Steele Slams Obama
Click here for all of Tim Mak’s reports from the RNC Summit in Hawaii.
(Honolulu, HI) - RNC Chairman Michael Steele isn’t pulling any punches. In a speech to the Republican National Committee membership, the Chairman spent the bulk of a thirty minute speech criticizing the President for everything from speaking too often to insincere calls for bipartisanship.
“Talk is cheap... or rather... with this President talk is very expensive, ” joked Steele. “Every time he says something that is rhetorically pleasing, it costs you money.”
Much of the speech was focused on pushing back against the President’s State of the Union address: “I’m still completely amazed by this speech, but the audacity of it... [it’s] the audacity of arrogance,” said Steele.
Steele criticized the President for talking too often and listening too little, blasting him for a 70 minute State of the Union and his frequent speeches:
The President has said... that it’s a communications problem, that he needs to start talking directly to the American people. I thought that’s what he’s been doing. He’s given more speeches in a year than most Presidents do in a full term.
Picking up on a theme that was critical to Senator-Elect Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts, the RNC Chairman disparaged the President’s handling of national security issues:
Americans want their tax dollars spent to kill terrorists, not to pay lawyers to defend them. We have men and women overseas fighting for this country – and we are reading a terrorist with a bomb in his underwear his Miranda rights... bizarre.
But like the President, Steele turned on the D.C. beltway mentality, on those who “get consumed by the vapors of the Potomac river... who oftentimes drink from its banks... Those who feel more connected to people inside the beltway than the people who sent them there.”
On the other hand, near the end of his speech, the Chairman juxtaposed his condemnation of the President with a slightly more conciliatory tone. “It’s not too late for the President to change course,” said Steele. “One of the most powerful things a leader can do is be honest and admit a mistake when they have gone in the wrong direction.” Chairman Steele had pointed out earlier in his speech that the President’s State of the Union involved admitting mistakes.
Yet, almost as soon as he expressed hope that the President could adjust his agenda to become more palatable to Republicans, the Chairman’s speech seemed to rule out the prospect of bipartisanship and reminded listeners of comments made by Louisiana Gov. Jindal:
Republicans should delay the President’s bills... because the President’s policies are harming the economy, limiting freedoms, prolonging the recession, and saddling our grandchildren with debt they cannot repay.
“We begin the year in Hawaii, where the President was born,” said Steele. “We will end the year in Illinois, taking back the President’s seat.”