Stupid is as stupid does

Yo, Mike Dog, we gots to talk.
What's this about you going
against the family?

Senate GOP Candidate Slams Party

By LIZ SIDOTI
The Associated Press
Tuesday, July 25, 2006; 4:40 PM

WASHINGTON -- A Republican in a competitive Senate race called his party affiliation "an impediment," said he'd "probably not" want President Bush to campaign for him and the GOP-controlled Congress should "just shut up and get something done."

Michael Steele's campaign confirmed Tuesday that the Maryland lieutenant governor was the Senate candidate who made the comments a day earlier on the condition reporters not identify him. However, the campaign said his remarks were only a sampling of the wide-ranging, 90-minute interview that it said also included praise for the president.

"It's an impediment. It's a hurdle I have to overcome," Steele, who is running in a Democratic-leaning state, said of his GOP label, according to Tuesday's edition of The Washington Post. "I've got an 'R' here, a scarlet letter."

The Associated Press was not invited to the lunch with Steele at a Capitol Hill steakhouse. The Washington Post said nine reporters from newspapers, magazines and the networks attended and asked the campaign to allow them to use Steele's name. The newspaper said the campaign considered the request but ultimately refused.

It quoted the unnamed candidate as saying the Iraq war "didn't work" and "we didn't prepare for the peace," that the response to Hurricane Katrina was "a monumental failure of government," and that "there's a palpable frustration right now in the country."

Of Republicans who control Congress, the candidate said: "We've lost our way, we've gone to the well and we drank the water, and we shouldn't have."

"You don't go to Congress to become the party that you've been fighting for 40 years," he said, lamenting "the spending, the finger-pointing, not getting the bills passed" and counseled: "just shut up and get something done."

Asked if he wanted Bush to campaign for him, the candidate initially said, "well, you know, I don't know" and then, noting the president's low popularity in his state, said: "To be honest with you, probably not."

Doug Heye, a spokesman for Steele, said the candidate, who is black, also praised Bush's recent speech before the NAACP, economic growth and unemployment numbers among African-Americans.

"Obviously those positive comments didn't make it into the story," said Heye, who also disputed the notion that Steele berated the president.

Rep. Ben Cardin and former congressman Kweisi Mfume are the top Democrats competing for the chance to face Steele in November for the Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Paul Sarbanes. The primary is Sept. 12.

In a state that favors Democrats, Steele could benefit by distancing himself from the president and his policies but also upset Republican voters.

"Lt. Gov. Steele has always been an independent-minded leader for Maryland. He's somebody who calls it like he sees it, and the people of Maryland respect him for that," Heye said.

Democrats pounced.

"If Steele won't take on Bush's failures during a lunch with reporters, you can be sure that he won't do so as a member of the United States Senate," Terry Lierman, chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party, said in a statement.

Steele is a wimp and a moron.

First, he can't unsay that shit. It will dog him until November.

Second, he attached his name to it, and we know how the Bushies feel about loyalty.
Watch for his funding problems to explode. Because the people he's been raising money from do not like uppity negroes. And they will see this as going against the family.