This rambling and incoherent interview with Michael Steele was almost Palinesque– the only thing missing was a couple “you betcha’s!”
On display are all the contradictions, the lies, the spin, the confusion, and the chaos that is the Republican party. The party, as a whole, is like a congenital liar who has told so many lies and so many untruths that anything that comes out of their mouths contradicts what they said a moment and will contradict what they are going to say next.
There’s a show on A&E called Crime 360, and basically every episode walks you through a case, from the investigation of the crime scene through the evidence analysis to the capture of a suspect to the interrogation. Sometimes the interrogations are pretty amazing- the suspect, when under pressure, will immediately start to directly contradict what he/she said three minutes earlier.
That is what I think I am seeing every time I see most of the major Republicans on television. The only difference between any of them is who can most shamelessly lie (Gingrich, Palin, etc.) and those who very publicly trip over their own toes (Steele, Pence).
Morbo
Indeed it was awesome. I was still half asleep listening to it; I slowly became aware that the speaker was completely clueless. I figured they must have had one of the “civil” town hall crashers on until Inskeep called him “chairman” and I realized it was Michael Steele. That realization was hilarious.
SGEW
Cognitive dissonance is a hell of a drug.
Da Bomb
Michael Steele is the gift that keeps on giving.
Just Some Fuckhead
They aren’t lying John. They are creating new realities faster than we can keep up.
wilfred
That’s because they didn’t go through the al-Qa`ida official Anti-Contradictive course. Now imagine if enhanced interrogation techniques were allowed. Those scumbags would probably contradict themselves in a minute. Now spread that 2 minutes of saved interrogation time out over a year and think of the manhours and electric bills saved, assuming it’s a naked 100w bulb.
Zifnab
In order to save the patient, we have to kill it. Because we love it. But we think it could run more efficiently. So we don’t support any cuts. But we don’t want to expand the program to non-seniors. Because it will go bankrupt. Which is why we have to be responsible. Which will require us to improve the system. And of course there will be sacrifices. So don’t go telling me I’m not making sense. Now you’re just being cute. And nuanced. I hate that word.
Jackie
I caught it halfway through so was trying to listen. I would not have bothered if I knew who was being interviewed. It literally gave me a headache. I have decided that the R 24% are so invested in mean and angry because their head hurts all the time. How can they tolerate all the cognitive dissonance?
beltane
Our “moderate” Republican governor announced he is not running for reelection this morning. Lot’s of speculation as to why, but maybe it just sucks to be a non-crazy Republican elected official these days. When your party has seamlessly merged with the LaRouchies, maybe it’s time to call it a day.
Zifnab
@wilfred: Good point, wilfred. If Inskeep is allowed to ask Steele hard questions about health care funding, why can’t we strap a guy to a board and drown him?
It’s important to remember that, in many ways, the left wing terror loving fiscally irresponsible media has a habit of torturing the debate. So Democrats are worse. Also.
Mike in NC
Freakin’ amateurs. It takes many years to hone the ability to lie every time you open your mouth: Cheney, Gramm, Delay, and McCain being some that easily come to mind.
Trinity
His stupidity is almost impressive.
Leelee for Obama
Is Inskeep a Jedi Knight? I kept thinking Steele’s tongue might roll up inside his mouth and choke him! Was he thinking, somebody stop me? Jeebus, if this wasn’t the important issue it is, that interview would deserve to the lede on SNL.
kay
STEELE: No, no, no. That’s not coming out against reducing the spending for Medicare. That’s a wonderful interpretation by the left, but what I was saying was, “Don’t go raiding the program without some sense of what we’re taking from the program, the impact it’s going to have on the senior citizens out there.” You know, raiding a program that’s already bankrupt to pay for another program that we can’t afford is not good public policy.
He’s right there. Medicare has been raided. It’s been raided by private insurers, through “Medicare Advantage” that “advantages” no one except private insurers who rob the public Medicare program.
This whole fight against the House bill can be summed up in those two words: “Medicare Advantage”. It was a free market solution that failed, miserably, and we are stuck with it, because private insurers captured 25% of the Medicare market and they are not going to let that go.
