that what Steele is saying is just weird.
I agree with Greg Sargent's take:
Let me have a stab at guessing what happened here. I say Steele initially meant to say that the Afghan war wasn't a war of our choosing because we were attacked on September 11th, forcing us to invade. But that came out all wrong because he garbled it by mixing it with an attack on Obama.
Next, Steele tried to attack Obama by pointing out that during the campaign he insulated himself against charges that he's a dove by calling for a ramp up in Afghanistan. Fair enough. But then he compounded the mess by slipping into a kind of auto-pilot mode where he just started criticizing the Afghan war as a disaster and unwinnable because it's now Obama's war. Result: Steele said that Obama chose this war, that we shouldn't be there, and we now can't win.
Worst of all, for Steele, is that he trod all over the GOP's favorite narrative, which is that Obama hasn't done enough in Afghanistan (and, subsidiarially, that Democrats have always been weak on the war in Afghanistan, blah blah blah). So immediately the loudest voices selling that pitch were quick to denounce him. Indeed, Bloody Bill Kristol called for his resignation.
On Fox News, you could watch the negative reviews roll in:
Karl Rove: "Well, that was a boneheaded comment by the chairman of the Republican National Committee."
Stephen Hayes: "It is an absurd comment, it is something I think certainly should cause him to resign."
Charles Krauthammer: "I think he has to go. This is a capital offense."
Well, his tenure has been nothing if not entertaining. Indeed, Michael Steele was the Democrats' best hope in 2010. We'll be sorry to see him go.
say something to get himself fired? I think if he called his boss an SOB on the air, even that would not get him fired. Lord knows, he has called Democrats and especially President Obama every foul name in the book and accused him of every heinous crime he could think of. What would it take to get Rush fired from his radio network?
Anybody got any ideas? Maybe someone could hypnotize the ol' El Rushbo and force him to say some horrible thing to get him fired.....Suggestions?
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
he isn't black.
Is it the hormones in the meat? Pollution? A brain eating fungus?
I doubt the last one; the fungus would've starved in the first place.
Maybe we can plant Moonie literature in his studio.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
time-tested political rule: If you're a politician (and, after all, Rush IS the head of the Rethuglican Party!), never get caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy. THAT would do it!
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
...since he already reveres the (Moonie-owned) Washington Times.
Nothing Rush could say or do would be bad enough in the eyes of his money-grubbing controllers. Look at all the stuff he's done already, and he's still there farting out both ends of his digestive tract day after day.
If he got caught with a "rentboy" by TMZ it might get his homophobic fan base riled up enough to make his life pretty miserable, but even then there'd be enough true believers who'd just say the whole thing was taken out of context.
I could swear I just read here at C&L (or maybe it was TruthDig) that Bush may have lied us into Iraq but Afghanistan now belongs to Obama for the simple fact that he doubled down on this thing.
No, I think that was in the Hastings article.
At any rate, I happen to agree with that assessment and I happen to agree with Michael Steele at this point. Afghanistan is unwinnable and we need to get out of there ASAP. Have the troops home for Christmas because waiting until Summer 2011 is just asking for another 1000 soldier deaths.
And Obama did promise he'd end all this crap. He ran on that promise and most people were looking forward to the troops being brought home starting the Summer of 2009. Well we're well into 2010 and Obama has been hawkish on Afghanistan. Furthermore, he's been hawkish on our own borders! Sending troops to guard our borders against Mexico? Did anyone ever think they'd see President Obama do such a thing? I sure as hell didn't.
Steele is right when he says that most Americans did not expect Obama to double down on Afghanistan. We expected the troops to come home from Iraq and instead the drawdown there (not withdrawal, just a drawdown) simply shifted the war somewhere else.
It seems if Steele does get fired, he'll get fired for merely telling the truth and not sticking to the GOP made-up narrative du jour.
Anytime Krautliar or Bloody Billy call for someone's resignation, it means the person has told the truth and is not a rabid war monger. For once, a thug has come up with the right estimate of the situation. (It only happens by mistake, of course.)
Candideinnc
Instead of calling for Steele's resignation, why doesn't Krautmiser go round up Steele in his paddy wagon?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUnhfvGdmmw
The first being that Obama involved this nation in a land war in Afghanistan: Double-down or not, Obama did not get us involved there.
