He alienated talk-radio fans by stumbling into a fight with Rush and now, per this communique, he’s alienating Huck’s Christian base. Who’s left among the grassroots to donate?

Maybe David Frum’s got $10 million socked away somewhere that he’s not doing anything with.

Comments attributed to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele are very troubling and despite his clarification today the party stands to lose many of its members and a great deal of its support in the trenches of grassroots politics. Since 1980, our party has been steadfast and principled in believing in the dignity and worth of every human life. We have supported a Constitutional amendment to protect life and the party has taken the position that no one individual has the supreme right to own another person in totality including the right to take that life. 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 right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. His statement today helps, but doesn’t explain why he would ever say what he did in the first place.

In fairness, if you look at the full quote, you’ll see Steele recovered quickly from the “individual choice” gaffe to emphasize that he meant the individual choice of each state to regulate abortion as it sees fit — i.e. the federalist position. That’s an evolution in thinking from what he told “Meet the Press” three years ago, when he said that the states should have been allowed all along to handle the matter but now that we’ve got Roe on the books, we’d best abide by it. What I don’t get, though, is how he squares what he told GQ with his statement this morning about supporting the GOP’s call for a Human Life Amendment. If he believes in federalism, why’s he trying to impose a constitutional solution that would prohibit states from authorizing abortion? He sounds even shiftier and more convoluted on this subject than Romney, which is really saying something.

There might be a way out, though. Geraghty reports that he’s scheduled to share the stage with Palin next month at, of all things, a pro-life dinner. Exit question: One kind word on his behalf from the ‘Cuda and the base will be back on board, no? It’d be like the Pope crowning Napoleon. Instant legitimacy!