All the sound, all the fury, it’s all about protecting Medicare Advantage. That’s the real objection to the House bill. If people found out that they were funneling billions of dollars to private insurers as part of Medicare, and that was costing every single taxpayer MORE then the public program, Medicare Advantage would be GONE. They aren’t going to find out, because there is a wall of bullshit protecting it. It’s not about death panels, or private enterprise, or any of that. It’s about a huge government subsidy to private insurers, through Medicare. That’s what Steele is fighting like hell to protect.
maya
In the case of the Newt, now that he’s a Catholic, lying is only a venial sin and is easily forgiven by the recitation of one Our Father and a Hail Mary. And all the other Evangelical repos are pre-forgiven. What’s your point?
r€nato
@Morbo:
I had the exact same experience. I woke up to that interview and I was in a fog, half-asleep but not believing what a stupid idiot the interviewee was.
Only later on did I find out it was Steele.
The interview is even more hilarious on the 2nd listening. Check it out again if you can.
The Grand Panjandrum
If Republicans were baby seals this interview would be a call to action for World Wildlife Federation and PETA.
feebog
Michael, Barnum and Bailey just called; your clown shoes and rubber nose are ready for pick up…
cleek
has our watchdog, protector of the democracy media caught on yet?
nah.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@SGEW:
FTW.
This should be immortalized in the form of a tag.
beltane
Palin is not capable of tripping over her own toes, as she is nothing more than an unformed mass of blabbering incoherence.
NickM
Steele has always been an idiot – I remember him from when he was my Lt. Gov. – but he’s also fallen into the lazy habits of the conservatives who are too used to singing to the accompaniment of the Mighty Wurlitzer. Asking any question is a sign of liberal bias, and entitles the conservative to refuse to answer and instead start questioning the motives of the interviewer.
** Atanarjuat **
Telling lies upon likes tends to snowball and eventually crush the person who relies on them.
This is what happened to Michael Steele.
I suspect that the lesson the RNC will learn from this is not to be a bit more consistent and principled on a given conservative position, but to elect a better liar. Steele has fallen down on the job, and badly.
By the way, John, sorry for the pedantry, but I think you mean this in your post above (the added word is bolded):
“contradicts what they said a moment ago and will contradict what they are going to say next.”
-A
JGabriel
According to Gawker, Glenn Beck’s advertisers still includes Rosetta Stone.
Rosetta Stone?
It’s kind of hard to imagine Beck’s reflexively anti-immigrant audience having any use for another language.
Are they learning how to say in Spanish, “Hey, you, get the fuck outta my country!”
I almost wonder what the ads look like: “Learn new languages and insult people in foreign countries.”
.
JGabriel
I am modereratered? My last post isn’t posting, but I’m not getting a moderation warning either. Is that gone too, until the upgrade/fix?
.
kay
Here’s Karl Rove:
“Medicare Advantage was enacted in 2003 to allow seniors to use Medicare funds to buy private insurance plans that fit their needs and their budgets. They get better care and better value for their money.
Medicare Advantage also has built-in incentives to encourage insurers to offer lower costs and better benefits. It’s a program that puts patients in charge, not the government, which is why seniors like it and probably why the administration hates it.
Already, an estimated 10.2 million seniors—one out of five in America—have enrolled in Medicare Advantage. Mr. Obama is proposing to cut the program by nearly 20% and thus reduce the amount of money each will have to buy insurance. ”
The savings in the House bill come from cutting Medicare Advantage. Obama “hates” Medicare Advantage because it’s a massive failure and costs taxpayers more than the public plan.
What Karl Rove doesn’t say is that while it may save individual seniors money (they get things “free” like eyeglasses and health club memberships) it costs every taxpayer who subsidizes Medicare (and we all do) more than the public program. Neat, huh? Seniors like it, and taxpayers don’t even know they’re paying more for it.
Conservatives are protecting a subsidy to private for-profit insurance companies that they put in place, and that’s ALL they’re doing.
r€nato
Believe me, the GOP doesn’t have to learn this lesson, they’ve been operating under this assumption for decades now.
