Tag Archives: Michael Steele
Afghanistan A War of Obama’s Choosing?
While speaking at a Republican Party of British Petroleum (GOBP) fundraiser in Connecticut on Thursday, RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s comments were captured on camera and posted online. In the midst of his shilling, Steele criticized President Barack Obama and his handling of the nine-year-old war begun by Republican President George W. Bush in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He suggested the war cannot be won.
Steele said Afghanistan is, “a war of Obama’s choosing” and the conflict “is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.”
Well, let’s see, Bush invades Afghanistan in Oct 2001 in order to catch Bin Laden; gets side tracked by the bright shiny object Iraq, ignoring Afghanistan, thus allowing the Taliban to regroup and Bin Laden to escape, which then creates the absolute necessity of sending in a “surge” of troops in order to stabilize Afghanistan, push back the Taliban and maybe finally catch the man who “can run, but who can’t hide”.
In trying to place the war at the President’s feet, and in painting a picture of defeatism Steele said, “If he’s 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’s tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed,” Steele said. “And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan.”
Steele quickly tried to dodge the fallout, and issued a statement Friday, saying, “There is no question that America must win the war on terror. … And, for the sake of the security of the free world, our country must give our troops the support necessary to win this war.”
He said, “The stakes are too high for us to accept anything but success in Afghanistan.”
Steele’s comments came as President Obama’s new chief in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, arrived in the country Friday to take over the war. The President, last week dismissed his previous commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, after he made disparaging comments about his superiors in a Rolling Stone interview.
Steele called the dismissal “very comical” but said it shows the frustration members of the military have with Obama. This might be true except for the fact that 45% of the military vote in 2008 went to President Obama. This is one of the great myths of the conservative right in America today, that the military loathes the President.
Unhappy with Steele’s words, DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse said it was “simply unconscionable that Michael Steele would undermine the morale of our troops when what they need is our support and encouragement. Michael Steele would do well to remember that we are not in Afghanistan by our own choosing, that we were attacked and that his words have consequences.”
Weekly Standard conservative pundit Bill Kristol, has called Steele’s resignation.
“There are, of course, those who think we should pull out of Afghanistan, and they’re certainly entitled to make their case,” wrote Kristol, who has consistently supported the Afghanistan war. “But one of them shouldn’t be the chairman of the Republican Party.”
Steele has enraged congressional Republicans throughout the last year; he has predicted the GOBP won’t win House control this fall. He has also criticized fellow Republicans in a book that party leaders didn’t know he was writing until it was published. His GOBP critics were irked further when he told them to “get a life” and “shut up.”
Earlier this year, his oversight of the RNC was called into question because of lavish spending, including money to entertain donors at a lesbian bondage club in Los Angeles. That incident led to the departure of a key Steele adviser, the party’s finance chief and the top committee staffer.
Steele, has been, and ever after shall be a political joke…
Point/Counter Point with Michael Steele for 4 Jun 09
Today I received a lengthy e-mail from sometimes head of the Republican Tea Party (GOTP) Michael Steele, wherein he berated, bemoaned, and whined about the Federal Government’s bail out of General Motors. I thought I might present this e-mail to you in a point/counter point style for your information and enjoyment. We’ll begin with Mr. Steele.
Steele: Thirty-eight years ago, the federal government nationalized passenger rail lines, creating the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, better known as Amtrak.
LT: Let’s see, 38 years ago was 1971, that would mean that the federal government’s nationalizing of passenger rail lines would have been under Republican President Richard Nixon.
Steele: At the time, it was expected to be profitable within three years. Almost 4 decades later, the original $340 million investment of public funds has grown to $30 billion, with no profitability in sight.
LT: I’m sorry Michael, that investment was hoisted upon the American people by whom again? Oh yeah, Republican President Richard Nixon. Wasn’t he the only President in the history of our country to have ever resigned from office?
Steele: On Monday, General Motors was forced to declare bankruptcy.
No matter how much the President spins GM’s bankruptcy as good for the economy, it is nothing more than another government grab of a private company and another handout to the union cronies who helped bankroll his presidential campaign.
President Obama will now own 60 percent of GM, and his union buddies will own almost 20 percent. And what do we — the American taxpayers –get? We’re stuck with up to a $50 billion tab for the taxpayer dollars Obama is using to pay for his takeover of GM.
LT: Michael, do you sit around a speaker phone each morning and get your talking points from Rush and Hannity? You know very well, or at least you should know, that it’s the United States Government, not President Obama, who now has control of GM. I like the fact that you – along with Rush, Hannity, et al – keep claiming it was his own personal takeover?
Steele: General Motors needed restructuring, and it has been clear for months that bankruptcy was inevitable. But instead of letting the company cut its losses, the Obama Administration has strung the process along, politicizing it at every step.