Second, the meme that Afghanistan is unconquerable is pure bullshit. Alexander did it. The Mongols and the Timurids both did it in the last 1000 years, with no air support. The two empires that have tried to conquer Afghanistan since the beginning of the 19th century- British and Russian- failed because they didn't bring sufficient numbers as the previous conquerors did.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
Rules of Engagement. They could rape, pillage & behead with abandon...don't think the American military could do that without getting in a whole lot of trouble...you know, Military Code and all that.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
...but we've got the armaments to do all kinds of beheadin', and from longer range than the top of a horse at that. :(
Here's the problem when it comes to all of this talk about conqering Afghanistan: It isn't really one country. It was at least two on 9/11/2001: The Pashtun-Taliban official nation in the south, and the Northern Alliance, made up mostly of those not of Pashtun descent in, well, the north. And this is no new occurence: The area has always been occupied by diverse peoples, and when it was cohesive it was because of strong rule from the outside.
It would seem like a good idea to let Afghanistan to disintegrate into it's constituent parts...Until you consider that the Pashtun tribes straddle the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan....
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
I think what is being described is subduing them. I'm not sure that fearful people are ever going to be on your side. They will not accept our culture or our way of life any more than we will accept theirs. If victory is for them to accept our ways then we have accomplished endless war.
Admittedly, Obama didn't begin this war. He merely kept enlarging it. That was the situation Lyndon Johnson found himself in during the '60s, and it was his downfall. But having inherited it, he embraced it--which is what Obama has foolishly done.
As for the graveyard of empires, we are not neighboring hordes fighting disorganized tribes in the Afghan mountains. We are half a world away, killing the natives with drones and machine guns, all the while expecting them to thank us for bringing them "democracy"--a totally alien concept which I am absolutely sure they will think is not worth the cost. And the cost is enormous to us, as well.
There are a few hundred of the Al Kaida in that country. In trying to find and kill them, we will have made enemies galore to pass down to your great-great grandchildren. If you have any reason to think anything good is going to come from Obama being another chicken hawk, please share it with me.
Candideinnc
whatever steele says, the fact is that even though Afganistan was essentially sprouted during Bush's term, Obama has made sure the program is fully rooted.
It is hard to tell where Obama is heading with his latest hawkish displays on both Afganistan, the continued use of overseas determent camps, the stalling on closing Gitmo and now is apparent willingness to pump tax dollars into appeasing the America idiogentsia regarding the Mexican border.
I'm sorely disappointed in Obama and frankly am tired of defending him. He's a moderate who fashioned himself as a progressive so not only is he ripe for the picking among lefties like me because of his betrayal of us, but his inability to walk the walk he speaks of makes him a sweet plum for the picking from the right.
Steele's strategy is correct although criticizing someone about entering or failing to end a war makes the wingnuttia have convulsions, no matter what political end it might meet.
You either weren't paying attention during the election, or you bought into the Republican lies. Obama NEVER fashioned himself as anything but a moderate, and said from the beginning that the real war was in Afghanistan, and that while he fully intended to withdraw from Iraq, he was fully committed to finishing the fight in Afghanistan. If you're disappointed in Obama over either of these things, then go take a long hard look in the mirror, because you have no one but yourself to blame. Next time the President is up for election, pay attention to who you're voting for.
I looked carefully at Obama, and DEDUCED he was a moderate blue dog, and had four or five people I preferred as candidates to him--starting with Governor Dean, going through Dodd, the General who never got a leg up, and ending with Clinton. I distrusted Obama because he was rotten on Social Security reform and Health Care reform. But he was intentionally vague on all his programs, and made everything a soft target, which may have been a good thing in the general election, but it intentionally led a lot of progressive people to wishful thinking. I think there were signs out there that he would disappoint progressives. I didn't expect him to be this bad, though.
But I DO NOT blame the average liberal Democrat for misreading his often fuzzy messages. Those were part of a purposeful, and somewhat deceitful campaign.
Candideinnc
By screwing up the talking points he has finally done something right. He has reminded America that Afghanistan is Bush's war, that it has gone on for way too long, and that the Republican leadership is shallow and brainless.
how can a nation so frigging 'out of it' manage to survive each day much less constitute an ongoing threat to the rest of the world?
Because he told the truth and reminded people who got us into this war, which would lead to reminding people that while the unemployed are broke this 4th of July weekend, Darth Cheney and crew got fat paid by waging WAR.
We were all supposed to goosestep with Bush but now we're supposed to be angry that Obama is continuing the Bush-PNAC agenda.
Bizzaro . . we are truly in the Twilight Zone now.
blames it on Obama. Briliant Watson.
comment to Ian m
With the calls for his resignation, either Steele has become even too stoopid for the Republicans to prop up, or they're realizing that a thin coat of color isn't required anymore to hide the overwhelming whiteness of their facade.