Cat Lady
And yet the word “lie” is the most underused word in our so-called liberal media.
over_educated
My favorite part of that interview whne I heard it this morning (and I guffawed out loud in my car), is his aversion to the word “nuance.” Roberts actually has to tell him that describing a positon as “nuanced” is not an insult. But Steele knows that in his bat-shit crazy party calling someone “nuanced” is some sort of grievous insult. Jesus Christ these people are terrible.
JGabriel
** Atanarjuat **:
Then you’re watching a different RNC than I am. The RNC’s reaction will be, “See, we told you not to hire black people!”
.
gnomedad
As much as a Palin (or other GOP hood ornament) candidacy might normally be a pushover for Democrats, I will live in constant fear (as a recent commenter pointed out) that we are one pre-election terrorist attack away from electing one of these clowns. Some sane opposition, please.
CPA1
I cannot believe that he couldn’t understand the word nuance. Or found it so abhorrent, he pretended not to understand the point. I appreciate the fact that the interviewer had to explain to him the definition. Like nuance is a bad thing. It is a complicated issue. He had to make sure he said that he was being consistent and not using nuance, or else some idiot would have called for his resignation again. The interview was a joke. It is said when the interviewer looks like he knows more than the person who is supposed to be the policy expert. He couldn’t even defend his Op-ed. It was pathetic.
Tsulagi
Sure, Steele was flip-flopping around like a tuna out of water on a hot beach. But still he was coherent while contradicting himself.
See that’s his problem and why he’ll never get further in today’s Pub party. He hasn’t fully mastered word salad and mind-boggling stupid like a Bush or Palin. You know, like when after words have stopped randomly tumbling out of their mouths you’re momentarily stunned thinking “WTF was that?” Steele needs an Obi-Wan if he has any hope to become a true master in the Republican farce.
ChrisS
@Jackie:
I have decided that the R 24% are so invested in mean and angry because their head hurts all the time.
The R 24% aren’t republicans, they’re independents. You see, they think that the government is heading the wrong way because the Dummycrats and Liebrals are going to take all your money and off Granny in the same day. When you point out that, in fact, they are mistaken and point to some of the incoherent arguments presented by the opposition, they simply reply that the republicans are just as bad and that we should have a third party. End of argument.
They’re not republicans, despite the fact that they get their information from the right wing noise machine, vote GOP, and hate democrats.
Alan
It may sound contradictorily incoherent but that’s talk radio conservatism. It defines the GOP.
Yes Myrtle, Rush Limbaugh did destroy the GOP.
Pangloss
I heard this interview while shaving this morning, and I stopped in the middle of my shave to sit next to the radio because it was so compelling. The intellectual bobbing and weaving probably pulled a few muscles, so Steele will be confined to bed for the next few days.
Keenanjay
I listened to Steele as interviewed by NPR this morning. He was asked to explain the dissonance between his statement that he wanted to “protect Medicare” by preventing “government run healthcare.” He immediately attacked the host (Steve I.) for his lefty bias and repeatedly came back to this claim when calmly asked to explain how he reconciled the two claims.
He’s such an incredibly shallow and ineffective liar. And leading a major political party.
I almost shit when he said that no one in the Senate or House Republican leadership had been fear mongering on the healthcare issue.
gonzone
The parallels you mention between the GOP and the criminal mind are not really parallels at all.
They are both the inner workings of the criminal mind.
Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky goes into great detail on the subject. They out themselves.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
That interview was awesome. It was along the lines of Palin’s ” reducing taxes and reigning in spending…has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans”.
Basically Steele says that government run healthcare would be bad, but that medicare is a cherished program; medicare is bloated and we should make it more efficient but we shouldn’t cut it and instead we should make the private market better with new regulations which the government shouldn’t pass. Genius.
wilfred
@Tsulagi:
A personal favorite of the genre. From McCain’s New Orleans speech:
handy
I think Kay has crystallized the Repug opposition to any and all sorts of “government programs” quite nicely: because taxpayer money benefits only the taxpayer and not corporations.
kay
Is it going to matter? People don’t even know what the word “Medicare” means, and that has just become blindingly clear.
