Michael Steele is rebuking Sarah Palin.
ABC reports:
As any party chairman should, RNC Chairman Michael Steele took the opportunity this morning to crow about GOP victories in New Jersey and Virginia.
But he also seemed to deliver a bit of a rebuke to potential 2012 presidential aspirants in his party such as Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty, and Rick Santorum, all of whom immersed themselves in the NY-23 special House race with their endorsements and support for conservative Doug Hoffman who came up short last night.
“If you don’t live in the district, you don’t vote there, your opinion doesn’t matter very much,” Steele said while assessing the intra-party strife that resulted in a Democratic pick up of a seat held by Republicans since the Civil War.
What?!
If you follow Steele’s logic, candidates shouldn’t seek endorsements from national figures who live outside the district. But notice Steele didn’t criticize Newt Gingrich who also does not live in the district but endorsed Scozzafava. No. What Steele is mad about is that Palin and friends endorsed someone other than the endorsed party candidate.
You see, it would seem Steele would rather have a pro-choice pro-spending liberal in power with an “R” after her name while many conservatives don’t care all that much about what letter comes after a liberal’s name. They’re still just a liberal.
In fact, I’d rather have the Democrat in power than Scozzafava because there’s a better shot of defeating the Democrat next year in that Republican leaning district than there would’ve been attempting to primary Scozzafava who, once in, would likely prove difficult to remove.
The problems in NY-23 were not outside endorsements. The problems in the GOP are not Sarah Palin or Rick Santorum. The problem was the GOP nominated a liberal and dressed her up as a Republican and expected everyone to play along.
Let’s make it clear. Palin didn’t force Scozzafava out of the race. Scozzafava’s bad poll numbers of people inside the district made her think she couldn’t win so she bailed.
Essentially, Michael Steele is telling Sarah Palin to shut up and let the party do what it needs to do in order to win at any cost. Said Steele:
“I’m in the business of multiplication and addition. I want more Republicans. I don’t buy that we somehow find victory in defeat.”
But that’s exactly the kind of thinking that is leading many conservatives to start thinking about a third party where ideology counts for something. And I think a third party would be ruinous to advancing a pro-life pro-fiscal sanity agenda.
The GOP for many years has been hard of hearing when it comes to listening to their base. Under Michael Steele, the party seems to be becoming completely deaf.
November 4, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Anybody wanna guess who's gonna rally around who? Or is it "whom"?
November 4, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Ugh. I was giving Michael the benefit of the doubt into I read your second quote. It's not just about spreading like bacteria, Michael!
Full disclosure: after that "What up!" blog-name fiasco, I wasn't really giving him the benefit of the doubt.
November 5, 2009 at 12:23 am
So I guess Obama shouldn't be campaigning all over the place then, eh? Steele needs to be replaced…. I suggest by Sarah Palin.
November 5, 2009 at 12:34 am
Steele is a democrat in republican clothing, or a republican in democrat clothing.
aw heck, there's not a dime's difference between the parties.
Uncle Newtie has been awfully absent lately…
November 5, 2009 at 12:48 am
Obama was in Wisconsin just today for the sole purpose of twisting Tom Barrets's arm to run for Governor. The field's wide open and Barret, popular Democrat Mayor of Milwaukee, is reticent to leap in. (Present Democrat Gov. Jim Doyle, a failure from the start, is calling it quits.) So Steele thinks Palin, et al., should butt out???? Time to dump Steele!
–William
November 5, 2009 at 3:41 am
I agree with DirtDartWife 110%
I've had it with Steele. Time for new RNC leadership!
November 5, 2009 at 3:48 am
The outside interference of the Washington GOP establishment in this race to create the Scozzafava candidacy in the first place has been well documented on redstate.com. Steele's comments are nothing but double talk to distract from the fact that they poured almost a million dollars into the campaign of a woman who, when it was obvious that she would lose, endorsed the Democrat. The only way to describe the national GOP in all this is "abject incompetence."
November 5, 2009 at 6:57 am
' "If you don't live in the district, you don't vote there, your opinion doesn't matter very much," Steele said"… As long as these congressmen are creating legislation that affects me, I am entitled to have an opinion on who fills their seat, and I will make it my business to the extent possible under the law, no matter where they or I live. What an idiot. I sent money to the Hoffman campaign, and I live just about as far away from his district as one can get and still be in the country. I intend to continue supporting conservative, pro-life candidates wherever they are. But the RNC will not see a dime.
November 5, 2009 at 9:07 am
Seat held by a Republican since the Civil War? That's a bit of revisionist history – seat was won by a Democrat in 1993.
November 6, 2009 at 5:09 pm
@David L Alexander:
"Anybody wanna guess who's gonna rally around who? Or is it 'whom'?"
Well, the Latin would be "Qui concurrat circum quem?" – So, "whom" should follow "around".
November 7, 2009 at 2:56 pm
This is why thousands of "lesser of two evils" voting Independents refuse to give a dime to the Party but send to individual candidates. If Steele thinks he can influence Palin he's worse of in the head than I thought.