LT: Michael, it has been clear for a lot longer than months, it was clear well into the Bush Administration that GM was going under, and as we recently learned from former Vice-President Cheney, former President Bush refused to address this issue, thus leaving it for President Obama to have to handle. Gee, just one more left over failed policy, program, and war, things like Iraq, Afghanistan, Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, GITMO and Pakistan. But who’s counting?
Steele: With an Administration with almost no business background and with zero experience in the auto industry calling the shots, Obama has seized the opportunity to feather his UAW supporters’ nests and dictate the type of cars GM will now build — not consumer desired, profitable vehicles, but tiny, “eco-friendly” cars whose lack of safety will endanger Americans’ lives.
LT: Here we go with Rush talking points, straight out of El Rushbo’s playbook. He really is running the party now isn’t he? No business background? Endangering American lives? You’re absolutely right Michael, because putting Americans into rolling death traps is the dream of every American President. Well, Bush did send American troops into combat in soft skinned vehicles, but why go there?
Steele: Now, instead of emerging leaner and meaner, GM has fallen into the same trap as Amtrak — all to benefit the Big Labor bosses who helped Obama into the White House with union workers’ dues.
LT: Not emerging leaner and meaner?
Steele: Since when does the American government choose the market’s winners and losers? Since when does the White House decide what model of car Americans must buy?
Britain nationalized its automotive industry in the 1970s to disastrous result — the government-run, union-saddled companies were finally sold off again under Margaret Thatcher after years of dismal performance.
LT: I’m sorry Mr. Steele, at what point did PM Thatcher “sell off” the so-called “government-run, union saddled” companies?
PM Thatcher never “sold off” the so-called “government-run, union saddled” companies. She actually continued subsidizing the failing British Leyland Motor Company to the tune of 900 million additional pounds beyond the 1 billion pounds pledged by the previous administration.
Where PM Thatcher failed was in allowing her government to continue to pour money into a failing company and yet never taking control. She allowed the failing leadership of British Leyland to continue motoring down the same old path until it eventually drove right off an economic cliff.
Steele: But Barack Obama and his henchmen have no desire to learn from the past — they are too eager to get government control of America’s means of industrial production — regardless of the consequences. Were Karl Marx alive today, he couldn’t be prouder.
LT: President Obama is learning from Britain’s mistakes. He has insisted that there be accountability, and restructuring, whereas PM Thatcher just continued to pour more and more money down the same rabbit hole.
Karl Marx couldn’t be prouder? So, your solution would be to allow GM to go belly up, completely out of business, closing all its plants, all its dealerships, putting hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work, and in addition to GM, there are thousands of suppliers, dealers and other interdependent firms which face collapse. In fact Michael, analysts project that a failed GM could have cost hundreds of thousands or even a million jobs worldwide. If that’s the GOTP solution, were Harpo Marx alive today, he couldn’t be prouder.
Steele: First it was the mortgage and banking industry, then automobile manufacturing. Next up are health care providers and energy producers. What’s next? Whose businesses will they takeover next? Where does it end? The Democrats want to control every facet of your life.
LT: I’m sorry Michael, who left the economy in such a screwed up mess that President Obama had to intervene? Hello? That wouldn’t have been Republicans George W. Bush and Dick Cheney would it?
Steele: Americans shouldn’t be fooled. This is the real ‘change’ President Obama has in mind for America — government ownership of our economy financed with irresponsible and reckless government spending and debt and no jobs to show for it.
LT: Reckless spending? How about accountable spending. For the first time since the United States invaded and occupied Iraq the cost of that war has been included in the federal budget, not hidden away as under Bush/Cheney.
Debt? You want to talk about debt? Who threw our country under the debt bus? Anyone? Bush and Cheney. Government grew out of control, the deficit grew out of control and the national debt grew out of control during the eight disastrous years of George and Dick, and now someone has to pay for it. The Republican Administration went on a crazy spending spree and now the bill has come due.
Steele: This is a very sad day for the autoworkers and their families whose financial well-being will be directly affected by this clear act of an overreaching UAW and overbearing government.
LT: I agree that it is a very sad day for the autoworkers and their families, however, let’s talk about overbearing government.
Would that “overbearing” government be the government of President Obama?
Or would it be the government of President Bush? You remember that government don’t you?
The government that invaded a foreign country based on lies and made up intelligence; the government that approved torture and mistreatment of prisoners; the government that said it would be OK for active duty United States soldiers to enter your home and search it without a warrant; the government that approved, and used, warrant-less wire taps against its own citizens; the government alienated a large portion of the world due to its short sighted and reckless policies.
Is that the overbearing government you’re referring to Michael?
The Liberty Tree 