Give Michael Steele a fake British accent and this could be a scene from Spinal Tap:
TAPPER: [D]o you condemn that point of view? I mean, where would African-Americans be if the federal government hadn’t come in and said, hotels, you have to–
STEELE: Exactly. That’s very much a part of the debate back in the ’60s, as it is going forward. But the reality of it is, our party has stood four-square behind, you know–
TAPPER: But do you condemn that view?
STEELE: I can’t condemn a person’s view. That’s like, you know, you believe something and I’m going to say, “Well, you know, I’m going to condemn your view of it.”
Why the hell can’t he just say that he condemns the point of view that Jim Crow laws should be legal? I realize that all of this is bad for Republicans and therefore good for the country, but it just makes my head hurt.
arguingwithsignposts
Can someone revoke his black card? This guy … OMFG.
Hell, I can condemn that POV as a white male. Because they’re fucking idiots!
Urza
Obviously Michael Steele supports Jim Crow. He’ll be having a separate private jet ordered for his white staff.
aarrgghh
even michael steele needs a break from getting bitchslapped by rush limbaugh. his ass is still smarting from neil cavuto.
New Yorker
He can’t condemn a person’s view, eh? Well I guess he won’t be making any critical comments about Obama or Pelosi ever again.
I feel sorry for this guy, given how insanely in over his head he has been as the head of the society of lunatics known as the GOP.
Corner Stone
Personally I think Kaine Steele would be the greatest name ever for a fictional private detective.
Mike Kay
STEELE: I can’t condemn Holocaust deniers. That’s like, you know, you believe something and I’m going to say, “Well, you know, I’m going to condemn your view of it.”
Joe Buck
Not quite correct; Paul doesn’t believe that Jim Crow laws should be legal, because he believes that private property rights trump everything, and Jim Crow laws required discrimination.
Rather, he believes that anyone who wants to install a “whites only” drinking fountain can do so, and if a hotel doesn’t want “those people” it can exclude them. If the local Klan then organizes a boycott against any remaining business that allows “the mixing of the races”, they are free do do this even though Rand Paul “abhors” it. Just as long as no government makes a law, bigots can do their thing. The Pauls will claim that the magic of the market will automatically prevent this kind of thing from happening, ignoring at least a hundred years of history saying otherwise.
Martin
Someone should throw oreos at this guy. Why has nobody thought of that?
DougJ
@Joe Buck:
You’re right in point of fact, but still Michael Steele could say “I condemn the point of view that Jim Crow laws are acceptable”. He probably wouldn’t get an interviewer making your (astute) point.
Corner Stone
I made the mistake of watching a little of the morning shows today.
After I had the raw will to live sucked out of me by MTP’s table of Gigot, Friedman, Andrea Mitchell and Bob Woodward I put down my whiskey and started a straight IV drip of 80 proof.
The collective stupid was almost too much for me to bear. But thankfully, the Knob Creek has replenished my soul.
licensed to kill time
Mouth like a Steele trap but only baited for foot. Success!
Mike Kay
STEELE: I can’t condemn Child Pornography. That’s like, you know, you believe something and I’m going to say, “Well, you know, I’m going to condemn your view of it.”
sherifffruitfly
Steele married himself to the notion that white folks would like him if he said shit like that.
(shrug) It’ll never work of course, but that’s the idea.
Keith G
The fact that some mainstream pols and “opinionators” think that there can be a reasonable discussion about this is an indictment on our political culture.
Surely we are not as selfish and brittle a people as this makes us seem. How sad.
The Dangerman
Fuck it all, this Guy should just show up for all interviews in a White Sheet.
bemused
@The Dangerman:
The Dave Chappelle classic KKK skit comes to mind
Redshift
@sherifffruitfly: Given Steele’s behavior with the RNC’s finances and marketing his own position, I’m more inclined to believe that he’s married to the notion that he can make a bundle off white people, whether they like him or not. He’s been riding the gravy train since the MD GOP paid him to run for Lt. Gov, and to continue doing that, he has to keep raising his media profile while not publicly going against any conservative positions, no matter how ridiculous.
