Posted on 04/20/2009 1:53:09 PM PDT by VinL
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele rejected the suggestion Monday that the Republican Party is fractured into different ideological or personality-driven factions.
"There's one Republican Party," the GOP head said on Fox News.
"There's not a Newt Gingrich side. There's not a Sarah [Palin] side. There's no Mitt [Romney] side."
Steele also said that the GOP had "bottomed and we hope that's the case." [snip]
"But," Steele cautioned, "whether or not you've bottomed or not, you better have something to say to the American people." "I think the party has now positioned itself to talk about creating wealth versus wealth distribution."
The GOP chair also appeared to try to clean up recent statements by other prominent Republicans who have called President Obama a socialist. "We don't see this president so much as a socialist as we see him as a collectivist." "When you strip away this idea that the individual matters, for this concept of the collective - all of us pulling together and working towards some governmental goal - that's what I'm more concerned about," Steele added.
As the GOP seeks to reclaim its mantle of small government and fiscal conservatism, Steele also took a shot at the president over government spending. Monday Obama challenged members of his Cabinet to wring a total of $100 million in cuts out of their agency budgets. "We can cut a whole lot more from the federal government than $100 million," Steele said. "They're making it like it's a trillion dollars and it's not."
Weighing in on one of his party's hottest stars, Steele rejected the suggestion that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is a controversial figure.
Steele likewise rejected the assumption that Palin was the automatic front-runner for the 2012 GOP nomination.
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
No, I think refusing to listen to the conservative base and continuing to pander to RINOs will keep the GOP sliding to the bottom.
I said types, not the exact candidates. IOW, stay away from the McCains and Snowes.
Michael would do us all a big favor by stepping out of the way. My great fear is that 2012 will arrive and the Republicans will have another RINO candidate like McCain.
Finally, let me add that I believe the press is doing a masterful job of destroying every decent conservative in the Republican Party, most recently Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann. The press manages to frame the debate in such way that a reasonable and decent conservative can't survive.
Uh, Mr Steele, can you say “Constitution Pary”?
You mught want to rename the GOP to Constitution Party or Consevative Party, and drop John McCain. Also I think you ought to resign. All you are doing is milking the GOP.
Bullfrog
I was confused as you listed two CINOs along with her.
Michael Steele has to say this. What else was he supposed to say? Don’t shoot the messenger.
Having said that I believe there are two main factions of the GOP, which have existed from time immemorial: the Rockefeller-Beltway-elitist version of Republicanism with its emphasis on fiscal and foreign affairs conservatism vs the Reagan-type of conservatism who embrace the three legs of the stool rather than the former two.
They have co-existed in one form or another. But what has caused the most recent cleavage is the former type of Republican has now rejected the first leg of the stool by embracing big government solutions, leaving it with only one leg to stand on. As a consequence they (now dubbed RINO”s) now sound vacuous and acquiescent over both economic and social issues and have become an embarrassment and for some an anathema to conservatives.
If the former decided to embrace fiscal responsiblity and free enterprise again it would go a long way to bridge the gap between them. If not, then the GOP has to be prepared for the consequences of such polar and disparate positions.
Steele is such a lightweight airhead RINO twit!
Michael Steele on Corporations
Expand minority-owned business opportunities. (May 2006)
Michael Steele on Budget & Economy
Deficit spending mortgages our great grandchildren's future. (Aug 2006)
He's also pro-affirmative action.
Are you impressed? I know I am.
Palin needs to start her own Party for 2012!
&&&
I like that idea!
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, get over yourself. You are a Republican joke and do not even know it.
There is just one Republican Party, but it does not have any Conservatives left in it.
"There's not a Newt Gingrich side. There's not a Sarah [Palin] side. There's no Mitt [Romney] side."
Keep at it.
Because 300k is the number CNN is claiming. The libs are so much more credible to him.
No you are wrong. These people you mention with the exception of Palin, will sell out on what you believe to be their good ideas.
Mitt and Duh-Newt should both go junp in lake. Mitt sold us out with TARP 1 and Newt supports global warming.
So we support them and the sell us down the river with big government spending plans in support of the very parts of them we hate.
Screw both of them.
They need to listen to the Reaganites, with serious concessions the conservative libertarians and the Buchananites. That is where the consensus IS, was, and always will be.
i seem to agree with you a lot lately ;)
I used those because they were mentioned in the article. Together they're still better than the current controlling RINO wing. I wouldn't mind seeing someone like Newt back in top form days heading to the top. I'd love to see Sarah run again, she should be the first female president, maybe in 2016.
...Can we say dega vu’ status quo, again, and again.........
Global Warming Newt is right up there with Chameleon Romney in my book. That is why I had a hard time deciding what you were saying.
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