Just like Palin is supposed to be the Cons "Hillary". (We need a black and and a woman to keep the party viable.)
trumps racism.....dissing the military. For that, he cannot be forgiven.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
Here's Steele's version.
Here's the corrected version.
Now Steele is perfectly correct.
Change another word and it's:
Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Bush's choosing, fully supported by the Democratic Party, and which can be stopped by Obama any time he wishes.
Surely we could find example utterances from KKKarl, Bloody Bill, Krauthammer, and all the other WATBs to justify calling for their resignations...
Blech... our species is awash with rude, fear mongering, and hate mongering WATBs!!!!!!
Have a BLAST!
A few days ago on the DMN blog I pointed out that we left Afghanistan with no clear win, just our puppet hamid karzai inslled, and went traipsing off to Iraq. I then pointed out that Afghanistan is called the Graveyard of Empires for a reason, like the Anglo-Afghani wars of 1839-1842, 1878-1880 and 1919 which due to the Afghani government being among the first to recognize the Bolsheviks in Russia, may have at least indirectly laid the groundwork for the Russian invasion of 1979.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
What was the subject again?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
No way that guy's gonna step down voluntarily. They'll have to kick him out.
There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby. - Tom Waits
Yep, he's too dumb (or proud, or whatever he is) to step down, which would be good for his party. And the GOP just doesn't know what to do. If they force him out, they'll have to admit he was a huge mistake and also maybe take some knocks for ditching the black guy... and if they don't, he damages the party more every time he opens his mouth. Steele is the gift (for the Dems, though they'll find ways to blow it) that keeps on giving.
The really sad part is that Steele is mostly right, for once. Yeah, the Bushwhackers got us into this mess, but Obama IS choosing to stay there, and Steele IS right that history should have warned us off getting into Afghanistan in the first place.
At least Obama's not parading around in a flight suit with a codpiece.
Sadly, you are right. Steele was way off in Lala-Land when he said it isn't a war that the nation wanted to pursue, but unfortunately it has become Obama's war -- one which he could end if he had the courage to. And at this point, he's screwed if he does, and screwed if he doesn't. If I were him, I'd go for being screwed with less blood on my hands.
This guy has pissed off the neocons, and yet I see no signs that he will be pushed out by the GOP. This is neither his first, nor his worst, gaffe, and yet he has shook off every one as though he were made of teflon.
What does this tell us?
He's going to be the GOP candidate for president in 2012.
The GOP couldn't get Ken Blackwell elected governor in Ohio and black folks liked Ken. They just couldn't reconcile themselves to his alignment with the Bush Administration.
Michael Steele doesn't have even the clout of Ken Blackwell with black folks in anywhere, let alone a key state like Ohio. They can put that boat on the 2012 water but it won't float.
they can't get rid of him.. blatant as they were in selecting him so as to appear less racsist,they need him to convince their base that black men are less capable than white men..he is the prime example of the stereotypical view of blacks still held by rich white southerners..it's the old fear mongering tactic.they can't ask him to step down,and lose those black votes they do get
another thought.. he is their token black man as well. ya the coffee stinks ..but they wont have him run for president.
It's a hard pill for Republicans to swallow.. the nation would rather have a black man as president rather than a Republican
Democrats. Ditching Steele before the midterms will a difficult if not impossible if he won't resign. If they keep him every Democratic candidate will be able to use this against their opponents. Is what Steele says, chairman of the RNC, the party's view? A Republican fundraiser lunch plate 500.00. Tip for the wait staff: 0. Steele's stupidity: Priceless.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Normally ,these are 2 guys i can't stand listening to.This is the first time Karl has ever said anything sensible and non partisan..Charles,Charles ,Charles.. I couldn't agree with you more, Republicans should go on vacation,and stay on vacation.
lockstep...
Off the reservation...
Off the team.
You can't handle the truth.
The truth hurts.
All of that stuff fits here. Steele is not a very smart man. Independent thinking and the GoBP are polar opposites.
He tried to put the weight of A-Stan on Obama and in the process, stated a truth - that you cannot win this war in the country. The history proves it and Obama knows it.
Steele was correct in sad and ironic way. This is a war of choice for Obama. the day he took office he could have pulled the plug on the whole thing, being the commander in Chief and all that. But he didn't. Because if he did the economy, already in a shambles, would have simply collapsed.
Steele was right, in a stopped watch kind of way.
It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
-George Carlin
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