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
@The Dangerman: Like the blind, black KKK member in that Chappelle skit.
arguingwithsignposts
@bemused:
Hell, Steele is Black Bush. literally!
Brandon
Seeing as how the modern Republican party is based on the premise of condemning others and their views, if I was a Democrat I would take this and run with it.
Everytime Dick and Liz openned their pie holes, I would just say, “well Republican party leader Michael Steele says that we cannot condemn people for their views.” How very ethically relative of him.
cat48
@Corner Stone:
Yea, I went to that MTP crap with a WHITE panel that thought this was amusing somehow and Gregory sucking up saying something about Paul discussing his philosophy, etc.
Personally, I think it is amusing too for political reasons; but it also makes me very depressed that supposedly serious liberal media treats “the philosophy” not harming anyone. It is offending to me because I was small but I remember the clubbings, the firehoses, the police dogs, the murders, etc., that Cronkite told me about every night. He didn’t ever act like it was amusing or okay that Buckley had this philosophy.
bemused
@arguingwithsignposts:
I can’t believe I forgot that one. Chappelle did some brilliant stuff.
Corner Stone
@Brandon:
ISTM that the modern GOP is based on the grifter ethos. Steele embodies this at least as well as every other GOP pol.
bkny
one of the nation’s leading political reporters, howie fineman, said on sunday hardball that he’s not convinced that racism is that big of a motivating factor among the teatards.
Ash Can
Michael Steele, translated: “I gotta keep mum on Rand Paul or Dick Cheney will take me along on one of his hunting trips.”
Corner Stone
@cat48: Of all the damn things to be shocked by, I was stunned when Cokie on This Week just flat out said, “He may not be a racist but I don’t care. His views are racist.”
I was like…whut? Blind Squirrel—>nut?
Corner Stone
@bemused:
And to me, in this day and time, nothing is more brilliant than his skit with the CEO and the drug dealer.
The drug dealer gets treated like a king and the CEO gets SWAT teamed in the middle of the night and his dog shot dead IIRC.
“One, two, three, four..FIFTH! I plead the FIFTH!!”
Brandon
@Corner Stone: Touché. Condemning others is just one of their most prominent avenues used to forward the grifter ethos.
Regarding Cokie, you have to understand that much of the Village’s self narrative is based on their belief in their own supposed heroism during the Civil Rights Movement.
And Another Thing...
Does anybody know how much the RNC is paying Steele?
Corner Stone
@cat48:
But to get back to the MTP panel for a minute, they let Gigot essentially drive the tone and he said how Obama had governed from so far hard left and no one challenged him. The MoU said he wanted our democracy to work like China’s did. Woodward blathered something so bad he actually just petered out and stopped talking, and kind of looked from left to right as no one said anything for about 7 seconds. And Mrs. Greenspan did her best damage control ala “BOTH this admin and the last are guilty!” routine.
I wouldn’t have watched it but I was hammered and couldn’t find the remote.
I can not wait to read Culture of Truth’s translation of that damn debacle.
PurpleGirl
@Martin: When he ran for MD governor in 2002 he claimed that some oreos were rolled to his feet during a speech. In 2006, when he ran for MD senate seat, he claimed that in 2002 it was a hail storm of oreos thrown at hi. But he couldn’t prove it and no one else (except for some right wing nuts) remembered it happening.
Corner Stone
Well, Tampa Bay just busted up Houston’s no hitter bid.
LD50
Michael’s job must be hanging by a thread. The weasel words shouldn’t surprise us.
arguingwithsignposts
@Brandon:
CokieMary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs can return to N.O. as a bus-person, as far as I’m concerned. Calling her a “journalist” is like calling McArdle an “economist.”Brandon
@And Another Thing…: Politico (no link) says that he’s paid $223k by the RNC.
Silver Owl
Conservatives rarely if ever challenge another conservative, no matter how repulsive their stance.
