Michael Steele has gone and put his foot in his mouth again. 
In an interview with GQ magazine, the Republican National Committee chairman described abortion as an “individual choice” and said individual states should decide its legality.
Those comments, predictably, have drawn a sharp rebuke from other Republican leaders who say he should stick to the party’s core position that abortion should be outlawed nationwide.
“Chairman Steele, as the leader of America’s pro-life conservative party, needs to re-read the Bible, the U.S. Constitution, and the 2008 GOP Platform. He then needs to get to work — or get out of the way,” said former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a former rival for the RNC job.
Mike Huckabee called Steele’s remarks troubling. “For Chairman Steele to even infer that taking a life is totally left up to the individual is not only a reversal of Republican policy and principle, but it’s a violation of the most basic of human rights,” the former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate said on his blog.
Steele was widely praised as an eloquent speaker when he was elected as chairman of the Republican Party at the end of January. But since then, he’s spent plenty of time apologizing for off-hand comments that have angered many in the party and prompted some to suggest that he should resign.
In a statement sent out Thursday, Steele said he has always opposed abortion and said the Supreme Court decision that made it legal should be repealed. “The Republican Party is and will continue to be the party of life,” he said.
Also on Thursday, Steele named Rhode Island lawyer Ken McKay as his chief of staff to oversee the committee’s day-to-day operations. McKay managed the 2002 and 2006 campaigns of that state’s governor, Donald Carcieri, and served as his chief of staff.
The appointment sends a message to those who have called for Steele’s resignation: he doesn’t plan to go anywhere for a while.
photo credit: REUTERS/Molly Riley (Steele speaks after being elected Republican National Committee chairman in Washington, January 30)
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This debate has been going on forever. The pro-lifers are of the opinion that a fetus is human from the time of conception. Others believe otherwise. This conflict between two belief systems is irreconcilable. Dragging “God” into the argument is a red herring and has naught to do with legalities. The nadir to which the pro-life sentiment can fall was recently demonstrated in Brazil when a pregnant 9-year old girl was excommunicated from the Catholic Church for aborting twin fetuses. Her father, who had got her pregnant through rape, was left alone. This seems to me a complete miscarriage of justice that has resulted from policies which refuse to allow women control over their own bodies. To whit, it’s ok to rape a woman (servant, slave, chattel, or pick your own term) and impregnate her, but it’s not ok for her to remedy the situation.
Pro-lifers are not. They are simply mysogynists operating under a dangerously thin disguise.
- Posted by CatspawIt’s time for Steele to resign or it’s time for Pro-Life and decent Americans to distance themselves from the Republican party. I will not vote for a party lead by people like Steele who support the killing of innocent human beings.
- Posted by Peter ShinnAs an Independent who is a supporter of Barack Obama - I feel that Michael Steele is exactly what the Republicans need right now - not Rush Limbaugh. Rush represents the bloated, aging, older guard of the party that saw its heyday in the nineties and early part of this century. Jindal and Steele represent the new direction they need to grow with in order to be competitive with the democrats. Steele’s comments are right on with the message the party needs to hear if it wants to grow - not those with the spiritual ideology of Mitt Romney, (another old timer). If you want to get Independents like myself - who live on the progressive Pacific Coast to lean toward the Republicans - I would say that the direction that the current leadership is headed is correct.
- Posted by Bill Martin“I am a christian, a Republican, and I approve of Mr. Steele’s comments. While I believe that the taking of an innocent life is wrong, it is up to each woman to make that decision for herself and her conscience. ”
That type of statement is wrong in so many ways. My guess is that if you asked those guilty of horrible, racially based crimes if they felt that that what they were doing was right they would reply that their consciences were clear and untroubled. Does that mean we ought to tolerate those crimes because someone’s “conscience” told them it was OK?
Please think about the implications of what you are writing and believing!
- Posted by JoeWow. Er, if you read the Bible, the Constitution, and the GOP platform you’ll see that of those three, only the GOP platform speaks out against abortion. Are the Republicans so completely unconcerned about being honest that they can make that kind of statement without worrying about being called out on it?
Blackwell and Huckabee are giving the Republicans yet another well-deserved black eye. Why would any even remotely honest person sign on with these people?
- Posted by PaulMr. Steel is not the person I thought he was…he is not what we need now. I am anxious to hear how Hannity responds this time. Will he defend Steele citing a media blitz from the left like he did with Rush?
What is happening? I will be devesated if Hannity gives Steele a pass on this one too.
Leaning to get out of the Republican party soon.
- Posted by Val RappaI am a christian, a Republican, and I approve of Mr. Steele’s comments. While I believe that the taking of an innocent life is wrong, it is up to each woman to make that decision for herself and her conscience. I am against government money being spent to support such destruction (or the use of government money to intentionally create the unborn for the sole purpose of destroying them to obtain stem cells). And this should be a state right issue.
- Posted by ntwDeeDee, the reason most conservatives I know have no problem being anti-abortion but pro-death penalty is the important word: Innocent. The unborn are innocent. A person convicted of capital murder is not - they have shown a complete lack of regard for human life - an unborn child cannot say that. Just as you are astonished by this apparent conflict by conservatives, how can a liberal defend killing an unborn child but not the convicted murder? doesn’t that unborn child deserve greater protection? I’ve also heard that state funds shouldn’t be used to sponsor state sanctioned murder… yet that is exactly what state/federally funded abortion is - state sanctioned murder. By the liberal argument, if you eliminate one, you must eliminate the other.
How can republicians say that they are all about life but are PRO DEATH PENLTY?? Steele is correct, it is an individuals choice. I wish replublican would stop thinking they are GOD and allow individuals to think for themselves and stop trying to use “their” bible believes to scare or bully people into giving up there right to do anything but what they say. The bible also states it is wrong to judge, but that all they do is judge people who do not confirm to the GOP way of thinking. Any person who rules for and participates in a death sentence is committing a sin against life. Think about your message before you start quoting the bible.
- Posted by deedeei am christian and anti-abortion AND i approve of mr steele’s comment. the problem with the american anti-abortion movement has been its signal inability to think and act incrementally; ie outlaw it across the board in one felll swoop or we have failed. to reverse roe v wade and put the question back in the state courts - where it belongs anyway - would allow for the incremental destruction of the abortion industry. tc &ts: fight nice; most of the founders were deists, so the god at the centre of their everything was not the god of the bible; however, the states were always different to the federal government, and so there could be no church of america but there were churces of the various states.
- Posted by jd