Over lunch with some reporters, Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele was hoisted by his own petard. In hindsight, he should have shut his trap and stuffed his face with rolls like his patron, President Bush. Instead, he ran his mouth and committed a political faux pas: he spoke the truth.
Some excerpts:
The candidate, immersed in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, sat down to lunch yesterday with reporters at a Capitol Hill steakhouse and shared his views about this year’s political currents.
On the Iraq war: “It didn’t work. . . . We didn’t prepare for the peace.
On the response to Hurricane Katrina: “A monumental failure of government.”
On the national mood: “There’s a palpable frustration right now in the country.”
It’s all fairly standard Democratic boilerplate -- except the candidate is a Republican. And he’s getting all kinds of cooperation from the White House, the Republican National Committee and GOP congressional leaders.
Not that he necessarily wants it. “Well, you know, I don’t know,” the candidate said when asked if he wanted President Bush to campaign for him. Noting Bush’s low standing in his home state, he finally added: “To be honest with you, probably not.”
…
That left the candidate in a difficult spot. “For me to pretend I’m not a Republican would be a lie,” he reasoned. But to run as a proud Republican? “That’s going to be tough, it’s going to be tough to do,” he said. “If this race is about Republicans and Democrats, I lose.”
Steele now says he was joking:
So I was making a joke about the fact that in this political climate, in Maryland, being a Republican is like wearing a scarlet letter. That’s all it is.
OK, then the joke is on him. According to the latest CBS News/New York Times poll, 52 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Democrats compared to 43 percent who view Republicans favorably.
And as for Steele’s “homeboy” (and here), 14 percent of those polled said their vote for Congress will be a “vote for the President” while 33 percent say it will be a “vote against the President.”
Pretty funny, huh?