Steele: GOP is now a ‘transcendent party’
ByNovember 4, 2009
An ebullient Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele asserted Wednesday that GOP victories in governors’ races in New Jersey and Virginia demonstrate “a transcendent party” on the move again. Democratic Party Chairman Tim Kaine said that nothing about the election returns amounted to a repudiation of President Barack Obama.
“We’re not crowing, we’re just smiling,” Steele said in a nationally broadcast interview. “I think it’s a bellwether for the party … You look at where we were nine months ago.”
Steele said he believes Chris Christie’s victory in New Jersey and Robert McDonnell’s win in Virginia show that the GOP has “really found its voice again” after sustaining damaging losses last year.
Kaine, who will be succeeded at the Virginia statehouse by McDonnell, said he thought voter anxiety about jobs and the economy played heavily in the balloting and said the defeat of incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine in New Jersey and candidate Creigh Deeds in Virginia shouldn’t be seen as a referendum on Obama. He said Obama “really retains a strong popularity among the voters.”
Exit polls showed many independents who voted for Obama in 2008 voted for Republicans this time around, and Kaine did say in a CNN interview, “We’re going to have to scratch our heads a little bit on that one.” He said Obama continues to enjoy even stronger support among independent voters than he has in the past.
Obama’s campaign chairman, David Plouffe, said the president’s approval rating “is at or above his vote totals.”
Plouffe called politics “a comparative enterprise” and said “the Republican brand right now, with independents all across the nation, is really hurting.”
“I think, generally, these elections tend to be overrated as to what they’ll mean later. These are local races,” Plouffe said. He also said he believes the GOP has a problem because conservatives “(Sarah) Palin and (Rush) Limbaugh and (Glenn) Beck are out there purging moderates from the party.”
Steele and Plouffe appeared on CBS’s “The Early Show” and Kaine was interviewed on NBC’s “Today” show.
Steele said he wasn’t particularly upset about the GOP’s loss in a hotly contested race in upstate New York, saying “this process is done at the local level. The drama of 23 (district) was nice and is cute and funny and everybody made fun about how the party is fractured.” He said “we’ll have a cleaner process there” in the future.
In that race, retired Air Force Capt. Bill Owens, a Democrat, won the special election in which the Republican candidate withdrew over the weekend under pressure from the party’s right wing and GOP heavyweights endorsed the Conservative Party nominee.
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia said, “I do think that the Virginia model shows that when we’re united as a party, independents are attracted to our message of vision for the future, where we can empower folks to get their economic security back.”
4 Responses to Steele: GOP is now a ‘transcendent party’
DaveyDavey
November 4, 2009 at 11:48 pm
If Steele had said the GOP is now a transparent party, I could agree with him. The GOP now wears their disregard for any facts or truth on their sleeves.
Sandra Price
November 5, 2009 at 6:43 am
Davey. Yes the GOP is now transparent without an agenda for the future of the party. They reject a limited government and a balanced budget. They have accepted the myth that America is a Christian nation and that is the end of that. This is a good example of a Christian Taliban.
Take a look at the videos of the demonstrations of our elite Christian voters. They are armed with everything needed but an agenda for their takeover. Their chosen leader is an over weight blow hard called Rush. Their desire for a woman in office shows their choice of an uneducated bimbo who belongs on the View and Oprah.
The Dems have an agenda but it is not what I want so I am up a tree without a paddle. Welcome!
Sandy
Don Quixote and Company
November 5, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Michael Steele looks more like Mickey Mouse everyday. I must say that his rhetoric is also competing with the Ultimate Mouseketeers as well. And, I think that I am going over the cuckoos nest. I am beginning to find our politics very funny in a dark humor sort of way. We, the American people, have allowed this country to arrive at a place where scum bags on the TV and radio feel more than comfortable telling flat out lies. I do not believe that They even believe half the things that they say. It has become a Win At Any Cost type of scenario, a Malcolm X…..”By any means necessary” human drama. Truly, unless a third party, a sane party, a moderate party can step in and kick both parties to the curb we are doomed to repeat our mistakes for this new century. I feel much like Bill Murray in Groundhog’s Day. I find the Democratic Party to be the lesser of two evils….if you consider cowardice, timidity, and indecision to be acceptable behavior by those who would brave the responsibility of governance. I believe that the natural selection of politicians is our failing. Our network television conditioning has programed us to seek out the flashy and entertaining. So, we get Sarah Palin as a credible (for some) source of political leadership, and her ilk. Too many congress people have not any substance. Much like the Hollywood sign they haven’t anything behind the sparkling facade that they display. Politicians like Mary Bono who refuse to debate their opponents during an election year. How is that possible you may ask? Because we the people allow this to continue.
woody188
November 5, 2009 at 8:31 pm
I like you Don. You’re my kind of people. Just how far down the rabbit hole have you traveled?