He can say “I will save Medicare but I oppose government plans” and half the people at these town hall meetings are shaking their heads in complete agreement.
It’s not a contradiction if “Medicare” means something other than “public plan”, and it must. I don’t know what they think it means. I can’t imagine.
MattF
This is more in line with the Orwellian “Mutability of the past” than with classical cognitive dissonance. Steele’s innovation is that the ‘past’ is 10 seconds ago.
kay
@handy:
It’s been weird to watch, (and El Cid does a much better job that I do explaining it) because (of course) some Democrats are on the take regarding Medicare Advantage, so even Obama couches the massive rip-off in vague language.
Think about this: since 2003 one in five seniors have moved from the public plan to the more costly private plan.
10 more years and “Medicare” as a public plan would be dead, the private insurers would have the same monopoly they currently have in the under-65 age group, and then costs go up, because there’s no public option left to retreat to.
That was the plan.
Republicans are trumpeting fealty to Medicare while destroying it.
MysticalChick
On Medicare Advantage – Randi Rhodes talked about this in some detail on her show a couple weeks ago. They just co-opted the use of the word “Medicare” and allowed everyone to think that it was really a part of that program.
slag
Maybe if he just learned how to wink.
SGEW
Ok, I just got around to actually listening to the whole thing, and . . . wow. Just . . . wow.
kay
@MysticalChick:
It isn’t costing seniors any more than the public plan (although it’s costing you more) and they get “free” stuff.
No wonder they don’t want to give it up, even if they knew it was a private plan that was leeching surplus funds from the public plan, which they don’t.
What makes me angry is that it’s just like student loans, where Republicans handed private lenders a big chunk of the public plan, and that is costing taxpayers MORE, not less.
What also makes me mad is they ALL know it. It failed. Sadly, it’s wildly profitable, so we are never going to get the “private option” off the public plan.
Tax Analyst
cleek said:
“has our watchdog, protector of the democracy media caught on yet?”
They can’t. Remember, they must remain “Fair & Balanced”, so under absolutely no circumstance whatsoever are they allowed to call “Bullshit” when one side is continuously talking Bullshit, except if the party is not affiliated with the Republican Party.
The Republican Party has been exempted from responsibility and accountability for any word, action, or deed under this clause.
But don’t you try this at home, it won’t work.
kay
@MysticalChick:
And how cheap is that “Advantage” for private insurers? They get the government to guarantee premium payments, and in return they offer seniors a health club membership and free eyeglasses?
It’s basically a scam.
** Atanarjuat **
JGabriel said:
Man, that’s harsh.
But I’m cynical enough to think that you could be right.
-A
Sean
I heard this interview on the radio this morning and I had to turn it off half way through. It was too painful. After thinking about it, I think I’m most annoyed at NPR for treating all these Naked Emperors as though they were fully clothed.
I think I actually yelled at my radio, “What the hell did you expect having that bat-shit crazy douche-bag on your show? You knew what you were getting into. Steele is a known quantity. All you’ve succeeded in doing by lowering your standards is to lower your standards.”
Jefferson really got it right when he said, “Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them.”
Jefferson was referring to religion but his point is equally valid here. The only valid way to treat the nonsense spouted by the likes of Michael Steele is with ridicule.
I with NPR would learn that lesson.
-Sean
shelley matheis
BC
I think I actually yelled at my radio, “What the hell did you expect having that bat-shit crazy douche-bag on your show? You knew what you were getting into. Steele is a known quantity. All you’ve succeeded in doing by lowering your standards is to lower your standards.”
But now that batshit crazy douchebag has been given a public outing. More people now know how batshit crazy he is. Not a bad trade. I don’t mind them getting to go out and spew their craziness as long as there is some reality from the interviewer. And Steele’s reaction to “nuance” is the same as if Inskeep had accused him of being obtuse. Funny that.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
It’s getting to where I am expecting the repugs to say after uttering yet another round of lies in front of a microphone, ‘Yeah, that’s the ticket!’
