That may be the best reason Republicans have for de-Steele-ing their party. Steele will continue uttering bone-headed remarks. (Earlier this week, he got tripped up by Chris Matthews on “Hardball” when Steele insisted that it is “wrong” to put the suspected underwear-bomber through a criminal trial, even though that’s what the Bush-Cheney administration did with the shoe-bomber.) In fact, a few months ago, Steele jokingly said to me, “I’m the gift the keeps on giving.” Well, he got that right.
But Steele’s bouts of foot-in-mouth disease probably could be forgiven if he were raising money for his party. Or keeping it together. His troubles are occurring while the Republican Party is undergoing a civil war between conservative Tea Party-types and non-conservatives. (I hesitate to call them moderate Republicans.) This vicious, internecine battle recently forced the Republican Party chief in Florida to skedaddle. And there’s no signs of this internal fight easing up.
The chief of the GOP has two challenges: to pull in big bucks and to maintain the peace within his party. Steele appears to have been too busy goofing on cable TV to do either.
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