Michael Steele Calls Obama A ‘Liar,’ Then Apologizes, Then Denies He Apologized

[marmar]

from ThinkProgress:



Steele Calls Obama A ‘Liar,’ Then Apologizes, Then Denies He Apologized

Yesterday morning, RNC Chairman Michael Steele hosted Bill Bennett’s radio show, where he fearmongered about a non-existent “health police” and advised that President Obama simply “do the deal” to fix health care. He also called the president a “liar” for pledging to fix health care without deepening the national debt:

OBAMA (audiotape): I’ve made a firm commitment that health care reform will not add to the federal budget deficit over the next decade.

STEELE: (shouting) LIAR! Sorry, I had to get that off my chest. We need to stand up and say this. Come on!

During the commercial break, Steele seemed to realize calling the president a “liar” was bad form. About five minutes later, he backed off his statements, seemingly apologizing for going “a little strong” against Obama:

STEELE: I get hotheaded from time to time, so I just want to let folks know that in the last segment, I went a little strong in my response to the president’s comment, and I don’t want to go there. Because that’s not what this is about. … For all those folks out there who want to go start blogging, uh, just calm it down, you know. RNC chairman’s not trying to be crazy first thing in the morning.

Steele avoided name-calling for the next hour. But when a caller scolded him for “apologizing” to the president, Steele insisted he had never apologized, and declared that he was “not backing off”:

CALLER: Well I’ve been listening to you, and earlier you called the president a liar, and I said, Yeah, he’s finally got there! He’s finally decided to tell them how it is! And then you apologized —

STEELE: No I didn’t apologize! … Look, I’ve got to be mindful of my, quote, position and so forth. I always took great offense to the fact that the Democrats disparaged President Bush. They disrespected the man, and they disrespected the office that the man held. And I’ve said from the beginning of my chairmanship that we did not want to do that. … I’m not backing off of the fact that I think there’s a lot of misdirection, and there’s not a whole lot of honesty that’s being laid out there for the American people.

Listen to a compilation: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/20/steele-calls-obama-liar/


So is Steele apologizing for calling Obama a liar? Or is he “not backing off” his name-calling — name-calling that, he said, “disrespected” the president and “the office that the man held”?


http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/20/steele-calls-obama-liar/

[saltpoint]

1. And the reason he was so confused is because he was scouring the

countryside looking for heavy metal Republicans.

In a related story, the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg announced that it would close permanently. "We just can't compete with Michael Steele's surrealism," the museum director said in a phone interview...

Recommended.

[imdjh]

6. Jeeze you had me scared there for a second.

Granted, I haven't been to the Dali Museum in about two years, but I hate it when things I don't give a lot of business to go out of business. It's like "Damn! Seaside Café is closing? I wanted to go there some day!"

[saltpoint]

8. LOL. Yep. The Dali Museum will be shuttering its doors in the

wake of Steele's meteoric rise.

Dali's paintings are just no match for the brainfucking weirdness that shoots out of Steele's mouth on an almost-daily basis.

[imdjh]

2. Mixed emotions.

On the one hand, Steele is a POS but on the other I have never understood why news media types, even those who despise a given president, never come right out and call him a liar or whatever it is that he was done. In all the Bush years, I don't recall hearing any paid employee of a news org call Bush a liar (the actual word) on the air.

[tularetom]

3. Whatever he's doing he should keep doing it

Steele, limpballs and the Newt are three of Obama's best assets.

[rpannier]

4. Then he went on Limbaugh's show and apologized to oxycotin

Just to be safe

[Stinky The Clown]

5. Mike Steele is more like a squirrel darting back and forth as a car approaches........

...... than a serious RNC chair.


Go Mikey, Go!

Run Mikey, Run!

Crash Mikey, Crash!

Burn Mikey, Burn!

[wndycty]

7. Can someone tell me why "TOM" Steele is always hosting Bill Bennett's radio show and always. . .

. . .saying stupid shit on it?

Seriously, I never knew Howard Dean to be a regular guest host on radio shows when he was at the helm of the DNC.

[tanyev]

9. Oh, Michael, don't be so modest.

You don't have try to be crazy. It just flows out of you effortlessly, at all hours of the day. You be da man!

[zeemike]

10. So?

It does not matter...the 25% that still buy into the right wing spin will believe the last thing they are told to believe, and every thing said and done before that just never happened in their minds.
That is how cults work.

[napi21]

11. I've never seen a Pub Chairman as stupid as this one!

Where in the hell did they find him? Geesh! He's a great replacement for comedy since W is out of the picture!

[TheCowsCameHome]

12. Even his kneepads are velco-backed for fast on and off action.

[crikkett]

13. Poor Michael Steele. I bet this job is killing him. n/t