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Michael Steele is the gift that keeps on giving. When I ran into him during the DNC convention at an airport in Denver, he sounded like an idiot as we had an exchange about Sarah Palin's nomination, but I didn't think he was this thick.

On ABC's GMA, Steele said that he was being singled out in GOP politics because he's black. He's calling Republicans racists. Wow, he's joining us except in a much deeper way because I've been calling many in the Tea Party movement racist. In his case....

He's indicting the whole Republican party:

The embattled chairman played the race card today when asked on "Good Morning America" if he has a slimmer margin of error because he is African American.

"The honest answer is, 'yes,'" he said. "Barack Obama has a slimmer margin. A lot of folks do. It's a different role for me to play and others to play and that's just the reality of it. But you take that as part of the nature of it."

"My view on politics is much more grassroots oriented, it's not old boy network oriented, so I tend to, you know, come at it a little bit stronger, a little bit more street-wise, if you will. That's rubbed some feathers the wrong way," Steele told "GMA's" George Stephanopoulos.

You can call Steele many things, but street-wise ain't it.

Robert Gibbs called his remarks silly and said this:

GOP Chairman Michael Steele shouldn’t blame criticism of his actions on race, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday. Gibbs called Steele’s remark that criticism of his leadership is motivated by race “silly” during a meeting with reporters. “I think Michael Steele’s problem isn’t the race card, it’s the credit card,” Gibbs added.

Oliver Willis says:

I love Steele trying to compare himself to President Obama, when in fact Steele isn’t even a grub on the other side of the President’s shoe. And then he plays the race card, while he’s the head of a party packed to the gills with racist detractors of the President. Such is the life of the black Republican: Nobody actually likes you.

Many people have said the only reason he still has his job because of all the embarrassing things that have hit the RNC since he took over is because he's black and the GOP doesn't want to look like racists if they fire him. It appears he's going to hold that over their heads.

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Rudy Giuliani went on ABC's Good Morning America and had the balls to say that America never had a domestic terrorist attack under George Bush. 9/11 was the most heinous attack on US soil since pearl Harbor and to think that Giuliani was the mayor of the city that was attacked only illustrates how despicable the conservative movement is. New Yorkers should be outraged by his behavior on ABC. Almost as lame: George Stephanopoulos didn't even correct him on the air.

I spoke to the former mayor of New York City this morning on GMA, who assailed the Obama administration’s decisions on national security.

“What he [Obama] should be doing is following the right things that Bush did -- one of the right things he did was treat this as a war on terror. We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama,” Giuliani said. “Number two, he should correct the things that Bush didn’t do right. Sending people to Yemen was wrong, not getting this whole intelligence thing corrected.” Giuliani seems to have forgotten about the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and shoe bomber Richard Reid.

We also had the anthrax attacks as well. Watching the video you can see Stephanapoulos either was asleep at the wheel or didn't want to confront Rudy on his outrageous lie. What good is writing a post correcting him when he was right in front of his face. Bloggers are fact checking him as usual.

Rudy's persona since the attacks has been about terrorism and 9/11. His whole presidential campaign was built on 9/11. And his speech to the RNC before the 2004 election was littered with references to 9/11.

And remember this part:

Thank God George Bush is our President."

It's Jay Rosen time. How should the media handle Rudy going forward? Does he need to be banned from TV for 90 days?

UPDATE: Giuliani tried to clarify his remarks after he got criticized, but he's still wrong of course.

Giuliani this afternoon:

The Mayor’s spokesman says that the remark “didn't come across as it was intended” and that Giuliani was “clearly talking post-9/11 with regards to Islamic terrorist attacks on our soil.”

No, the shoe bomber, which took place three months after September 11, was Al Qaeda. So if you count that attempted Al Qaeda plane bombing, then you also count the one attempted Al Qaeda plane bombing under Obama. So it's one to one, not zero to one. Of course, the underwear bomber attack did not occur on our soil, so even that's wrong. Stephanopoulos, who reported Giuliani's correction, apologized for not catching Giuliani on this this morning. But he shouldn't just repeat the spokesman's new lie, unchallenged.

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It really is frustrating watching career political hacks like Rep. Peter King get as much media attention as they do. On GMA, he reiterated his attacks on President Obama over the failed attempt by the Christmas bomber. His solution of course is for the President to just say terror, terror, terror all day long.

New York Rep. Peter King, a leading Republican critic of the White House on terror policy, offered a piece of advice on Good Morning America today: Obama should speak the word "terrorism" more.

"You are saying someone should be held accountable. Name one other

specific recommendation the president could implement right now to fix

this," host George Stephanopolous said to King.

"I think one main thing would be to -- just himself to use the word

terrorism more often," said King, the ranking Republican on the

Homeland Security Committee.

I have an idea. Whenever a pundit asks about Peter King to anyone from the left, we use just one word to describe him. Asshole, Asshole, asshole.

And Eli responds to my post on Cokie with a very serious way for all Democrats to appear tough on National Security.

No, what really makes someone a Serious Qualified Expert on national security is a little voice in their head screaming “AAAAAHHHH!!! The scary brown people are coming to kill us we have to kill them first OMG OMG OMG!!!” 24 hours a day, and the ability to bedwet on command.

For whatever the Bush administration and most of the other Very Serious Republican National Security Experts may lack in military experience, they more than make up for in bloodthirst and paranoia. And that’s why they’re still eating the Democrats’ lunch despite being wrong about virtually everything it’s humanly possible to be wrong about.

So what’s the solution? Simple, really: If Obama can develop an appropriately irrational fear and hatred of Muslims, then no one will care that he’s never served in the military. I suggest that he pretend that all Muslims are, alternately, health industry CEOs and progressive bloggers – that should make him a respected national security expert in no time.

That would probably excite Cokie Roberts, for sure.

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A man who has been totally disgraced for his past behavior, including ethics violations, as Speaker of the House now is constantly being given a platform to slime and smear any victim of his choosing freely. Nancy Pelosi is his newest target and he's been vicious in his attacks on her.

Newt, a man divorced many times over, just became a Catholic (a faith that frowns upon divorce) and got booted out of his Speaker's job because the American people hated his tactics. Yet he has the nerve to say Pelosi committed some unforgivable sin by saying the CIA lied, and that she should lose her leadership position. Being a Catholic now (I still consider myself one, but not very strict), who is he to point fingers at others when he himself has sinned so much?

He called her a liar among other smears yesterday on ABC radio, and then appeared on Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer and went one step further.

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich today flatly declared that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should be replaced in the wake of her allegation that the CIA lied to her about harsh interrogation techniques.

“She really disqualified herself to be speaker,” Gingrich, R-Ga., told Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “Good Morning America. “I think the Democrats should get a new speaker.”

When Sawyer brought up the fact that in 2008, Republican Sen. Peter Hoekstra similarly declared that the CIA lies to Congress, why didn't Newt demand that he be repudiated also? Newt practices the kind of hypocrisy he knows all too well.

Sawyer: Hoekstra: "We cannot have an intelligence community that covers up what it has been doing and then lies to Congress." That's a Republican saying it. And they're saying, where were you then, you didn't call for him to resign?

Gingrich: Well, I think in that particular argument he's fighting with them over a report he wants about a year and a half ago, but I've had a similar standard of toughness with Republicans on other issues...

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