Bill E Pilgrim
“I can’t answer your question. That’s like, you know, you ask something and I’m going to say, “Well you know, I’m going to answer your question”.
Word salad, it’s not just for Sarah Palin anymore. They seem to think it’s the new style.
Corner Stone
@Brandon:
One of the more amusing parts of the morning was when I agreed with George Will. He said, “Politics is a transaction based business.”
And I was like, “truer words”.
arguingwithsignposts
@Corner Stone:
I am continually amazed that Mrs. Greenspan gets any airtime whatsofuckinever. The fact that she even *interviews* anybody about financial stuff blows my mind. Of course, I guess that’s the thing in the Village.
cat48
@Corner Stone:
Didn’t see that part of the show, but that is “very good Cokie.
Here’s a star for you.” She is old enough to remember too.
Corner Stone
@arguingwithsignposts: I think Brandon was calling her a “Villager” which she clearly is.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Corner Stone: They must still consider him not a Republican. No way she says that about someone she considers a Republican, it’s entirely against the rules.
Corner Stone
@cat48: It was after a couple tries by both George Will and Sam Donaldson to use the lame, “I don’t believe he’s a racist in his heart” bs.
The same kind of nonsense DougJ and Cole spewed round here.
But, her response was actually good for a change which made me wonder if I had laced my drinks with something and just forgotten about it.
Corner Stone
@Bill E Pilgrim: Yeah, I’m not sure how it slipped past her Villager programming. In context it’s hard to tell if she thinks it does or does not hurt Paul.
cat48
@Corner Stone:
I know that was a sickening display so I immediately attacked Mitchell (she knows better) and Gregory via twitter about that “too far left” crap. I was so angry I said something about the repubs had turned into Birchers & O in center. They both got 3 very angry twitters from me…..like they give a fuck but it made me feel better. I threw that WHITE panel in too…..guilting U know! I have nothing against a white panel…..just watch what you say. As a matter of fact, I love white people because I’m white. It’s just a human rights issue with me and always has been.
mac
Time to send Mr. Steele some of those 1968 signs the garbage men of Memphis carried during their strike as he seems to have forgotten who he is.
Joey Maloney
@arguingwithsignposts: Hell, Steele is Black Bush.
Sacrilege! Wash your mouth out with Tullamore Dew!
licensed to kill time
Sen. Lamar Alexander advocates government takeover of BP on Face The Nation.
Is this Through the Looking Glass Day?
El Cid
Tried to watch the roundtable on Bill Maher, it’s “libertarian” big money chaoticist John Fund arguing that Wall Street fell apart because of Fannie and Freddie, anti-Islam activist Hirsaan Ali, and Michael Eric Dyson who is really good on Rand Paul’s anti-Civil Rights rhetoric but not strong countering Fund’s radical right wing (though not always pro-Republican) anti-regulatory fundamentalism.
Brandon
@licensed to kill time: Doesn’t Sen. Alexander realize that Dr. Paul already called that off limits? He said it was un-American. Expect an about face from his office come tomorrow.
Unless… those dastardly Republicans have figured out that the only legitimate way to attack Obama on BP and not implicate themselves is to do it from the left.
cat48
@licensed to kill time:
Of course, they want Obama to take it over because big oil gives90% of their cash to the repugs. It makes big oil look really, really bad and the money they save can go directly to them. Let’s sucker the Dem “into another takeover so we can criticize him about taking over another company and call him a soshlist.” Obama already has federal engineers & scientists conferencing w/BP about what they are doing so they are already supervising.
It’s a load of crap that they could do any better. With what?? They would have to hire someone to do BP’s drilling. We have no submarines…..only 4 countries do. I know everyone’s hysterical suddenly since the oil hit the beaches, but this is a loser for everyone but BP.
cat48
Of course they want the sucker to take over because big oil gives 90% of their their cash to the repugs. It makes big oil look really, really bad and the money they save can go directly to them. Let’s sucker the Dem “into another takeover so we can criticize him about taking over another company and call him a soshlist.” Obama already has federal engineers & scientists conferencing w/BP about what they are doing so they are already supervising.
