WASHINGTON — GOP chairman Michael Steele thinks Republicans have “screwed up” for the most part in the years since Ronald Reagan was president. And, he adds in an interview on the heels of his new book’s release, Republicans won’t win back the House in fall elections and might not be ready to lead even if they do.
That forecast of failure sparked a pushback Tuesday at the GOP’s own National Republican Congressional Committee, whose aim is to elect Republicans, and delight at its counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Asked Monday by talk-show host Sean Hannity if Republicans can regain the House in November, Steele said, “Not this year.” But he added: “I don’t know yet, because I don’t know all the candidates yet. We still have some vacancies that need to get filled. . . . If we do that, are we ready?” In answer to his own question, Steele said: “I don’t know.”
In response to Steele’s comments, NRCC spokesman Ken Spain said recapturing the majority remains a GOP goal.
The DCCC pointed to Steele’s comments as further evidence of a civil war within the GOP and party disarray.
Steele’s book, “Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda,” offers his blueprint for the party’s resurgence. The first step for Republicans, he says, is admitting they have compromised their principles in the past decade.
“We must support Republican officials who assert these principles,” he writes. “When elected Republicans vote against Republican principles, the voters must withhold their support.”
Steele focuses on GOP denunciations of President Barack Obama’s policies (“a roadmap to failure”), the $787 billion stimulus bill (“a reckless, wasteful, pork-laden spending spree”), liberal views on manmade global warming (“A threat to life on Earth? Depends on whom you ask”) and other issues.
