Michael Steele was a disaster as RNC chairman. Not just mildly bad or slightly off, but disastrous. He was a walking talking gaffe machine who agreed with Democrat talking points against Republicans and also left the party disorganized and in debt. So why should we expect Steele to show any class when his successor makes a comment that gets under the skins of Democrats?
Former head of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele ripped his successor, current RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, on Monday for comparing President Obama to the Italian cruise ship captain who allegedly abandoned ship and has been arrested on multiple charges.
“I think it’s an unfortunate analogy. I mean, people died in that situation,” Steele said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday in Florida.
On CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Priebus referred to President Obama as “Capt. Schettino.”
“We’re going to talk about our own little Capt. Schettino, which is President Obama, who’s abandoning the ship here in the United States and is more interested in campaigning than doing his job as president,” Priebus said.
Is what Priebus said out of bounds? I don’t see how, when the DNC chairman is still out there blaming the Tea Party and Republicans for inspiring the Tucson shooting:
A few weeks ago, in talking about the day a crazed gunman shot Rep. Gabby Giffords in the head, Wasserman Schultz pivoted to how “the discourse in America” had taken “a very precipitous turn towards edginess and a lack of civility with the growth of the Tea Party movement.” Republican national chairman Reince Priebus demanded that she apologize for her “reckless comments blaming the Tea Party for the horrific Tucson shooting.”
Wasserman Schultz makes no apologies. Nibbling a sandwich in her House office, she says: “I make strongly worded statements so people pay attention a little to what I’m saying.”
Which is worse, making a useful if colorful analogy to a sea captain whose evident dereliction caused death and mayhem, or making your political opponents actual accessories to murder/assassination? It seems to me that DWS’ comments are far worse, but since the MSM invested in pushing the narrative she’s pushing, she won’t get the third degree for it in the way that Priebus is, because he’s criticizing the lightworker for loving the campaign trail more than the job that he’s campaigning to keep. Which is pretty obviously a true thing for Priebus to say, no?
Steele consistently walked into these MSM gotcha traps when he ran the RNC (into the ground) and he’s doing it now and sniping at his successor to boot, on MSNBC. Despite his reputation for being such a media maven, it turns out, Michael Steel is not very media savvy at all.
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