It’s a load of crap that they could do any better. With what?? They would have to hire someone to do BP’s drilling. We have no submarines…..only 4 countries do. I know everyone’s hysterical suddenly since the oil hit the beaches, but this is a loser for everyone but BP and the repugs that love them.
Sick of pundits suggesting frogmen & a submarine. The pressure down there is about 2000lbs per inch per my diving husband. Nothing works correctly there. Don’t think we should be trying to drill.
Corner Stone
@El Cid: I like MED but he’s really too genial to counter any winger ideologue.
He makes cogent points but that isn’t enough.
licensed to kill time
@Brandon:
I guess Lamar is un-American now. A secret sociaIist. Who knew?
Corner Stone
@cat48: Exactly. Take over the problem, then underfund the solution. Then bitch, bitch, bitch about how incompetent govt is.
We’d own the problem and let BP scoot off into the sunset.
cat48
@Corner Stone:
I went back and looked at the Texas City Refinery explosion info this morning and they have filed an appeal on the environmental fines. That is still in court. They did pay the OSHA fines though it looks like they are on probation with OSHA now.
That should also run up the deficit to an amount that would even make a liberal like me faint. Repugs would love that.
El Cid
@Corner Stone: He’s pretty good on a few subjects, but I just hate it when they have a hard core right wing think tank soundbarker versus people weak in those areas.
Corner Stone
@El Cid: Honestly? I keep waiting to see an animal control employee show up and tranquilize John Fund every time I see him on tv.
cat48
Eh, I liked MED before he joined up with Tavis Smiley against Obama. Smiley has never set well with me for some reason. There is just something about Tavis…….
kommrade reproductive vigor
Look people, the rules are simple.
Rule 1. You can’t condemn a Republican for anything he says or does, no matter how disgusting.
Rule 2. You must condemn a Democrat for anything he, or anyone he has ever spoken to, lived near or worked with says or does, no matter how benign.
Those are the rules and we must abide them. The universe would implode if Steele were to criticize Paul. Do you want the universe to implode?
Do you??
goposaur
Michael Steele supports terrorism*. He said so himself,
*and Stalinism, and Nazism, and putting peanut butter on his chocolate.
What a
doltgift we have in him.JasonF
I feel sorry for Michael Steele. The man is the chairman of the RNC. A Republican candidate for Senate said something stupid — that puts him in an untenable position. What’s he going to say? “Rand Paul is wrong about Jim Crow, but you should vote for him anyway?” It’s a no-win situation for him.
That said, there are limits to my sympathy. He could quit his job and get one that doesn’t require him to defend the indefensible.
rikyrah
Steele is a slave catcher.
Just Some Fuckhead
Far be it from me to condemn an Uncle Tom like Michael Steele.
JMC in the ATL
Rikyrah –
I’m pretty sure being a slavecatcher requires skill, drive, and a willingness to work on commission. I think he’s more like a minstrel. All that requires is tossing on a bit of white makeup to give the illusion of blackface and the ability to run your mouth. Much less resemblence to actual work.
Corner Stone
@rikyrah:
Oooo…ouch. That’s going to leave a mark.
MJ
@And Another Thing…:
My guess … thirty pieces of silver.
Sloegin
@MJ: It’s probably something around three-fifths what they paid the last guy.
MJ
And with that sly comment, I hereby declare that you, my friend, have won “teh internets”.
Well played Sloegin, well played. Hiyoooo!
AxelFoley
@The Dangerman:
Fixed.
brantl
“He may not be a racist but I don’t care. His views are racist.”
Only Cokie could say something this true, and this stupid, at the same time. If the view is racist, and he believes them, then HE’S A RACIST. PERIOD. DAMN, Cokie, get a brain.
AxelFoley
@arguingwithsignposts:
Gold, pure gold! My favorite Chappelle skit ever, LOL!
AxelFoley
@Sloegin:
LOL, I see what you did there!