“This is a no-brainer,” Steele told FOX News. “I’m a student of multiplication and addition, and not subtraction and division. My focus is on building a party that reaches across the board.”

Steele ripped into conservatives who want moderates purged from the GOP and rejected former Vice President Dick Cheney’s assertion that in terms of being a Republican, he’d go with Rush Limbaugh over former Secretary of State Colin Powell — who endorsed candidate Barack Obama for president.

“I want a party that speaks to people. The idea that we only narrowly speak to one segment of the population is boneheaded and it’s not reflective of the history of this party,” Steele said. “How is kicking Colin Powell out or kicking Dick Cheney out or Rush Limbaugh in going to feed a child who’s hungry tonight?”

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First, the Republican Party will be forward-looking – it is time to stop looking backward. Republicans have spent ample time re-examining the past. It has been a healthy and necessary task. But I believe it is now time for Republicans to focus all of our energies on winning the future by emerging as the party of new ideas. Republicans are emerging once again with the energy, the focus, and the determination to turn our timeless principles into new solutions for the future.