Litlebritdifrnt
@Alan: Scarborough said something the other morning that I thought was both interesting and correct (stopped clock and all that) they were talking about the influence of Limbaugh on the repubs and how it is simply overstated and that “Limbaugh couldn’t even stop McCain getting the nomination” and I thought bingo! Every day during the silly season, Limbaugh, Ingram and Hannity went on and on and on about how McCain was not “a conservative” and basically campaigned against him every single day, (I only mention those three cause those are the only three I listened to – could have been others too) and yet they couldn’t stop his nomination (Limbaugh even went so far as to claim that it was the democrats fault cause they all voted for him in the primaries to force him onto the republicans). Seems to me that the republicans are making a huge tactical error if they are thinking that Limbaugh has anything other than an echo chamber of his listeners. The majority of the republican voters obviously ignore him, and they should too.
shelley matheis
EthylEster
@Sean: I’m at the point where I no longer turn on NPR in the morning. I had too many of those “shouting at my radio” moments and figured it was bad for my blood pressure.
It’s sad because I have been a public radio listener/member for more than 30 years…before there was a Morning Edition. But the double whammy of 1. having to hear idiot liars given soapboxes by 2. folks who must know better is just too depressing.
Somebody should email NPR and inform them that their so-called “driveway moments” have been replaced by “listeners-who-smash-their-radios-in-anger moments”. If they think their subscriber base is small now, they better realize that folks like me FIRST stop listening and THEN stop contributing. Very sad.
Don
Well in fairness, it was confusing since what SI was really trying to say – without having to scrote up and ACTUALLY SAY IT – was “hey, what you’re saying here doesn’t sound at all like the kinds of things you’re saying elsewhere.”
Blah blah nuanced blah blah. Fucking spit it out you groddamned cowards. HI I NOTICED YOU’RE SAYING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SHIT HERE THAN YOU SAY ELSEWHERE IS THAT CUZ YOU’RE LYING TO ME OR TO THEM?
Why no, I don’t feel particularly obsessive or strident about the way our media has embraced false equivalency. Why do you ask?
Jen R
Actually, Don, I thought that Inskeep did a good job of coming out and saying “you’re saying one thing here and another thing elsewhere.” It was just that Steele kept interrupting him.
Steve Balboni
It made my ride into work much better, I’ll say that.
Jen R
Jesus CHRIST:
Obtained: the RNC’s Health Care Survey
Mario Piperni
John Cole writes:
Sociologist Steven Hoffman”
Wingnuttia
JackieBinAZ
I’m so stealing that.
Josh in Portland
@ Sean & Ethyl
While there are examples of poor NPR interviews and practices, this was not one of them.
Nazgul35
The Tommy Flanagin party…yeah, that’s the ticket!
General Winfield Stuck
@Jen R:
We’re right around the corner from the return of Clinton Black Helicopters. This time even blacker ones.
David
After 25 years I’ve quit listening to NPR news. The BBC World Service does a much better job of reporting U.S. news.
Chad N Freude
Streaming audio and downloadable mp3 at
Chad N Freude
@Chad N Freude:
That went well. Try http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112281170
BUTTONS! PLEEZE!
HyperIon
So…what IS the holdup on the return of an edit function and formatting buttons? Anybody? Buehler?
Steeplejack
@HyperIon:
A day or two ago Cole said that his Web guru has a few clients ahead of Balloon Juice in the queue.
mclaren
And this is different from the Reagan 80s…how?
Alan
@Litlebritdifrnt: I agree the actual influence of talk radio isn’t as broad as the pundits like to pretend it is. But it does seem to have a broad influence with the media and even the Democrats. The Democrats seem to fear its influence, especially with respect to the public option–and heaven forbid a single payer system.
Ella in NM
Sometimes I think the Republicans actually allowed Michael Steele be RNC chairman in full knowledge of just how completely stupid he is. See, it just validates their world view all the way around. They think he’s their “stealth weapon”, kryptonite against Libruls.
Having him in that position is they way they think they prove to everyone that they’re not a racist party, because OBVIOUSLY they win that round merely by giving him the job. They delight in the idea that they used liberal tokenism against us. But secretly, what makes them happiest of all is the chance they get on a daily basis to snicker and slap each other on the back about how he proves that blacks are inferior, no matter what you teach em’! “Heeheeeheeeheeeheee!”